JANUARY 2015
ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS AND COMMENTARY FOR SCHOOL SYSTEM LEADERS
Flexing
School Time
Later starts, expanded
days, trimesters and even
four-day school weeks
PLUS
Prayer at Board Meetings, p9
Ethics: Scenery or Safety? p8
Lessons From Gettysburg, p12
Leadership Lite, p44
AASA’S 150TH ANNIVERSARY
FEBRUARY 26–28, 2015 | SAN DIEGO, CA
10 SEATS STILL AVAILABLE
Pre-Conference Workshops offer a chance to explore topics in-depth.
Register online today at www.aasa.org/nce
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25
•
Discover eight principles and how they create a
common language of excellence.
•
Develop indicators of excellence and compare
them to your district’s culture.
•
Explore how a strategic model, when
intentionally implemented, transforms a culture
from the inside out.
1 – 5pm | Cost: $100
Workshop #1:
Leading for Effective Teaching: Leadership Tools to
Support Principal Success
This session is designed for superintendents and
school district leaders who have responsibility for
providing principal evaluation and support. This
session will provide hands-on interaction with
several of the most popular tools that have been
created to support district leaders in the work
of developing principal instructional leadership.
Hard copies of each tool will be available to each
participant.
Speakers:
Sandy Austin, Project Director, Center for
Educational Leadership, University of Washington
Karen Cloninger, Project Director, Center for
Educational Leadership, University of Washington
Stephen Fink, Executive Director/Affiliate Professor,
Center for Educational Leadership, University of
Washington
Workshop #2:
Move the Middle! A Systematic Model to Create
Personal and Academic Excellence in Your District
In this preconference session, you’ll:
• Grasp the impact of social-emotional factors on
a culture focused on learning, collaboration and
accountability.
•
Grasp the four core components of a powerful
leading and teaching system and the results it
creates.
Speakers:
Mark Reardon, Chief Learning Officer, Quantum
Learning Network and Former School Administrator
Randy Watson, Superintendent, McPherson Unified
School District 418
Workshop #3:
Excellence through Equity: 10 Practices of Highly
Effective Schools and Districts
Missing from much of the policy debate related to
achievement is how to place equity at the center
of education reform, and how to support effective
teaching in schools so that academic excellence is
the norm. This presentation will describe principles
and practices that have proven effective in meeting
the needs of a wide variety of learners. It will
also explore how schools can develop leadership
capacity at all levels and effective partnerships with
parents and community groups to enhance student
achievement.
Speakers:
Alan Blankstein, Founder and President, The HOPE
Foundation
Pedro Noguera, The Peter L. Agnew Professor of
Education, New York University
Sponsored by:
PRESENTED BY:
AASA’S 150TH ANNIVERSARY
FEBRUARY 26–28, 2015 | SAN DIEGO, CA
Don’t miss these FREE EDUCATION SESSIONS
in the Knowledge Exchange Theater —
Located inside the NCE Marketplace
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27
8:30 – 9:30am
Who Cares About Your District’s Official App? Your
Community
Adam Bushman, Marketing Director, ParentLink, Provo, UT
Frank Ciraci, Executive Vice President, ParentLink,
Los Angeles, CA
Join superintendents from around the country to discuss
their experience deploying an app with ParentLink, and
the five things to look for when evaluating providers.
10:30 – 11:30am
The New “3Rs” in Education: AR, VR and QR: Make Them
Work for Your District
Learn how to build and use these new technologies for
school information or classroom education.
9:00 – 10:00am
The Superintendent’s Social Media Lounge: Part 1
Francesca Duffy, Communications and Advocacy
Specialist, AASA, Alexandria, VA
Gayane Minasyan, Director, Online Technologies, AASA,
Alexandria, VA
Hear about the latest social media projects and
developments at AASA and how superintendents can get
involved in online education conversations.
11:30am – 12:30pm
Middle School Mission — Closing the Achievement Gap
Aaron Alfred, Health Research Scientist, Battelle,
Arlington, VA
Daniel Duke, Professor of Education Leadership,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Jason Learning, Ashburn, VA
Mort Sherman, Superintendent-in-Residence, AASA,
Alexandria, VA
Eleanor Smalley, Executive Vice President and Chief
Operating Officer,
An exciting new paradigm which includes exciting realworld curriculum, citizen science and access to real STEM
professionals.
1:15 – 2:15pm
AASA Leadership: Advocacy and Policy in Action
Noelle Ellerson Associate Executive Director, Policy and
Advocacy, AASA, Alexandria, VA
David Pennington, AASA President
David Schuler, AASA President-Elect
Amy Sichel, AASA Immediate Past President
Topics may include school nutrition, data collection, IDEA
and funding, among others.
2:30 – 3:30pm
Transitioning to Digital: What It Looks Like, Why It
Works and Why It’s Time
Learn why the digital transformation is so important and
examine models to assist designing your roadmap for
getting there.
11:30am – 12:00pm
Enhancing Career & College Readiness Using Naviance
Kim Oppelt, Community Relations Manager, Hobsons,
Arlington, VA
Learn how your district and schools can centralize
academic, personal, college and career planning in one
location.
12:15 – 1:15pm
Federal Relations Update II
Noelle Ellerson, Associate Executive Director, Policy and
Advocacy, AASA, Alexandria, VA
Part II of the federal advocacy update, this session follows
the 2/26 session. Topics may include school nutrition, data
collection, IDEA and funding, among others.
1:30 – 2:30pm
The Superintendent’s Social Media Lounge: Part 2
Francesca Duffy, Communications and Advocacy
Specialist, AASA, Alexandria, VA
Gayane Minasyan, Director, Online Technologies, AASA,
Alexandria, VA
Superintendents share a few social media campaigns that
proved successful in their districts, as well as tips on how
to become more engaged in social media endeavors amid
busy schedules.
2:45 – 3:45pm
Superintendent/School Board Relations
Dan Domenech, Executive Director, AASA, Alexandria, VA
Tom Gentzel, Executive Director, NSBA, Alexandria, VA
Superintendent and school board relations and how
the two organizations can work together to accomplish
common goals.
For a full schedule of events, exhibitor list and
to register, visit www.aasa.org/nce.
PRESENTED BY:
JANUARY 2015 • NUMBER 1 VOL. 72
14 Clearing the Snooze Hurdles
BY MERRI ROSENBERG
What strategies did three school districts employ
to surmount the usual obstacles to create later
school start times? By so doing, these districts are
addressing what pediatric researchers have long
reported about teenagers’ sleep patterns.
16 Kyla Wahlstrom: Solutions for ‘sleep phase shift’
19 When practical makes time shifts possible
21 The Extra Time Payoff
BY DAV I D A . FA R B M A N
How schools that use a longer day are raising
instructional efficiency through a faculty’s joint
planning and student sharing. The author is a
senior staff researcher at the National Center on
Time & Learning.
24 Additional resources
25 Trimesters Shape a New Face to Learning
B Y M A R K T. W E S T E R B U R G
A superintendent in Michigan shares an inside look
at a novel form of course scheduling in a school
district. Over 15 years of use, he’s found it to be a
reliable vehicle for school improvement.
27 Additional resources
28 The Four-Day School Week
BY DEBORAH M. HENTON
The dire fiscal straits of a Minnesota district forced it
into cutting a day off the instructional week, as told
by the superintendent who has since moved back to a
five-day schedule. She describes the initial misgivings
and frustration behind a decision that was “the right
thing for kids.”
30 Are there savings in a four-day week?
32 Talking points for a four-day plan
32 Additional resources
33 Flexible Learning Days
B Y J AY M . H A U G E N
A school district in the upper Midwest doesn’t fret
over diminished class time caused by wintry weather
— not when it can mobilize its technology and its
staff to keep the academics on course.
“The shift to distance learning challenges teachers
to not only surrender some autonomy, but to relinquish control
over when, where and how students learn.” PAGE 11
FRONTLINE
12 MY VIEW
41 SCHOOL SOLUTIONS
Gettysburg’s Lesson on
Situational Leadership
6 STARTING POINT
Capturing can-do stories of school districts
that delayed the start of the day.
6 STATE OF THE SUPERINTENDENCY
Evidence-Based Practice: The New
Language of Leadership
BY ROBERT E. MILLWARD
BY JOHN GATTA
What Robert E. Lee’s preference for discretionary orders can tell us about decisionmaking strategy in education.
A disciplined approach to generating information leading to better decision making.
42 PEOPLE WATCH
Salary Cap Restrictions
The frequency of employment contracts
subject to a state- or district-imposed salary
limit.
RESOURCES
Our monthly installment of AASA members’
career moves around the country.
43 PROFILE
36 BOOK REVIEWS
7 BEST OF THE BLOGS
Short excerpts from the most interesting
blogs maintained by AASA members.
8 ETHICAL EDUCATOR
Scenery or Safety?
Our panel
hacks awayy at a
dilemma involvvolving historic trees
on a schooll
dsite or roadway peace of
mind.
8
k How to Be a Positive Leader: Small
Actions, Big Impact
k Reign of Error: The Hoax of the
Privatization Movement and the Danger
to America’s Public Schools
k The Wise Leader: Doing the Right Things
for the Right Reasons
Also, AASA member Merle Horowitz, superintendent, Marple Newtown School District,
Newtown Square, Pa., on co-authoring
(with Dorothy M. Bollinger) Cyberbullying in
Social Media within Educational Institutions
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)
Gail K. Pletnick
BY BILL GRAVES
She engages all parties in a conservative
Arizona community.
PLUS
4 READER REPLY
44 LEADERSHIP LITE
37 ABSTRACT
9 LEGAL BRIEF
Prayer at Your Board Meeting?
BY PERRY A. ZIRKEL
A recent Supreme Court decision opens the
door to this prospect: Starting each board
meeting with public prayer.
10 BOARD-SAVVY SUPERINTENDENT
Practical Intelligence
Doctoral research involving superintendents
in thriving and failing school districts.
AASA INSIGHT
39 PRESIDENT’S CORNER
A Board Member’s ‘Kitchen Cabinet’
Re-engaging Our Federal Efforts
BY RICHARD E. MAYER
BY DAVID K. PENNINGTON
How to react when you realize you’ve
become the target of a campaign orchestrated by a scheming school board member?
AASA’s relentless efforts to push for restoring control of public education to the states
and local boards of education.
11 MY VIEW
Our Fear of Losing Control
of Distance Learning
40 EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE
Admiring Qualities of
Schools Down Under
44
BY KEELY COUFAL
BY DANIEL A. DOMENECH
An assistant principal witnesses irrational
worrying by educators over the blending of
online instruction.
Impressions and surprises from an education
mission to Australia and New Zealand, places
with reputations for high-calibre education.
School Administrator (ISSN 0036-6439) is a benefit of membership in AASA, The School Superintendents Association, 1615 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314. Telephone: 703-875-0772. Fax: 703-841-1543. Annual membership dues in the association are $441 (active members), of which $110 covers a subscription to School
Administrator. School Administrator is published monthly except July. Send address changes to AASA, Membership Division, 1615 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314.
Copyright 2015 by AASA. All rights reserved. Printed in USA.
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
3
School
Admınıstrator
R E A D E R R E P LY
Standing Up for Public Education” (September 2014) by John Kuhn illustrated why
it is so important to PROVIDE EVIDENCE
THAT OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS WORK.
Kuhn’s courage to do so was commendable.
Every superintendent has a tipping point
that is a call to action.
My tipping point was hearing our local
Michigan legislators bash all public schools
and continually claiming they were failing.
Much like the courage of Kuhn, three
years ago we began sending the Michigan
governor and legislators QUALITATIVE AND
QUANTITATIVE EVIDENCE THAT OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE WORKING . We copy our
staff, opinion leaders, parents, media and
others who have asked to be included. We
have sent more than 300 pieces of evidence
over the past several years.
John Kuhn’s courage is motivating.
HE IS NOT ALONE in standing up for our
public schools.
MIKE PASKEWICZ
SUPERINTENDENT,
NORTHVIEW PUBLIC SCHOOLS,
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
Lloyd Snow’s candor in “Politics, Public
Policy and Persimmons” (June 2014)
was refreshing in that he squarely
identifies what is occurring nationwide.
Educators and parents need to look to
the grassroots effort that is starting in
Oklahoma and expand that across the
nation to combat the gross misrepresentations of public education. We must
elevate public school parents’ voices to
change the conversation.
RANDY POE
EDUCATION CONSULTANT,
SAYLOR LANNON ASSOCIATES,
FORT PIERCE, FLA.
ALEC’s Attack
Re Bill Graves’ article “Pushing Back
the ALEC Agenda” (September 2014):
Supporters of public K-12 education
in South Carolina have been fighting
private school voucher efforts funded by
out-of-state power groups for more than
10 years.
One of the biggest concerns is that
funds to pay for vouchers would reduce
funding for K-12, without any offsetting
declines in costs to school districts.
Last summer, a group called Education Action Group, based in Muskegon,
Mich., and appearing to operate like
ALEC, sent freedom of information
requests to several large school districts
in the state seeking a wide range of
school expenditure data.
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER,
RICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT 2,
COLUMBIA, S.C.
Copying His Good Idea
I loved William Clark’s My View column
“Walking in Others’ Shoes” in your
September issue. I’m going to copy
his lead! His concept of the “not-soundercover boss” will go into effect in
my school district this year. I just hope I
don’t draw the shop teacher’s number.
ERIC C. ESHBACH
SUPERINTENDENT,
NORTHERN YORK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT,
DILLSBURG, PA.
Daniel Domenech’s Executive Perspective column on “A Public School Threat
Coming Your Way” (October 2014) appears with an incorrect URL. Readers will
find AASA’s ALEC toolkit at http://aasa.org/alec.aspx.
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
Liz Griffin
EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE
Kristin Hubing
DESIGN/PRODUCTION
David Fox, AURAS Design
PRINTING
Lifetouch National School Studios Inc.
HOW TO REACH US
Query letters and
articles relating to school system leadership are
welcome. Author guidelines and an editorial
calendar are available on the magazine’s
website.
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR
1615 Duke St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
TEL: 703-875-0772; Fax: 703-841-1543
E-MAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.aasa.org
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Letters may be
submitted to the editor for consideration. Letters
may be edited for clarity and length.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS: AASA members
can report changes of address by phone
(703-875-0748), fax (703-841-1543) or
e-mail ([email protected]).
Single copies are $10 for AASA
members and $11 for nonmembers. Bulk rates
are available. Orders must be prepaid. To order,
call 703-875-0772.
BACK ISSUES:
ARTICLE ARCHIVES: Past issues can be
accessed at www.aasa.org. Articles are also
available through these document services:
EBSCO (www.epnet.com), ProQuest (www.
proquest.com) or Cengage
(www.gale.com). Microfilm and microfiche are
available from ProQuest
(800-521-0600).
REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS:
Quality reprints of articles can be ordered in
quantities of 25 or more. To order, call 703-8750772. Requests for permission to reproduce or
distribute copies of an article for academic or
professional purposes should be submitted in
writing to the editor.
For media kits and
advertising information, contact Sue Partyke,
ad sales director, Partyke Communications,
Fredericksburg, Va.
TEL: 540-374-9100.
ADVERTISING INQUIRIES:
The views expressed in School Administrator
do not necessarily reflect AASA policy nor
does acceptance of advertising imply AASA
endorsement.
LETTERS SHOULD be addressed
to: Editor, School Administrator, 1615
Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314. Fax: 703841-1543. E-mail: [email protected]
Correction: ALEC Toolkit
4
MANAGING EDITOR
EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS:
SUPERINTENDENT
BOONE COUNTY SCHOOLS,
FLORENCE, KY.
As I read about the anti-education forces
at work in Lloyd Snow’s home state
of Oklahoma, I actually found myself
EDITOR
Jay P. Goldman
PAMELA SAYLOR LANNON
HARRY W. MILEY JR.
Refreshing Candor
Read extra
letters and
expanded
letters this
month at
www.aasa.
org/SAletters.
aspx.
wondering if he was writing about Florida
instead, with its strikingly comparable
negative anti-education forces. The similarities between the two states politically
in this regard is dramatic and most unfortunate for the futures of the boys and
girls of these two states and their communities.
MISSION STATEMENT:
AASA, The School Superintendents Association,
advocates for the highest quality public
education for all students, and develops
and supports school system leaders.
Build a School
Change Lives
This winter, some 50 volunteers will depart for a Lifetouch Memory Mission®
to the Dominican Republic, giving hope to children they have never met.
The volunteers, including superintendents, principals and PTA members,
will build a school for the children of this impoverished, mountaintop village.
Since 2000, Lifetouch employees have traveled to destinations around the
world to spend a week in intensive volunteer service.
Learn more at lifetouchmemorymission.com.
FrontLine
STARTINGPOINT
Securing That One Extra Hour
The professional literature on the
sleep needs of adolescents has
been quite clear and compelling on
its major finding for two decades:
High schoolers fall far short when
each new school day begins.
We’ve reported on that research
of sleep deficiency and its implications on several occasions in School
Administrator over the years, so
in this issue we opted to open with
an article that examines three
school districts that successfully
moved back the opening bell of
their high schools by 50 minutes
or more. Each of these districts
had to navigate through the familiar thicket that has stymied many
other school boards that hoped,
without success, to make the same
adjustment in their schools’ operating hours to benefit the learning of
their secondary school students.
As we were finalizing this
content, Fairfax County, Va.,
became the latest and, by far, big-
gest school system to roll back
its high schools’ start times. The
board’s 11-1 vote in late October for the change culminated a
20-year campaign and set up the
185,000-student district as a likely
role model for other large systems.
Our January issue dives further into alternative uses of time
in school, examining the longer
school day, the trimester schedule,
the four-day school week and one
district’s flexible learning plan that
kicks in whenever snowfall forces
school closings.
Please let me and the authors
know whether you find these stories informative and helpful.
JAY P. GOLDMAN
EDITOR, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR
VOICE: 703-875-0745
E-MAIL: [email protected]
TWITTER: @JPGOLDMAN
STATE OF THE
SUPERINTENDENCY
7.9%
State-Imposed
3.4%
District-Imposed
11.3%
Salary Cap
88.7%
No Salary Cap
Few superintendents in an AASA national survey with
nearly 2,400 respondents indicated their employment
agreement was subject to a state- or district-imposed
cap on salary. Equally noteworthy: While a relatively
small number, twice as many female superintendents
than male superintendents report working in a district
where a salary cap is imposed by state law.
Fewer than 5 percent of those responding said a
salary limit is imposed by school district policy, regulation or practice.
Still to be determined is this: For those subject to
a cap, how has their collective employment profile
(e.g., longevity, early retirement, recruiting pools)
been affected?
“Any suggestions on how to improve meetings
that doesn’t involve more meetings?”
6
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
SOURCE: DATA FROM “2013 AASA SUPERINTENDENTS SALARY AND BENEFITS STUDY” PUBLISHED BY AASA. ANALYSIS PROVIDED BY ROBERT S. MCCORD, CHRISTOPHER C.
STREAM, NOELLE M. ELLERSON AND LESLIE A. FINNAN.
THE FULL STUDY IS AVAILABLE AT WWW.AASA.ORG.
EDITORIAL CARTOON BY RON ROSS
Salary Cap Restrictions
“Personalized learning has become one of
those terms that can often elicit eye-rolls
in a crowd of educators — so used and
overused that it has been a word used
synonymously with almost all current
educational reforms.”
From “Coming Back to Personalized Learning” by Chris Kennedy (superintendent,
West Vancouver, British Columbia) on his blog Culture of Yes
“It isn’t that people dislike change, they dislike
change they don’t understand or see the need
for. If they are negatively impacted by the change,
people are more resistant. Leaders who adopt the
belief that all people dislike change are putting
themselves at a major disadvantage. Adopting
this mindset puts the leader on the defensive with
everyone from the start.”
From “People Don’t Like Change, Right?” by David Gentile (superintendent,
Millville, N.J.) on his blog A Supts Blog; Where The Road to Excellence is
Always Under Construction
“How might we push not just beyond our own
learning horizons but challenge colleagues who
fear relinquishing the power and control inherent in Gutenberg-driven teaching?”
From “#exponentialchange, #disruptiveinnovation and … #CE14” by Pamela
Moran (superintendent, Albemarle County, Va.) on her blog A Space for Learning
Read the full
postings of these
and other members’
blogs at www.aasa.
org/SAblogs.aspx.
“While we argue
whether or not to
have national standards and whether
or not the ones we
have are any good, a
significant portion of
the world’s nations
that have national
standards are running
circles around us.”
From “Is It Common Core or is it Good
Number Sense” by Judith Paolucci
(superintendent, Leicester, Mass.) on her
blog Judy Paolucci’s Multimedia Blog
“What they are really
thinking even if they are
not saying it is that our
schools are ‘good enough.’
They were good enough
for me, and they’re still
good enough for our kids.”
From “Breaking the Bonds of the Past to Envision
a New Future through Human Centered Design”
by David Britten (superintendent, Wyoming,
Mich.) on his blog Rebel 6 Ramblings
FLASHBACKJANUARY 2005
Ge House’s cover story, “Reclaiming Children Left Behind,” and an article by Rosa Smith
Gerry
loo
looked at causes and cures for poor achievement among minority students, especially black
b
boys. … The Tech Leadership column highlighted the need to keep policies updated. … AASA
p
promoted its national conference in San Antonio, Texas, featuring keynoters Peter Senge
a
and Edward James Olmos. … Profile subject: Ray Daniels, superintendent, Kansas City, Kan.
… AASA Policy Analyst Nick Penning analyzed education’s role in the presidential election.
… In his President’s Corner, Don Kussmaul laid out the challenges awaiting the next generation of education leaders.
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
7
FrontLine
ETHIC AL EDUCATOR
Scenery or Safety?
SCENARIO: A stretch of highway in front
ront of
a school was the scene of a school buss accident with minor injuries. The same section
ection
has seen numerous other accidents. The
county highway department recommends
ends
straightening the road for a safer route
te
— an action requiring removal of several
eral
trees. This option has drawn public opposition
pposition
because the trees are the last of a group
up planted by a famous former citizen on a piece of land
considered an historic community treasure. Both
off the
B h sides
id take
k up the
h case in
i front
f
h school
h l
board. What action should the superintendent recommend?
ROY DEXHEIMER: The superintendent’s
only position is that of guardian of the
safety of the children in his or her charge.
Go on record as favoring that option. Then
8
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
it is a squabble between the highway folks
and the historical trust. Help them negotiate a solution that improves safety and
somehow preserves the trees, but stay
clearly on record as endorsing safety as the
priority. And be sure the board of education
is on that same page!
SARAH MACKENZIE: The superintendent
is most concerned about the safety of
students. He or she might be well advised
to emphasize that stance and avoid
weighing in on the question of taking down
treasured trees.
If the superintendent were consulted on
the issue by the county highway department, he or she might suggest ways that
safety could be monitored and ensured
through traffic-calming humps or safety officers overseeing traffic at especially heavy
times and/or locations without taking down
trees. But if the highway department insists
on the solution involving the trees, the
superintendent may well have to acquiesce
to calm nerves and assure student safety.
But because citizens are coming to the
school board and making arguments to that
body, the superintendent and the school
board have an opportunity to engage
people in developing a third way. The late
Rushworth Kidder describes that approach
to solving similar dilemmas in How Good
People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the
Dilemmas of Ethical Living (Harper Perennial, 2009).
MARK HYATT: Safety will rule in the end.
But this delicate situation should be
addressed in a respectful and logical way.
The famous former citizen and historic
site should be honored appropriately while
moving the memorial to another location.
Then the street can be straightened in
accordance with the recommendations of
the county highway department.
Democracy requires all views be heard in
a public forum. Then the superintendent can
use this opportunity as a teachable moment
for all stakeholders and share the reasons
the famous former citizen was originally
honored. The descendants of this famous
person can be invited to attend a rededication ceremony when new trees are planted
at the relocated memorial.
Each month, School Administrator draws on actual
circumstances to raise an ethical decision-making dilemma in K-12 education. Our distinguished panelists
provide their own resolutions to each dilemma. Do you
have a suggestion for a dilemma to be considered?
Send it to: [email protected].
The Ethical Educator panel consists of SHELLEY
BERMAN, superintendent, Eugene, Ore.; ROY
DEXHEIMER, retired BOCES superintendent and
former college vice president, Ithaca, N.Y.; MARK
HYATT, former president, Character Education
Partnership, Washington, D.C.; and SARAH V.
MACKENZIE, associate professor at University of
Maine, Orono, Maine, and co-author of Now What?
Confronting and Resolving Ethical Issues. Expanded
answers are published in School Administrator magazine’s online edition.
ILLUSTRATION © BY DAVID CLARK
SHELLEY BERMAN: Given that this
decision is most likely up to the county
government, the superintendent first
should indicate that a school board
meeting is not the most appropriate forum
for this dialogue. If the school board wishes
to take a position, the superintendent
should ask the highway department what
alternatives have been considered, such as
a traffic signal, lower speed limits or other
road modifications.
Clearly, the historic nature of the property and the trees is important to the
community. The superintendent should
acknowledge the interests of those who
advocate for history and conservation and
seek a way
to address
See the panelists’ full
those interanalyses of this case and
ests while
read the AASA Code of
still ensuring
Ethics at www.aasa.org/
the safety of
SAethics.aspx.
students. For
example, perhaps a commemorative plaque
depicting the historic area could be erected
near the school. However, because the children’s safety is the paramount concern of
the school district, the superintendent must
come down on the side that best protects
students’ safety.
FrontLine
PERRY A. ZIRKEL
|L EG A L B R I E F
Prayer at Your Board Meeting?
Pray
SUPPOS THE Okay School District has had
SUPPOSE
longstanding practice of opening its regua longsta
larly sche
scheduled meetings of the board of eduwith a prayer — a prayer that is clearly
cation wi
Christian.
Christian
Students attend the Okay district’s public
Stude
on an occasional basis, typiboard meetings
me
individual and/or team awards
cally to receive
r
another form of recognition. After one
or anothe
board meeting, the parents of a student
such boa
enrolled in the district sue the school board
in federal court, claimand the superintendent
s
board’s prayer practice violates the
ing the b
First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
The parents seek an injunction, compensatory
damages and attorneys’ fees.
Prior Case Law
During the past 15 years, such suits have arisen
around the country, on occasion reaching the
federal appeals courts. In school-related cases
in Ohio, Delaware, Louisiana and California,
the court decisions had consistent outcomes.
Each appellate court held that allowing prayers
at school board meetings violate the Establishment Clause.
Citing the tradition in Congress that dates
back to the time of the Constitution, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in Marsh v. Chambers
(1983) that allowing opening prayers at state
legislatures does not violate the Establishment Clause.
The court’s 5-4 decision last May in Town of
Greece v. Galloway warrants reconsideration of
this issue. The court’s majority ruled that the
Marsh legislative exception extended to prayers
at town council meetings, even though the
prayers at issue were predominantly Christian.
However, the majority warned: “[T]he inquiry
remains a fact-sensitive one that considers the
setting in which the prayer arises and the audience to whom it is directed.”
In Greece, the Justices ruled that the universal themes of several prayers, the town council’s reasonable efforts to welcome prayers by
other faiths in the community and the noncoercive approach to the public meeting attendees all counted in favor of constitutionality.
The extent to which this new decision extends
to school boards is unclear, particularly in light
of their special status inextricably in relation to
public school students.
Possible Options
Subject to advice from the school district’s
legal counsel, superintendents should consider
various options in helping the school board
determine the appropriate course of action.
At one end of the range, simply solemnifying meetings without prayer, as various other governmental bodies, including
schools do, would avoid this constitutional
issue altogether. As an intermediate alternative, doing so with a brief, straightforward
moment of silence may, depending on the
circumstances, be constitutionally as well as
practically acceptable.
However, for those boards of education
that seek to initiate or continue the practice of
prayer at their public meetings, the fact-specific criteria that could affect the outcome of a
possible Establishment Clause lawsuit, based
on the factors the courts have used in these
appellate cases, include:
“As an intermediate
alternative, doing
so with A BRIEF,
STRAIGHTFORWARD
MOMENT OF
SILENCE may,
depending on the
circumstances, be
constitutionally as
well as practically
acceptable.”
l minimizing student participation at board
meetings, such as using the high school color
guard, conducting student award presentations, and having student representatives on
the board or having them provide regular
presentations;
l rotating the prayer among various faiths
and/or keeping the prayer nonsectarian and
ecumenical;
l limiting participation in the prayer to the
board members by instructing the other
attendees to remain silent during this oral recitation specifically by and for the board; and
l avoiding any psychological coerciveness, such
as an attendee’s reasonable perception that the
board made it difficult to leave the meeting
room during the prayer, arrive late to avoid the
prayer, or register any protest against it.
The superintendent’s professional knowledge and skills can facilitate the school board’s
careful consideration to steer effectively
between this rock and hard place.
JANUARY 2015
PERRY ZIRKEL
is the University
Professor of Education and Law at
Lehigh University in
Bethlehem, Pa.
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
9
FrontLine
B O A R D-S A V V Y S U P E R I N T E N D E N T | R I C H A R D
E . M AY E R
A Board Member’s ‘Kitchen Cabinet’
“What should a
superintendent
do when a board
member leads a
CAMPAIGN TO
PRESS FOR SPECIAL
INTERESTS —
such as securing
playground
equipment or more
teacher aides …?”
IT’S 7 P.M. on the first Tuesday of the month
and time for a school board member’s monthly
meeting with his supporters whom he lovingly
refers to as his “kitchen cabinet.” Most are
neighbors and friends from his little corner of
the district, and they all worked hard on his
election campaign.
Part of the reason he ran for the board was
to give voice to these folks, who often felt they
were not represented on the board. To his way
of thinking, the schools in his neighborhood
always seem to lose out compared to those
in the more affluent north side, so he and his
cabinet meet monthly to strategize on issues
affecting their neighborhood’s schools.
One cabinet member worries about the
state of playground equipment at the neighborhood elementary school. “If the play structures were this worn out at Northview (an
elementary school in the more affluent part of
the district), they would have been replaced
years ago,” she says resentfully.
The board member suggests the group
mount a lobbying campaign to get new playground equipment by e-mailing and calling the
superintendent and speaking out during the
public comment period of the upcoming school
board meeting.
A Harmful Vision
RICHARD MAYER,
a school board
member in Goleta,
Calif., is a professor
of psychology at
the University of
California, Santa
Barbara. He adapted
this column from his
book, How Not to
Be a Terrible School
Board Member
(Corwin Press, 2011).
E-mail: mayer@psych.
ucsb.edu
10
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
Someone looking in on this kitchen cabinet
meeting might think this is a great example
of democracy in action. The board member is
responsive to his supporters and works with
them to make things happen.
Yet, as I look at this kitchen cabinet meeting, I am concerned. The kitchen cabinet is
based on an incorrect and ultimately destructive vision of a board member’s duty. Once
elected, the member’s job is to represent everyone in the district. His job is to do the best
he can for all the children, not just a special
group. His job is to work with the superintendent and board colleagues as a team to solve
problems and improve conditions for everyone
in the district.
What should a superintendent do when
a board member leads a campaign to press
for special interests — such as securing playground equipment or more teacher aides for
JANUARY 2015
his neighborhood school at the expense of
other schools?
This is a perfect opportunity to listen carefully to the board member’s request and to
acknowledge possible merit, but at the same
time point out your mutual responsibility to
look at the big picture for the entire district.
The superintendent can explain district procedures and criteria for replacing playground
equipment and show how the needs of each
school will be addressed in the playground
equipment plan. The superintendent can help
the board member see how his special request
meshes with the overall district needs, and see
the ramifications of his request for others in
the district.
A Tactful Discussion
If the board member sincerely believes the
district is showing favoritism that disadvantages a particular group, the superintendent
should pledge to work honestly to collect
factual information about his accusation. If
the facts bear out the claim, then a remedial
course of action should be worked out with
the board. If the facts do not bear out his
accusations, the superintendent can thank
him for helping the district ensure the board
is fair to his voiceless constituents. In this way,
the superintendent builds rapport with the
board member, who hopefully will communicate the evenhandedness to his constituents.
In addition, as soon as the superintendent
realizes she has become the target of a campaign orchestrated by a board member, it is
time for a tactful discussion with the board
member about teamwork. The board member needs to see the impact of his actions on
the superintendent and other board members. The superintendent can help the board
member see an “us-versus-them” approach to
solving problems is inappropriate and usually
unproductive.
A good resolution would be for the board
member to reserve his kitchen cabinet only
for election campaigns and be available to talk
with anyone in the district. In short, the board
member must see the value of teaming with
the superintendent and board colleagues on
behalf of all the district’s students.
FrontLine
K E E LY C O U FA L
|M Y V I E W
Our Fear of Losing Control of Distance Learning
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS ARE
accustomed to weathering a constant
stream of “innovative” education initiatives that ultimately result in wasted
resources. So it came as no surprise
to me when, at a recent meeting, a
group of vocal principals expressed
skepticism at the notion of distance
education. The idea of inserting technology between teachers and students
through online courses and blended
learning horrified these principals.
What shocked me was that this
reaction came from knowledgeable
and dedicated education leaders —
in 2014! One school leader asserted
that “Robots will be teaching our
kids now,” while another proclaimed,
“Machines are taking over the world.”
I almost laughed at the use of the
words robots and machines, but these
educators were totally serious. Their
anxiety was palpable.
A Coming Reality
I’ve listened to their visions of a brave
new world where students vegetate in
front of the screens that have replaced
their teachers while struggling students are left behind. I realized that
the driving force behind these leaders’
misperceptions of distance learning
was fear of the unknown.
The shift to distance learning challenges teachers to not only surrender
some autonomy, but to relinquish
control over when, where and how students learn. Moving instruction outside
the classroom via technology is not just
another new initiative. The ground is
shifting under the feet of educators.
Learning in a world of endless
resources and interactive engagement
is a fantastic, yet daunting vision.
While technology-centered learning may seem intimidating, it is here
whether we like it or not. Today’s
students have been surrounded by
technological devices their entire lives.
Their global connection to a surfeit
“The shift to distance learning
challenges teachers to not
only SURRENDER SOME
AUTONOMY, but to relinquish
control over when, where
and how students learn.”
of data, social media, entertainment,
creative ideas, and unbridled images
and texts has transformed the way
students are wired to think. As a
result, they have engaged in multilevel
learning and multitasking, with an
ease of spatial dexterity of knowledge
acquisition unlike any generation
before them.
transformative vision.
Technology is a revolutionary
dynamic tool to amplify the learning
process. It will not replace teachers,
but rather will bring them closer to
students through individualized learning experiences. We must convey to
teachers that opening the door to
instructional technology is not something to fear.
While it may take time to move
toward technology-driven distance
learning, moving is not negotiable.
Pandora’s Box already has been opened.
KEELY COUFAL is an assistant principal
in Pasadena Independent School District in
Pasadena, Texas. E-mail: keelycoufal@yahoo.
com. Twitter: @keelyintexas
Retool and Refine
Now is the time for education leaders
to fortify efforts and rally teachers to
accept this transformation. Standing
on the sidelines will only widen the
technology gap between educators
and students. It’s natural for teachers to feel apprehensive about serving
as facilitators while they are learning new technologies alongside their
students, but it’s time to get out from
behind the lectern and swim with students through this new landscape.
Educating 21st-century students
requires constant retooling and refining. It’s time to purge ourselves of
the instructional methods that have
tethered generations to the blackboard and textbook. It’s time for
teachers to evolve.
As school leaders, we should
remind teachers that everyone is in
the same position regarding the new
cyber acquisition of knowledge. While
the struggle to effectively implement
technology beyond the framework of
traditional teaching is vital, the key
characteristics for educators today are
a balance of tenacious fortitude and
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
11
FrontLine
M Y V I E W | ROBERT
E . M I L LWA R D
Gettysburg’s Lesson on Situational Leadership
I TEACH A graduate class in leadership theory to school administrators
who are working toward obtaining
their superintendent’s letter of eligibility. During our summer seminar, we
focus on ethical behavior, leadership
theories, leadership behavior and strategic planning. We also visit the Gettysburg battlefield to study leadership
decisions that were made during the
three-day battle.
We discuss the following historical
incident, which illustrates the impact
of discretionary and nondiscretionary
orders and applies to any superintendent when working with a newly
hired principal.
In the summer of 1863, during
the first day of battle at Gettysburg,
Confederate troops under the com-
mand of Gen. Richard S. Ewell were
in hot pursuit of panic-stricken Union
soldiers as they retreated through
the narrow streets of Gettysburg. Lee
watched the fleeing Union soldiers
streaming toward the distant hill and
sensed another battlefield triumph.
Lee knew that Ewell, one of his
newly appointed corps commanders,
was within striking range of Cemetery
Hill. He dispatched his aide with a
short verbal order to Ewell saying,
“Take the hill, if practicable, but don’t
bring on a general engagement.”
The first part of this order is discretionary: It allows Ewell the discretion to attack or not attack the Union
troops entrenched on Cemetery Hill.
But the second part of Lee’s order is
nondiscretionary: Ewell was ordered
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
not to attack if it would result in a
general engagement of his corps. So
the problem facing Ewell was how to
organize an attack on Cemetery Hill
without bringing on a general engagement of the army.
A Missing Presence
Simply put, Lee’s discretionary order
was probably a very serious error.
Ewell needed two things at this
point: A nondiscretionary order saying, “Take the hill” along with Lee’s
physical presence to help Ewell detect
vulnerable weak spots in the federal
defenses on the hill.
So Ewell, who had been a corps
commander for only one month,
needed specific directions from
General Lee as well as a face-to-face
meeting. Consider the fact that Ewell’s
men arrived at Gettysburg around
noon and they immediately became
engaged in a fierce four-hour battle.
By 4 p.m., Ewell was dealing with a
bewildering mass of logistics, including reorganizing his brigades, guarding prisoners and mounting an attack
on Cemetery Hill, if practicable.
If Lee instead had met with Ewell
in person at 4 p.m., there is a good
chance Lee would have identified
“weak spots” in the enemy fortifications on Cemetery Hill, thus helping
Ewell to make tactical decisions based
on Lee’s keen perception of battlefield
tactics. In other words, Lee, with all
his experience, may have seen vulnerable gaps in the Union defense that
an inexperienced newly appointed
corps commander such as Ewell could
not see.
Unfortunately, Robert E. Lee
treated Ewell as if he were a highly
experienced commander. Lee erred
at Gettysburg in that he had almost
no direct communication with his
new corps commander once the battle
began. This incident can be directly
related to situational leadership theory.
FrontLine
Status Quo Thinking
Situational leadership theory is
based on the premise that different
situations demand different behavior. To be effective, the leader needs
to adapt his or her administrative
style to accommodate the needs and
competence of newly hired administrators. Situational leadership
theory is about how well subordinates understand the tasks they are
expected to accomplish. But in order
to accomplish the task, they need to
know the leader’s intent as well as
the organizational mission.
When I present Ewell’s situation
to school administrators, it’s not long
before they raise several questions.
What if General Lee’s message had
simply been “take the hill”? Why did
Lee issue a discretionary order at this
critical point in the battle? Why didn’t
Lee meet face-to-face with Ewell
to discuss the situation? Was Ewell
responsible for a lost opportunity?
These situational variables clearly
show why clear and precise orders
to subordinates are so vital. School
administrators begin to think about
when to use discretionary and nondiscretionary directives with teachers
and students.
Robert E. Lee preferred issuing
discretionary orders with his subordinates simply because this approach
worked in the past. Did Lee commit
a serious error in leadership during
the first day of battle? Students begin
to understand that even very effective
leaders can make big mistakes. They
also begin to understand how intervening variables confound decisions,
alter plans and often negate operational designs.
What worked for Lee in the past
was not working at Gettysburg.
Initially, Robert E. Lee was fighting
a Union Army consisting of neophytes, greenhorns and rookies. But
at Gettysburg, Lee was confronted
with soldiers who were now battlehardened, experienced and highly
qualified. These new situational
factors demanded a change in leadership strategy and, unfortunately,
Lee did not change his leadership
strategy during this decisive threeday battle.
ROBERT MILLWARD is coordinator of the
administration and leadership studies at
Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana,
Pa. E-mail: [email protected]. Twitter:
@RobertEMillward
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
13
ILLUSTRATION SOURCE/ALBERTO RUGGIERI
14
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
Clearing
the
Snooze
Hurdles
What three districts did to create
later school start times to address
teenagers’ sleep patterns
BY MERRI ROSENBERG
nyone who’s ever tried to rouse a high school student
from bed to catch that 6:55 a.m. bus to arrive at school
on time knows how tenaciously that teen will cling to the
bedcovers. Pity the teacher who has to instill complicated
concepts at 7:30 in the morning or discuss the subtler
aalgebraic
lg
points
of the American Revolution during that groggy firstp
o
period
class.
p
e
For the past couple of decades, research by Kyla Wahlstrom
aatt the University of Minnesota (see related story, page 16) and
others,
demonstrated strongly that teenagers’ biological clocks
o
th
don’t mesh with the conventional middle and high school
ssimply
im
bell
b
e schedule.
Even the American Academy of Pediatrics has weighed in on
the
tth
he issue. In a recent policy statement, published in late August,
tthe
he organization asserted that school start times for adolescents
begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. to align more closely
sshould
h
A
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
15
Creative Solutions for the ‘Sleep Phase Shift’
BY K Y L A L . WA H L ST R O M
In July 1996, I received a call from the
superintendent of the Edina, Minn., Public
Schools, asking our research center if we
would evaluate the school district’s decision to start their high school day later. The
school board had recently pushed back the
start time based on a recommendation from
the Minnesota Medical Association.
At that time, medical research confirmed
that the brains of teenagers were biologically unable to be awake before 8 a.m.
Changing the starting time of a high school
was thus based on medical facts, and this
was a policy action the Edina board was taking without any certainty of the educational
outcomes. In fact, the concept of the “sleep
phase shift” occurring for humans in their
adolescent years was completely unknown
to nearly every person outside the field of
sleep research. Nevertheless, the Edina
district was the first in the nation almost 20
years ago to take such an action.
Given what resulted from that decision
for Edina’s students, school districts across
the country have been following their lead
ever since.
Range of Responses
As early results were being reported in the
news media and in educational journals,
several districts whose superintendents
were considering the later start time found
strong coalitions in their districts forming
pro and con positions. Sometimes the early
discussions caused the school board to
splinter because it was becoming a highly
politically charged decision. Indeed, a few
was less upsetting, and thus considered
shifting from 7:25 to 7:45 a.m. in the first
year, and then from 7:45 to 8:10 a.m. in the
second year. Still others thought that having a pilot program at a few high schools in
a large district was the better way to move
this concept forward.
In the end, however, the ongoing evaluation of these approaches showed that every
change, no matter how small in scale or limited in the amount of the time shift, caused
the same amount of community disruption.
Thus, if a district is choosing to make the
shift to a later start, then the latest feasible
time and the largest possible scale should
be what guides the final decision.
Three Ramifications
Kyla Wahlstrom
superintendents actually resigned their
posts when the acrimony surrounding the
start time decision became overwhelming.
The districts that had the least contentious debate were ones where the superintendent and the school board were generally in sync with one another about most
issues. These were districts where the use
and value of regular community input, along
with data, was already well-established.
As more findings emerged from research
that added to the knowledge of positive outcomes, even more school communities discussed starting classes later. Some districts
chose to go the route of modest changes,
such as moving from 7:30 to 7:50 a.m. Others thought that an incremental approach
their need for sleep and biological rhythms with
successful school performance. According to that
paper, about 1,000 high schools, out of more than
18,000 nationwide, have altered their start time.
Tough Obstacles
In October 2014, the Fairfax County, Va., Public
Schools, which educates nearly 187,000 students,
approved a later start time for its 27 high schools
and already has allocated 20 new buses to make
the transition work. The change, taking effect in
2015-16, is projected to cost close to $5 million.
They hope to see similar outcomes to those
being realized in Decatur, Ga., which exercised
16
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
By far, the most difficult aspect of shifting
to a later start time for secondary schools
is transportation. Those that made the shift
at no cost were ones that merely flipped
around the busing tiers. This means that
elementary students now begin school
earlier than the secondary students. The
trickle-down effect is that the younger
students during the winter months are
sometimes waiting for school buses in the
dark. Greater parent supervision of those
neighborhood bus stops have alleviated
many of the earlier concerns.
Districts also may choose to increase the
number of buses by contracting for more
routes, but that can be a costly choice.
Those places that have made the shift most
successfully are ones where the transportation director creatively re-thought the busing
its flexibility as a state-authorized charter district.
Two years ago, Decatur moved its high school
start an hour later, to 8:30 a.m., with middle
schools starting at 8:45 a.m. Lauri McKain, who
was high school principal at the time, noted the
number of tardy students dropped, more eligible
students took advantage of the breakfast program
and more students could be accommodated for
tutoring before and after classes.
Yet many districts find the logistical bugaboos
relating to student transportation and budgetary constraints too hard to overcome. There also
are the complications in interscholastic athletics schedules and parents who want their high
routes and patterns. Some have gone to a
hub-and-spoke system, and some have partnered with the city’s public transit system
with great success. Others have combined
multiple ages on the same buses to compact the routes and shorten the ride time
while delivering students to nearby schools.
Parents’ work schedules and day care for
younger students whose schools now finish
earlier are also problems that need to be
addressed. Again, it is with creative discussions among those who plan for and provide day care that many solutions are found.
Some districts have expanded their afterschool child care options, and many parents
ultimately discovered with an earlier start to
the elementary schools, they could drop off
their children directly at school in the morning instead of bringing their children to day
care first.
Athletics and after-school activities for
secondary students are the third area of
concern. Research repeatedly shows a
somewhat later dismissal time for high
schools, say 3:30 p.m., has had no negative effect on participation rates in sports
and extracurriculars. Coaches who initially
protested the idea of a later dismissal actually found that with more sleep, the students
remembered the plays better. Some longer
practices had to be shortened by 20-30
minutes, but those changes are reported
to have not affected the quality of play or
performance.
Using Facts as Basis
The districts making the most significant
moves to later high school start times
tend to be the places that carefully and
completely gathered and discussed all the
factual information now available.
The medical research about the development of the teen brain and the role of sleep in
academic learning, healthy choices and emotional well-being is so strong that it is difficult
to ignore those facts. The recent release by
the University of Minnesota of a study about
the educational benefits of the later start time,
funded by the Centers for Disease Control,
seems to complete the body of knowledge
for outcomes with the later start. Individuals
still skeptical are generally those who are
unaware of the strength of research or those
who choose not to believe the facts.
Once teachers, administrators and parents understand the sleepiness of teens
before 9 a.m. is a function of brain development in teens and not a behavioral choice
that teens are making, the impetus to alter
the school schedule to accommodate
healthy development is there. Once the
facts are known for what can be done to
support the maximal development of adolescents, districts are making important,
though difficult, decisions. Their creative
solutions to thorny problems are the markers of effective leadership.
KYLA WAHLSTROM, a former school
Edina High School in Minnesota delayed its high school starting time 19 years ago.
schoolers home early to look after younger siblings. Good intentions fail in the face of obstacles
like these.
Even so, some districts have figured out how
to make skillful adaptations, strategic negotiations and compromises, and to deliver the right
message and get the needed buy-in from staff,
students and communities.
Stories follow of three school districts in urban,
suburban and rural communities that have made
a successful switch to later start times for secondary school students.
o o o
administrator, is the director of the
Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of
Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn. E-mail:
[email protected]
EDINA, MINN., on the outskirts of Minneapolis,
was the first district in the nation to embrace a
later start time for high school students 19 years
ago.
“We did it based on good research,” says Kenneth Dragseth, the district’s superintendent
between 1992 and 2006. “This came up, and we
thought if we believe this research, we should try
to make a change.”
The middle school’s opening bell moved to
7:50 a.m. from 7:45 a.m., a very minor switch, but
it allowed the high school to push its start time to
8:30. The operating hours remain the same today.
The process in Edina was methodical and
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
17
Even more significant, he adds, is that “this
was not driven by whether or not the [athletic]
conference is aligned. It was done because it’s the
best thing for students. The core has always been
academic and student performance, and figuring out how to make it work. People enjoy the
mornings.”
Looking at time in a more flexible way, the
district offers a program called “collaborative
Wednesdays,” a block of 118 minutes in the
middle of that day when students can meet with
teachers, work in small groups on projects or
catch up on reading.
Given Minnesota winters, another benefit
of the later start time is that it provides “more
opportunities for the snowplows to get to work,”
Locklear says.
And by now, says Dragseth, who still lives in
the area, “nobody knows anything different.”
o o o
Testimony from student Jilly Dos Santos influenced
the Columbia, Mo., school board and Superintendent
Peter Stiepleman to adjust official school hours
beginning in fall 2013.
comprehensive. The district studied the issue
for about six months, with a committee looking
at everything from transportation and sports to
the impact on local employers. (Many students
worked at local businesses starting at 4 p.m., and
district leaders recognized they had to address
those concerns.) It helped, Dragseth says, that the
change was “a cost-neutral process, not an additional cost.”
To deal with the inconvenience around afterschool athletics, Dragseth met with all the superintendents in the local athletic conference. Even
though some were definitely angry about the
switch and there was some pushback from varsity
coaches in Edina, Dragseth says educators made
adjustments to allow students with out-of-town
competitions to leave early.
Even parents who had planned on their older
children babysitting younger children after school
adjusted and “were glad the older kids were there
for the younger ones in the morning,” Dragseth
says. “The kids were on board right away.”
As Bruce Locklear, the principal at Edina
High School, says, “It’s recognized that a wellrested student is a more effective learner. The
late start is part of the tradition of Edina, it’s a
major part of our culture. They understand the
importance of rest.”
18
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
In COLUMBIA, MO., the reality of a new high
school coming on line in this 18,000-student district prompted the discussion in 2012-13 about
moving back the start time.
As the fourth largest district in the state,
encompassing urban, suburban and rural communities within its borders, Columbia operates
220 buses on multiple routes, covering 300
square miles.
The exploratory committee included the
school board president, deputy superintendent of
transportation, principals, teachers and parents.
By May 2013, the board approved the plan, and
when students attended the first day of their new
school that fall, the opening bell rang at 8:50 a.m.
The district was diligent about its communication and outreach efforts, according to superintendent Peter Stiepleman, who served as assistant
superintendent during the approval process. To
assuage parent concerns about earlier pickup
times for the younger children, especially on the
outlying country roads, the administration asked
the elementary school principals to call affected
families to solicit their feedback.
“We readjusted the timelines, trying for 6:45
as a pickup,” Stiepleman says. The reality is
“somebody has to get up early.” Logistical factors
forced some elementary school pick ups to move
to 6:30 a.m.
There was constant communication about the
proposed change, from calling individual families
to board presentations. That even included memorable testimony from student Jilly Dos Santos,
who brought her case to the board about a later
start to her high school day. As Stiepleman tells
it, “Jilly was prepared, she took it seriously and
delivered a message, ‘Let me tell you what kids
are saying.’ She had really thought about it, and
her role was important.”
Now, almost 1½ years into the schedule
changes, “the pushback was not as robust as we
thought,” the superintendent says.
Stiepleman is cautious about overstating
long-term benefits, though he reports attendance
increases at the high school and elementary
school levels. “If you increase attendance, you
increase achievement,” Stiepleman says. The rate
was 85 percent in 2012-13 and 90 percent last
year among all demographics.
One unanticipated benefit was the ability to
transport students from elementary schools to a
special district half-day program for students with
behavioral issues, at no additional cost to the district, reducing the need for a budget cut.
With elementary schools now starting at 7:50
a.m. instead of 8:50, the schools added clubs at
the end of the day so students could stay later.
“It’s still a challenge for sports,” says Stiepleman, referring to the interscholastic conference
that includes Columbia. “Other districts are not
on the same time. We put wireless on the buses so
kids could do their homework and do class work,
even if they have to leave early.”
o o o
In JACKSON, WYO., the school system first
explored the issue of school hours in 2006-07,
but encountered “strong resistance to change”
and shelved the consideration temporarily, Teton
County School District Superintendent Pamela
Shea says.
However, as concerns mounted over student
tardiness owing to a high school start time of
When Practical Makes Things Possible
When the superintendent in Wilton,
Conn., wanted to explore whether his
school district could switch the start time
for the high school about a dozen years
ago, he turned to the community’s League
of Women Voters to undertake a feasibility survey.
As a nonpartisan organization, the
League of Women Voters gathers comprehensive details on all sides of an
issue. In this case, explains Lisa Bogan,
the Connecticut group’s school start time
specialist, “The whole study looked at all
possible permutations and creative solutions to various issues that came up during the process.”
To explore the case for change, the
study outlined the scientific and medical
research about the detrimental impact
of sleep deprivation on teenagers, and
included information about the benefits
of a later start time for adolescents. (Find
the league’s sleep study at http://www.
wiltonlwv.org/images/stories/MiscPDFs/
study-schoolstartjune2002.pdfwww.
wiltonlwv.org.)
A Hurdle Cleared
Wilton educators and parents faced
several key considerations, which are
familiar concerns in any district undertaking a later start for high schoolers. The
superintendent at the time made clear
that any change would have to be budget
neutral, transportation logistics would have
to work efficiently and athletics personnel
would need to be on board.
Apparently, the clincher in Wilton came
with the athletic director’s acquiescence.
Says Bogan, “He saw students in his gym
classes (in early morning) were really tired.”
Because Wilton sits in the middle of
its athletic conference, meaning students
don’t have to travel long distances to
compete against other schools, teachers
are willing to accommodate slightly early
departures for athletes, says Wilton High
School Principal Robert O’Donnell.
Limited Modifications
Small tweaks in existing operations made
the schedule change feasible. It wasn’t
safe to have two buses in the drop-off
lane, so the district developed a loop, with
half going to the middle school and half
of the buses to the high school. When
that created a problem at a stoplight near
campus, the town changed the timing of
the light, added an advance arrow and put
an officer at the intersection.
Instead of providing extra help to students after school, teachers agreed to be
available before first period. The shift in
school hours does mean faculty meetings
start later in the day. “We’re a very studentcentered school district,” says O’Donnell.
The district switched the high school
start time from 7:35 to 8:15 a.m. for the
2003-04 academic year. After complaints
from elementary school parents, the district changed the high school start time to
8:20 a.m.
To allay parents’ concerns about who
would look after their younger children
when the older students had a later start
and end time, the district decided that in any
emergency dismissal, the middle and high
school students would be sent home first.
Extra Sleep
The community responded to the message
“talking about the greater good,” Bogan
says. “Not every student plays sports every
day. Not every student needs extra help
every day. It’s a shift of inconvenience.”
And it turned out that there were unanticipated benefits.
Many of the teachers said the students
were more alert and less tired in first
period classes,” O’Donnell says. “We did
our own survey and found that students
were getting more sleep and accumulating less sleep debt.” That translated into
35 minutes more sleep each night, totaling
more than 2.3 hours per week.
It seems to work,” he says. “It’s part of
the fabric of what we do. Students feel
they’re rested. Their peers in neighboring districts are a little jealous, and it’s
worked pretty well. There’s no movement
to change it.”
— MERRI ROSENBERG
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
19
7:30 a.m. and parents complained about the difficulty of getting their teens off to school, the district took up the issue anew.
“With accountability, that was a trigger to look
at this again,” says Shea, citing concerns about
academic performance.
The district identified the usual barriers and
raised questions about after-school programs and
day care centers before attempting any schedule
adjustments.
“We have learned that when you enact change,
you need to have a powerful ‘why’ first,” she says.
“It has to be very purposeful and address a need.
You have to engage communities. People want to
know and be involved.”
The district confronted several issues that were
particular to its location and community makeup.
When school started at 7:25 a.m., “it was hard
for staff to get [such early] day care,” Shea says.
“Now we have all staff starting at the same time.”
Similarly, some parents objected to the impact of
a later school start on family dinnertime.
With significant student involvement in club
and school athletic participation, the district
faced another challenge. “Where we really had to
problem solve was with swimming and the use of
facilities,” Shea says. “We had to sit down with the
stakeholders and discuss the possibility of chang-
20
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
ing the schedule.”
Even skiing had to be considered. “It gets dark
early, around 4-4:30, and we had to ensure that
our Nordic skiers had enough daylight for their
practice,” she adds.
It cost the Jackson district about $250,000 to
launch the schedule change initially, mostly to add
buses and drivers and to revamp bus routes. The
opening high school bell now rings at 8:55 a.m.,
one of the later start times among high schools
that have shifted operating hours. (One Florida
high school starts at 9:25 a.m.) That decision was
based, Shea says, on concerns relating to “how
early do we want kindergarteners on the bus?”
The district has begun to see positive changes
during the past two years, with 220 fewer tardy
students in the morning.
“People had expressed fear that kids would
just stay up later, but predominantly that didn’t
happen,” says Shea, pointing as well to benefits to
the physical and mental health of students. Fewer
car accidents involve local teens — according to a
local follow-up study, which calculated a 70 percent reduction.
“We’ve made a commitment for three years,”
Shea adds. During the fall semester, the district
planned to examine how the changes have worked
and will “start community dialogue” to assess what
scheduling adjustments or tweaks are needed.Q
MERRI ROSENBERG is a freelance education writer in
Ardsley, N.Y. E-mail: [email protected]
PHOTO BY THERESA MILLER
Superintendent Pamela Shea greets students in
Jackson, Wyo., where the opening high school bell
now rings at 8:55 a.m.
The
Extra Time
PAYOFF
How sch
schools using a longer day
are raisin
raising instructional efficiency
through a faculty’s joint planning
and shar
sharing of student data
B Y D AV I D A . FA R B M A N
ILLUSTRATION SOURCE/RAYMOND MEDICI
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reg Fox
Fo could not contain his enthusiasm.
of Dr. Thomas S. O’Connell
As principal
pr
Elementary School West in East Hartford,
Eleme
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Conn
school redesign that, beginning in Septemschoo
ber 2013, added
300 more scheduled hours to the
ad
school year ffor his 315 students.
“There’s n
no question, teaching and learning are
different now,”
now says Fox, an educator for 19 years.
“For the firs
first time, we feel like we can meet the
needs of eve
every student. For the first time, we’re
able to really integrate inquiry-based learning.
Having not only more class time, but three hours
of common planning time each week, makes
what we do
d possible.”
O’Connell
Elementary is just one of a rapO’Con
idly growing
group of schools that have added
grow
substantial
time to their school schedule with
substan
the un
underlying goal of bolstering student
learning. From Chicago to New Orleans
learni
N.J., educators in school
to Elizabeth,
El
districts across the country have come to
dist
understand that more time in school can
und
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
21
Raising Rigor
The teachers at Frank M. Silvia Elementary
School in Fall River, Mass., know this dynamic
well. Eight years ago, the school serving 600 students, more than two-thirds of whom qualified
as low-income, had a day that ran from 8 a.m.
to 2:30 p.m. They struggled to get much more
than a third of students to be proficient. In more
recent years, however, with 800 students and an
eight-hour day, the school has seen its proficiency
rate double, and the school is one of only a handful in Massachusetts with growth rates in both
math and English language arts within the top 15
percent of all schools statewide each year for the
past five years.
The secret to Silvia’s success is actually no
secret. The administrators and faculty have leveraged their longer day to spend countless hours
talking about and then acting upon ways to raise
expectations for what should constitute highquality work.
Teachers at Silvia meet in uninterrupted common planning time twice each week, 45 minutes
each for math and literacy. (During this period,
students are in specials — music, art or physical
education.) There, they focus intensively on boosting instructional quality. The dean of teaching
and learning, Sherri Carvalho, describes how the
teachers have collaborated to set a norm for expectations using an example from 4th-grade literacy.
“In the past, teachers would just come up with
their own open-response questions. Students
would answer them, but when they’d come back
to common planning there was no coherence on
the team level,” says Carvalho, who reports to the
school principal. “But now that they’re creating
those questions together, teachers share similar
student work that they can have conversations
about and, most importantly, they’re coming up
with good questions for their students to answer
that will really make them think.”
Essentially, teachers at Silvia prod each other,
holding each other accountable to make their
instruction more challenging. Meg Mayo-Brown,
superintendent of the 10,500-student Fall River
district, explains the progression as generating a
Teachers at Silvia Elementary School in Fall River, Mass., redesigned the school week schedule to allow
uninterrupted, 45-minute common planning periods twice a week.
22
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
PHOTO BY CHRISTINE CONNELL
make an enormous difference in students’ education, not simply by increasing the quantity of time
on task — a proven strategy to boost proficiency
— but by substantially enhancing its quality. Put
simply, adding school time, alongside effective
planning, can make all the moments spent in
school better.
And the pivot point upon which this rising
quality turns is how the expanded schedule opens
up more opportunities for teachers to collaborate.
Meeting for extended periods at least twice a
week, teachers are together to reflect upon their
instruction, continuously viewing each lesson
through the focal prism of what students have
learned. From these honest discussions, teachers then seek to make smart adjustments to their
instruction with two aims — deepening the learning of all students and, simultaneously, addressing
individual student needs.
Nathan Quesnel, left, superintendent in East Hartford, Conn., and Greg Fox, principal of O’Connell Elementary
School, with students in the school media center.
“common understanding of what a rigorous task
looks like and sounds like. Working together has
this tremendous effect of raising the bar.”
The advent of Common Core State Standards
has driven the movement even further toward
greater rigor, but Silvia teachers have been ready
for the transition because they already had a lot
of experience figuring out new ways to push their
students. Now they are engaged in aligning all
classroom work across the school to the Common Core, a process Principal Jean Facchiano
describes as complex but achievable specifically
because each teacher team has committed considerable time to content selection and the subsequent mapping of lessons to the standards during
common planning meetings.
Teachers at O’Connell Elementary face the
additional challenge of reshaping their classrooms
to meet the robust requirements of the International Baccalaureate curricula, with a deliberate
focus on inquiry-based and cooperative learning.
The school made the transition to an IB school
the same year it expanded its schedule, so teachers spend much of their two 90-minute common
planning sessions each week examining how they
might incorporate many more hands-on and
group projects in classrooms, all of which are
based on the IB units of study.
The change in educational approach is obvious. Where the 4th-grade math class used to tilt
heavily toward the training and practice of arithmetic operations, students now regularly partake
in lessons that revolve around the application of
math skills and creativity toward solving realworld problems, like organizing a grocery store
and determining product prices.
The teachers readily acknowledge that the
transformation of their individual classrooms — a
transformation that aspires to build in coherence and a standard level of excellence across the
school — began in the conference room, where the
whole faculty advanced together toward a new way
of engaging students in learning. East Hartford
Superintendent Nathan Quesnel observes, “When
the teachers start sharing results and what works
in their classrooms, the whole faculty starts to
gravitate towards best practice. And this school has
become a model for where we want others to go.”
Personal Needs
It is one thing to craft high expectations. It is
another to get all students to reach them. Collaboration and review of student data also play a
pivotal role in this objective.
Aura Ryder, a 1st-grade teacher at Silvia, says
she and her colleagues are “talking deeply about
data every week” to determine which centers, such
as small-group reading or fluency drills using
computers, are “relevant and necessary and which
students need to spend time in each center.”
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
23
Teachers at O’Connell Elementary typically
commit a full 90-minute session per week to
reviewing various data about their students, from
formative assessments to in-class work. Gradelevel teams review each student’s performance
individually, and for those who are struggling,
teachers will develop a specialized plan for each
one. Plans usually consist of assigning students
to small learning groups that hone in on practicing particular skills, such as reading fluency or
phonemic awareness. (O’Connell faculty focused
their intervention in 2013-14 almost exclusively
on literacy.)
Leading each of these small groups are the
teachers deemed most skilled in that area, not
necessarily the students’ classroom teacher. “We
share children,” explains Fox, O’Connell’s principal. “If we are going to make sure that every
learner gets the optimal support he or she needs,
then we need to take a team approach.”
The use of data to pinpoint student deficits
and tailor instruction accordingly also relies on
the integration of targeted intervention groups at
Silvia, though these tend to be part and parcel of
the full classroom, rather than take place during
separate designated periods. Silvia’s long experience tracking student proficiency and growth over
Additional Resources
The National Center on Time &
Learning is a nonprofit that conducts
research, provides technical assistance and supports national, state
and local initiatives that add significantly more school time for academic
and enrichment opportunities.
Some of the organization’s informational resources of practical value at
the district level are:
k “The Case for Improving and Expanding Time in School,” which summarizes research exploring the effect of more time on student growth, as well
as the studies on using teacher time to boost student outcomes.
k “Financing Expanded Learning Time in Schools: A Look at Expanded
Time in Five District Schools,” which details how five districts leveraged
federal, state and local funding to support additional time and optimize the
impact on learning.
k “Time for Teachers: Leveraging Expanded Time to Strengthen Instruction
and Empower Teachers,” which examines 17 fast-improving schools using
expanded school schedules. Six practices are described and analyzed.
k “Time Well Spent: Eight Powerful Practices of Successful, ExpandedTime Schools,” which offers an in-depth examination of 30 expanded-time
schools serving high-poverty populations with records of student success
and demonstrates how these schools leverage their additional time.
All reports are accessible at www.timeandlearning.org.
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
time has allowed the teachers to be more confident in differentiating instruction within each
classroom.
Silvia also has the unusual practice of publicly
posting individual student performance (anonymously) on each formative assessment in every
classroom, so the students and teachers are literally surrounded by achievement data. Still, it is
only through the systematic review of student
performance that takes place during grade-team
meetings that teachers develop the means and
methods to differentiate effectively.
Principal Objective
Providing more time in school is a resource, not
a strategy. It can be used in ways that directly
address the core mission of schools — advancing student learning — or it can be squandered
in a messy profusion of unstructured, unfocused
moments that do little to promote growth. When
it comes to spending added minutes, the paramount measure of its value is to what degree the
potential additional opportunities for learning
actually translate to more learning. And to realize
the potential, adults in the building must harness
their collective energies toward elevating quality
of instruction and individualizing support.
The collaborative planning meeting, whose
fundamental objective is no more and no less
than making sure that every student’s time in
school is productive and meaningful, is the epicenter of this process.
According to Mayo-Brown, most teachers had
resisted common planning time because they experienced it as tightly managed by administrators.
But then they noticed their teacher colleagues at
Silvia truly owned their twice-weekly sessions, and
the school became the district’s appealing model for
translating teacher conversations into productive
and meaningful classroom time.
Similarly, in East Hartford, the O’Connell faculty stands out as not just having the advantage
of additional class time, but making the best use
of that time through the mutual accountability
for progress the teachers devised in collaborative
planning meetings.
As other schools seek avenues to expand learning time for students, they should consider how
to integrate more learning and sharing time for
teachers, as well. They likely will find that more
time for teachers leads to not just more, but better time for students.Q
DAVID FARBMAN is the senior researcher at the
National Center on Time & Learning in Boston, Mass.
E-mail: [email protected]. Twitter:
@expanding_time
Trimesters
Shape a New Face to Learning
k at this no
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MAR
BY
ducating students in a safe, nurturing and challenging environment that empowers them to become
lifelong learners and productive citizens is a
common mission of schools across the nation. The
way school districts fulfill that mission, however, can
vary widely.
For the New Buffalo Area Schools in Michigan, realizing that goal meant taking a hard look at how we
could best use time to our advantage. The issue for
us is when and how we deliver instruction.
In our 700-student district on the south
shores of Lake Michigan, our middle school
and high school use a trimester schedule consisting of three 12-week
academic terms. At the
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
25
high school, students take five 75-minute classes per
day; teachers instruct for four periods and use the
fifth for planning. At the middle school, students
take seven classes daily; teachers instruct for five
and have common planning. In middle school, core
classes are 62 minutes and electives are 45 minutes.
A high school student’s schedule consists
of core classes (traditionally yearlong courses)
during two of the three trimesters. Advanced
Placement courses, band and choir run for the
full school year. Electives generally meet for one
12-week trimester, and although some do run two
terms, they are designed so they do not need to be
sequenced, allowing scheduling flexibility.
This kind of schedule is nothing new. I’ve
worked in trimester schools for 15 years. In fact,
60 or more school districts in Michigan and many
others throughout the United States currently use
trimester schedules. However, the schedule’s commitment to the school improvement process often
is overlooked.
Student-Driven Plans
Schedules alone do not improve
student test scores. Schedules
do not make poor instructors
suddenly effective or harm
the qualities of good teachers. Teaching, learning and
time on task remain the
key components of school
improvement.
At New Buffalo High
School, which serves 250 students in grades 9-12, students
typically take three core classes
and two electives each term, earning 7.5 credits per year. This schedule
enables students to take three more
classes each year than they would under a
traditional six-period schedule.
Grade levels do not dictate the coursework in New Buffalo. Students are
placed in appropriate classes based on
their ability and academic performance
as indicated by assessment data.
Eighth-graders must score at least a
15 in all areas of the Explore assessment to enter high school. (Explore is
part of the ACT’s Educational Planning and Assessment system.)
In essence, New Buffalo has established a high-school readiness standard. Eighth-grade students who score
21 or better on the English portion of the
Explore assessment are moved to 10th-
grade English as freshmen. This allows them to
take AP language and AP literature when they are
seniors. By the same token, students who receive
lower than a B in any 8th-grade core class must
take that subject in the fall of their freshman year
to build in the gift of time.
As part of the trimester schedule, all students
have the opportunity to repeat courses if necessary for remediation or for doubling up on content to accelerate their learning. Time on content
can be adjusted based on the ability to offer 12-,
24- or 36-week courses. The trimester allows for
more creativity and flexibility in the scope and
sequence of all the content areas.
Daily Bonus Time
Overall, the scope and sequence of classes is based
on the state testing program. In Michigan, all students take the ACT in March of their junior year,
coinciding with the end of the second trimester.
With that in mind, junior-level English is
offered in the fall and winter trimesters so students have an
entire year of language arts
instruction leading up to
the test. New Buffalo
also offers a required
ACT preparation
course in the winter to
prepare them for the
testing.
We also created
a 35-minute session
at the end of the day
called a bonus period,
which can be used for
response to intervention.
Students use the time to make
up missed work, start homework or
receive extra instruction from teachers.
Our goal is simple: We do not want any student to graduate with less than an 18 ACT composite (the test’s maximum score is 36). Eighteen
creates a window of opportunity for the student
that includes a four-year college. We want to open
that window as wide as possible. Then it’s the students’ and their families’ job to take advantage of
the opportunities.
“Grade levels do not
dictate the coursework
in New Buffalo. Students are
placed in appropriate classes based
on their ability and academic
performance as indicated by
assessment data.”
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
Pros and Cons
Every school schedule has its upsides and downsides, and so it is with trimesters. Some educators
consider the following to be drawbacks:
l The schedule is difficult to create because the
administration must address various param-
dent can recall and apply.
These are the major advantages of a
trimester schedule:
l Students can accelerate their learning,
taking three years of a world language in
two academic years, for instance.
l Students can enroll in a support class
without compromising their ability to earn
sufficient graduation credits. A 10th-grade student can enroll in a Fundamentals of Chemistry
class as an elective.
l Students can retake a class and remain
on course to meet high school graduation
requirements.
l The schedule does not require additional
teachers.
l The focus is on student learning, and we’ve
seen positive results. New Buffalo High School
is ranked in the top 2 percent in the state and,
despite an economically disadvantaged population
of close to 50 percent, was named one of Newsweek’s top 2,000 high schools in 2013 and 2014.
Adopting the Mindset
Superintendent Mark Westerburg sees greater flexibility
in meeting student needs through trimester schedules.
eters during development, including state test
scheduling. Any schedule change has multiple
ramifications.
l The students transition twice a year instead of
once, which concerns guidance counselors, who
must reschedule students three times during
the school year instead of twice. The value for
students should far outweigh any concern about
mechanics of managing another set of changes.
Some simple policies and practices can ease this
challenge.
l Breaking the paradigm of full-year classes is difficult. Some will balk at the semester gap between
junior-level English (taught in fall and winter)
and senior-level English.
However, I see no validity in the issue of students dealing with a gap in their instruction.
Most schools teach Algebra 1 to freshmen and
Algebra 2 to juniors, creating a long break. Students are asked to take standardized tests that
require more content than they receive in one
year. The key is to teach for retention no matter
what schedule is used. It does matter how far a
teacher gets, and it matters how much the stu-
The trimester schedule is a vehicle for school
improvement, allowing creativity and flexibility in
adjusting to student needs. Districts should adapt
the schedule to the schools’ improvement goals,
which means maintaining a mindset focused on
continuous improvement.
Schedules are not a substitute for quality
teaching and learning. However, ensuring more
time on task and teaching the right content at the
right time always will produce good results.Q
MARK WESTERBURG is superintendent of the New
Buffalo Area Schools in New Buffalo, Mich. E-mail: [email protected]. Twitter: @mwesterburg
Additional Resources
More information about trimester scheduling can
be found at www.trimesters.org, a website maintained by Mark Westerburg.
The site, “School Improvement Using a 3 x 5
Trimester Schedule,” details the trimester schedule in New Buffalo, Mich., Area Schools, provides
additional alternative schedules for consideration,
offers research related to trimester schedules and
student achievement, and shares the assessment
results of New Buffalo’s students under the trimester schedule.
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
27
The
Four-Day
School Week
A Minnesota district, facing a dire fiscal state, takes
es a
dramatic detour in school operations for four yearss
BY DEBORAH M. HENTON
L
ast September, North Branch Area Public
Schools in east-central Minnesota started
the school year in the manner common to
most of the 13,500 school districts across
the country — with five days of instruction
per week. On its face, that detail hardly seems
noteworthy. For us in North Branch, it marked a
victory in every sense of the word.
When I came to the 3,000-student North
Branch Area Public Schools as superintendent,
the school district had endured multiple years of
cost cutting and budget reductions. There was
community angst over disappearing opportunities for students, but the consensus was not that
the schools needed money. Rather, we needed to
live within our means. Several levy attempts had
failed. Little hope existed for the state to increase
funding in the near future. Legislators were grappling with budget issues of their own.
For two years after my arrival in 2007, we
gathered as administrators each winter to plan for
the next year knowing we would have less money
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
to perform the same function. In each of those
years, administrators did a superlative job protecting funds for the classroom and minimizing
the impact on students.
After the second year, though, it was becoming clear we had exhausted our ability to keep the
impact from dramatically changing the landscape
of education in our community. Something big
was needed. That something turned out to be the
four-day week.
Mounting Pressure
The four-day school week had been on my
radar for a year or more. A school board member asked that I look further into the schedule
as a possible solution to our funding crunch.
The idea also had been suggested by staff and
community members during budget seasons.
I researched every four-day school district I
could find, both within Minnesota and beyond
— maybe a dozen in all at the time. I sought
research material on the schedule and spoke
© DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM/NEWLIGHT
with superintendents with experience overseeing
a four-day week.
I reported findings to the school board in
2009, at which time I did not recommend the
district move to the schedule, at least not yet.
There was still a chance the state could increase
funding, and we knew our stakeholders would
have another chance to approve an operating levy.
Soon, those hopes were exhausted. The state
didn’t produce any significant increases, and
another levy attempt failed. Community members
and staff were clamoring for leadership to protect
the schools from a spate of annual teacher layoffs
that would dramatically drive up class size and
place more duties on an already greatly reduced
and exhausted staff.
I informed the school board that our recommendation for 2010-11 would include a four-day
week. We began researching all of the adjustments we would need to make as a result. Agreement with employee groups was secured. The
2010-11 budget was built on the four-day week.
Three public meetings, required by the Minnesota
Department of Education, were hosted.
As expected, the announcement caused turbulence in the community. Moving to a four-day
week created concerns about child care, unsupervised teenagers, the extended length of the day,
less class time and even fear that students’ work
ethic would be eroded by attending school less.
Pressure mounted on the school board and its 5-0
consensus to consider a four-day week, given at a
budget work session, began to erode.
In the end, the new schedule was approved
by a 3-2 vote, but celebration was tempered by
the monumental work in front of us to prepare
our schools and families for the change — and
the national attention we suddenly received as a
result of the decision.
Attention Grabbing
As does happen, our four-day week became newsworthy on a faulty premise — that the North
Branch schools were reducing class time by a
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
29
full day. Four-day weeks were suddenly a topic
being discussed by gubernatorial candidates on
the campaign trail. I appeared on CNN to dispel
myths about the schedule, such as students losing
20 percent of their instructional time. National
news coverage appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
In our four years on the schedule, none of the
dire predictions came to pass. We did not see an
increase in juvenile crime or teen pregnancy as
a result of having Mondays off. We did not see a
great scramble by parents to procure child care.
There were challenges, primarily around operating for four days while the rest of the world
turns on five. There were fewer days to schedule
meetings and frequent explanations to outsiders for why our staff members were unavailable
on Mondays. Parents of some younger students
reported fatigue issues with the lengthened days
that were required to offset lost learning time on
Monday.
By and large though, students loved the schedule. We surveyed multiple times a year for three
years. The student responses were overwhelmingly positive. The surveys also helped identify
trouble spots such as the need to be more judicious about assigning homework. Scheduling
student activities also was challenging at times,
especially in spring and fall when daylight fades
in the afternoon.
All in all, we handled the four-day week well.
When we proposed the schedule, there was
almost no end to community members asking us
to reconsider. I heard from many of them, as well,
when we decided last spring after four years of
a shorter week to go back to five days. This time
they wanted us to keep the four-day week.
Political Ramifications
Over those four years, our elementary school went
from a “needs improvement” school to a “Reward
School,” ranking it among the top 15 percent of
Title I schools across Minnesota. To be clear, I
do not credit the four-day week with this notable
improvement. The research I conducted clearly
showed that four-day school weeks neither help
nor harm student achievement. Achievement in
North Branch over the four years bears that out.
Neither were we making a political point
with our four-day week. Our motive was simple
and transparent: Reduce the amount of annual
teacher layoffs and preserve funds for the classroom by finding savings outside instruction. We
were not trying to “scare” our community into
passing a tax levy. It wouldn’t have worked anyway. The community opposed a levy even after
What Math Says About Four-Day Week Savings
BY MERRI ROSENBERG
It would seem to be a simple solution to
budgetary pressures: Reduce costs sharply
by moving from a five-day school week to
four days. That was certainly the motivation
for one Arizona school district.
When Arizona’s state legislature made
significant budget cuts in 2009, the rural
Bisbee Unified School District moved to a
four-day week “in order to protect what we
had,” says Jim Phillips, now superintendent
of the 790-student district but principal of
the high school at the time. The district forecast savings of 17.7 percent for utility costs,
17.4 percent for transportation expenses
and 16.2 percent for custodial costs by moving to a four-day operation. Overall savings
were projected at $154,000, representing
2.5 percent of Bisbee’s operating budget.
While 2.5 percent in savings doesn’t
sound significant, it was enough to convince
Bisbee’s school board to make the change
beginning in August 2009 and stay with it.
30
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
Misplaced Hopes
Jim Phillips
School districts contemplating a major
switch in operating hours may harbor the
notion that cutting the school week by one
day will generate savings in the order of 20
percent. But the actual math doesn’t quite
work that way.
The general assumption administrators
make is that on the fifth day the school
will be completely closed,” says Michael
Griffith, a senior policy analyst at the Education Commission of the States in Denver
and author of a 2011 study, “What Savings
Are Produced by Moving to a Four-Day
School Week?” (www.ecs.org/clearing
house/93/69/9369.pdf).
He adds: “The building still had to be
open; they still have some transportation
costs for special ed or extracurricular.”
All too often, school governing bodies
neglect to consider the fixed costs that
won’t change significantly, even if school is
the schedule was instituted.
Despite our intentions, it would be wrong to
suggest the four-day week did not have a political impact. Our move to four days put a spotlight
on inequitable funding and greatly increased the
sense of urgency to correct that. It took a few
years, but the debate resulted in an equitable
funding bill that had some of its greatest impact
on, yes, the North Branch Area Public Schools.
Additional funding allowed us to consider a
return to five days in 2014-15. And, of course, we
did go back. It only makes sense with the world
running on a five-day week.
Consistent Rationale
Looking at our experience with the four-day
week and why we were able to make the change
successfully, a few things come to mind. School
district leaders considering an option as drastic as
this one would be well-advised to use the talents
of the district’s leadership team to explore all possibilities and challenges. Encourage staff to creatively address issues and begin communication
around the decision-making process early.
Most importantly, create a simple, effective
rationale for your decision and stay with it. The
courage needed to ride out the early rough stages
— and you will need courage! — comes from con-
officially shut down one day a week. Some
costs, such as contractual salaries for teachers, won’t change at all. Though classrooms
are not in operation, administrative support
staffers remain on duty because school district offices need to be open.
Griffith’s research, which was based on six
school districts moving to four-day weeks,
found the actual savings most districts could
expect would be about 5.43 percent. In fact,
six districts that had made the move or were
in the process of doing so, real savings in
operating costs ranged from 0.4 percent in
North Branch, Minn., to 2.5 percent in Bisbee. (See related story, page 28.)
Griffith urges administrators to consider whether they actually can trim salary
expenses. Given contractual obligations,
that’s often a nonstarter. The main savings
are likely to come in substitute teacher
costs. The reality is that if the hours
remain the same — which is usually the
case for teachers, guidance counselors
and speech pathologists — there is no real
cost savings.
Superintendent Deborah Henton says the four-day
week shined a light on inequitable funding of public
education.
Most school districts Griffith studied
used the fifth day for resource activities,
extracurricular programs and teacher training, which, in turn, meant that anticipated
savings for maintenance, transportation
and heating/cooling of the building didn’t
materialize.
In Bisbee, district leaders used Friday
mornings to provide additional resource
help for students. Student transportation
costs were covered by Title I funds.
Still, districts need to be mindful of hidden costs. “People who are secretaries,
bus drivers, cafeteria workers get paid the
least and are hardest hit when you move to
four days,” Phillips says. “They help in other
departments to get more hours.”
A Popular Plan
Even when savings are modest, though, the
four-day school week — usually dropping
Fridays, with a few communities opting for
Monday closings — remains an attractive
option in rural areas.
The main financial benefit accrues to
“rural schools with a large geographic area
and small student body, which have disproportionately high transportation costs,”
says Griffith. The four-day week is popular
in Mountain states, especially Colorado and
western Kansas. The 1,200-student Wendell
school district in Idaho moved to a four-day
week in 2013 in pursuit of utility and transportation cost reductions.
For Phillips, the biggest benefit of having a four-day week in Bisbee, located 84
miles from Tucson, is “as a recruiting tool for
teachers. Veterans appreciate the three-day
weekend and flexibility of time. We look at
this as a benefit.”
That aligns with Griffith’s research.
“We found that the main reason schools
stuck with it was not because of savings,
but because they liked the four-day work
week,” he explains. “It’s extremely popular
with teachers and administrators.”
MERRI ROSENBERG is a freelance educa-
tion writer in Ardsley, N.Y. E-mail: merri.
[email protected]
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
31
Four-Day Talking Points
The board of education of the North Branch Area Public Schools voted 3-2 in
favor of a four-day school week in spring 2009, primarily as a means to save
teaching positions. The decision was not without the need to make the district’s
case one more time, however.
These are some of the talking points I used that memorable night.
One-time funds:
k Using one-time funds is not a solution, but it merely puts off dealing with a problem.
k Responsible use of one-time funds is to make them available long-term to help offset classroom cuts as long as possible.
k Capital needs are outpacing revenues; one-time resources are better suited to
meet those needs.
Delaying our decision:
k The longer we wait, the fewer savings we realize, right when we need those savings most.
k A year from now we can be here again, trying to figure out what to do; or we can
be evaluating our first year in the four-day week and determining if it is viable.
Community:
k We heard exactly what every district has heard when it implemented a four-day
week. The vast majority of those districts now report a high satisfaction rate.
k We heard from many people who support the four-day week.
k Staff are taxpaying members of the community, and many are also parents. Is
their voice being heard?
k The hardcore opposition is a small number of people who have made their feelings known on multiple occasions.
k Keep in mind the vast majority of people we serve, who by not coming to meetings or contacting the district communicated their lack of opposition or anxiety.
k Like everything we do, this will create hardship for some and opportunities for others. If we base decisions on accommodating everyone, the district will be paralyzed.
Politics:
k Our community has said the district needs to find creative savings that don’t
affect the classroom.
k The four-day week has opened the eyes of many of our families. Not implementing it at this time tells them the problem wasn’t that serious after all.
viction. I would caution against a solution such
as a four-day week for those who do not believe
it will accomplish what is intended. You will have
your confidence in your decision sorely tested.
When drastic changes are proposed, stakeholders need to have faith their district is doing the
right thing. Reacting to rumors, ever-changing
public talking points and an evolving rationale,
I believe it starts to look like “pin the tail on
the reason” to a populace looking for steady
leadership.
Perhaps one of the most effective statements I
ever made to the community was this: “If you give
us a chance, we will show you how successful the
schedule can be.” People are fair-minded. They
gave us the chance, and I think the staff at North
Branch showed what a successful four-day week
looks like.
Positive Outcomes
The four-day week did not solve all of our funding issues. Even with the shorter schedule and
despite sharp budget adjustments and closing a
school, our class sizes were high — 33 students
per teacher in 3rd grade and close to 30 in 1st
and 2nd grade. The reality is we never believed
the four-day schedule would reduce class size. We
were only hoping it could mitigate increases. That
was accomplished.
Given how successful the schedule proved to
be, and the funding improvements that resulted
at both local and state levels, I absolutely would
do it again. Getting past initial misgivings and
frustration took courage and patience, but it was
the right thing for kids.
After all, that’s what it’s all about!Q
DEB HENTON is superintendent of the North
Branch School District in North Branch, Minn. E-mail:
[email protected]. Patrick Tepoorten, coordinator of community relations in North Branch, contributed to this article.
State outlook:
k Cuts could still get much worse; the state is currently facing an almost $1 billion
shortfall.
k The state is already borrowing money from schools to cover shortfalls.
School district budget:
k The recommendation before you represents the most responsible use of
ongoing resources and one-time solutions available.
k You have heard the president of the teachers’ union talk about the potential of the
four-day week to slow increases to class size, and the need to slow those increases.
k The recommendation has the support of the experts hired by the district, who run
our schools and teach our students, those with firsthand knowledge of the impact.
— DEB HENTON
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
Additional Resources
Several other school districts have used a four-day
school week. The North Branch district leadership
identified the following districts that maintained the
four-day schedule. We have provided contact information for the districts.
k Pelican Rapids School District, Pelican Rapids,
Minn., www.pelicanrapids.k12.mn.us
k Warroad Public Schools, Warroad, Minn., www.
warroad.k12.mn.us
Flexible
Learning
Days
Lost instructional time
because of inclement weather?
Not when a district mobilizes
its technology and its staff to
keep the academics on course
n a sun-filled, 70-degree day during the opening week of school back in August, a group of
superintendents from our area in east-central
Minnesota gathered to talk about bone-chilling cold, heavy snow and howling winds. This was a
meeting with the National Weather Service, and we
were there to prepare for the winter.
These mind pictures were superimposed over
visions of us in the morning’s wee hours trading
road-condition intelligence with our transportation
directors, weighing safety concerns and educational
needs as we made the agonizing decision whether to
close school. Yet for me, half of the weight has been
lifted because of what we call flexible learning days
in our school district.
The National Weather Service called last winter
historic, even by upper Midwest standards. School
districts in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis
and St. Paul closed six days or more. Schools in
more rural areas shut down 10 times or more with
additional late starts and early dismissals. No matter
how comprehensive the makeup plan for lost time in
class, learning was adversely affected. In Farmington,
though, along with a growing number of districts
across the country, students kept learning and our
SNOWFLAKES COURTESY OF OBSIDIAN DAWN (OBSIDIANDAWN.COM)
O
B Y J AY M . H A U G E N
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
33
teachers kept te
teaching, mostly from
the comfort of their own homes.
Lofty Aspirations
Farmington Area Public Schools, a
district of 7,000 students located
south of St. Paul, straddles the border between suburban and rural and
reflects a community varied in its
viewpoints and priorities.
Three years ago we convened a
diverse group of leaders to ask them
what they wanted for their children’s
education. The result was inspiring …
and of course challenging. They asked
us to customize an education for
every child; to find and support the
strengths, talents and abilities in each
student; to connect students much
more to our community; and to help
students become self-directed agents
of their own learning. Undergirding
all this was the belief that children
should be able to move at their own
pace, creating individualized learning
pathways. Wow!
Clearly, such an education in publicly funded schools was not possible
for all students — until now. Through
mobile, anytime/anywhere learning,
using devices that bring the world
into students’ hands, that let students
manipulate it and create around it,
students can personalize their own
learning. And while we had no experience with these devices in our schools
and no external or surplus resources
available to purchase them, within a
single year, without a referendum or
a grant, we provided every student,
K-12 with an iPad, and we connected
every teacher, student and family
member together on a single learning
platform, Schoology.
How we managed this is another
story, but given our strategic direction,
we could do nothing less. This context
led us to flexible learning days.
A First Embrace
The 2013-14 school year was our second with iPads. One intriguing effect
we witnessed was that in many classrooms, students seldom fell behind
when they missed a school day. Their
academic work, teacher videos, links to
34
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
other resources, assessments — everything they would need to keep learning — was available on Schoology. So
when the governor called off school in
early January, with the following day
looking just as bleak, a middle school
principal suggested we apply this concept to our whole district.
As an organization, we have developed the habit of saying “yes” to great
ideas, ideas that excite, ideas that
fit our strategic direction, ideas that
serve the needs and highest aspirations of our students. And so we
embraced the idea and worked with
staff and notified families we intended
to make up the second missed day
digitally. A day of learning would be
available online by President’s Day
weekend, but we would allow a longer window of time in case families
already had plans.
Many of our staff ran with the
idea. Some had classes already set up
so students just naturally kept learning. In fact, we could tell through our
metrics that students were online
doing their classes on what was a
snow day in other communities.
Other teachers who were ready early
posted the independent work they
had created, and students completed
it well before President’s Day. Only
half of our staff needed to post anything on the target date.
Understandably, these new expectations had a few snafus, owing to
miscommunication. Some families
waited anxiously for students’ assignments, not realizing their children
were caught up. The online learning
was so natural for the students they
often didn’t realize they were caught
up themselves.
With the wintry weather unrelenting, we missed four days by President’s Day. Yet many teachers and
students stayed on track with their
plans. Others waited diligently for
their first flexible learning day, which
became the busiest weekend we had
seen for our digital learning platform.
Parental Notice
After we completed a comprehensive
assessment of our first flexible learn-
tinue We
ing day, we agreed to continue.
alerted everyone that in the future
students would learn from home and
teachers would teach from home
during a school closing. Here is an
excerpt of a message I sent to Farmington parents:
“We are lucky to be able to address
a school closing so naturally, through
a flexible learning day. Because of our
digital learning platform, Schoology,
and the fact that over 95 percent of
our students have Internet access in
their home, the learning does not
stop. If school is cancelled tomorrow
(or any day in the future for that matter), the plan will be to have all teachers post work by 10 a.m.for the students they would have seen that day.”
My letter also summarized the
feedback we received from parents
and students after the first day.
The implementation of an innovative solution to an unprecedented
problem was not without difficulty.
Parents told us “too much work was
assigned,” “no work was assigned,”
“did not hear back from their teacher,”
“felt unprepared to help my children”
and “my child is too young to be
self-directed.”
We used this feedback to improve,
finding that most issues came down
to communication and moderating
expectations. This gave us a great
opening to talk with families about
the nature of learning and about all
the online resources now available to
help students.
We received lots of positive feedback from our second flexible learning
day, three days after the first. When
spring finally arrived, I was able to
report to the school board and community that every student would be
caught up educationally by the end of
the year, having made up four of our
six missed days flexibly.
We made improvements and now
see this as a solution to more than
just school closings. We now consider
flexible learning as a way to provide
additional instruction throughout the
school year and summer and to make
more flexible use of time for such
things as professional development.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF FARMINGTON AREA PUBLIC SCHOOLS, FARMINGTON, MINN.
Above: Jay Haugen, superintendent in
Farmington, Minn., with students using
iPads in class. Left: A typical winter day
in the Farmington, Minn., schools, where
a flexible learning schedule minimizes
lost instructional time owing to the
weather.
Positive Views
We surveyed our community last
spring to get quantitative feedback
around a host of related topics. We
learned that 98 percent of families
now have Internet access at home. We
also learned that 72 percent support
or strongly support our use of iPads;
57 percent support making up snow
days at home (26 percent opposed
and 18 percent were unsure); and 62
percent favor flexible, hybrid courses.
We also have been working with
the commissioner of education in
Minnesota. It comes as no surprise
that there is not a box to check on
state reporting documents to account
for these days. We are assured we will
not lose funding or suffer penalty for
our efforts. Because of our designation
as one of Minnesota’s first educational
innovation zones, we believe our new
designs for education can pave the
way for others.
Finally, it is important to note that
we were not the only school district
in Minnesota to use flexible learning
last winter. Personally, I am sleeping better this winter knowing that
student learning will continue in
Farmington, no matter the amount
of accumulating snow or the bonechilling temperatures, no matter the
decision of that darn superintendent
to close school. Q
JAY HAUGEN is superintendent of the
Farmington Area Public Schools in Farmington, Minn. E-mail: jhaugen@farmington.
k12.mn.us. Twitter: @Soup192
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
35
Reading&Resources
BOOK REVIEWS
The Wise Leader: Doing the Right
Things for the Right Reasons
by Paul D. Houston and Stephen L. Sokolow, iUniverse,
Bloomington, Ind., 2013, 258 pp., $22.95 softcover
As most professionals
know, experience is
a powerful source of
wisdom. In The Wise
Leader, Paul Houston,
a former executive
director of AASA, and
Steve Sokolow, a retired
superintendent, draw on
their decades of experience in education
leadership to offer 18 principles for spiritual,
professional and personal guidance.
Their principles are rooted in integrity,
trust and respect, and they offer a foundation for successful leadership in all dimensions of life for educators engaged in creating a future that extends beyond their own.
The authors, founding partners of the
Center for Empowered Leadership, offer
principles that build confidence and inspire
trust in the leadership of superintendents
and other administrators. They encourage
the reader to value living things; sustain
physical, mental and emotional balance;
build trust; and “walk the talk,” providing
results-oriented advice for how leaders
should think, speak and act.
The pair notes that “one of the most precious gifts people can give others is their
trust,” which is built and magnified throughout the organization when “wise leaders
have integrity” and “say what they mean
and do what they say.”
Houston and Sokolow served their profession and their communities with wisdom
and care. In this book, they share both the
pain and joy associated with their journey
so that others may learn, grow and follow in
their footsteps.
Reviewed by Brian L. Benzel, adjunct faculty, Whitworth
University, Spokane, Wash.
How to Be a Positive Leader:
Small Actions, Big Impact
by Jane E. Dutton and Gretchen M. Spreitzer, Barrett-Koehler
Publishers, San Francisco, Calif., 2014, 171 pp. with index,
$26.95 softcover
In How to Be a Positive
Leader, Jane Dutton
and Gretchen Spreitzer
provide insights from
thought leaders in the
emerging field of positive leadership. The
book’s 13 sections,
each written by a
different contributing author, offer strategies for managers and leaders who wish to
sustain positive environments within their
organizations.
Successful leaders know that small
WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK …
“C
“Cyberbullying
hurts the victim, the cyberbully,
th
their families, their friends and others at and
b
beyond the school in countless direct and
indirect ways — educationally, emotionally,
mentally, physically, socially and, in some
cases, it takes the victim’s life away. … As a
superintendent, I have worked day-to-day
i h the
h iissues. I wanted others to learn about the misery,
with
fears, terror and other consequences of cyberbullying.”
MERLE HOROWITZ, SUPERINTENDENT, MARPLE NEWTOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT, NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA., AND
AASA MEMBER SINCE 1992, ON CO-AUTHORING (WITH DOROTHY M. BOLLINGER) CYBERBULLYING IN SOCIAL
MEDIA WITHIN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD, 2014)
36
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
MORE BOOK REVIEWS
www.aasa.org/SAreviews.aspx
American School Reform: What
Works, What Fails, and Why
by Joseph P. McDonald
REVIEWED BY LARRY L. NYLAND
The Broken Compass:
Parental Involvement With
Children’s Education
by Keith Robinson and Angel L. Harris
REVIEWED BY HOPE BLECHER-SASS
Teaching on the Education Frontier:
Instructional Strategies for Online
and Blended Classrooms
by Kristin Kipp
REVIEWED BY RONALD A. STYRON JR.
actions can have a large impact on an organization. The stories in this book encourage
leaders to see, know and act in ways that
bring out the best in their people, which
can lead to better task and financial performance, increased engagement at work,
elevated creativity and improved resilience
and well-being.
Dutton and Spreitzer have gathered
writings that examine the field of positive
organizational scholarship through various lenses. Each section provides useful
and inspiring advice for thinking differently
about leadership. The authors stress that
positivity can give anyone the potential to
change the way they interact with others,
view their jobs and live their lives.
Reviewed by Jeff Smith, superintendent, Balsz School District,
Phoenix, Ariz.
Reign of Error: The Hoax of the
Privatization Movement and the
Danger to America’s Public Schools
by Diane Ravitch, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, N.Y., 2013, 396
pp. with index, $27.95 hardcover
In Reign of Error, Diane
Ravitch addresses
many of the most
controversial educational policies affecting
public schools. Ravitch,
a research professor of
education at New York
University, was assistant secretary of education in the George
Reading&Resources
H.W. Bush administration.
Each of the book’s first 20 chapters
focuses on a different reform concept being
pushed on public schools. The wide range
of topics includes merit pay, high-stakes
testing and the privatization of public education. “We need solutions based on evidence,
not slogans or reckless speculation,” writes
Ravitch. In contrast to the rhetoric surrounding claims that public schools are failing, she
provides evidence-based solutions to help
all students experience success.
Ravitch examines No Child Left Behind
and Race to the Top, asserting that neither
policy has improved student achievement.
Instead, she suggests, they have opened
the door to the privatization of education,
which often has more to do with making
money than providing equal opportunities
for all students. She sees protecting our
public schools from privatization as the civil
rights issue of our time.
Those interested in school reform will
find this book well-researched, yet easy to
understand.
BITS & PIECES
Reviewed by Justin B. Henry, superintendent, Goddard Public
Schools, Goddard, Kan.
Civic Education
ABSTRACT
Practical Intelligence
Doctoral research at the University of Texas
at Arlington found superintendents from
both thriving and failing school districts
have comparable levels of practical intelligence, as indicated by similar scores on a
tacit knowledge inventory test.
In addition to interpersonal, intrapersonal
and organizational tacit knowledge, the
researchers evaluated the superintendents’
amount of experience and school district
demographics.
The study of superintendents in Texas
concluded that the lack of differences in
practical intelligence scores might be due to
the numerous other similarities in the superintendents’ experiences.
Copies of “Superintendent’s Practical
Intelligence Across High and Low Performing School Districts” are available from
ProQuest at 800-521-0600 or disspub@
proquest.com.
Bullying Prevention
A report from the American Educational
Research Association presents a series of
11 briefs on the prevention of bullying in
schools and universities.
Topics include peer victimization among
vulnerable populations, gender-related
harassment and improving school climate.
Access the report at http://tinyurl.com/
aera-bully-prevention-report.
Top Film Available
Free copies of the Academy Award-winning
film “12 Years a Slave” are available to
public high school teachers.
Accompanying educator toolkits include
a softcover copy of the Penguin book, a
printed study guide and a letter from the
film’s director, Steve McQueen.
Access a toolkit at www.foxconnect.
com/12yas-toolkit.
The Civics Renewal Network provides free
online access to civic education materials
for K-12 educators.
The comprehensive resource is searchable by subject, grade, resource type, stand-
ards and teaching strategy.
Access the database at www.civics
renewalnetwork.org/resources.
Interactive Learning
Properly implemented technology can
improve achievement and boost engagement among at-risk students, according to
a report by the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.
This review of more than 70 research
studies finds that incorporating interactive
learning, using technology to explore and
create, and blending teachers and technology improves learning outcomes.
For details, visit www.all4ed.org/reports
-factsheets/usingtechnology.
Early Digital Literacy
The Rand Corporation has identified goals
for technology use in early childhood
education in their report “Getting on the
Same Page.”
The findings indicate technology use
remains a topic of considerable debate in
early childhood education and children from
low-income families may need the most
support to ensure digital literacy readiness.
Read the full report at www.rand.org/
pubs/research_reports/RR673z1.html.
Conference Daily Online
Whether or not you attend AASA’s national conference
in San Diego Feb. 26-28, you can follow the major
proceedings through AASA’s multimedia daily news
publication, Conference Daily Online.
The publication includes short articles about the keynote speakers and award winners, a conference blog
involving four AASA member superintendents, audio
and video clips, a photo gallery each day and a lively
Twitter feed. Access the coverage at www.aasa.org.
Breakfast Mini-Grants
To provide school breakfast to more low-income students, AASA awarded mini-grants
to six school districts: Grainger County Schools in Rutledge, Tenn.; Hannibal, N.Y.,
Central School District; LaRue County School District in Hodgenville, Ky.; Lawrence
County School District in Moulton, Ala.; Murphy School District 21 in Phoenix, Ariz.;
and Taos, N.M., Municipal School District.
Funded by the Walmart Foundation, the AASA breakfast initiative significantly
increases the participation in existing federal school breakfast programs. For more
details, visit the Children’s Programs site at www.aasa.org.
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
37
Reading&Resources
Summer Learning
Participation in summer learning programs
has increased from 25 percent to 33 percent
of U.S. families over the past five years.
In “America After 3 p.m.,” the Afterschool
Alliance reports that demand for summer
learning is high and unmet need has grown.
Read the full report at http://bit.ly/
america_after_3pm.
Best Pedagogy
A Pearson report on the characteristics of
excellent schools and teachers has identified 11 successful pedagogic strategies.
“Exploring Effective Pedagogy in Primary
Schools: Evidence from Research” details
the findings of researchers who observed
the classroom practices and processes in
125 English primary schools.
Learn more at http://bit.ly/Pearson_
Effective_Pedagogy.
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
SchoolAdministrator | F E B R U A RY
AASA CELEBRATES ITS 150TH ANNIVERSARY. A full
array of coverage, including plenty of photos, on AASA’s
beginnings, AASA policy stances over the years, the
changing nature of AASA conferences and professional
training, the changing faces of AASA leadership, the
evolution of AASA publications, support of members’ partners and much more. A comprehensive AASA historical
timeline captures our distinguished past.
PLUS
k Ethical Educator: Placing twins together or apart?
k Infographic: Corporate CEOs’ impact on superintendents
k Best of the Blogs
k Legal Brief: Sizing up the fitness of volunteers
k Profile: David Schuler, AASA president-elect
18 6 5
2 015
AASAInsight
P R E S I D E N T’S C O R N E R | D AV I D
EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE
2014-15
(terms expire June 30
of the year indicated)
PRESIDENT
David K. Pennington
Superintendent
Ponca City Public Schools
Ponca, Okla.
IMMEDIATE PAST
PRESIDENT
Amy F. Sichel
Superintendent
Abington School District,
Abington, Pa.
PRESIDENT-ELECT
David R. Schuler
Superintendent
High School District 214
Arlington Heights, Ill.
MEMBERS
Lyle C. Ailshie (2017)
Deborah S. Akers (2017)
Wayne R. Anderson (2015)
Yvonne W. Brandon (2015)
Richard A. Carranza (2016)
Garn G. Christensen (2015)
S. Dallas Dance (2017)
Daniel D. Curry (2015)
Charles S. Dedrick (2016)
Michael F. Fitzpatrick (2015)
Alton L. Frailey (2017)
Robert T. Mills (2015)
Timothy M. Mitchell (2016)
Gail K. Pletnick (2016)
Christopher O. Gaines (2017)
Jule J. Walker (2017)
M. Brock Womble (2016)
Daniel A. Domenech
AASA Executive Director
(Ex Officio)
Roger A. Kurtz (2015)
Association of State
Executives Liaison
(Ex Officio)
K. PENNINGTON
Re-engaging Our Federal Efforts
WHEN PRESIDENT George
W. Bush signed into law the
No Child Left Behind Act in
January 2002, he outlined
four broad principles for the
legislation: stress accountability, trust parents, trust local
people and spend more money
on methods that work.
For those readers who were not superintendents in 2002, it is hard to describe the
overwhelming level of support NCLB enjoyed.
The bill, which reauthorized the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act, passed Congress
with large majorities in both houses and strong
support from both parties. In addition, the law
was backed by every education advocacy organization in the nation except one — and that
was AASA.
It’s impossible for most of us to understand the amount of pressure the White
House, congressional leadership and other
education advocacy groups put on thenAASA Executive Director Paul Houston and
Associate Executive Director Bruce Hunter to
support NCLB. To their credit, they refused
to do so. Why? Because then, as today, it is
the members who determine AASA’s positions on federal education policy, and AASA’s
Federal Relations Committee was unanimous
in its opposition to NCLB.
In a letter dated Nov. 8, 2001, Hunter
notified Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who
then chaired the House Education and the
Workforce Committee, that AASA would not
support the final conference report on HR1
(NCLB) for a variety of reasons, including:
l “Both the House and Senate versions of
the bill wrest control over both evaluation of
schools and accountability of professionals
from the states and federalize those crucial
educational policies.”
l “Asking teachers and principals to do more
but not providing the funds needed to attract
more qualified teachers and improved materials is simply wrong.”
l “The leap to federalize the evaluation of
schools and accountability for educators and
establish teacher qualification requirements in
schools that receive no federal funds is unwise
and unwarranted.”
(You can read the full letter at http://aasa.org/
uploadedFiles/Policy_and_Advocacy/files/
AASAoppositionLetter110801.pdf.)
Jan. 8 will mark the 13th anniversary of
the signing of NCLB. Although the act certainly was not the best piece of education
legislation written into law, it has been made
worse by the failure of Congress to reauthorize the bill and fix the mistakes that were
made in 2002. Instead, Congress has abandoned its responsibility and allowed President
Obama to rewrite federal education policy
through the waiver process.
During the past 13 years, AASA has been
relentless in its efforts to push for reauthorization of NCLB and to restore the control of
public education to the states and local boards
of education. We are not alone. Today, AASA’s
belief that NCLB is flawed federal policy is
shared by a majority of teachers, administrators, school board members, top researchers
and state legislators.
With a new Congress comes a new opportunity to move ESEA legislation through the
process. We need superintendents across the
country to re-engage in this effort, to redirect the anger that the public feels about federal involvement in its schools away from the
administration and instead toward Congress,
where it belongs. It is Congress who, through
its failure to pass reauthorization, has turned
over control of public education to the executive branch of the federal government.
We need reauthorization, and we need it
this year. I hope I can count on you to let your
voice be heard. Please visit AASA’s Legislative
Action Center for resources and information:
www.aasa.org/LegislativeActionCenter.aspx.
DAVID PENNINGTON is AASA president for 2014-15.
E-mail: [email protected]. Twitter: @DavidPennid
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
39
AASA Insight
E X E C U T I V E P E R S P E C T I V E | DANIEL
A. DOMENECH
Admiring Qualities of Schools Down Under
THE 2014-15 AASA
International Seminar, under the auspices of the People
to People Ambassador Program, took
us to Australia and
New Zealand. Both
countries have a reputation for quality education, and the participants,
including AASA President David
Pennington and Past President Amy
Sichel, were eager to experience
whether the hype was deserved.
The Australian government provides funding for all of its schools,
be they public or private. We visited
with Judith Poole, headmistress of the
Abbotsleigh School, an independent
Anglican girls’ school serving 1,400
students preschool to grade 12. Poole
comes from New Jersey, but she traveled to Australia 18 years ago with her
husband and they remained. Today
she runs what is undoubtedly one of
the best schools in the country.
The Abbotsleigh School charges a
tuition ranging from $18,000 at the
elementary grades to $30,000 for
the high school years. That income
is supplemented by some $4,500 per
pupil received from the Australian
government.
Research-Backed Ideas
Australia has a national curriculum,
and all schools are obliged to follow it,
including Abbotsleigh. But the school
is blessed with ample resources and
the ability to pay teachers a handsome
salary and thereby attract and retain
a highly talented staff. The school
even boasts the services of a full-time
director of research and innovative
programs.
We were impressed with Katherine Hoekman, who fills that unusual
school role. She shared with us that,
although Australia has a reputation
for their early advances in digital
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
“The Australian government
provides FUNDING FOR ALL
OF THEIR SCHOOLS, be
they public or private.”
learning, no technology in Abbotsleigh makes it into the classroom
unless it has demonstrated the ability
to positively affect student learning. She has found, as often as not,
technology can be as much of an
impediment to learning as a beneficial
resource: a valuable bit of information
to educators everywhere looking to
make the digital leap.
The Australians also are into
school choice, so students have the
opportunity to attend any school they
select. The government provides a
travel card granting free transportation to the school of their choice.
Of course, admission to the better
schools is highly competitive, and
admission to a school such as Abbotsleigh requires a wealth that most
students’ families do not have.
Choice and the federal funding of
private schools have resulted in a precipitous drop in public school enrollment. Whereas not long ago that
enrollment had been 87 percent, public school rolls today are down to 67
percent. To the chagrin of John Tuttle,
incoming president of the National
School Boards Association who was
with us on the trip, we also discovered
that there are no school boards in
Australia.
Flexible Learning
Switch to New Zealand, one of the
most decentralized school systems
in the world. This is a country where
every school has a school board made
up of five parents elected by the community, the principal, a teacher and a
student. The principal rules supreme
with no central authority in oversight.
There are no superintendents or their
equivalent in New Zealand.
We visited with Carolyn Marino,
principal of the Westmere School in
Auckland, who has total control of the
school. Yes, there is a national curriculum, but that is about as far as external interference goes. Marino admits
she loves the freedom and flexibility
she has in operating her school. She
also happens to run a great school. It
is basically a nongraded, multiaged,
ability-grouped school with team
teaching.
In New Zealand, children start
school at age 5, exactly. They begin
school on their birthday, whenever
it happens to fall. That means that
throughout the year (the school year
follows the calendar year), when a
child turns 5, that becomes their first
day of school. Imagine the difficulty of
planning for that when you have no
idea of how many children you will
have on any given day.
Marino handles it well because
when a child arrives at Westmere, he
or she is assessed and immediately
grouped with students of equal ability
level, regardless of age. There are no
classrooms at Westmere. There are
studios that incorporate at least the
equivalent of two of our classrooms
where the students mill about doing
independent and group work under
the watchful eyes of the team of
teachers responsible for their instruction. No desks as we know them, but
tables and chairs and beanbags and
nooks and crannies. It is a learning
environment that very much resembles the model of personalized learning we strive for in America. If only
we could have taken Carolyn back
with us.
DANIEL DOMENECH is AASA executive
director. E-mail: [email protected].
Twitter: @AASADan
AASA Insight
J O H N G AT TA
|S C H O O L S O LU T I O N S
Evidence-Based Practice: The New Language of Leadership
PRIOR TO THE
enactment of the
federal No Child Left
Behind Act, school
boards defined the
superintendency narrowly as the leader’s
ability to manage fiscal, physical and personnel resources.
NCLB’s emphasis on academic
achievement and school accountability began shaping a broader definition
of school leadership that was far more
student-outcome focused.
More recent educational reform
efforts, such as the federal Race to
The Top initiative, broadened the
definition of school leadership further by promoting research-based
and continuous quality improvement
practices. This trend continues to
form the role of the superintendent as
the chief facilitator of school system
practices to ensure alignment toward
what truly matters for students.
A Disciplined Approach
Evidence-based practice is a disciplined and scientific approach to
generating information in the form
of evidence about an organization, its
performance and even its future. By
systemically connecting and aligning
the school system’s data, its methods
of inquiry and its reporting, leadership can focus an organization’s
energy by aligning information and
knowledge to the strategic goals and
objectives of the school system. Information is among leadership’s mosteffective tools to raise important questions, test assumptions and promote
an evidence-based culture to support
decision making.
Just as the food we eat shapes
our bodies, the data and information we focus on shapes our thinking.
Evidence-based leadership requires
moving beyond data disaggregation
and, instead, promoting a more sys-
temic perspective akin to flying above
the data so that patterns and relationships emerge and productive dialogue
over the influences of larger systems
can take place.
The key to evidence-based leadership is asking the right questions.
Instead of asking “What are our areas
of weakness in grade five reading?” ask
“What do the relationships among our
achievement, program, financial and
stakeholder data tell us about the effectiveness of our structures to deliver and
sustain high reading performance?
Creating Culture
Creating an evidence-based culture
requires a commitment at all levels of the school system, but most
importantly from the CEO or superintendent. Superintendents must align
the district’s data and information
infrastructure to the district’s strategic
plan and focus the dissemination of
information so that:
l Boards of education review evidence
on the impact of the strategic plan
and evidence of return on investment;
l Administrators review evidence of
the impact of school improvement
goals, programs and personnel;
l Teachers review evidence of student
learning related to their students; and
l Students and parents review evidence of individual student progress.
Connecting and aligning information under a common evidencebased framework promotes performance excellence and supports
accountability.
ECRA can help school systems adopt
more systemic and evidence-based
approaches to school improvement.
JOHN GATTA is president of ECRA Group
in Rosemont, Ill. E-mail: [email protected]. The ECRA Group is a partner
with AASA’s School Solutions Center.
AASA School Solutions Center
These firms make up the AASA School Solutions Center. NJPA is the premier member.
NATIONAL JOINT POWERS ALLIANCE, national contract
purchasing solution, www.njpacoop.org
ECRA GROUP, research, analytics and accountability
solutions, www.ecragroup.com
EDBACKER, crowd fundraising for education, www.
edbacker.com
EDUCATION INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION, the home for K-12
education entrepreneurs, www.educationindustry.org
HMS EMPLOYER SOLUTIONS, dependent healthcare
eligibility audits, www.dependentcheck.com/about/
partnerships/aasa
JASON LEARNING, STEM education through
exploration, www.jason.org
K12 INSIGHT, develop strategic communication initiatives to engage and collaborate with stakeholders,
www.k12insight.com
KELEHER & ASSOCIATES, helping schools close the strategy-to-execution gap, www.keleherassociates.com
MEDEXPERT, medical issues management services,
www.medexpert.com
ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH, organizational audits of
human capital, www.organizationalhealth.com
PENN MID-CAREER DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN EDUCATIONAL
LEADERSHIP, national, executive, cross-sector, innovative, cohort-based, www.gse.upenn.edu/midcareer
PITSCO EDUCATION, STEM solutions for every
classroom, www.pitsco.com
QUANTUM LEARNING, transformative schoolwide professional development, www.QuantumLearning.com
READ TO THEM, creating communities of readers, www.
readtothem.org
SCHOOL LEADERS RISK MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION, focus
on federal legislation and litigation, www.slrma.org
UPS, shipping, freight, logistics, supplies for schools,
www.ups.com
School districts should do their own due diligence before signing contracts with companies that belong to the AASA
School Solutions Center.
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
41
AASA Insight
PEOPLEWATCH
Edward W. Costa II
After 27 years in public
school administration, most recently
as superintendent in
East Longmeadow and
Lenox, Mass., over 19
years, Edward Costa
has become director of early childhood
and elementary education and assistant
professor of education in the graduate
school at American International College in
Springfield, Mass. Earlier in his career, Costa
worked as a principal in three school districts
and was executive director of secondary
schools in Muskogee, Okla. He has held
AASA membership for 20 years and earned
his doctorate from University of Oklahoma.
Laura M. Lisiscki
A career Michigan
educator, Laura Lisiscki
has taken the reigns as
superintendent of Ypsilanti Community Schools
in its second year of operation as a consolidated
school district. Lisiscki served for two years
as superintendent of the Willow Run Community Schools, also in Ypsilanti. She earlier
worked in Willow Run as an elementary
school principal and 4th-grade teacher during
her 21 years in the system. As Willow Run
superintendent, she oversaw unification of
the Ypsilanti and Willow Run districts. Lisiscki
has been an AASA member since 2013.
Patrick M. Martin
A longtime Illinois
educator has taken over
the top administrative
berth in the new Gardendale, Ala., City Schools.
For the past four years,
Patrick Martin served
as superintendent in the Washington, Ill.,
District 50 Schools. He also spent two years
as superintendent in Illini, Ill., Central School
District 189. Prior, he was an assistant
superintendent and high school and middle
school principal in Illini. He began his career
as a social science teacher and athletic
coach. An AASA member since 2008,
Martin received his Ph.D. in educational
administration from Illinois State University.
José M. Torres
After six years as superintendent in Elgin, Ill., José
Torres has been named
president of the Illinois
Mathematics and Science
Academy in Aurora, Ill. He
previously was a regional
superintendent in Chicago and filled various
roles in San Jose, Calif., Anne Arundel, Md.
and Montgomery County, Md. From 2011 to
2013, Torres was the sole superintendent on
the federal Equity and Excellence Commission of the U.S. Department of Education. A
member of the association since 2001, he
holds a Ph.D. in educational administration
from University of Maryland.
SIDELIGHT
Leave it to a superintendent to lead a low-budget
classic rock cover band of educators that calls
itself Unfunded Mandate. GEORGE STONE, a selfeducated drummer who happens to lead the Lakeland Central Schools in Shrub Oak, N.Y., performs
once or twice monthly with a half dozen fellow
district educators, including the head custodian and
a pre-K teacher. They practice weekly and perform
at grange fairs, Family Fun Days and clubs, devoting
100 percent of the proceeds to the education foundation in Lakeland. Stone, an AASA member since
1994, has played in rock bands in most districts
where he’s worked during his 40 years in education.
(Band names: Unaccountable, Hindsight 20-20 and No Directions) “It’s not like people
say we don’t take our jobs seriously,” he says. “Our involvement in the band makes a
statement that we support the arts.”
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S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
APPOINTMENTS
Jeff Comer, from superintendent, Norton, Va.,
to superintendent, Nelson County Schools,
Lovingston, Va.
Thomas Danehy, from superintendent, Winchester,
Conn., to executive director, Area Cooperative
Educational Services, North Haven, Conn.
Freda Daugherty, from superintendent, Springer,
N.M., to superintendent, Fort Sumner, N.M.
Robert Grimesey, from superintendent, Orange
County, Va., to superintendent, Moore County
Schools, Carthage, N.C.
Sharon Locke, from chief academic officer, New
Britain, Conn., to superintendent, Naugatuck, Conn.
Robert Muller, from superintendent, Killeen, Texas,
to clinical associate professor, Texas A&M, College
Station, Texas
Robert Neu, from superintendent, Federal Way,
Wash., to superintendent, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Philip B. O’Reilly, from superintendent, New
Hartford, Conn., to superintendent, Portland, Conn.
Aaron Spence, from superintendent, Moore County,
N.C., to superintendent, Virginia Beach, Va.
David Stephens, from superintendent, Nevada, Mo.,
to superintendent, Vilonia, Ark.
Kristi Teall, from superintendent, Central
Montcalm Public School District, Stanton, Mich., to
superintendent, St. Louis, Mich.
Dee Wells, from superintendent, Inver Grove
Heights, Minn., to superintendent, Marshfield, Wis.
RETIREMENTS
Chuck Arns, superintendent, Pillager, Minn.
Chris Belcher, superintendent, Columbia, Mo.
John Buchanan, superintendent, Petal, Miss.
Tom Budde, superintendent, Central Union High
School District, El Centro, Calif.
Kathy Coley, superintendent, Glenpool, Okla.
Sally E. Doyen, superintendent, Portland, Conn.
Thomas Ficarra, superintendent, Morris School
District, Morristown, N.J.
Barbara Fowler, superintendent, Troy, Mich.
DEATHS
Nicholas E. D’Agostino, 94, retired superintendent,
Wolcott, Conn., and executive director emeritus,
Connecticut Association of Public School
Superintendents, Sept. 20
George Nolley, 73, retired superintendent,
Campbell County, Va., Oct. 16
Norward Roussell, 80, retired superintendent,
Selma, Ala., Oct. 13
John George Wargo, 88, retired executive director,
Illinois Association of School Administrators, Oct. 25
News about AASA members’ promotions,
retirements, honors and deaths should be
addressed to: Editor, School Administrator,
r
1615 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314. Fax:
703-841-1543. E-mail: [email protected]
AASA Insight
PROFILE |GAIL K. PLETNICK
Engaging All Parties in Arizona
BY B I L L G R AV E S
IN A CONSERVATIVE Arizona
school community where one
wouldn’t expect wide support of public education, Gail Pletnick not only
listens to the critics, but also engages
them, dispatching buses to their
homes to bring them into her schools.
Pletnick is in her seventh year
leading Dysart Unified School District, based 20 miles northwest of
Phoenix and encompassing Sun City,
a retirement community that’s a hot
bed of tea party members and conservative legislators. To build the support
a diverse, rapidly growing school system requires, she finds ways to bring
community members, including critics, into Dysart classrooms. You don’t
debate the rhetoric, she says, “but
show truly what is happening.”
“Bringing everyone in” is Pletnick’s calling card, says Bob Wise,
former governor of West Virginia and
president of the Alliance for Excellent
Education, a nonprofit working to see
more students complete high school
ready for college and careers. “She has
a vision, but she brings others in to
help shape and share it.”
Nikki Frye, president of the Dysart
Education Association, says Pletnick
listens, responds and includes her
in every initiative affecting teachers,
whether evaluation, hiring principals
or setting district goals. “I’ve never
worked for a better superintendent,”
says the teacher of 40 years.
Pletnick’s vision is reflected in
Dysart’s strategic plan — what she
calls “our contract with our community and our roadmap” — designed
over years with teachers, parents,
students and community leaders. She
promotes shared leadership in which
everyone plays to their strengths.
“Sometimes you are in the driver’s
seat,” she says, “sometimes you are the
co-pilot, and sometimes the navigator.”
Even students get involved. At Shadow
Ridge High, students in English classes
teach architecture students about
BIO STATS: GAIL PLETNICK
CURRENTLY: superintendent, Dysart Unified
School District, Surprise, Ariz.
PREVIOUSLY: assistant superintendent, Dysart
Unified Schools
AGE: 59
GREATEST INFLUENCES ON CAREER: A
7th-grade speech teacher took a special interest
in a shy girl and modeled for me the power of a dedicated teacher.
BEST PROFESSIONAL DAY: I truly can say each new day holds so much promise
and opportunity in this profession that I find something to celebrate every day.
BOOKS AT BEDSIDE: Getting More by Stuart Diamond; The Four Agreements by
Don Miguel Ruiz; and Drive by Daniel H. Pink
BIGGEST BLOOPER: Once, in a speech at a parent awards dinner, instead of calling
the contributions of our volunteers valuable, I said valueless.
WHY I’M AN AASA MEMBER: AASA allows us to be a voice for the students we
serve, making certain their needs are considered in educational policies and regulation.
Shakespeare’s works; architecture students help English students design a
replica of Globe Theater.
Pletnick acts on her vision, says
Wise, moving “rapidly from aspiration
into implementation.” She is building
a district that engages students with
learning options and a proficiencybased system that allows them to
move at their own pace. Students can
take college courses, complete high
school early, take courses online and
earn credentials on career paths in
areas such as architecture, phlebotomy
and auto mechanics.
“They can apply their creative
thinking,” she says, “by having control
over their time.”
She encourages teachers to take
risks and to keep learning online, in
district-run workshops and from one
another.
Since Pletnick took command
of the 27,000-student district in
2007, her first superintendent’s post,
student performance has climbed.
Eighty-one percent of Dysart students
meet or exceed state reading standards, up from 59 percent nine years
ago. The district tripled in size since
2000 even as voters rejected bond
measures and the state slashed funding by $962 per student.
Dysart is a distant world from
where Pletnick grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania, the granddaughter
of Polish immigrants and daughter of a coal miner, and the first of
34 grandchildren to earn a college
degree. She taught at every level from
preschool to college and was a principal in four districts in Pennsylvania
and Arizona before joining Dysart as
assistant superintendent.
Her influence now extends beyond
Dysart. The Alliance for Excellent
Education has showcased her work in
special reports, seminars and classes,
and Education Week last spring named
her “A Leader To Learn From.” Educators regularly visit her district, including about 70 recently from Wyoming.
Local parents and community members
clock thousands of volunteer hours.
“If people understand the vision,”
Pletnick says, “they want to get
involved.”
BILL GRAVES is a freelance education writer
in Beaverton, Ore. E-mail: billgraves1@frontier.
com. Twitter: @Billgrav
JANUARY 2015
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
43
LEADERSHIPLITE
Anything for a Scoop
B
Steve Baker,
newspaper adviser at DeSoto High
Schoo
School in DeSoto, Texas, had a student who was
one letter grade short of qualifying for a positiv college recommendation letter, so Baker
tive
to him to interview the school’s head football
told
co
coach,
who never previously had consented to a
f
formal
interview.
The student came back from the challengi assignment with great responses, startling
ing
t faculty adviser. After it appeared in print,
the
B
Baker
asked the football coach how the stud
dent
journalist managed to get him to sit long
eenough for an interview.
“The coach replied that he was sitting on
th commode when the reporter barged into
the
the room, sat down on the pot next to him and
whip
whipped
out a note pad,” Baker related.
The adviser said the student’s initiative in pursuin
ng the story
sto earned him an even higher grade and an
suing
especially strong recommendation letter.
Aging in Place
Eighty years of senior class photos
line the halls of the two-story Altha
Public School in Calhoun County,
Fla., built in the 1920s. One of those
photos shows the current superintendent, Ralph Yoder.
One of the teachers that is still
[teaching] taught me when I started
here in fifth grade,” he said.
SOURCE: WMBB.COM, PANAMA CITY, FLA.
That Sounds Like Me
The Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association pulled a fast one on
Jon Cerny. He’s the superintendent of 21 years in the Bancroft-Rosalie Public
Schools and a member of the association’s annual awards selection committee.
Before the committee picked last year’s Outstanding Superintendent of the
Year, the other nine members exchanged e-mails to surreptitiously select Cerny.
When they assembled in person, they conducted a vote to give him the impression someone else was being honored.
At the ceremony, the presenter began to read the winner’s accomplishments.
“It sounded like this person had done a lot of the things I’d done,” Cerny told
The Sioux City Journal. “I knew it couldn’t be me because I wasn’t on the list.”
With a fascination for foul weather forecasts, a senior at Staples High School in
Westport, Conn., developed a smartphone app that predicts — with high accuracy —
whether area schools will cancel classes because of impending snow.
Scott Pecoriello’s Know Snow app was 84 percent accurate during the past winter
at predicting school closings in Fairfield County, Conn. The software, which is free in
Apple’s App Store, was introduced last winter. The student also maintains a Facebook
page titled Wild About Weather.
Pecoriello’s app considers more than weather, taking into account topography of the
towns where the schools are located. He puts himself in the superintendents’ pre-dawn
shoes, asking, “What does the superintendent think as he looks out in the morning?”
SOURCE: FAIRFIELD CITIZEN, FAIRFIELD, CONN.
44
S C H O O L A D M I N I S T R AT O R
JANUARY 2015
SHORT, HUMOROUS
anecdotes, quips, quotations
and malapropisms for this
column relating to school
district administration should
be addressed to: Editor,
School Administrator, 1615
Duke St., Alexandria, VA
22314. Fax: 703-841-1543.
E-mail: [email protected].
Upon request, names may be
withheld in print.
ILLUSTRATION © BY TIM HAGGERTY
Snow Predictor
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S
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