Last week I had a chance to talk with a school principal about his school improvement plan. His leadership team had just read the schools state report and built a strategic plan for raising their score to the goal that have been set for them by the state. The principal

Educational Directions is a consulting company that works with states, school districts, and individual schools to support student growth as learner and student growth as performer. We usually tie that support to test scores, school and district accountability, etc. As a part of our work with states, districts, and schools,

I admit that when I was a building administrator, and I thought about the end of the school year I concentrated on planning to avoid casualties. I missed opportunities to be a more effective academic leader in pursuit of survival. I know now that there are number of things academic

A core component of Educational Directions is the “Rhythm of  the Learner Year” – ROLY. This approach emphasizes that proficient performance by all students requires a focus on high-level student engagement in optimum learner and performer work. In addition, it emphasizes that the level and nature of this work changes

During the Opening of School and the Formative Period of the Learner Year, teachers focused on preparing students with the minimum competencies needed for success and on building student potential as learner. In the next period – the Calibrating Period – the focus is on building proficient performers (i.e., students

From the start of school through December, the focus for academic leaders has been the development of proficient learners. Ed Directions coaches emphasize that during the Formative Period, student potential can be increased dramatically if they are taught how to learn and not just what to learn. Academic leaders were

Once the school leadership team has completed the data mining and goal setting parts of academic leadership, their tasks expanded to include planning for the opening of school and assessing “readiness.” By July, most schools have a school improvement plan (SIP), but frequently, the plans have been developed without the

Years ago, teachers used to talk about the “big” learning months – September, October, January, February, and March – because these months offered large blocks of time for uninterrupted teaching and learning. As more research became available on the topic of how students learn, the importance of these months was

The Academic Leadership Year – The July Period (Part Six) If leadership has done adequate pre-planning and provided teachers with time to collect and organize their data by the end of July, teachers can begin intentionally developing course, unit, and lesson plans that are designed to move their students towards

Years ago, teachers used to talk about the “big” learning months – September, October, January, February, and March – because these months offered large blocks of time for uninterrupted teaching and learning. As more research became available on the topic of how students learn, the importance of these months was

Once schools know the number of students needed for success, their next step would be to identify the teachers of the assessed areas and their students. In the past, Ed Directions’ coaches have looked at multiple years’ scores in content areas to determine: 1) Were they successful last year? and

When working with underperforming schools, Ed Directions’ coaches always emphasize that a school cannot improve scores by setting out to improve scores. In our approach to school improvement, we emphasize that to improve scores, you must improve individual students as learners and performers. This is not an attempt to de-emphasize

In states with more detailed district and school reports, we can carry our analysis to another level. In states that offer information on individual student performance, or in a best case scenario the actual student work and how it was scored, we can connect more dots and begin to speculate

Once we have established where students are expected to be as learners and performers by the time they take a test or transition to the next year – we then facilitate the school’s analysis of current status. This can vary from state to state depending on the nature of, and

There are lots of things for school leaders to do between the time students leave school to the time they return for the next year, and they are all important. Some of these things relate to personal survival (e.g. vacation time, personal professional development, etc.). Many relate to management responsibilities