Money Ball

Mary and I had the opportunity to watch Money Ball a few weeks ago.  It stars Brad Pitt…pause for the ladies to catch their breath…and centers on the 2002 Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball.  Pitt plays the role of Billy Beane, the general manager of the A’s, a team that is dismal at best and league doormat at worst  (do not insert Cleveland joke at this time).  The owner has a set budget that he is willing to pay all of the players and it is well below any other team in the big leagues.  Beane’s task is to put a winner on the field for the cheapest payroll possible.  At the end of the season, he is surrounded by his veteran staff of scouts who have canvassed the world looking for the right, and few, high dollar players that they can afford.  These are “baseball men”, guys who had been around a long time and touted their years of experience.  However, they annually failed to produce a winner.  In a nutshell, Beane tells these guys to take a hike and hires a statisitcs guy from Yale who understands just which data to look at.  They are faced with a dismal financial situation and are convinced to buy into the sophisticated “sabermetric” approach (computer-generated analysis) toward scouting and analyzing players.  The big ticket stats like home runs and pitching victories were not so coveted.  The “little stats” such as on base percentage and percentage of walks allowed became much more important.  Why?  Simply put, they found that these seemingly “little stats” actually provided the big difference in the success of their team.  They were right.  The next season, the A’s went to the divisional playoffs.  Seeing the right data made all the difference in putting together a winning team.  Today, this approach is employed by the teams who are consistently at the top (again, refrain from Cleveland jokes).

We just concluded our final set of Acuity testing prior to the first round of ISTEP.  What are you looking for in the data that you get back?  Find the “little things” that will make the big differences.  Use strategies to remediate that have the high effect sizes where you get more bang for your buck.  Time is of the essence and you will have to put your foot on the pedal.  Take those Advisory period ISTEP prep days and solidify them.  Make sure that you are taking that data apart to see where the critical needs are.  Do not be data rich and information poor.   Our school is no different than others in the sense that we are all doing the “big things”.  We all offer the three R’s, provide lunch, and throw in some extracurricular activities.  That is all well and good, but if you truly want to make a difference, it doesn’t even come close.  The “little things” make the big differences.  It is more than just offering courses and then just presenting information.  It is about engaging students and making it more relevant.  A recent study found that as students make their way from elementary to middle and high school, their levels of engagement drop significantly.  Why is that?  Part of the reason is that kids do not see how what is taught is relevant in their current and future plans.  Hmmm. We have to be reflective (that’s one of those little things) in what we do and look at the formative data that comes back with the best interests of the kids in mind.  We have to engage them not only academically, but behaviorally and emotionally as well. Be on your toes with sharp eyes and ears.  You have to see the right data and use it to build a winner.