By far the most significant influence any head will ever have on student learning in his/her school rests in hiring the very best teachers one can find, and retaining only those who demonstrate a high level of teaching competence.
In far too many of our schools the public school standard is applied to rehiring decisions: Is this person bad enough to let go? The question should be: Has this person demonstrated a teaching ability (measured by student learning) that at least comes close to the school's aspirations?
The biggest obstacle is this: You can become very unpopular letting go nice people doing a "reasonable" job, stoking the fears and paranoia of all the teachers, egged on by those who are leaving and their supporters. Suddenly you are the target, and the attempts to undermine your efforts can be ferocious.
The only way to counter this phenomenon is to make it very clear what the bar is for successful teaching at your school; and to constantly reinforce your appreciation of the staff who are doing outstanding work. But no amount of effort will increase the "popularity" of a head making tough decisions on retaining mediocre staff.
My advice (having been a staff target for much of my career): When you look in the mirror every day, ask yourself if you and your principals are doing all you can to ensure that every kid is interacting with effective and superior teachers. Providing this is ultimately your only reward---but it's the only one that really counts!
Kevin Bartlett recently acted on these convictions at IS Brussels:
"The other thing we are trying to do along similar lines (feeling backed by Collins in Good to Great and the Social Sector, who says that it’s tough to get the wrong person off the bus in schools, and that we’ll always make some hiring mistakes. so we must use ‘early intervention’, in other words move them on at the first opportunity) ) is be much tougher about only retaining outstanding teachers at the end of the initial contract. We’ve shifted the emphasis from an implied ’It’s up to the leadership to prove my incompetence’ to ’it’s up to me to prove I’m outstanding’. We use the example of the simple question addressed by Michael and we say, ’this is effectively a rehiring, so it’s up to you to make sure that we want to re-hire you with enthusiasm’.
We’re far behind in this attitude shift, compared to say, Bill Gerritz, who’s been tougher for years, but better late than never.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Facing The Brutal Facts (by Bambi Betts)
Facing the ‘Brutal Facts’
by Bambi Betts
In his widely acclaimed book, ‘From Good to Great’ Jim Collins describes a critical finding from his research that should be a wake-up call for international schools. To become ‘great’, an organization must ‘face the brutal facts’. And greatness in a school can mean only one thing: more and better learning for all.
How woefully far we are from that goal. What have been passing for facts have often been unchallenged perceptions, perpetuated by a culture of excuses. Whether through naiveté, cunning political savvy, or just plain ignorance, we in international schools continue to show an unwillingness both to find and to face those ‘ brutal facts’.
Some challenging examples:
FACT: Dozens, if not hundreds of schools claim in their mission statements that they will educate their students to become global citizens. Yet, it is entirely possible (and very frequently happens) in an international school for a student to complete all the grades in the school and NEVER, that’s right NEVER have to grapple with a global issue?. This is true even in programs like the IB.
FACT: Despite decades of emphasis, and writing it into curricular 'standards', today's secondary school graduates are no better at public speaking today than those of two decades ago. Moreover, according to polls of adults, this remains one of their worst fears.
FACT: The majority of students report that they were never actually TAUGHT to do research. They were just ASSIGNED research.
FACT: Almost no school can claim ‘the ability to innovate’ as one of its school-wide learning standards. How frightening for our on-going civilization to imagine another generation educated for compliance rather than innovation.
FACT: The underlying premise for an overwhelming number of practices in our schools is teacher equity rather than student learning. We are often more concerned, for example , that each teacher has an equal teaching load than whether individual students have equal opportunity to learn.
FACT: We frequently allow learning to be the variable, while sacred organizational structures (like departments, length of day, start times) are the constant. We ask not what structures would best support learning, but rather what learning might emerge from the sacred structures we have adhered to for decades. Organizational structures in our schools which supposedly support learning have not been significantly overhauled since well before the advent of the information age. We fear to question lest we ‘offend’ a professional educator. Never mind about the learning. FACT: In school after international school, a huge proportion of the writing program for children in elementary (and often secondary as well) continues to be based almost exclusively in creative writing - stories, poems, personal journals. Meanwhile, purposeful and technical writing - editorials, proposals, factual accounts, 'brief's - are largely ignored. And to add insult, we ignore the FACT that the transfer of writing skill from creative fiction to purposeful products is minimal.
For too long we in education have been too easy on ourselves., too willing to accept the perceptions when finding the facts is either too hard or too demoralizing. We somehow have exempted ourselves from one of the primary ingredients that actually constitutes a profession - facing the facts and holding ourselves accountable.
by Bambi Betts
In his widely acclaimed book, ‘From Good to Great’ Jim Collins describes a critical finding from his research that should be a wake-up call for international schools. To become ‘great’, an organization must ‘face the brutal facts’. And greatness in a school can mean only one thing: more and better learning for all.
How woefully far we are from that goal. What have been passing for facts have often been unchallenged perceptions, perpetuated by a culture of excuses. Whether through naiveté, cunning political savvy, or just plain ignorance, we in international schools continue to show an unwillingness both to find and to face those ‘ brutal facts’.
Some challenging examples:
FACT: Dozens, if not hundreds of schools claim in their mission statements that they will educate their students to become global citizens. Yet, it is entirely possible (and very frequently happens) in an international school for a student to complete all the grades in the school and NEVER, that’s right NEVER have to grapple with a global issue?. This is true even in programs like the IB.
FACT: Despite decades of emphasis, and writing it into curricular 'standards', today's secondary school graduates are no better at public speaking today than those of two decades ago. Moreover, according to polls of adults, this remains one of their worst fears.
FACT: The majority of students report that they were never actually TAUGHT to do research. They were just ASSIGNED research.
FACT: Almost no school can claim ‘the ability to innovate’ as one of its school-wide learning standards. How frightening for our on-going civilization to imagine another generation educated for compliance rather than innovation.
FACT: The underlying premise for an overwhelming number of practices in our schools is teacher equity rather than student learning. We are often more concerned, for example , that each teacher has an equal teaching load than whether individual students have equal opportunity to learn.
FACT: We frequently allow learning to be the variable, while sacred organizational structures (like departments, length of day, start times) are the constant. We ask not what structures would best support learning, but rather what learning might emerge from the sacred structures we have adhered to for decades. Organizational structures in our schools which supposedly support learning have not been significantly overhauled since well before the advent of the information age. We fear to question lest we ‘offend’ a professional educator. Never mind about the learning. FACT: In school after international school, a huge proportion of the writing program for children in elementary (and often secondary as well) continues to be based almost exclusively in creative writing - stories, poems, personal journals. Meanwhile, purposeful and technical writing - editorials, proposals, factual accounts, 'brief's - are largely ignored. And to add insult, we ignore the FACT that the transfer of writing skill from creative fiction to purposeful products is minimal.
For too long we in education have been too easy on ourselves., too willing to accept the perceptions when finding the facts is either too hard or too demoralizing. We somehow have exempted ourselves from one of the primary ingredients that actually constitutes a profession - facing the facts and holding ourselves accountable.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
We Must Teach History; Not Just Social Studies
Since I became an educator in 1973, I have ranted and raved about the need to ensure that every HS graduate of our schools has a solid grounding in 20th century history, at the very least. One of my first changes at AIS Israel was to develop a year-long course for seniors on the 20th century, and to require every senior to pass that course in order to graduate. We had a staff of outstanding history teachers at AIS, and the HS curriculum included ancient history (grade 9): world history (10) : and American History (11). Other social studies courses were available, but as electives.
Surveys in the USA and the UK consistently reveal that history/social studies are to HS students the most boring and irrelevant courses they take. But that is because they are most often not taught by history majors; but rather by teachers with social studies or general degrees. Taught by impassioned, committed and innovative teachers, history will be, as it was at AIS, the most enjoyable amd popular set of courses in the school.
Why should this matter? Humankind is facing a complex and dangerous period, in which violence on a grand scale, ecology, diseases and religious conflict again threaten the world's equilibrium and survival. But most Americans under 30 now get their news from Jon Stuart, a TV comedian. Most students (and often their teachers) fail on the most simple assessments of historical knowledge, and most assessments focus on pure factual knowledge. Political candidates can and do distort with impunity the meaning and lessons of even recent history. The internet guarantees that anyone can secure a view of history grossly distorted through the lenses of religious, political and social fanatics.
Those who read the many excellent books focussed on historical events know that history is more exciting, surprising and compelling than any work of fiction could ever be. The true human stories, like that presented in the recent, acclaimed ducumentary by Ken Burns (The War), are increasingly accessible on film as well.
What would it take to promote a renaissance in the teaching of history, that would deliver a structured, comprehensive understanding of where mankind has been andwhere we might be headed?
I beseech every educator to focus time and energy on this formidable but vital task, of ensuring that every student develops not only an understanding of the history of humanity, but also a passion and excitement that guarantees a lifetime of learning.
Surveys in the USA and the UK consistently reveal that history/social studies are to HS students the most boring and irrelevant courses they take. But that is because they are most often not taught by history majors; but rather by teachers with social studies or general degrees. Taught by impassioned, committed and innovative teachers, history will be, as it was at AIS, the most enjoyable amd popular set of courses in the school.
Why should this matter? Humankind is facing a complex and dangerous period, in which violence on a grand scale, ecology, diseases and religious conflict again threaten the world's equilibrium and survival. But most Americans under 30 now get their news from Jon Stuart, a TV comedian. Most students (and often their teachers) fail on the most simple assessments of historical knowledge, and most assessments focus on pure factual knowledge. Political candidates can and do distort with impunity the meaning and lessons of even recent history. The internet guarantees that anyone can secure a view of history grossly distorted through the lenses of religious, political and social fanatics.
Those who read the many excellent books focussed on historical events know that history is more exciting, surprising and compelling than any work of fiction could ever be. The true human stories, like that presented in the recent, acclaimed ducumentary by Ken Burns (The War), are increasingly accessible on film as well.
What would it take to promote a renaissance in the teaching of history, that would deliver a structured, comprehensive understanding of where mankind has been andwhere we might be headed?
I beseech every educator to focus time and energy on this formidable but vital task, of ensuring that every student develops not only an understanding of the history of humanity, but also a passion and excitement that guarantees a lifetime of learning.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
A Simple Truth That Transforms
Ever wondered why the Chinese and some other old civilizations honor profoundly their ancestors? Think for a moment just about the lives of your four grandparents.
The truth is that everything they did made an incalculable difference to you, however trivial or important it seemed at the time. The hard fact is that every action they ever took in their lives, and every chance encounter they had with man, beast or inanimate objects, had to have happened in such a precise and perfect sequence for you and your offspring to have been born. Had one of them missed the bus that day of your parents' conception; not gone to a party; neglected to call on Friday Nov. 12, 1908 for a date; and on and on in an infinite panorama of possibilities, any one action of which would have doomed your ever being born.
Endless, really, and mind-boggling, how perfectly timed almost every aspect of their lives had to have been to have borne just your parents into the world. And the same for every prior and subsequent generation in your direct line to the mystic past.
It's much like the discoveries of science that have converted modern physicists into persons of faith. Had the Big Bang not occurred with the precise force and timing that it did, the resulting universe would not have been created in a way that could initiate and sustain living organisms. So the birth of every one of us is tied to this initial miracle, and a timeless sequence of events has resulted in our own miraculous birth.
That unassailable truth about each of our own lives screams out at us. If only we would listen. Every thing that happened to every one of our direct descendants, and to the organisms which preceded them, had to happen precisely as it did for each of us to have been conceived.
However ordinary our lives, or those of our progenitors, in conventional terms, the incomprehensible odds of our being conceived makes us each the winner of a cosmic lottery against odds we couldn't even imagine. So little had to happen in the course of millions of years for us not to have made it into existence. The smallest detail might have sabotaged our very lives.
So totally extraordinary is it that I am alive, and every ancestor before me.
A miracle really. Every person who has come into existence represents a miracle, in overcoming the incalculable odds of it never having happened. But do we remember this in the conduct of our lives? Are we imbued with the profound miracle of our private existence, so that we treasure every moment and experience? And give thanks?
___________________________________
The truth is that everything they did made an incalculable difference to you, however trivial or important it seemed at the time. The hard fact is that every action they ever took in their lives, and every chance encounter they had with man, beast or inanimate objects, had to have happened in such a precise and perfect sequence for you and your offspring to have been born. Had one of them missed the bus that day of your parents' conception; not gone to a party; neglected to call on Friday Nov. 12, 1908 for a date; and on and on in an infinite panorama of possibilities, any one action of which would have doomed your ever being born.
Endless, really, and mind-boggling, how perfectly timed almost every aspect of their lives had to have been to have borne just your parents into the world. And the same for every prior and subsequent generation in your direct line to the mystic past.
It's much like the discoveries of science that have converted modern physicists into persons of faith. Had the Big Bang not occurred with the precise force and timing that it did, the resulting universe would not have been created in a way that could initiate and sustain living organisms. So the birth of every one of us is tied to this initial miracle, and a timeless sequence of events has resulted in our own miraculous birth.
That unassailable truth about each of our own lives screams out at us. If only we would listen. Every thing that happened to every one of our direct descendants, and to the organisms which preceded them, had to happen precisely as it did for each of us to have been conceived.
However ordinary our lives, or those of our progenitors, in conventional terms, the incomprehensible odds of our being conceived makes us each the winner of a cosmic lottery against odds we couldn't even imagine. So little had to happen in the course of millions of years for us not to have made it into existence. The smallest detail might have sabotaged our very lives.
So totally extraordinary is it that I am alive, and every ancestor before me.
A miracle really. Every person who has come into existence represents a miracle, in overcoming the incalculable odds of it never having happened. But do we remember this in the conduct of our lives? Are we imbued with the profound miracle of our private existence, so that we treasure every moment and experience? And give thanks?
___________________________________
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