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For extra credit, click on the Big Blue Button to retrieve your ticket.

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Include video/gif
Create a poem
Link a website that relates
Famous person/hero connection
Music connections

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Choosing your Lead Measures takes time - They should be prescriptive

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Choosing your Lead Measures takes time - They should be prescriptive

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There are 2 types of Lead Measures
1) Small Outcome
-Focuses on results, but the team has latitude in choosing actions
2) Leveraged Behavior
-The entire team focuses on the same measured behaviors

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Acting on LEAD Measures is the topic of Installing Discipline 2. Identifying the few activities that will have the most impact on your WIG is a process that requires you to identify both Small outcomes and Leveraged Behaviors both drive results. This is a 4 step process... 1. Consider the possibilities 2. Rank by Impact, 3. Test Top Ideas and 4. Define Lead Measures.

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Is a Builder tool that you can list your Wildy Important Goal, note brainstorm ideas and methods, rank it's impact on the WIG, test your ideas and then write your final lead measures.

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"Lead measures can be counter intuitive"

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"Lead measures can be counter intuitive"

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I think of sites measuring success by increasing test scores which is really a lag measure.

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Two types of Lead Measures are equally valid applications of Discipline 2

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Two types of Lead Measures are equally valid applications of Discipline 2

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Determine which type is best for YOUR TEAM

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Focus on the KISS method - Keep It Super Simple. There is no need for fluff in the Lead measure - Just state what the actions will be.

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a Clear WIG with a defined finish line, but also carefully constructed lead measures will achieve the WIG, and is often the most executable plan you could make

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Lead measures track behaviors which is harder than tracking results

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Demand precise focus on a certain behavior which might look insignificant.

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Measuring a Teachers Effectiveness goes Beyond Test Scores

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Measuring a Teachers Effectiveness goes Beyond Test Scores

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At the end of a school year, there are so many measurements which could indicate that a teacher was "effective" -- graduation rates, grades, test scores -- quantifiable and ostensibly objective. Whether a teacher was effective must definitely be measured by how much his/her students' learning increased over a period of time, but it can not be the only measurement.

This year, I have a simple formula to categorize an effective teacher, based on a very raw maternal assessment, but perhaps that's the best kind. I know without a doubt that my son had a very effective first grade teacher at his Oakland public school this year. And I have the evidence. Here it is:

#1. The "data" overflows from two paper shopping bags and demonstrates his learning over the year. An array of writing shows how in the beginning of September, he couldn't really write a sentence, but by February, he was writing paragraphs. His math assessments show increasing mastery of skills and concepts. But most importantly, he can sort through the piles and recognize his own growth and talk about his process of learning. My takeaway: The student of an effective teacher has documentation of learning over a course of time and can explain it.

#2. A secondary pile of data took the form of creative and artistic projects that his teacher integrated into content areas, especially into their study of science. This spring, they did an intensive project on the seashore and used a variety of materials to create all kinds of creatures and representations. They wrote in a half a dozen genres (poetry, short stories, and expository) and conducted experiments. But in the bags there was more evidence of this learning: a cardboard loom with a yarn weaving, a batik, ink prints, handmade paper, watercolor paintings, handmade books, a paper mache globe, and a series of haikus. In summary: An effective teacher integrates the arts into content areas and gives students experiences with a range of media.

#3. All this concrete evidence is good, and then there was this, on the second day of summer vacation: "I'm kind of glad it's vacation and kind of not because I already miss my friends and I'm really going to miss Ms. ____." This statement was not an anomaly to how he spoke about his teacher this year. Consistently, his feelings about her were positive -- and I knew the feeling was mutual. As both a mother and teacher, this is an equally important measurement of effectiveness: An effective teacher likes her students and her students like her.

Big surprise! I knew all of this already! During my 12 years teaching, I worked to develop my capacity at ensuring that my students could cite their growth in learning, I integrated the arts and met different learning styles, and I always liked my kids. Yet this year, I came to value the qualities of an effective teacher in a different way than I have before because this was the first year that my son had a truly fantastic teacher and I felt constantly grateful. It's such a different (and scary) experience being on this side of the education equation -- the side where it's your baby that you're sending off to a stranger everyday.

Valuing Qualitative Data

The question that's burning in my mind at the end of this year is how we, as parents and teachers, can continue insisting that these other qualities be valued as much as testing data. They're hard to measure and tedious to gather the indicators, but we could start with inviting children to share their feelings and reflections more often.

Here's what my son just blurted out when I asked him why Ms. ____ is a good teacher:

"She's a good teacher because she takes us on really fun field trips, she had fun projects that we did, she sang the silly birthday song to me, she taught me a little bit of multiplication, she gave me challenging work, she taught me interesting stuff that I had never known before, she taught me how to read fluently, and she read me great stories."

If in one quick response a seven-year-old can cite engagement, kindness, and community building, rigor and high expectations, skill development and relevancy as indicators of an effective teacher, then imagine what kids might say if we gave more of them a chance to share their assessments of their teachers on a regular basis. That data would speak volumes.

And, I just discovered, such an endeavor is planned in the Memphis, Tennessee schools where student feedback will constitute 5 percent of a teacher's evaluation. If it's done well, I'll be a big fan.

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Measuring a Teacher's Effectiveness Goes Beyond Test Scores

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At the end of a school year, there are so many measurements which could indicate that a teacher was "effective" -- graduation rates, grades, test scores -- quantifiable and ostensibly objective. Whether a teacher was effective must definitely be measured by how much his/her students' learning increased over a period of time, but it can not be the only measurement.

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Lead measures can be powerful in part because they are tied to behaviors

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Lead measures can be powerful in part because they are tied to behaviors

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Sometimes that does bring a challenge of how best to measure them.

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Lead measure is an action we believe we can do to influence the LAG.

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Lead measure is an action we believe we can do to influence the LAG.

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We are so often using data points for past events in order to shape our knowledge and lay the foundation for refinement it is often hard to switch that focus to Lead measures instead to influence what is in front of us.

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This was a good reminder today that the lead measures act like a lever - we can move the rock - we are influencers

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Lead measures connect the real work to the Wildly Important Goal which can often get lost in the whirlwind of our daily routines.