iPods, Cell Phones in School

Today's News Tribune reports the Federal Way School District is considering a ban on the use of all cell phones and music devices (e.g., iPods). According to the article, a draft put forward by district principals falls short of banning electronic devices from elementary, middle and high school campuses. So far the district's five high school principals are recommending the devices not be in sight or operated during school hours, the paper noted. In neighboring districts, the policies range from allowing them (with the threat of removal if they're found to be disruptive) to only allowing them at the high school.

From the principal's perspective, when is this technology appropriate for students to have in school? How does your school handle the use of cell phones? And are cell phones different from iPods or other MP3 players? Should there be separate policies for these devices?

And how can schools use iPods to enhance the educational process?

Vicki and Ed

There are two new names in the education wing of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In case you missed it, they've hired Portland Public Schools Chief Vicki Phillips as its new director of U.S. education programs. According to the press release, Phillips will "complete the school year in Portland and begin work at the foundation August 1, overseeing and expanding upon more than $3.4 billion in strategic education investments and partnerships."

Then there's this Ed guy -- although in searching their Web site, I see Ed's not really a guy. It's a campaign. The "Ed in '08" campaign is an effort to make public education a major policy focus of the 2008 presidential election. According to the site, B&MGF is partnering with the Eli and Edyth Broad Foundation to put $60 million toward the "Strong American Schools" effort...

Washington Scholars Day

Yesterday, AWSP and the Higher Education Coordinating Board hosted its annual celebration of Washington Scholars here in Olympia. It was a big day for us and for all of our guests -- more than 500 people!

This event draws principals, students and families from all over the state, many of whom have never been to Olympia or the capitol campus before. So the staff at AWSP and the HEC Board try to make the event extra special by allowing students access to the House chambers in the morning for a recognition ceremony. (Seeing all those students in the seats that were just last week occupied by legislators was pretty amazing!)

Attendees then got to participate in one of five breakout sessions on state government, the Supreme Court, lobbying, the attorney general's office and PR and the media. This gave the Scholars, and their families, a chance to learn more about the Legislature and related careers.

In the afternoon, everyone was treated to a luncheon at Saint Martin's University, courtesy of our partner, Comcast. Gov. Gregoire made time in her amazingly busy schedule to stop by and offer her congratulations, and incoming WSU President Dr. Elson Floyd provided some inspiring and humorous keynote remarks. And there was time for plenty of pictures, like Willapa Valley Principal Rob Friese (right) with his daughter, Chelsi, who was a 2007 Washington Scholar.

Being around all of those students and proud parents reminded me how special this time of year is for schools, when we celebrate our successes and the promise these young people hold.

TVW covered the morning program, the panel on PR and media and the luncheon. You can listen to the events on their Web site or watch for it to be rebroadcast on your local cable station.

Coaches for Principals

Tiger Woods has a coach. Several, in fact.

And nobody bats an eye when he or other athletes call in specialists to help improve their skills. Ditto for many CEOs of today's Fortune 500 companies.

Why should school principals be any different?

That's the stigma AWSP hopes to break with the development of a new coaching program just for school principals. Yesterday, about 20 veteran (and mostly retired) principals from around the state gathered in Renton to help the Association flesh out what this might look like. This year, AWSP received a grant from The Boeing Company to conduct a needs assessment for this project and conduct some preliminary training of coaches.

Right now, AWSP provides varying levels of service to administrators, including:

• The Assessor/Mentor Program: Available to principals in the first three years of their principalship, participants receive two days of intense one-on-one skills evaluation with a trained assessor at no cost to them (thanks to continued support from the Washington State Legislature).
  
• School Improvement Assistance: Principals involved in OSPI's school improvement program receive targeted leadership training and assistance from AWSP.
  
• Coaching Triage: Principals who call AWSP's office in need of career guidance and support as a result of an incident or specific action.
  

In the coming months, AWSP Executive Director Gary Kipp and Principal Leadership Development Director Don Rash will be working to develop a pilot program that makes available coaching services to all members, at all stages of their careers, who want to take their skills and abilities to the next level.

"We see the work AWSP is doing is just so critical," said Anne Marie Tripps, project director for Seattle University's Program for New Principals, and one of Monday's Coaching Summit participants.

One of the questions asked at the summit was, "What are the essential skills for all coaches?" What do you think? What does it take to be a leadership coach for a school principal? And would you like to have a coach?

Podcasting for Principals

I'm spending today in the company of several communications professionals from the Puget Sound region to learn more about podcasting. Like the blog, podcasting is another way for AWSP to share information, news and stories with our members. Stay tuned!

Green is the New Black

Seems like you can't recycle a magazine or a newspaper today that doesn't mention the environment or the "green" movement. Time, Newsweek -- even Sports Illustrated published a special issue this March on sports and global warming. And today you might have seen the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's feature on Islandwood, a Bainbridge Island outdoor camp.

Clearly green is the new black. And that might be a good thing for today's students, more and more of whom would rather hang out indoors or don't have a safe option outside. In his book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, author Richard Louv details a whole generation of children for whom playing outside is neither an option nor an interest. Or both, in some cases. His premise is simple: children today have little free time, and what they do have is structured (piano lessons, little league, karate, etc.). As a result, kids are losing touch with the natural world - and the long-term effects could have big implications for us all.

If, indeed, green is the new black, then AWSP was wearing green long before it became fashionable. For decades, AWSP has provided elementary, middle and high schools students from all across the state with outdoor learning experiences at Cispus Outdoor Learning Center, and more recently at the new Chewelah Peak Learning Center near Spokane. At both centers, classroom teachers guide their students in lessons that apply traditional indoor lessons in the non-traditional outdoor classroom. For some kids, it's a better way to tackle issues like math and science. For others, it's more about connecting with each other and the world around them.

The cost? About $70 a student for a week's worth of bugs, trails, critters, mud and fun. And that learning stuff, too.

Note: If you are an AWSP member and are interested in reviewing this book for an upcoming issue of The Principal News magazine, please e-mail me.

Does the Hill Have [Enough] Ayes to Undo WASL?

Lawmakers have already set in motion legislation that would delay the math and science portion of the WASL. The big question to be resolved before for the last days of session run out is whether that delay should be extended to the tests in reading and writing.

That's the latest scuttle in Olympia, where lawmakers are just days away from concluding this year's legislative session. Senate Education Chair Rosemary McAuliffe (D-Bothell) told The Seattle Times she supports a delay because the students struggling with reading and writing WASLs are from low income families, have disabilities or are students of color. McAuliffe was apparently swayed by a petition signed by more than 40 of the state's 296 school district superintendents advocating for the delay.

Gov. Gregoire has continued her support of the graduation requirement in reading and writing, and reiterated it in comments to reporters last Friday, after a closed-door meeting with Sen. McAuliffe and House Education Chair Dave Quall (D-Mount Vernon). To wit:

"One week from Sine Die let's make a dramatic shift in education policy in the state of Washington? That is troubling to me."

The 105-day session is scheduled to end on Sunday, April 22, though Democrats are pushing to end things this Friday. With a budget left to resolve and a host of other major policy concerns, it will be interesting to see if The Hill has the "ayes" to undo the WASL as a graduation requirement - for 2008.

For the record, AWSP supports a delay in mathematics and science, but not for reading and writing.

Are Perceptions Reality?

Do you have a more optimistic view of your students' abilities than your teachers?

If you do, you're not alone according to the National School Boards Association. Their new study of 4,700 teachers and 267 principals and assistant principals in 12 school districts in 10 states found that principals were more likely than teachers to say that students can excel academically. The study is part of the NSBA's effort to gauge school climate. Among the findings:

• 94.6 percent of administrators agreed/strongly agreed with the statement, "Students at this school are capable of high achievement on standardized exams." 77.2 percent of teachers agreed or strongly agreed.
  
• 95.3 percent of administrators said teachers at their school would benefit from more professional development; only 68.1 percent of teachers thought so.
  
• More teachers (23.6 percent) than principals (7 percent) agreed/strongly agreed with the following statement: "Most students at this school would not be successful at a community college or university. 85.2 percent of administrators disagreed/strongly disagreed with the statement; 58.1 percent of teachers did.
  

Why the gap? Teachers spend more time in the classroom, the American Federation of Teachers told Ed Week Magazine, so they have "a more realistic picture of what it would take to get [students] over the hurdles."

Why do you think there's such a difference in the findings?

Math Symposium

This afternoon, representatives from every branch of the P-16 education tree met at AWSP as a follow-up to the recent OSPI Math Symposium held in SeaTac last month. Their special guest was Dr. Uri Treisman, executive director of the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Austin in Texas. Treisman addressed the group for more than an hour and emphasized several steps Washington state could take to bolster its math retrenchment efforts:

1. Build data systems that yield answers to key questions.
2. Manage the curriculum. The top five performing school districts on the NAEP all have managed curricula. The worst-performing districts were all local control.
3.Rethink our teaching system. We need to "think more creatively" about our sources of new teachers.
4. Modernize the teacher compensation system. In Washington state, we still reward teachers based on seniority, not performance.
5. Reassess teacher preparation programs and professional development.
6. Create effective student support systems. "Remediation almost never works. We need accelleration."
7. Tread carefully with information technology. Treisman cited the U.S. Department of Ed study mentioned in today's earlier post about the failure of reading and math software to increase achievement. Use technology carefully, Treisman cautioned, and find ways to help administrators be smarter about IT purchases.

Other Triesman comments worth noting:

• On high school course offerings: "We need to make sure what's on the marquee is what's showing in the theater."
• On being a principal today: " There's virtually no economic incentive to be a principal today."
  
• On education reform: "The biggest change in most states: We've shifted from a K-8 focus to college readiness."
  
• On teaching: "Everyone underestimates how hard it is to teach. Just open a pre-calc book. The stuff's hard!"

Pen and Paper vs. Pixels

Apparently high tech learning isn't a ticket to higher test scores.

At least that's what the federal government concluded today. According to a study issued by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (a research arm of the U.S. Department of Education), achievement scores were no higher in classrooms using reading and math software products than in classrooms without the new products. You can read the Associated Press (AP) story on it here.

According to the AP story, the report detailed the effectiveness of the products as a group and did not review the performance of particular programs. Interestingly, despite minor technical glitches, most of the teachers involved in the study said they'd use the software again.

Obviously, just because a lesson is delivered in pixels rather than on paper doesn't necessarily make it better. What do you think? How is your school using technology as a teaching tool?

Principal Realities

I ran across two interesting sets of data on the principalship today. Both reflect the difficulties of the profession and echo some of the same concerns our members have expressed.

The first finding comes from the Educational Research Service (ERS), which released its 2006-07 salary survey today. On the whole, the ERS found that principals and assistant principals are taking home 11.9 percent more in salary than they did five years ago, but that increase fails to keep up with the cost of living, which rose 13.8 percent during those same five years. Tables for elementary, middle and high school comparisons are all available on the NASSP Web site, as well as the full release about the study.

The second piece is a story I came across in the April/May issue of Edutopia, "Where have all the principals gone?" (pg. 48). Writer Jimmy Guterman explores why superintendents are struggling all over the country to find good leaders for this crucial school post. In his findings, Guterman cites an NAESP survey teachers' reasons for staying in the classroom rather than pursuing the principalship. Of note: 58 percent said the compensation was insufficient for the responsibilities of the job. Time (25 percent) and stress (23 percent) were also considerations.

What can be done to help principals lead more balanced lives? What sort of compensation models would you like to see? Should there be a National Board Certification compensation program for principals, like we have for teachers?

Pay for Performance

Principals in the Pittsburgh (PA) Public Schools will be on pay-for-performance contracts at the start of next school year, according to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The district won't necessarily eliminate across-the-board raises given to principals most years regardless of their performance, but it wants to offer an incentive system that will reward hard work, boost student achievement, and increase the number of effective principals in disadvantaged schools.

In Washington state, the Legislature is considering similar provisions for teachers, offering bonuses to its best educators who teach in high poverty, low achieving schools. Approximately $7.5 million has been set aside in Gov. Gregoire's budget for the program which would reward Nationally Board Certified Teachers.

Currently, board certified teachers get a $3,500 annual bonus. The governor's plan changes the bonus to a flat amount equal to 10 percent of the teacher's salary. It then adds a $5,000 if the teacher works in a school with 70 percent or more of the students qualify for free-and-reduced lunches. There's another $5K bonus if the teachers are certified in math and science.

The House has a nearly identical plan in its budget; the Senate does not include the provision for math and science.

There's little debate that attracting high quality teachers to struggling schools can boost achievement. But what implications does that have for administrators?

And should principals be given the same consideration?

Principal Ps & Qs

In today's wired, need-it-now, and overscheduled world, is there still room for manners?

Today I attended a lunch meeting sponsored by a local public relations group; the subject was business manners. Our speaker was a humorous and well-spoken woman named Stephanie Horton, the owner of Top Dog Etiquette. In just under 60 minutes, she covered about 20 topics, all related to manners and all easily applicable to schools. For example, true or false?

• It's OK to listen to your voicemail via the speakerphone. (False. It's disruptive and people can often still hear you, even with your office door closed.)
• E-mail thank you notes are acceptable. (True. A hand-written note is preferable, but an electronic thank you is OK. And it's never too late to say thank you!)
• It's not necessary to tell people they are on speakerphone. (False! It's common courtesy to let them know they are being heard aloud.)
  

For principals, who spend a lot of time meeting with families, community representatives and other key audiences, manners are essential. How you present yourself and your office matters, according to Horton, because it is an extension of who you are and the organization you represent.

Do you have a manners pet peeve you'd like to share?

Convention Reflections

It's the opening day of baseball season, the sun is shining and the NAESP Convention is coming to a quiet conclusion. That's quite a Monday!

I'm just tidying up after spending a great long weekend in Seattle. You can view some of my convention photos here. This was a great professional development opportunity for so many elementary and middle level administrators, and so nice to have it right here in Washington state.

I had the privilege of covering a session for NAESP's Convention News Online where principals from all over the world shared their concerns about the principalship. The good news: principals from the United Arab Emirates and Italy to Pennsylvania and Washington state are all grappling with the same issues (parental involvement, testing and principal certification, to name a few).

I'm still processing the conversation I shared with with four other principals who are avid bloggers (including two from Washington state -- Puyallup's Glenn Malone and Arturo Gonzalez). Joining us were Oklahoma's Dr. Jan Borelli and Arizona's Steve Poling. I was blown away by their creativity and excited at the possibilities blogs might have for others in our state. Arturo is a planning principal and is using blogs to talk about a new school. Others are using them for professional development with teachers and connecting with parents. It could be the next big thing in principal pro dev (if it isn't already!).

Did you know NAESP has their own blog, too?