The Numbers Game

I've watched a lot of basketball over the break and my heart has been hurting for teams with scarce numbers.  I know some of this is injury related, COVID related or sometimes academically related.  But when these factors don't apply and numbers are still low, there are ways that the school and it's community can help.

First, let's get the excuses our of the way.  Stop saying that kids play too many video games or spend too much time on TikTok.  This may be true in a sense, but we are not recognizing what these things provide them that we are not.  Video games and social media meet a social emotional need for many students and it is easy for them to stay in that lane.  Adults do it too.  Let's also stop saying that losing teams keep students from playing.  There are many exceptions to this.  I've seen several losing teams over the years with numbers.  I feel we get comfortable with saying this and we end up down a path of hiring and firing coaches.  This is a failing cycle in itself.

I think the best thing we can do as school leaders is to meet kids where they are, before we can build them to what we want them to be.  I will agree with many that say kids somehow need to feel special these days.  I think this is true, but if we are not using this understanding to get more kids playing then we are failing them.  I am definitely not a fan of giving every kid a trophy, but we can start with three simple things that help us focus on kids and not live on excuses.

Invest in the Extracurricular Environment

Yes, we need to spend a little bit of money.  It doesn't to hurt to budget funds each year to help the appearance and experience of our programs.  Upgrades to facilities are a great way to instill student pride. We all can't have turf football fields, but we should do the best we can.  Start with signage and print media to dress up a gym or field.  Establish uniform purchasing rotations so teams are wearing nice uniforms on a regular basis.  If it costs a teacher stipend to get your band in the gym, pay it.  If you have to pay a few bucks for a good announcer and music, pay it.  These dollars can go a long way to help kids want to be a part of this experience.

Encourage Student Cheering Sections

I saw a Tweet by a coach recently that good cheering sections make up about five points a game for basketball teams.  I would argue that it is much much more.  Good cheering sections show players that the students have their backs.  Who wouldn't want to go play games in an environment that surrounds and supports every team?  Mark off a designated section, encourage students to be there (don't charge them to get in), and actually teach them how to be a good cheering section.  The kids cheering have a great time and support the players in the game.  That's worth a lot more than five points.

Promote Their Work

A few years ago admins were encouraged to use social media to tell their stories.  I was shouting this from the rooftops as best as I could.  I remember lots of admins taking a firm stand against school social media, but most of them have all come around and can see what a powerful tool it can be.  Many schools right now are doing a great job using social media to promote games and events, report scores and most importantly they are celebrating students and their hard work.  This is the magic of social media.  Kids want to feel appreciated and valued.  It is better for them to find that on their school's social media accounts instead of in fake relationships they can easily find online.

I know there are many things outside of our control when it comes to getting kids to play.  Sadly, parent and student attitudes might play a part in that.  As difficult as these things can be, we should always be working with what we can control.  My three suggestions can go along way to encouraging students not just to play, but to be a part of something bigger than themselves.  To have so much school pride that they will find ways to participate.  Isn't that the goal?

A Note About Coaches

I know there is someone remarking that if the coaching was better, more kids would play.  In some cases, this is absolutely true but I want to challenge that thinking.  Pay attention to the coaches that stay even though numbers are bad.  They care about their kids and their sport.  Pay attention to the type of kids that stay with their coach even though the numbers are bad.  That means that coach is someone they believe in and will give everything that they have to them.  These coaches could easily quit, but they are there for the right reasons.  Sadly, this does not show up on the scoreboard.  These programs are doing the best they can with what they've got.  It is already challenging enough to find ways to win a game (Hoosier style), but to ask coaches to bear the sole responsibility for the numbers game is unfair.  School communities can make the biggest impact if we all share the responsibility.  The numbers game is OUR game to play.

Taking My Own Advice

 I used to love when prospective principals would call me and ask for interview advice. I would always share a very critical lesson that I learned as I moved on I’m my career. I would always tell them to give them all of your self in your interview because they want the right person more than anything else. Now it’s time to take my own advice. 

I remember the first years of my first two principal positions. They were rough in different ways. My first principalship was tough for obvious reasons but over time I learned that the board chose me for my leadership philosophy and ability, not for my technical knowledge. The more I grew in that position, I found that I fit better than I thought. 

My second principalship started out as a tremendous struggle with more challenges than any year dealing with COVID.  I had experience, but I was always backpedaling with behavior issues and the transition from high school to junior high. Over time, I saw that I was a better fit than I realized and I was chosen for my personal characteristics and not for any technical knowledge I might have. 

I am in my first year of my first superintendency and I can tell you that those first year feelings are back again. There are lots of technical challenges because well, it’s my first year. I’ve let those challenges dominate the personal qualities that made me a good fit for the position. I really like my new school and the kids have been great. The staff is determined to be the best they can for kids. I’m starting to see where my leadership style and character is beginning to take precedence over the struggle of technical challenges. 

It’s time to take my own advice. My board selected me for my fit in the position and the potential for me to make an impact on the district. I can’t be disparaged or caught up in the administrivia that comes with the job. Deadlines are important, but the people that depend on you should be riding shotgun. 

Everything Will Be Okay

Near the end of the school year, our English classes were giving how-to speeches.  One young lady wanted to show her classmates how to plant flowers.  She asked if there was a place on the property that she could do this.  Selfishly, I saw an opportunity for myself.  I usually plant the flowers around the flag pole and I water them each day only to see the deer come out and eat them every year.  I try hard and I have good intentions, but there are times it falls short.

So I told her to do my job and plant them around the flagpole.  I went out and watched that day.  She did a very good job with her presentation and had students help her plant the flowers.  When they were done, the soil work looked a little rough and I was mildly concerned for their survival.  Out of respect for their work, I did not try to correct it and after all the deer would be out soon to eat her flowers which I had warned her of.  I began to honor my commitment to her to water them each day, but I felt bad that I hadn't tried to make sure the planting work was better.

A few weeks went by and the deer had not touched the flowers.  In fact, the flowers were taking off and getting much bigger.  A couple weeks later the small little plantlings she started with had grown to fill the entire planting area around the flagpole.  The next week I had to leave for vacation.  When I returned I was prepared to see the flowers in very bad shape once I turned the corner.  To my surprise, they were thriving.  One of the custodians told me that he took over the watering duties while I was gone.  I was relieved because I had grown attached their success and didn't want to see her work be in vain.  It was sign of hope after a tough year.

This little story is simply a nugget to remind me that everything is going to be okay.  Educators often worry that they are not doing enough for their kids.  Did we not teach enough, where we not available enough and when some of our students fail, is our fault even if our effort was more than enough.  When you are a school leader, you feel that you might be falling short for your students and for your staff as well.  It is stressful and even small victories don't erase those feelings.

I want my people (educators) to know that its going to be okay.  This year hurt us, but we will recover.  Our students and their families will recover.  Just don't stop watering the flowers.  And know that if we can't, our school families will step up and water them for us.  Everything is going to be okay.

100 Pages In

I have decided to write a book.  Lets hope that at this time next year it is finished, but hey I'm writing a book.  I honestly wasn't getting too serious about telling folks until I hit the 100 page mark.  Now I'm there and things are getting real.  I don't have a publisher so yes, I'm doing this the hard way.

What's it about?  Is it a revolutionary new way to educate kids or lead schools?  That's not the intent, but I suppose it could be used for those purposes.  It is a deep dive into the changing political landscape and how dysfunctional it has become?  No, but it definitely provides policy recommendations to help people.  So what's the book about?  It is about my story and how it can shape other people's stories.  I'm a big Kevin Smith fan and I stumbled across this quote that empowered me to believe my story was valuable.

I am a product of generational poverty.  I am a survivor and now occupy the middle class.  I used to not give much thought to how I made it, but now that I look back on the cast and crew of my story I know this was no accident.  I'm not a rags to riches story of an inner city kid that made into professional sports.  I'm a little less boring, but my journey was aided by tremendous people and opportunities.  

In my book I will tell my childhood story and what it was like growing up in a rural area in a poor, non-traditional family.  Those experiences have taught me what people need to do to lift others up and prevent the cycles of poverty that keep people out of the middle class.  Many of the social ills that keep people in poverty can be addressed in a meaningful way.  I will look at being fatherless, being a free lunch kid at school and being a low wage worker.  With each chapter I will ask and answer a guiding question such as, Can post secondary education be a pathway out of poverty?  My colleagues know the answer to this, but I will use my experience and available data to show why.

Who knows?  Maybe I will get published and sell a million books.  Or maybe just a 100 books.  Either way, I want to tell my unique story and maybe help others in the process.  This writing stuff is difficult but rewarding and I have gained a lot of respect for authors.  I am excited about the prospect of becoming one of them.

Selfishly, I would like to ask for help.  The last chapter is about people like me.  If you know anyone that would like to be a case study for the book, please send them my way.  They can email me at ccass810@gmail.com.  

My Teacher Appreciation

This is a one of my favorite times of the year.  I enjoy scrolling through social media seeing all the ways schools across the state honor their teachers.  COVID or not, they deserve it and more.  Sure this was a tough year, but this is tough work with or without the challenges that COVID brought us.  I've written plenty about my respect for teachers, but today I am taking a different turn.  I want to show some respect for My teachers.

Next year I will taking a new position and leaving the building I have served for the past ten years.  I remember being told all those years ago that I was getting the best teachers in the district.  At the time I took this as lip service to a certain degree.  As it turns out, this assessment was more than accurate.  The teachers at Central Junior High School will always be the standard of comparison for me for the rest of my career.  There are lots of reasons for this, but let me hit the highlights.

CJHS teachers care about each other.  I know this could be said about a lot of teaching staffs, but I have always felt mine is different.  Yes, they have always helped each other when someone struggles.  But they also help each other when things are going well.  They share their professional learning and push each other to do better.  The field of education is a exercise in work that is never done and requires a continuous effort.  They continuously support each other because they know what I know, when teachers are at their best then kids can be at their best.   

CJHS teachers care about our kids.  I'm not just talking about grades.  I'm not just talking about test scores.  Junior high kids are at a crossroads in their academic and social lives and these folks understand this.  They are not afraid to form critical relationships that help every kid feel special and worthy.  This is special to me, because I was one of those kids that needed that when I was in school.  They celebrate them when they do well and their hearts hurt when they are struggling.  I've always said that heartbreak is a quality of a good teacher and they definitely show heart in their work.

CJHS teachers care about me.  I often tell colleagues that I am spoiled with a great teaching staff.  My next stat that I like to brag about is that we had a stretch of a about five or six years where we had no turnover in the teaching staff.  We have stuck together because they have been willing to give me a chance and I am forever grateful for that.  I seem to always be coming up with some new adventure for them that is aimed at serving our students.  I have had some good ideas and a bunch of not so good ones (Redbird Karate).  Nevertheless, they take the ride with me and challenge me when it needs to be done.  

I don't feel that I can ever honor this school family properly.  I have experienced more professional growth at this school than ever because of them.  I am a better school leader because of them and I will always compare other schools by their example.  At the end of my career I will be proud to say that I spent nearly a third of it at this wonderful place.  Leaving them will be very difficult, but it brings me peace that they will treat the next principal the same way.  

If you have ever taught at Central Junior High with us, thank you for the last ten years.  It has been an honor to serve with you and a blessing to know you.

Learning Loss < Accountability Loss

The term "learning loss" has gained traction in our sector of the world as a problem we need to throw money at.  I realize that none of us are going to give that money back, but how many of us are already tired of the spam email we are getting from dozens of curriculum and assessment companies from across the country?  I was frustrated by a post from EducationWeek about study results from Renaissance.  In essence, they reported that using the term "learning loss" may be misleading because their scores showed that students were not doing that bad.  I would expect that from someone who sells assessments.

Admins and teachers on the ground know that what we are really talking about accountability loss.  Kids have the ability to learn and maybe the term learning loss refers to loss of content coverage.  That is a little more fair to say.  What we witness on a daily basis is not the pandemic disruption causing kids to be able to learn less or at a slower rate, but rather our students losing soft skills that enable them to be good students.  The biggest one being being accountable for their own behavior.  Schools often provide the best setting for this type of learning.

Lets compare some behavior instances at my school this year compared to 2018-19.  You know, our last normal year.  Keep in mind that we have attended half days while in school and we have spent a good amount of time in full remote learning.  During the first semester, we were remote more than we were in person.  Less than a month ago, we changed course and asked that 90% of our remote learners (that were by choice) to return to the school building.  Now that you have a rough overview of the conditions, lets look at some behaviors that are destructive to academic performance and are very related to personal accountability. 

The biggest change in a given behavior for us is the number of students caught cheating on assignments.  In 18-19 we had a total of 9 referrals for cheating.  In 20-21, there were 30 referrals for cheating.  This was easy to catch when two or more students would submit identical assignments down to each mistake and the color and type of font.  In a student wellness survey I sent out in December, nearly 30% of respondents reported that they had received work from another student once or a few times.  Eight said they do it all the time.  With an enrollment of 250 students, this is a pretty frustrating chunk of the population.  It is easy for them to simply text in a group chat and share work.  The behavior has become normalized.  We are positive that we have only caught a small amount of it.

Being in remote learning as a district or families choosing remote learning has kept many students out of what I call school practice.  Dress code referrals are up and we do not make a big fuss about this in general.  What we are noticing is that many student come to school in what they went to bed in or what they plan to stay out all night in.  Sleeping in class is another one.  Many students report that they basically go to bed when they want to and come to school ready to eat breakfast and crash out.  As you might imagine, we have lots of morning tardies too.  We are seeing a loss of urgency towards school.  

When students began to struggle with the in person routines and therefore school, they opted into remote learning.  Sometimes moving in and out each quarter at their own convenience.   This allowed them to cease getting better at these soft skills or abandon them altogether.  Only when we forced them back into the building did we learn of legitimate health related reasons for them to be remote and some just didn't show back up at all.  I begged many families to send their struggling children back to help them be successful.  The success rate on that pitch was low.  Home visits would teach us many times that students were never home during the day and sometimes the parent that was home was not sure of their whereabouts.  The conditions some of our students are subject to are completely out of our control, but we spent a lot of time and energy trying to reel them in because we know that they are losing the skills it takes to be successful at school.

We have to be honest about what this is.  Students aren't experiencing learning loss, they are experiencing accountability loss.  When they are not held to a regular standard of excellence because pandemic conditions keep them out of school, they lose their ability to be academically successful.  I have many parents that are working hard to put food on the table and it can be difficult to be an accountability partner for their children.  COVID has not just affected schools, but families too.  Please do not forget that.  Yes, you will have some taking advantage but know that most are doing the best they can with what they have.

But both schools and homes need to agree that best possible place for kids to be is at school.  Admins need to acknowledge that while 20% of their federal grant funding needs to be used to address learning loss, you can spend some of that on accountability loss too.  I'm seeing lots of districts moving to hire social workers and counselors.  This is a great approach to reconditioning kids to be accountable.  Hiring liaisons to help re-enfranchise families is another good way to help parents help their kids.  Personnel to help address chronic absenteeism post pandemic is extremely critical to helping students rebound from a school year that left them unconditioned to return under normal circumstances.   If we address accountability loss, we can overcome learning loss.  We cannot heal one without the other.

Being 12 Then and Now - Collecting Baseball Cards

My son is 12 years old.  I was 12 in 1988.  It goes without saying that lots of things have changed since then and at a shocking rate.  His world is moving at a faster pace then mine did in every way.  Its hard to share my 12 year old life with him and relate to what he is exposed to.  But we have found one thing that we can find common excitement in.  Baseball cards.

I remember collecting at his age.  Mark McGwire was a very big deal and I bought in very quickly.  If the bash brothers were involved, I was all over it.  I could go just about anywhere and buy a few packs of cards for about 40 cents each and dig right in.  We even rode our bikes down to Stan's vacuum cleaner repair store to get cards.  He was a collector and had a small area to buy and trade at.  He even had a baseball themed pinball machine that spit out cards when you scored runs.  We would be all over the next edition of Beckett Monthly to see what cards were hot.  Then were either trading like fools or buying more packs of Topps, Donruss or Upper Deck to snag the most valuable cards.  Yes, I am guilty of buying Score every once in a while because they were inexpensive.  My paper route could only feed so much of this addiction.

The is a very different experience for my son at 12 years old.  My favorite and best card in my collection was the Mark McGwire Olympic rookie card and I think it was only valued at about $20 at the time.  He has multiple chances of pulling $20 cards from pack to pack.  The first big difference for him compared to me is the cost of this hobby.  Cards tend to be expensive these days, but he has chances to pull autographed cards.  Not in my day.  If you wanted an auto, you went to the ball park or special events to get it.  Card companies are also printing more specialty and update cards through out the season.  I had one set per year of about 700 cards, then a small update set and then we waited until the next year.

He also has access to all the hype that can be created around certain cards and players.  The internet is a huge game changer for this hobby.  He loves to watch break videos on YouTube.  If you have never seen on of these take a look at this one to get you started.  Basically, collectors and shops post videos of them opening card boxes and packs to see what exciting things come out.  This keeps him wanting to open packs.  Yes it is great marketing for the companies, but is also a way to keep collectors hungry.  He got a 2021 Topps Series 1 hobby box for Easter and he sat and opened each pack like in the videos and gushed over the cards he pulled.  It was exciting for him and me.  I am little envious of this world of collecting he gets to roam around in.

This has amounted to great one on one time for me and him.  We buy packs when we can find them or order them online.  We buy a few through online auctions here and there.  We have taken my old cards, some cards that have been gifted to us and what we have bought to amass a pretty good collection of baseball and basketball cards.  Being 12 then and now is definitely different, but I hope we have created something he can share with his 12 year old in the future.

Scoreboards and Dashboards

American discourse on difficult issues these days is truly complicated.  It's not good enough to simply know where other people stand in a debate on the concerns of the day.  The lines have blurred along traditional boundaries.  Knowing someone is a liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican doesn't actually tell you what you need to know all of the time.  I look at people's perspectives based on scoreboards and dashboards.  I've been trying to come up with some metaphorical way to look at our complicated social/political landscape.  This is the best I can come up with.  Sounds crazy, but hear me out.

                                    

Dashboard people look at our social and political landscape in way that shows caution to the things that may be going wrong.  They pay attention to the warning lights that come on.  They respond using their own understanding of that thing.  The gas warning light is an easy one.  The low tire pressure light is an easy one.  But when the check engine light comes on, they know it might be serious.  I know many of us ignore some of these until things breakdown, but at that point we are all willing to take the car to a mechanic.  The short of it is that we want a machine that runs well and that is dependable.  If you compare this to politics or social strife, these people want resolve and for everything to be done fairly.  For the good of the whole country, they pay attention to things like racism, civil rights, election reform, the economy and any other issue that might jeopardize or hurt our nation.  This approach takes a lot of work.  To make one light go off, you may need to address other lights that come on.  Regardless, you look for ways that the whole system can run smoothly.

Other people are scoreboard types.  These people often deal in absolutes and have a win/lose mentality.  The question is not often how do we help, but how can we win.  We are a sports loving culture.  We love it when our team is winning and accept the win even if it comes in a sloppy manner.  Look at this scoreboard.  The home team is winning, but only a couple are doing the scoring compared to the visiting team that has a more balanced scoring result.  We just want our team to win and just like real sports life, we will make the people doing the scoring superstars.  In the social political landscape, these people will seek to make the ability to win the issue and not elevate the actual issue.  They will see a win as a validation of their position.  

I'm not calling anyone out, but I do offer a word of caution.  Know your audience.  Which of these people are you talking to?  If the new COVID relief package is the issue, listen for what is important most.  Is it the number of programs it serves or the number of votes it got and from whom?  If you are still brave enough these days to debate the issues, you may be better served debating within their perspective.  It may save a friendship and show some respect.