Play the Right Words

Late-Lee, after a long day of coaching, thinking, overthinking, planning, fixing, nudging, and all the other “-ings” that come with this work, I like to unwind with a little game of Words With Friends. It’s my way of cleansing my brain palate before bed.

Now, I’m not saying I’m a champion or anything. In fact, I lose a lot. But I’ve played with some serious wordsmiths. The other night, one of my friends messaged me a screenshot of a single word she played that racked up 105 points. One word. 105 points! I was so impressed, I told her she needed to teach me her secrets. Her response? “Girl, it’s strategy.”

And naturally that got me to thinking. 

Strategy. That’s what this work of improving student achievement and schools requires. Just like in the game, where each letter and move is chosen for maximum impact, educators have to be intentional in every decision they make. We shouldn’t just look at data.  We shouldn’t just report out on the data. We need to triangulate it.  I have heard someone even say, “We torture it until it confesses.” We don’t just react to problems. We use questions like shovels and dig beyond the surface for the root causes. 

A superintendent I used to work with (and admired greatly) would always tell us, “Hope is not a plan.” We didn’t just hope something would work.  Like the careful selection of every letter in the game, we would choose actions that were most likely to make a difference in addressing those root causes. We’d monitor those actions, and if we weren’t getting a high score, we’d adjust. 

There’s no high score without strategy.

So whether you’re figuring out how to support a struggling leader, teacher, improve Tier 1 instruction, or move a school out of CSI status, remember what I often tell those I work with, “School improvement can be some of the most challenging and messy work you will ever do, but it is also the most beautiful and rewarding work.”  There isn’t always a clear path through it. When you are dealing with so many variables, you have to look beyond the obvious moves. 

While it seems hard, it’s winnable. You just have to play the right words at the right time and sometimes that means passing on the easy move to wait for something better.

Just like in the game, it’s not about winning every round. It’s about staying in it, thinking ahead, and making every move count. You don’t just abort the mission. As this school year begins, commit to using all types of data. As we all know our students are more than a number. Every data point you analyze has a heartbeat behind it. We need to monitor the outcomes to ensure our students are getting our very best.