Data-Driven Decision Making

There's been a lot of talk about using data to "make" decisions, but I prefer to think about using data to "inform"  the decision making process.

Take for example the process of buying a car. You could just buy the first car you see, the one that's most popular, the same kind you always buy or the one the salesman recommends. Or you can start by collecting some data. You may look up information online, solicit advice from friends or relatives, visit a dealer, research auto loans. Once you have gathered some data, you have to evaluate it and decide what is most likely true, what is most valuable in making a decision, whether you need more data and if so, what kind of additional data and where can you get it. The data doesn't necessarily make the decision, it informs the decision making process.

The same process can be applied in schools. For example, instead of blindly using the same textbook year after year, you can examine the data related to the use of the textbook like test score is that subject area, research alternative course materials like online educational resources, compare them to current standards, research best practices in other schools and districts and then make an informed decision on whether or not to continue to use that textbook.

My school is currently in the midst of the open enrollment application period - a critical process that will determine how many students we will have next year and consequently what our budget will be and how many teachers, laptops, server space, online textbook licenses, etc. we will need. Since we cannot wait until the application period is over to do our budgeting and staffing for next year, we analyze the available data on the number of applications that are coming in compared to prior years to inform our decision making.

The blue line indicates the number of applications received to date this year. At this point in the application period, we are ahead of pace compared to last year, but slightly behind compared to 2010 and 2009. We had to make some assumptions and adjustments to this year's projections because in previous years, the application period was only three weeks long and this year it is three months. Even so, analyzing this information will help us make some projections about enrollment numbers that will really help our planning for next year. It will also help us make midstream adjustments to our marketing efforts. If application levels go up compared to other years, we can cut back on our Internet marketing expenditures. If application lag behind, we can shift some funds to pay for an additional direct mail campaign. In either case, the data informs the decision making.

Are Leaders Born or Made?

Most people have probably heard someone described as a "natural born leader." True, some people seem to have an unusually high degree of confidence or charisma that draws people to them. Does that mean that people who do not possess that same qualities can never assume a leadership role? In other words, are some people predestined from birth to be leaders, while others who were born without the "leadership gene" relegated to just accept their position as a follower? The nature vs. nurture debate can be argued in regards to many social attributes and leadership is no exception.

Image by www.lumaxart.com/  

When asked to describe the qualities of a good leader, many people cite characteristics like passion, intelligence, vision, ability to communicate clearly, sense of humor, strength of character, patience, wisdom, common sense, reliability, creativity, sensitivity, etc. Surely, no one is born with all these traits fully developed. And people who have not previously demonstrated a quality like patience or the ability to communicate clearly can learn and practice those skills.

Legendary Green Bay Packers Football Coach Vince Lombardi once said, "Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile." (Note: As a Packers fan, I rarely pass up an opportunity to quote Vince Lombardi). I think there is some truth to that. In fact, I believe everyone possesses the intrinsic characteristics required for leadership, and that those characteristics can be nurtured and developed. This may be interpreted as a cop out, but my analysis is that leaders are both born and made.

Of course, that raises another question. What factors cause some people to assume leadership roles and others not? Economist John Kenneth Galbraith notes that, "All of the great leaders have one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of the people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership." That would explain the actions of famous historical leaders, but what about your garden variety leaders; your CEOs, your police captains, your aldermen, your committee chairperson or your classroom teachers? For them I think their motivation is much more subtle. It's the vision to see the world as a better place and the recognition of their ability and responsibility to make it happen.

I consider myself a leader in my educational organization in the same way that President John Quincy Adams regarded leadership when he said, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." For me that applies both to my colleagues as well as the students I come in contact with. I lead by doing my own job to the best of my ability every day and by advancing the vision of our organization.

In terms of my personal leadership style, I subscribe to a style of servant leadership championed by Lao Tzu, father of Taoism, that describes the function of leadership as producing more leaders, not more followers. "A leader is best when people barely know he exists," Lao Tzu teaches. "When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves."

What's Next In Ed Tech?

Johnny Carson as Carnac the Magnificent

Late night television hasn't been the same since the late, great Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show. I was a big fan of Carson - his style, his impeccable comedic timing and his array of recurring characters. Perhaps my favorite character was Carnac the Magnificent. What a bit. After a scintillating introduction from Ed McMahon, Carson would appear from behind the curtain wearing a ridiculously over-sized turban and a cape. He would inevitably stumble over the step on his way to the desk, then go on to divine the answers to questions that were sealed inside an envelope. For example, the "great mystic from the East" might hold the envelope up to his forehead and pronounce the answer to be, "Igloo." Then he would rip open the envelope, blow into it, remove the card and read the "previously unknown" question, "What do you use to keep your ig from falling off." The bad puns were usually met with groans from the audience to which Carnac would respond with a "Middle Eastern Curse" like, "May the winds of the Sahara blow a desert scorpion up your turban." Ah, they don't write them like that anymore.

Crystal ball gazing, mind reading or trying to predict the future has always been a tricky proposition. So when I read an article recently from Compass Learning on "Key Predictions for the K - 12 Sector in 2012," I did so with a healthy degree of skepticism. The article is written by Arthur VanderVeen, founder of the NYC Innovation Zone (iZone) and former school district administrator in New York. Not surprisingly, four of the six predictions are directly related to educational technology. After considering his assertions, I can't see any reason to doubt his conclusions. In fact, I hope he is right on.

VanderVeen believes schools will continue to integrate instructional resources from multiple source to facilitate more personalized learning. He sees continued growth in blended learning models and increased use of online resources that allow for greater scheduling flexibility and choice for students and increased access to high quality teachers and elective courses. As school districts search for cost-effective strategies, technologies such as low-cost laptops or tablets, "Bring Your Own Device" initiatives and cloud-based hosting environments will become more common. And he believes that improved data interoperability will be key to achieving next-generation learning goals.

VanderVeen also includes teacher effectiveness and assessment programs will mature and while he doesn't tie that prediction directly to technology, I would like to see digital portfolios replace or at least supplement traditional teacher evaluation methods.

He also predicts the budgets will continue to be an issue - but you don't have to be a "wise mystic from the East" to predict that.

Mission (Statements) Impossible

On this week's episode of Mission (Statement) Impossible...
Cue the music (bum...bum...bum-bum...bum...bum...bum-bum), light the fuse, push play on the cassette player. {Play this Youtube video while you read this post to get the full effect.}

"Writing powerful, meaningful and useful mission and vision statements can be dangerous business. One false move and you could be stuck with a mish-mash of flowery language and hyperbole that leaves you meandering through your profession career with no clear direction and no end goals to work toward. Creating these statements will be difficult. You will be tempted to imitate some useless junk you came across on the Internet just to complete the assignment. Don't be lead astray! Do some self assessment to figure out what is really important to you as a professional. Rely on your team (cohort) to help you - they are the only people you can really trust. Work hard, revise, evaluate, revise again and you may just come up with something that will guide you on your professional journey and just might save the world!
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to write a professional vision statement that has actual meaning and value. As always, should you or any member of your cohort be caught or killed during this exercise, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck everyone. This blog will self-destruct in five seconds."

My apologies to Mission Impossible producer Bruce Geller and any of my cohort members who is too young to recall the original Mission Impossible TV series which ran from 1966-1973. Great stuff. If you've never seen it, it's worth grabbing a couple of episodes on Netflix. I've enjoyed the movie series with Tom Cruise, but nothing compares to the original TV series.

ePortfolio = The New "Demo Tape"

The last time I had to create a portfolio of any kind was when I was finishing up my bachelors degree in broadcast communication at Marquette University. Back then, I had big dreams of becoming a TV news anchorman and my portfolio was essentially a collection of video clips of me anchoring the news on the closed-circuit campus television station. This became an electronic portfolio of sorts in that it was captured on 3/4" video tape then copied to VHS and mailed to TV stations in tiny towns all over the country in hopes of landing that elusive first job. As it turned out, I never made it in front of the camera due primarily to the fact that I have a face made for radio.

Clear to see from this screen shot (circa 1987) why my on-camera TV career was so short-lived

I got much better results from my news writing portfolio which consisted of scripts typed on a manual typewriter. As a result, I spent 10-years in the TV news business behind the camera as a writer and producer.

I haven't thought much about portfolios since those days, but I can certainly see the advantages of creating online portfolios for student, teacher and employee evaluations, job-seekers, professional development and consultants looking to demonstrate their areas of expertise to prospective clients. In my virtual school, where administering a multiple choice exam as a summative assessment is not the best option, having students create an online portfolio seems to be a much better way to evaluate their progress.

One of the pioneers in the development of ePortfolios is Dr. Helen Barrett. She delivered a very interesting Ted Talk on the subject in February 2010.

She has written extensively on the use of ePortfolios in K-12 education on her blog and teaches an online course called REAL ePortfolio Academy for K-12 Teachers if anyone is interested in learning more about how to use ePortfolios with your students. Very interesting stuff!

Exploring Virtual Schools

Source: http://www.p21.org/index.php

Truth be told, I knew very little about virtual schools when I became the Program Manager at iQ Academy Wisconsin. But it didn't take long for me to understand the advantages for full-time students that are not being well-served in traditional schools and the benefit for other students to supplement their traditional school education with some online classes. Students in my school are gaining 21st Century Skills (or "Essential Skills" as they are referred to in my district) by utilizing technology to fundamentally change their educational experience. They learn not only how to find information, but how to validate, manipulate, synthesize and communicate that information. They are becoming skilled at electronic communication which allows them to collaborate despite their geographic separation. And they are using technology tools to create new knowledge and solve real problems - skills that will serve them well in the "real" world of life after school.
I have also had to quickly become familiar with the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin since it directly affects my school. I was encouraged when the enrollment cap was lifted and relieved that I would never again have to inform a parent that one of their children would be allowed to attend the virtual school but the other one was not as lucky in the lottery drawing and would be excluded for no good reason. I am hopeful that the state legislature will take the next logical step and change the open enrollment policy to extend the application window to make it easier for parents to choose the virtual school option if they feel it is the best learning environment for their child.

School Website: http://www.eachieve.com

My district involvement in online learning includes offering one of Wisconsin's largest and most successful virtual school in terms of average test scores and graduation rates. Starting with the 2012-13 school year, the newly re-named eAchieve Academy will become one of the few virtual schools in the state to be operated entirely by the district, and not be affiliated with a for-profit educational services company. This is a major but necessary undertaking if we want to remain true to our mission of keeping student success as our number one priority.  
During the module I was excited to learn about the different techniques virtual school teachers use to help students learn online. This knowledge has helped me develop a deeper understanding of virtual learning and will be extremely helpful as I work to provide students and teachers with all the resources they need to create a successful online learning enterprise.

Learning is Inherently Social

My experience with online communities has grown steadily over the past few years. It started simply enough with my teenage daughter encouraging me to start a Facebook account (of course, she refused to be my friend on Facebook at first). A colleague suggested using LinkedIn when I was looking for a new job and I have found that to be a valuable professional networking resource. Since starting at my current job as administrator for a virtual charter school, I have been inextricably linked to the online school community. And since starting the M Ed in Instruction Technology program at Cardinal Stritch University, I have expanded by online community repertoire to include forays into Twitter, Diggo, Delicious, Flickr, YouTube and Blogger. 


I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is that it reflects the social nature of life. Human beings are naturally social animals. Even in today's increasingly digital, connected society, human interaction is required and inevitable. The traditional school model may have students together in a classroom, but the paradigm is for them to sit quietly at their own desk, listen to the teacher, read the textbook on your own, do their own homework (which is usually only viewed by the teacher), then take a test on which each student supplies their own answers. That is completely unnatural. I can't think of a single work environment that operates that way. So how does learning that way prepare students for what they will encounter after graduation? 


The greatest challenge about working in collaborative groups is conflict resolution. Every person is unique, so by it's very nature, group interaction is bound to involve conflict. Conflict of opinion, conflict of background/experience, conflict of culture... all kinds of conflict. The question is what do we do about it? Conflict actually can be healthy as it can lead to discussion and debate and encourage group members to examine a problem or situation from a variety of viewpoints. But it can also be destructive if group members are unable or unwilling to cooperate and compromise.


If human beings are indeed social animals and learning is inherently a social activity, then it stands to reason that social development and socialization skills are essential in education and in life. However, I take serious issue with the widely held belief that students need to go to traditional face to face schools in order to learn socialization skills. If that were true, where did young people learn social skills before there were schools? Just as learning does not take place exclusively in the classroom, neither does the development of social skills. And just because a student does not attend a traditional face to face school does not necessarily mean they can't develop good, healthy social skills. Many parents object to the kind of socialization skills children can learn in traditional schools and embrace the opportunity to exercise a greater degree of influence over the kinds of social situations to which their children are exposed.