May I borrow your watch?

Consultant: a person who when asked the time, borrows your watch, tells you what time it is, pockets the watch, and sends you a bill for it.

Scott McLeod over at Dangerously Irrelevant recently ran a series of blog posts raising questions about experts, speakers and consultants. (See "Beware of outside consultants - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.)

In the first two entries, Scott reports on questions raised about two nationally know figures, William Daggert and Ruby Payne, who have come under fire. Whether it comes as a result of methodology or conclusions, anyone who advocates for actual change will face criticism. Unless there is some grossly unethical practice discovered, I tend to look at all controversy surrounding such folks as more heat than light. I have yet to see the scientific method successfully applied to the social "sciences" of which education is a part.

In Scott's third post, he asks all of us who serve as speakers/consultants about our own ethical obligations. He quotes from the National Speaker's Association's "Code of Professional Ethics" and generates four standards of practice of his own for speakers/consultants with which I agree.

I do tend to separate my obligations as a consultant, working one-on-one with a school, with my responsibilities as a speaker/keynoter. In my experience, the expectations are different. Most of my consulting work has been done regarding library/technology/facility projects and I've been thinking about this for quite a while. This is from my online booklet "What Gets Measured, Gets Done" (2001, revised in 2007):

The outside consultant

Should a district hire a consultant from outside the district to help evaluate its library media program? Since I have at times served as a consultant myself, you need to know that my advice may be somewhat self-serving. But here it is anyway…

There are a number of very good reasons not to hire a consultant to help in the evaluation process:

• Good consultants are expensive. (An alternative to a hired gun is to have a reciprocal agreement with another district to trade external evaluators. The North Central Association uses volunteer evaluators from member schools. These folks know they in turn will get volunteers when they are evaluated.)
• Consultants may not understand the culture, philosophy, and goals of the district.
• Consultants may come to the evaluation with a set of prejudices not in keeping with district philosophy or professional best practices.
• Consultants may not come from recent practice in the field.
• Consultants can only discover a limited amount of information during a site visit. One or two conversations or experiences may play too important a factor in the consultant’s final
  recommendations.

Other than that, we are charming and lovable people and can add value to the evaluation process:

• Consultants can bring a sense of objectivity to the evaluation.
• Consultants can bring expertise in building good programs to the district.
• Consultants can lend credibility and validity to the work done by the district evaluation team if the administrative team and school board regard them as impartial and expert.
• Consultants can bring knowledge of current best practice and future trends in the field, and may have knowledge of what other schools are doing that is innovative and effective.

If you want to get the most bang for your buck from a consultant:

• Spell out exactly what result you expect from his/her involvement. (Site visit, written report, follow-up, etc.)
• Have good information for the consultant to use. Inventories, survey results etc, should be done prior to his/her involvement. (Although a good consultant should be able to provide sources for good evaluative tools.) The consultant should only be analyzing the data and making recommendations, not gathering it.
• Get recommendations from others who have used the consultant. Ask about his or her communication skills, timeliness, reliability, and the usability of the consultant’s product.
• Hire someone with credibility and recent experience in the library media field.

When I visit a district as a program evaluator, my main objective is to help the head of the library
media/technology department get across whatever message he or she needs to have the
administration and board hear. Most people for whom I have worked have a very realistic picture of the strengths and weaknesses of their programs.

I also attempt to answer genuine questions these folks might have: Why are more classes not using technology for research purposes? To what extent do our physical facilities help or hinder our library media programs? How can we better use the computers we have in our elementary schools? Do our print collections meet the needs of our students and staff? How can we better allocate our media and technology dollars?

The main point here is that the better the district knows what it wants from an outside consultant
evaluator, the better off that person is able to provide it. And this leaves everyone satisfied and the district with useful information that can be used to improve.

In summary, I see a consultant primarily as a facilitator, rather than a guru imposing a philosophy on an organization.

Conference presenters I look at in different light. As I commented previously (in reaction to a Will Richardson post):

"Sit and git" has its place within the larger plan. First a disclaimer: I make pretty good beer money by going to conferences and giving one-time workshops and breakout sessions. I also enjoy attending these (sometimes).

Sit and Git, Spray and Pray (whatever the clever derogatory appellation du jour for short sessions offered during professional development days or conference is), such learning opportunities ought not to be simply dismissed as ineffective and drop kicked from the educational ball field. Like classroom lectures, good short sessions can be effective in meeting specific purposes. Those include:

• Introducing participants to a new concept, theory or practice with the expectation of self-directed follow-up. (What is meant by authentic assessment?)
• Teaching specific, useful skills, especially if practiced within the time allotted. (How to design a good rubric.)
• Bending a mindset or encouraging an action. (Assessments can be used not just for ranking students, but to actually improve the learning process.)

Concrete, even discrete, learning opportunities have a place in professional development, provided they are part of a larger profession growth plan or teacher IEP.

The key to the effectiveness of conference presenters lies not necessarily in the conference presenter him/herself, but in how well the speaker's message/lesson matches the learning need of the attendee. This certainly doesn't eliminate the speaker's responsibility for being professional and prepared, but it does indicate there is a shared responsibility.

Finally Scott's last post on the responsibility of the organization doing the hiring of the consultant is excellent. I get very nervous when an organization can't articulate the outcomes it expects as a result of my visit.

The people I know who do speaking and consulting do like to earn money by doing so and often command good fees for their services. But I rarely detect the taint of the snake oil salesman among them. In fact, most of us tend to be on a "mission from God" as the Blues Brothers might put it, believing that in changing schools we are changing children's lives and society for the better.

Do not confuse missionary zeal with hucksterism.

What makes a good boss?

My first piece of advice to educational bloggers is always, 'Praise locally; complain globally." So I am going to need to be a little careful with this post. It's about my boss, Ed.

After 35 years in education, the last 12 as superintendent of our district, Ed is retiring. By any measure, Ed is the best supervisor I've ever had. I can say this now, and say it publicly, since it makes no sense to suck up to somebody who is leaving and won't be able to help your causes much. But it's true and his announcement has had me reflecting about what qualities Ed displayed that made him a good boss. And wonder if I learned something from him.

!. Interpersonal skills trump professional skills. Ed was never a classroom teacher or principal. He came up through the district's ranks via the business office. He did get a license in educational administration late in his career, but as far as I know, Ed never taught a lesson to third graders or supervised a faculty. But he could  powerfully empathize with teachers and administrators (and custodians and secretaries and bus drivers and possibly tech directors). This is why the appointment of a "non-educator" to educational leadership positions and alternate routes to becoming a teacher are not as troubling to me as to some, I suppose.

2. Give others a job and let them do it. Whether deserved or not, Ed put his faith in his people, respected their expertise, and let them do their jobs without interference. Would this be called macro-management? In turn, I never felt that I needed to be as responsible to anyone as I needed to be responsible to Ed. Is that reciprocal phenomena universal?

3.Be open and collaborative, but step in when needed. I suppose like many organizations, our district runs by committee. And given the theories of "collective intelligence," this may be the reason why most of the decisions made are pretty good ones. (Should the poor decisions be blamed on "collective stupidity?") Ed regularly attended the committees on which I serve or chair, but never dominated. But the interesting thing is that Ed would give groups just so much time to come to consensus, and then have the cojones courage to unilaterally make a decision when a collaborative one could not be made.

4. Be visible. Ed was really good at convincing our community (of which less than 20% of households have kids in school) to tax themselves for the betterment of education. His track record for passing referendums is outstanding. But it didn't just happen - Ed took his show on the road speaking to dozens of service and community groups in an honest, compelling way. He is a familiar figure at our district's sporting events, holiday program and fund raisers. (He is a good Kiwanian as well.) "80 percent of success is just showing up," Woody Allen once said. Ed may be proof of that. Oh, one reason he gave for retirement is that he just can't handle ten hour days any more.

5. Keep a sense of perspective. If I have one frustration with Ed and our district, it's that we are not more innovative with technology. I get no traction on one-to-one initiatives; small support for integrated tech skills in staff development; faint support for "21st century skills" for kids. Most of the tech budget goes to maintain. Ed's accountant mind mostly appreciates, I believe, the data crunching side of technology, not the creative, empowering side of it. (His PowerPoint slides are black and white and all bullet points and graphs.)  In many ways our district could be the poster child for allowing "the good to stand in the way of great" as Collins describes the condition. When we ask for referendums and new buildings, we tend to go for the Chevy, not the Lincoln. But interestingly enough, the district has won awards for having a great school board, for its fiscal practices, for its mentoring program and other, perhaps less flamboyant, efforts. I suspect we are about as good as our Minnesota modesty will allow us to be. Thanks to Ed's perspective, this is a school district one can be proud to serve in.

6. Finally, be a decent human being. If I had only a single word to describe Ed, it would be "decent." I have never seen him lose his temper, put down another person, or treat anyone disrespectfully. His sense of humor is never far from the surface. He rarely accepts credit, but credits others for the district's wins. He is honestly humble and self-deprecating. One of the highest accolades bestowed on a Minnesotan is to say "he's a good guy." Ed's a good guy.

I wrote that Ed was never a classroom teacher in his career. But I do believe he was a teacher, at least to me - teaching by example. I don't have Ed's work ethic, his patience, his humility, or his empathic strengths, but I do try to exhibit his good qualities when I can.

The old adage is that we teach the way we have been taught. Perhaps we should add to that, we lead the way we have been lead.

So readers, what are the qualities you most admire in your boss? I am sure he/she must have some!

Green and cheap

I sent the message below out to my district listserv the other day. I often get chewed out when I get back from the holiday break because someone (usually a taxpayer) has noticed computers left on during while school was not in session. The article mentioned below (thanks Stephen's Lighthouse) is a good one to share with your staff.

Let's all be green and cheap! Especially as school budgets get tighter...

Hi folks,

There seems to be an on-going misunderstanding in our district (and elsewhere) about whether one should ever shut off one’s computer. This article should answer any questions on the issue.

Shut your computer off whenever possible and put it to sleep whenever it is not being used. (Putting it to sleep is different than putting on a screen saver – see Myth 2 below.)
_________________________
from: Five PC Power Myths Debunked

"Turning off PCs during periods of inactivity can save companies a substantial sum. In fact, Energy Star estimates organizations can save from $25 to $75 per PC per year with PC power management. Those savings can add up quickly. According to a recent report by Forrester titled "How Much Money Are Your Idle PCs Wasting?" PC power management is helping General Electric and Dell boast savings of $2.5 million and $1.8 million per year, respectively. That also results in a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions."

Myth No. 1: The power used turning my PC on negates any benefits of turning it off.
Myth No. 2: My screen saver is saving me energy.
Myth No. 3: Turning my PC on and off will reduce its performance and useful life
Myth No. 4: I can't run updates and patches for PCs in lower-power states.
Myth No. 5: My PC users will not tolerate any downtime for power management.
It's a start. Small stuff adds up."
_________________________
In other words, put your computer to sleep (not on screen saver) or turn it off whenever possible. Set your computer to go to sleep after a few minutes inactivity. (On a Mac, go to System Preferences and use the Energy Saver controls.)

And of course over the upcoming holidays, turn everything OFF! If you have your computer set up to start at a certain time, make sure that control is disabled as well.

With nearly 3000 computers district-wide, we could save $150,000 a year if we averaged the savings listed above.

It’s green and it’s smart.

All the best,

Doug

Any tips for getting your staff to turn off their computers when not in use?