8: Leading in Troubled Times

2020 was moving along like any other regular school year. We were working toward our goals, making progress, and getting ready for state testing. Our minds were fixed on ensuring our students were successful on the state mandated tests. We were aiming to move off of the “improvement needed” areas that the Texas Education Agency had pointed out with our previous state mandated test scores (For our state that test is the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). We had buy-in from teachers and students on how we would get it done. Our students and teachers would get there using John Wink’s Plus Ten, which is a method of student improvement whereby students strive to raise their score up by ten points. Things were moving along nicely, as planned. We were doing audits to check for consistency and application of the plan. The audits were showing positive results and growth. Our learners (in all grades) could tell you their personal goals for testing. Sounds good, right? Students, faculty, and staff all went home for Spring Break, and then things changed. Life and education that had become our norm, changed.