I was recently sitting in a district planning meeting. The topic, chronically poor student performance.

The assistant superintendents made a compelling case on the need to go slow, how Rome wasn’t built in a day, and how with steady progress over 3 to 4 years the scores could get all the way up to marginal.

Performance gains are self fulfilling prophesies. If you believe it will take 3 to 4 years to get to adequate, it will. If you believe it will take a year, it will.

Huge gains are possible and darn near automatic, if you adhere to the science of improvement. But even more exciting is the fact that the further behind you are, the bigger the gains you can make. The crisis schools that I work with generally make 20 to 50 point gains in a year.

So my advice to you the LYS reader and leader, the deeper the hole you are in, the more ambitious and aggressive you should be. Be great, not marginal.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…