I had an opportunity to talk with the PTO this week at their monthly meeting. Near the end of the meeting, after my regular principal's report, the question, "How does the state figure your school letter grade and what are you doing about it?" was asked. By way of answering that complicated question, I did my best to explain how our score is calculated based on averages of our AIMS and Stanford scores, how the state weighs the achievement of our lowest quartile of students more heavily than any other, and how our scores last year were not merely insufficient to earn us a "B" due to one cohort group's low achievement, but because our overall achievement wasn't sufficient to increase our score even if we'd made miraculous progress with our most challenging cohort group.
And then I told them, just as I've told you: I don't understand the state's formula well enough to make calculated and strategic plans to master its algorithm. I don't really "get" how to plan and teach "better" in order to go from say 68 percent success to 73 percent success, or whatever. I do "get" how to benchmark and track student achievement. And I also "get" how to use well-researched interventions to help students learn in smaller groups in areas where they've shown us they have a deficit. But as far as setting number/percentage kinds of goals and then teaching "better" to achieve them, I'm often left with little insight. To me, this part of the standardized-testing, student-achievement paradigm in which we now exist mostly feels like it's just a huge puzzle... and we've lost the box top... and we're just trying to fit pieces in here and there as we find them with no clue what the big-picture might really be.
What I nevertheless believe, however, is that we are all well-trained, highly-qualified, experienced educators with a job to do: passionately teach kids as best-we-can. I believe that Marshall is full of marvelous, hard-working professionals, an array of truly unique programs, and a host of other assets that belong only to us and exist for us to use to the benefit of all of our students.
So I told the PTO: we're going to continue to pay attention to test scores and student achievement. And we're going to plan and teach in order to improve our school letter grade next year. And we're going to do those things deliberately; we're not giving up! But instead of always thinking and talking and focusing on numbers, I'd like us to focus on Greatness instead. I told them that the posters all around the building are a small part of this. But, more to the point, I told the members of the PTO that it's one of my goals to try to remind you of your own Greatness on a regular basis, and also to tell you of my desire to see you to continue to strive toward an ever-greater standard for your own professional practice each and every day. I told them that I truly believe that by being committed to doing these things we will easily achieve what we've set out to do.
The riddle, the puzzle of our state's school letter grade rankings may be something we never fully understand. But you are great teachers. And, as fellow great-person Ed Gavagan says in the video below, "training, skill, and a little bit of luck pushes back against the chaos." I believe that, too.
Grab a Kleenex and watch it when you have a few minutes.
Calendar
- Monday, 08 Oct
- Coe at Admin Council, 1:00-4:00
- Wednesday, 10 Oct
- Picture Day!
- Thursday, 11 Oct
- Coe at Flagstaff Community Foundation, 10:00-2:00
- Friday, 12 Oct
- Flagstaff High School Homecoming Parade on Bonito St, 10:30
- End of Grading Period One
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