USA VALUES - CDP Character Development Program
(A 501 (c) (3) company)

Plan of Action for Leadership Capacity
This Statement will form the basis of effective citizen participation in helping to create more public school leadership capacity in the community.

Statement:

When 100% of the children start kindergarten ready to read in English the school has the resources to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
· This is not a new request of the community
· This reveals the strength of the public school system
· It is the weakness of the communities leaving children behind
· Allowing age 3-6 children to fall behind is the issue to be fixed
· It is more than a school/family issue, but the school must lead

Questions:

1. The school principal must without question
collaborate to make the 100% happen in the local
early literacy learning community to achieve the AYP? Yes or No, and Essay

2. Are there ways to achieve this 100% level of
early reading in a collaborative process, without
holding the principal accountable for the community? Essay

3. Why focus on the principal? Essay

4. How do we best help principal’s focus on this statement as the first- thing-first solution? Essay

5. What extra resources does he/she need to collaborate to this permanent 100% solution for the school and community? Essay

6. Using a 100% goal to define excellence and the need to continuously improve is understandable? Essay

I. Outline for a discussion forum to increase the capacity of the urban elementary school principal.

A. Background
1. It all starts with a group of education consumers (customers), with a budget. Seeing life from the customer’s view.
· Without an external group that pays, there is nothing.
· Make sense out of it all by understanding the external requirements.
· All results are always being tested and evaluated. This is the USA.
· The external requirements are going to change again and again, they have changed already.
· Nobody cares about internal problems unless they are put into the perspective of customer requirements.
· Attitude is everything- Trust, honesty, character, values, reputation, and customers view.

2. The child, engaged in his/her future, is the reason for everything. Get to the truth right away.
· How soon do you know the child is not engaged? How soon do you act on it?
· Who benefits when you act to do first things first?
· Honestly what are the ramifications?
· More time, money, cost savings, potential, sharing, service, and respect.
- - - + + + + +
· Based on the plus will change pay for the minus? School by School?

3. What matters most – the golden rule? – a gift – a service -- a sharing – a smile
· Is the golden rule contagious? Relationships created by saving a child?
· Launching favors forward. Pay-it-Forward. Pitch it Forward.
· Before it is too late to capitalize on the sensitive periods.

4. Protecting your school, first things first. Honesty, friendship, communication, only positives.
· Focus on what we have in common, not the differences.
· Expect less than you want.
· Encourage rather than criticize.
· Give more than your share.
· Do not listen to gossip.
· Always start with the truth, it clears the clutter! It creates no clutter!
· Truth is what you believe, respectfully, until you know better.
· Character and emotional intelligence is required to collaborate and progress.

5. Power in Honesty and the problems we solve, or don’t solve.
· Start with the customer being the accepted authority.
· How close to the requirement is required.
· I must use the truth to prevent the waste.
· Truth sets you free after it makes you miserable.
· The dance is only meaningful when it is around the customer’s stake.
· Solved problems don’t fester.
· Everyone has problems to solve.
· Your best work is solving problems, with honesty.
· Problem solving is character building.
· The customer’s requirement is a good start to a solution.
· Refuse to give up. Grow out.
· There is a positive above every problem. Look up!

6. Using what the customer has given to you.
· Customers ask for what they think is reasonable.
· Ask them why they think the request is reasonable. Collaboration.
· Ask them for help in filling the gaps in the service.
· An unopened opportunity or gift is worthless.

7. Let the customer’s power covering your weakness.
· The customer has the power to compensate-- ask for the help.
· Everyone has limitations, make honest efforts in areas you are strong.
· Honesty about your weakness will bring out generosity and resources.

B. What makes the customer smile

8. What makes the customer smile?
· Ask the customer what they want, what are the requirements.
· They want to explain the requirements.
· Being asked to help met the requirements.
· Doing things for the benefit of the customer, ahead of self.
· A friendly relationship that offers praise and thanks.

9. Acting like the customer, acting for the customer is the heart of service
· The golden rule.
· Surrender to honesty.
· Listening and respecting the real requirement.
· Actions that please.
o Accurate, authentic, thoughtful, practical and complete.
o Being available, attending to needs.
o Dedicated to detail.
o Faithful to delivery.
o Low profile.
· Thinking like a servant
o Others first.
o Steward not owner.
o Focus on the work.
o Identity with the customer.
o Opportunity not an obligation.

10. Developing your friendship with the customer
· Constant conversations.
· Boasting that each understands each other.
· Continual thinking about the needs.
· Shared secrets and trusts.
· Chose to be honest verses perfect.
· Chose to obey wishes.
· Value your friend’s opinion.
· Desire the friendship, use experience to keep it fresh, fix problems you fix friendships.

11. Restoring distant or lost customers and dissatisfied customers
· Sometimes the spirit of the friendship must keep you close.
· Is there trust?
· Can you feel your friend’s satisfaction?
· Focus with character on the unchanging parts of the requirement.
· Trust that this focus will be confirmed time and again.
· Trust exceptions will be small, if the intention is authentic.

C. What this means to the school

12. Your school is the place to belong, engage in opportunity, achieve, succeed and share.
· Each part gets meaning from the body as a whole and it is not the other way around.
· Discover your role in this through genuine relationships with others.
· Effective schools will outlive our usefulness, so require investments that last.
· Be an authentic educator, be the muscle that is working.
o Steer away from self- isolation.
o Determine the whole and belong.
o Share the mission.
o Belonging stops you from backsliding.
o Work the truth.
§ Focus on the customer’s truth.
§ Face the problems.
§ Fortify the belief in each child- stretch it.
§ Find your talent.
§ Deliver the children.

13. Working together, cultivating community.
· Make the choice to work together.
· Smaller is better, real collaboration is an experience in authenticity- honesty and truth.
· Mutual encouragement
o Sympathic, kind, humble, gentle, patient, sharing, allowing faults, forgiving and trusting.
o Forgiveness is special, retaliate or resolve—this is a gift you give yourself.
· Cultivate the community relationship with honesty and love.
o Never be harsh with elders.
o Treat peers like brothers and sisters.
o Treat older women like your mother.
o Takes grace to be humble and think of yourself less.
o Takes courtesy to be big hearted.
o Takes confidentiality to hate gossip that bites like a snake.
o Takes frequency to keep encouraging one another.

14. How do we grow the service, shaping the school to serve the customer?
· Want a result, make an effort, be persistent.
· Discipline the way you think and act.
· Renew your attitude, thoughts, customer relationships, understanding of requirements.
· Make negative thoughts positive opportunities.
· Use the group to stay positive.
· The school has a role to lead in the community.

15. Using time to your advantage.
· Accept the fact that there are few shortcuts for 100% of the children
· Strong is better than fast, take the time to build and win—Why?
o Investing in positives is the hardest thing to do.
o People expect the negative so they challenge the positive with acts and thoughts driven by pride.
o There are few positives for the masses that go unchallenged.
o Respecting diversity requires emotional intelligence.
o There are no positive instant habits, growth needs fertile ground and sunshine.

D. What this means to the principal

16. Communicating the mission.
· !00% of the children are ready to read in English going into kindergarten.
· We ethically owe them and our children this start.

17. Living your purpose in the community.
· Building the bridges.
· Rely on the experiences of others, learning from others.
· The willingness to share and listen is more valuable than gold.
· Fill in around your passion knowing there is nothing to fear with love and honesty when you give no space to the negative.

18. Accepting your role as a leader, you are not in place by accident.
· Is there any reason not to share and listen when your guiding light is:
o Focus on the child
o Focus on the customer requirement
o Local and personal thinking of one size fits one
o The need to change
· Are you using the churches, here and now? Are they praying for you?
· Who understands this as well as you do?
· If you have no excuses and the time to succeed, do you think this is also true of your effective citizen customers and the churches?

19. You care about children and the community’s total service to children.
· You care about the children.
· You can drive so much, verses you can only do so much.
o Driven by peace not guilt.
o Driven by generosity not resentment.
o Driven by Courage and confidence not fear.
o Driven by Discipline for knowledge not materials.
o Driven by Joy not anger.

II. The above is an outline of action and local community promotion.

The following content is to be repurposed to the principal and the community:

· One Size Fits One, by Gary Heil-Tom Parker-Deborah C. Stephens (see outline)
· Leadership and the Customer Revolution, By Gary Heil-Tom Parker-Rick Tate (see outline)
· Character development messages forming an outline of civility (see outline)
· Assets and attributes and the achievement culture. (see outline)
· The GE Work-Out, by Dave Ulrich-Steve Kerr-Ron Ashkenas (see outline)

Outlines of these works are available upon request, they can be emailed
ask tdw.usavalues@comcast.net

III. Beliefs that could be worked into the section I discussions.

1. The sensitive period for learning language skills is ages 3-6. Reading is proven to be a significant key to an achievement attitude and staying engaged.

2. Economics justify early childhood learning.

3. Police, city, fire, schools and justice functional activity costs justifies early childhood learning.

4. Giving language skills to all (100%) age 3-6 children will eliminate racism and generational poverty in urban communities, over the next 20 years, as we know it today.

5. Learning materials can guide literacy education activity on a do no harm basis up to early reading skill levels. There is no need to look further than the Montessori materials and theory. But, there are other methods that work well.

6. The elementary school principal function needs to be expanded with a support team to include a contracted community media expert, a shared full time early reading collaborator, a contracted activity cost accounting expert and a part-time retired principal with time to develop community collaboration. The community has money for this short list of added knowledge and resources. The objective is to start the payback in less than two years.

7. The most expensive, committed, and persuasive personal resources in the community are principals and faith-base leaders, then teachers and faith-based volunteers, then business with money for results.

8. Effective citizens will “workout” to establish each local community priority.

9. Doing first things first to lower the total cost of language, civility, character, and choice development is required. But external requirements must be met in the mean time.

10. Major gains in school performance can be made by working with the bottom of the bottom half, early before the childen fall behind. The faith-base also has a vested mission in working with the bottom half of the bottom half starting with the children!

11. Civility is a public asset that drives market values of real estate among many other positive economic outcomes. Everybody should care, for selfish, security, and safety reasons. Racism might be the number one cause of local terror.

12. If a child disengages from school it is an indication that civility is lacking. The disengagement very likely accrues a future cost to society of an average $1,000,000 per child. (1997 America’s Promise)

13. Early learning is an activity that should remain a private enterprise in the local community so that the elementary school retains its power position as the external customer and can direct the bottom of the bottom half to the strongest of resources.

14. There are no problems too large that cannot be fixed, if each party stays civil; is honest; is humble; is friendly; is forgiving; is compassionate; communicates excessively; and remains forever positive giving no space to the negative. Do not start a process in the public with any other positioning.

15. The elementary school issue to be fixed first is that 100% of at risk children are not ready to read in English when they start kindergarten. No solutions today are good enough to restore what the bottom half of the bottom half children lose in their age 3-6 language development periods. Our leadership needs to lead with the truth. Emotional intelligence in the community is just not adequate if whole community leadership cannot act within the ethical dilemmas to deliver 100% of the children ready to read. The school needs this to win. The child needs this to win. The community needs this to win.