I ended last year with a blog about a community's support for its school. I begin this year with a blog in a similar vein. One week from tomorrow, most of the community will enter voting booths to decide the fate of the district's request for an increase in the excess levy. There is still time to become informed prior to having to make that decision. I urge all voters to seek out the answers to their questions prior to making their votes. Call the district office and ask the tough questions.

The reason for this advice? It is apparent that misinformation and misunderstanding still exists in the minds of some voters. I read a letter to the editor in the local paper that suggests this is true. The letter suggested that a $1000 tax bill was in the offing for property owners. For that to be true, the taxable market value of one's home would have to exceed $600,000. Also, this letter suggested that "our district is currently being funded quite handsomely through the normal channels" and "we just need more fiscal responsibility". An independent audit of the school district was recently completed. If one were to call the district office and ask to see the results of the audit, I'm not sure one would come to those same conclusions.

The Superintendent's blog talks about 21st Century skills for students. How will we be able to deliver those skills and keep students competitive if we can't retain staff and purchase new technology? Watch the video attached to Mr. Smith's blog. Ask yourself if we can continue with current funding and still produce the kind of results necessary for our kids to compete in the 21st Century.

The writer of that letter was right about one thing. This is about needs and wants. The community has to decide how much it needs to support its school and whether or not it wants the best possible educational opportunities for its students.

The Chicken or the Egg?

Continuing on the theme of promoting Rockford, I have to say I was troubled by a comment that was made during the community meeting I attended last night. I believe the comment was made by a well-meaning person and intended to provide insight into how we could garner more support for the school system. However, for me, it was similar to the debate over which came first, the chicken or the egg. I'm not going to be able to provide a direct quote, but essentially the comment was the school needs to "sell" the community on what a good job it's doing so that the community will want to support the school. Basically a comparison to how a salesperson makes a customer want to buy a product. Which comes first, community support for the school so the school can do great things, or the school doing great things so the community will provide support?

I understand the logic behind a salesperson needing to create a desire within a client that will drive that client to invest in the product and/or company. The customer starts with no investment in that company and must be "sold" on its value. I view the public school in a community in a different way. The residents of a school district are automatically invested because the school is located in their community. The community is not a collection of customers, but rather a collection of shareholders. As shareholders, the community should be supporting the school because they want the school to do great things, not waiting for the school to do great things before offering their support.

The residents of this district have shown they want to support this school system. As I have mentioned before, we have facilities that rival any of a district our size, and some even larger. That is a concrete demonstration of wanting the school to do great things. However, it's not enough to have great facilities, a district needs the proper funding to operate, to provide the quality learning experiences that will allow all students in the district to reach their full potential. Currently we don't have that proper funding. And, until the state legislators muster the will to provide adequate funding to all schools, it will be left to each community to make sure its school has what it needs to do great things.

I would like to believe that each community wants its school to be a great place for students to get a quality education and would do whatever it takes to see that is done. What could be more attractive to potential residents than a district that can boast, "We make sure our students have what they need to be prepared to compete in the 21st Century". Why wouldn't someone want to send their children to a district like that?

I guess I just want people to understand we're in this together. Not because you've jumped on a bandwagon based on something you saw in a newspaper, but because this is your school and you want it to be the best.

"Rockford Today"

This is the last blog entry that I'm going to begin with an apology for not keeping my blog more current. From now on I will assume that you know that I'm notorious for not consistently blogging and don't need to be reminded of that fact. I'll just thank you for taking the time to look at this blog and hope that you're pleasantly surprised to see a new entry.

At a recent meeting, the subject of perceptions of Rockford was discussed. Some feel that there are negative perceptions that exist about Rockford and the Rockford schools. This brought up some questions: Do we know why people would feel this way? How do we promote all of the positive things about Rockford and, in particular, the Rockford Area Schools to change that perception?

When discussing why the negative perception might exist it was mentioned that this negative perception existed a long time ago, and, if that's true, at what point would we stop referring to this negative perception as if it was some sort of black cloud hanging permanently over our heads. Perhaps it was time for us to stop focusing on the negative perception, which may not even continue to exist today, and move forward with a positive focus. Activities Director Michael Tauber used the term "Rockford Today". That hit home with me as a potentially effective positive promotional campaign.

When I first interviewed for the principal position at RHS in the summer of 2005, I wasn't very familiar with Rockford other than knowing a little bit about where it was and the size of the high school. Both pieces of information were, in my mind, positive. I was disappointed when I wasn't selected for the position. When the position opened again last spring, I was very hopeful that the second time would be the charm and very excited when I was offered the position. My time working here has only reinforced those positive feelings. Because of that, I agree with Mr. Tauber. We should begin the "Rockford Today" campaign.

For me, as high school principal, the campaign would emphasize the district's aims, goals, and measures, the dedicated staff, the excellent facilities, and the wonderful opportunities available to students.

To begin, I think the district's aims, goals, and measures identify a clear direction for the entire system. Everything that we do attempts to bring us to the realization of those goals. That attempt to steer everything in a common direction doesn't exist in all school systems. E-12, we are more "on the same page" than many districts. This is cause for celebration.

Also, we have a staff dedicated to the education of students. They are highly qualified, employ best practices in their teaching methodologies, accepting of change, willing to work to improve instruction, and interested in engaging students in learning. There are some very talented people working with the children of this district.

In addition, we have excellent facilities in this district. We have beautiful, well-maintained buildings with plenty of space. Not all places can make that claim. My previous district would love to have the space we have at our high school and they have twice as many students.

Finally, we can provide a wealth of opportunities for students when compared to most other districts. We can provide more options for students than schools of smaller size and we can provide a more personal touch and less competition for participation opportunities than can be offered by schools of larger size.

What this all means is exactly what I originally thought about Rockford, it's a great location and has a school in which I would love to work.

I think the "Rockford Today" campaign could help us attract more students to our district, which would, in my opinion, be mutually beneficial. A boost in enrollment would benefit us financially and the students would benefit from the things I previously mentioned. We could easily handle an increase of twenty-five students per class here at the high school without losing the benefits of our small size.

So, how do we roll out the campaign to retain our current students and attract new students? I'd welcome your suggestions.

Secrets of success

Often when I see students who end up in the office for misbehavior I bring up the subject of being successful at school. Without any scientific research, I'd say more than 90% of the students in our high school manage to navigate their four years here with very few difficulties. I think most schools would argue they have similar statistics. In my previous position, my colleague and I decided to provide students with four "steps to success". These four things were characteristics we believed were consistent among the ninety percent of students who were not having trouble at school. Those things were: respect others and yourself, attend class and be on time, complete your class work and work toward graduation, and have fun and get involved in school activities. Students who do those four things not only don't end up in the office for misbehavior, they actually do well academically.

At Rockford High School, we have taken this same idea and developed the "Rocket Rules for Success". We took the letters in the word "pride" and used each to identify a characteristic of successful students. Those characteristics are: Perseverance when faced with difficulties, Respect for oneself, others, and property, Involvement in school activities, Determination to do your best, and Engagement in the learning process.

I firmly believe that students can become whatever they wish and school holds the keys to open the doors to those opportunities. All one needs to do is be willing to take those keys and unlock the door.

Please encourage your students to exhibit Rocket "PRIDE".

Learning for the sake of learning

Happy New Year! My resolution is to try to come closer to my goal of weekly blogging than my past performance. Once again I apologize to those of you who have been faithfully coming here looking for new material only to find the same old blogs. Hopefully I can be better in 2008 than I was in 2007.

Today I was inspired to write because of two comments a teacher made in reference to one of his students. The teacher said, "(the student) is missing the point of learning ..." and "... can not force (the student) to learn." To me, this is the key to making improvements in our schools. I don't profess to have the answers, but I do have some thoughts.

The reason I believe this is the key to making improvements in our schools is because we have a segment of our student population that doesn't seem to grasp the reason for school. If those students were to grasp that reason, we would see improved performance, which, in turn, would result in improved test scores that would show improvement in our schools.

In addition, the acceptance of the reality that no one is able to force anyone else to learn something would, rightfully, place more responsibility on the students for their education. Students assuming that responsibility would result in improved performance which, once again, would result in demonstrable improvement in our schools.

Before you go thinking I'm putting all of this at the feet of the students, let me reassure you, there is room for better efforts from each of the three most important entities in a student's education: the student, the parents, and the school.

So, what could each us do that might help students see the relevance of education and assume responsibility for their education? The short answer is we need to work together and support one another to achieve the desired result. Here's how I think that collaboration should look:

The student comes to school with a plan for life after school. That plan acknowledges that, in today's world, life after school requires a high school diploma, and in most cases, education beyond high school. The plan should also acknowledge that, as Thomas Friedman writes in The World is Flat , success in the 21st Century world of work will require most people to be "adaptable, or able to learn how to learn". School, then, prepares one for entrance to post-secondary education, as well as teaches one how to learn so that future learning can be accomplished.
The parents work with the student on the plan. The parents help direct the student toward the career path for which their student is best suited. The parents expose the student to a variety of experiences related to career pathways to better help the student understand the pathway they would like to choose. A personal example would be my exposure to concrete construction as a high school and college student. I began to understand I wasn't interested in working so hard, physically, to earn a living. Also, the parents regularly communicate with their student and the school to monitor the student's academic progress, reinforcing the importance of that progress toward the success of the plan.
The school helps the student learn how to learn and provides relevant instruction to help the student maximize his/her potential. The school communicates with the parent and student to help formulate the plan as well as focus the efforts of the student toward the success of the plan. The school also exposes the student to a variety of courses to help the student better understand potential career pathways as well as produce a well-rounded education.

Too often, I think each of us in this equation fail to assume our responsibility in the success of each student. We all can share this blame. In Rockford, we're trying to address the plan by having students complete learning goals. At the high school, students have been given the opportunity to develop a goal for the 2007-08 school year. Parents will be asked to sign a copy of that goal and return it to school. I would ask parents to talk with their student about that goal. Hopefully this will be the start of a plan and hopefully it results in greater engagement of students in the learning process as well as success for each student.

I'm going to save some my other ideas on student success for future blogs, so stay tuned.

Those of you who have been faithfully reading these entries may remember a reference to "21st Century skills" in education. I just finished reading an article that referred to a recent poll conducted by a group called "Partnership for 21st Century Skills". That poll suggests that public opinion not only supports the teaching of "21st Century skills" but also feel schools aren't currently doing a good job teaching those skills. This begs the question, "What are 21st Century skills?"

During the last school board meeting, each school presented its building goals. The middle school, as one of its goals, is looking to define 21st Century skills. I expect similar discussions to take place at the high school. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) talks about skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, communication and self-direction, as well as computer and technology skills. To me, we, in education, should be incorporating technology into our instruction as well as expecting students to utilize technology in demonstrating knowledge and skills associated with our course content. Not just showing students how to use technology, but expecting them to be using that technology in the projects they complete for us.

The difficulty, for schools, in successfully teaching 21st century technology skills is that the technology is new for most instructors also and the advancements come so rapidly that it's tough, financially, to purchase the technology and keep it updated. At a recent school board meeting a representative from the company hired to do a technology audit in the district described some issues we have with our existing technology. He mentioned some of our "old" equipment. That equipment is seven years old. Technology is advancing so rapidly that seven years represents the lifetime of some equipment. In an environment where curriculum is updated on a seven-year cycle, we may not be able to keep pace with technological advancements.

I guess what I'm saying is, we all need to evaluate our situation. People want schools to use technology to help prepare students for success in the 21st century. Schools, in my opinion, want the same thing. I'm not sure people are ready to "put their money where their mouths are" by supporting the necessary funding to allow schools to do so. It takes money to provide time for training teachers to effectively utilize technology in their curriculum. It takes money to purchase equipment and keep it updated so students can effectively use technology in demonstrating knowledge and skills associated with course content. Collectively, we need to decide we are willing to fund schools appropriately to provide those opportunities. I don't think one can have a 21st century school with 20th century funding.

Motivation

As a member of the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP), I receive weekly updates regarding education news. This past Friday I received an update that contained a link to an article regarding students' college readiness. The Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE) issued a brief, using ACT information, that stated high school students are too often not prepared for college. They feel,
"high school standards, assessments, and course requirements are not aligned with those of colleges." Another quote from the article said,

"To prepare students for success in college, panelists said, teachers must
believe that all--and not just a few--students can succeed; make honors courses
available as electives for all students; create rigorous work assignments using
collaboration and problem-solving; teach reading comprehension and writing
skills; and, most of all, motivate students to achieve."

It's been my observation that motivating students to achieve may be the most difficult of those ideas for teachers. I also believe it's unfair to suggest that is the responsibility solely of the teachers.

Successful education of a child is the result of a partnership that is supported equally by the school, parent(s), and individual student. Without one of those participants, success is dramatically reduced. Teachers will have difficulty motivating students without the students and parents placing value on education and always doing one's best. We must all assume responsibility for our part in the educational process.

It appears that success in the 21st century workplace is going to require post-secondary education. To be prepared for post-secondary education, one needs to develop the tools for success while in the K-12 realm. So, I urge you, if you have a school-age child, make sure your child understands how much you value education and that, when it comes to school, you'll accept nothing less than your child's best efforts. More than likely that will go a long way to helping "motivate students to achieve."