Today, much discussion is devoted to the role of the school principal. But very rarely there is a conversation about who is on the director’s team, in particular, about his deputies. We decided to start this conversation.
Leading means not interfering good people work.
Peter Kapitsa
Myth 1. The school needs a large management team, consisting of a significant number of deputy principals, then the school will be in order.
Control is not management.
Douglas Copeland, "Generation X"
Three or four years ago, in a large number of small schools there were many deputy directors: for academic, educational, scientific and methodological work, security, primary school, information technology, economic activity, schedule managers. It got to the point that for every 30–40 teachers there were 6–7 deputy directors.
Obviously, the more head teachers there are in a school, the fewer teachers wage and at the same time even more useless work for less money! Naturally, such a management model has not justified itself either in content or in economically.
And if earlier in an educational organization there was 1 head teacher for 7 teachers, today there is 1 head teacher for 200 teachers. When we asked teachers at large schools whether the lack of an excessive number of head teachers hindered their work, they replied that there was hope for reducing the number of useless papers. It is good that these hopes have come true for a significant part of teachers working in schools with high educational results. And there are many of them in Moscow today.
In a large educational organization, one of the key problems is the transition to integrated management, solving government problems in the field of education and satisfying the needs of students and parents. In such a school, the deputy director simply must be a professional who organizes the work of the entire teaching staff, and is not guided by his own stereotypes about school management. He must be a real manager, ready to develop the professional skills of teachers, develop modern effective educational programs, and make timely decisions.
IN currently It can be noted with regret that head teachers in schools are needed so that teachers can work for them.
Myth 2. In order for children to learn better, the teacher definitely needs a deputy director.
No matter how she tried, she could not find a shadow of meaning here, although all the words were completely clear to her.
Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland"
According to the Unified Qualification Directory (USC), the duty of the deputy director is to ensure “objectivity in the assessment of results educational activities". But in practice, the system of intra-school monitoring for most teachers means collecting unnecessary documents, and for students - an additional burden in the form tests and tests, which children do not always know about in advance.
The statements of Moscow teachers at the City forum help to see the real picture. methodological center dedicated to the development electronic journal. Discussing the problem of grading student work, one user notes: “I personally think that GPA you need ONE, without taking into account any weight of assessment. And the teacher should have the prerogative to increase or decrease the final grade in the subject. The teacher always knows how to educational period the student worked, what grade he earned.” Very objective, especially for analyzing the results of students and the work of the teacher! It’s a pity that in some schools, quarter marks are set based on the average arithmetic value from all marks and are not taken into account different levels grades assigned for practical and test work, or simply based on subjective opinion teachers.
And parents express disagreement with this assessment system. In one of the letters we read: “...a system of weighted average assessments<…>represents an integral assessment of the results of all types of student activities and is taken into account when assigning the final grade. Each work is graded according to its level of difficulty. Of course, this system has a huge number of advantages in comparison with grading using the arithmetic average (common in most Moscow schools). It allows you to more objectively assess students’ knowledge and improves the quality of learning. This system is more difficult for schoolchildren and requires additional effort, but at the same time it is fair<…>I ask you to consider my request to recognize the weighted average grading system as mandatory in all Moscow schools. In this case, the certificate will finally begin to correspond intellectual abilities students and will be considered by universities as a significant criterion for accepting applicants” (punctuation and style of the authors have been preserved).
We see the position of the teacher and the position of the parent. What is the position of the head teacher on this issue? Judging by free speech teachers, there is simply no such position.
Every six months (and in some schools every quarter), deputy directors require reports from teachers on their work with low-performing children. Yes, these reports contain short description measures taken, a schedule for completing the topics studied and a table recording the dynamics of grades, but there is no comparison of the student’s true level of mastery of educational content with the level in the period when difficulties were identified! That is, there is no answer to the question of what material the students did not learn. Formal reports do not allow deputy directors to make timely decisions; their sad result is a waste of money work time teachers and school time children.
Consequences of replacement preventive work teaching staff to fill out reporting documents, we see in the results of meta-subject monitoring and city diagnostic work. This happens when the deputy director does not ensure objectivity in assessing the results of educational activities and forces teachers to waste time additional classes And individual consultations to compile unnecessary and useless reports.
Myth 3: The quality of education will greatly improve if the teacher submits reports.
Then she asked me to explain what it means to manage. I said - be able to command. And she says that this is where there is a big gap in my education.
Frank Herbert, Dune
In the work of teachers with EJ, deputy directors also try to preserve the rules they have invented and are accustomed to. For example, for the sake of high indicators in the annual report, they always require only satisfactory marks for the quarter and half of the year, and it does not matter whether they are objective or not. This requirement essentially turns the already limited five-point system three-point assessment, excludes negative results, the concept of “academic debt” ultimately discredits the system intermediate certification. And any failures of the children at independent diagnostics cause sincere bewilderment of the deputy director.
There is one more requirement: if the journal contains a “2”, then the next column must contain a satisfactory rating. Deputy directors call this “closing the deuce.” But every unsatisfactory grade is a result that both teacher and student need to work on. Does this really only take 1–2 days?
According to the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard, the system for assessing the achievement of educational results is an element of the main educational program, but to talk about effective system There is still no certification in schools.
Sometimes vice principals require teachers to reschedule a test in the middle of the year because another test is scheduled on that day. Although in fact, work planning should be carried out before the start of the school year and controlled by the deputy directors themselves. So maybe we should plan better?
Another requirement related to the “accumulation of marks” entails an increase in the number of tests that have nothing to do with thematic planning and completion of development training module.
Instead of organizing systematic work with students with learning difficulties and developing, together with the teacher, the necessary educational materials Deputy directors force teachers to call parents and inform them about the successes and failures of their children over the phone. You can imagine how much time parents and teachers spend on these negotiations if at the end of the quarter 5-8 teachers call the family! True, this is unlikely to have a significant impact on student results, especially at the end of the quarter or trimester.
One of the parameters for assessing the work of teachers by deputy directors remains the training of the class, which is measured as a percentage and calculated as the ratio of the number of students who received grades “4” and “5” during the current school period to the total number of children in the class. Productive work counts constant growth learning, although in reality this indicator may decrease depending on the complexity of the content of the training module or the transition to studying new disciplines. But questions of intensity and quality of development educational material need to plan...
Myth 4. The one who reports a lot works well.
How much life, full of ardor, passions and thoughts, looks at us from statistical tables!
I. Ilf and E. Petrov, “Twelve Chairs”
One of the teachers left an indignant comment on the forum with the question: “When will the reporting forms finally start working, since they must be submitted on December 25th?!” When asked who and what reports he plans to submit, the forum participant replied that he intends to submit regular reports by the end of the school period: “Report of the subject teacher (quality and performance in each class, presence of failing students, names of failing students). Report class teacher(number of excellent students, good students, poor students, children with one “3”, with one “4”, their last names). And this is the minimum that is required of us” (the author’s punctuation and style have been preserved).
Another user writes that standard reports in schools have not changed for 10 years: “There are also sophisticated reports: “the number of absences for each child in the class, how many of them were missed for a good reason,” “class teacher reports,” “student report card” ( trimesters only), “extract” (everything from the journal for all subjects with dates for one student for a specified period of time), report on “debts” (topics should be listed in the list), “lesson-by-hour analyzes of the subject,” “dynamics of the student, teacher ", report on the results of "class versus parallel" (author's punctuation and style preserved).
It is extremely interesting how such information presented by teachers in the form of reports is used? On average, a teacher teaches classes in grades 5–13. Accordingly, for each class he must complete reports that average at least 10 pages. It turns out that if 400 teachers work in a school, then the deputy director at the end of the school year, and sometimes every quarter, receives reports in the amount of more than 52,000 pages (!), which corresponds to the volume of 52 copies of L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and world".
It is difficult to imagine that one person can manage to read a text of such volume in 5 days. It is completely unclear why the class teacher submits similar reports if subject teachers have already submitted them for each class. Who needs such reports? Who works with them? And what management decisions are accepted based on the results of their analysis?
And one more question: to whom does the deputy director submit these reports as a result?..
In accordance with the EKS, the deputy head of an educational organization “coordinates the work<…>pedagogical and other workers, as well as the development of educational, methodological and other documentation necessary for the activities of an educational institution,” “monitors the quality of the educational (teaching and upbringing) process.”
Exactly these job responsibilities managers delegate to their deputies! But in reality, the minimum documentation necessary for the activities of an educational organization is being replaced by redundant reports. This prevents teachers from delivering high results and is extremely detrimental to quality educational process, taking away useful time.
The more time deputy directors demand to spend on reports, the less time is left for lessons, the lower educational results and the more reports substitutes demand from teachers, trying to justify their inaction. Vicious circle.
In accordance with the Procedure for Certification teaching staff the manager can conduct certification of an employee for compliance with the position held “in terms of performance labor responsibilities", which are approved in employment contract taking into account the EKS. How is a deputy director certified? “Reported by reports” submitted by teachers? There is no doubt that, while working In a similar way, deputy directors will hardly be able to pass certification! And one more thing: maybe these reports are re-read by the school director after the deputy?
Myth 5. The deputy director has the legal right to demand reports.
The system is very simple: never directly allow anything and never directly prohibit anything.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, “Well-Intentioned Speeches”
Neither in the Law “On Education in Russian Federation", nor are there any requirements for collecting reports in the standards.
Due to a large number issues related to the regulatory basis for maintaining teachers’ working documents and providing reports in educational organizations, in 2014 it was decided to conduct an analysis of those paper documents that teachers prepare in Moscow schools. 352 teachers and class teachers from 58 Moscow schools took part in the survey.
When asked what documents the deputy director of your school requires to keep, one of the capital’s teachers replied that every year he takes thematic and lesson planning, although the information has already been entered into the EZh. And at the end of the quarter the leader methodological unification again collects reports from teachers on test results and support for lagging children, although this will not affect student results in any way.
It should also be noted here that quite often problems with mastering one academic subject the child is associated with difficulties in learning other subjects. For example, for successful learning physics and chemistry will definitely be required good knowledge mathematics, and the development of algebra and geometry is influenced by the results of studying the Russian language. After all, for a solution word problem it is required not only to carefully read its terms, but also to understand what information is key and what the question that requires an answer is. So, maybe deputy directors should think about creating interdisciplinary associations of teachers for effective solution similar tasks?
Myth 6. All papers must be kept; by changing the date, you can report with them again.
- Well, you are rewriting the report! - Peresolin began. - Now it’s clear why you like to tinker with the report so much... What were you doing just now?
A.P. Chekhov, “Screw”
Other responsibilities of the Deputy Director are: ensuring “a level of training for students that meets the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard”.
What in practice? Each teacher is faced with the need to write a curriculum for a subject, coordinate it with the deputy director and approve it at the beginning of each school year. This requirement forces teachers to copy the same program texts year after year, re-approve them and store them in closets. But such programs are not a document helping teachers! Of course, it is difficult to imagine that the content of the program changes every year, but confirming the curriculum of academic subjects from year to year, unfortunately, has become a habit in many of our schools.
The law does not establish the obligation of teachers to develop every year new program academic subject, which is only part of the main educational program and is developed at the level of education.
The ESC also states that the deputy director must contribute “proposals for improving the educational process and management educational institution» . Of course, attending lessons, testing new ones educational technologies, introduction of new teaching aids Mutual visit sheets and an annual report on the work done will never replace!
The most a large number of Documents at the request of the deputy director have to be filled out by class teachers. In one school, the class teacher reported that he fills out 13 types of working documents:
"1. Class teacher's folder (class characteristics, social composition of the class, health card, records of attendance at clubs, courses, sections, information about parents).
2. Plan educational work by trimester (submitted to the head teacher for separate approval).
3. Analysis of absences for the entire class ( consolidated statement): due to illness, at the request of the parents.
4. Analysis of the work carried out with students who have absences without good reason, and their parents.
5. Analysis of student performance (by trimester).
6. Information about students with their distribution by level of training.
7. Information about students required for registration of participants in the Olympiads.
8. Information about students’ achievements over the past academic year(participation in competitions, olympiads, prizes both at school and in other organizations).
9. Protocols parent meetings.
10. Protocols of conversations with parents.
11. Documents for going on a tour of Moscow and beyond.
12. Documents for military training signed by a representative of the military registration and enlistment office.
13. Nutrition report."
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that currently there is not a single (!) operating normative act requiring the class teacher to fill out these documents! In accordance with current regulatory documents, the working documentation of the teacher and class teacher is:
Subject teacher documentation:
1. Electronic journal/diary (daily).
2. Documents within the framework of the main educational program (1 time per level of education with intermediate correction):
- working programm academic subject;
- number of hours for mastering an academic subject, course;
- schedule of intermediate certification;
- plan extracurricular activities;
- program correctional work.
3. Specialized instructions for working in high-risk rooms in accordance with the profile and in the case of managing this office (once every 5 years).
Class teacher documentation:
1. Personal files of students (once a year).
2. Work plan for the class teacher, including a plan for holding parent meetings (once a year).
Myth 7. If you report better, you get more.
Not everyone knows how to dance to the music of the future.
Stanislav Jerzy Lec
Deputy directors almost always require teachers to keep sheets of mutual attendance at lessons, but when they themselves come to a lesson of a novice specialist, they often limit themselves to verbal comments. Application for young teachers interactive whiteboard, electronic educational resources, remote technologies has long been an element of daily work, and for some deputy directors the main basis for lesson analysis is still their personal understanding of the “classical lesson”. Because of this, teachers still have to compile and store notes (or scripts) of lessons, indicating the stages of “posing a problem,” “communicating the topic of the lesson,” and “reflection.”
The deputy director has all the tools to monitor educational results; A lesson note is a teacher’s working tool, and he is not obliged to present it at the first request of the head teacher.
Moreover, some deputy directors try to perform functions that even the director cannot delegate to them! For example, they require mandatory completion of at least 2–3 school events during the holidays, filling out an additional schedule for the teacher’s employment during the holidays. Teachers are already accustomed to such schedules and indicate “ methodological work in the office,” the result of which is not measured by anything other than the hours spent writing reports. What is their role? Do they serve as levers of control or influence on the teaching staff?
Finally, another function that deputy directors perform outside of their competencies is keeping records of teachers' results to calculate the stimulating part of work. To do this, they require teachers to keep tables calculating 20–25 parameters: the number of participants in Olympiads, intellectual and creative competitions. Some of these parameters do not relate to the productivity of teachers at all: teacher participation in pedagogical competitions, completion of advanced training courses, duty, absence of failures, number of participants in school events and excursions, participants project activities, number of conducted open lessons. If the incentive part is paid monthly, then teachers have to waste time filling out such tables constantly.
Future reality
With the advent of the electronic journal, it is its administrator who manages the educational process with the help of IT systems. But for some reason the deputy managers think that he should also submit reports to them (print them out from the magazine). But to whom does the head teacher hand them over? No one!
None urban structure does not collect any reports from schools: neither the education department nor network institutions Department of Education, nor the department itself. Moreover, by creating the most difficult rating Moscow schools that showed high educational results, while organizing competitions for grants from the Mayor of Moscow in the field of education for achieving high results in educational activities and for achievements in creating a developmental environment, the department did not require any reports from anyone. The Department of Education services receive all the necessary data only from open sources .
To summarize what has been said, I would like to note: it is knowledge of the directions of development of the education system that regulatory documents and their powers, the ability to overcome stereotypes and make responsible decisions in the interests of students are the defining features of the deputy director - a true professional who carries out the management process in modern school.
It’s good that there are such deputy directors in our Moscow schools. They do not collect paper reports, they have high level IT competencies, able to analyze educational results and help teachers in their work. We see this in the indicators independent diagnostics And public reports managers on official websites educational organizations.
Or deputy heads will begin to use IT systems to manage the school and receive information from open sources, learn to plan the activities of teachers, work with teaching staff, or head teachers who fill cabinets with paper reports will no longer be needed.
Marianna LEBEDEVA, director of the City Methodological Center
Regulatory and organizational and methodological support for development higher education.
Formation of a network of educational institutions of higher education that is competitive at the national and global levels.
Development and updating of the Federal State Educational Standard and exemplary educational programs of higher education.
Implementation of measures to ensure accessibility of higher education for people with disabilities.
Regulatory legal support licensing and state accreditation educational activities, as well as the formation and maintenance of a register of organizations conducting professional and public accreditation.
Monitoring the activities of educational organizations of higher education.
Formation of volumes and structure check digits admission of citizens in accordance with industry and regional needs for personnel, establishment of quotas targeted reception citizens for training in the interests of enterprises.
Providing training for organizations of the military-industrial complex.
Ensuring admission to training foreign citizens at the expense of budgetary allocations from the federal budget.
Distribution between federal authorities state power and educational organizations of higher education quotas for scholarships of the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation. Appointment of scholarships from the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation, personalized scholarships students and graduate students.
Monitoring the employment of university graduates.
Implementation of priority projects “Universities as centers for creating an innovation space”, “Modern digital educational environment In Russian federation".
Universities as centers of innovation creation space
Implementation priority project“Universities as centers of innovation creation space” to support leading Russian universities and flagship universities - centers of innovation, technology and social development regions of the country.
Modern digital educational environment
Implementation of the priority project “Modern digital educational environment”. The project is aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of education in the Russian Federation through the use of online courses at all levels of education.
Key universities
Creation flagship universities as centers of intellectual attraction in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, ensuring the preservation and development of their intellectual potential.
Monitoring the activities of universities
Preparation of monitoring the activities of universities and their branches to reflect an objective picture of the work of universities, allowing decisions to be made on development strategies specific universities and networks of educational organizations in general.
Project 5-100
Increasing the competitiveness of leading universities of the Russian Federation in the global market educational services And research programs. By 2020, at least five Russian universities should be included in the top hundred of the world's leading universities according to world rankings.
Implementation of the “Global Education” program in order to support citizens of the Russian Federation who independently entered leading foreign universities, and creating conditions for their return to Russia upon completion of their studies.
Resource educational and methodological centers for training people with disabilities
Creation of resource educational and methodological centers for training people with disabilities on the basis of universities and promoting their employment.
Modernization teacher education
Implementation of a project to modernize teacher education, aimed at improving the quality of teacher training in accordance with professional standard teacher and federal government educational standards general education taking into account regional needs for teaching staff, as well as to receive practice-oriented training of specialists and networking educational organizations.
Highly qualified personnel for the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation
Implementation of departmental target program“Development of an integrated system for providing highly qualified personnel to organizations of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation in 2016-2020”, aimed at at in-depth training of target students for the needs of specific enterprises of the military-industrial complex.
Monitoring the employment of university graduates
Monitoring the employment of university graduates, allowing for adjustments to be made to the distribution budget places admission to universities taking into account the needs of the real sector of the economy and determining the most popular specialties and areas of training.
Oleg Goryunov, "Novye Izvestia"
Vladimir Kovshov, the former director of school No. 1133, accused the deputy director of the Department of Education Igor Pavlov of trying to “hide from the public and law enforcement agencies misuse government subsidy possibly serving as misappropriation Money a group of persons with a visible corruption component.”
The piquancy of the situation is that until recently Pavlov’s accuser, Kovshov, was still a subordinate of Igor Sergeevich. In 2016, to the then director of school No. 1133 Kovshov from parents and teaching staff There were accusations of delayed salaries, disruption of the usual educational process, etc....
“Novye Izvestia” then dedicated four publications to school No. 1133 (“To school - after a scandal”, “Sit down before you fire!”, “School of discord at number 1133”, “After parent protests, the director was replaced at Moscow school 1133”) .
After some time, in the official responses of the Moscow Department of Education, three dates and reasons for the dismissal of Vladimir Kovshov immediately appeared.
The solution to the mystery of the dismissal has only now been revealed - after the trial, which took place the day before in the Khoroshevsky Court of Moscow. Vladimir Kovshov agreed to an interview with NI for the first time and sent us his statement of claim.
The defendant in this trial is the Metropolitan Department of Education. Claim former director typical for modern Russia– the employer did not pay all the money upon dismissal.
But that’s not what’s interesting, although the amount in this case considerable - 447 thousand rubles - this is three salaries of the school director.
A former ardent opponent of Kovshov is a social studies teacher at school No. 1133 Oleg Norinsky, who attended yesterday’s court hearing, now supports his “sworn friend.”
“He will win this trial, and I will be happy for him. This will confirm that the Moscow Department of Education is working disgracefully. The department quietly dismisses, in the hope that Kovshov will be silent like a mouse, and for this he will receive next job, but he did not remain silent,” says Norinsky.
It turns out that Vladimir Kovshov, who worked at school No. 1133 for only two months, found that in the last 1.5 years before he took this job, “the total budget deficit of school No. 1133 as of January 1, 2017. approximately 33 million rubles” (this is a quote from his statement of claim).
At the same time... “The position of DOGM (Department of Education - editor’s note) represented by I.S. Pavlov. , obviously, did not set itself the task of understanding the causes and consequences of the offenses, but was a desire to close the topic, fire the director and hide from the public, the Moscow Government and law enforcement agencies the misuse of a state subsidy, possibly serving the misappropriation of funds by a group of people with a visible corruption component "
Why did Kovshov talk about all this only after his dismissal? Why didn't he immediately contact law enforcement agencies? It turns out that in the employment contract that school directors conclude with the Department of Education, there is a most curious “fad”.
“We have a certain norm of the employment contract - this is the obligation not to act before law enforcement agencies with an independent initiative; every director has this norm in the employment contract. You must first contact your leadership, and that’s what I did. I have all the papers addressed to Pavlov in the archives,” says Kovshov.
“The previous leadership overestimated the government subsidy. Overestimated by 10 million rubles! That is, the state gave more than it was supposed to. But this is not a crime - it is a financial violation. If extra money is allocated, you return everything to the budget. But this is bad - this suggests that when the Founder accepted this state task, he, too, should have checked it properly,” says Kovshov.
His former colleague Oleg Norinsky speaks more specifically about this “oversight” of the Moscow Department of Education:
“If you didn’t notice, you are either a fool or a scoundrel. Therefore, the Department of Education either does not know what is happening in the institution under its jurisdiction, or is hiding it.”
Kovshov is also surprised at how total more than 30 million rubles were wasted at school No. 1133, and no one noticed it.
“This amount of my claim cannot be compared with the amount that for many years was simply written off without any reason, without any local acts, and went to no one knows where. These funds specifically went to the accounts individuals without reason,” said Vladimir Lvovich. “In fact, for a year and a half, the accounting department worked as it wanted, using electronic signature previous managers, these amounts were written off, 300, 600 thousand each. They (the accounting department employees – editor’s note) were already 60 years old, so to speak, of retirement age, yet they repeatedly wrote out maternity leave for themselves, without any orders, and so on.”
Well, you must agree - maternity leave at 60 years old is rare! It’s interesting, but SFK (service financial control) the Department of Education doesn’t think so?
Now, after his dismissal, when Kovshov’s “hands are free,” he filed an application for financial irregularities to law enforcement agencies. The logic in his actions is simple - they didn’t want to deal with embezzlement issues in the Department of Education, let the investigators deal with it now.
Everything seems to be correct, but here’s an interesting detail: yesterday was the third court hearing. That is, accusations against the Department of Education and personally against Deputy Head Kalina I.I. – Pavlov Igor Sergeevich sounded a long time ago. But... nothing has been heard about a counterclaim for PROTECTION OF HONOR AND DIGNITY from either Pavlov or the Department of Education. Why?
We contacted the press service of this department with a proposal to comment on the scandalous situation; the author of this article even called Pavlov himself. The press service promises to give an official answer in the coming days.
“They – the heads of the Department of Education, people who know the real situation – should not think about how to save money on paying compensation to Kovshov, the manager whom they fired as part of the agreement they concluded, that is, to act according to the right and according to the law, they you need to think about how to return this written-off money, which amounts to tens of millions of rubles. This is real state damage,” says Kovshov.
It's hard to disagree with this. By the way, Oleg Norinsky also now “understands nothing” about the actions of a reputable department.
“The department is completely ugly and works inaccurately. The department took a new position - not to reduce the amount of payment, but not to pay anything at all, accusing Kovshov of some violations. But why is nothing said about these violations in the order of his dismissal? Violations should be recorded - a reprimand or something else, but there are no penalties yet. They wanted to fire him, but who stopped him from issuing a reprimand the day before the dismissal? Make any penalty, any? It automatically deprives the dismissed person of the right to compensation in the amount of three months’ salary. This is understandable - you don’t want to wash your dirty linen in public,” says Norinsky.
The next one should take place on March 20 trial. The scandal in the capital's education system is gaining momentum.