Why do people cringe when they hear the words pop-quiz or evaluation?

Because accountability usually has consequences. As educators, we understand the importance of implementation and evaluation. On a daily basis, we teach our students, ask them to implement the skills learned, and then we evaluate their mastery. Without evaluations, there’s no way to measure progress and growth. The same goes for the school's leadership (including the board) and faculty.

If you create an evaluation process that adds value to everyone involved, you communicate your high expectations and develop a solution in the areas that need more attention. When it comes time for evaluations, your faculty wants to be confident that they are well prepared.

You can start by asking two questions:

(Continued from yesterday's post)

The school board meeting is the primary forum for this vital group to perform its duties. This is their place to function and grow the school by providing the leadership required to do great things.

Motivated and effective boards are not the result of low expectations

Does your school board set high expectations? Or do you tend to have a soft sell: “Please come in and be on our board. We need you and it won’t be that hard--we just really need you on the board?”

Setting meaningful annual goals is one of the Habits of a Sustaining Board. Such goals might include signing the conflict of interest statement, giving to the annual fund, and/or attending a high percentage of board meetings. When it comes to setting school board goals, though, is there one goal that seems to exceed all others when it comes to shaping board behavior and results? Actually, there is one ultimate goal that captures the value of most other options.

(Continued from Yesterday's Post)

Peer Review Process

So what’s the process to assess board culture for continuous improvement? The frequent peer review is highly recommended because of value of the data and the ability to promote conversation about these important traits for effective leadership. We recommend conducting the peer survey every few weeks focusing on one of the seven traits that most contribute to a healthy culture.

High performing schools consistently have high performing boards.

The Sustaining Board understands that culture always trumps structure. Much of the discussion around boards is about committees, officers, the chain of command, etc. Those elements are important and should be wisely structured. You can have great structure with lousy culture, however, which will have a long-term negative impact on the institution.

In a blended learning classroom teacher quality is still the number one strategy to improve student growth. This week I shared a post regarding blended learning and implementation strategies, and included our finding that age is not a reliable predictor of success in such a technology-enabled classroom.

"Blended learning is your destiny, Luke!"

Sounds like the kind of quote you'd hear in a movie called, "School Wars," doesn't it?

How serious is declaring and managing conflicts of interest among board leaders? It's a big deal: Missouri Ethics Commission fines former Rockwood School Board member $10,000! Instead of recusing himself, a board member was voting on construction contracts that directly benefitted him and his company. An audit of the books revealed that this board member voted for $2.7 million worth of projects, with some portions being awarded to his contracting company.