Uncorking leadership, learning, and the conversations that move schools forward.
Before you read this, you are going to need a nice, bold Cabernet, because you are going to realize sometimes discussing vision isn’t the beginning of a successful school year, it is the end.
I love a good school retreat. And by love, I mean I deeply appreciate watching educators spend seven hours debating whether empower is stronger than equip in a vision statement.
I have done this work long enough to know three things are guaranteed during strategic planning season.
First, someone will suggest making everything a priority.
Second, someone will say we need better execution.
Third, no one will ask the most important question. What exactly are people supposed to do differently on Monday?
Here is the uncomfortable truth: Schools rarely fail because they lack vision. Schools fail because vision never becomes systems. Systems change habits.
Unfortunately, recurring meeting structures are significantly less exciting than inspirational language.
No one hangs a poster that says:
Weekly Data Review Protocols Will Save Us.
But honestly, we probably should. Don’t misunderstand me, Vision is essential. My team has a vision for math, early literacy, writing, affirming culture, and so on. It just doesn’t stop there.
Weekly Data Reviews DID save us, and here is how.
Here’s what vision actually looks like on Tuesday morning.
Vision is a Charter Chief Academic Officer, Director of Literacy and Principals walk into Tuesday Mornings regional Academic Progress Monitoring (APM) meeting with the latest student data already organized by the prioritized subgroup of students whose growth we are chasing, knowing exactly which students moved, which didn’t, and our theories as to why. For example, students well below benchmark on DIBELS in 1st grade sorted into groups based on if they met or did not meet the goal of 2/4 dictation questions correct on the weekly phonics exit ticket. Especially when they were getting 0 out of 4 up to this point. 0 to 50% mastery is particularly challenging.
Vision is the school level APM happening Thursday at which the Principal presents their theory of change that celebrates the students that moved and redirects us on moves that will grow the students who didn’t. Then, every instructional coach in that meeting leaves with two or three clear actions instead of twelve vague priorities. Those actions require them to lean in, data in hand, in specific rooms to either diagnose the root cause as to why the students didn’t more, or to double-down on that teacher’s execution of what we learned WILL work after data analysis. You see, we would all be singing the same song… “Students well below benchmark in 1st grade will be above the aimline in the next two DIBELS Progress Monitoring windows because they are scoring 2/4 on the weekly exit ticket after engaging in 20 at bats during the phonics block.”
Vision is a teacher hearing the same instructional message from their coach, assistant principal, principal, and charter leader because everyone is working from the same evidence. The teacher thinks, let me look at my daily tracker and asks: did I plan for and get to 20 at bats? What impact did that have?
Vision isn’t the annual retreat. If your vision is early literacy growth, then your calendar should prove it. That means weekly data meetings where teams identify misconceptions before they become report card or mid-year testing surprises. It’s the recurring calendar invite for the weekly coaching meeting that has the data monitoring plan at the top of every coaching meeting agenda. It means you initiate a Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle of improvement linked to a specific outcome that you see mapped out across your calendar through a series of connected meetings, observations, walks, etc. For more on PDSA Cycles that help you get out of failure cycles, I suggest Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better. Find it here: https://amzn.to/4f3CsG7. We built several improvement cycles over my years in leadership to tackle problems we could not seem to solve. These are cycles rooted in data.
Vision in action means academic progress monitoring that doesn’t stop with the leadership team. The thinking and data headline rolls out into your organization like a wave of connected actions from stakeholders or double-clicks into the next level of data that gives that stakeholder outcomes to monitor and control that will close the larger gap. District/Charter leaders coach principals. Principals coach assistant principals and instructional coaches. Coaches work with teachers. Teachers respond in classrooms. Students experience something different because adults changed what they did and how they measured their success.
In our organization we call that the APM data cascade. I use to call it the data ripple, but that didn’t feel as intentional as cascade.
Data shouldn’t ONLY travel up an organization to satisfy someone else’s spreadsheet or to demonstrate compliance. It should travel down an organization to improve tomorrow’s lesson and back up to inform the organization’s enabling conditions for the response.
Every level of the system should answer the same three questions:
- What did students learn?
- Who still needs something different?
- What are we going to do before we meet again?
Notice what’s missing. No one leaves saying, “We’ll monitor it.” Monitoring isn’t an action. Responding is. Systems ensure consistent response happens across your organization.
The schools I’ve seen improve the fastest don’t necessarily have all the strongest people in the field. They have the clearest routines.
Every week, the same questions. Every week, the same evidence. Every week, someone owns the next step. Eventually those routines stop feeling like meetings. They become the way the school thinks.
That’s when vision stops being a statement and starts becoming a culture.
Vision doesn’t change schools. Systems do. Vision tells people where you’re going. Systems determine whether you ever get there.
Take a sip, swish it around. Breath deep, then review your data, identify the key subgroup, set the goal, and schedule the meetings needed over the next 6 weeks. Don’t wait. If you need an agenda or thought partner, email curator@edutipsy.com. Come back next week to learn more about connecting student, teacher, and coach outcomes. As a systems leader, I make the biggest impact on students by centering our regional leaders, Principals, and coaches in my daily work.