AP Insight - December 2011
Vol. 4, Issue 2
I recently updated the operating system on my iPhone and iPad so I could use the new iCloud technology that would make it possible to seamlessly sync all my devices. Then I discovered I had to also update my Mac’s operating system. Yes, upgrades are easier than they used to be, but it takes time and something might go wrong—and, to be honest, I simply didn’t feel like it. After some internal debate, I decided that the benefits outweighed the risks. So I spent the next few hours on the update, and I’m glad I did.
If we school leaders want to increase our capacity and improve the performance of our students, we will need to upgrade our operating system—our mindset. The attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, and expectations that served us well in a time when we were sorting students for success will not serve us well in a time in which we are expected to prepare each student to be college and career ready. Different goals demand new operating systems. A leader with the right mindset is unstoppable; a leader with a fixed mindset can be deterred by the slightest distraction.
In this issue of AP Insight, we will prepare ourselves to begin a new calendar year by changing our current mindset and beginning the process of upgrading our operating systems to meet the college and career-readiness challenges posed by the coming Common Core State Standards and assessments.
The NASSP Store is offering AP Insight readers a 20% discount on the book, Breaking Ranks: The Comprehensive Framework for School Improvement. Use promotion code AP1211 by December 23, 2011, to receive your discount (applies to online orders only).
Mel Riddile
NASSP Associate Director of High School Services
Kids Get Smarter
A recently published study highlighted in the Wall Street Journal challenges our beliefs about the brain and intelligence. Essentially, the study confirms that “a young person's intelligence measure isn't as fixed as once thought.” Students only get smarter if they are actively engaged. We know that students are engaged when they are actively interacting with the teacher and other students relative to the content of the lesson. They are learning when they are doing, not when the teacher is doing. In too many classrooms, too many students sit passively while the teacher works. Obedience and compliance are not engagement. Our teachers need to watch while their students work!
Mistakes Help Our Students Learn Faster
In Why Do Some People Learn Faster? from Wired Magazine, Jonah Lehrer explains that “people learn how to get it right by getting it wrong again and again.” He’s right. Education is not a zero-sum game. Learning is a process, not an event. It is our responsibility to create the kind of school culture in which making mistakes is acceptable, but the failure to correct those mistakes is unacceptable. We want all, not some, students to master a defined set of standards, and our teaching, learning, and grading practices must be congruent with that outcome. The old assembly line, “some will, some won’t, so what” approach worked extremely well for sorting students for success, but makes no sense today when we want all students college and career ready.
Schools Can Increase Student Willpower
According to the New York Times, research conducted by psychologists Carol Dweck and Veronika Job confirms that willpower can indeed be quite limited—but only if we believe it is. When people believe that willpower is fixed and limited, their willpower is easily depleted. But when people believe that willpower is self-renewing—that when you work hard, you’re energized to work more; that when you’ve resisted one temptation, you can better resist the next one—then people successfully exert more willpower.
It turns out that willpower is in our heads. Students learn what we teach them. Students learn from our every word and, most of all, from our behavior—actions speak louder than words. We can teach our students that their achievement is the result of their work and effort, not their ability. We can teach students to never give up by never giving up on them. Our vision should be for our students to say “in this school, the teachers won’t let you fail. The teachers here never give up on you.”
Sleep: Time for Schools to Wake Up
If we are really serious about student achievement and improving student behavior, we must get serious about how much sleep our students get each night. Three articles go into depth about the detrimental impact that a lack of sleep can have on adolescents:
- I give my take on school start time on the Principal Difference blog.
- Science Direct provides an abstract of the results of a Center for Disease Control study, Relationships Between Hours of Sleep and Health-Risk Behaviors in US Adolescent Students.
- Education Week highlights parents’ responsibilities for preventing sleep loss.
NASSP News
iPad Training for School Leaders
Join your colleagues in Reston, VA, on February 20 or February 21, 2012, to discover how an iPad can help you become a more effective school leader. Training will be provided on the most valuable functions for educators, including: observations, evaluations, data collection, IEP checklists, research, news, and more. Registration includes a 16GB, 3G-ready iPad2, or you can bring your own. Seating is limited and the January workshops sold-out, so register soon.
Apply Now for the NASSP Dissertation Award
NASSP is now accepting applications and dissertation abstracts for the NASSP Dr. Ted Sizer dissertation competition. The awards seek to recognize outstanding dissertations focused on leadership research at the middle and high school levels. Open to doctoral students who have completed and successfully defended their dissertation between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011, the deadline to apply is January 12, 2012. Questions can be directed to Carolyn Glascock or 800-253-7746, ext. 202.
Register for the Conference and Enter to Win a Cruise!
Register for the NASSP Breaking Ranks K-12 Conference by January 20, 2012, and you could win a four-day cruise for two on one of Carnival Cruise Lines' ships. The lucky winner can choose a sailing through May 6, 2013, out of popular ports such as Tampa, Miami, Los Angeles, and more. Treat yourself or a deserving staff member—it's transferable.