Moving forward....

That's a necessity in schools today. The federal government through No Child Left Behind is mandating moving forward. There are stipulations on what moving forward means through NCLB, but is that what's best for education??

I don't think this is the case. I do however wonder what will create urgency within schools, administrators, and teachers. If you do much research on implementing change in any organization one of the key components is creating urgency within the system. As a new school administrator, I've spent the first 3 months getting to know our system. I've spent lots of time getting to know students, parents, community members, teachers, AEA personal, and other administrators in our district. I've also looked at what we're doing well and what we need to improve upon. To get our school moving forward, I need to work to instill a feeling of urgency with teachers. This hasn't been done yet..

My plan for the next quarter is to begin to challenge them even more. I've begun the ground work of focusing on student learning. Each teacher needs to focus on student learning rather than instruction. We are beginning to focus on providing supplemental activities for our students, but the next step is identifying which students need help in what areas. Utilizing formative assessments to gauge student understanding is key and will be part of our focus. In January, Matt Townsley and I will be presenting to district staff about formative assessment. I hope to have started the discussion on what formative assessment is and how we can use it by then!

As you look at your school, what areas need to change? What hurdles must be overcome for student learning to increase???