21st Century Leadership: Fighting the Need to Always Be Right

"True courage comes from moving away from having to be right and checking our ego at the door to see the bigger picture." Mark Adams, Courageous Conflict: Leading with Integrity and Authenticity

In our roles as leaders, how many times do we insist upon having the monopoly on "being right?" There are many who still attempt to practice the "it's-my-way-or-the-highway" leadership style, but in 21st century education it is anachronistic. As a leadership practice, it is fossil of a time when you could expect those "underneath" you to have less knowledge. You could expect that those whom you lead don't have the full picture that you have. That is reversed in a high-tech, twenty-first century world, where those who are "down the organizational chart" actually often know more than you do. In a information-rich, twenty-first century world, leaders can't ever expect to control the knowledge flow. It's simply a transparent, knowledge-flooded world and we, as leaders might as well get used to it.

As Mark Adams indicates, "true courage" is being able to check your ego at the door just so you can see the bigger picture. Being a 21st century leader is being able to accept that you can't possibly know everything, and that perhaps you don't know as much as you thought you did. Courageous leaders today, do check their egos for the sake of getting the bigger picture. Leaders with true courage don't fight to be right; they fight to be open to the possibilities in a world in which they know their own limitations.

 

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Scrapple: Easy-to-Use, Low-Cost Mind-Mapping Tool for Writers

Scrapple is an easy-to-use software tool that allows users to get ideas down quickly, then generate connections between those ideas quickly. It is one of the most easy-to-use and versatile mapping tools available, and it is currently available for both the Mac and Windows versions, as a trial version, and you can purchase the software for $14.99 for the regular version. Literature Latte, the company that also provides the writer software Scrivener, also has an education version available for $12.00. Some of the software's most interesting features include:

• Ability to insert notes anywhere on the virtual page.
• Connect notes by simply using the drag-and-drop method.
• Create completely freeform notes.
• Stack notes in columns for organizational purposes.
• If you have the Scrivener software, you can drag your notes directly into that software.
• Customize the appearance of your notes with fonts, colors and choice of border styles.

In a word, Scrapple is a writer's mind-mapping and thought-generation tool. Check out Scrapple on the Literature Latte Website. You can also download a trial version and give it a try.

Scrapple Interface

21st Century Leadership: Looking at Our Schools with 21st Century Eyes

"Look at your learning space with 21st-century eyes: Does it work for what we know about learning today, or just for what we knew about learning in the past?" from The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching and Learning

How often do we as school leaders look at our schools with 21st century eyes? How often do we walk into classrooms within our building still caught up in our own 20th century views of what should be happening in those classrooms? I suspect it still happens quite often. We expect teachers to engage students in 21st century learning, yet we still give them classrooms where desks are arranged neatly in rows with a teacher desk located at the front of the room. Instead of environments that foster collaboration and teamwork, we have classrooms that drive students to compliance and teachers to rolling students through the assembly line like so many widgets.

We talk big about preparing students for a 21st century world that requires students to interact globally and solve problems. Yet, our buildings and classrooms still sadly represent the 20th century factory model of pushing students through a system, adding value along the way to graduation. Our school schedules are still more about how we can most efficently churn students through the system, rather than finding ways to address the personalized needs of each student. We conduct quality control tests in the form of standardized tests along the way to make sure the product is progressing as we hoped. We do a lot of talking about preparing students for a world that does not yet exist, yet, if you examine our leadership decisions, it would seem that we still can't quite let go of the past.

As we move into the end of another school year, perhaps it is time to begin questioning what we do. With an incredibly open mind, perhaps we need to begin seeing what we do with 21st century eyes.

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Arne Duncan Announces New-Old Policy---Tying Teacher Prep to Test Scores

The Obama Administration announced its latest plan today that would tie federal funding of teacher preparation programs to test scores. Duncan and the Obama Administration are seeking to place the federal government in the middle of teacher preparation. I suspect this measure will only make it more difficult to convince young people to become teachers and educators, and it will likely have some perverse affects on teacher preparation in this country just as the use of testing for high stakes decisions has had on schools and classrooms.

On closer examination, this proposal contradicts research, logic, and common sense.

• There is no evidence that using high stakes tests as a means to improve teacher preparation programs will work. There is plenty of evidence that using tests (as has been done under NCLB and Race to the Top) to make high stakes decisions has had quite a few unintended consequences in schools and classrooms. These consequences have included things like the over-emphasis on test-prep, teaching to the test, narrowing the curriculum to test content, cutting of arts programs, use of programmed instruction, and cheating, among many others.  One can only imagine what those effects will be on teacher preparation programs when tests are used to determine continued federal funding. For example, teacher candidates will now perhaps be well-versed in things like test-prep and teaching to the test, as opposed to engaging students in authentic instruction. Perhaps teaching candidates can also learn how to narrow the curriculum so that it focuses only on what is tested . The effects of using high stakes testing to make high stakes decisions is well-documented in the research, and adding testing stakes to teacher preparation will most likely affect those programs in adverse ways just as it has in schools and classrooms.
• Surprisingly, the Obama administration's idea of tying test scores to teacher preparation programs comes even after the American Statistical Association recently stated that value-added formulas should be used with caution, because teachers only account for less than 15 percent  (or even less in some studies) of the variability in test scores. In other words, most of what happens in the classroom is beyond a teacher's control. Perhaps the Obama administration is still looking to find "Superteachers" as John Kuhn has called them who are capable of performing miracles. Unfortunately, I am afraid there are so few, if any, especially in an environment, which his policies have created, that is so hostile to teachers and the education profession in general. The important tenet of accountability is that you hold individuals accountable for that which is in their direct control. This policy violates that tenet in many ways.
• Many state tests aren't of high enough quality to be even considered for using in this high stakes manner, and the use of commercial tests like ACT and SAT makes little sense because they haven't been designed for this purpose. Add the fact that, once again, there are entirely too many teachers not subject to test scores. That's the same issue with his Race to the Top and NCLB waiver policy. State tests were mostly designed to tell what students know, not tell how well teachers are teaching. Once again, Arne Duncan and the Obama administration are pushing for using tests in still another way for which they weren't designed.
• This new policy of using test scores to evaluate teacher prep programs should also have some interesting implications in practice. I could easily see this policy exacerbating the problem of getting good teachers in high needs schools. In addition, I could also see this policy affecting which school's graduates choose to teach in as well. It's common sense. Are you going to select teaching in a school where test scores are abysmally low, and your job is to somehow miraculously to raise them? As a teacher prep program, are you going to encourage your graduates to teach in schools with historically low test scores? Perverse education policy often brings about perverse practice.

 As this Politico article points out, Duncan is expecting a great deal of opposition to this latest plan, (See Barack Obama Cracks Down on Poor Teacher Training.) How could he expect things to be different? Educators and parents grow tired of all the testing and emphasis on testing. What will be more interesting to see is whether he and  the rest of the Obama Administration will be willing to listen to educators on this matter. Sadly, the history of this administration and Arne Duncan probably provides that answer even as I ask the question.

'Fear and Learning in America': Stirring Up the Hornets' Nest in the War on Education

“Simply put, smart superintendents don’t poke hornets’ nest with sticks.” John Kuhn, Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education

Since the dawn of No Child Left Behind all the way through the Obama administration’s signature Race to the Top program, finding school administrators willing to criticize these federal programs and what they've done to public education is often difficult. As Kuhn points out, smart administrators “don’t poke hornets’ nests with sticks,” because it isn’t the smartest thing to do politically, but that is exactly what Kuhn does in his book, Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education. He takes on, with wit, energy, passion, and solid logic all the current education reforms that seem to be directed toward tearing down the teaching profession and public education brick by brick.

According to Kuhn, this anti-public education agenda began all the way back when the media, policymakers, politicians, and even educators uncritically accepted the problems with public education outlined in the Reagan-era education report, A Nation at Risk. This report set our nation on its current path of education deform because no one critically questioned its broad negative declarations about public education in the United States. As pointed out in Kuhn's book, this report "spurred a rising tide of negative reports" that were often accepted entirely at face value and uncritically, often, even by the educational establishment.

Throughout Fear and Learning in America Kuhn repeatedly takes on these education reform measures and those pushing them. He takes on the obsession with standardized testing in this country and the use of what he calls "standardized junk science" or the use of value-added measures to evaluate teachers. Kuhn also points out that "At some point education reformers stopped asking teachers to be accountable for quality teaching and started asking them to be accountable for miracles" and that the current reform movement powered by "policymakers, journalists, and think tank wonks embraced the pursuit of superteachers as a way to fix schools, and, ipso facto, society."  This "pursuit of miracales" as Kuhn calls it, has left teachers with three choices all bad: "perform miracles, fail, or cheat."

John Kuhn's book Fear and Learning in America is both entertaining and informative. He disperses anecdotes throughout the book that communicate the often unforgotten and human side to what this current reform agenda has done to our schools. He describes how all these measures have ultimately placed public education in America in "The Educational Dark Ages" where there are those well-meaning reformers who are pushing change out of noble intentions, but there are also those pushing these reforms who have more sinister and self-serving agendas. He goes on to point out that current educational reformers have conveniently discarded poverty and all other achievement-influencing variables because they have been deemed either off limits or too difficult to tackle.

Unlike some of the current books examining the anti-public education sentiments in the United States, Kuhn does not just passionately detail what's wrong with current education reform; he offers at the end of the book his own ideas on what can be done to improve education in America for all students. These all stand in contrast to the current educational reform agendas being pushed by state and federal policymakers and politicians.

I have read several books that examine this American phenomenon of attacking public schools, but Kuhn's book, Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education is one of the best yet! It's readable, entertaining, and passionate style make it both a page turner and an inspiration for any educator interested in the current state of public education.

NC Judge Blocks Law Asking Teachers to Give Up Tenure for Bonus

Last summer, our North Carolina Legislature handed all our state school administrators a hand grenade with the pin pulled. Under a law that they passed, school districts were tasked with finding a way to identify the "top 25%" of all teachers. The law did not specify how this identification was to be done, but it mandated that districts offer bonuses to whoever was identified as the top 25% of teachers in the schools. Then, those who accepted these bonuses were to automatically lose their tenure and be immediately placed on contracts.

The problem, as many districts quickly discovered, lay in trying to find a way to equitably identify this top 25 percent. You can't use just test scores because so many subject areas are not subject to testing. When it comes to other characteristics of teaching, how could you possible quantify and narrow down who falls in the top 25% category and not inadvertently and arbitrarily leave someone out who deserves the designation too? Some districts have struggled with trying to find a way to implement this impossible law, often wasting a great deal of man hours implementing what clearly has to be one of the most ridiculous laws passed during last year’s session.

That’s when some districts  decided to fight having to implement the law. Two districts, Guilford County and Durham School District challenged the law in court, and as WRAL is reporting, a judge has  issued injunction allowing these two districts to avoid implementing it. It's not clear yet whether that injunction applies across the state. (See "Judge Gives Teachers Victory in Tenure Battle.")

While the injunction blocking its implementation makes a great deal of sense, what is amazing from the WRAL story is how quickly Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger spokesperson Amy Auth tried to spin this as efforts by government bureaucrats "to deny top-performing teachers from receiving a well-deserved pay raise." What Ms. Auth apparently doesn't quite get is that the lawsuit wasn't brought on by bureaucrats; it was brought by a group of concerned educators and baord members as well as others who saw how ridiculous and impossible this law was to implement in the first place. Phil Berger has demonstrated he does not respect teachers and educators, and for his spokesperson to pretend to have the least bit of concern for teachers is beyond belief.

Under Phil Berger and Thom Tillis’s legislative leadership and with NC Governor Pat McCrory’s endorsement, North Carolina education suffered greatly last year. This North Carolina Legislature has worked extra hard to pass many of the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) laws. It is no secret that this legislature, Phil Berger, Thom Tillis and Governor Pat McCrory are do not appear to be friends to public education and to educators, and no amount of spin is going to hide that.

Creativity Inc: How to Sustain Creativity in Your School, District or Organization

"I would devote myself to learning how to build not just a successful company but a sustainable creative culture." Ed Catmull

There is no doubt that Pixar is one of the most creative companies in the world today. They have accomplished an "insanely great feat" by creating the first all computer animated feature film, Toy Story, at a time when naysayers were telling them it couldn't be done. Since then, they have created a series of computer-animated films that have thrilled kids and adults every where. One of my own most memorable times was sitting in a theater watching Finding Nemo and Cars with my toddler son.

What exactly does it take to foster the kind of organizational culture that is capable of doing what nobody else is doing? How can companies, schools and non-profit organizations create what Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace, the authors of Creativity Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, call a "sustainable creative culture?" Catmull and Wallace tackle that very task in this book with a rare combination of both narrative and common sense.

Catmull begins this book by telling his and Pixar's story, and a fascinating story it is. He describes the company's rise from a part of George Lucas's film company, Lucasfilm, through their partnership with Steve Jobs, to the present day as a company that churns out computer-animated films to anxiously awaiting audiences world-wide. Catmull's anecdotes and stories throughout the book remain true to one of his own philosophical beliefs about his business: creativity is about the story, and in this book he tells an engaging one for those fascinated with creativity and how it might be fostered within an organization.

In addition to the Pixar story, Catmull and Wallace also provide valuable insight throughout the book on how Pixar has been able to maintain its creative edge through the years. For example, Catmull insists that creative cultures must operate with transparency and candor. People who work in those cultures must have the freedom to speak their minds and feel that what they say matters. That's perhaps common sense to some leaders, but many seem to forget that, especially in the "top-down" reform environment we have in public education today. Catmull provides a valuable list of "Starting Points for Managing a Creative Culture" in back of the book. These "starting points" are referred to repeatedly throughout the book as Catmull and Wallace tell Pixar's story. What are some of these "starting points?"

• "When looking to hire people, give their potential to grow more weight than their current skill level. What they will be capable of tomorrow is more important than what they can do today."
• "If there are people in the organization who feel they are not free to suggest ideas, you lose. Do not discount ideas from unexpected sources. Inspiration can, and does, come from anywhere."
• "It isn't enough merely to be open to ideas from others. Engaging the collective brainpower of the people you work with is an active, ongoing process. As a manager, you must coax ideas out of your staff and constantly push them to contribute.”
• "There is nothing quite as effective, when it comes to shutting down alternative viewpoints, as being convinced you are right."

This list of "starting points" by Catmull is extensive. They touch on subjects such as inviting failure and risk in the company or organization. Engaging the whole company is fixing problems is another one. From a leadership perspective, this list is truly a great starting point for fostering creativity in your organization.
While this book focuses on creativity in Pixar, a business designed to invent and innovate to stay alive, it is also an excellent book for school leaders and leaders of any organization to read in order to answer the question for themselves:

"How can we create a sustainable creative culture capable of tackling our most serious problems?"

Creativity Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration is a book I see myself pondering and thinking about for some time. It is an outline for maybe getting your school or district, or company for that matter, on the road to creativity. As a leader, I am seriously pondering ways I can foster Catmull’s wisdom on creating a sustainable creative culture within my school. As a high school principal of a non-traditional high school, I see much of the wisdom of this book having the potential to transform schools and school districts into places where creativity rather than conformity thrives. Catmull's and Wallace's book is easily one of the most engaging and thought-provoking books I have read this year.