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English is hard. 😭

This morning I was reflecting on one of my former direct reports—an extremely talented young man. One day he came in my office and declared, “I’ve got your back.” I told him to save his energy and direct it on improving student outcomes. Loyalty is important—but children first.

Good leaders are very firm on what needs to be done and quite flexible on the tactics. They also demand that tactics are regularly measured, monitored, and adjusted when not getting desired outcomes. A chapter from Madeline Hunter’s bible—‘Monitor and Adjust (re-teach).’

Recently, I asked a superintendent if any of their central office staff, principals, or teachers were on improvement plans. Or, did he know the last time one of the district’s employees was let go for poor performance. Two, ‘No’ answers. The district has numerous D and F schools.

I know there are problems with AP/IB classes, but in many schools, they are the only rooms where students are held to anything resembling high standards. Regular Ed classrooms are damaging to the endeavor of education. They are worse than useless.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Sharing a photo of the greatest of them all!

Real leadership—

Dads are spending 3-4x as much time with their kids as their dads did with them. When father figures are engaged, kids show better cognitive development, boys have fewer behavioral problems, and girls have fewer emotional problems. Every child deserves strong parental bonds.

Today, 68% of business CEOs say their organization has clear metrics to measure ROI effectively. Superintendents and principals should develop KPIs to monitor whether tactics are producing a Return On Investment for $s spent on improvement efforts. Pivot when necessary!

Netflix founder Reed Hastings on •Firing: No improvement plans. If you wouldn't fight to keep someone, "write the check and raise the talent bar."

Good superintendents don’t accept low performing schools when they don’t have central staff or principals who can or will do the work. They lean on partners, like Educentric.com, for the skills and capabilities they can’t find another way.

When I served as superintendent of the Houston ISD, we required senior staff members to spend the day at a KIPP and a YES Charter school. We also visited and benchmarked districts across the country. Why? To learn! We were not afraid of ‘new!’

2 significant aspects of school and district leadership that MUST be prioritized: Focus and Consistency. Focus on the 1-2 areas of improvement and Consistently progress monitor. Keep it simple, stay laser-like focused and be consistent w/the priorities! #TeamUCPS #BeTheBest

The quality of your decisions determines, in large part, the quality of your life. The small part is simply luck. You can make a good decision, based on the information you have, only to see things go sideways because you were unlucky.

Still implementing those Houston lessons!

School transformation sounds big—because it is. But the path? Just 25 high-impact sessions with a Navigator who knows how to get results. #Educentric #Navigators

Schools can learn a lot from Chick-fil-A. It comes from a philosophy that isn’t just about training people to make and serve food, it’s about training its team members to serve people. It’s about equipping them to create a warm, welcoming environment…. apple.news/A9Bp4P8SiRfq9k…

Good superintendents do not allow meetings where disagreement is unwelcome. When no one speaks against ‘we’ve tried that before and it never worked,” the status quo has won. Silent consensus kills innovation and breakthrough performance. Speak up and insist on being heard.

Can you summarize your school’s North Star Metric in 35 words or less? Would your staff and parents express it the same way? Schools with a clear, concise, audacious goal—one that everyone can easily internalize and use as a guiding light—often turn out to be high performers.

Many educational leaders don’t realize that planning and strategy are very different activities. Planning is about hiring people, allocating resources, and engaging in activities you can control. Strategy is about making coherent choices that position the district to succeed.