Sisyphus & School Reform

2. Sisyphus & School Reform

3. Relational trust Collaboration Best practices data-driven decision-making Close achievement gaps Differentiated instruction Evidence-based practices Turnarounds Professional development

4. Welcome to the Cage

5. A System Built for Another Era

6. This Applies to Charters Too • Personnel Policy Given freedom to craft “agreements from scratch,” charters are “not as innovative as they might be” when it comes to evaluation, staffing, and compensation. – Mitch Price, Center on Reinventing Public Education • Teacher Certification “Charters can get caught up in the same regulations [as district schools]. When you talk about highly qualified teachers, for example, art and drama teachers are included. So we could get Peter Nero from the Philly Pops to come teach a music class, but he’s not certified—so we’re not allowed.” – David Hardy, CEO of Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School • The Hassle Factor “It’s hard to manage the voluminous requests made by OSSE and still have time to run a school . . . OSSE has fifty, sixty, maybe seventy people sending e-mails. We had to hire a general counsel specializing in special education just to respond and force OSSE to [back off]…They may not like being challenged, but it’s been necessary to maintain Friendship’s independence.” – Donald Hense, Friendship Public Charter School, Washington, DC

7. You Have to Scrub That Slate Clean

8. Leadership Has Two Halves Cage-Busting Instructional

9. What Ed Leadership Experts Write About Note: Combined mentions of these terms in Educational Leadership and Phi Delta Kappanfrom January 2009 to September 2012. Searches were performed using an in-text search.

10. Not Only Is the Cage Ignored… • Leading books on education leadership that never mention “union contract” or “collective bargaining.” • What’s Worth Fighting For in the Principalship, Michael Fullan • School Leadership That Works, Robert Marzano, Timothy Waters, and Brian McNulty • Rethinking Leadership, ThomasSergiovanni • The Shaping School Culture Fieldbook, Kent Peterson and Terrence Deal • Change Leader, Michael Fullan • Leaders of Learning, Richard Dufour and Robert Marzano. • What Great Principals Do Differently, Todd Whitaker • Strengthening the Heartbeat, Thomas Sergiovanni • Shaping School Culture, Terrence Deal and Kent Peterson • Leading with Soul, Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal • Reframing the Path to School Leadership, Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal Searches in this section were performed in May 2012 using the in-text search feature on Amazon.com.

11. …But Cage-Busting Is Often Belittled • “The worst thing to do is to write off apparently poor or mediocre teachers as dead wood, and seek easy administrative solutions in transfers or retirements.” – Fullan and Hargreaves, What’s Worth Fighting for in Your School • “Running a tight ship” is a “distortion of the goal of educating children.” – Drake and Roe, The Principalship • “Combin[ing] reform with major changes in the structure of the organization . . . is almost always a mistake.” – Ben Levin, How to Change 5000 Schools

12. Whaddya Got? Talent Tools Time Money

13. Rethinking Time

14. Rethinking Talent

15. Rethinking Money Average teacher is absent 8 days per year Cost per substitute teacher$125 per day Cost per FTE per year $1,000 per FTE (plus 8 days of lost learning…)

16. Too Many Charters Choose To Stay in the Cage • Despite the chance “to craft agreements from scratch…charter school contracts look quite similar to their district counterparts.” – Mitch Price, Center on Reinventing Public Education • The role of charter principals “ was not significantly different” from that of district principals. – National Center on School Choice, Vanderbilt University • 2010 study found that most charters hire and pay staff much as local districts do. – Dana Brinson and Jacob Rosch, Public Impact

17. Solving Probs, Not Fixing Schools

18. Cage Bar Continuum

19. Is That Bar Really There?

20. Combating the Culture of Can’t

21. Find Your Consigliere

22. Authorizers Need to Break Out of the Cage, Too • Be Precise • “Sponsoring agencies, in general, required assessment information on performance from charter schools… but often failed to specify any clear performance standards or consequences” - Wohlstetter & Griffin • Do More to Empower Educators • “We need to do more things to empower passionate educators [and] allow them to be successful in their schools, whether it’s a district school or a charter school. When we do that, we’ll have more good schools for kids.” - Greg Richmond • Think Outside the Cage • “A quality authorizer is open to considering diverse educational philosophies and approaches.” –NACSA Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing

23. “Reforms” Hit a Leadership Wall… Yet the Wall is Rarely Examined • Training& socialization • Incentives & accountability • Culture, norms & practices

24. Advice for Cage-Busters • Cage-busting is not cage-fighting • Cage-busting is a complement, not a substitute • John Henry is not a role model • You don’t have to be a martyr

25. It’s Not About “Innovation,” Stupid

26. #cagebusting On Twitter: @rickhess99 Book available: • www.hepg.org • www.Amazon.com E-Book available: • www.hepg.org