Education & Income
Compelling numbers that indicate post-high school education, particularly that ends with a certificate or diploma, is necessary for higher earning potential. (Infographic built from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Being the Messenger
As a Superintendent, I am often (daily if not hourly) in the position to communicate bad news. For example, early last week we shared information about a troubling incident involving some of our middle school students. Over the last few weeks I have been able to have lunch with the staff at five of our buildings. Part of having lunch was to talk with staff about how the year was going and part was to share the bad news about what the spring will be like as we establish the budget for 2011-2012. Bad news is not only part of life, it is part of leadership.
The situation last week and looking ahead to what the spring holds caused me to reflect on the ways I want to help share news with the community and staff.
Be honest. Always tell the truth. It seems simple, but when faced with delivering bad news there is often a feeling that avoiding it will help. It doesn’t. Even though it may be difficult at the time, honesty is always the best option.
Be direct. It always helps to just lay it out. Get to the critical information without too much delay. Trying explain away things, people get the sense something is up.
Be kind. Imagine what it would be like for you to receive the same news you are about to give. This will make it easier for you to say things in a compassionate, considerate way. The saying goes, “they may forget what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”
Be patient. I have learned that people react to bad news in a variety of ways. Expecting an immediate response from someone may be just as hard on them as hearing the bad news.
We must develop the ability to deliver bad news with grace and honesty – as an individual and as an organization.
Pension Costs
The model retirement savings plan in the private sector has shifted over the last two decades from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans (401k type plans). One of the reasons is that defined benefit plans are expensive, particularly if the pension fund investments are not performing well.
The issue for school districts is that the cost of funding the existing and forecasted pension costs have increased by almost 50% since 2008-2009. The total payroll for Saline Area Schools is about $35,000,000. This means three years ago our MPSERS payments were $5,789,000 (16.54% of payroll) on that amount. Next year, payments on that same amount will be $8,561,000 (24.46% of payroll) – an increase of $2,772,000. This amounts to about $500 per child since 2008-2009. To make matters even worse…. it is set at 27.37% for 2012-2013, which means another $1 million on the same payroll number.
As Saline and other districts across the State of Michigan continue to cut costs, we often look to contract out certain aspects of our operation and save on paying pension costs. However, the remaining salaries now have to pick up a greater share of required pension costs. Multiply this strategy across the 500+ school districts, and the pension costs raise to significant numbers and reflects in the higher percentages we are now required to pay. We save on one end and have to pay back on the other.
High Five
This is an interesting video of Patrick Carman talking about his books and their unique blend of traditional pages and video. It’s great to hear how he took the changes in the way young readers dealt with books and developed this method to hook students. He also talks about his “high five” test that assesses the variety and frequency of technology use by his audiences. The next time I am with a group of students I am going to try it.
STRIVE
The leader of the group is Junior Aaron Murkerjee. He noted,
The inspiration for STRIVE came from a conference (National Young Leaders Conference) that I attended in Washington D.C. this past fall. The conference was an opportunity to get experience in government simulations as well as meet with Michigan’s representatives and their staffs. After attending this conference and being particularly inspired by the keynote address given by mobilize.org founder Maya Enista, I decided to take the skills I learned back to my community. Although I really did not know how to apply these skills at first, it became clear to me that after a while that education is something that affects everyone, and is affecting me at this point in my life. It also became clear to me that the very people that education affects — the students — had little or no say in the education system.What motivates me to continue working towards the goal of getting a student voice in education, despite skeptical adults and blank stares from other students, is that I know how hard today’s students work and how much they can achieve, and yet our education system is not letting them achieve their full potential. Not only are we falling behind countries like China and India in education, but people from our own country (people such as author Mark Bauerline) are saying that today’s students constitute “The Dumbest Generation.” So our goal is two-fold: One, to improve the quality of education and two, to show the cynics that this generation cares about education.
Aaron, you and the STRIVE group – your voices are being heard and you are already making a difference.
Focus… Mike Schmoker style.
In his latest book, he develops the point that schools need to stay focused if they are to achieve significant gains. He outlines three elements that should be implemented in each subject area:
What We Teach
He describes this as simply meaning a decent, coherent curriculum, with topics, and standards collectively selected by a team of teachers from the district. They should be made up of about half of the content standards from State documents. This allows them to be taught in sufficient intellectual depth with plenty of time for deep reading, writing and discussion.
How We Teach
This refers to the use of quality lessons. He states, “structurally sound lessons that employ the same basic formula that educators have known for decades.” However he cautions that “few implement consistently.”
Authentic Literacy
Authentic literacy is described as both the how and what we teach. It holds it all together and is built around purposeful and often argumentative – reading, writing and discussion. He states, “this is the key to learning both content and thinking skills.”
I am just getting started with the book, so I still need to learn more about his ideas. He is never one to shy away from making bold statements… like this,
“Believe this or don’t: These three elements, if even reasonably well-executed, would have more impact than all other initiatives combined.”
I Can’t Think!
The sub-title of the article is, “The Twitterization of our culture has revolutionized our lives, but with an unintended consequence—our overloaded brains freeze when we have to make decisions.”
We all agree that information is essential to making decisions, but according to the research too much information in the form of face-to-face conversations, phone calls, phone messages, e-mails, text messages, social networking, and tweets is a problem; “trying to drink from a firehose of information has harmful cognitive effects,” says Begley. “And nowhere are those effects clearer, and more worrying, than in our ability to make smart, creative, successful decisions.”
Here’s what happens:
• Paralysis – “Every bit of incoming information presents a choice,” says Begley. “Decision science has shown that people faced with a plethora of choices are apt to make no decision at all.” At a certain point, people get overwhelmed and opt out, or they make bad choices.
• Second-guessing – “In a world of limitless information,” says Begley, “regret over decisions we make becomes more common. People end up being dissatisfied even with good decisions.
• Sorting and remembering – The brain’s working memory can hold only about seven pieces of information; anything that’s important has to be shifted to long-term memory, which requires extra effort.
• The pressure to decide now – The rate at which new information comes at us subtly pushes us to make decisions more quickly than is really necessary.
• Responding to the most recent – “The brain is wired to notice change over stasis,” says Begley. “An arriving e-mail that pops to the top of your iPhone qualifies as a change; so does a new Facebook post. We are conditioned to give greater weight in our decision-making machinery to what is latest, not what is more important or more interesting.” Pace University professor Eric Kessler says, “We’re fooled by immediacy and quantity and think it’s quality. What starts driving decisions is the urgent rather than the important.”
• Evaluating information – The brain isn’t good at giving only a little weight to a new piece of information, says Begley – reflecting and putting things in perspective. With so much information coming at us, it’s very difficulty to discount or downgrade one particular item.
• Too much rationality – “If emotions are shut out of the decision-making process,” says Begley, “we’re likely to overthink a decision, and that has been shown to produce worse outcomes on even the simplest tasks.”
Begley closes with several pieces of advice:
- Don’t try to keep up with e-mails and text messages in real time; deal with them in concentrated bursts at designated points of the day.
- Analytical reasoning is only one part of a good decision; remove yourself from the flow of information and let your unconscious kick in.
- Set priorities; if a decision hinges on a few factors, focus on them.
- If you are a “maximizer” – someone who finds it hard to say no to more information – work especially hard at turning information off and taking the time to reflect.
Relationship Building
We are in difficult times. We are all adjusting to new realities and expectations. Students especially are often under increasing pressure. While we all deal with stress in different ways – it is important for us as educators to do what we can to reduce the level of stress in our student populations. One of the key steps is to establish positive relationships. Without establishing positive relationships with our students we will simply be a delivery system for curriculum.
To enhance communication and relationship building skills, we must first recognize the value of committing time and energy to this area. Staff who understand the importance of relationships tend to engage their students by welcoming them into the building or classroom, learning their names quickly and gathering information about them. We need to show we are all committed to meeting not only students academic needs, but also their social and emotional needs.
Planning with a Purpose
Everyday in the media I read or hear about schools across the State of Michigan and the Nation that are facing drastic cuts. No two school districts are the same. Even though we all have the same basic goals, each institution has its own unique personality based on the individuals who make up that school community. Each district uses the shared history of the community when it is time to make important decisions. Over the next several months our district and community will have to make some very serious decisions.
Based on the information we currently have related to projected revenues and expenses – Saline Area Schools is facing a deficit of approximately $5.9 million for the 2011-2012 school year. Our overall operational budget is $51.7 million. This comes after a year where we closed two buildings, settled a concessionary contract with our support staff, shifted support and administrative staff health care to save funds, increased pay to play and activity fees, eliminated administrative positions, and reduced faculty by close to 20 teachers.
We need to get ready to review every option available to again address the projected shortfall. The next few weeks before spring break provide a time to thoughtfully gather information that will be necessary to make informed decisions in April and May as we prepare our budget to be presented to the Board of Education in June. Look for community forums regarding the budget in late-April and early-May.
Community Partnerships
Strengthen family-school relationships and continue to expand civic, business, higher education, and community partnerships that support improved student achievement.
As I prepared to discuss this goal I worked with administrators from our buildings and departments to gather feedback on how we were addressing this goal. I was overwhelmed at the response. The list of partners involves just about every community organization, business and institution in Washtenaw County. On top of that parent support and attendance at events is at an all time high.
Saline Area Schools, like almost every public school in Michigan, is facing challenges. We have difficult decisions to make related to our 2011-2012 budget. We have high expectations for our students and continue to push to develop a system where all students will acquire the essential skills to be lifelong learners and leaders in an ever changing 21st century global society. However, when I look at the support we receive from the community, I am confident we will be able to address these challenges and move forward.
Scot Graden's Blog 