TASA reflection

I just attended the Texas Association of School Administrators Midwinter conference in Austin.  By attending, I gained a greater appreciation of the political nature of the Superintendent as well as the dedication and passion our educators have for truly doing what is best for kids.

I truly enjoyed hearing Chip Heath, author of Switch, speak.  I am currently reading his book, so I was able to easily understand the main points of his presentation.  His book and presentation are about change.  In a no-nonsense style, he uses entertaining stories and situations to help narrow the focus of things we can do to facilitate change. 

I was not able to hear all of the presentation of the commissioner, Robert Scott, but from the feedback I got from others, he provided vocal support of educators and provided a Q & A opportunity.  During that Q & A, listeners got the impression that there might be a bit of give in some implementation of STAAR in light of the tremendous budget deficits we are all facing.  That could be very helpful, but probably only to the middle and elementary levels.  High schools will still need to determine how to do it all given that AYP, graduation rates, and other indicators are tied to student success. I was able to attend other sessions that also addressed the new assessment guidelines.  The discussions and suggestions were very helpful in identifying that we are all very uncertain about implementation, expectations and implications of STAAR.  There were some great recommendations suggested that I plan to take back to the district for consideration.  The next few years will truly be a challenge to high school testing coordinators and administrators!

The Honorable Wendy Davis spoke at our regional meeting.  I was impressed with her eloquence and honesty.  She didn't provide any solutions, but I'm not sure anyone can provide that at this point.  She did recommend that grass roots efforts to help legislators understand their accountability to local voters could be key!  I highly recommend that every educator write their legislators and demand that accountability. 

The sessions I attended were heavy on theory and light on implementation strategies.  I suppose when attending conferences at the higher level of administration, the vision and theory is the focus since the implementation and application is varied depending on the district.  The new Visioning whitepapers are very thought provoking and inspirational!  These six articles are not the end all/be all, but they provide an excellent framework and impetus for the changes we need to be working toward in addressing the needs of our new age learners.  It is the work of 30+ superintendents from around the state in defining the vision for education in Texas.  If you have not yet read these, visit the TASA website and go to the Visioning institute.  They have the vision, the framework, an assessment and several other tools for working through what this looks like in every district.  One superintendent from an area in the panhandle talked about how each member of his leadership team along with one board member is creating a task force for each article.  Their goal is to address, assess and work through each article and then in a jigsaw format, come back together to develop their plans for working toward implementation.  I thought that could be very powerful.  I don't believe there is one silver bullet for addressing all the different issues in education, but I do find this vision very powerful. 

The final session includes Schlechty, Popham and Stiggins.  That's a powerhouse of instructional gurus!  I look forward to hearing what they have to add to this conference.  The networking opportunities have been very helpful and the exposure to a different kind of thinking stretches me.  In order to maximize the impact of TASA, I believe repeat attendance will be key.  As in any large organization where networking is a major part of the experience, one time is not enough.  I only hope I can convince my district that in order to have administrators who are truly leading experts, professional growth of this nature is imperative.  Learning from others who are successfully implementing and taking care of our core business in education isn't the only way we are going to improve, but it is a major step in the right direction!