New Principals

     Having a new principal at your school is hard for many parents and educators to deal with. You have spent a number of years getting to know how the former principal worked and what you needed to do to help your students get the right education for them.

     Now there is someone new. What do you do?

     You get to know the new one and give them a great chance to be even more successful than the last one.

     That sounds like easy advice, but it is not. It will take a lot of work and most people will not do the work required.

     I once had a very successful man, who had been involved with dozens of business mergers and acquisitions tell me that the first 90 days are the most important. That is when you set the tone. I believe the same happens in schools. Those first 90 days are important in getting things done.

     So what happens in those first 90 days that is so important. Let's look first and what the principal has to do and then what the parents should be doing.

     The principal has to get to know the school. It does not matter why the last principal left and the new principal is there. They still have to become familiar with the school. It does not matter if they were an assistant in the school now promoted or if they were in the same district. It does not matter if the last principal was the greatest and retired or if they were the worst and were fired. They still have to get to know the school.

     They are new in this position at this school. There is good and bad at all schools and there are rumors and stories that magnify that. Come in with an open mind and an open heart to find out for yourself what is going on.

     People what to know you care. You need to care about them, whether they are faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, community. If you care, you are halfway home. Don't try to bluff this. People will know and bad things will happen.

     Look to the future, not to the past. If all the focus is on what has happened, you are lost and will stay there. Look to the future and build a vision with others where the school can go. You have to do this whether the school is the best or the worst. There are hundreds of examples of schools that were the worst becoming the best because someone believed and had a vision.

     Most important, new principals have to get out of the office. The less time you spend in the office the more people will work with you. They need to know you are there and visible. That does not mean just at activities. It means sitting in a classroom or an assembly or at PE or a ball game or a concert. Let people see you.

     Now for parents.

     Get to know the new principal. Have you volunteered to serve on committees or as a room parent or on the PTSA? Don't bring in all your complaints unless you are willing to serve some time. The more you do, the better your student's education will be.

     Quit blaming the school for everything. I had four children go through school and all are now working through college. When I stopped blaming the teachers and the administrators and got involved, my children got a better education. Sometimes the teacher was wrong. We had one teacher who would never get grades in on time so we always thought our son was failing. But we never blamed the teacher. Our question was always, “What do we need to do to help?” That question makes a huge difference.

     A school is run by people. People are not perfect. Therefore, schools are not perfect. But schools can be very good and can always get better.

     Make sure you are part of the solution. Work with the other stakeholders. Listen to each other. Create a vision and move your school forward. When that happens – kids win.

Grading Schools - An F or an A?

The state of Utah has recently released the new “grades” for all schools in the state. Some schools are very happy, some schools are very sad, and nothing has changed at all in education.

Someone, somewhere, for some reason, decided that Utah schools needed to be graded. I am very sure they thought they had a good reason. I am also very sure they had no idea what it would really mean.

What does a school grade really mean? Absolutely nothing.

Here’s why. West High received an F grade last year. So did a lot of other schools. The grades were based on students achieving a certain level of proficiency. If your school did not reach a certain percentage of students at proficiency, your school received an F.

Since that was too harsh, this year they changed the system to grade schools on a curve. West did not dramatically increase proficiency, but this year they are a C school because of the curve. Nothing else really changed.

Here is the important part. Did a student graduating from West not get accepted into college because they came from an F school? Did they not receive a scholarship? Did anything happen to any student because they came from an F school?

The answer is NO.

What about local resources. Did West get less funding? Did they lose teachers? Was there some punishment inflicted on anyone at West?

The answer is NO.

Then what is the big deal? There isn’t one.

Students in failing schools are not being punished because of the school grade. What may be happening is that someone who was thinking of enrolling at a failing school decided to go someplace else. And that’s okay because that is their decision.

School grades do not indicate the value of the education at a school. They indicate an arbitrary line that says being above the line is good and being below the line is bad. That is all they tell you. And any group can set the line wherever they want to.

Where do I set the line? I ask this question, “Are students progressing at least one year per subject?” If they are, the school, and the student, is passing. If not, then what does it take for students to progress one year in every subject? When you have those answers, you have a successful school.

The schools I have worked with over the years have typically worked to help students make that progress. That means an English-language learner works at their level and an Advanced Placement student works at their level. They each are striving to achieve at least one year of learning in their subjects.

And when that happens, you have an “A School” in my gradebook.

School Board Elections Make a Difference

 As the weather turns colder and leaves change colors before floating to the ground, our thoughts turn to autumn and what the season brings...Elections.

I don't want to spoil your day, but elections are important. Sadly, the elections that are the most important are way down on the ballot and few people know about them.

They are the local school board elections.

Most people have no idea who their local school board representative is, and what a school board really does. We all get caught up in the state-wide elections and federal elections leaving the races that will have the largest impact on our personal lives to get the crumbs of time we have left.

Here is my challenge to you this year – Find out and get involved in the local school board races.

School boards in Utah make the biggest tax decisions we face. They control our property taxes. They determine how much we will pay in those taxes every year. Yet, at the annual “Truth in Taxation” hearings, no one attends and the school board can do as they please.

Time to make a change.

For example, the Salt Lake School District has three races this year. There will be at least two new school board members because there are two open seats where the incumbent decided not to run. The other race is between two people who have each been elected at least once to the seat.

Having three elections is enough to change the culture and direction of a school board. And with two brand new members the direction of the board and the district can change overnight. Either for the good or for the bad, depending on what you want your board to do for you.

Here are some things you may want to consider as you vote for school board members this year.

1. Make sure they know you and your neighbors. If they don't spend any time campaigning for your vote, how much weight will they give your thoughts, ideas and opinions in the future.
2. Make sure they are involved in schools now. There are some things that are very specific to schools and districts. If they are not involved at a local school now, they will not be involved at the local school later. They should know how the School Community Council runs and the PTSA and all the other groups at school. They should attend school events and even help when needed.
3. Make sure they commit to actually meet with and listen to neighbors. There is something that happens at the school board. As soon as new members are elected, they get trained that they can no longer have an opinion. They are taught that the board needs to speak with one voice. They start to only listen to each other and the superintendent. That is not what is needed. The experts are not the ones sitting around the table. The experts are the people that take their kids to school every morning and help them with their homework at night.
4. Make sure they are strong enough to resist the district pressure. The district staff, from the superintendent on down, are professionals. They are very good at what they do, or they should be. But they often have just one perspective. School board members should have many perspectives about what to do and how to do it. When they do, healthy discussion happens and the best for the students comes out. If they are there to rubber stamp the superintendent that helps no one.
5. Make sure they remember who works for who. The superintendent and all district employees work for the school board. The board does not work for the superintendent. They have the right, and should take it, to question everything that happens at the district. If they just take it all at face value, they are not doing the job they were elected to do.
6. Make sure they really care about kids. There are some board members that really don't care. They just want to be elected to something. Since no one pays that much attention to school board elections, these people can just slip through. They just sit there and follow whoever they think will get them elected to their next position.
7. Make sure they have an agenda to move schools into the future. Board members often get caught in maintaining the status quo. There is no school in the world that can afford the status quo. If they are not moving forward, they are already behind. Board members have to have that vision because there are few superintendents that have it.

Seems like a lot to consider. But if you don't consider these things, no one else will either. It is time for parents and neighbors to take a harsh look at the school board and determine who the best people to lead our children's futures are.

Elections are near. Take the time to talk to the candidates, even if you don't have one running in your neighborhood. Your opinion will help others see things better.

If you want to get involved, and don't know how, send me a message, and I will help you get started. Who knows, you may be the next candidate I support.  

Finding the BEST Teachers

If you are a parent, you know the conversations that go on at the end of every school year. “Who are the good teachers in the fourth grade?” “Has your daughter taken math from Mr Jones? How was he?”

If you want real fun, check out the websites that rate college teachers. Everything from who is a good teacher to who is the “hottest” teacher at the college.

So what makes a good teacher good and a bad teacher bad? Let’s start with the bad teacher first. They are much easier to work with anyway.

A bad teacher really doesn’t care about kids. In a meeting I was in yesterday in Alaska, it was stated, by administrators, that teachers have to identify with and like kids. That makes sense. If a teacher, or an administrator, doesn’t like kids, they should not be working at a school. The schools product is kids. If you don’t like cars, you should not work in a car factory or for a car dealership. Go find something else to do.

And if you don’t like kids then you should not work at a school. Go find something else to do.

There are also those teachers that are just not very good at teaching. Teaching is a skill. Because it is a skill it can be learned. Learning means you have to practice that skill to get better at it. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, it just doesn’t work.

As much as I thought I was a world-class soccer player, I really wasn’t. I was a decent high school and college soccer player. But that was all. I was actually a much better coach than I was a player. I practiced hard, played pretty much every day of the week for 52 weeks of the year. I played the best I could. It was very important to me to succeed and be good at this. But, eventually, you come to the realization that you have reached the top. And there is nothing wrong with that.  My top is just different than someone else’s top.

The same thing happens in teaching. Some people really want to be teachers. They work at it, study it, read about it, work very hard to make things happen. But their top is different than someone else’s top. And that is just okay.

What you want to avoid, and what schools need to eliminate, is the teacher that just doesn’t care about the kids. They only care about them. It is all about them. They want to teach a certain subject, they will teach it their way and if the kids can’t learn that is just too bad. Your student must not be smart enough or they are just not working hard enough to pass the class. But whatever it is, it is not the teacher’s fault. Or that is what they will tell you.

Not every teacher has to be world-class. They just have to be good at what they do. Some will rise to the top and be praised as examples to their fellow teachers. They will be seen as the “Ideal Teacher” and be awarded Teacher of the Year and other honors. Everyone will ask, “Is there room in that class for my child?” And that is all well and good. But that doesn’t make them a good teacher.

What makes a good teacher? They care. That’s all. Very simple. They care.

What do they care about? They care about their students. They care about their students’ families. They care about their school. They care about their colleagues. They care about things they should care about. Most importantly, they care about learning.

Notice I didn’t say they care about teaching. That is just the outcome of their care about learning. Good teachers are always learning. They love to learn. What they learn about changes all the time. One year it may be about Native American history and the next it is about Victorian England and the stories of Sherlock Holmes. It doesn’t matter. They just love to learn.

Because they love to learn, they teach kids to love to learn. The teachers I remember best may have not been the “best” teachers in the school. But they were the best for me. I had a math teacher somewhere in the junior high years that taught me to love math. He made it fun for me. I used to play games with pennies that he taught me. They were fun, and I learned math. Maybe I didn’t learn processes, but I learned concepts. The problem was, that later math teachers didn’t make it fun so I stopped learning math. I decided I didn’t have a “math mind” after all. Too bad for me.

I had one teacher in college that all he did was lecture. It was a history class. It was the old days and the latest technology was an overhead projector. He would write on the sheet all the notes we were supposed to take. We just had to write as fast as he did. As he talked, you could tell he loved history. And because he did, so did I. I took every class he taught and, for a time, I declared a history major. Though I never finished the major and took another direction, I still see myself as a “history buff.” And because I do and have shared that, my kids consider themselves “history buffs” as well. One just told me that she wants to teach history and has started to school to make that happen.

Learning is fun. When you stop learning you stop living. Teachers are what make learning fun. They are the tool that is used to teach kids to love learning. If you want to know who the good teachers are, ask them what they are learning themselves. That is how you will know. And if they are not learning, then your child probably won’t either. That is the time to ask the principal or the counselor for a change.  

Good Teacher or Bad Teacher

If you are a parent, you know the conversations that go on at the end of every school year. “Who are the good teachers in the fourth grade?” “Has your daughter taken math from Mr Jones? How was he?”

If you want real fun, check out the websites that rate college teachers. Everything from who is a good teacher to who is the “hottest” teacher at the college.

So what makes a good teacher good and a bad teacher bad? Let’s start with the bad teacher first. They are much easier to work with anyway.

A bad teacher really doesn’t care about kids. In a meeting I was in yesterday in Alaska, it was stated, by administrators, that teachers have to identify with and like kids. That makes sense. If a teacher, or an administrator, doesn’t like kids, they should not be working at a school. The schools product is kids. If you don’t like cars, you should not work in a car factory or for a car dealership. Go find something else to do.

And if you don’t like kids then you should not work at a school. Go find something else to do.

There are also those teachers that are just not very good at teaching. Teaching is a skill. Because it is a skill it can be learned. Learning means you have to practice that skill to get better at it. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, it just doesn’t work.

As much as I thought I was a world-class soccer player, I really wasn’t. I was a decent high school and college soccer player. But that was all. I was actually a much better coach than I was a player. I practiced hard, played pretty much every day of the week for 52 weeks of the year. I played the best I could. It was very important to me to succeed and be good at this. But, eventually, you come to the realization that you have reached the top. And there is nothing wrong with that.  My top is just different than someone else’s top.

The same thing happens in teaching. Some people really want to be teachers. They work at it, study it, read about it, work very hard to make things happen. But their top is different than someone else’s top. And that is just okay.

What you want to avoid, and what schools need to eliminate, is the teacher that just doesn’t care about the kids. They only care about them. It is all about them. They want to teach a certain subject, they will teach it their way and if the kids can’t learn that is just too bad. Your student must not be smart enough or they are just not working hard enough to pass the class. But whatever it is, it is not the teacher’s fault. Or that is what they will tell you.

Not every teacher has to be world-class. They just have to be good at what they do. Some will rise to the top and be praised as examples to their fellow teachers. They will be seen as the “Ideal Teacher” and be awarded Teacher of the Year and other honors. Everyone will ask, “Is there room in that class for my child?” And that is all well and good. But that doesn’t make them a good teacher.

What makes a goo teacher? They care. That’s all. Very simple. They care.

What do they care about? They care about their students. They care about their students’ families. They care about their school. They care about their colleagues. They care about things they should care about. Most importantly, they care about learning.

Notice I didn’t say they care about teaching. That is just the outcome of their care about learning. Good teachers are always learning. They love to learn. What they learn about changes all the time. One year it may be about Native American history and the next it is about Victorian England and the stories of Sherlock Holmes. It doesn’t matter. They just love to learn.

Because they love to learn, they teach kids to love to learn. The teachers I remember best may have not been the “best” teachers in the school. But they were the best for me. I had a math teacher somewhere in the junior high years that taught me to love math. He made it fun for me. I used to play games with pennies that he taught me. They were fun, and I learned math. Maybe I didn’t learn processes, but I learned concepts. The problem was, that later math teachers didn’t make it fun so I stopped learning math. I decided I didn’t have a “math mind” after all. Too bad for me.

I had one teacher in college that all he did was lecture. It was a history class. It was the old days and the latest technology was an overhead projector. He would write on the sheet all the notes we were supposed to take. We just had to write as fast as he did. As he talked, you could tell he loved history. And because he did, so did I. I took every class he taught and, for a time, I declared a history major. Though I never finished the major and took another direction, I still see myself as a “history buff.” And because I do and have shared that, my kids consider themselves “history buffs” as well. One just told me that she wants to teach history and has started to school to make that happen.

Learning is fun. When you stop learning you stop living. Teachers are what make learning fun. They are the tool that is used to teach kids to love learning. If you want to know who the good teachers are, ask them what they are learning themselves. That is how you will know. And if they are not learning, then your child probably won’t either. That is the time to ask the principal or the counselor for a change.  

Elections and Schools

Tuesday is Election Day. I hope you vote. This year I have watched so many political ads that have numbed my brain. And I used to spend my summers working political campaigns and loving it.

Wednesday night I get to meet with a group of young college kids during their Political Science class. The teacher brings me in every semester to talk about campaigning. And every semester I make sure the kids understand where the most important votes for them and their families are.

And it is not for president of the United States.

For me, the most important votes are always at the School Board. My kids spend their days in school. My wife is now a school employee. I have been a school volunteer for 20 years. Most of my taxes in Utah go to schools. The school board affects me and my family more than any other race. So I make sure I know what is happening in the district and how the candidates stand on the issues. And what those issues mean to me and my family.

I talk to candidates, I listen to what they have to say. I ask them the hard questions. I look at records and I pay attention. They have to satisfy me to get my vote.

It is very easy to get caught up in what is happening in the world and in the country. It is easy to forget that what happens in the neighborhood is what is important too.

This election day, make sure you look at the bottom of the ballot as well as the top. Make sure your vote counts all the way down for what you believe in.

You make the difference.

Are you a Helicopter Parent?

First, I have to confess, I am a helicopter parent. Just not in the traditional meaning.

I don’t hover over my kids, I hover over the school.

Both my wife and I get involved at the school and support all the kids. Because we do, our kids are recognized at school and it is easier for us to talk to teachers about what is happening.

Both my wife and I have been at this for 20 years now. My wife became a PTA president the year our oldest started kindergarten. I started working with School Community Councils at the same time. At one point my wife served on three PTAs and was the acting Region Director for PTA. I was serving on three SCCs. Yes, we are involved.

All of our kids have learned it’s okay to have mom and dad in school. They don’t yell at the teacher and make you do dumb stuff. They are just involved.

We attend the meetings we are supposed to attend. We support our kids’ activities like sports and theater and choir and everything else. We buy cookie dough and license plate covers and anything else going on. We even crash dances to make sure everything is okay.

Our kids expect us and they are not embarrassed by our being there.

But we also expect our kids to succeed. We check the grades online to see how the kids are doing. We encourage our kids to meet with their counselor and make sure they are on track for graduation. When we have questions we ask them. And we expect answers back.

We have sent our kids to school with a paper asking their teachers to tell us how they are doing in school. When we go to Parent-Teacher conferences, we go talk to the teachers our kids are struggling with. If we get to the others that’s okay. But we get to the ones that we really need to get to. My kids have halos, but I don’t need them polished at that conference.

Our experience, by being involved, has been marvelous. One of the high points did come at a Parent-Teacher conference. We were setting up the PTSA table in the gym and one of the teachers came up and said, “Let me save you having to stand in line. Here is what your student is doing and this is what I need to have him do.” It was great. We skipped the line but got the information we needed.

Last year my daughter failed a math class. We went to the teacher and asked, “Is there anything she can do?” We did not ask for a change of grade or yell at the teacher and say how could she possibly flunk our daughter. We asked a simple question. Because the teacher knew us and how we work with other teachers she said, “Go online and see if there are assignments she can make up and see if there are enough that if she does them she can pass the class.” We checked and there were enough. We talked to the teacher again and she approved of the work, we got started and our daughter turned them in. When she did, she did not earn enough points so the teacher had her do some other assignments that would make up the points. My daughter did not get an A. She barely passed the class. But that is all she needed and all we were asking for. If she had not, we would have had the teacher help us find alternative ways to get credit for that class.

Why did this work? Because we are helicopter parents. We are involved in a lot of ways at schools. And, most importantly, we have created a high level of trust with everyone at our schools. They know we care. And they know we support them in their quest to educate our children.

And that is all we can really ask for.