The collapse of its agreement with NSBA puts AASA “at a huge disadvantage,” Executive Director Dan Domenech said.

Organizations representing the nation’s superintendents and school board members won’t hold a combined conference next year after all—a decision that has blindsided the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) and left the group “scurrying” to find a conference venue of its own for 2013.

AASA and the National School Boards Association (NSBA) had what AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech described as a “verbal agreement” to hold a single, combined conference in San Diego in April 2013. The agreement was first announced during AASA’s National Conference on Education in February 2011.

The move was expected to save money for the two organizations and also for school systems, which wouldn’t have two separate events for district leaders to attend.

But in a letter sent March 27 to AASA’s conference exhibitors and sponsors from prior years, Director of Corporate and Strategic Alliances Kay M. Dillon wrote:

“We were notified by NSBA’s executive director, Anne Bryant, on Friday, March 23, after over a year of planning and promoting that they are no longer willing to hold a joint conference with AASA in 2013, citing financial reasons on their part.”

The letter continued: “As you can imagine, we were stunned and disappointed, not only that the meeting was not going to occur, but that their decision came at such a late date. This obviously puts AASA at a disadvantage and we recognize that you, our valued supporters and exhibitors, are also impacted by NSBA’s decision. Please know that we are diligently working to secure a location for our 2013 National Conference on Education and will share this information with you as soon as it becomes available.”

Joe Villani, deputy executive director for the NSBA, confirmed that his organization has backed out of the agreement. He said NSBA still plans to hold its 2013 conference in April in San Diego, without AASA’s involvement.

NSBA “tried to figure out a way to join the two conferences and let it be of benefit to both organizations, but what we found, when we got down to the nitty-gritty of the details, was that there were just too many additional expenses that had to be factored into the budget planning,” Villani said. “That made it such that NSBA would not have as much revenue from a joint conference as we would have from a conference by ourselves.”

To meet the requirements of a new state law, 22 of Florida’s 67 school districts have adopted an online system called FASTe.

Across the country, states and school districts are grappling with how best to evaluate teachers and administrators in a way that is rigorous, yet fair—and gives them opportunities to grow professionally. That’s true in Florida, too, where the passage last year of Senate Bill 736, the Student Success Act, requires Florida school districts to revamp their evaluation systems for teachers and school leaders.

To meet the requirements of the new law, 22 of Florida’s 67 school districts have adopted an online system called FASTe, the Formative Action System for Teacher Effectiveness, from Winter Park, Fla.-based Performance Matters. The company was on hand at the Florida Educational Technology Conference to showcase its FASTe platform.

Performance Matters describes FASTe as “an easy-to-use online platform that connects student outcomes to educator actions.” Among the most recent Florida districts to purchase FASTe is Citrus County, which launched a pilot implementation in selected schools in December and plans to roll out the online platform across all 23 schools this fall.

“We’ve already received feedback from several administrators … that it is easy to use and that it enables them to note in a natural, genuine way what is happening every day in their classrooms,” said Patrick Simon, director of research and accountability. “FASTe … not only helps teachers to know what their strengths and weaknesses are, but it connects them to the resources they need to improve their practice. This will play a very important role in our ongoing efforts to improve teaching and learning.”

The FASTe framework collects data on student assessments, teachers’ professional development activities, observational outcomes, and other metrics. The program then correlates all the data to show the relative effect these activities are having on instruction and learning, and it connects educators to the resources or support they need to improve.

Another company that makes software to help with teacher evaluations is Netchemia of Kansas. Netchemia was at the American Association of School Administrators’ National Conference on Education to discuss how its web-based TalentEd Perform software is helping school leaders manage their teacher quality initiatives.

TalentEd Perform includes teacher self-evaluations, principal walkthroughs and observations, professional growth plans, and more. Analysis and reporting tools help school and district leaders measure evaluation results and track staff improvement. The software is extremely scalable, Netchemia said, noting that districts ranging in size from the 125-student Shell Knob School District in Missouri to Oklahoma’s Tulsa Public Schools are using the program.

Other professional development news

Audio/video solutions provider AVI-SPL is best known for its AV systems integration, but during FETC the company also highlighted its professional development offerings—including a Summer Institute for Technology Integration that it’s hosting along with Florida’s Pinellas County Schools. During this four-day training event, Dr. Jennifer Brown King will teach attendees how to integrate technology into instruction through a unique scaffolding technique known as the Technology Integration Plan (TIP). The training will take place July 23-26 in the Gulf Coast city of Dunedin, Fla., and is open to all teachers or instructional leaders. For more information, eMail professionaldevelopment@avispl.com.

PBS TeacherLine says it has aligned all of its online professional development courses with the Common Core State Standards. That means all PBS TeacherLine reading and math courses now offer professional training and resources to help teachers develop lessons and deliver instruction based on the Common Core objectives, the company says. PBS TeacherLine offers more than 80 graduate-level online courses in reading, math, science, STEM, instructional strategies, and technology integration.

‘Perhaps the solution is not the proliferation of charters, but rather the elimination of the rules and regulations that allow charters exempt from them to thrive.’

“Learning Leadership” column, April 2012 edition of eSchool News—The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) is one of the oldest education associations in the country. Founded in 1865, its mission is to advocate for the highest quality public education for all students and to develop and support school system leaders.

Our members are the educational leaders in every community in America. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that our job is to represent the interests of local school systems in our nation’s capital. We often find ourselves at odds with a federal government that pushes to become more and more involved in local affairs and with state governments that often will highjack federal funding before it trickles down to the local level.

Our positions come directly from our membership, and we take advantage of today’s technology to survey our members frequently and get real-time responses to what is affecting students in their schools and communities. Indeed, our members often feel that they have direct input into the policy making here in Washington, D.C. Our surveys on the impact of the economy on our schools have become as popular here inside the Beltway as the polls on presidential contenders. We actually think that our surveys better serve the public.

Our legislative agenda and our positions on proposed policy directives are guided by the input we receive from the field. Our beliefs and positions are reviewed annually so as to keep them up to date. Most recently, our Governing Board convened at our National Conference on Education in Houston to approve the latest draft of AASA’s Beliefs and Position Statements in February.

We believe that public education is the cornerstone of democracy and a civil right. As such, AASA aggressively will defend against all actions that undermine public education, such as vouchers, tax credits, and charters that are not publicly accountable.

We are concerned by the inclusion of vouchers and charters in both the House and Senate versions of the bills that would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and by a number of bills at the state level that would grant tax credits to private charters. This will further erode the financial structure of public schools at a time when our school systems are already reeling from the reductions to the property and sales tax revenue that is their primary source of support.

More columns from AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech:

What public school administrators want from policy makers

U.S. education is still the best in the world—but here’s what we can learn from others

Scarce resources, insufficient talent threaten to sink public education

AASA does support public school choice and charter schools that operate under the governance of local public school boards. There should be a level playing field for the non-discriminatory and unconditional enrollment of all children, including those in need of special services. The same rules and regulations should apply to everyone, and all schools receiving public funding must be held accountable to the same standards. Non-public charters have become the “exception to the rules,” leaving us to ponder that perhaps the solution is not the proliferation of charters but rather the elimination of the rules and regulations that allow charters exempt from them to thrive.

We are also well aware of the relationship between funding and equity. The method by which public education is funded in America is partially responsible for the broad disparity in quality that exists across school systems. We joke about the ability to determine a school district’s achievement profile by its ZIP code, but that is not far from the truth.

Poverty is not an excuse, but it is a reality. The correlation between National Assessment of Educational Progress scores and the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches in a school is conclusive evidence that even the performance of children not in the federal lunch program is affected if they attend a school with a high concentration of poverty. 

School systems should not be required to spend local and state funds to implement federal mandates.

Learning Leadership column, March 2012 edition of eSchool News—Last month, the American Association of School Administrators’ Executive Committee and Governing Board came together at our national conference in Houston to approve our legislative agenda. The year ahead looms as a politically charged period, leading up to the presidential and congressional elections. Much of what ordinarily might happen on Capitol Hill won’t happen because of political posturing. Consequently, we have little hope that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) will be reauthorized prior to the elections. And that’s a shame, because there is substantial agreement between the two parties on key points.

Our governing body numbers more than 150 superintendents from around the country. They represent large and small districts, rural and suburban, wealthy and poor. They are, in fact, representative of every school district in America. You can be certain that the positions emerging from that group represent what our public school districts want in legislation coming out of Washington.

First and foremost, we want regulatory relief from No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The waiver process that the Obama administration has implemented is a replacement for the stimulus dollars that became the carrot originally used to get states and school districts to adhere to the administration’s policy directives. If you want regulatory relief, then you must exchange the old regulations for these new ones. Those states and districts that go along and win approval will get regulatory relief. But the vast majority of children in our schools still will be subject to regulations that both the president and the education secretary have admitted are inadequate and in need of revision.

Schools will be forced to use much-needed dollars to offer supplementary educational services and choice, two NCLB strategies that are recognized as failures. In addition, thousands of schools will continue to be identified as not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress and subject to the resulting penalties.

We also continue to object to the use of ESEA dollars for competitive grants. The intent of ESEA is to level the playing field relative to poverty, and the allocation of funds should be via formulas based on the percentage of students living in poverty, not the ability of a school district to have outstanding grant writers. Since the beginning of the current recession, school systems have seen dramatic increases in the number of children eligible for free and reduced-price lunches. All eligible children should benefit from all available funds, not just those in “winner” states and districts.

We are also concerned about the growing intrusion of the federal government into state and local education issues. Whatever happened to the rules and regulations applying only to those schools that received federal funds? Today, every public school in the land is subject to the rules and regulations, whether they receive federal funds or not. The role of the federal government should be to supplement, not dictate, local policies. Accordingly, any reduction in federal funds should be accompanied by a similar reduction in federal mandates. School systems should not be required to spend local and state funds to implement federal mandates.

We support the Common Core and state-developed standards. In a globally competitive world, we cannot go against countries that have a set of national standards while we have 50 sets of standards. It is also difficult to assess our progress as a nation with 50 sets of tests whose results do not align well with the closest instrument we have to a national test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

We continue to suggest that we separate assessment for accountability purposes from assessment for the purpose of informing instruction. A random sampling of the nation’s students from the NAEP results would suffice for accountability purposes, with reduced costs and less intrusion on instruction and the number of children and subjects tested. We certainly support accountability and the continued disaggregation of data for subgroups of students. This is one of the few positive contributions of NCLB.

Technology helps make this mass customization possible through personalized digital learning.

Would you still drive a car if it was the Ford Model T? No? Even if the paint was new and it had air conditioning? The answer would always be “no,” said one education reform expert, because no matter how much you spruce up an old model, there’s always a maximum capacity … and the same applies to education.

During the American Association of School Administrators’ National Conference on Education Julie Mathiesen, director of Technology &  Innovation in Education (TIE), a professional development organization based in Rapid City, S.D., argued that the only way to achieve true education reform is to redesign student learning from class time to curriculum, and from teaching styles to learning spaces.

A key way to accomplish this reform, said Mathiesen, is to implement “Mass Customized Learning,” in which the instruction is tailored to each student’s needs and interests. And technology helps make this mass customization possible through personalized digital learning.

“The current Industrial Age system of education is working perfectly,” she said, “if you’re looking for 25 percent skilled and 75 percent unskilled students—[or] if you’re looking to have around one million students fail to graduate high school every year. We need to completely revamp the system.”

According to Mathiesen, the old way of learning doesn’t work anymore, because students are living in a world where they are no longer “told” how to think and don’t process and learn through “telling.” Instead, students learn by doing and by learning anytime, anywhere.

“One way to accomplish this is through the use of technology. I heard a great quote recently,” said Mathiesen, smiling: “‘The web and technology are setting out a great buffet of teaching and learning tools; however, most schools are just eating the napkins.’ If schools could learn about some of the great, free resources available, and learn how to engage students, true reform could start to take hold. We can’t keep simply tinkering with education.”

Along with the Model T reference, Mathiesen also discussed the book Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

According to the theory of “Flow,” there’s a boredom threshold and a challenge threshold. For example, we’re all skilled at clapping our hands but would find this too boring to do for fun. Like clapping hands, class activities can’t be based solely on skills—they have to be exciting and engaging as well.

Now take the example of knitting: People who knit like to apply skills to a challenging task to stimulate their mind. But if you say to those people, “You must knit a sweater and accomplish it all, perfectly, in one hour,” most will find it too challenging and quit.

The best teacher professional development happens in collaborative learning communities.

Terms like “work collaboratively,” “share what you know,” and “problem-solve as a team” are commonly associated with the kinds of 21^st-century skills that most people agree today’s students should learn—but according to a professional development expert with decades of experience in the field, those terms should apply to teachers, too.

During the American Association of School Administrators’ National Conference on Education, Stephanie Hirsch, executive director of Learning Forward (formerly known as the National Staff Development Council), discussed how her organization has redefined its standards for teacher professional development to keep up with what is being expected of today’s students.

“What we mean by PD is not some one-off seminar,” Hirsch said. “So many times I hear people say, ‘This was a waste of time. Nothing changed.’ Well, … PD is only as good as its implementation. So let me tell you what we know: PD [should be] ongoing, and it means teachers collectively sharing the responsibility for all students—from grades to lesson plans—and that happens by implementing teacher teams that meet up regularly.”

Hirsch encouraged school district leaders to think of teacher professional development as…

• The glue that fosters collective responsibility for the success of all students;

• The system for engaging all teachers in learning teams committed to continuous improvement; and

• The great equalizer that ensures that all—not just some—students experience great teaching.

“How many times have we heard of principals talking to parents [who are] concerned about what teacher their child will get?” asked Hirsch. “Imagine if this school had collaborative teacher teams using their meetings for continuous PD to foster student learning improvement and achievement. What if the principal could say, ‘I know your child will receive the best education from any of our teachers, because our teachers work as a team to take responsibility for your child and meet continuously to discuss all students in the grade, not just the students part of his or her class.’ Imagine how much better the parent would feel?”

Fewer than 20 percent of U.S. taxpayers have children in public schools, says author Jamie Vollmer—and that shows a need for school leaders to be proactive in reaching out to the community.

Think of it this way: Would you support a presidential candidate you knew nothing about? What does this candidate think about taxes? How is this candidate helping those around him? What does this candidate believe in, and heck, what’s his favorite food? Well, said Jamie Vollmer, a businessman, author, and supporter of public education, wouldn’t people like to know how their local schools worked, too?

Vollmer, president of Vollmer Inc., author of Schools Cannot Do It Alone, and opening keynote speaker at the American Association of School Administrators’ National Conference on Education, argued that both education leaders and U.S. citizens understand that it’s about educating the whole child and that there needs to be reform.

However, the people’s perception is that reform should come through the firing of school leaders and teachers, because that’s the rhetoric being peddled. Yet, school leaders and teachers know that reform needs to occur by changing an antiquated system that’s still focused on mass rote learning for testing and a one-size-fits-all-approach to learning.

“The ‘Great Conversation’ we need to have has to be between teachers and school staff and the community,” said Vollmer. “I guarantee you that if the community knew what their local school had to teach, support, and perform every day for their students, the community would become their school’s greatest supporter, not their biggest critic—helping to spur the true reform needed for schools rather than hindering it.”

According to Vollmer, fewer than 20 percent of all U.S. taxpayers currently have children in a public school. The rest of the taxpayers either don’t have children, their kids have graduated, or they have kids enrolled in private schools. This large percentage, said Vollmer, feels that issues concerning public schools are “not their problem,” and they either don’t care to help or join the national hate-wagon because that’s all they hear.

“What they don’t know,” explained Vollmer, “is that by supporting your local school, you’re reducing the crime rate and increasing your property value. You’re also decreasing teen pregnancies, therefore lowering insurance rates at the hospital. Self-interest doesn’t always trump altruism, but it’s a good bet every time.”

Vollmer believes the problem is that schools need to make the community more aware of who they are by going out into the community and spreading awareness at the community’s convenience.

One way, he suggested, is by making the community aware of what schools have been asked to add to the curriculum and their daily activities since the 1900s.

AASA 2012: "Big Conversations, Big Solutions."

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) will launch its annual Conference on Education on Feb. 16 in Houston, Texas.

This year’s conference will focus on “Big Conversations, Big Solutions,” as attendees focus on issues such as budget shortfalls, student achievement, and collaboration.

Conference breakout sessions are organized into different focus zones to help attendees make the most out of the conference.

Focus zones include:

• Board/Superintendent Issues – Maybe you are new to the job, new to a district, an aspiring superintendent, or a veteran educator who works with a board of education. This year’s programming will feature panels of your colleagues discussing board/superintendent issues and ways for you to deal with the myriad of issues that come across your desk every day. Learn how to build a great relationship, communicate effectively and deal with problems so there is a win-win solution for everyone.
• Management – Has the economy put a damper on innovations in your school or school system? Learn cost-effective solutions for surviving these turbulent times. Also hear about hot topics such as national standards, effective leadership techniques, using technology for data-driven results, social networking, and current technologies that can improve student achievement.
• Executive Leadership – The leaders of the future require extensive background knowledge and professional development in all aspects of executive leadership. Whether you are a principal, cabinet member, or head of a school system, effective leadership skills are necessary to transform public education. Learn how to build effective teams, use a systems-thinking approach for change, and understand what succession planning really means and how school-level organization increases student achievement.
• Student Achievement – Students of today must be prepared for a global society through innovative instructional practices, curriculum and technology. Sessions will include the hot topics of today coupled with practical application strategies to help school system leaders deal with unions, and pay-for-performance issues, observations and evaluations as they strive to improve student achievement.

Jamie Vollmer, president of Vollmer, Inc., will deliver the opening keynote on Feb. 16 and will focus on building public support for public schools. AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech will interview Vollmer on why schools can’t do it alone.

On Feb. 17, Rick DuFour, a former superintendent and educational author and consultant, will describe the specific strategies high performing districts are using to raise student achievement by developing the capacity of staff throughout the district to function as professional learning communities.

Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address academic leadership and creating a climate of success for all students on Feb. 18.

And on Feb. 19, Dr. Robert Ballard, oceanographer and deep sea explorer, will guide attendees through “education through exploration.” Dr. Ballard will share his visionary leadership in creating The JASON Project, a STEM model for the country, while running the most significant oceanographic exploration effort in the country.

Some experts suggest that the nation's approach to school reform is headed down the wrong path.

The president is wrong. Arne Duncan is wrong. The media are wrong. Many state administrators are wrong: This was the message on the current state of school reform in a Feb. 18 keynote session at the American Association of School Administrators‘ National Conference on Education.

You wouldn’t expect to hear these inflammatory statements boldly pronounced by a woman who looks more suited to serving lemonade to grandchildren than inspiring hundreds of attendees at 8 a.m. amid the mountainous backdrop of Colorado.

With her elegantly cropped gray hair, string of pearls, and deep blue eyes on a petite face lined with years of experiences, Diane Ravitch, research professor of education at New York University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, had a few choice words on how current tough tactics supported by federal policy to encourage school reform are harming education rather than supporting it.

AASA attendees affirmed their commitment to helping deliver top-notch education to students.

Nothing makes people come together in good spirits like unexpected warm weather in a terribly cold season, and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) took advantage of this by focusing on the importance of teamwork and collaboration during its 143rd annual Conference on Education in incredibly balmy Denver, Colo.

With sunny skies and a temperature of 55 degrees, attendees gathered at AASA’s opening session to discuss, among other things, how AASA’s mission statement has changed to reflect the modern superintendency.

Instead of focusing on professional development, which the organization says is still important, the statement now reads: The mission of [AASA] is to support and develop effective school system leaders who are dedicated to the highest quality public education for all children.”

“To support and develop system leaders, you have to emphasize that seeking better understanding of how we can all work together is the key to success,” said Ed Hatrick, president of AASA and superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools, Va.

Hatrick mentioned that clearly the U.S. Department of Education, and specifically Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, understand this with their recent Labor Management Collaboration Conference, held in Denver two days before the conference began.

Keynote speaker Michael Fullan, professor emeritus for the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, said a love of employees and building relationships are two components that, in his research and experience, have created the most influential leaders.

Fullan also gave attendees his “Six Secrets of Change”:

1.    Love your employees
2.    Connect peers with purpose
3.    Capacity building prevails
4.    Learning is the work
5.    Transparency rules
6.    Learn systems

“There are also three keys to becoming a great leader that have to do with actual implementation,” said Fullan, “and those are: focus on a small number of core priorities, attend to relationships, and go light on judgment.”