Do numbers lie?

My wife and I went to see the movie "Trouble With the Curve." Clint Eastwood plays Gus, an irascible old baseball scout who believes you have to see a player play before you can tell if he will be any good.

Matthew Lillard plays Phillip Sanderson, the new age "moneyball" kind of scout who believes that everything you need to know about a baseball player can be found by looking at the stats on a computer.

Joe Massingill plays Bo Gentry, the high school baseball phenom.

Gus knows the numbers but wants to go up and see the Bo play.

Phillip doesn't think anyone needs to go see Bo play - after all the statistics are right there on the computer.

Gus knows you can look good on paper but be a lousy ball player.

Phillip thinks that numbers tell the whole story.

Gus thinks numbers can lie. Or at least he thinks numbers don't give you all the information that you need.

As I watched the movie I thought about the MEAP tests. These state assessments during the month of October will provide us with numbers.

But numbers, as Gus knows, can lie. Or, perhaps more charitably, numbers don't tell me everything I need to know about a student.

I get lots of numbers from the MEAP test, but do I get what I need to know?

Is all I need to know about a student revealed when I look at at a student's score on the MEAP test?

Or skip the MEAP test. Is what I need to know about a student seen when I look at how they did on the NWEA or the ACT or the EXPLORE or the PLAN or the CAT?

Or is there something else I should look at and look for?

The answer for me is easy.

I need numbers. I need some external measure of success. Standardized achievement tests do that. They give me an external measure that I can use to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a student.

But numbers can lie.

I also need a skilled teacher to tell me if a student has the courage to struggle to find an answer.

I need a teacher to work with and watch a student so the teacher can tell me if that student has the capacity to work with others, share information, and be part of a team.

I need a teacher to observe how students organize ideas, develop thoughts, and apply what they know to new and novel situations.

Just like Gus, I need to see a student not just look at the numbers.

The measure of a student is revealed by how she does on an achievement test.

Just as importantly, the measure of a student is also revealed by how well she does working with others and living in the world.

Don't miss your life!

As I stood watching the homecoming parade of Novi High School today, I saw parents with the children. They were smiling and laughing. Children in the parade were waving at parents who were taking pictures on the side.

It was wonderful.

It also reminded me that things go by quickly. My boys are out of high school and have been since 2007. Time indeed does fly. I thought back to homecoming parades they were in, homecoming football games they played, and the general business and craziness of being a parent of a high school student.

But time goes quickly.

Then I thought about one of my favorite songs. (I admit it - I like country music!)

It brings the message home about the importance of cherishing the time we have with our children.

I hope you like it as well.

The future is unknown but it probably will be different

What is the future of learning? It is hard to know.

We have been promised that technology will change education for a long time. And while technology has brought change and created new opportunities for students to learn, classrooms today look remarkably like the classrooms of yesterday.

Some are suggesting that the environment today is different. These education innovators are suggesting that technology finally will radically change learning.

It is hard to predict the future.  The following video provides a perspective. At times this video makes me uncomfortable. At times I disagree with what it is saying. At other times it makes complete sense. At other times I agree wholeheartedly with what it is saying.

What are your thoughts as you watch it?

Watch and think:

My Detroit Tigers and Public Education

My Detroit Tigers are in the American League playoffs. I say "my" recognizing that I am not the owner, a stockholder, or an employee. I am fan. Technically being a fan gives me no vested rights. But that is just a technicality. My definition of "fan" is broad enough to include caring about the team as if they were mine.

So my Detroit Tigers are in the playoffs. Much to my surprise I might add. I had written them off several times over the course of this season. Just a few short weeks ago when they lost games to the Chicago White Sox I told myself that it was time to stop caring.

Only I couldn't.

The Tigers are my team. They represent Michigan. They represent the area I live in. Each night as the season wound down I would check the TV. I would alternately be thrilled and crushed. I would yell at the TV or the radio. Sometimes I was mad, other times I was deliriously happy. Finally they overtook the White Sox and captured the Central Division crown.

Now they are in the playoffs. As I write this they are up two games to one over the Oakland A's. 

I should be thrilled. 

But I worry. They lost last night. What if they lose tonight? Then they have to play an elimination game tomorrow.

This is the life of a baseball fan. After the season - whether they win or lose -  I'll understand that the journey was worth it. Right now it is an emotional journey.

How does my experience of being a baseball fan connect to the experiences I have had as a student, a parent of three boys, and, now, as the Superintendent? Most of the experience of being a fan does not relate to schools but one part of the experience relates very well. 

People care about schools.

Teachers and administrators care.

Parents care.

Students care.

Our community cares.

A fan cares about the team. A fan wants the team to do well. A fan has ideas on how to improve the team. It is similar in schools.  

People who care about our schools want our schools to do well. They have expectations and when those expectations are not met they voice their opinion. 

In my role as the Superintendent, sometimes it is hard to listen to those who care about our schools because they are pointing out things that are wrong with our schools. I can see and understand the frustration. My job is to fix what's wrong. 

Other times people tell me about the great things that go on in schools, how much a teacher helped, how a principal went out of his or her way to make a difference. I listen to those stories as well. 

Why do people care about our schools?

People care because they understand that education gives a student a chance. An education does not guarantee anything but it gives every student a chance. If schools teach our children well then they will have the skills to make good decisions, the skills to get a job, the skills to make a difference in the community. It is not a guarantee but a chance.

Baseball fans want a chance.

Parents want their schools to provide a chance, an opportunity, a possibility. 

People care about schools because they understand that schools provide hope for the present and the future. People care because they understand how important schools are to providing opportunity. 

Baseball and public schools. Both great traditions!

Reading: The defense against our age of distraction

Two recent features on the radio started me thinking about the power of reading. In one, a Michigan State University professor began research on distractability. In the other an author in an interview for his new book spoke about how in our modern age it really is difficult to get and keep people's attention.

Both of these stories made me think about iPads and the internet and Twitter and Facebook and the way our modern world affords people the opportunity to superficially scan hundreds of articles and ideas a day. It made me ask again the question are we capable of focusing in our hyper-connected world?

The answer, from both of these stories, is yes.

The researcher found that the whole brain becomes involved when one engages in close reading. Parts of the brain that are involved in movement and touch become activated when a person becomes engaged in the act of reading. It is as if a person "physically places" themselves in the story.

The author, who also developed a smartphone application, talked about how people often move from website to website and app to app. Capturing a reader's attention and engaging them has increasingly become more difficult.

But reading can grab people.

Because reading has the potential to engage readers in deep and meaningful thought we need to help those that we teach learn not just the act of reading but give them tools to reflect on their reading. Developing the skills to engage in reading can and should help our students learn the skills of engagement in other areas of their life as well.

Reading, it appears, is one of the tools that we have to push back against the tide of superficiality and distractability that threatens to engulf our world. A true gift in our modern world.

Are schools ready and able

Will Richardson in his book Why School (how do you tell people the page number of a book you are reading in the Kindle app on an iPad?) says the following:

"Fewer companies will be willing to offer full-time jobs with health benefits or retirement plans when they can hire short-term contractors from anywhere in the world to do much of the work they need."

As I read those words I thought of the article in the New York Times that talked about a digital start-up that technically had one employee - the founder.

Richardson went on to say that:

"More and more, our children will have the chance - and, increasingly, be expected - to forge their own paths to an education and into the workplace."

That is a significantly different perspective than I grew up with. Schools need to help our student prepare for their world and not prepare them for the world that I grew up in.

My question is are schools ready and able to do that?

Training, skill, and a little luck . . .

Life has a unique way of playing out. Why events happen is, at times, hard to understand.

I have lived a life without much trauma or drama. 

Ed Gavagan has not. Listen to his story.

As I listened to this remarkable story what struck me was his affirmation that the chaos of the world can be beaten back with luck and, more importantly, with people who have training and skill.  

I want the people with whom I work to understand that they are the people Mr. Gavagan is talking about. His story revolves around the remarkable skills of surgeons and doctors. But everyday I see teachers and principals who push back against the chaos with students in our district.

Teachers and principals create opportunities, inspire, build up the confidence of struggling students, push students to go further than they imagined.

The students who show up in our classrooms and in our schools we don't get to pick. Yet everyday there they are. The job of the teachers in my district and in my schools is to use their training and skills to make a difference. 

And they do a remarkable job!