​A few weeks into the first month of school, I stopped in at the high school’s Career Center to have a chat with the director. I asked him what he thought the center’s biggest successes were in terms of finding career opportunities for the students. He asked me if it was okay for him to take the district’s CORE framework and add three more Cs to it: College, Career, and Community. 
 
This is exactly the kind of initiative which marks a great leader.
 
The more I thought about our discussion, the more I thought about how the different parts of CORE fit together. I thought about what it means to tailor CORE to the unique culture of each school and department, and I was excited to see how this new director might redefine our framework to better align district and Career Center goals. It made me restless, so I drew up my own model:   

1. Civility is required of a community of learners in school and in the community at large for the expression and acceptance of individual differences.

1. Order allows each person the opportunity to pursue individual and collective projects.

1. Respect grows out of positive, mutually beneficial relationships.

1. Excellence is only achieved with equitable practices which create opportunities for all students as they prepare to build their careers.

 
But it will ultimately come down to what the director wants—this is his initiative, and like every administrator in Warren, the CORE framework he lives by will need to be of his own creation. Superintendents need to empower school leaders to take initiative to meet the needs of all students. Do you do this in your district?
 
The students at the Warren High Career Center are in very good hands.
 
Next Up: Mentoring the Next Generation of Principals 

When I took over in Warren Township, the Board of Education had expressed concern about student safety and disciplinary issues. My first real act as Superintendent was the opportunity to both put the district back on track and to show my fellow administrators that I really do mean business.
 
AO Director Leonard Burrello took me with him to New York after my appointment as Superintendent. He had a specific purpose in mind, as he had just attended his fiftieth high school reunion, and all of his closest friends had identified one teacher in particular who they had all revered. His name was Brother Phillip Eichner, their former Latin teacher.  
 
He and his Irish driver, Brother Donovan, met us at our midtown hotel, and as we walked to the restaurant and talked over dinner, Father Phillip described the philosophy of his schools on Long Island and their commitment to COR, an acronym taken from the Latin word for heart. In his schools, COR stands for Civility, Order, and Respect.
 
Father Phillip spoke grandly of a curriculum built for all students, a curriculum designed to really prepare students for college instead of just pulling them through standardized tests and reducing them to figures on a spreadsheet. He believes that, with educators guided by COR, with hard work and effort, all students can and will meet the high expectations we should be setting for them.
 
When I got home, Father Phillip’s words began to coalesce. I couldn’t stop thinking about COR. But his idea kept churning, and it didn’t take long for a new idea to finally take shape: Add an E!
 
The E stands for Excellence and Equity for all, and ever since this revelation, the CORE framework has been posted around every school in Warren.
 
As it turns out, I had been living by the philosophy of CORE for some time without knowing it. Back when I became Principal at Liberty Park, my teachers were concerned that the students from the neighboring low-income housing projects could not possibly achieve on the same level as middle class students. Faculty thought they could best serve those low-income students by caring for their social and emotional health - and not for their education.
 
The faculty were preoccupied with classroom management instead of with the instruction, focused on discipline instead of the art of teaching. But I reviewed every student record and found that some of the students from the housing projects actually had the highest IQs of all the students in the school! This was a revelation, indeed, and when the teachers were confronted with the data, they had no choice but to change their mindsets.
                                               
My favorite reminder to the staff became: “If you do not believe all students can learn, fake it - they’ll believe you.” We have since amended that philosophy further, and we now live by what we like to think of as CORE’s mantra: “All students can learn the important stuff under the right conditions.” Some students will learn best through a project-based approach rather than through lecture, while others will learn best in teams rather than in isolation. Some will need extended practice and support. It all depends on the individual, but it’s our job to pay attention to what every individual needs.
 
Thanks once again to Father Phillip - Warren Township is all the better for having learned from you.  
 
Next Up: Adapting CORE to Our Schools - and Yours