Under the Umbrella Volume 1, Issue 3

Under the Umbrella 

Volume 1, Issue 3 

October 2018 

PRINCIPALS MONTH 

KANSAS SCHOOLS HAVE GREAT PRINCIPALS 

SCHOOL CLIMATE 

SCHOOL SAFETY 

SHOOL FUNDING 

UPCOMING EVENTS

CONTENTS Volume 1, Issue 3 

2 Avoiding the Inbox, G.A. Buie 

3 Celebrating the Principalship Nationwide 

SCHOOL REDESIGN 

4 Mission Clarity—Your Mission Drives Your Outcomes, 

Dr. John Vandewalle 

5 Coffeyville Public Schools Discuss Redesign, Dr. Craig 

Correll, and Coffeyville Principals 

SCHOOL SAFETY 

7-8 Look Out, Lock Out, Lock Down!, Doug Parisi 

8 Do Schools’ Active Shooter Drills Prepare or Frighten?, Evie 

Blad 

SCHOOL CLIMATE & CULTURE 

10-11 Your Job? Helping Teachers Grow, Mark Wilson 

12 Staying Positive in the School Year, Jerry Henn 

13-15 The Overlapping Worlds of Work and Education, Sandy 

Husk 

15 Administrators Can Make or Break School Culture. How to 

Spot the Best Ones, Mary Alicia Lyons 

SCHOOL FUNDING 

16 Facts About Administrator Salaries, G.A. Buie, Mark Tallman 

SCHOOL ASSESSMENTS 

18-19 Everybody in the Pool—How Pool Depth Affects 

Assessment Accuracy, April Roethel 

22-23 Upcoming Events 

NETWORK & STAY CONECTED 

@USAKansas 

Facebook.com/USAKansas 

2018-2019 USA-Kansas 

Board of Directors 

Sean Cochran—President, KASEA 

Ryan Jilka—President Elect, KAMSA 

Pete Bastian—Past-President, KAESP 

Mike Berblinger—Director, KSSA 

Cory Gibson—Director, KSSA 

Eric Hensen—Director, KASBO 

Volora Hanzlicek—Director, KASCD 

Ron Barry—Director, KASSP 

Justin Henry—Director, KSSA 

Kristin Magette—Director, KanSPRA 

Christie Meyer—Director, KASCD 

Bert Moore—Director, KASEA 

Suzan Patton—Director, KSSA 

Dennis Peerenboom—Director, KASPA 

P.J. Reilly—Director, KCCTEA 

Donna Schmidt—Director, KASSP 

Glen Suppes—Director, KSSA 

Patrick Schroeder—Director, KAESP 

Donna Zerr—Director, KASSP 

G.A. Buie—Executive Director 

Jerry Henn—Assistant Executive Director

AVOIDING THE INBOX 

G.A. Buie, Executive Director, USA-Kansas 

As a school administrators, 

your inbox can be a 

dumping ground for priority 

information, valuable 

information, useful 

information, and junk! 

You’re inundated daily with 

messages from a variety of sources and often the 

important gets mixed among the trash. Key 

information is deleted without ever seeing the 

message. Or maybe you plan to deal with the 

message later in the day or the week but the 

message gets lost in your inbox. I understand your 

pain, plus I (USA-Kansas) also understand we are 

one of the organizations contributing to the clutter 

in your inbox. 

We believe we have developed a solution, but we 

need your help to make it successful. Through 

the new USA-Kansas Mobile App we can push 

information to you without ever touching your 

email, more importantly the messages are 

archived so you can read the message at your 

leisure and never have to worry about losing 

messages among the 100’s of other messages you 

deal with daily. If you are a member or not, please 

consider downloading the “USAK” mobile app for 

your mobile device, and help use leave email 

messages in the past! 

Download the USA-Kansas App! 

To maximize your communication with USA-Kansas without inundating your Inbox, please download the USAK 

App and allow push notifications. This is a great tool to gather valuable information from the USA-Kansas office 

regarding legislative activities, education news around the state, job openings, and updates on USA-Kansas 

events. Take a few minutes today and set up your membership's organizational App. 

Search for USAK in the app 

store or use this QR code for 

fast access! 

2

CELEBRATING THE PRINCIPALSHIP NATIONWIDE 

and it is their vision, dedication, and determination 

that provide the mobilizing force for achieving 

student success. Each October, NASSP, NAESP, and 

AFSA seek to honor these unsung heroes for their 

tireless efforts in pursuit of excellence in education. 

Each October, National Principals Month recognizes 

the essential role that principals play in making a 

school great. 

National Principals Month is your opportunity to say 

“thank you” to principals everywhere and to share 

with the community all the great things that 

principals do. 

Principals set the academic tone for their schools, 

National Principals Month is a widely recognized 

celebration of the principalship, marked by national 

and state resolutions supporting the event, as well as 

acknowledgements from U.S. Senators and 

Representatives, and top government officials. 

However, the most important National Principals 

Month celebrations are the ones that take place in 

schools and communities across the country. 

Visit www.principalsmonth.org soon for more 

information about National Principals Month 2018! 

3

SCHOOL REDESIGN 

MISSION CLARITY—YOUR MISSION DRIVES YOUR OUTCOMES 

By Dr. John Vandewalle, CEO Lumen Touch 

On the 25th of May, 1961 John F. 

Kennedy stood before Congress and 

proposed that the US "should 

commit itself to achieving the goal, 

before this decade is out, of landing 

a man on the Moon and returning 

him safely to the Earth." 

With this statement Kennedy's gave the mission to NASA's 

Apollo program. 

Remember the shocking launch of Sputnik 1 in October 

1957 and to boot the 1961 flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri 

Gagarin. We realized then that we were losing the race. 

We had a crisis/challenge on our hands and leadership 

that took it head on. 

This mission was started with the Gemini and Mercury 

programs followed by the Apollo program that 

impregnated July 20 th , 1969 in our minds, on television 

screens and in the history books when we landed Apollo 

11 on the moon. 

Mission accomplished in less than 10 years with what pride 

and scientific prowess. 

So let us dissect this vignette and see where it is 

applicable to our education endeavors. 

A look at mission statements of schools/districts outside 

of Kansas gives us the opportunity of reflecting. 

District Mission Statement. In partnership with the 

community and its students, the School District of Bloomer 

is committed to excellence by empowering and challenging 

all students to achieve their potential as life-long learners in 

an ever-changing global society. 

Our Mission: Catalina Foothills School District, a caring and 

collaborative learning community, ensures that each 

4 

student achieves intellectual and personal excellence, and is 

well prepared for college and career pathways. 

Princeton Academy: Our mission is to develop young men 

with active and creative minds, a sense of understanding 

and compassion for others, and the courage to act on their 

beliefs. We stress the total development of each child: 

spiritual, moral, intellectual, social, emotional, and physical. 

Based on these do you see similarities? Compare and 

contrast these with your mission and the mission set by 

John F. Kennedy. 

So, one may ask “what are the components of a good 

mission statement?” before we discuss the huge 

importance of your mission statement. 

Your mission statement should be short, clear, vivid, 

inspiring and concise. 

The most successful Mission Statements are inspiring, 

powerful and compelling. 

So, do your own assessment on your school/district 

mission statement. Is your mission, 

Clear, concise, memorable, repeatable 

Motivational to drive action 

A depiction of the short-term future – imagine 

2 to 5 years from now 

Has clearly defined success 

See how the mission laid out by JFK fits the criteria above.

COFFEYVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS DISCUSS 

REDESIGN 

Dr. Craig Correll, Superintendent, Coffeyville Public Schools 

Coffeyville leads the world in the success of each 

student and along the way, provides a model to 

other districts. I would like to highlight the 

tremendous changes that have already begun to 

take place in Coffeyville and shine a light on our 

students, staff and community as leaders in the 

education of a town. We are not just Coffeyville 

Public Schools, we are Coffeyville’s Public Schools. 

As far as what we want to accomplish, I go back to 

Coffeyville leading the world in the success of each 

student. We will do this by dedicating ourselves to 

areas in which we have already seen success such as 

Kindergarten Readiness, emphasizing Social/ 

Emotional needs and ensuring the success of 

students after graduation. 

Kindergarten Readiness 

Coffeyville has proven our effectiveness in this area 

by establishing public/private partnerships and with 

a community that understands the importance of 

high quality early education. 

Our elementary teachers have already seen the 

impact our early learning center is having on our 

students. 

Social/Emotional 

We are the only school district in the state of Kansas 

that has fully staffed medical/mental health/dental 

clinics located inside our school campuses. This 

partnership has resulted in a number of benefits to 

our students in immunizations, attendance and 

behavior. While already unique, our new vision 

moves beyond just a clinic. We plan to create a first: a 

true intersection of education and health to deal with 

the persistent toxic stress our students and 

community have endured. 

Post-Secondary 

We are fortunate to have Coffeyville Community 

College on campus and such willing partners in 

helping to prepare our students for careers beyond 

school. Flipping the model for students, students can 

not only receive college credit for high school classes, 

but are now receiving high school credit for college 

courses. 

CLICK HERE to read Coffeyville Principals’ accounts of 

the redesign process in their buildings. 

5

SCHOOL SAFETY 

LOOK OUT, LOCK OUT, LOCK DOWN! 

Doug Parisi, SafeDefend 

Schools across the country are 

working on protocols to address 

the events that have a potential to 

compromise safety for students 

within the building. While adding 

another mantra to the litany of 

policies and procedures isn’t the most popular idea, 

there is a need to differentiate the varied response 

options needed for notification. It is vital that we 

communicate to staff the potential for problems 

based on outside information and that proper 

training be implemented to explain expectations if 

initiated. 

There are events that happen in 

and around our schools that 

require a heightened level of 

awareness with no real need to 

change the day to day 

procedures. After 911 we saw 

the color-based threat level from 

green to red implemented for 

public consumption. In our 

schools a similar approach should be added. A 

simple email or personal briefing to staff can inform 

them of domestic/custody issues among parents of 

students, staff that might have a protection from 

abuse or stalking, divorce issues or even police 

notifications about crime trends or suspicious activity 

near the school that can manifest on campus. Letting 

teachers know that there is a threat brings a greater 

awareness to being aware of persons entering the 

building or vehicles in the lots. With increased 

awareness comes greater scrutiny which in turn can 

enhance intervention. The importance is notifying 

your most vital resource, the human assets in the 

building, that there is a potential for trouble. 

When trouble arises in the community or away 

from the building but there is a connection to the 

school then precautionary steps should be 

implemented. Locking the building down enhances 

security and allows for a reactionary time by 

responders. Any time law enforcement is working a 

serious event within a geographic proximity to the 

campus, a parent has made a threat indication they 

are intending on causing a scene, anonymous 

threats are received via phone, email or left note, 

or suspicious person/activity is noticed in the area 

the building should go into ‘lock out’. This should 

mean that all visitors are prohibited from entering 

unless it is a scheduled event and the person must 

be met at the door and escorted inside. The 

students will continue to move throughout the 

building and recess can be scheduled in the gym. 

For modular units the doors shall be locked and the 

students escorted in and out of the building. This 

lock out is intended to heighten the attention of the 

staff to a possible threat that can be identified to a 

specific event. It should have a limited time frame 

and the staff should be notified why the steps are 

being taken and the duration. A simple email can 

accomplish this stating the reason (police notified 

us of a felon in the area) and the expected time for 

the procedure to end. A follow up email should 

always be sent stating normal procedures are back 

in effect and include as much known information 

about the incident. (parent was contacted and 

situation resolved, police gave the all clear, the 

suspicious person was a politician handing out 

lollipops) The critical component is communication 

to staff. 

7

Most schools have a current lock down in place. A 

consideration for these policies is to include a 

modified lockdown which keeps the children in the 

classroom but not barricaded in the safe corner. This 

is used for things like police chases that end in the 

area or when police are called to handle an issue 

such as a large fight or disgruntled parent. Generally, 

these events can be announced over the public 

address, radio or personal notification. When I talk 

with administrators about how to issue an all clear 

after a modification I strongly encourage the 

presence of a uniformed law enforcement officers to 

be inside the building and seen in the hallways. The 

relief of seeing a clear sign of safety cannot be 

understated for the students that just experienced 

the higher than normal anxiety. 

The details of a lock down are well known to all 

administrators. Where we fail is in the 

implementation and notification. A basic review of 

past gun, knife and violent attacks demonstrates that 

the vast majority of lock downs occur after the 

incident is over. Either the suspect has fled or the 

attack was thwarted. In a crisis the need to quickly 

notify buildings occupants and responders 

simultaneously is the key to reducing casualties. We 

don’t use intercoms and radios for fire emergencies 

and we shouldn’t for violent intruders. An audible 

and visual alert should be easily activated in a crisis. 

In the three major incidents last Spring the lockdown 

was communicated verbally for the first five minutes. 

This failure resulted in unnecessary casualties and 

8 

In a crisis the need to quickly 

notify buildings occupants 

and responders 

simultaneously is the key to 

reducing casualties. 

loss of life. Adapting current non-emergency 

communication methods to a hostile intruder is 

ignoring the reality that they rarely work in a crisis. 

Information is the key to reducing casualties. Being 

informed that there is a potential for a crisis or an 

actual event in the building gives power to the 

recipient to initiate steps for protection. The more 

people that are aware of the possibility of an issue 

the greatly likelihood violence can be thwarted and 

stopped. 

DO SCHOOLS’ ACTIVE 

SHOOTER DRILLS 

PREPARE OR FRIGHTEN? 

Evie Blad, Education Week 

On "safety days," elementary students in Akron, 

Ohio, learn a new vocabulary word: barricade. 

School-based police officers tell students as young 

as kindergartners how to stack chairs and desks 

against the classroom door to make it harder for 

"bad guys" to get in. "Make the classroom more like 

a fort," an officer says in a video of the exercise. 

If a teacher asks you to climb out a window, listen 

to them, the officers instruct. And, in the unlikely 

event a "bad guy" gets into the classroom, scream 

and run around to distract him, officers tell 

students. 

For some parents, the idea of such instruction is 

chilling. Others, though, say it's a sad, but necessary 

sign of the times. 

CLICK HERE to view full story.

SCHOOL CLIMATE AND CULTURE 

YOUR JOB? HELPING TEACHERS GROW 

Mark Wilson, The Principal Matters 

Becoming a Principal can be 

a curious thing. 

You get the job before you 

know the job, and then a big 

part of your job is to figure out what your job really 

is. 

Are you with me? Please let me explain. 

The expectations of the principal haven't changed 

over the years... instead, they've multiplied! People 

still expect the principal do things they've done for 

decades-- be the face of the school, support the 

students at extracurricular events, open car doors in 

the morning and solve bus issues in the afternoon. 

And. 

And develop a comprehensive school improvement 

plan. And a hospitable culture to rival Chick-Fil- 

A. And infuse STEM, Mindset Training, and 

Differentiate for teachers and students alike. 

That's just a sliver of all of the things you're asked to 

do, as you know. But here's the challenge: out of the 

many important things that you do, what's the most 

critical for you to do to live up to the standards set 

for your performance? 

Help your teachers grow. 

Yes, your responsibility for safety is always the most 

important thing you do, but the most critical for you 

to be deemed successful is to help your teachers 

grow. 

10 

It's for that reason everyone says you need to be 

visible. It's to help your teachers grow that you go 

to grade-level meetings, and PLCs, and book 

studies. It's the goal of your school's evaluation 

program. It's the most critical thing you do. In its 

absence, you are at best a caretaker of the school, 

not a leader. Our business is learning; our key 

representatives in the business are our 

teachers; their performance IS your 

performance. It is on this that you focus if you want 

your school to meet the needs of the students, 

because it's through your teachers that you reach 

out to each and every one of your students. Your 

heart and your head through their hands. Hands 

whose work YOU are responsible for. 

Your commitment to the task at hand-- leading your 

teachers in their professional growth-- is the 

pathway to success for you, your teachers, your 

students, and your school. Using the evaluation 

system as a support and as a needs assessment, 

your role as the school leader is to find out what 

your people need and get it to them. (Just as the 

teacher's role is to do the same for her students!) 

I've heard school administrators tell their faculty 

members, "my job is to make your job 

easier," That's a notion worth a challenge. The 

truth is, the teacher's job isn't really easy, and while 

administrators offer support, our best play isn't to

present ourselves as Tech Support or the Geek 

Squad. Perhaps our goal should be to be more like 

Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid? A trusted, wise 

coach whose wisdom matches up with his authority. 

Making your teachers' jobs easier may be a lot to 

promise, but what if your focus is on helping your 

teachers find more meaning in their work? What if 

your "job' is to help them learn so much about doing 

their job that their confidence stands taller than their 

troubles and their doubts? That's a lot more 

substantive and sustainable of a gift. 

As we enter September and the second phase of 

the school year, the performance of your teachers 

will become more and more an indicator of the 

success of your students, AND your quality of life as 

the principal. Their growth is your job. Make sure 

your calendar reflects it as the priority that it is. 

11

As the new school year has begun, 

the anticipation of the upcoming 

school year is always 

exciting. Everyone is pumped to 

begin and there is always that 

unknown factor that enters into the 

school keeping hopes alive and 

nerves on edge. Wouldn’t it be nice if this excitement 

continued throughout the school year? Well it can if you 

allow it to. 

Here are some ideas for you to keep it fun and positive 

throughout the year. 

12 

STAYING POSITIVE IN 

THE SCHOOL YEAR 

Jerry Henn, Assistant Executive Director, 

USA-Kansas 

1. Treat the first of the month as a new start of the 

school year. Maybe not to the scale as a new year, but 

open the doors with excitement. 

2. Greet students with a smile and keep all 

conversations positive. Any conversations that are not 

positive need to be taken care of in your office. 

3. Keep yourself organized. By keeping yourself 

organized will give you more time to talk with students 

and community. 

4. Surround yourself with positive people. In most 

cases the students are some of the most positive 

people in the building. Take time to enjoy the reason 

you chose education in the first place. 

5. Look towards the future, be optimistic. Deal with 

the negative as you must, but then turn back to the 

positive. Once an issue solved, it is time to be positive 

again. 

6. Most importantly, learn from your mistakes. You 

chose education because you are good with people 

and relationships; once you learn from your mistake, 

forget it and make sure you do not make the same 

mistake again. It will become a positive for you. 

These are items that have guided me through some 

rough times. I always had someone to talk with as well 

and they can be therapy for sure! 

Good luck in your school year and just remember, your 

students are counting on you to be there for 

them. Keep up the great work you do for the students 

of Kansas. 

COMMUNICATION 

CORNER 

When it comes to your staff team, do you know 

which employees parents trust most? Surveys show: 

Their child’s classroom teacher. And their child’s bus 

driver. 

Arming teachers with need-to-know information is 

usually routine. But your school’s support staff -- bus 

drivers, custodians, front office workers -- are likely 

some of the most visible people you have. Here are 

a few ideas to keep them engaged all year: 

• Make sure ALL staff -- not just teachers -- get 

essential information about your school. 

• Urge support staff to make suggestions and 

share ideas. Be sure to listen. 

• Offer these team members professional 

development opportunities. 

• Ride on a school bus occasionally to understand 

the challenges of drivers and show you care 

about their concerns. 

• Recognize their contribution with thank you 

notes, and if appropriate, during larger staff 

meetings or PTO/PTA meetings. 

When your employees have the facts about your 

school system -- and when they feel connected and 

supported -- they will be your most important 

communicators, day in and day out. Make their 

engagement at work your priority.

THE OVERLAPPING WORLDS OF WORK AND 

EDUCATION 

Sandy Husk, AASA School Administrator 

It’s nearly impossible to read the news without being 

inundated by headlines about the changing future of 

work. The shelf life of workplace skills is shrinking. 

According to a 2017 study by the World Economic 

Forum, the skills of today’s college graduates will be 

due for a refresh as soon as 2020. The jobs that will 

be held by today’s kindergartners don’t even exist 

yet. 

Gone are the days when individuals could develop 

skills for a career lasting a lifetime. To stay relevant 

and employed, individuals will have to not just learn, 

but relearn. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

transcend careers and the classroom. Our focus on 

the whole child cultivates “soft skills,” such as 

critical thinking, communication and collaboration, 

which are also among the most enduring and prized 

skills sought by hiring managers, according to Paul 

Petrone, editor of LinkedIn Learning. But while 

great teachers value soft skills, organizing their 

classrooms and instructional schedules around their 

development can present a challenge. 

How might today’s teachers supplement academic 

and technical content to prepare students for an 

increasingly dynamic and uncertain future? Based 

on what we are seeing from our Advancement Via 

Individual Determination (AVID) partners, some 

have started to figure it out. 

Portable Skills 

To ensure students develop personal skills that will 

remain relevant, teachers must implement a 

framework that integrates instructional tools that 

are compatible with any rigorous content. 

It’s a cycle that is no surprise to savvy teachers in K- 

12 education today. As educators, we know that 

learning extends beyond the classroom. Great 

teachers always have tried to develop lifelong 

learners who are resilient and adaptable. We 

cultivate skills, such as self-advocacy and organization 

so students have agency and can chart a course of 

their own. 

And, as it turns out, the world of work is now 

catching up with the world of education. Terms like 

“growth mindset” and “executive function” now 

Classrooms that prepare students for the future 

provide students with learning strategies that can 

be adapted to any subject matter. Collaborative 

study groups, or Socratic seminars, enable students 

to hone communication skills and the capacity for 

working effectively in teams, joint problem solving 

and peer learning. 

Secondary school teachers in Wisconsin’s Mequon- 

Thiensville School District are making a concerted 

effort to teach students tools to apply to any 

13

subject, deepening their understanding of what they 

are learning and reinforcing specific skills. One 

strategy is Cornell note-taking, which allows students 

to practice the inquiry process and summarizing to 

clearly communicate what they learned. Once 

students master the process in one class, they then 

can apply that strategy to their other classes. 

The effective use of such strategies will place content 

knowledge within a framework — a common 

language — that lends itself to the development of 

portable skillsets. This guarantees that students are 

learning these skills for a lifetime. 

Students are unpredictable, 

and as every educator 

knows, each class has its own 

personality. 

conversation frames, posted rules of engagement 

and teacher involvement. The goal is to give 

students the foundation to have a meaningful 

discussion about any given topic. Eventually, these 

supports are removed so the conversations can 

carry on without them. With practice, students 

begin to facilitate the conversation on their own, 

even to the point of bringing in their own topics 

relevant to the course. 

Teacher as Facilitator 

Teachers in today’s classrooms are making the shift 

from knowledge givers to knowledge facilitators, 

creating an atmosphere of trust with the expectation 

that students own their learning. 

Teachers as facilitators are creating environments 

where students can grapple with new skills, working 

toward mastery. They’re transforming classrooms 

into places where students take control of their 

learning. But that also means educators must give up 

some control. 

In the Beaverton School District in suburban Portland, 

Ore., students are practicing a strategy called Socratic 

seminar, which initially involves supports like printed 

14 

This process illustrates how there must come a 

point when students can explore and apply 

knowledge on their own, a point when teachers 

offer guidance and support only when necessary. 

This is not always easy. Students are unpredictable, 

and as every educator knows, each class has its own 

personality. What happens in second period may 

not go so well in fourth period. 

But with enough time and patience, students will 

build self-reflection and correction, authentic 

inquiry, communication skills, an aptitude for 

collaboration and more. These are all valuable skills 

that will help them navigate in the future. 

Social Emotional Links 

As students develop soft skills, they also need to 

feel comfortable actually using them. Their ability 

to deploy new skills can be tied to their level of 

social competency, or the impact of social and 

emotional learning. According to a study titled 

“Early Social-Emotional Functioning and Public 

Health” in the American Journal of Public Health, 

social competencies taught as early as kindergarten 

can have a positive impact for students well into 

adulthood.

Classrooms that succeed in preparing students for an 

uncertain future emphasize competencies like selfawareness, 

relationship-building and 

multigenerational communication. These skills don’t 

magically appear when students turn their tassels at 

graduation. They need to be taught and practiced. 

In the Cherry Creek Public Schools in Greenwood 

Village, Colo., these skills are part of students’ 

education starting in elementary school. Students are 

taught about dressing for success and the importance 

of looking people in the eye when speaking. In middle 

school, students advocate for themselves when they 

need help overcoming a challenge or presenting an 

idea to their group. Once students reach high school, 

they are able to more successfully complete group 

problem-solving projects and more confidently 

participate in college and job interviews. 

When students are confident, the way they present 

themselves, speak for themselves and communicate 

with others will become natural acts later in the 

workplace. 

When students are taught transferrable strategies 

and given the opportunity to practice them, they 

develop skills that last far beyond the classroom. 

With a strong foundation of learning, students will be 

prepared for a positive and productive future, no 

matter where that future may lead. 

BUILDING & MAINTAINING A 

POSITIVE SCHOOL CULTURE 

Drive-in workshops brought to you by USA-Kansas & Joe Coles 

Topeka - 10.8.2018 

Shawnee Mission - 10.9.2018 

Goddard - 10.22.2018 

Garden City - 10.23.2018 

CLICK HERE for more info & registration! 

ADMINISTRATORS CAN 

MAKE OR BREAK 

SCHOOL CULTURE. 

HOW TO SPOT THE 

BEST ONES 

Mary Alicia Lyons, Education Week TEACHER 

Talk of school quality tends to focus on teachers— 

what they do to affect student achievement, how 

they succeed or how they fail. But district and 

building administrators also have an enormous 

influence in the education equation, a factor that is 

often overlooked. 

Over a 25-year career, I have worked in four schools 

as an elementary teacher, reading specialist, and 

literacy coach. I have been led by 12 different 

principals and countless district administrators who 

have spanned the spectrum from fantastic to 

problematic. 

Administrators wield enormous influence over 

teacher working conditions and student success. 

When teachers work under a poor leader, morale 

sinks and negativity permeates the culture of the 

school or district. When districts and schools are 

populated with positive and dynamic leaders, 

students are the ultimate beneficiaries. Teachers 

thrive and grow under great leaders, and, in turn, 

instruction for students is strengthened. 

CLICK HERE to view full story. 15

SCHOOL FUNDING 

FACTS ABOUT ADMINISTRATOR SALARIES 

G.A. Buie, Executive Director, USA-Kansas 

With supporting information from Mark Tallman, Kansas Association of School Boards 

As we approach the upcoming election, it's important 

to have all the facts as you discuss the issues with 

teachers, parents, and patrons. A constant challenge 

to school funding is the perceived overspending in 

the area of school administrators, and most recently 

the rising salaries of administrators. In a recent blog 

by KASB's Mark Tallman, he goes into great detail 

about the history of school administrators salaries 

and compares current salaries to those of CEO's of 

comparable sized business' and organizations. Mark 

also shares a few graphs to help demonstrate the 

spending levels for administration as it relates to 

the lack of growth in the number of 

administrators compared to the increased student 

enrollment in the state. 

Mark provides you with all the details necessary to 

carry on that next important conversation with 

anyone questioning the salary of Kansas 

administrators. 

CLICK HERE to see full blog post. 

CLICK HERE to watch video. 

16

SCHOOL ASESSMENTS 

EVERYBODY IN THE POOL—HOW POOL DEPTH 

AFFECTS ASSESSMENT ACCURACY 

April Roethel, NWEA 

As we’ve all been taught, to dive safely into a 

swimming pool you must first be sure that the water 

is deep enough to extend past your head and feet. 

Ensuring the validity of computer adaptive tests 

(CATs) is no different; the item pool must be deep 

enough to stretch above and below a student’s entry 

point. 

A well-constructed item pool is an essential part of a 

CAT. One important element of an item pool is that it 

needs to include enough items to enable the building 

of numerous individualized tests that align to 

students’ varying ability levels; it needs to include 

enough breadth to cover the scope of the content 

domain. 

CATs adapt to individual student performance. They 

get harder or easier depending on how a student is 

performing on the test, which requires a deep item 

pool from which many different tests can be drawn. 

A student’s grade level is not necessarily his or her 

instructional readiness point; therefore, a CAT must 

adapt to measure on-, above-, and below-grade 

abilities. An assessment that informs educators about 

each student’s instructional readiness draws on 

content that spans across grades. A deep item pool 

can provide this because it will be stocked with items 

that correspond to many different grade levels. 

How many items are enough? 

The appropriate size of the item pool depends on 

four main factors. 

1. Precision is the first factor to consider, as it 

relates to the “estimate of student achievement 

that is desired.” (Reckase, M.D. “Designing item 

pools to optimize the functioning of a 

computerized adaptive test.” Psychological Test 

and Assessment Modeling. Volume 52, 2010 (2), 

127-141). The more precision you desire, the 

larger your item pool needs to be. If you are 

aiming to get just a rough estimate, you can use 

a smaller item pool. 

2. Range is another significant factor. How broad 

or narrow is the range of achievement to be 

measured? A larger item pool will be required 

for assessment that is very broad, since it will 

include items with a large range of difficulty. For 

example, if an assessment is being used to 

measure students’ performance at multiple 

depth of knowledge (DOK) levels, it will require 

a greater range of items than an assessment 

concerned with only one DOK level. 

3. Stakes are a third factor that will determine the 

item pool size requirement. If a CAT is very high 

stakes, students might be more likely to game 

the test. Large item pools improve the chance 

that examinees receive a different set of test 

items for every test administration, making it 

impossible to cheat the system. 

4. Number of times a CAT is administered is a 

fourth factor of importance. If an assessment is 

administered to the same students multiple 

times a year, for instance, the item pool must 

be large enough to ensure that a student 

doesn’t see any item more than once. 

18

The goal is to have enough items in each desired 

content area to assemble an individual test with the 

balanced content coverage required by the test. (Gu, 

L. & Reckase, M.D. (2007). “Designing optimal item 

pools for computerized adaptive tests with Sympson- 

Hetter exposure control.” In D.J. Weiss (Ed.), 

Proceedings of the 2007 GMAC Conference on 

Computerized Adaptive Testing, Retrieved 10/14/14 

from www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/CATCentral/) 

This is another instance where a deep pool of 

samples creates a high degree of accuracy. This is 

why we base calibration on more than 1,000 

student responses from MAP Growth, which is one 

of the most stringent calibration processes in the 

education assessment field. 

A deep pool of items isn’t very valuable if the items 

themselves aren’t high quality. Field testing enables 

identification of items that are performing atypically. 

Poorly performing items should be removed from the 

item pool as soon as they are identified to avoid 

proficiency estimation errors. Additionally, a rigorous 

calibration process builds confidence that an item is 

likely a good measure of the attribute in question. 

MAP Growth has a large item pool and each item is 

carefully aligned to the standards adopted by your 

school. Learn more about item alignment. 

19

November 6 th is the General Election and your vote can make a difference for Kansas schools. 

You have just two weeks left before the voter registration deadline on October 16 th , verify your 

information at www.ksvotes.org. #VoteNov6 

Did you know you could request an advance ballot for the upcoming General Election? Just go 

to www.ksvotes.org to ensure your voice is heard this November. #VoteNov6 

October 30 th is the last day to request an advance ballot for the November 6 th General 

Election. Request yours at www.ksvotes.org. Your voice matters! #VoteNov6 

CLICK HERE to visit the “Get an A in Voting” website for more information. 

20

UPCOMING EVENTS 

So, You Want to Be a Principal? 

11.2.2018 – Goddard 

12.7.2018 – Greenbush 

North (Lawrence) 

12.12.2018 – Dodge City 

Building Leadership in Others 

Dr. Rick Doll 

Overland Park—11.5.2018 

Topeka—11.6.2018 

Goddard—11.12.2018 

Garden City—11.13.2108 

Who Should Attend: 

• Teachers ready to take the next step to building 

leadership 

• Teachers who have completed their Masters Degree 

in Administration but still have questions 

• Teachers ready to apply for their first administrative 

position 

• Any school district employee looking for a move to a 

leadership position 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER 

Current Approaches to Learning Disabilities 

and Reading Interventions Including Dyslexia 

Co-Hosted with KASEA 

Topeka—11.9.2018 


Building School & Community Partners 

Dr. Sheila Harrity 

11.27.2018—Lenexa 

11.28.2018—Maize 

October 25-26, 2018 

Lawrence College and Career 

Center 

2018 

KanSPRA Fall 

Conference 



2018 Kansas Principals Conference 

11.7-11.8.2018 

DoubleTree by Hilton Wichita 

Airport 


22

Professional development Schedule at a Glance 

Regional Meetings 

No Cost to districts who are PLN Members, 

$65 for all other registrants. 

9.25.2018—Pratt 

9.26.2018—Haysville 

9.27.2018—Greenbush (Girard) 

10.1.2018—Lawrence 

10.2.2018—Emporia 

10.3.2018—McPherson 

10.4.2018—Manhattan 

10.16.2018—Garden City 

10.17.2018—Colby 

10.18.2018—Beloit 

Leadership Events 

No Cost to districts who are PLN Members, $100 

for USA members, and $200 for non-USA 

members. Events run 9:00-2:00. These will be 

conducted by National Presenters. 

Building School & Community Partners—Dr. Sheila 

Harrity 

11.27.2018—Lenexa, 11.28.2018—Maize 

Understanding Dyslexia—Dr. Jack Fletcher 

Co-hosted with KASEA 

11.9.218 

Speaking from the Heart—Richard Brundage 

10.5.2018—Olathe 

Advocacy in Action 

Co-hosted with KASB 

1.16-1.17.2019—Topeka 

Women in Leadership Summit 

Co-hosted with KASB 

2.4-2.5.2019—Manhattan 

Drive-In Events 

No Cost to districts who are PLN Members, $100 

for USA members, and $200 for non-USA 

members. Events run 9:00-2:00. 

Building & Maintaining a Positive School 

Culture—Joe Coles 

10.8.2018—Topeka 


10.22.2018—Goddard 


Building Leadership in Others—Dr. Rick Doll 

11.5.2018—Overland Park 

11.6.2018—Topeka 

11.12.2018—Goddard 


Social & Emotional Programming that Works— 

Dr. Marcia Weseman 


12.4.2018—Topeka 

12.10.2018—Maize 


Understanding & Utilizing Student Data— 

Multiple Experts 

1.10.2019—Topeka 


1.14.2019—Goddard 


School Safety One Year Later-What’s Changed? 

- G.A. Buie 

4.1.2019—Topeka 


4.8.2019—Maize 


So You Want to Be a Principal? 

Designed for anyone aspiring to be a building level leader. 

No Cost to districts who are PLN Members, $100 for all 

other registrants. Events run 9:00-2:00. 

11.2.2018 – Goddard 

12.7.2018 – Greenbush North (Lawrence) 

12.12.2018 – Dodge City 

23

KAESP—Kansas Association of Elementary School Principals 

KAMSA—Kansas Association of Middle School Administrators 

KASBO—Kansas Association of School Business Officials 

KASPA—Kansas Association of School Personnel Administrators 

KASCD—Kansas Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development 

KASEA—Kansas Association of Special Education Administrators 

KASSP—Kansas Association of Secondary School Principals 

KCCTEA—Kansas Council of Career and Technical Education Administrators 

KanSPRA—Kansas School Public Relations Association 

KSSA—Kansas School Superintendents Association

Under the Umbrella Volume 1, Issue 3

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?