Principals and the learning of the students - instalment #3

Term 2, 2016 is well underway across Australia and the business of your day as a school principal is guaranteed.  Enjoy yourself in one of the best jobs going.

In an ideal learning situation there would be no learning mastery gaps as each student moves through the academic year.  However as I have noted in a previous post the reality is that for the Leopards there will be gaps unless there is a practice of mastery of learning outcomes before moving on to the new learning. Get the prerequisites bedded down then move the students on.  Doing this requires considerable patience and innovative teaching.  It also requires school leaders who can shield teachers from the pressures to cover the syllabuses for the particular year and the external assessment demands like NAPLAN.

For the mastery principle to work it should only be applied to a limited number of subjects in primary schools especially English language skills,  mathematics and digital technology skills.  A primary school may wish to include other subjects like science.  At the secondary school level one could include all subjects given the focus that specialist subject departments allow.

I urge primary school principals to challenge the need for rigorous mastery assessment in the syllabus areas such as the  Humanities & Social Sciences and Science.  Set up programs in these areas that excite and ensure that the students enter secondary school with a general knowledge in these subjects ready for the gradual application of rigorous assessment.  I usually have a lot to say about Physical and Health Education and the Performing Arts and have made some comments in previous posts about the special place of these learning areas in the development of students.

I further urge all principals to challenge the student labels of 'lazy', 'remedial' and 'potential'. A student may appear to be 'lazy' but it is important to explore the reasons behind this apparent tardiness, as each student is behaving as they are at any moment based on all the in-school and out-of-school factors that are affecting their lives.  On the matter of a student being labelled 'remedial', if the no learning gaps mastery policy is adhered to then the concept of 'remedial' becomes redundant. There are so many risks in labelling a student 'remedial' and you know them all.  The notion of 'potential' probably receives minimal air play in contemporary schools.  I would steer clear of this difficult to measure concept that once used to feature in school reporting on students failing to learn as expected.  There have been too many embarrassing cases of school judgements based on potential when in later life the student exhibits much success.

While I am on a roll I better issue my final challenge to primary principals and that is to ban formal homework.  As a class teacher I banned formal homework for my year 6 classes and was able to convince the parents to come along with this decision.  My rationale is that the students have a long formal schooling journey ahead of them and we need to take steps to avoid student disillusionment and burnout.  The students would probably call it irrelevance and boredom.  The French have recently banned formal homework in their government primary schools.  A bit of reading practice at home is advocated for the little ones provided the parents are educated by the school on how best to manage this.  The school project that sees parents rushing around madly and doing the work is of concern.  I am not against parents being encouraged to help their sons and daughters collect materials for a project provided these materials are put together by the students at school.  I once had to help one son write a poem for school which I did but I also sent in one of my own and received a mark from the teacher in good humour.  Imagine if as a parent I had no idea about poetry writing.  I rest my case!

I imagine in these enlightened times schools have given up scab duty and the writing of lines as punishments.  Every student is to be encouraged to avoid littering at schools and anywhere for that matter and scab duty makes a minimal contribution to achieving this objective.  If littering becomes an issue a whole school positive pickup drive on a 'keep our school beautiful' platform is much more effective.  Similarly the writing of lines does little to enhance a love of writing and the language in general.  I diplomatically explained to one or two of my younger and over enthusiastic maths teachers who gave lines that I did not see them giving sets of algorithms as punishment.  This is all part of the hidden curriculum of learning social responsibility and of developing a love for learning.

I know I am a bit zany about various school practices but what the heck!  One needs to challenge the status quo from time to time otherwise the ease-of-being-comfortable syndrome dumbs us down.

As I have said before I am nobody, a small cog in the wheel, but I am motivated to ensure that the kids have optimum opportunity and encouragement to learn so that they can cope with daily life and be ready for their future adult lives.  This gives me the temerity to share with you what I learned over a long career as a professional educator.

GD

Principals and the learning of the students - instalment #2

Fellow principals I am sure you see yourselves as the educational leaders in your schools, even when the administrative load in a large school becomes heavy.  You would be well aware that the buck stops with you when the results of the student learning program are revealed at various points during each school year.  However you have many other potential leaders within your staff to help and they can be deployed through practising distributive leadership based on the expertise of various staff members. Secondary school principals are fortunate to have specialist Senior Teachers for each subject and much should be expected of them in leadership of the learning program.  Delegation is vital, especially in large schools.  I recommend a little book "The One Minute Manager" which tells us to ensure that the responsibility monkeys are on the backs of those whose responsibility it is.  You can't carry it all and shouldn't have to.  You will experience much satisfaction in knowing that you have done all you can to ensure that your students are learning successfully.

The learning program in Australia has been revitalised through the introduction of the Australian National Curriculum (ANC).  In the government school sectors of each state and territory the ANC is being taken on board with variations at a state and territory level.  I am glad that there is an ANC and enjoy exploring its contents.  In my own state we went through an outcomes-based approach in a context of an altruistic broad curriculum statement and I saw teachers floundering as they clung to the old syllabuses that were becoming outdated and in a state of disrepair if you like.  I welcome the stability that an ANC gives as a vital source for teachers of the expected student learning.  I cannot comment on what the private schools are doing curriculum wise other than to observe that they can make wider choices than the government schools taking on programs such as the international baccalaureate.  My concern is that never again as in my own state should busy teachers be put in the position of having to be curriculum builders : they do not have the time.  Within an ANC there is plenty of scope for innovative teacher built variations provided they do not move too far from the core of what the ANC requires.

When I boil it all down, as a teacher I want to dip into the syllabuses of an ANC and select the next learning outcomes towards which I will move my students. I want to be clear on how I will get the students to the point of mastery of these expected learning outcomes.  I also want to be clear on how I will find out that they have arrived. If I am say a teacher of a year 6 class in a school where there are two other year 6 classes I want to have discussed with my other two teacher colleagues what the ANC syllabus outcomes in say mathematics for year 6 mean and what manifests mastery of these outcomes.  This is a vital standards moderation in-service exercise which for primary schools needs to be tailored for school size and restricted to certain subjects.  It works.  There are very useful guidelines about mastery in the Work Samples in the ANC syllabuses.


GD

Principals and the learning of the students - instalment #1

I've gone on about the well-being of students on the grounds that if a student has a strong sense of well-being about being at school it should enhance their learning of the syllabus learning outcomes as stated in the required curriculum.  I don't claim that it will guarantee successful learning as many other factors also come into play.

Across Australian schools students are generally grouped into year levels based on age and these year levels are generally expected to complete the year's work as in the prescribed syllabuses for the particular year level.  At the end of an academic year that age group moves on to the next year level.  Ideally all students would have mastered the prescribed learning outcomes but my reality is that many students move on to the next year level with serious gaps in their learning.  New learning becomes increasingly difficult as the foundations for it are not there. To cite an example from my own state of WA.

Patrick Garnett, chairman of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (formally the Curriculum Council of Western Australia) which is a quasi government body that has responsibility for the curriculum offerings of Western Australian government schools opens an article “Giving students their best chance of success”, The West Australian, 10 March 2014, p16 as follows:

“Students, their families and the community have a right to expect that after 13 years of schooling, our young people should emerge prepared for success at university, in training or the workplace.  And, after 13 years of schooling, students should be able to demonstrate an adequate level; of literacy and numeracy.”  He indicates that  “…significant concerns have been raised regarding the standards achieved by students who are leaving school with a WA Certificate of Education.”

As a result of such concerns he notes that:  “Starting this week, Year 10 students across WA will for the first time, sit an Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment, designed to measure their levels of literacy (reading and writing) and numeracy.” The aim is to use these tests to ascertain whether some year 10 students need to take “…new foundation English and/or foundation mathematics courses which are designed to focus on achieving the minimum levels of literacy and numeracy…..”

Garnett indicates that:  “The minimum standard of literacy and numeracy represents Level 3 in the Australian Core Skills Framework, a set of benchmarks for a range of essential skills.  The framework was established by the Commonwealth government in 2008.”  Level 3 is viewed “…as the minimum standard required to live and work in a knowledge-based economy.”

There was a follow up article that added to my concern.  In The West Australian, 10 August 2015, p3,  the Education Editor Bethany Hiatt wrote an article titled “Tests reveal teens’ shortfalls,” in which she cites the preliminary results of the first round (held in March 2015) of the above compulsory Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (OLNA) tests, which students “must pass to get a WA Certificate of Education” awarded at the end of a successful year 12. Hiatt reports:

“One in three Year 10 students was unable to meet the minimum numeracy standard to graduate from high school…”

“34 per cent of Year 10s did not meet the benchmark for numeracy.”

“About 27 per cent of Year 10s did not make the reading standard and 29 per cent did not meet the writing benchmark.”

“…two-thirds of Year 10s had met the standard required of them by the end of year 12.”

“So far 26 per cent of year 11 students have not met the numeracy standard after what may have been the third attempt for some.”

“In reading, 21 per cent of Year 11s did not make the standard and 23 per cent did not meet the writing benchmark.”

Those WA Year 10s who were required to do the OLNA tests did not reach band eight level on the Year 9 NAPLAN tests.  “They have six chances to complete the test before the end of year 12 or they can return to sit it after leaving school”.

While it is laudable that the problem of students exiting year 12 illiterate and innumerate has been recognized this seems to be shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.  I have always believed that we  move students on to new learning based on mastery of necessary precursors from the very first years at primary school.  The aim is to eliminate cumulative deficits in learning and make such year 10 testing unnecessary.  If an accumulation of gaps is allowed to develop up to year 10 there is a grave danger of the those experiencing the gaps being seriously disillusioned about school and well before they reach year 10.  Also the OLNA tests would create a new pressure following on from the NAPLAN testing.

I am an advocate of standards moderation amongst the teachers in a school whereby through discussion about the required learning outcomes of the curriculum syllabuses the teachers come to a consensus about what they mean and about what represents mastery of them.  Such discussions need to be focussed on selected syllabuses like maths and language for primary schools so as to make the standards moderation load manageable for teachers. The aim is to move students on to new learning once they have mastered the foundations of the current learning.  No more gaps (apologies to Selleys). I've written a lot about this but it is too much for this blog.  I have done this standards moderation with teachers and it takes less time than one might imagine.  Also the in-service benefits of this peer interchange are legion.  My approach is also relevant at secondary school level.  Moving on to new learning based on mastery sets up many challenges for teachers who have to be very patient and find innovative ways to have students overcome the roadblocks to their successful learning.  Not the least of the problems is bringing the parents along with this and the considerable pressures of the requirements of NAPLAN testing.  It is heartening to note that NAPLAN testing is to be based on the Australian National Curriculum requirements.

The students most likely to experience the gaps I call the Leopards.  Let me explain.

 In each age cohort it is my experience that there are:

A set of students who will have completed the prescribed work for their age/year level in less than the academic year and will need extension.  Some will be accelerated to skip a year level if doing really well. I call those students the Panthers (my primary teaching roots).

A set of students who will need the whole academic year to complete the prescribed work for their age/year level. I call these students the Jaguars.

There will be a set of students who will not complete the prescribed work for their age/year level.  I call these students the Leopards. Amongst the Leopards will be many who have learning issues that are difficult to diagnose and a minority of students who have very special needs related to conditions such as autism and dyslexia and hopefully there will be teacher aides to offer one on one assistance.  In primary school classes grouped heterogeneously by general ability the Leopards often sit in class being very quiet and working hard not to be noticed.  A few misbehave. In secondary schools where cross setting is common there are whole classes of Leopards.

Separate from the so-called normal stream will be another set of students with such special needs that they will experience a special education placement.  I acknowledge this group and their wonderful teachers who over the years enabled the Downs syndrome child, the cerebral palsied child, the hearing challenged child and others with various conditions to learn and be strong participants in the wider community.  We have much to learn from the mastery methods of teaching and learning in this setting.  I bow in awe at the feet of these teachers in special education.

This blog post is concentrated on the Panthers, the Jaguars and the Leopards who learn in the so-called normal stream.

The School Principal and student well-being

Student well-being is currently a bit of a buzzword and rightly so.  If the kids don't feel happy and safe at school then the principal will I am sure get busy to have this righted.

I was interested that a large and prestigious private girls' school in my area is building a well-being centre.  I feel this is great provided that what the centre does translates to the classrooms and the student's life in general.  Well-being should be part of the school culture and be at the forefront in every learning situation throughout the day.  Maybe the well-being centre has a role to provide counselling for students who are experiencing some deep issue and to show students in general how to cope with growing up and to teach them some calming activities like meditation.  Not many schools would be able to afford such a centre.  I will watch with interest how it goes.  A lot of establishing well-being for the kids falls to the class teachers.

The recent Safe Schools Program controversy is another thing I have observed with interest.  The teacher reviews are positive yet the government conservatives and the Christian lobby have expressed deep concerns.  If I were a school principal today I would exercise caution with this program but would give it a go if I could muster the necessary parental support.

Anyhow I reveal here that my top priority school effectiveness criterion (SEC) is student well-being.  I have written a lot about it and the need for schools to be regularly assessing the state of the student well-being index.  I guess this will be no surprise to many out there in the schools.

My second priority SEC is about schools helping students to be fit and healthy and to feel good about themselves.

While every teacher has a responsibility to ensure student well-being a lot can be achieved through special work in physical education and performing arts.  This to be done by the primary school class teachers if there is no specialist available and by the specialists in larger primary schools and in the secondary schools.  It is too much detail for me to outline in this blog but I have it written up elsewhere if you are interested.  Suffice to say that I have marvelled over the years at the smiles on the faces of kids who have just performed in some stage act for their class,  school or district.  It is a great self confidence and positive self image builder.

My third priority SEC is about the frequency teachers talk personally to each student each week.  It is easy for a teacher to check on this by a period of regular introspection.

It can be seen that my priorities 1, 2 and 3 are interrelated and could be grouped under student well-being.

Hope it's going well for all out there in the schools.

GD

School Development Planning and School Effectiveness Criteria

As principals each year:

...we look at various aspects of our school as an organisation and develop/change some features of that organisation while leaving other aspects as they are;

...we assess some of the school effectiveness criteria too see how we are going.

My experience indicates that all this works on the basis of having a School Development Plan (SDP) covering a selected period of say 3-5 years.  The elements of the SDP describe our school and the school effectiveness criteria (SEC) are linked to the elements of the SDP.

I am in the throes of finalising a paper/treatise on the above matters.   It is a short and I hope readable pithy paper that gets to the heart of the matter.  As a principal you are under pressure and haven't the time in your busy days at the school to pour over complex academic papers about school development and school effectiveness.  This luxury is best enjoyed at in-service opportunities when you can be free of the daily hum of your working school.  My paper is a quick read and not too many trees will suffer if it is thrown in the bin.

The full details of what I have written about the SDP and the related SEC are too much for this blog.  I intend sharing some snippets for what they are worth and if they whet your appetite for more I would appreciate comments and any requests for more details.

Colleagues I have no tickets on myself but love being an educator and want to pass on my hard won experiences.  If they help well and good, if not so be it.  I hasten to add that as a Principal I learnt the hard way being placed in the position with little formal training.  Gradually experience and formal training shaped me further about principalship.  It was a lot of fun with at times soul searching about:

Had I done the right thing?

Would it work?

Was I expecting too much of staff and pushing them too hard?

Did my enthusiasm wear people out?

Was I wanting too much change too quickly?

Was I any good at inspiring needed change?

Was I listening to good advice?

Was I approachable for my staff?
Was I overtly recognising the good work of staff?

Above all:

Were the kids learning and being inspired to learn?

Did the kids feel safe and respected, even loved by their school?

It's a huge responsibility and can be daunting.  Confidence in one's ability is needed.

Enough for today.

Have fun my colleagues out there at the coalface. I say again that being a principal is a great gig!

The pressures of school principalship

I've been following the press on the reluctance of persons to take up principal positions under the pressures of contemporary Australian schooling.  It's a shame because it is a great job that requires hard innovate work with the challenges coming thick and fast but with the rewards being very satisfying.

It seems that the administrative loads and the demands for schools to be so much more than places of academic learning are detracting from the principal being the educational leader.

Making sure one has the skills through appropriate training is a big first step to managing the job.

Having  a strong network of government and non-government principal peers is also helpful.

Then comes the ability to delegate based on trust.  I love the notion of 'distributive leadership' that pervades the contemporary literature.  This form of leadership recognises the strengths of any member of staff and utilises these strengths by providing leadership opportunities for the staff who have this expertise.  One of my criteria for an effective school contains a model of how to get this distributive leadership really working but more about that later.  Leadership does not have to always come from the traditional hierarchical leadership of a school.

I am watching with much interest the movement across Australia whereby government schools are opting to become independent government schools running on a one line budget.  As a principal of a government school I always felt I had a good deal of freedom to act but would love to have the additional freedoms offered by this notion of independence.  With it of course comes more responsibility and knowing that the buck stops with you.  There is no big brother central department calling the shots in the same detail as in the past.  My old role as a superintendent of schools is largely superfluous.  Thank goodness I hear you say.

From my days studying philosophy I have continued to be challenged by that part of metaphysics that is a study of the ultimate nature of reality.  During my working life being a bit of a workaholic and watching teachers and principals and clerical staff busting a gut to be perfect plus I worried for them.  I used to counsel them to make sure that the job was kept in perspective in respect of making time for their loved ones.  To me this is the ultimate nature of reality.  My old philosophy teacher, professor Greaves would probably be appalled at this very pragmatic conclusion. For what it's worth I share it with you.

schoolprincipalship - tough, exciting, creative gig

Was a school principal and loved it.  It was a tough gig but it gave me every opportunity for innovation and creativity to lead a school staff team to build a school where students loved to come and where they were excited about learning. Could have done it a lot better but my memories leave me contented with what was achieved.

My bona fides to make any comments or suggestions on school principalship are to be found in my profile supporting this blog.

I want to add that the credo that underlined my career as an educator was that whatever I did it had to be for the betterment of learning for students.  I spent a couple of stints in Head Office as the A/Director of Personnel responsible for the working conditions of all Ed Dept employees and for staffing the schools and as an A/Director of Operations responsible for several school districts.  It was a real effort in a Head Office environment to live by my credo and not become weighed down by the bureaucracy.

Anyhow hullo my principal colleagues out there.  You have the best job in an educator's career.

I want my blog to be a place where you can come and sound off if you are frustrated with the pressures that I observe you experiencing in the new independent government schools and in government schools in general.  I am certain these pressures are also there for my non-government school colleagues.

I am currently just completing a small book or treatise if you will on how to assess schools for effectiveness.  I am willing to share my ideas with you.  It is not about "things were better in the old days": it is about my practical experiences tempered by the advice of research on assessing a school for effectiveness and an insatiable desire to keep up to date with what is happening in school education at least across Australia.  I miss it all.

Hope to hear from you and that I can be of some assistance if only as a sounding board.