Leadership Academy Day 2

Today our agenda was intense.  We heard an hour of Common Core, now called the Missouri Learning Standards.  These are under great scrutiny but some of the misconceptions are downright amazing.  I suggest people really look closely at the timeline of the Common Core, and make some common sense judgments on how, when and why the Common Core was written.  We learned about MSIP 5, the score sheets and how to find them.  I really like the format and the information that teachers can find to look at their scores.  I am very interested in the 90% attendance from 90% of the students as a goal.  Attendance is so important to getting a good education.  Our third clinic of the day was on the new Educator Evaluation that is being worked on.  We looked carefully at the components and talked about how to share the information with the teachers.  This was our morning work.

We had lunch and then got to meet up with our region for an hour.  We talked about powerful moments of the morning and then did an activity called The Identity Poster.  We were to give some information about ourselves using the materials given to us, with no limitations of how we chose to present.  Here's my poster, but I have to say, I didn't feel on my mark.  I had a hard time determining the content and then the organization of it before time slipped away.

In the afternoon we were the audience for the class of 2013 Leadership Academy while they presented their data reports.  We had 72 different reports we could choose from.  I listened to a group talk about establishing three data points for RTI, a tardy reduction program, how to best utilize data days for teachers, a report on a school district who is not grading homework at any grade, and the use of Attendance Councils to improve attendance.  While I was watching all these action research reports, I was excited to think of the wonderful things that are happening in Missouri schools.

Tomorrow we will hear Kim Marshall talk about effective evaluation.  Cannot wait to hear his words of wisdom!