Dr. William Pearson, Director of the Office of Partnership Districts in the Michigan Department of Education, explains how partnership districts and schools are identified, and the support provided during their three-year agreement to increase student proficiency and growth scores. Dr. Pearson also discusses the state budget recommendations to address the teacher shortage: bonuses to retain current teachers, fellowships to pay student teachers, and funds designated to encourage high school and college students to pursue a teaching career.
Podcast for Leaderful Schools has had a series of conversations with influential people talking about how schooling has been affected by the pandemic, how we're coping with it, and how we hope to be coming out of it. Today's guest is Dr. William Pearson, Director of the Office of Partnership Districts in the Michigan Department of Education (M.D.E.). The Michigan Department of Education is the state’s administrative office that supervises education across the state.
Dr. Pearson proudly continues a family tradition as educators. To achieve his goal of becoming a superintendent, Dr. Pearson ensured he had both teaching and administrative experience at the elementary and secondary level. His career continued as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction in South Lyon and then superintendent there for 20 years. “I left South Lyon, actually retired but still kept on being a superintendent. The best move I ever made was to accept a position in Mount Clemens, in Macomb County, for two years where I was able to work with a high poverty district and we made some marked turnaround efforts. I was a superintendent at St. John's for a little bit, and then I worked for Munetrix, which is a data analytics company for a few months.” He had a chance conversation with Sheila Alles, who was Interim State Superintendent at the time, and offered to help out high poverty districts, resulting in his current position as Director of the Office of Partnership Schools for M.D.E. “When I was hired in December of 2018, I was also named the State School Reform Officer. There was only one in the State and the Legislature removed that position, so I remained the Director of Partnership Districts, and we currently are working with 26 districts around the state and 98 schools.”
Dr. Pearson provided historic context for his position. “In 2017-2018 Dr. Whiston, the previous state superintendent, decided that instead of trying to close schools, a new concept called partnership districts would be formed where M.D.E. would work with a district that had schools or a private school with a score in the bottom 5% of schools in Michigan. They began to have index scores from zero to 100 points that you would attain. Schools are identified based on their growth and proficiency rates which are 63% of the index score, with additional percentages added for English learner progress, graduation rate, and school quality and student success. Other categories which add percentages to the score are: K-8 access to media specialists, K-8 access to arts and P.E., the number of advanced classes for students in high school, and the post-secondary enrollment in some type of university or some type of college. All those percentages and numbers are input and the bottom 5% of the schools become C.S.I. (Comprehensive Support and Improvement). Once labeled C.S.I. you qualify to become a partnership school that includes P.S.A (Private School Academies), or a partnership district (with several C.S.I. schools). With approximately 830 districts in the state of Michigan at the current time, we have 26 districts with a partnership agreement and 98 schools.”
“The agreements are supposed to be three years in length. Within the partnership agreement there are benchmarks to attain in 18 months, which is halfway through the agreement, and there are three year goals to meet. There are goals that are based on proficiency or growth and benchmarks, and there are goals that are based on what percent you want to decrease the number of kids chronically absent for example, or what systems you need to put in place in your districts or what type of school improvement planning needs to be put in place to help a district become better equipped to meet the needs of students and get out of the bottom 5%. With COVID, the U.S. Department of Education gave us two years of accountability waivers which extended the partnership agreements to four or five years, depending upon if they started in 2017 or 2018. This spring everybody believes there won't be any more waivers and the students are going to be assessed in M-STEP and S.A.T., so we will identify new schools this fall for round four. We'll have new schools and new districts that we will be working with new three-year partnership agreements.”
Dr. Pearson noted, “There will be some schools and districts that will be re-identified and we're putting a new system in place with more intense support. A liaison from our office is assigned to that district to work closely with the district on systems that they need to put in place, interpreting data, changing systems for providing technical assistance. The state budget has awarded the Office of Partnership Districts $6 million each year that we approve and disseminate to districts, based on their needs and their plans to use the money. In terms of support, there's money involved and we have a liaison that works specifically with them. There are other offices within the Michigan Department of Education that we can also work with and dovetail into making the partnership district meet its goals at the end of three years.”
Dr. Klein inquired about additional supports for teachers beyond the partnership work that is currently in place, citing communication from Dr. Michael Rice, State Superintendent, to certain members of the State legislature outlining opportunities to support educators in what in Michigan has become an impactful teacher shortage. Governor Whitmer suggested in her State of the State and budget messages that there be attention paid to that. When you think about the work that the M.D.E. is doing and the recommendations they're making, how is it proposed that the shortage of educators be addressed?
Dr. Pearson expressed his optimism, “I know Dr. Rice work diligently with the governor's office and with legislators trying to put a plan together that would help not only retain teachers, but get high school seniors and college freshman to enter the educational field. The governor’s budget includes retention bonuses for teachers, which I believe go from $2,000 a year for the next two years, $2,300 in 2024, and$4,000 in 2025, to continue to work in their current district. There is a plan to create Michigan Educator Fellowships, enabling student teachers to be paid $15.00 per hour while they student teach. There's money out there to entice high school seniors and college freshmen to go into the educational field. They are going to offer $10,000 to help out future educators that are going to school, if they provide two years of service for each year they would receive the money, to continue to go through the educational programs and come out and become a teacher somewhere in our state. There's a lot of money that is proposed to the legislature to provide dollars for future teachers and to retain staff, so the goal is to produce 10,000 plus more educators each year with this particular recommended budget from the governor. Additionally the governor’s recommendation is a $435 per student increase in state funding, which is a base amount of $9,135 and that is a significant increase.
Asked how might he respond to the teaching and learning in the classroom that has been disrupted in a variety of ways over the last few years, Dr. Pearson replied, “I would push the acceleration versus the remediation aspect. Work with the kids at the grade level they are, looking at the course content and standards that are in front of them. Teach those standards and accelerate the students as much as possible without really reverting back to a lot of remediation. I think there's some value to maybe having some remote learning for some kids. My personal opinion is students and children need to be in front of the teacher face-to-face, so they can work more closely with the professional and the needs of the individual students can be met wherever they are, whatever place they come from.”
Dr. Maxfield suggested Dr. Pearson once again don the hat of a superintendent and share his advice with new and aspiring superintendents. “I would say always when you're making decisions, what's good for kids, what's good for your district, not necessarily what's good for specific adults or adults. Always keep the kids in mind when decisions are made, whether you're building principal or whether you're in central office, specifically when you're a superintendent. Never lie to people. You can’t fool people. Don’t give them false hope. You don't give hope when there's an aspect or a topic that there's no hope for. You don't tell people, yeah well, maybe, when there is no hope that it's going to occur; you tell them straight on. Be visible and keep working and talking with everyone.”
When asked about teacher leaders, Dr. Pearson continued the thread of leadership lessons. “You have to learn how to listen to people. When you listen to people it doesn't mean you're always going to agree, but you have to listen to what people are saying. People have to perceive that you are an open individual who will take what your colleagues are telling you. You have to be well versed in what's out there in terms of research. We do a much better job teaching kids, assessing kids, and figuring out what's good for kids in the classroom. We have a school improvement planning that was never there when I started. We look at different points of a particular school and classrooms on how can we improve. I think leaders have to continue to meld all that into their daily activities as they work with individuals.”
Welcome to Podcast for Leaderful Schools coming to you, almost live from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, actually from Pawley Hall, and the campus of Oakland University and to even be more specific, from the Galileo Institute. This is Bob Maxfield and my co-host is, of course with me, the wonderful Dr. Suzanne Klein. Hi Sue, how are you?
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Suzanne Klein:
I'm doing great Bob. I'm looking out the window and seeing blue skies, a little bit of clouds so the world is alive, even though it's covered with snow here in Michigan.
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Bob Maxfield:
And it's about 10 degrees, so other than that, it’s just snow.
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Suzanne Klein:
Oh yeah.
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Bob Maxfield:
Well our guest today and this is the continuation of the series that’s been going on almost for the last year during these Covid times and that's a series of conversations with influential people talking about how schooling has been affected by the pandemic, how we're coping with it, and how we hope to be coming out of it. And so today's guest is going to bring a nice really important insight. And our guest indeed is Dr. Bill Pearson, who is the Director of Partnership Districts and School Reform in the Michigan Department of Education. Michigan Department of Education is the state’s administrative office that supervises education across the state. So Bill welcome we're delighted you can be with us. Why don’t we begin by just giving you a chance to help our listeners know a little bit more about your professional background, Sue and I know it, we worked with you on and off for many years. And then, what led you to your current position at the Michigan Department of Ed?
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Dr. Pearson:
Well, I come from a family of educators and decided my sophomore year in college that I wanted to be an educator also so I went and attained my degree. I have taught second through eighth grade when I was a teacher and I also taught a semester of adult ed., alternative ed., and so I could say I had some experience in high school. And then building experience in a middle school and elementary school. I knew I want to be a superintendent so I made sure I had a broad array of teaching experience and administrative experience, and I was assistant superintendent in South Lyon for Instruction and then superintendent there for 20 years. I left South Lyon, actually retired but then still kept on being a superintendent. The best move I ever made was to accept a position in Mount Clemens in Macomb County for two years, where I was able to work with a high poverty district, and we made some marked turnaround efforts and then I was a superintendent St. John's for a little bit, then I worked for Munetrix, which is a data analytics company, some of you are probably aware of. That was for a few months, and then I ran into Sheila Alles, who was the Interim State Superintendent. And I said, I knew Shelia from way back; we were teachers of Plymouth. And I said, “How can I help M.D.E.? Is there any way, anything I can do to help out high poverty districts, maybe bring in Munetrix?” And she said, “Bill, I've got a job for you.” So that's how I ended up where I am now, Director of Partnership Districts for M.D.E.. And at the time when I was hired in December of 2018, I was also the State School Reform Officer. There was only one in the State and that subsequently has been removed. The Legislature removed that position and so I remained the Director of Partnership Districts, and we currently are working with 26 districts around the state and 98 schools.
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Bob Maxfield:
Well that's a perfect intro to where I wanted to go next, which is to talk a little bit about that. So what really is a partnership district, how does one get to be a partnership district, and then what's involved in that role, what kind of help is available from the State?
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Dr. Pearson:
Partnership districts are identified. In 2017-2018 Dr. Whiston, the previous state superintendent, decided that instead of trying to close schools, a new concept called partnership districts would be formed where M.D.E. would work with a district that had schools or a school in the bottom 5% as they were leaving the priority school status, some of you remember that. And so we they began to have index scores that's a zero to 100 points that you would attain and schools were identified based on the growth and proficiency rates which are 63% of the index score, 10% on English learner progress, 10% on graduation rate, and 14% on school quality and student success, which is your data on chronic absenteeism, do you have K-8 access to media specialists, K-8 access to arts and P.E., and how many advanced classes do you have for students in high school, and then how many students are enrolling post-secondary in some type of university or some type of college. So all those percentages and numbers are put in and the bottom 5% of the schools then becomes C.S.I., Comprehensive Support Improvement. You're labeled C.S,I,, and then you qualify to become a partnership school and a partnership district that includes P.S.A.s (Private School Academy). So there are 830-ish districts in the state of Michigan at the current time, and we have 26 districts with a partnership agreement and 98 schools and the agreements are supposed to be three years in length.
And when you write a partnership agreement with a district that might have one or two or three, if it's a traditional district might have one, two or three schools with C.S.I. status, or a P.S.A. just a building in itself. So when you write the agreement you write benchmarks that you want to attain in 18 months because it's a three year agreement so halfway through. They are your benchmarks that you want to attain and then you have three year goals that you want to meet. Now there are goals that are based on proficiency or growth and benchmarks, and then there are goals that are based on what percent you want to decrease the number of kids chronically absent, for example, or what systems do you need to put in place in your districts, what type of school improvement planning needs to be put in place to help a district become better equipped to meet the needs of students and get out of the bottom 5%, based on the data that I previously just explained.
So it's three year progress, three years to get out of that bottom 5%. Now unfortunately with Covid that came in a couple years ago, U.S. Ed. gave us two years of accountability waivers which extended the partnership agreements to four or five years, depending upon if they started in 2017 or 2018. This spring now we're going to have, everybody believes there won't be any more waivers and the students are going to be assessed in M-STEP and SAT, so we will identify new schools this fall for round four. Now like I said, you get out based on your index score and there will be some schools and districts that will be re-identified and we're putting a new system in place hopefully that will work with those more intensely, and then we'll have new schools and new districts, that we’ll be able to work with a new three-year partnership agreement.
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Bob Maxfield:
In addition to helping them develop a set of plans and metrics to move out of that category, what specific help is the state able to provide to those districts? Is there additional funding or are there additional outside resource people?
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Dr. Pearson:
Yes, specific, first of all, we have a liaison that we assigned to that district that works out of my office, the Office of Partnership Districts through M.D.E. and that liaison will work closely with the district, work on systems that they need to put in place, work on interpreting data, changing systems for providing technical assistance and then the state and their budget has awarded the Office of Partnership Districts $6 million each year to disseminate to districts, based on their needs and what they think, how they think they can use the money, and then we approve and disperse the money to the districts that we’re working with, so there's money involved. So we've had, one year there were seven million but basically there’s $6 million that we disseminate to districts and we have a liaison that works specifically with them. And then there are other offices within the Michigan Department of Education that we can also work with and dovetail into making the partnership district meet its goals at the end of three years. And then we evaluate them at the end of three years from our end from the Office of Partnership Districts, along with the assessments that are put in place to determine the bottom 5% based on the index score.
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Bob Maxfield:
Thank you for that.
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Suzanne Klein:
It's been interesting Bill to hear about the systems, the data, the planning process that the State through this partnership work is putting in place with the local districts, and again tailored to their needs. Tied to that is a very important factor which is once those systems and plans and data are in place, who's going to be in the classrooms to teach those children, and how are they going to support the teaching learning professional development? So let's zero in on that for a moment.
For our listeners who might not be residing in the state of Michigan, back in November of 2021, our State Superintendent, Dr. Michael Rice, sent a letter to certain members of the State legislature and in that letter he outlined the kind of opportunities to support educators, respond to what in Michigan has become quite an impactful teacher shortage and then back to the partnership idea, and as well help improve learning. Governor Whitmer suggested in her state of the state and budget messages that there be attention paid to that. So let's delve into a few of the issues that take us back to those classrooms in the teaching and learning. Districts across this state, as in many states are dealing with the number of educators leaving the profession, and a shortage of qualified and in many cases experienced candidates to fill their places. When you think about the work that the M.D.E. is doing and the recommendations they're making, how is it proposed that the shortage of educators be addressed?
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Dr. Pearson:
There are some very good components in the governor's budget that was presented last week that will help in these areas, and I know Dr. Rice worked diligently with the governor's office and with legislators trying to put a plan together that would help not only retain teachers, but get what I call high school seniors and college freshman to enter the educational field. The last 10 years there was there started to be a vast drop in the number of students that wanted to become teachers and you know, we need a lot of different reasons, and we need more students that want to choose to be an educator and so the Governor’s budget includes some retention bonuses for teachers to continue to work in the district that they're working in.
You know, when I talked about partnership districts and 26 districts we work with, we have a tremendous number of buildings where there are uncertified staff in front of students and a definite shortage in specific areas, and this would really help to retain teachers to maintain their place in the district they're currently working in. It’s $2,000 a year each of the next two years, and then I believe the recommendation goes to $3,000 for 2024 and then $4,000 in 2025.That will go a long way with retaining teachers. I think administrators would get paid the first two years of the plan, so they would get the $2,000 a year 2023 and 2024. There's a plan there bonuses that wouldn't be dollars that go into the trend and individual districts, but bonuses to keep teachers where they are.
Then there's the plan to create Michigan educator fellowships, where as I understand it student teachers, as their student teaching would get $15 an hour, which would go a long way to help out their cost of living, because student teachers currently just student teach; they're not getting paid. And they're going to offer $10,000 to help out future educators that are going to school, if they provide two years of service for each year they would receive the $10,000 to continue to go through the educational programs and come out and be a teacher in someplace in our state. I believe that the entire state understands now, legislators, superintendents certainly do, I think parents understand that. There's shortage not only with teachers, because I've always say when there's a shortage of teachers, there’s a shortage of principals and there's a shortage of superintendents,
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Suzanne Klein: Absolutely.
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Dr. Pearson:
And bus drivers and para professionals; there's a shortage everywhere. We can't produce the type of environment for educational purposes that we want to have in this state if we don't put some money to help out people that want to continue or to be an educator and then student teach in the classroom. There's a lot of money that is proposed to the legislature to provide dollars for future teachers and to retain staff, so the goal is to produce 10,000 plus more educators each year, with this particular recommended budget from the governor.
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Bob Maxfield:
And from our perspective at the university, we've seen and I think every university of the state, except possibly Michigan State, has seen a significant decrease the number of people enrolling in their teacher education programs. And that's been almost decade long trend, and so this is certainly going to help reverse that.
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Suzanne Klein:
And I appreciate those you're describing, the recommendations that the M.D.E. and the governor are putting in front of the legislators for consideration. You're recognizing the fact that this is not just a preparation issue, but people need to be recruited into the field, so that they can be well prepared and then retained as they walk into the school districts across the state. And that whole notion that there is the pipeline that you talked about that goes beyond that, in terms of school leadership is a key. Do you have any recommendations for school districts that have high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are starting to look around and say, what do I want to be, or who do I want to become, that that you could offer our listeners?
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Dr. Pearson:
Well, I think that high schools, districts need to form groups. You know we have groups for lots of different kids in school to just… we used to have some of those and I think we need to go back to that future teachers, future educators. And then talk to them about what you can get if the governor's recommendations and budget are accepted. There's money out there to entice high school seniors and college freshmen trying to figure out what they want to do, to go in the educational field, and once I think that the word gets out and the data gets out students understand that you can get some money for student teaching, you can get some dollars to help out pay the cost of education, which is you know pretty costly, I think more people will go into the teaching field and they'll, you know we'll get back some of the respect that maybe it was lost over the last I don't know how many years. You know now the legislature, the state is recognizing the deficit, and where we are in terms of the number of educators, now I want to do something about it, now we're willing to help you out. And it's certainly more money going into the per pupil amount each year. The last year set a record. This year the Governor’s recommendation is $435 per student increase, which you get the base amount to $9,135. you know that's a significant increase also, telling people, telling the state, telling you future educators, you need to be an educator and that we're putting our money where our mouth is. Besides the governor's, also the $1 billion dollar in school construction, to have school infrastructure grants available to districts. I go into a lot of high poverty areas and there are schools that just don't have what other school districts have, and what other school systems have for students to be able to have the opportunity to have the C.T.E. programs and so forth. You know, there are some really good things in the in the budget proposed budget.
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Suzanne Klein:
Bill, that gives us a chance to round out this part of the conversation with the notion with additional funding and with the opportunities to prepare, recruit to the field and then retain teachers. What about this notion of learning teaching and learning in the classroom it's been disrupted in a variety of ways, over the last few years, how might this be addressed? If you had the wand or the decisions and recommendations that you could put out there, what would there be that you would make sure that would be happening?
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Dr. Pearson:
I would promote more acceleration and not remediation. We know there's been learning loss, there's a lot of studies that have indicated that forgone learning because of the pandemic, but I think we need to work with the kids in the grade level they are, look at the course content the standards that are in front of them and teach those standards and accelerate the students as much as possible, without really reverting back to a lot of remediation. That's one way if I was a principal or if I was a superintendent of a district I would push the acceleration versus the remediation aspect. And I think there's some value to maybe having some remote learning for some kids. I think my personal opinion is students and children need to be in front of the teacher face-to-face, where they can work more closely with the professional and the needs can be met of the individual students wherever they are, whatever place they come from. We’ll get back to the face-to-face and hopefully that will promote and accelerate proficiency and growth scores.
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Bob Maxfield:
I think the other thing that you two talked about a moment ago that will certainly help address the learning problems and I know your partnership districts are good examples of these. You talked about a foundational allowance going up dramatically, making additional funds available to school districts to provide specialized interventions where needed and the kind of accelerated experiences that you're talking about. So when you put all of these pieces together: the support for current teachers, the funds to increase or to encourage folks to pursue teaching, and then just additional resources for those folks who are in the classroom, it looks like we're on the right track to come out of this thing.
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Dr. Pearson:
Yes, it does. I'm very hopeful where we're going to end up next year. Hopefully there's no new variant and we can move forward with that traditional educational teaching that we've had in the past.
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Bob Maxfield:
Well, as we get near the end of our time I'm going to ask you to put your superintendent hat back on, and the audience for this question really is…we have a network of first year superintendents who we’re working with and we have a bunch of our grad students who are considering becoming superintendents. And so what's the Bill Pearson advice for these folks, what are some things you would hope they would just not, that they would always keep in mind, and would never forget?
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Dr. Pearson:
I would say always when you're making decisions; what's good for kids, what's good for your district, not necessarily what's good for specific adults or adults. Always keep the kids in mind when decisions are made, whether you're building principal or whether you're in central office, specifically when you're a superintendent. I had some good advice from someone when I was just starting out to be an administrator and she taught me, people always respect or they’ll cooperate with those they respect. So I've been thinking about that over the decades, and I've always try to never lie to people; you can't fool people, you can't fool kids, you can't fool adults, you can't fool the public. I’m speaking as a superintendent now, so you never lie to them. You don't give hope when there's an aspect or a topic that there's no hope for.You don't tell people yeah well, maybe, when there is no hope that it's going to occur, so you tell them straight on. Be visible. All the people, district’s community want to see if you're a principal visible in classrooms. Just keep working, talking with everyone. My basic premise is never lie, and to do what's best for kids. I know it's easy to say, but when you're in that predicament sometimes and you have to make a decision, always keep that in mind.
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Bob Maxfield:
And that's excellent advice and the new folks would be well suited to take that on. So Sue, what have we, from your perspective, have we missed something that we should have addressed? I’m going to give Bill final words to talk about anything he thinks we should have talked about. Go ahead Sue.
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Suzanne Klein:
I’ll ask one more Bill, and it's tied to your last conversation with Bob about what you have as advice for superintendents and people that are in formal leadership roles. I'm curious to take that to a little bit finer point. What about teacher leaders? They're the ones that we are working hard to prepare, recruit and retain. What advice might you have for them? I'm guessing it might be in some of the same categories, but there might be something particular for teacher leaders that you would want to make sure those who are listening get the advantage of your wisdom on?
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Dr. Pearson:
For teacher leaders learn how to... learn how to get along with people, how to listen to people. When you listen to people it doesn't mean you're always going to agree, but you have to listen to what people are saying and people have to perceive that you are an open individual who will take what your colleagues are telling you. Teacher leaders, when you say teacher leaders I always envisioned somebody who maybe has an aspiration in being an administrator, or just wants to continue to be a teacher but wants to excel in their particular area, whether that be literacy or whether that be head of the math department. You know you have to be well versed in what's out there in terms of research. You should probably get some periodicals; stay attuned to research. You know we get better. I've been around 48 years now in education and we do a much better job than we did teaching kids, assessing kids, and figuring out what's good for kids in the classroom than we did when I started in 1974. So we're on a pretty good track; I mean it takes decades. We have a school improvement planning that was never there when I started. We look at different points of a particular school and classrooms on how can we improve, and I think leaders have to continue to meld all that into their daily activities as they work with individuals.
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Suzanne Klein: Thank you.
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Bob Maxfield:
That's all good, that's all good advice, and I think that leadership is leadership, and I think all of those qualities you've talked about apply across the board, so we've been privileged to have this conversation today with Dr. Bill Pearson. Bill is one of the real giants in the field and he's had made his impact at the local district, at the regional, and of course now at the state level. So Bill, any final words for our listeners, as we conclude this conversation?
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Dr. Pearson:
No. Do what’s right for kids, enjoy what you're doing, and take every day one at a time, be positive.
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Bob Maxfield:
And with that, those are good words for all of us. So to our listeners, thank you for being part of this installment of Podcasts for Leaderful Schools, as always almost live from Oakland University, in Rochester, Michigan.