After nine classes of Leaders To Learn From, previous award-winners have gone on to helm some of the biggest school systems in the United States and to win state and national accolades. Even so, many say that the best benefit of the program was getting to learn from their fellow honorees.
The job of an educational leader鈥攑art people manager, part vision-setter, part cheerleader鈥攃an be taxing and lonely in the best of times. It has been especially so over the past few years with the pandemic. Past Leaders say that the connections they鈥檝e made through the award have helped them develop new ways to innovate and provided necessary moral support.
鈥淵ou really can get in a place in which you can鈥檛 see what could be different than it already is in your own operation,鈥� said Joanna Burt-Kinderman, a districtwide math coach in the Pocahontas school district in West Virginia and a 2019 honoree. 鈥淚 really appreciate being able to just ping ideas off of them and share when I鈥檓 bummed,鈥� she said of some of her cohort members.
Brainstorming and troubleshooting new initiatives with district leaders who have implemented something similar delivers insight that鈥檚 鈥渘ot necessarily taught within the walls of any university,鈥� said Tiffany Anderson, the superintendent of the Topeka public schools in Kansas and a 2015 awardee.
鈥淭his is practical application, boots-on-the-ground work,鈥� she said.
鈥楽ystems Don鈥檛 Create Themselves鈥� : Tiffany Anderson, Lenny Schad, and Terry Grier
Education Week spoke with award winners from past Leaders cohorts about why these relationships are invaluable鈥攅specially now.
No matter how big or small a district is, it runs on systems: plans for who鈥檚 in charge of getting what done and when. Designing good systems is hard. Getting them to run well is even harder.
That鈥檚 why Anderson says that learning about other districts鈥� successes and challenges can be so powerful. 鈥淪ystems don鈥檛 create themselves,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey come from many people on your team gaining information.鈥�
For Anderson, who was recognized for her work with students experiencing poverty as then-superintendent of the Jennings school district in Missouri, the Leaders To Learn From event and conference presented an opportunity to create a new network with fellow honorees Terry Grier and Lenny Schad, the then-superintendent and then-chief technology information officer in the Houston Independent school district.
Talking with them about lessons learned from the rollout of Houston鈥檚 1-to-1 computer program鈥攍ike how to build teacher buy-in, plan in phases, and provide support like workshops and student technology assistance鈥攈elped Anderson shape tech strategies in her district.
Schad, now the chief information and innovation officer at District Administration magazine, remembers the message he always stressed in conversations with other districts: 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 an IT initiative, and it鈥檚 not about the device.鈥�
鈥淭he easiest part of these initiatives is the tech. Where we really spent a lot of time was that collaboration with curriculum and instruction,鈥� he said. Schad would talk with other district leaders about the cross-departmental structure of the 1-to-1 program and the training鈥攆or teachers and for families鈥攖hat extended far beyond the integration of devices into classrooms.
鈥淭he lessons that we鈥檝e taught people [from] Houston is not to try to eat the apple at one time,鈥� Grier said. That applies in a sprawling district like Houston, but in small districts, too, he added.
Anderson鈥檚 also been on the other end of these kinds of collaborations, providing support and guidance to other districts that found Jennings through the Leaders profile.
鈥淎fter Leaders To Learn From, there was enough interest nationally that we began inviting people to visit our Hope House,鈥� she said, referencing the foster home the district runs. She and Jennings鈥� staff took groups on tours, detailing the systems they had created to support the whole child and invite parental involvement.
Even now, in Topeka, Anderson said she has had several teachers and at least one principal apply to work in the district after learning about her work through the Leaders profile. And she encourages her staff to study what new classes of honorees are doing and apply the strategies to their own schools.
鈥淚 think, collegially, superintendents and principals and teachers, we are each other鈥檚 best allies,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淎nd we are also鈥攖o me anyway鈥攁mbassadors of hope in showing what鈥檚 possible.鈥�
Building a Community Of 鈥楧isruptors鈥� : Joanna Burt-Kinderman, Shomari Jones, and Angela Ward
Other honorees said the relationships they formed with each other helped them explore new angles of their own work. Joanna Burt-Kinderman, Shomari Jones, and Angela Ward鈥攁ll featured as 2019 Leaders To Learn From鈥攈ave kept in touch over the past few years.
Ward, who was recognized for her work as the supervisor of race and equity programs in Texas鈥� Austin Independent School District, is now the chief program officer at Transforming Education, a nonprofit that partners with districts on social-emotional learning initiatives. She also runs an equity consulting firm. Jones, selected as a Leader for focusing on closing opportunity gaps, continues to lead equity and strategic engagement in the Bellevue school district in Washington state.
Burt-Kinderman, who was recognized for leadership in math instruction, knows that her work looks pretty different from that of Jones and Ward. But she sees a through line: All three Leaders are focused on people whom existing systems don鈥檛 serve well. In her predominately white, rural district, many of her students are from low-income families.
There鈥檚 a commonality in their work, focused on justice for the kids they鈥檙e working for, said Jones, in a conversation with Burt-Kinderman, Ward, and Education Week.
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 鈥� a real need for partnership and support to one another when you鈥檙e trying to do that work, which fundamentally rocks boats and doesn鈥檛 always make friends,鈥� Burt-Kinderman said.
All three 糖心动漫vlog have relied on each other for moral support when they鈥檝e faced pushback to equity initiatives, they added.
鈥淓veryone in that group of Leaders To Learn From, we鈥檙e all disruptors for the most part 鈥� and we each had our own way of kind of chipping away at the system,鈥� Ward said. 鈥淏ut recognizing that the system is very resilient, and it easily puts itself back into that position to maintain the status quo, 鈥� I knew I could text the two of them and share things that I was dealing with, and no, I wasn鈥檛 crazy. They would validate: 鈥榊eah, it鈥檚 happening.鈥欌��
I think there's 鈥� a real need for partnership and support to one another when you're trying to do that work, which fundamentally rocks boats, and doesn't always make friends.
But just about a year after they met, the pandemic started to shut down schools across the country. Plans for future collaborations鈥攊ncluding a visit from Jones to Burt-Kinderman鈥檚 district in West Virginia鈥攚ere put on hold indefinitely. And all three 糖心动漫vlog had to shift their focus to confront the immense new challenges facing their school systems, as well as the strain on their own lives.
鈥淚 think I lost my center in COVID,鈥� Burt-Kinderman said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e talking about a hierarchy of needs, and I鈥檓 a mom, I really can鈥檛 think about systems change if I鈥檓 not sure my baby鈥檚 safe. So, I shut down a little bit during this time and had to kind of trudge along into relearning things that I know how to do really well.鈥�
Instead of focusing solely on improving math education, Burt-Kinderman had new challenges鈥攍ike figuring out how to get kindergartners to press *6 on Zoom, so they could take themselves off mute and talk to their teachers. In Austin, Ward was taking on cafeteria duty, wiping down tables, and reminding students to pull up their masks. All three were checking in with staff and families daily to support them and solve problems.
Now, the Leaders said, they鈥檙e emerging from crisis mode to confront an even greater challenge: imagining what equity might look like in a post-COVID world.
Amid the pandemic, and going forward, it鈥檚 more important than ever to find ways to make staff, students, and families feel like 鈥渨hole humans,鈥� Ward said. COVID has hit marginalized communities the hardest, and their needs have to be at the center of recovery efforts, she said.
鈥淭here was great hope that the systems now being disrupted would transform when rebuilt or reestablished to be the systems that our students need them to be. And they didn鈥檛 return in such a way,鈥� said Jones. 鈥淢y question is: What鈥檚 our responsibility there? And what impact can we make to continue to push for and push toward that change?鈥�
Burt-Kinderman says she knows one thing will be critical to answering that question: keeping connected with colleagues like her fellow Leaders who share a commitment to equity.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to take brave solutions, folks willing to fail and be humble enough to learn, and bold enough to try things that are really outside the box,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd that requires fuel, fellowship, and some fun and a sense of humor.鈥�
