“RESULTS”- Enough Said!

I have to admit that when I started my blogging experience I was thinking of submitting entries in a timely manner, such as one every three or four weeks.  But I’ve learned that I prefer to blog when something comes along that triggers a thought that really makes me “think” about it in a broader context.  You never really know when those moments will appear in my position of Superintendent, so I’ve learned that I cannot really put a timeline on my blogging activity!

That happened a few days ago when our CHS Varsity Boys Basketball Coach Mike Swigert gave me a bracelet to support the team.  I looked at the bracelet and said to him, “Well, there’s no Brave on it or even a basketball!”  Swigert’s response to me was “No, just RESULTS.  That’s all that matters!”

The more I thought about that later, the more I thought how true that statement should be in public education as well.  It would be easier to make excuses about why a student is unsuccessful sometimes than to decide we are going to go beyond the “call of duty” to get RESULTS.  We hear labels like low socio-economic, at-risk, unmotivated, and dropout.  But really, like the Brave and the basketball missing from the bracelet, those labels don’t matter.  What the outside world sees and judges, whether you think it is fair or not, are the RESULTS produced by Community ISD.

Community ISD should be a results-focused, data-driven learning organization.  One of my favorite quotes is “If a student does not learn the way the teacher teaches, the teacher must teach the way the student learns.”  Results can be positive or negative, but very seldom will a result be neutral.  In fact, (this will drive Math teachers crazy) but I would argue that status quo (neutral) is really losing ground in today’s world.  Every educational practice (hopefully research-based) we implement should not be because “we’ve always done it that way” but instead measured by the end RESULTS (did it increase student achievement and is that supported by data?)

NBA Coach Phil Jackson (Chicago Bulls, LA Lakers) was nicknamed “Zen Master” by his players (definition of Zen Master= a teacher of enlightenment).  Perhaps that deep, philosophical approach is in the DNA of basketball coaches (Mike Swigert likes to think so).  Although that bracelet was presented as a simple reinforcing statement for the basketball team, I’ve decided that I like the fact that it doesn’t have a basketball on it.  Now I can wear mine daily and let it remind me we expect RESULTS from our classrooms as well as the basketball court.  RESULTS, in the form of student achievement, should remain our core business.

Cole McClendon, Ed.D.