Own It

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130515 Own It-v2-01Without question, this is a difficult time to be an educator.

On our recent visit to a West Coast client, K12 Insight led a series of focus groups to inform the development of a staff survey. Our goal during these sessions was to uncover areas of misunderstanding or discontent and then facilitate a constructive dialogue between district leadership and key stakeholders. Hearing the voices of teachers, administrators and support staff — and then weaving their issues into survey questions — guarantees that we’ve moved beyond superficial pleasantries into authentic conversation.

In practice, this process can be a bit involved, even heated. Teachers — beset by volatile swings in funding, shifting federal and state program mandates, high turnover in district leadership and the pedagogy ‘du jour’  — bring their grievances to the focus group. I can’t blame them for being more than a little on edge. But once one participant unloads their burdens, the discussion can devolve into blame-shifting and careen off course.

One session I witnessed teetered precariously on the edge of this rabbit hole when an elementary teacher named Cassandra decided she’d heard enough. Fed up with the negativity, Cassandra said, “We can’t control the actions of others, but we can control how we react to them. We teach because we love these kids . . . acronyms change and programs change but strategies don’t. Just do good teaching.”

She concluded: “We own it.”

As Cassandra’s words sunk in, the “adult issues” — which generated such anger and frustration a moment before — were brought back into perspective. Participants reconnected with the reasons they chose public school education in the first place. Yes, the push/ pull of workplace politics is as traumatic in our school districts as it is anywhere else, maybe more so. But it’s heartening to hear this one teacher’s overriding commitment to her students’ success.

We should all heed Cassandra’s words. Because it’s time to stop passing the buck and start owning it.

What’s a Dollar Worth?

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130501 Piggy Bank-01Kids often hear — from parents, teachers and other stakeholders — about the importance of a college education to their future success. Since 34% of the 2012 U.S. high school graduates didn’t pursue a post-secondary education, many of them aren’t listening. But a fascinating new study — conducted by the Assets and Education Initiative at the University of Kansas — may have discovered one small factor that could have an outsized impact on whether students decide to attend college.

According to the study, the chances of a student with no college savings account enrolling in college are only 49%.  But, for a student with a college savings account of even one dollar, the probability of enrollment rises to about 70%.

I was very surprised by this finding.  Clearly, such a small amount of money won’t make a dent in the absurdly high cost of a college education.  But, rather than the amount of money students are able to save, the study suggests that “. . . just opening an account and designating some of that money for higher education may turn college into an important goal rather than just a dream, with a strategy for how to overcome cost barriers.”

And the results don’t stop at college admission.  The study also found that students with a college savings account between $1 and $499 are 20% more likely to graduate college than their peers with no savings account at all.

Although more research is necessary, it’s well worth your time to head down to the bank and put a few bucks into your kids’ college savings accounts. Based on the research, I can’t think of an easier or more direct way to make a solid investment in our future.

Click here to read the complete article.

Full Hearts Fill Empty Chalkboards

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130410 Chalkboard-01During graduation season, millions of American kids are deservedly focused on the challenges and opportunities afforded them because of their education. But an op-ed in The New York Times reminds us that there’s no universally recognized right to be educated — especially for girls in certain parts of the world. Simply titled “Girls Who Risk Their Lives for Education,” the piece details the horrible backlash facing not only advocates fighting for universal girls’ education, but also the young female students on the front lines.

Despite systemic problems faced by many students in Western nations, most don’t risk life and limb for the privilege of learning their multiplication tables. And while poor, immigrant and minority students are vastly underserved by an American school system that does more to stymy upward mobility than assist it, large swaths of the education policy sector have dedicated themselves to making the system work better. Here, factions argue vociferously about the best way to educate marginalized populations, not whether they should be educated at all.

Contrast that with the 15-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot and nearly killed for exercising her right to attend school. Or the other young women profiled in the article who have pledged to stand with each another in staunch refusal to be intimidated back into silence.

This year, once spring gives way to summer and our educational machinery begins to gear up again — in the midst of the old debates and the new fights — let’s take some time out to reflect on the life and death consequences that far too many students, teachers and advocates face for doing something we often take for granted. And remember that an opportunity, no matter how limited, should never be squandered.

Focus On What Matters

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130326 Community Engagement-01In our current education environment, doing more with less is more or less the norm. School districts are being pulled in many different directions and forced to spread already thin resources even thinner. On any given day, your list of responsibilities must be daunting:

  1. Hiring and managing teachers
  2. Transporting students to and from school
  3. Feeding students
  4. Ensuring a rigorous curriculum
  5. Enforcing school safety

Does community engagement show up on your list?  Probably not, simply because you already have your hands full.  But community engagement underpins everything we do. Failing to explain the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead — and taking the time to solicit community feedback — makes meeting your other obligations more difficult.

I encourage you as district leaders to welcome and focus on engagement.  It will not only make your lives easier but will truly enrich the educational experience of the children and communities you serve.  Your stakeholders are eager to understand your critical issues and be active participants in your improvement process. Just pave the way, and show them how.

Rather than peripheral, true engagement requires thoughtful attention and focus to be authentic and genuine.

Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Dotting Their T’s and Crossing My Eyes

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130313 Cover Letter-01 (1)While the U.S. job market is on the upswing — with the unemployment rate down to 7.7% — there are still plenty of people looking for work. So you’d think that qualified job candidates would be easy to find. Think again.

As head of communications at a rapidly growing company, I’m building a team of top-notch writers and copy editors. But it hasn’t been easy or encouraging. Generic cover letters that barely mention our company or the specific job posting are filled with misspellings, grammatical and punctuation errors, and sloppy sentence construction — often sprinkled throughout the applicant’s promised qualifications of being “detail-oriented” and “meticulous.” (Real example: “My style for quality assurance is the read the copy a number of times, searching for grammatical, diction, and spelling errors.”)

And, really, a cover letter is not the place to tell me your life story. Think of it as a first date: Pique my curiosity with a few choice highlights that connect with my stated needs, and I’ll want to hear more.

Resumes are just as bad, with misplaced apostrophes and dropped letters that can put an entirely different spin on your prior experience. (Perhaps one candidate really did work on faulty university communications but, hey, that’s not a selling point.) The fact that a writer or editor candidate doesn’t double- and triple-check every word and punctuation mark in a document that can be revised as needed is simply mind-boggling. It’s like wearing dirty, ripped jeans to a job interview.

To be clear, I’m not talking about those who present themselves well enough to get in the door. Just this past week, more than 800 readers with horrendous job interview experiences commented on a New York Times article, “With Positions to Fill, Employers Wait for Perfection,” about job seekers falling victim to “hiring paralysis.” After being called back for eighth and ninth-round interviews, one job candidate was finally told, oh, well, we’ve decided not to fill the opening after all.  So we can all agree that the hiring process on both sides is less than desirable.

But why are so many college graduates — many with years of work experience — so lackadaisical when it comes to searching for a job? It’s easy to place some blame on our schools, but the truth is that everything from how to write a cover letter and format a resume to how to prepare for an initial phone interview (Hint: Know what the company does and the position requirements) and what to wear to an in-person meeting are all easily accessible via a quick internet search.

But the internet also makes it too easy to shoot one generic cover letter and resume to hundreds of companies. That may feel proactive, but it’s really just a waste of time. Taking the time to target one or two companies with an engaging, personable letter that lays out how a particular job opening perfectly matches your experience and qualifications is a much wiser strategy.

Thoughts? Personal experiences? Please chime in.