Walk Like a Duck, Talk Like a Duck

Rewind the tape to last June, 2013. I was laying on my back after a recent back surgery when I received an email from a lady in the Admissions offices at Oregon University requesting me to join their Admissions Advisory Board. I was skeptical at first...I get a bunch of random junk-mail requests. After a few back and forth emails it was apparent they had recruited me (among other west coast principals) to the Admissions Advisory Board where I serve a 3 year term. The term includes 2 all expenses paid visits to OU a year to learn about their school and to share perspectives on college -readiness, student needs and ideas for the future.

Fast forward to last month (April, 2014). The weather was rainy but the hospitality was warm and inviting. I had the opportunity to hear from current Oregon University students during a luncheon, which included 3 former Huskies. They loved the family atmosphere of the school. They told me the professors really take the time to get to know the students and they are always accessible. Dorms are very close to classrooms and athletic facilities (the campus is actually very small in acreage). 

The staff members I met were very interested in how they could serve students better. All the principals on the board (most were from Oregon with a few from California, Hawaii and Colorado) were able to ask questions and share ideas--which was very refreshing. 

One highlight of my trip was hearing from the dean of their Honors College. He is an archeologist known all over the world as a leading researcher in Easter Island. Most of our questions were about Easter Island, as you can imagine, but he did go into great detail about what they are looking for from potential students to their program. They want students intellectually curious, who are problem solvers, good writers and can work with others. 

So if any of our students want to walk like a duck and talk like a duck...there you go...straight from the mouth of the Honor's College Dean of Oregon University. I look forward to my future visits to OU along with bringing home more OU gear for me and my family members (ha-ha).

The 13%ers

Reno High has graduated 87% of its students 3 years in a row--a model of consistency! However the trend in education is to graduate every single student in every subgroup category college and career ready. The hard work now begins.

So who are these students making up the 13% not graduating? According to our data, credit recovery efforts are helping students catch up after falling behind BUT we are seeing significant amounts of failures in core classes (math, English, science and social studies). In 2012, our data showed 86% of incoming sophomore passed all their core classes. Pretty good and aligned to our consistent grad rate. The problems begin during their sophomore year where we saw only 48% pass all their core classes last year.

Why do they fail? Polling teachers you hear things like a lack of "grit", "perseverance" and "effort". Besides work ethic, low academic skills also contribute to failing grades. If students lack skills, they will often disengage and not ask for help. To avoid embarrassment they may simply not do the work leading to poor grades.

We need to determine a diagnosis for every student failing. Once the problem is identified, we can try different treatments until hopefully one helps.  Will we be able to graduate every student? Of course not--but if we can help one more student, our efforts will be worth it.

We are currently drafting an action plan detailing 3 goals with multiple objectives, strategies and actions based on research to address our 13%ers. Stay tuned for details of the plan next month. 

The 13%ers are OUR kids.  We must be relentless in our efforts to support our low readers, students with learning disabilities, our economical disadvantaged, our second language learners and our kids who have simply given up because they don't have the mindset they can do it. 

We will continue to care for our kids and preach a strong work ethic. We will never quit and embrace the struggle to support our students.  We will offer feedback early and often in a pursuit of continual growth.  And most importantly we will approach this work with Respect, Honor and Strength. Who knows...maybe I'll be blogging about our 10%ers next year.

Think Like a Champion

In education and in life being successful can be difficult.  Many people quit on themselves or "settle" because they don't believe or it seems too difficult. The path is never smooth. I want young people to understand how much mental toughness plays a part in being successful. I have spent my life studying successful people--adopting traits along the way.  One common trait I have always noticed successful people possessing is a "never die, no excuses, I can do anything attitude".  They think like champions.

Mohammed Ali once explained he called himself the greatest before he knew it was true. You see it in sports and business. Now if we could get more students thinking like champions...that would be something! It's an inner belief, requiring perseverance, that you can achieve anything if you are willing to work at it. I saw a quote the other day, "You can't achieve million dollar dreams with minimum wage effort." This is so true. Impatience and taking short cuts will not get it done. Good things can happen but you can't rely on luck happening to you--make your own luck. 

Breaking down how a champion thinks is simple but very few people follow through. You have to be willing to be different. Study your schoolwork when friends are going out, shooting extra baskets in the gym when others play video games and taking care of your body when others poison their own to fit in or be cool.  This does not mean you can't fit in or that you must be aloof. It just means you have your priorities set and you are not willing to compromise them. When you are the one out working everybody else your chances of success increase. Whether it is being accepted to your dream university, acquiring your dream job (like I did) or simply passing that difficult class--thinking like a champion will get you there. 

It requires supreme self confidence-even if you fail once in awhile...which you will. It takes relentless hard work--don't quit...it's not supposed to be easy. Finally, you must be committed to your goal even when the people around you are not. If you can put yourself into this mindset and sustain it--you just might have a chance to achieve your goals. 

Champions understand the old saying: There is someone, somewhere who is out working you right now AND when you meet them, they will defeat you. So please be tough, believe in yourself and think like a champion!

Under The Dome Interview

Here is the interview students did with me on our school performance data. The interview was conducted about a month ago by two seniors, Tommy and Clark, who have created the student news program, Under the Dome, totally on their own using some of our Red House Project broadcasting equipment. I love their creativity and initiative!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPOqS8rZALs&feature=youtu.be

The Sheepdog Mentality

After the Sparks Middle School tragedy I found myself, like many of you, searching for answers. Why did this happen? Were there warning signs? Could it have been prevented? How can we make sure this doesn't happen at our school? All valid questions that may never be answered. One thing I do know is having a school full of sheepdog-minded staff can help.

The first time I heard this concept I was sitting in a school safety training with school police Sergeant Ray Price and Deputy Chief Jason Trevino (who were both at the time school police officers when I worked at Reed High and would drag me to every safety training they could find). The training was Bulletproof Mind presented by Ret Lt Col Dave Grossman. I was the only administrator among a room full of law enforcement officers. Grossman stated there are 3 types of people: the sheep (general mass), the wolves (the bad guys), and the sheep dogs (protectors of the sheep). Grossman explained we need more well trained sheepdogs to protect the sheep from the increased amount of wolves.  He encouraged police to train harder and more frequently. He wanted them to train in pressure situations and to carry their fire arm off duty to protect the innocent.

If you think about the traits of a sheepdog, they have to be proactive, observant, well trained and able to react quickly when needed to protect the herd. I would argue all staff members in a school need to develop these skills to the best of their individual ability. It is not a some of the time mindset...it is all of the time. I am not saying we be vigilantes or police officers. We all have different roles when it comes to school safety preparedness (administrators, teachers, secretaries, counselors, custodians) but we all must be aware of the safety procedures along with taking the drills serious every time.  One role may be as simple as your presence in the hallways during passing time.  Awareness of our roles and responsibilities is very important. We need to know who to report to when potential risks and other issues arise. We need to establish strong relationships built on communication with our students.  Having the ability to read body language is also very important.  As a school we've got to study what has happened other places, ask questions, and modify our policies and procedures.

It is easy for many of us working in a school to fall into a sheep mentality, relying on one or two sheepdogs to protect us while we go about our day. That's not enough. What if the sheepdog is pulled out of the building for a meeting? If we share this same awareness collectively in our school--we will be better prepared to protect our students and less likely to "freeze up" or panic.  If something were to happen, panic would inevitable set in (which is natural) but the level would be decreased because you would be prepared for what to do--keeping you focused on the tasks you have been trained to complete.

You just never know when you'll encounter a wolf, especially if they are dressed in sheep's clothing. Wolves attack the weak and stay away from resistance.  If you study school shootings you will find this trend to be true. The more staff we have thinking like a sheepdog the less chance a wolf will strike our herd.

Complacency is the Enemy

Over the past two months I have been fine tooth combing our School Performance Framework (SPF) or in layman's terms, our school rating. There are actually two rating systems, the State of Nevada's report and the Washoe County School District's report. The state report supersedes the district report meaning no matter what your district score is, it cannot be higher than the states. For example, you could have enough points to be a 4 Star school on the district rating but if the state has you at 3...you are a 3 Star school. Both ratings are chalk full of various statistics tied to a point scale ultimately determining a star rating ranging from 1 to 5.

So here we sit with a 4 Star rating for the second year in a row. What does it mean and where do we go from here. Areas to celebrate are: 

-We graduate 87% of our students-3rd year in a row

-50% of our students on IEP graduate with a regular diploma-district is 27%

-11th grade performance on the AP Exam is up from 79% to 85%

-49% of our graduates have an Honors or Advanced diploma

-We also saw gains in our first time proficiency test pass rates in science

Last month I spent a day with a group of staff analyzing our data. From that work session we were able to identify 3 key areas to focus on:

-Our sophomore students are struggling to pass their core classes. 10th graders typically pick up an academic class in place of their Freshmen Seminar support class, which they take in 9th grade. We suspect we have some sophomores who could benefit from additional support. Based on district data, only 43% of our sophomores passed ALL their core classes. Perhaps a Sophomore Success class is in order for certain students as well as an inquiry into the causes of the failures, (tests, homework, etc...).

-College Readiness is measured by Advanced Placement participation and performance. We score pretty high on performance (39% of graduates pass at least 1 AP test), but our district score suggests we need participation by more students. To address this issue, we added AP Pyschology this year and will be adding AP Geography and Computer Science next year. We want to incrementally provide more AP choices throughout our school day for students ready for the challenge.

-Finally, we want to continue to support our special populations of English Language Learners (ELL), special education students and students receiving Free and Reduced Lunch. We also want to be mindful of how specific demographic groups are performing. For example, we graduated 72% of our Hispanic students last year-down from 78% the year before. Right now though, only 48% of our Hispanic students are on pace to graduate-based on credits. This means these students need to catch up and may be part of our sophomore struggles. We are using a graduation initiative grant of over $55,000 to provide proficiency test after school support along with credit recovery options. We have hired a bilingual parent involvement staff person. Finally, we are continually modifying and improving how we provide special education supports at Reno High.

Make no mistake, we are a great school with a strong tradition of educational excellence. The challenge ahead is to be forward thinking and proactive about our work. The goal is to constantly improve. For me, it's not about the stars, it's about the students. Our urgency must be to self-assess and improve year to year. With a school like ours it is important to remind ourselves...complacency is the enemy! 

Dare to Be Different

It has never been said better than how my mentor and predesessor put it to our student body for 10 years. He dared them to be different...to create their own path in school. He wanted students to know it is cool to be smart at Reno High and that message continues to resonate with our students today. You know you have made your mark as a leader when the culture you helped establish self sustains itself when you are gone. Hiring an amazing staff and having great parents doesn't hurt either.

 I marvel everyday as I witness random acts of kindness. I see students picking up trash, opening doors and supporting each other at extracurricular events. The positive culture of our school can be felt as soon as you enter the building. I hear it from substitute teachers, community members and even our superintendent. You typically hear about teenagers getting positive attention from peers for negative behaviors like class disruptions, bullying, foul language and confrontation in the hallways. The days of class clowns and bullies ruling the school has been gone a long time.  Status and popularity from peers is earned through academic achievement, volunteerism and school spirit. The students police themselves. The upperclassmen teach the pups...and I've been at Reno High long enough to see this happen year after year. It's called tradition and it is very powerful.

I thank my predesessor for establishing the tone for Reno High School. He always dared the students to be different. It's not only ok to try hard in school...it's the cool thing to do. So let's not forget our tradition and our past. Let's support each other and always remember what makes us special. Work hard, be a good person and always...always believe in yourself.