Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

This article was written by Assistant Principal Ann Hadwen The Freshman Learning Community (FLC) has had a productive and busy year so far.   At the start of the school year the FLC teachers introduced students to a new advisory program based on the characteristic of “Grit” which is perseverance and passion for long-term goals . Grit, along with six other character traits (zest, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity) are examined, modeled, and practiced every day by students and teachers alike.   Advisories have faced several “Grit” challenges in which they compete with other advisories to demonstrate the characteristic of the month.   In December, all freshman teachers had the opportunity to nominate and recognize students that exemplified one of the seven characteristics.   Twenty-five students received recognition certificates during the first ever Grit awards ceremony.   Teachers and administrators in attendance agreed...

Last week I had the opportunity to deliver the keynote to a large group of school administrators from Oregon at their 2013 State Proficiency Conference, sponsored jointly by the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators (COSA) and the Business Education Compact (BEC) in Portland. I began my talk by sharing with the group how I explained the idea of competency-based grading to a woman, Kathy, whom I shared a plane ride with on my way to Oregon. Kathy was very curious to learn more about competency-based grading. She is a mother of three and lives in the Portland area. Her oldest just graduated from high school and is now in the Air Force. She has another child in middle school and her youngest is in elementary school. As a result, she is very invested in educational reforms that promise to give her children a better future. To help her understand the competency-based system, I asked her to hypothetically consider how the pilot school was organized that our airline pilot at...

Here is Mr. Stack's latest article for the Sanborn Voice, the student-run newspaper of SRHS Last month the administration surprised both staff and students by adding a couple curveballs into what otherwise would have been a routine lock-down drill. After the school was placed in lock down, we pulled the fire alarm and waited to see how classes would react. The result was exactly as we had hoped for: Many struggled with whether or not they needed to leave the room or stay put so they read the emergency plan which did not specifically answer their question. So, they were forced to actually think about what the intent of a lock down drill really is. Using some common sense and logic, most people figured out that since they couldn’t smell smoke and they didn’t see any immediate signs of fire, they should stay in their classroom and wait for further instructions. The question of whether or not to evacuate the classroom brings up a bigger issue of how specific our emergency ...