Evidenced by What?

The dawn of the next phase of continuous improvement is now upon our school district. In this phase we will engage in the constant examination of data to make decisions that directly impact the academic and social performance of our students. We will almost become Missourian in our culture when we say, “Show me.” Data driven decision making calls upon all members of the school community to believe statements to be true, only when there is evidence to support them. Take a look at the statements below, that you may have heard in the past about our school or perhaps some school you have attended.

“______________ is a good school.”

Put the name of any school that you know to be “good” in the blank above. Now I ask how you know that it is a good school. Do the students at that school have better attendance than students who attend bad schools? Are the students at the good school tardy less frequently than the students at the bad schools? Do the students in the good school have better performance on state examinations than the students at the bad schools? Are the hallways cleaner than the hallways at the bad schools? I could go on and on, as you can see.

“___________________ is a bad school”

Now you are thinking of a different place than you did in the beginning of this blog. Again, why is it a bad school? Do the students get suspended more frequently than the students in the good schools? Are the hallways darker there, the teachers meaner, the budget thinner, or the grounds messier? What makes a good school good, and a bad school bad? What is now being recognized in school improvement efforts all across the country is that some good schools aren’t as good as people think they are, and some bad schools are surprisingly better than local sentiment allows for them to be.

Truth be told is that good schools are made up of good students, good parents, good teachers, good administrators, a good school committee, good towns, and good….well good schools are just made up of good and that’s that. Then, once we examine the fact that schools are essentially placed in the center of their communities with the purpose of educating children, staffed by those who choose a life of working in the field of education, and parents who are sending the absolute best children that they have to school – I have to ask, how on earth can a school be bad???

A good sports team is good because they win more than the bad sports teams. An airline is good because it has no crashes to speak of and few if any delayed flights. McDonalds is a good business because they have sold a trillion burgers. Mahar is a good school district because……..now its time to go to work and make decisions that show why we are a good school – and engage in decision making that makes us even better.