What are the Drivers of a School Start Date?

I read Trace Pickering's arguments about Iowa start dates, and highly recommend it.  Local control really does go a long way in making the correct choices for a community.

But as we go through this discussion locally, let's take a minute to think about why we have a summer break in the first place.  Three seconds to get your answer.

WHY SCHEDULE OUR BREAKS AS WE DO?


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Did you answer agriculture?
I'll bet that's a common answer.  I have heard it at countless in-services.  But if you have a local community school, and you don't have an ag system, why do you still start after August 1?

Because it is the wrong assumption and it has been made a scapegoat.  Agriculture involves less than 3% of the population. Pesticides and big round bales have replaced much of the manual work that used to be done with teen labor.

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Consider the other drivers when you have this discussion:

• Weather.  School buildings are designed with relatively low insulation value, which is not helpful for AC.  There's a reason for that--crowd 150 kids into a building day after day and there's a residual heat buildup.  Any teacher can tell you Monday morning temperatures in a building are less than Friday morning.
• Youth Activities.   IHSAA and IHSGAU set the practice dates for fall sports, and they have moved up, as have school calendars.  However, we have club sports, college camps, and the Iowa Games. County fairs,wim team, little league, summer town celebrations, summer camps also play a part in the vision. Summer is the logical time for many of these and a great example of long-tail learning. 
• Vacations.  This is a driver, but less than one would think.   One good argument for an early start date is actually the fact that families pull kids out of school for vacation whether school is in session or not.  Family time trumps school time in the eyes of most stakeholders.
• Higher Learning.  Want highly educated educators?  Set your school schedule around the times when the classes are available. Most advanced degrees still have an on-campus requirement for part of the process.  Have Iowa colleges and universities weighed in on this?  If we are honest, schools should be streamlined to work with them in an era of concurrent-enrollment/senior year plus.
• Facilities Management.  Visit a school during the summer and see how things are moved around, disrupted.   I am sure much of this could be scheduled during breaks, but this work is a source of income for young people as well.   Maintenance staff paradigm shifts take education and careful scheduling.
• Lack of Stakeholder Involvement. Many administrative teams make the calendar and give it to the board.  Sometimes they give the teachers a choice of one or two calendars in advance.  But there is almost no parent, community, or student stakeholder involvement.  Why do we make decisions for kids that involve large chunks of their life in a authority-knows-best manner?   How about an open meeting to ask for that input and leadership?

Kids can learn whenever we give them the chance. It's a local decision.  But it is also a statement of what your community values.  Think about it.

The Internet Misinformation Virus

photo credit: TedRheingold via photopin cc

This headline made me laugh.  But is also gave me pause.  Because it is easy enough to see the fear virus in education.

 It's easily transmitted through the Internet of Misinformation.

I have spent this summer looking at a topic that is a vocal view of very conservative people.  It is based in a belief that the Common Core is a Social Evil and you are the unintentional victim of mind control. Don't believe it? Check these articles designed to quash the Common Core.  Why? Because it is, in their eyes, an affront to their freedom, federal control of education, buying education by the Gates Foundation, an attack on their religion, spreading Marxism, and data mining akin to the mark of the beast. They are passionate about what they believe, which is one of the reasons they fought hard for homeschooling in Iowa in the last year.

I believe in freedom of speech, and I have had some lively discussions, but I don't agree.

That is why I appreciated seeing Conservatives for the Common Core  (@CFHStandards) come out with a website to in support of the initiative, using the names of @TerryBranstad and Mike Huckabee as supporters.  If nothing else, take a look at the Myth vs. Fact section.

Because all of us will encounter this at some point.  And if we believe in our curriculum, and Iowa Education, we should be educated enough to be able to answer.

Questions for the Interview

I saw in the recent Des Moines Register article that 26 people have applied for the spot vacated by @COjasonglass at the top of the Iowa DE.   I don't know any of these people personally.

Here's my point:

Here are a few questions I hope the interview team uses to make that treat more likely. And if the candidates can't answer them, they are not right for Iowa education.  That's not a trick..it is just honesty.

1. Name three people in your social media personal learning network or sphere of influence.
2. Is it the job of Iowa to transform or reform its schools?
3. How should Iowa address its bandwidth problem to help ALL students succeed?
4. Do you believe all kids can learn?  What strategies does Iowa need to implement to help that succeed?
5. Is leadership a permissive ladder or a collaborative jungle gym?
6. How do you build consensus in a divided governement?

=========Hints/Study Guide==================

1. The world has shifted, and it's not towards the philosophy of Parent-Knows-Best.  Wisdom is to be found everywhere, and Iowa educators and national gurus abound on social media.  Their perspective is where you can create an impetus for change, because going it alone is not an option.  
2. We've been reforming education since the time of Dewey to improve the factory model. But we aren't raising kids for factory work.  Education MUST transform and we need collaborative leadership to make it happen.
3. Technology concerns are one thing, but bandwidth limits are real, and a detriment to poor and rural students, as well as to #byod efforts at local buildings.  We must advocate in education to fix that via government just as much as we advocate for the current dream of #stem.
4. If you don't believe all kids can learn, and I DO mean ALL, please don't take this post. Ultimately what we do is for the kids, not for the adults.  There are student-centered efforts out there, and half-implemented ideas like #rti and #online and #communitiesofpractice to make this work.
5. If your degree makes you 'smarter' than me, then you belong in a place with submissive, un-empowered workers.  Social media has changed that.  Jason Glass' openness changed that.  We all have a voice, and experiences that shape our perspective.  Your degree gave you a skill set and mine gave me another, but I didn't stay in the classroom because I was unqualified.  I just felt my skill set helped me reach kids there more easily.  Listen.
6. Iowa education was a political football for more than four months this past year.  Kids suffered.  Budgets suffered.  And teachers are demoralized.  What win-win solutions can you deliver as head of the DE?  We really would appreciate that type of treat coming to Iowa kids and passionate educators.

Kids get home from trick-or-treating and they sort their goodies into categories.  I don't want to do that, but I do hope to see a good treat at the end of the process.

Five Challenges to Iowa Education

It's that time of summer where I become a bit reflective about Iowa education as a whole.  For the last two summers, it's been big news, with @COjasonglass promoting different ideas on a state level, but this summer is different, as the #iacomped conference seems a bit muted.  Here are some things that are on my mind.

Teacher Leaders

I really wonder where this model will go after its adoption by the Legislature.  Because the real Teacher Leaders are often NOT the people the staff loves and cherishes.  In making their classrooms vibrant and  student-centered, they have upset the status quo.  I had this conversation back in February, talking about resistance to innovation in schools.  Systems self-perpetuate, unless the guidelines for change are  specific and Districts are held accountable.  Just not sure how how that will work, but here's a starting point.  Whatever teacher leader system your district adopts must utilize parent input and student input.  Those stakeholders can tell you, straight up, what works for them and who helps them find relevant learning.

Jump on the Bandwagon PD

The quality PD I have had in my career has not come from top-down structures, which tend to be reactive structures. No, the best learnings have come from personal networks on a social media or a building level.  Building level PD is decided jointly by building-level leadership teams of administrators and teacher, or led by teams of autonomous teachers who decided to make a difference.  I often wonder if we gathered survey data from our teachers on the previous year's PD what it would tell us, and how leadership would respond. PD is not often differentiated for the needs of various teachers, who should be astute enough to tell leadership what they need individually.  How can your District change that?  Here's a sample idea, courtesy of Edutopia.

Transform, not Reform

I used to think that PLCs would be a game changer, because it should allow us to focus on student achievement, but after listening to so many teachers across the state, it appears that many PLCs are focused on administrative tasks that reform the way we have always done business.  And that's a concern, because until we start to transform education, through #gamification or #pbl or #geniushour or #longtaillearning or #competency or kids will continue to be bored.  PLCs appear to be the meeting de jour, rather than the more valuable Community of Practice that we really need to be seeking.  Not sure of that?  Check out the comparison and what duFour has to say on the issue.

STEM as a part of scientific thinking

I love STEM or STE(A)M, and I accept the fact that not everyone has the deep conceptual background to develop their own product from the ground up, but a large amount of what STEM education purports to be is simply an engineering add-on, at the expense of current science and math initiatives.  IF you are are redesigning your science courses, or integrating STEM products into currently existing courses, kudos!  IF you are hiring new teachers to enhance gaps in the curriculum because you have realized the value of a certain STEM program, that's awesome.   But often, we are cutting teachers current loads and adding on a class, as a reform, not a transformation. It's time to really think about that as the Next-Generation Science Standards roll out. It's time to believe that all kids can learn science, but not all in the same depth or differentiation. To see what I mean, take the time to read Appendix K and think about the implications for your school.

Online pacing

Iowa, we're behind.  We still develop curriculum in isolation.  Iowa Learning Online has helped make things better and provides a cadre of well-trained online coaches and a lot of 9-12 options.   The IACOPI project brought blended learning into the forefront.   And things like the CAM  K-12 and the Clayton Ridge K-6 online programs are a start, have helped some students, and have been better options than workbooks (and yes, Scott McLeod was right, even though it took me a while to see it.)

On the horizon are things like Project BIG and the AGORA to allow collaborations beyond strictly defined locations or content boundaries.  But we have shrinking district size, small pools of qualified teachers, and a lot to do. We either need a huge pool of money (the average teacher cost in Iowa is $49K + benefits) way beyond what the Legislature adopted for Iowa Learning Online or some creative thinking.  Where are the courses for kids who have a need for online credit recovery out-of-district--with an anytime/anywhere start date?  Where are the classes for low-income kids who cannot afford an APEX course, or who are ill, or whose parents decide mid-year to do something differently?  Right now, you can get anything online you want--at a price.  Our online expansion has to include thinking differently.  We need to develop shared K-8 emphases for G/T kids and kids who prefer a holistic approach.  How are we going to do that?  If there are only five kids in each district across Iowa who have a need like this, that is a lot of students.   We need our teachers to look at Evan Abbey and his work with Iowa PD Online, but we need a visionary leader as well.


We have about five weeks before the next round of schooling starts.   And the conversations are critical to a changing ecosystem of learning.