Student’s Success Begins With Your Belief System

Hi Inner Circle Member:

I am sending this eNewsletter from the comfort of my cottage in Point Roberts, Washington (actually the local coffee shop that has wireless!). It is only a 20 minute drive from my home in southern Vancouver, but it is like the place time forgot. It is an oddity of the division of Canada and the USA by the 49th parallel, with this little peninsula being chopped off from its natural neighbor, Canada. However, its isolation from the USA has created the largest natural gated community in the USA (the gates between the US/Canada customs).

I have taken an extended long weekend down here with my family, and will stay over until Wednesday. You see Tuesday is our national holiday, Canada Day. Right now the weather is great and I am heading out to the golf course after I send you today’s eNewsletter.

Today in my eNewsletter I am going to reflect on a remarkable article I read in Sunday’s copy of the Seattle Post Intelligencer written by Karin Chenoweth, titled, “Student’s success begins in the belief in the system.” The opening sentence of the article really says it all, “An extraordinary thing happened last weekend in Granger, a small, impoverished town in the Yakima Valley where most adults and many children work in the fields cutting asparagus, picking cherries and sorting apples. More than 90 percent of the Class of 2008 ‑‑ almost all of whom are low-income – graduated from high school on time.” I want to share with you, the leader of the school, how you need to establish the belief that each of your students should find success in your school (or why else would your school exist). I am also going to reflect on my own personal experience as the Head of a K-12 school that I found had academic achievement in the lower 20 percent, and how we raised that to the 93 percentile in 3 years. I think this article is an invaluable reminder to leaders of existing schools and those who want to start new school that you get what you settle for, so set the high jump high!!!

Enjoy the eNewsletter,

Doug Halladay

President and Founder

Halladay Education Group Inc.

www.HalladayEducationGroup.com

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In This Issue

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1. In The News

2. Services Your School Needs

3. Student’s Success Begins With Your Belief System

4. Products To Invest In To Start And Lead Your School

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1. In The News

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BC school builds a new Vancouver, in China

Vancouver Sun - British Columbia, Canada

After a rocky start, the school had close to 700 students in fall 2007 most of them from the nearby metropolis, but some from other parts of China as well ...

Military high school expects full student roster for August opening

Leader on 200 - Wildwood, FL, USA

Kennedy believes it will take a diligent effort to start the school with only ninth- and tenth-graders. "You really need to start with all grades," he said. ...

Demand for private schools increasing

Peninsula On-line – Qatar

The three schools are expected to start functioning in September, he added. The final approval is granted only after consultation with the Urban Planning ...

The Fraser Institute: Low Income Parents Find Inexpensive Private ...

Market Wire (press release) – USA

"We were astounded to see that small independent schools make such a difference for disadvantaged children, particularly considering that these schools cost ...

School boards turning to foreign students to fill classrooms

Globe and Mail – Canada

But the government has embraced the concept, even partnering with two Chinese private schools that use provincial textbooks and Canadian teachers for ...

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2. Services Your School Needs

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>>> (A) STARTING YOUR OWN SCHOOL

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>>> (B) STRATEGIC PLANNING

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>>> (C) BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOPS

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3. Student’s Success Begins With Your Belief System

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In my last article, I talked about laying the groundwork to ensure that you build your school on a solid foundation; to establish or improve your school (you do want to do that?) with the building blocks that will stand for generations to come. One of the critical elements is your school’s educational philosophy and core values that guide all your decisions. For the little school in Yakima, they literally moved mountains when their new Principal made the choice of bringing in a new “belief system” where students should find academic success. Granger School provides an important lesson on what a school can do to change the “trajectory of children’s lives.” Their leader provides a great lesson on why poverty is not too great a barrier to overcome, and why you need to put your beliefs into action, where every student can achieve their own level of personal excellence; and shouldn’t settle for anything less.

Eight years ago when Granger’s new Principal arrived, he refused to accept that his students could not meet the same standards as middle-class students. “I come from poverty. I come from where the students come from…To me, if I can make it, these students can make it.”

I can draw a parallel to my own professional experience when I became a Head of a K-12 day and boarding school. When I arrived, I quickly learned that the staff had reached a point where they did not want to use the phrase, “university preparatory school,” even though their marketing material advertised this. The school’s student achievement was at the 20th percentile, with only 90 percent of the students graduating, and about the same going on to post secondary learning. I could not accept this dismal level of underachievement. I felt that we were letting the students and parents down, and were “stealing” their money. I embarked on a plan to radically change this underachieving culture (read: new values and philosophy), while introducing a new set of vocabulary in my dialogue with the school’s community. I gathered objective data on the student achievement (proof) and met with the staff to work WITH them to develop a plan to radically improve student achievement; I would not accept any other alternative. At first, the staff was obstructive, with statements like: “It’s the Admissions Offices fault; they accept dumb students” or “the student are lazy.” I explained that this was the type of student our school would attract unless we changed our attitude about teaching students; helping them to reach their own personal level of excellence. I continued to explain that if we improved student performance (which I felt was more than possible), we would attract new students who had stronger academic standings, which would lead to an increase in enrollment. With this subsequent increase in revenues would be an increase in teacher salaries. With a new plan in place, student performance did increase: student achievement moved to the 93 percentile, 100 % of the students graduated, and 100% was accepted to a post secondary institution. All this with the same group of students! Your school can also radically change academic performance (or anything else), but the vision and belief has to start at the top and you need to have buy-in by your staff. Your students are worth it.

Back to the Granger School and lessons you can learn:

They instilled a belief at the beginning that students are capable of being successful.

An Advisory System was implemented in which every professional in the building meets 4 days a week with 18 students.

Twice a year students, advisers, and parents confer to do the same thing.

They developed their own literacy program by providing students with very short passages posing ethical dilemma, allowing students to grapple with serious topics while learning new vocabulary and gaining fluency (putting learning in context).

Failure is not a final outcome. Students who fail quizzes and tests are given the opportunity to retake them after tutoring, allow them to develop an academic work ethic.

They try to see their students for who they are, not where they are now.

Their teachers are passionate; teachers will stay after school until we understand.

If you would like to refocus your school and establish short- and long-term strategies for school improvement, email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com

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4. Products To Invest In To Start And Lead Your School

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Here are a set of effective tools to help start and lead your school more effectively.

>> (A). STRATEGIC PLANNING TOOLKIT (#1 BEST SELLER)

Learn how to develop your own Strategic Plan effectively with our step-by-step, Strategic Planning Toolkit and Manual. Click here to get more details.

>> (B). START-A-SCHOOL TOOLKIT (#2 BEST SELLER)

Are you still struggling with starting your School? We share with you how to start a school from the ground up. Click here to get more the details.

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To your success,

Douglas Halladay

President and Founder

Halladay Education Group Inc.

www.HalladayEducationGroup.com

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P.S. Do not forget to check out our secure Online Store for ways to invest in improving or starting your own school or non-profit. Click here for the link.

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