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As we strive for greater equality, Black History Month provides a national opportunity to educate Americans on how the contributions of black people have shaped our country as we know it today. It is a time to highlight the intellect, ingenuity, feats, and firsts that define the eminence of Black History.

When I ponder Black History from the lens of an educator, names such as Thurgood Marshall and Oliver Brown come to mind. The image of six-year-old Ruby Bridges floods my mind’s eye. My thoughts harken to Marian Wright Edelman and her lifelong work for children’s rights as feverishly as they do to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his enduring fight for civil rights. I think of the thousands of nameless, faceless heroes who took their very lives in their hands to teach black boys and girls to read and write.

The work of these education stalwarts cannot be disconnected from the education inequality that continues to exist in America. According to information provided by Equal Opportunity Schools, students of color and low-income students are consistently and systematically under-enrolled in the most academically intense high school courses. The vast majority of Advance Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs (99 percent of those in diverse high schools) do not yet provide equal access. More than three-quarters of a million students in U.S. high schools are qualified for but are missing from AP and IB classes. These students are disproportionately students of color and/or low-income students.

So even as Black History Month ushers in an opportunity to celebrate the courage, achievements, and milestones of African Americans, we cannot lose sight of the challenges still before us – not for a month, not for a day. We must shift our understanding of Black History from just 28 days a year to Black History 365. In doing so, we should support the efforts of modern-day education heroes and sheroes working every day to close the gap. In doing so, we are reminded that discrimination and bigotry are not limited to a single race. Instead, we must be committed to come together resiliently as Americans, regardless of our race or ethnicity, united against the common experiences of systemic racism.

“Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” – John Lewis

For the first time since January 2020, I had an opportunity to spend some quality time in New Orleans, LA with friends and colleagues from The Broad Center network. It was a rich professional learning experience engaging Broad alumni from a nationwide community of graduates from The Broad Academy (TBA), The Broad Residency Program (TBR), and The Broad Fellowship for Education Leaders (TBFEL).

Created with a $100 million gift from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, The Broad Center at Yale School of Management develops and supports transformational education leaders in urban K-12 public schools, conducts knowledge-sharing research opportunities on effective school system leadership, and informs the policy debate, all of which is devoted to strengthening public school systems to help students learn and thrive, particularly those from underserved communities.

As part of my post-doctorate studies and preparation for the superintendency, I completed the rigorous 10-month Broad Superintendents Academy (TBA, 2007). My experiences in the program and follow on support received had a profound impact on my readiness to serve as a school system leader at the district and state education agency levels in Massachusetts and beyond.

“The Broad Center at Yale School of Management will have a transformative impact on the lives of the millions of young people who rely upon the public education system for the high-quality, effective schooling that society owes them” — Kerwin Charles, Dean, Yale School of Management.

As we celebrate the national holiday, life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I’m reminded that it was the 18 year old Morehouse College senior who when describing the purpose of education said, we must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education. As a young man, Dr. King challenged both black and white in their pursuits of power and success by means of education.

Recently, I had an opportunity to participate in the 2023 Metropolitan Community College (MCC) Chancellor’s Scholarship Luncheon in Kansas City, MO, a 108 year old institution with a story of progress. The luncheon honored five MCC students, featured Donna Brazile (political strategist, author, professor, and news host) as the keynote speaker, and also recognized the 2023 Alvin Brooks Kansas Citian Inspiration Award Recipient. Brazile’s remarks in part, touched on education as her passport to success and paying it forward. Nationally, community colleges play a critical role in workforce development through academic programming and skills training to prepare students for jobs or transfer to four-year colleges.

I ended this week in Columbus, OH supporting the work of Columbus City Schools and their District Partnership Team (DPT) in furtherance of the Wallace Foundation Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative Grant. The 5-year grant strives to advance the district’s own vision of equity, strategize on what equity-centered leaders need to know and be able to do. The DPT is comprised of interim superintendent, Dr. Angela Chapman and members of her leadership team, university partners from The Ohio State University and Ashland University, and representatives from the Ohio Department of Education, along with Wallace researchers. Ultimately, the findings of this work will lead to a series of independent research studies to generate useful insights for the field and a direct benefit to the district.

Additionally, while in Columbus we had an opportunity to spend some time visiting two schools: Northland High School, led by Dr. Jason Johnston and Ecole Kenwood French Immersion Elementary School, led by principal Emma Corbin. Both school leaders were veteran principals, relentlessly focused on improving teaching and learning, held high expectations for students and staff, leveraged professional learning for teachers, cultivated a wide range of school partnerships to provide rich learning opportunities for students, created a positive school culture, and were diligent in terms of self-evaluation and data analysis with clear strategies for continuous improvement.

Now more than ever, let us renew our commitment to the power of education so that as advocates, educators, or school system leaders we can ensure our schools and districts are ready, responsive, and resolute in meeting the unique needs of all learners.

Superintendent Eric Gordon with 1st grade students from Bolton PK-8 School at CMSD Headquarters

“Every ending is a beginning. We just don’t know it at the time” — Mitch Albom. Earlier this week I wrapped up some consultancy work with a national initiative funded with support from the Wallace Foundation. Ohio was one of eleven states participating in this initiative and one of the states I was fortunate to support.

The project in Ohio involved a network of school systems in Northeast, Ohio (Akron Public Schools, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cleveland State University, East Cleveland City School District, Lorain City School District, Maple Heights City School District), their Urban League affiliate and community partners, along with representatives from the Ohio Department of Education. The network, known as the Ohio ESSA Leadership Learning Community (ELLC) team, convened for six years with the overarching goal of building the capacity of education leaders to implement supports and interventions to turn around schools most in need of improvement.

During the last six years, the Ohio ELLC team convened recurring meetings to engage in strategies to improve educational leadership practice, networking, participating in coordinated professional learning experiences including site visits to high performing public-school districts across the nation, and accessing the latest research findings to support Social and Emotional Learning and identifying evidence-based interventions in addressing the unique needs of high needs districts.

Our final meeting time together in Cleveland, OH gave the team a chance to reflect on and discuss key accomplishments, lessons learned, and next steps as the national ELLC initiative ends. A final report by Policy Studies Associates synthesizing and documenting the work of the Ohio ELLC team is forthcoming and will be shared more broadly as the lessons learned from this initiative can be applied universally to any learning community.

As part of this trip, I also got to say farewell to a good friend and a champion of the Ohio ELLC team’s work throughout the last six years, Eric Gordon, Superintendent of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). CMSD hosted our final meeting and Eric has served admirably as the district’s Superintendent since 2011 (a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself). He previously announced he’s leaving CMSD of his own accord at the end of this school year.

Eric has received numerous awards and national recognition during his tenure, but one of the things he’s known for is spending time with students engaging in school activities across the community. While in Cleveland this week, we got to observe Eric enthusiastically read to a group of 1st graders and decorate the Christmas tree with students at CMSD Headquarters. I don’t know who had more fun, Eric or the students. Spending time with students and in schools is a great reminder of the importance of public education.

Happy holidays and best wishes to all for an enjoyable holiday break that hopefully provides a respite for educators and support staff alike to rest, relax, reflect, and recharge in preparation for a successful and safe second semester to the school year.

Recently, a good friend and professional colleague invited me to take the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). I have always believed in taking advantage of self-assessment tools as a way to help triangulate my leadership strengths and opportunities for improvement. More specifically, being attuned to minimize blind spots, defined by Robert Bruce Shaw, author of Leadership Blindspots (2014) as unrecognized weaknesses or threats that can hinder a leader’s success. Shaw says weaknesses we know about are not likely to derail us, but that the weaknesses we don’t know can be dangerous.

The MBTI is a personality type indicator and as an introspective self-report questionnaire, can help us to understand differences in how we perceive the world, make decisions along with insights into our approach to work and life.  The inventory asks a series of questions to determine individual differences in terms of four personality dichotomies. Each dichotomy consists of two distinct and opposing styles: Extraversion versus Introversion (focused attention), Sensing or Intuition (how we take in or interpret information), Thinking or Feeling (decision-making), and Judging or Perceiving (how we deal with the outside world and external input).

In MBTI, 16 personality types are characterized in terms of four-letter codes, like ESTJ or INFP. Each of the four letters signifies a key aspect of an individual’s personality. The results of the self-report identified my Personality Type as: ENFJ-A (Assertive Protagonist), Role: Diplomat, and Strategy: People Mastery.

Protagonists are described as warm and forthright people who have strong ideas and values and love helping others. Protagonists often feel they are meant to live for a higher purpose. They are romantic and creative, and they rarely, if ever, shy away from an opportunity to do the right thing. They find fulfillment in following their dreams, helping others, and paving the way for others to follow. Protagonists are natural-born leaders who are never happier than when they are inspiring people. Diplomats are known to be passionately idealistic, empathetic, and diplomatic.

Conversely, many protagonists unrealistically put pressure on themselves to right every wrong they encounter. If not careful, protagonists can spread themselves too thin. Protagonists are rarely short on energy or determination and at times may not recognize that not everyone shares similar qualities and as such, may push others to make changes they are not ready for (or willing to make). Protagonists also tend to take on other people’s problems as their own which is a habit that can leave them emotionally and physically exhausted.

MBTI is a starting point and not an end-all-be-all to understanding ourselves and others. Like any tool there is always the chance for misapplication. I would urge some caution in overgeneralizing its use as it cannot predict performance or happiness, and personalities are not static. Furthermore, all personality types have value and there is no best type. Regardless of our personality types, in light of today’s divisive challenges, the organizations we serve and the world, needs us to lead like never before.

“I have a dream this afternoon that the brotherhood of man will become a reality in this day. And with this faith, I will go out and carve a tunnel of hope through the mountain of despair. With this faith, I will go out with you and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wishing all educators who are returning to schools, organizations, and systems for the new school year best wishes for success, as you help to build the nation’s future through our students.

The National Summer Learning Week (July 11-15) is a celebration dedicated to advocacy and awareness in elevating the importance of keeping kids learning to ensure they return ready to succeed in the new school year.

During the summers our most vulnerable students typically lose ground compared to their more affluent peers. Traditional summer school, in too many settings, tends to overly focus on credit recovery (grade replacement) and remediation, and for far too few, acceleration and/or enrichment.

But these days, summer is more so embraced as an opportunity for academic enrichment and exploration for all. I’ve noticed that each year, more school districts offer summer programming that provides opportunities for students of all academic abilities so that students who excel in the classroom are supported just as much as those who need extra help over the summer. When every school in a school district provides summer learning opportunities that include enrichment or advanced curriculum opportunities, every student wins.

The summer also provides an excellent opportunity for schools to engage families and community organizations as partners in education. With little effort, schools can help parents identify summer learning opportunities. Schools can create a clearing house of information posted on their website or social media page that helps keep families informed of free events taking place in local communities like skill building, amazing arts, or wellness, for example.

Schools can refer families to their neighborhood library’s summer reading club or organize their own school summer book club, creating an opportunity for students to take charge and choose the featured book of the week or month. Educators can pool their resources and compile a list of online tools available for parents to help mitigate the summer slide. A quick check-in with families via a phone call informing them of the availability of all of these resources with instructions on how to access the resource page the school has created will also help foster positive communication between schools and families before the first day of school.

Schools do not and should not shoulder the responsibility of summer learning opportunities in a vacuum. Increasingly, school districts are beginning to partner with community organizations to provide programming that serves a wide variety of student interests in ways that that are fun and hands-on. For example, imagine the joy experienced by a kid whose summer exploits include participation in summer camp, horseback riding, or a kayaking adventure.

The National Summer Learning Association’s (NSLA) Discover Summer offers a search tool to provide families with easier access to summer programming (in-person and virtual) for their respective communities at Discover Summer | InPlay.org. Connection with community organizations is also a great way to ensure summer enrichment opportunities for students are inclusive and/or focus specific.  A final example of powerful summer learning collaboration is the partnership with the NBA Foundation, NSLA welcomed its inaugural Class of 2022 with 10 young leaders who are alumni of their respective partner programs and participating in a summer policy internship working on Capitol Hill.

As we all bask in the relative ease of summer, there is still much we can do as public school educators to help ensure that our students continue to participate in enriching, fun, and educational opportunities that can help minimize the summer slide and expand the their potential for success.

Photo credit: Posse Foundation

If we are to realize the sweeping changes we wish to see with regards to equitable educational outcomes for all students, we must think boldly, innovatively, and reasonably.  Many well-meaning education supporters who offer intervention, support, or resources earnestly believe they are doing just that. But the truth is, many times we miss the mark.

The formula for hitting the bullseye is not complicated, and it was affirming to me as I read a recent article by Ron Claiborne entitled “I never would have dropped out if I’d had my posse with me.” The program featured in this article is brilliant and I will get into that shortly, but there was something else in this article that impressed me as much as the program itself. “That remark from a college drop-out inspired the Posse Foundation’s innovative program that has sent thousands of young people to college in supportive and multicultural groups of ten. More than 90 percent graduate.”

As education leaders, we sometimes fall victim to imposing our own ideas on schools and students based on what we think they need. This innovative, bold program was born of something different. It was spawned by a desire to meet students where they say they are. Or to put it more simply, by hearing student voices and truly listening to what they are saying.

Under the Posse Foundation (www.possefoundation.org), 820 young women and men—the freshman Class of 2026—will be attending 60 top-tier colleges and universities in the fall, as part of a peer group who will have gotten to know one another in training sessions, team-building exercises, and workshops since January. Fifty seven percent of this year’s Posse will be the first in their family to graduate College.

In the article (Second Acts | Meta Bulletin), Claiborne summarizes an interview he had with CEO Deborah Bial, the Posse Foundation founder. In response to a question along the lines of how she came up with this idea, Bial said she was working at a youth organization in downtown, in New York City, with all these great kids, running workshops after school at Curtis High School on Staten Island and the Manhattan Center for Science and Math in East Harlem. She noted that the kids were just super smart and super talented (but) a lot of them were going to college and dropping out.

That was more than 30 years ago. Since then, Posse scholars have earned their bachelor’s degrees at amazingly higher rates (90 percent) than the national average of a little over 60 percent of all students who graduate within six years of starting college, and they are well prepared and positioned for success.

Not only do the majority of Posse scholars successfully navigate college to graduation; most of them are actively engaged in the college experience as leaders taking on roles such as student body presidents, and founders of college clubs and organizations.

Today, the Posse Foundation is one of the most comprehensive programs of its kind nationally. Students are selected in December of their senior year of high school through a unique evaluation method based on demonstrated leadership. In January, they begin an eight-month pre-college training where they attend weekly after-school workshops. The foundation creates a four-year plan for each student, which includes mentoring, group meetings, coaching, advising, and even retreats (and alumni connections).

The success of these diverse students speaks to the power of community and working together with the nation’s top institutions of higher education. Through mentoring and full-tuition scholarships, Posse is building a powerful network of new leaders who are ready to make a difference.

Photo credit: Posse Foundation

According to the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, from 2012 to the present there have been 540 school shooting incidents nationwide that resulted in at least one person killed or wounded. We’ve sunken into a deep dark well when the answer to school shootings becomes a victim of political debate. The Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas continues to shake the nation and the ongoing debate over the availability of assault rifles continues to showcase the fragility of America’s democracy.

The nation had not yet fully grieved the loss of 10 innocent lives in the racially motivated marketplace shooting in Buffalo, New York when a second assault weapon wielding assailant tragically murdered 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas two days before summer vacation was set to begin.

The right and expectation to return home from the grocery store and to hug your children when they run through the door after school is not a partisan issue. It is a normal, run-of-the-mill expectation in most nations. But we’ve reached a time and place in America where schools and shopping markets become heinous crime scenes in the blink of an eye. Each day 12 children die from gun violence in America and another 32 are shot or injured (New England Journal of Medicine).

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy put into words the helplessness felt by many Americans over gun violence. “What are we doing?” he begged of his colleagues in congress. A Democrat, Murphy said he would “bend over backwards” to reach a gun rights compromise with Republicans that would lessen the likelihood of assault-weapon driven massacres from occurring. “I want to show this country that we care,” he said.

For the men and women entrusted to care for students every day, school safety is not a political issue. It is a matter of life and death, and their role as educators has never been more important. It was Maximilien Robespierre, a lawyer, statesman, and key figure in the French Revolution who said: “The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”  So, amid the debate swirling around us as educators, despite the gripping fear school shootings fuel, educators persist.

They persist because they know the answer to the problem may be the student sitting before them today. They persist because they know intelligence must overtake ignorance.  They persist because they are teachers at heart. Thank God they do because the fragility of our democracy calls for strength. Strength to pull us out of the deep dark well that we have sunken into, the strength found every day in our schools, and in everyday people. Yet, educators alone cannot fix the problem of gun violence.

As a democratic society, it is in our national interest to demand a policy response from elected leaders (and policy makers) to put children and communities first and commit to actions that reduce gun violence in schools.

Arelis Guerrero, Senior Applications Engineer, TI, Mel McCoy, HRBP, TI, Rahland Gordon, Product Marketing Engineer, TI, and Betty Paugh-Ortiz, NCCEP VP of Programs and Partnerships

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend some time working in Akron, OH with a group of district superintendents and members of their respective leadership teams from northeast Ohio. The Ohio network is a part of the ESSA Leadership Learning Community (ELLC), a national project of the Wallace Foundation.  The network provides an opportunity for state teams to learn from one another in a shared learning environment focused on equity, leadership, and sustainable school improvement. This was the network’s first in-person meeting in two years due to the COVID pandemic.

We spent the day in Akron Public Schools hosted by Superintendent Christine Fowler-Mack and her outstanding team (including students and community pathway partners) learning about the districtwide implementation of College and Career Academies. The foundation of Akron’s College and Career Academies is small learning communities, thematic learning, and strong industry sector partnerships to help design and provide real world experiences for all learners. The district’s first graduating class of this initiative will be this school year (2021-22). Here’s a 3-minute video clip of the College & Career Academies of Akron Overview – YouTube.

At the heart of this initiative are workplace learning opportunities (e.g., job shadowing and internships) integrated with academic course work to leverage student interest and improve academic achievement, student attendance, and graduation rates. One of the highlights from our discussion of this transformational work was the district’s expansion to their vision of a “Portrait of a Graduate” to include a “Portrait of an Elementary Scholar” that focuses on readiness for middle school. Part of the day included a panel with a principal, teachers, and students; notably, the elementary students could see themselves in Elementary scholar vision and articulate its relevance to their lives.

The collaborative community approach in Akron around College and Career Academies has been galvanizing to help strengthen the talent pipeline; better prepare students for college, careers, lifelong learning, and leadership; and address educational equity. As a part of the district’s College and Career Academies work, Akron Public Schools is striving to become a demonstration site as part of their partnership with the Ford Next Generation Learning network.

I also traveled to Dallas, TX recently to work with the National Council for Community and Educational Partnerships (NCCEP) and Texas Instruments (TI). NCCEP is a national non-profit dedicated to building the capacity of communities by bringing together colleges and universities with K-12 schools, foundations, and corporations among other constituencies, so that underserved students have the opportunity, skills, and knowledge to successfully pursue education and training to achieve their career and life goals.

NCCEP serves as the umbrella organization to support a federally funded college access initiative known as the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP).  A part of NCCEP’s programming is the District Leadership Institute (DLI) that I co-facilitate, a 10-month cohort learning model to increase the capacity of GEAR UP practitioners, college access professionals, and district leaders. The NCCEP and TI partnership has been so meaningful on many levels over several years. A high point in the final DLI session for the 2021-22 Cohort was in learning about STEM careers at TI through the life experiences of three young aspiring engineers. All three panelists did an outstanding job in representing TI and in sharing their inspiring leadership journey.

“A mind that is stretched by new experiences can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.