Did any of you see the NCAA National Basketball Championships in March?

Called "March Madness", 64 of the best college teams compete and play for the national championship.

This year, the Duke Blue Devils played Butler University Bulldogs in the finals. Butler was the Hoosiers for this year - a small school that played very well with a lot of support across the country. The little guy was able to go up against the big machine.

But the Duke Blue Devils played an outstanding game throughout the championships.

Coach "K" (who happens to be a West Point graduate and coached the Army football team for 5 years - just a little something I thought you wanted to know) coached the Blue Devils team for the 30th year.

There's a lot to learn from Coach K (Krzyzewski).

I just finished reading his book, "THE GOLD STANDARD: Building a World-Class Team."

One of the things that Coach K says is what happens during game time is what you've been doing in practice. If your practice has been intense, if situations have been real, if players have really come together as a team, it will help you when the pressure is on in the real game and when the championship is on the line.

The same is true for us in education. March Madness in basketball is for us testing time in the spring.

• Our high school students have completed taking the Georgia High School Graduation Test.
• We're closing in on the end of the CRCT.
• In early May, our high schools will go into a second part of testing - the End of Course Test.

What happened in March Madness will happen to us. 

• How well our students practiced will be evident.
• How well our teachers have prepared our students will be evident.

I think we can be proud of the results that we will achieve.

Another piece of advice from Coach K in his book is committing to self-evaluation. Once again, I think students, teachers, and administrators can all learn from him.

Just as basketball players continue to practice, look at their performance, and decide what their individual goals will be, so can our students. As we finish this testing season, this is an opportunity for students to see where they've been, where they are, and how they met their goals.

Sometimes it is this one-on-one conversation to help students conduct a self-evaluation that helps them find that intrinsic motivation. It's just something for us to think about and share. It's another opportunity to create a lasting and more effective relationship.

Take the weekend and relax. Let's finish the CRCTs and continue on with our year.

Things are going well. You should be proud. I know I am proud of you, but I still dare us to do better.