Blogging with the doors open: he may receive 1,000 posts on a controversial matter, but this superintendent wants to keep a finger on the public pulse

School Administrator, May, 2006 by Clayton Wilcox

Clayton Wilcox is superintendent of Pinellas County School District, P.O. Box 2942, Largo, FL 33779. E-mail: Wilcox@pcsb.org

Dr. Jan's blogging life: excerpts from a school reformer.

BY JAN G. BORELLI

Chaz Hill, who has gained fame as the blogger of www.dustbury.com, claims you have to be an egomaniac to blog because you have to believe you have something of significance to say and that someone else is interested in it. I believe he's right on target.

I began writing my blog almost two years ago when I was appointed principal of a chronically at-risk elementary school in the Oklahoma City Public Schools. My blog chronicles the experiences I have had working with my faculty to turn around our school. (And, in fact, we finally made it off the state's list of low performers last fall after five continuous years of low-performing school status.)

I usually contribute to my blog a couple of times a week. The entry can be about students, teachers, educational philosophies, methods we have used to turn academic achievement around, speeches I have given, personal stories about my own children or tributes to educators I have known. In fact, the blog is a journal that documents my personal and professional experiences as the principal of Westwood Elementary School, known to some as the "hippest school in America."

I am happy to share with you, excerpts from two of my blogs.

Howdy Hillcrest Dear Blog Watchers,

Today was the beginning of my intersession vacation. Naturally, I didn't get to start it today. My friend and colleague, Betsy, made me go to her school, Hillcrest, to conduct an in-service on data-driven instruction. The faculty wasn't too keen on me at the start. They didn't even laugh at my opening joke. But I think I said something that may have gotten them to begin the process of teaching based on assessment of children's needs. What follows is an excerpt from that presentation.

Imagine we are all going to the dentist today. The dentist will start off giving us one of those fancy panoramic X-rays. She will review our X-rays and conclude based on her average patient that she will fill one of our teeth for a cavity. Now, that tooth may or may not have a cavity, but the odds are at least 72 percent we may need a filling in that tooth.

Do you think you would like being treated using this method? So what about our kids whom we teach what we think most of them need based on data from the whole group (if we even use the data to change our instructional plans)?

We have entered a new era in teaching. We now have the capability to know what the students do or do not know, and we now have the capability to reach most of the children if we use data to guide our instruction. Our district provides benchmarks aligned to state standards three times a year that can tell us what the students do or do not know, so we can tailor our instruction to reach and teach a vast majority of them.

That being said, why would we not use these tools if it will improve our ability to reach and teach the children so that none are left behind?