“The United States is now the only industrial country where young people are less likely than their parents to earn a diploma” The Report
At Leadership Matters we are experienced in High School reform in urban settings. Our reform model is based on the best practices, research outcomes and 30 years of practical experiences in schools. Our aim is to help you achieve your goals for your students.
“Running a charter school poses different challenges from those of running a traditional public school. Set against this dedication to mission are the many practical and administrative requirements for managing a charter school.” The High-Wire Job Of Charter School Leadership, Campbell,Gross and Lake
Leadership Matters is experienced in the establishment and oversight of Charter Schools. We understand the unique nature of striving to maintain the spirit of independence while fulfilling the school mission and meeting the state requirements.
Today’s schools are challenged to accelerate learning for “at risk” students. Leadership Matters has a proven school based program to do just that. Districts using this model report jumps from 40% to 60% proficient on state exams in one year.* The program’s strength is in the fact that by changing the culture of the school it creates the basis for long term increases in student achievement levels.
I just completed my first “state visit’ as CAO for a local foundation that supports charter schools. It was a compliance audit. Basically the school compiled a variety of documents in a variety of non academic areas relating to teacher certification, recruitment, demographics and the like. It amazed me how many man hours went into preparation for this routine audit that had nothing explicitly to do with teaching and learning. The preparation of documents, particularly those like teacher certification that are available on line seemed unnecessary. Not that I am opposed to audits, site visits, or any context based accountability measure. They are potentially more authentic than an annual report or some similar paper report. Yet, the reliance on complied paper to authenticate practice seems outdate if not unnecessary in the 21st century. I think the availability and use of technology to compile store and display data is available. The challenge is to figure out exactly what to capture and engage teachers in recording the data that is captured. I think this is an easy problem to solve. There are companies like Teachscape far more adept at that conversation than me, Instead, I would like to suggest how to prepare for the context of an audit.
Research has shown that all students can learn. Unfortunately, as students progress through the years, many fall behind their peers, losing the motivation to learn. As a principal I used January to focus school-wide attention on students at risk for failure. When teachers returned from winter recess I handed them a form requesting a list of their “at risk” students specifically those who most likely to fail that year. The form asked each teacher to identify a reason for the potential failure such as poor attendance, poor behavior, failure to complete assignments and inability to do grade level work. Teachers could request a meeting to discuss their more baffling students.
Americans are intrigued by numbers. We love polls, surveys and statistics. Every TV ad from cars to lipstick quotes some 9 out of 10 survey result. No surprise that the latest wave of school reform is all about numbers called data. Sounds serious and sexy at the same time. Unfortunately data are just numbers about how kids perform on a given test on a given day. They don’t measure the number of substitutes had that year or the number of acting out disruptions the teacher handled, never getting to that all important geometry concept. The numbers don’t show the progress of the same students from a year ago or the skills mastered but not measured.