EIC Meeting Speaker Notes

1. Educational Improvement Council (EIC) Meeting September 24, 2012
Get a group of colleagues or customers together and ask each person to identify a
product or service that dramatically reshaped their expectations—something that
made them go “Wow! How amazing!”
Identify an experience that provoked a gusher of good feelings. Next, ask folks,
what were the unique attributes of that experience that made it so memorable?
How exactly did it defy their expectations? How might we leverage this idea to
redefine customer expectations in our own industry?
Trader Joe’s
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2. From Chapter 39. Where did the good jobs go? in Stop Stealing Dreams (a free
downloadable eBook) by Seth Godin
Hint: The old ones, the ones we imagine when we think about the placement
office and the pension—the ones that school prepared us for—they’re gone.
From Chapter 39. Where did the good jobs go? in Stop Stealing Dreams (a free
downloadable eBook) by Seth Godin
In 1960, the top ten employers in the U.S. were: GM, AT&T, Ford, GE, U.S. Steel,
Sears, A&P, Esso, Bethlehem Steel, and IT&T. Eight of these (not so much Sears
and A&P) offered substantial pay and a long-term career to hard-working people
who actually made something. It was easy to see how the promises of
advancement and a social contract could be kept, particularly for the “good
student” who had demonstrated an ability and willingness to be part of the
system.
From Chapter 39. Where did the good jobs go? in Stop Stealing Dreams (a free
downloadable eBook) by Seth Godin
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3. From Chapter 39. Where did the good jobs go? in Stop Stealing Dreams (a free
downloadable eBook) by Seth Godin
Today, the top ten employers are: Walmart, Kelly Services, IBM, UPS, McDonald’s,
Yum (Taco Bell, KFC, et al), Target, Kroger, HP, and The Home Depot. Of these,
only two (two!) offer a path similar to the one that the vast majority of major
companies offered fifty years ago. Burger flippers of the world, unite. Here’s the
alternative: what happens when there are fifty companies like Apple? What
happens when there is an explosion in the number of new power technologies,
new connection mechanisms, new medical approaches? The good jobs of the
future aren’t going to involve working for giant companies on an assembly line.
They all require individuals willing to chart their own path, whether or not they
work for someone else.
From Chapter 39. Where did the good jobs go? in Stop Stealing Dreams (a free
downloadable eBook) by Seth Godin
The jobs of the future are in two categories: the downtrodden assemblers of
cheap mass goods and the respected creators of the unexpected. The increasing
gap between those racing to the bottom and those working toward the top is
going to make the 99 percent divide seem like nostalgia. Virtually every company
that isn’t forced to be local is shifting gears so it doesn’t have to be local. Which
means that the call center and the packing center and the data center and the
assembly line are quickly moving to places where there are cheaper workers. And
more compliant workers. Is that going to be you or your kids or the students in
your town? The other route—the road to the top—is for the few who figure out
how to be linchpins and artists. People who are hired because they’re totally
worth it, because they offer insight and creativity and innovation that just can’t
be found easily. Scarce skills combined with even scarcer attitudes almost always
lead to low unemployment and high wages. An artist is someone who brings new
thinking and generosity to his work, who does human work that changes another
for the better. An artist invents a new kind of insurance policy, diagnoses a
disease that someone else might have missed, or envisions a future that’s not
here yet. And a linchpin is the worker we can’t live without, the one we’d miss if
she was gone. The linchpin brings enough gravity, energy, and forward motion to
work that she makes things happen. Sadly, most artists and most linchpins learn
their skills and attitudes despite school, not because of it. The future of our
economy lies with the impatient. The linchpins and the artists and the scientists
who will refuse to wait to be hired and will take things into their own hands,
building their own value, producing outputs others will gladly pay for. Either
they’ll do that on their own or someone will hire them and give them a platform
to do it. The only way out is going to be mapped by those able to dream.
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4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Yt4wxSblc&feature=share&list=UU71PBx9
QfLNnD2_SSMFYSiA
The Board shall adopt a policy to establish a District- and campus-level planning
and decision-making process that will involve the professional staff of the District,
parents of students enrolled in the District, business representatives, and
community members in establishing and reviewing the District’s and campuses’
educational plans, goals, performance objectives, and major classroom
instructional programs. BQ(LEGAL)
The Board shall adopt a policy to establish a District- and campus-level planning
and decision-making process that will involve the professional staff of the District,
parents of students enrolled in the District, business representatives, and
community members in establishing and reviewing the District’s and campuses’
educational plans, goals, performance objectives, and major classroom
instructional programs. BQ(LEGAL)
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5. The Board shall ensure that an administrative procedure is provided to clearly
define the respective roles and responsibilities of the Superintendent, central
office staff, principals, teachers, District-level committee members, and campus-
level committee members in the areas of planning, budgeting, curriculum,
staffing patterns, staff development, and school organization. The Board shall
also ensure that the District-level planning and decision-making committee will be
actively involved in establishing the administrative procedure that defines the
respective roles and responsibilities pertaining to planning and decision making at
the District and campus levels. BQ(LEGAL)
Specifically, both the campus- and district-level planning and decision-making
committees’ roles address the areas of:
• Planning
• Budgeting
• Curriculum
• Staffing patterns
• Staff development
• School organization
FASRG 5.2.1
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6. Page 6 of 15

7. The District-level planning and decision-making committee shall analyze
information related to dropout prevention. BQA(LEGAL)
The Educational Improvement Council shall advise the Board or its designee in
establishing and reviewing the District’s educational goals, objectives, and major
Districtwide classroom instructional programs identified by the Board or its
designee. The council shall serve exclusively in an advisory role except that the
council shall approve staff development of a Districtwide nature. BQA(LOCAL)
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8. The council shall include two parents of students currently enrolled within the
District.
The council shall include two community members. All community member
representatives must reside in the District.
The council shall include two businesspeople. Business member representatives
need not reside in nor operate businesses in the District.
The professional employees shall consist of:
• Classroom teachers representing each of the campuses in the District. Each
campus teacher representative shall be nominated by and elected from
classroom teachers assigned to that particular campus.
• Each teacher representative on the council shall also serve as an ex
officio (nonvoting) member of their respective Campus Leadership
Team for the purpose of communicating work and progress of the
council and for the purpose of collecting campus input.
• One counselor representing all of the counselors in the District. The
counselor representative shall be nominated by and elected from the
counselors in the District.
• One librarian representing all of the librarians in the District. The librarian
representative shall be nominated by and elected from the librarians in the
District.
• Three campus administrators representing elementary, middle, and high
school administrators. The administrator representatives shall be nominated
by and elected from the campus administrators in the District.
• Three central office administrators representing the Superintendent and the
central office staff. The central office administrator representatives shall be
nominated by and elected from central office professional administrative
staff.
• One technology division representative.
Each teacher representative on the council shall also serve as an ex officio
(nonvoting) member of their respective Campus Leadership Team for the
purpose of communicating work and progress of the council and for the purpose
of collecting campus input.
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9. The Superintendent shall be the Board’s designee and shall name the chairperson
of the council from among the council’s members. The Superintendent shall meet
with the council periodically. The chairperson of the council shall set its agenda.
BQA(LOCAL)
The chairperson of the council shall set its agenda, and shall schedule at least
four meetings per year; additional meetings may be held at the call of the
chairperson. All council meetings shall be held outside of the regular school day.
BQA(LOCAL)
September 24
October 15
October 29
November 26
January 28
February 25
March 25
April 29
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10. The District shall have a District improvement plan that is developed, evaluated,
and revised annually, in accordance with District policy, by the Superintendent
with the assistance of the District-level committee. The purpose of the District
improvement plan is to guide District and campus staff in the improvement of
student performance for all student groups in order to attain state standards in
respect to the student achievement indicators. BQ(LEGAL)/BQA(LEGAL)
The District’s planning process to improve student performance includes the
development of the District’s educational goals, the legal requirements for the
District and campus improvement plans, all pertinent federal planning
requirements, and administrative procedures. The Board shall approve the
process under which the educational goals are developed and shall ensure that
input is gathered from the District-level committee. BQ(LOCAL)
The expected outcome of site-based decision making is improved student
performance. FASRG 5.1.1
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11. Using traditional media for branding and communication does little to encourage
give-and-take between schools and the communities they serve. While traditional
media can deliver messages, receiving and responding to feedback is almost
impossible. This lack of responsiveness can make school seem aloof and uncaring.
Worse yet, traditional means for branding and communication are inherently
slow. By the time messages are crafted and delivered, they are also outdated and
unimportant. This lag in message delivery runs contrary to the immediacy that
defines communication in today’s digital age. Parents and teachers who have
grown to expect open channels, instant responses, and customized opportunities
to participate—and who, increasingly, will have grown up in social media
spaces—will lose faith in building that refuse to adapt. Instead of hiding from this
new media ecology, tomorrow’s best [leaders] will embrace transparency and
portability that tools like Twitter and Facebook enable, creating and managing
multiple streams of communication at once. Sadly, parents and students often
see schools as the same kinds of impersonal places. Once easily recognizable
neighborhood icons, principals are often too busy to fully interact with their
communities; high rates of transience in teacher and student populations make it
unlikely that parents will have long-term relationships with faculty members; and
standardized testing has created a culture that turns students into nothing more
than numbers. The result of impersonality is a general sense of distrust between
individuals and the organizations that serve them. Breaking through distrust
requires frequent, open interactions between stakeholders—behaviors that social
medial tools enable and amplify. Relationships between consumers and the
businesses they support are changing. New tools have enabled progressive
companies to interact directly and informally with customers in ways that were
once impossible. They have also enabled businesses to craft interesting and
exciting messages that entertain and capture attention. As a result, education’s
stakeholders are beginning to expect the same kinds of innovative messages from
their schools. The static communication patterns that we have come to rely on
are seen as standoffish and distant. Not only do these one-way messaging patters
fall short of the expectations of parents, students, younger staff members, and
community leaders, they are likely to be lost in the digital noise that our
communities are swimming in. Being heard, then, requires bravery. We have to
be willing to open ourselves to criticism and to interact directly with important
stakeholders in order to be taken seriously. While doing so is definitely risky in a
field as staid as education, it carries tangible rewards in the form of stronger and
more meaningful relationships with the communities we serve. The goodwill
generated from two-way interactions in social media forums is exponential,
spreading beyond just the individuals you are interacting with. That’s because in a
social media world, each resolution is played out in front of an audience. Every
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12. message has the potential to answer questions that others haven’t asked. What’s
more, every message is a tangible demonstration—a mini-commercial, so to
speak—of your commitment to service. Branding, a term synonymous with
marketing and business, is beginning to find its niche in education. Brands
promise value—essential for maintaining support in difficult economic
conditions—to specific audiences or stakeholder groups. Brands are designed to
stand out, to influence consumers, and to build confidence in products. Sustaining
a sense of trust is an integral component of a brand’s ability to promise value.
Successful brands open themselves up to scrutiny, respond to criticism, and make
every effort to own up to their mistakes, and work to improve based on consumer
feedback. In education, schools are considered a brand, promising their
communities the academic preparation necessary to succeed. Many families
choose to live in townships with schools that have proven track records.
Stakeholders become convinced that their schools prepare students well and
provide a quality return on their investment of time, energy and resources.
Schools can leverage this brand presence for additional community investment in
teacher quality, curriculum, facilities, and professional development initiatives.
The bottom line is that schools actively building their brand are supported by
their communities, and that support translates into continued improvement and
success. Developing positive relationships with important stakeholders in the new
digital space requires authenticity, bravery, and consistency. We worry about
parents and students using social media tools to complain about our decisions,
our programs, or our performance. More importantly, we worry about those
complaints being made in a public forum that anyone can view. Used to doing
damage control anytime negative messages about our buildings surface,
specifically creating forums that enable the easy sharing of negative message runs
contrary to our instincts. Avoiding social media tools, however, is far riskier
because they have been widely embraced beyond your buildings, fundamentally
changing the nature of communication in today’s world. Your important
stakeholders—teachers, parents, students, and community leaders—“might not
know it yet, and perhaps neither do you, but in just a few years if you haven’t
adopted social media in a signification way you risk shutting out the best and
most powerful communications channel we’ve ever known, a channel that values
authentic interactions…at its core.”
From Communicating and Connecting With Social Media (Essentials for Principals)
by William M. Ferriter (May 25, 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc1o9FrYD7Y&feature=plcp
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13. http://www.dentonisd.org/Page/283
What is school for?
What matters to you?
As in…what’s really important to you?
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14. What is success?
Why do you do what you do?
Why are you a teacher, counselor, administrator, etc.?
Like…why’d you get into the profession?
Why are you here?
I don’t mean Planet Earth…I mean here in DISD.
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15. Call or write me at cshade@dentonisd.org.
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