Author Archives: Carol Wetzel

The Essential: Strategies Click into Place

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This month’s JSD is just out of sight!  It’s focus is on implementation, one of the standards for professional learning designed by Learning Forward.  One particular stand out article is titled, Strategies Click into Place.  Online resources translate research to practice.  This article highlights a super valuable resource from the Doing What Works initiative, (from the IES’s (Institute of Education Sciences) What Works Clearinghouse sponsored by the Federal Dept of Education).  If you want to jump right to it the website the URL is http://dww.ed.gov.

Before I review the article, let’s start with page 8 of the April 2012 JSD where Learning Forward reiterates Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers (2002) seminal research that outlines four components to professional learning design.

Component One: Adults need to learn theory
Component Two: They need to see the theory or practice demonstrated
Component Three: They need to practice the new practice with input and feedback
Component Four: They need expert or peer coaching for ongoing support of implementation of practice. Along this continuum the thing that really triggers transfer of knowledge and skills into practice is coaching, but you need all four components of professional learning to get 95% transference to kids, e.g. execution of the new practice.

Given that, we all need to check out http://dww.ed.gov and here’s why.  What they have done is provide a four step adult learning cycle that can be done alone or in a PLC.  First you pick a high yield practice in the areas of data driven improvement, quality teaching, literacy, math and science, comprehensive support (such as drop out prevention and behavior issues) and early childhood development.  Then you follow the four step process:

  1. Practice Summary: Gain an overview of a practice & see the issues it addresses.
  2. Learn What Works: Learn about the research basis for this practice and key concepts.  You can also listen and watch expert interviews.  I visualize educators getting the theory (Joyce and Showers’ step one in adult learning theory) on their own or in PLCs.
  3. See How it Works: This is where teachers can view school site videos and slideshows.  They can watch interviews and sample materials from schools. (Joyce and Showers’s step two, “see” the theory or practice demonstrated)
  4. Do What Works: This is where the Doing What Works website provides ideas for action and the tools and templates necessary to implement practices – practice makes perfect!  Now the individual or PLC members have to take the ideas and tools and make them actionable (Joyce and Showers’ steps three and four where individuals or groups intentionally practice the research based pedagogy and provide each other expert and or peer feedback)

I can’t stress enough the need for districts to structure the school day so that teachers have common planning time to engage in this kind of methodology and practice.  I imagine teams looking at their student data and saying, collectively or in small groups we need professional learning on X. Then deciding whether they want to Learn What Works and See What Works on their own or during PLC time.  Regardless of the methodology of gaining knowledge in theory and seeing it played out in a classroom on the DWW website, the individual or group will need to come back together to practice the new concepts and skills in their classrooms and receive feedback so that the coaching aspect is instituted and we get actual transference of new concepts and skills to classroom practice.

No common planning time or release time for coaching and providing each other feedback on how new practices are playing out in our classrooms?  Another great article in April’s JSD is on page 18 titled, Record, Replay and Reflect where teachers are using simple tools such as their iPhones to record a lesson and then play it back to either self reflect or have a peer watch and provide feedback during individual planning time.  The article provides the questions observers should consider when observing video taped lessons, e.g. as you watch your students, what questions should you ask and as you watch yourself or a peer, what questions should you ask.  Great stuff!  I look forward to your thoughts.  C

The Essential Strategic Thinker

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We all should strive to understand others better.  One model to help us do this is called the Maslow Pyramid.  Most of us are pretty familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  Here’s a quick review of this model.  At the base of his pyramid are three basic needs: physiological, security, and social relationships.  Once we have them secured, we stop thinking about them.  I can’t help but wonder at all the people in this economy that constantly think about food, safe shelter and a circle of friends and family.  We are the lucky that have the first three in place.

But I digress, the two needs that sit on top of the basic needs are our aspirations or personal growth needs, which can never really be satisfied.  They are recognition and self actualization.  The Decision Book (2012, Krogerus and Tschappeler) suggests that we create our own personal basic needs pyramids where we juxtapose what we need (Maslow’s upright pyramid with the 5 needs) with an inverted pyramid of what it is that we really want.

For example, I am very fortunate to have my physiological, security and social relationships secure.  But, what I want in terms of recognition (status, power, and money) is kind of interesting because as I get closer to existing half a century on this planet, I really don’t care about status or power in my job.  I don’t have an immediate aspiration to rise up amongst the hierarchical ranks in my organization.  I much prefer to be recognized as an equal member on my team where I may take on more roles and responsibilities, but my status and power within that group is based on a high level of respect because of my equal participation in the team’s success through empowerment of others on my team. However, in terms of recognition, I always seem to be striving for respect from my peers first.  And I wonder why that is so important to me.   And then I wonder if I always behave in ways that garner respect.  To get what I want, respect, I need to strive to continually align my behavior with that goal.

In terms of self-actualization, well this is really interesting because I have a ton of irons in the fire of what I think I really want and need to be self actualized; a successful business with my husband and business partners, which I want and consider our nest egg that will allow us to some day be financially independent but even more so, I want our business to be a significant employer (job-creator) in the US.  I also need and want to write my blog and screen plays because I aspire to be a significant voice in the education community and to someday see one of my screen plays on the silver screen.  I also aspire to support my family in meeting their aspirations, which means I need to stay focused on my job and my business so that I can offer them the financial support they will need to meet their basic needs so that they can strive to fulfill their aspirations.  Interesting.

The beauty of this exercise is that it reminds us to align what it is that we really need and really want (our aspirations) with behaviors and actions that support those goals.  Try it!  First do this exercise for you, then do it with your team members or family members.  If we understand what each of us really wants, we can then support each other in achieving those aspirations.  And of course, we may actually encounter individuals who don’t have the three most basic needs.  I work with individuals who are paid well and have health insurance but I wonder how many of my peers, who all travel extensively, don’t have a social network of friends and family?  How can I, as their work peer, provide a solution to that need?  We will never know unless we seek to understand what it is that we want and need.

The Essential Audacious Idea: Stop Tying Pay to Performance

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According to Bruno S. Frey and Margin Osterloh, authors of, Stop Tying Pay to Performance (HBR Dec/Jan 2012), the evidence is overwhelming: it doesn’t work.  The authors mainly refer to business models based on pay for performance, but of course, there are connections to our current education system’s obsession with this ill conceived concept. The authors state that in the business world, CEO compensation has sky-rocketed ( Example US S&P 500 where the ratio of average CEO pay to average employee salary went from about 40:1 in the 1970s to 325:1 in 2010) with very little to no correlation with increases in company performance.  The same is true of education systems that have employed pay-for-performance schemes.

According to the authors all variable pay-for-performance schemes suffer from four flaws.  I have refocused Frey and Osterlohs’ lens from business to education, but for the most part, the four flaws below are nearly direct quotes from their article:

  1. In a modern world, where kids still sit in rows listening to teachers lecture, it’s impossible to determine what instructional practices will need to be employed in the future precisely enough for pay for performance to work well.
  2. Teachers subject to variable pay for performance don’t and clearly won’t accept the criteria.  As we have already seen, unions and governments spend a lot of time, money and energy trying to manipulate the criteria in their favor.
  3. Variable pay for performance often leads teachers to focus exclusively on areas covered by the criteria, neglect other important work with students.  They are motivated to teach to the test.
  4. Variable pay for performance tends to crowd out intrinsic motivation and thus the joy of fulfilling work.  Such motivation is of great importance to schools because it supports innovation and encourages beyond ordinary contributions.

The research is clear, it’s not about the money.  Pay for performance causes more problems than it solves and, “there’s no proof that it helps achieve its intended purposes, and other approaches not only work better but also strengthen employee loyalty.”

Most of us got in the business of education because we care for students and have a huge belief in the rock-bed of this country, public education.   We value recognition from our peers and superiors and we do the work because we find it challenging and worthwhile.  Given these obvious truths, the authors suggest we do the following things:

  1. Hire folks who are truly interested in the work that needs to be done.
  2. Pay fixed compensation but adjust it on the basis of a comprehensive evaluation of an employee’s work.  To do this right, I feel we must look at a triangulation of data which should include: student performance on state tests, evidence of student work (I imagine digital portfolios stocked full of authentic student work that demonstrates their improvement in reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, and critical thinking), and finally, satisfaction survey results from the people educators serve: students and parents.
  3. And finally, we need to award and recognize educators, students, community members and parents often.  Celebrate success at staff meetings, through blogs, newsletters, personalized letters, plaques, trophies, etc.