Sisyphus & School Reform

BEST PRACTICES

Differentiated instructionEvidence-based practices

data-driven decision-making

Relational trust

Close achievement gaps

Professional development

Turnarounds

Collaboration

Welcome to the Cage

A System Built for Another Era

This Applies to Charters Too Personnel Policy

Given freedom to craft “agreements from scratch,” charters are “not as innovative as they might be” when it comes to evaluation, staffing, and compensation. – Mitch Price, Center on Reinventing Public Education

Teacher Certification“Charters can get caught up in the same regulations [as district schools]. When you talk about highly qualified teachers, for example, art and drama teachers are included. So we could get Peter Nero from the Philly Pops to come teach a music class, but he’s not certified—so we’re not allowed.” – David Hardy, CEO of Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School

The Hassle Factor“It’s hard to manage the voluminous requests made by OSSE and still have time to run a school . . . OSSE has fifty, sixty, maybe seventy people sending e-mails. We had to hire a general counsel specializing in special education just to respond and force OSSE to [back off]…They may not like being challenged, but it’s been necessary to maintain Friendship’s independence.” – Donald Hense, Friendship Public Charter School, Washington, DC

You Have to Scrub That Slate Clean

Leadership Has Two Halves

Instructiona

l

Cage-Busting

What Ed Leadership Experts Write About

Collabo

ration

Profes

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Culture

Regula

tion

Licen

sure

Negoti

ation

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Note: Combined mentions of these terms in Educational Leadership and Phi Delta Kappan from January 2009 to September 2012. Searches were performed using an in-text search.

Not Only Is the Cage Ignored…

Leading books on education leadership that never mention “union contract” or “collective bargaining.” What’s Worth Fighting For in the Principalship, Michael Fullan School Leadership That Works, Robert Marzano, Timothy Waters, and

Brian McNulty Rethinking Leadership, Thomas Sergiovanni The Shaping School Culture Fieldbook, Kent Peterson and Terrence

Deal Change Leader, Michael Fullan Leaders of Learning, Richard Dufour and Robert Marzano. What Great Principals Do Differently, Todd Whitaker Strengthening the Heartbeat, Thomas Sergiovanni Shaping School Culture, Terrence Deal and Kent Peterson Leading with Soul, Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal Reframing the Path to School Leadership, Lee Bolman and Terrence

Deal

Searches in this section were performed in May 2012 using the in-text search feature on Amazon.com.

…But Cage-Busting Is Often Belittled

“The worst thing to do is to write off apparently poor or mediocre teachers as dead wood, and seek easy administrative solutions in transfers or retirements.” – Fullan and Hargreaves, What’s Worth Fighting for in Your School

“Running a tight ship” is a “distortion of the goal of educating children.” – Drake and Roe, The Principalship

“Combin[ing] reform with major changes in the structure of the organization . . . is almost always a mistake.” – Ben Levin, How to Change 5000 Schools

Talent

Tools

Time

Money

Whaddya Got?

Rethinking Time

Rethinking Talent

Rethinking Money

Average teacher is absent 8 days per year

Cost per substitute teacher $125 per day

Cost per FTE per year $1,000 per FTE

(plus 8 days of lost learning…)

Too Many Charters Choose To Stay in the Cage

Despite the chance “to craft agreements from scratch…charter school contracts look quite similar to their district counterparts.” – Mitch Price, Center on Reinventing Public Education

The role of charter principals “ was not significantly different” from that of district principals. – National Center on School Choice, Vanderbilt University

2010 study found that most charters hire and pay staff much as local districts do. – Dana Brinson and Jacob Rosch, Public Impact

Solving Probs, Not Fixing Schools

Cage Bar Continuum

Things you can

already do

Things you can

do if you’re a

little creative

Things you can do if you alter little p policies

Things that you can do

only if you change big P

policies

Is That Bar Really There?

Combating the Culture of Can’t

Find Your Consigliere

Authorizers Need to Break Out of the Cage, Too

Be Precise“Sponsoring agencies, in general, required assessment

information on performance from charter schools… but often failed to specify any clear performance standards or consequences” - Wohlstetter & Griffin

Do More to Empower Educators“We need to do more things to empower passionate

educators [and] allow them to be successful in their schools, whether it’s a district school or a charter school. When we do that, we’ll have more good schools for kids.” - Greg Richmond

Think Outside the Cage“A quality authorizer is open to considering diverse

educational philosophies and approaches.” – NACSA Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing

“Reforms” Hit a Leadership Wall… Yet the Wall is Rarely

Examined Training &

socialization

Incentives & accountability

Culture, norms & practices

Advice for Cage-Busters

Cage-busting is not cage-fighting

Cage-busting is a complement, not a substitute

John Henry is not a role model

You don’t have to be a martyr

It’s Not About “Innovation,” Stupid

#cagebustingOn Twitter:@rickhess99

Book available: www.hepg.org www.Amazon.co

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E-Book available: www.hepg.org