1. Last month I provided the URL for seminar downloads of blank graphs and power point presentations. These were created for LtoJ by various teachers. I placed a period at the end of the sentence and the period was mistakenly added to the URL, making it inopperative. Here is the corrected URL without the period at the end. It will work.

www.ltojconsulting.com/seminardownloads.htm

2. The graphs that are on the LtoJ Consulting website are for 28 quizzes (checks) over the course of a year. Why 28? Teachers find that seven quizzes per quarter fits very well with other quarterly responsibilities.

3. Last month I included a photo from a kindergarten in McCook, NE. It showed a class run chart with accompanying unifix cubes. This month's photo is from the hallway leading to the six kindergarten classrooms. Next to the run chart is displayed the total correct for all six classrooms using base ten blocks matching the total last week -- 536.

4. Attached is a graph from the Paradise Valley (Arizona) Title I schools. It shows that last year significantly improved over the past years. LtoJ wasn't 100% of the reason for the improvement, but clearly it was a factor as the Title I schools have consistently attended LtoJ seminars and implemented the process. (The average of the first four years was calculated and then the standard deviation of the first four years. The standard deviation was multiplied by 3 and added to the average for the upper control limit and subtracted from the average for the lower control limit. One data point above the upper control limit is considered statistically significant.) Of course, only four data points for the average and standard deviation is not nearly a long enough trend. However, in education this is often the best we can do.

5. A seminar participant began tracking her daughter's progress completing her chores at home. Instead of incentives, her daughter is attempting to beat her all-time-best time in completing the chores. Her ATB's are celebrated with a mom and daughter dance. Photo is attached.

6. Elementary teachers: If you read Bill Martin Jr books such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Knots on a Counting Rope,you may want to share this photo of Bill Martin Jr and Lee Jenkins. It was taken in 1995 in Memphis, TN when I was assisting Bill Martin Jr in one of his summer courses. We were in a restaurant waiting to be seated at a table. The photo is attached.

Strategic Planning by Lee Jenkins

Below are considerations for district and/or school strategic efforts:

1.        The first issue in strategic planning is what problems are we attempting to solve.  What are the root causes of these issues?  My book, Permission to Forget: And Nine Other Root Causes of America's Frustration with Education, describe these root causes that are the same from district to district all across the USA.  For example, if a strategic plan leaves in place the learning process of cram/get a grade/forget then the strategic plan has not really improved student learning.  Permission to forget, which begins with first grade spelling, is only one of the deeply imbedded problems that a powerful plan needs to resolve.

2.       The second issue in strategic planning is solutions for the root causes.  I have described, from a classroom perspective, solutions in my book Improving Student Learning: Applying Deming's Quality Principles in Classrooms. This process is what I now call "L to J" meaning that we move from high standards (L-curve on pre-test) through the bell-curve at mid-year onto high success rates (J-curve on final and state assessments).

3.       The third issue in strategic planning is creating the support systems in the district personnel office, business office, and instruction office to support continuous improvement.  My recommendations are written in an AASA joint publication entitled From Systems Thinking to Systemic Action: 48 Questions to Guide the Journey.  This publication most closely aligns itself with what our profession calls strategic planning.

4.       The fourth issue in strategic planning is proper use of data.  I recommend 5 key graphs: two are enumerative and three are analytical.  The first enumerative is the aggregate and the second disaggregates.  The analytical graphs are for strands within subjects, programs and personnel.

5.       The fifth issue is to classify and sequence all of the wonderful concepts being proposed by so many educators.  We cannot do it all at once.  In February, I taught the first two days of a four day course for the Arizona Department of Education entitled, "Creating the School of Your Dreams."  Basically, I established a 12-step sequence for district strategic planning.  It begins with the basic strategic step in planning and continues through to the most creative, individualized plans.

6.       The sixth issue in strategic planning is combining the plan and the data.  The data serves as the table of contents for the plan.  Every time one sees the district data they see at the same time the table of contents for the strategic plan.  Following the data are specific plans, which I prefer to call hypotheses.  The district has accurate data followed by a hypothesis for each data set.  We call these hypotheses plans, but in reality they are merely hypotheses.  We don't know for sure if our hypotheses will bring about improvement or not.  By tying the collection of hypotheses (strategic plan) together with the data, everyone knows if the plan should be changed or if it should be continued, because it is working.