April 1, 2003   Fair Steps Before Firing Teachers   Firings are uncommon, because it can be very difficult to discharge a teacher whose performance is sub-standard.  Montgomery County, Maryland has found a way to help such teachers become more skillful, and to help others (unable or unwilling to change) out of the system.  Read about it at http://www.rbteach.com/nytnews.html

April 1, 2003   Principals Who Care . . . respect the wisdom of their staff members by involving them in decisions that shape their lives.  (Quoted from Principals Who Care: A Personal Reflection, by Joanne Rooney in ASCD's Educational Leadership, Volume 60, Number 6, March 2003)

March 28, 2003   Make Every Teacher An Instructional Leader

1. Teachers are their own most valued resource in the teaching profession.  Teachers not only need to be acknowledged for their talents, skills, and abilities, but also must be allowed and encouraged to share these valuable resources from their colleagues.  (From Collaboration, Teamwork, and Mentoring.  North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.  June 24, 2002  http://www.ncrel/org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrmnt/stw/sw5ment.htm)

2. Vera Blake, formerly principal of Falls Church High School Virginia) suggests that principals invite every faculty and staff member to become an expert and resource person in some research-based instructional strategy, then encourage them to share their learning with colleagues and provide the context to make this possible. (Education Update, January 2003, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development)

3. In 1990, St. Louis School (then my employer) agreed to pay the expense of a summer training in cooperative learning, the first of three summers with David and Roger Johnson.  In exchange, I provided awareness training to other faculty.  That commitment from Saint Louis was a pivotal point in my professional development made possible by the school's faith in and willingness to risk the cost of training me.

(Michael W. Dabney)

November 25, 2002  Test-Score Issues Affect Lives  Students, parents, teachers, as well as school principals, often feel victimized when test scores are used to make decisions that impact their lives. This feeling sometimes emanates from a lack of understanding and experience in using multiple forms of student performance data to inform decisions. If they understood the importance of collecting, analyzing, and using different data, not only to measure student learning, but also to plot future education, all would be less likely to feel victimized. As leaders, principals face a dual challenge: acquiring the knowledge they need to understand data-driven decision making, for which their preservice and inservice training did not prepare them, as well as guiding their learning community through the changes in attitude and behavior the high-stakes accountability environment demands.

This Critical Issue [article] offers a brief overview of the current high-stakes accountability environment to set its context. It then states the core of its leadership message: Principals need not be victims controlled by this environment. Following this attitudinal directive, the author outlines seven guiding principles administrators can use to transform themselves from victim to victor, in order to harness the value of data-driven decision making, to empower their learning community in the process, and together to improve their schools.    Find the full article, by Albert Bennett, Ph.D., by following the link below.  Reprinted with permission from North Central Regional Education Laboratory, www.ncrel.org.    http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le600.htm. 

November 10, 2002    Faculty Development Important to Teachers   "The National Association of Independent Schools survey of factors that attract teachers to schools, and keep them once there, reveals that the second most important element, next to salary, is faculty development.  Teachers want to improve their craft and their knowledge.  They expect good schools to support their efforts in this area."        - Quoted from Jon McGill, Headmaster of Gilman School, a preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland; in the October, 2002 issue of Initiatives, a publication of the school.  Contact Gilman at www.gilman.edu.

November 2, 2002   Sample Classroom Management Training Curriculum    Click the SAMPLE CURRICULUM link above to see an example of curriculum for training teachers to create personalized comprehensive classroom management plans.