We are losing the skill to interact with each other

There is a very serious disease spreading across the United States and it is the loss of open communication between people. No longer do people ask each other how things are going in a face to face situation. People no longer talk in the grocery line and know the cashier because now most go through the self-checkout.

Do you miss talking to people? Swiping cards through machines, talking to computers and phones rather than faces and shopping online has removed the personal touches of communication.

I have not gone in the gas station store in months because I just sweep the card at the pump. 90% of my communications using my cell phone are text messages.

I first saw this phenomenon start in the 1980s when Email became the favorite mode of communicating information. It amazed me how many people would not leave their offices or cubes and walk 20 feet to talk to their co-workers. It was safer and easier to push a button. Many hid (still going on today) under the disguise that it was more productive and faster to use Email than to talk on the phone or get up and go talk to a person.

I'm thinking this all is evolutionary. Pictures of Aliens for years that we assume are beings of greater intelligence use Telepathy.

I once read in the future we will no longer have a little (pinky) toe because there has been no use for it for a thousand years. I think the vocal cords will be next.

Common Core Standards - By What Method?

I have attended three conferences on the new educational Common Core Standards to be implemented in at the last count 44 states.

 The CCSS Mission Statement is:

The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.

As far as Mission Statement's go this is very good. Very concise and to the point as to "WHAT" we can expect from the standards. However, as usual the standards do not explain the "HOW" or what I refer to as "By What Method" will they be accomplished.

The presenter in both conferences made it very clear the method will be left up to the school/teacher to decide what is the best method. Just like in business world the education systems Do Not Know HOW to develop methods and processes from an end-to-end perspective.

What bothered me the most was the proclamation made by both presenters that most of the teachers were already complying to the new standards. HOW can that be? Most of them don't have any idea of what the new standards are and don't plan to conform to the standards when someone already tells them they are doing just fine.

I will tell you now that Teachers (who need to make this happen) will not be given the support or training to make this initiative happen. Why? Simple, because the leadership does not have a method or aim to make it happen. They have not done for past initiatives and they still don't know how to do it now.

The CCSS are what we need to move the educational learning's to a new level in the United States. I am encouraged that 44 states have signed on to conform to the standards. I am not pleased there are TWO assessment companies. The two comprehensive Consortia Companies are – Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

Proponents of having two assessment companies will say "It is good for competition." Again, we have missed the point that in order to compete you must first have cooperation. So we get 46 states to cooperate and in the same breadth we want competition to tear it apart.

This is not good and will defeat the purpose of standardization, alignment and overall process improvement - what a shame we continue to take the easy road and develop plans with no long lasting merit to the original thought process. CCSS is at its core trying to set consistent standards. What I like is the fact the standards do not attempt to change curriculum's which always meets resistance from teachers.

I fear politics between parties and well as state versus federal power struggles will derail this effort on the short-run.

The best way for continual improvement to take hold is through standardization. You must have standardization at the beginning and end of each process/system improvement efforts. The problem is I do not believe standardization is being done. For example; The CCS only covers English Language and Mathematics. The the Common Core State Standards do not cover science and social studies content standards, the Next Generation Science Standards are in the process of being developed. They are not directly related to the Common Core, but their content can be cross-connected to the mathematical and English Language Arts standards within the Common Core. So another governing group and perhaps another testing agency - RIDICULOUS!!

Think of the Educational System (as well as the Common Core Standard effort) as a manufacturing line to build a car. K-12 is the car and in order to build a Quality product at the end of the line that can be delivered ready to go to the dealership must have Quality designed in from the start with process and efficiency measures through-out the process to ensure the car will be delivered as ordered and expected from the customer perspective.

Likewise, The Common Core process must bring the teachers, administrators and other stakeholders together to ensure the student is College and Career Ready at the end of 12th grade. The Standards will help with the Standardization as long as the Process Owners (Leaders) drive the effort and make sure all involved have the methodologies, tools and techniques required to do their jobs correctly.

Methodology -http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=11874839#editor/target=post;postID=2360867080598912945;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=16;src=postname

I wonder where AdvanceEd will fit in all this STUFF?  Their site says  "AdvancED is the premier accreditation organization in the world, our passion is school improvement and knowledge leadership in education."

http://www.advanc-ed.org/what-we-do

Perhaps I should say "By WHICH Method"

Olympic Boxing is a DISGRACE!

I have been involved  with the sport of boxing since 1960. I have watched Olympic Boxing every time except in 1972 when I was in the Army.

I have seen some bad and some very bad  (Seoul) judging but NEVER have I seen the on-going disgrace of what is happening in London during this past week. The Olympics should use the 10 point scoring system. Why are Olympic fighters still amateurs? We send the best basketball players why not send professionals boxers. Tennis are pros and just about all other sports are too. Go to five rounds and let the action begin! Make sure pro referees are there too!!

The Sport I love is being ruined at the hands of judges and referees who have no idea how to score a fight.

The Marquess of Queensberry ought to rise out of his grave and kick their asses back to wherever they come from and let the fighters fight and at least give them a chance.

Somebody better dig up the rules quick because I will no longer watch this debacle any longer. 

Smoking Chucka Lives

K- 12 (Should be K – 16) is an old style assembly line

The K- 12 (Should be K – 16) Education system is an assembly line designed like an old style manufacturing line. The workers (Teachers, Administrators, Students, Parents, Staff, and Support) working in the system don't know how and where they fit in the system and do not understand the interdependencies that accompany each process within the education/school system.

Each school must define their aim/purpose and produce students ready to work and live in the 21 Century.

I have stated before the education system in the United States is the last Bastion that has not accepted change and does not know how to “Transform” itself. Instead, it continues to follow the “worst” practices from failed business and management examples that have plagued and resulted in the Demise of the American Management System for decades.

The papers and news are filled with articles about people stating teachers need to be paid by performance. Now in order to do that they want to establish a rating and ranking system.  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

Want more proof? Please read this article 10 Telling Teacher Experiments in the Merit Pay Debate by Online Universities.com at
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/07/10-telling-teacher-experiments-merit-pay-debate/

How do you reward a teacher in 5^th grade based on test results for a student without including the students K – 4^th grade teachers too? The student output results are cumulative and work in a building block methodology.  We no longer inspect (at least I hope not) quality in at the end of the assembly line.

Perhaps with the implementation of the Common Core Standards in 44 states to standardize and improve our educational system will be effective. My fear is we have yet to learn how to truly understand systems thinking in our educational process as of yet and we are doomed to fail again with implementing a good idea from lack of leadership and know-how.

Please read - http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2012/08/common-core-standards-by-what-method.html

Quality must be designed in the process from the beginning and monitored until the product is completed for the consumer. Each grade level within the education system must work in association (aligned) by using core standards and other methods to measure and monitor the student for mastery of core subjects as the student progresses through the system.
Management by Objectives, Rating and Ranking and all those other programs are “crutches” for leaders who do not know how to do their jobs or they are not capable of doing their job because they are in the wrong position.

Those programs were created for leaders who want to abdicate their authority and not do the tough part of their job and that is managing their people by providing them the proper tools and skills by which to perform their work.

The following example of the 6E's provides a simple method for making sure your people have been proved and end to end perspective of what a leader or manager needs to provide each worker within their system.

Think of Envisioning as the Long-Term Plan that identifies and develops the overall objectives and goals where you need to bring all stakeholders together to understand the End-to-End-System and to Design in Quality from the customers (Internal & External perspective).

Enlightening is more like the Short-Term Plan that narrows the vision down to the system process owners to develop their plans and strategies to meet the Long-Term Plans goals and objectives. It is critical to educate workers on where they fit in the system and the impacts they have on the overall End-to-End Systemic effort of the group.

For more about this process go to http://www.dreammentorprogram.com/DMProcess.aspx

State of Michigan Continues to Sub-Optimize Leadership and Education

While walking my dogs this morning I was thinking about system optimization and how the leaders of Detroit and Wayne County can't seem to understand that Detroit and Wayne County are a piece of the whole (State of Michigan).

Granted they may be the heart of our state's system but they are a cancer to the whole state with their lack of leadership and accountability to their taxpayers through endless non-planning and short-term thinking.

Our school system continues to sub-optimize by refusing to understand that K-12 is a system (needs to change to K-16) and throws money at individual efforts instead of the system.

Education systems must be aligned in both curriculum and core standards. We don't need to fail students but we do have to have measures that provide data that tells if students have mastered a subject area. Superintendents and Principals must lead this effort. After all they own the system.

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html



A thought came to me:

" It's easier (cost effective) to prepare a student when they are young than to prevent a dropout (cost of failure) when they are older."

Like the dogs - go to  http://www.angelfire.com/ga2/kttenkaboodle3/page4.html