Helping Students from Poor Families Achieve School Success

I recently read a report about the increasing number of school-age children who are raised in poverty. It's a real national problem and we know that students from families in poverty often struggle in school. They're more likely to be absent, more likely to change schools, and more likely to lack the materials and other resources necessary for school success.

The May issue of ASCD's Educational Leadership looks at the issue of poverty and provides useful strategies for teachers and principals to assure that students from families in poverty are successful in school. One of my favorite articles is written by a friend, Carol Ann Tomlinson, from the University of Virginia. Carol is best known for her work on differentiated instruction but in this article discusses her experience with poverty. She identifies the personal beliefs and attitudes that are present when educators help students from poor families create a better future for themselves. She describes it as "staring down poverty" and I find it a powerful way to describe the work.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about your response to Carol's suggestions and what you've learned about how to support students from poverty so that they are successful in school.

Using Social Media with Students

Social media has become an useful instructional tool and is used by more and more teachers to interact with their students and by principals to communicate with families and community. A recent report found that more than 70% of Americans have an account.

But there are legitimate concerns about how teachers and other employees use Facebook and other forms of social media with their students. In a recent post, Lisa Nielson provided five best practices for teachers when they use Facebook with students. At the top of the list is the importance of maintaining a professional demeanor and not mixing your personal site with your professional one. Nielson says, "You can create a page or group that students can "like" or "join" without being one another's friend or seeing one another's feed." That's really important. Nielson's other tips are equally useful.

In The School Leader's Guide to Social Media Howard Johnston and I share other ideas about how teachers can use social media like Facebook to improve instruction and how school leaders can use social media to improve communication. We'd welcome your thoughts about the use of social media in schools.

Working with Generation Y Teachers

As Baby Boomer teachers retire and are replaced by members of Generation Y (born between 1977 and 1995) we have come to appreciate that Gen Y employees have a very different set of characteristics shaped by a far different set of life experiences. They are . . .

• Highly educated, value education and attribute their success to education;
• Very comfortable using technology and expect it to be available in the workplace;
• Tend to be creative, innovative and self-confident;
• Committed to making a difference and contributing to positive social change;
• Want to be connected, updated and included and involved in their work;
• Desire relationships with co-workers and supervisors;
• Looking for opportunities for growth, challenging work and assignments and flexibility in work schedules;
• Possess collaborative skills, are committed to team-building and expect to be held accountable.

So, what are some strategies for working with Gen Y teachers? A report from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (www.tqsource.org) identified ten strategies. They are described in this article about working with Gen Y teachers and a changing workforce (www.principalspartnership.com/feature510.html).

I hope you find the ideas thought-provoking. While the tools are not new, the application to Gen Y teachers is different than it would be for Baby Boomers. Just as Baby Boomers changed American society, so will Gen Y. They hold tremendous potential for making a difference in the lives of American students. I'd enjoy hearing from you about your experience with Generation Y teachers.

Collective Leadership and Student Achievement

During the summer the Wallace Foundation released a report showing a direct link between collective, rather than individual, leadership and student achievement. The report found that when principals and teachers share leadership responsibilities students benefit. It is a useful report and clearly identifies things principals can do to positively impact student achievement.

Leadership emerged as "second only to classroom instruction" among school factors contributing to student learning. Further the report found that effective leaders find the proper balance between stability and change. "They work to develop and support people to do their best, while working to redesign their organizations to improve effectiveness.

Other findings include:

• Collective leadership has a stronger influence on student learning than any individual source of leadership.
• Teachers in high performing schools attribute greater influence to teacher teams, parents and students.
• While principals and district leaders have great influence on decisions, effective principals encourage others to join in collective leadership.
• Teachers working relationships are stronger, and student achievement higher, when principals and teachers share leadership.

An executive summary of the report can be found athttp://www.wallacefoundation.org/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/CurrentAreasofFocus/EducationLeadership/Documents/Learning-from-Leadership-Investigating-Links-Ex-Summary.pdf, and the full report may be found athttp://www.wallacefoundation.org/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/CurrentAreasofFocus/EducationLeadership/Documents/Learning-from-Leadership-Investigating-Links-Final-Report.pdf.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about your experience with collective leadership and your thoughts about this important report.