One glaring problem was a disproportionate suspension rate for students in certain ethnic groups. “It was heart-wrenching to hear that in a district that I love and consider my home—I’ve been here for 25 years—that in many ways [students] felt invisible,” Dent laments.

Compounding the challenge was that the district began its equity work at a time of heightened political divisiveness and resistance from some corners of the community to promoting inclusivity in all school operations. “We were making sure every student felt valued… by celebrating culture, by having different languages present, so students can walk down hallways and see themselves,” says Dent, Washington’s Superintendent of the Year for 2024.

More from DA: Districts charge into 2024 with a diverse group of new leaders

The results of these efforts were a drop in those problematic suspensions and a significant increase in graduation rates for Hispanic students.

Along the way, a new administrator was hired to ensure equal access for all learners and students formed the district’s first Black student union. The district’s school board, which was also recognized as tops in the state this year, has passed the first policy to explicitly prohibit racist behavior.

“It’s been exciting to see these students feel more empowered in their buildings, feel like they have a voice,” notes Dent, who has been Sumner-Bonney Lake’s leader since 2016. “It makes my heart so happy that students are coming together to share their experiences, and they feel safe doing it.

“We finally made it safe to talk about race in this district,” she adds.

Feeling safe, seeking help

Still, student mental health is one thing that keeps Dent up at night. She hopes Sumner-Bonney Lake is easing the challenge with its DEI work and by hiring more diverse staff members. Dent has placed five counselors at each high school and provided them with intensive training in trauma-informed practices.

She has also expanded teletherapy, hosted a mental health night specifically for student-athletes and their families, and hired a coordinator to oversee Sumner-Boney Lake’s whole-child initiatives. “When kids feel safe at school, they’re going to be more willing to reach out for help,” she attests.

Sumner-Bonney Lake’s students have been academically resilient, as evidenced by rising test scores. But from the pandemic to the constant thrum of social media to various external pressures, there appear to be many causes for the increased levels of anxiety and depression students are experiencing, Dent suspects.

“It’s kids feeling connected and forging that sense of connection again, even with relationships—like ‘It’s OK to look at somebody and talk to them, you don’t have to just text them,'” she concludes. “I don’t know what toll technology is taking on them.”

The post “It makes my heart happy”: Celebrating culture creates safe spaces appeared first on District Administration.

“It feels like we are united as a community more so than we ever have been,” says Rodrequez, who has led the district for eight years and was named Missouri’s 2024 Superintendent of the Year. “It’s bringing us all together around a common purpose and a common understanding … in a way that maybe we didn’t have before.”

The school rebranding process began with “a lot of conversations with a lot of people,” he points out. From staff to families and beyond, stakeholders were asked about what distinguished Grandview C-4 schools and where the district was excelling.

More from DA: School-within-a-school uses PBL to help students make a big move

“There wasn’t a unified answer—everybody had different looks at it so it was hard for us to truly determine what our identity was,” he notes. “So we started talking to a lot of community members about how do we unite around a common purpose.”

One of the pillars that emerged, and became part of the district’s mission statement, was developing future-ready students. Previously, that focus did not extend beyond high school as other educators saw their role as moving students up to the next grade rather than preparing them for college and careers.

“This was something our community and teachers rallied around,” Rodrequez points out. “Preparing students for their future may just be kindergarten or first grade.”

Then there was the district’s family of mascots. While the high school and middle school communities knew themselves as the Grandview Bulldogs, the district’s five elementary schools had five different identities. Surprisingly, he adds, there was little pushback to changing everyone over to the Bulldogs, as evidenced by T-shirts, stickers and other enthusiasm students displayed once the shift was finalized.

“They didn’t see themselves as that other identity—’I don’t really see myself as a Meadowlark,'” he explains. “They could rally behind everybody being a Bulldog because that’s what they see themselves as in middle school and high school.”

School rebranding also jibed with the district’s wide-ranging construction projects, which were funded by Grandview’s largest-ever bond approval—$45 million—in 2021. It allowed to planners to use the same logo and color scheme as they built a new gymnasium and redesigned CTE facilities, cafeterias and band rooms. Finally, the reinvigorated spirit of unity has filtered into the classroom via a districtwide focus on literacy, which has driven three years of growth. The number of students reading on grade level has risen to over 60% from just under 30%.

Rodrequez says he is trying to savor the success as the construction projects—and the rebranding—are now largely completed. “You’re constantly looking three to four years down the road and hoping to get there,” he concludes. “I’m excited about the next phases but I’m still living in the moment of this; it’s a really great year to live through.”

The post How rebranding has this superintendent living in the moment—for now appeared first on District Administration.

“We had this hypothesis that we needed to do something different with our sixth graders,” says Smith, whose building is part of Orchard View Schools in Muskegon. “We wanted to tackle … how we can connect with our sixth graders in a way that better engages them in school and community. How do we engage them so that they’re having an authentic experience and they’re enjoying their learning?”

Orchard View Middle partnered with the Human Restoration Project, a child development nonprofit, to conduct focus groups in which students were asked what would make them feel a stronger sense of belonging at school and how they could get the most out of their learning. The program that emerged paired a cohort of sixth graders with a team of four teachers who now provide interdisciplinary projected-based learning.

More from DA: Experts list 6 things that will strengthen school climate in 2024

To be able to kick the program off at the beginning of this school year, Smith sought teachers who were excited about the experiment and, with more help from the Human Restoration Project, provided professional development and time to plan the curriculum over the summer of 2023.

Smith and his team have secured a five-year, $4-million federal EIR grant, which will also University of Virginia researchers to track how the school assesses progress based on student  portfolios, which the school is calling “learning journeys.” The grant will fund field trips and provide each cohort with $12,500 for supplies.

“The biggest challenge for PBL is the cost,” Smith adds. “We want these to be authentic experiences. We want the kids rolling their sleeves up and working together and bring ‘courageous collaborators.'”

Cooking with core subjects

Each project students work on will combine the four core subjects: English language arts, math, science and social studies. The first project, which students completed this fall, focused on healthy living and eating and included field trips to urban farms and a culinary arts program at nearby Baker College. The students created healthy eating infomercials and posters to spread the word about their learning and spent plenty of time in the kitchen.

“While they’re cooking, they’re doing the math and their science and their ELA,” Smith notes. “They’re doing all of the subjects while they’re exploring and they have their learning journey at the very end.”

An upcoming group project will task students with designing a school kitchen with a $125,000 grant from Orchard View’s food service provider. Among the already visible outcomes of the school-within-a-school is an improving learning environment in a county that grapples with chronic absenteeism due to a large transient population, Smith attests.

Sixth-grader teachers have also made fewer office referrals for disruptive behavior this school year. “We’re seeing higher engagement and less discipline,” he says. “We’re going to focus on building that community and creating experiences so kids want to come to school and value coming to school,” Smith explains. “I don’t want them to feel like they’re just coming in and going through the motions.”

The PBL school-within-a-school has the full support of Orchard View Superintendent Jim Nielsen. “We’re recognizing students don’t necessarily learn all the same way and they certainly are not learning the way they did 20 or 30 years ago,” Nielsen concludes. “When you look around education, one of the biggest issues we have is we’re still doing things the way we did 20 or 30 years ago.”

District Administration’s Superintendent’s Playbook series examines how superintendents, principals and other administrators are solving common problems that today’s educators are facing.

The post School-within-a-school uses PBL to help students make a big move appeared first on District Administration.

Most recently, and two days after Christmas, Elkhart Community Schools in Indiana chose Larry Huff to succeed Superintendent Mark Mow. Huff, who will become Elkhart’s new leader in July, is currently the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township’s chief academic officer.

Among the largest districts to make a year-end appointment was Austin ISD in Texas, which unanimously picked interim superintendent Matias Segura to keep the top spot full-time. Segura, who joined Austin ISD in 2017, has been the interim superintendent since Jan. 3, 2023. A graduate of Austin ISD and the son of a teacher in the district, Segura had previously served as chief of operations.

More from DA: Experts: 6 things that will strengthen school climate

Several other Texas districts also secured new leaders heading into 2024, including two that hired their first-ever female superintendents. Kristin Craft became superintendent of Boerne ISD on Jan. 2 after having served as Spring Branch ISD’s associate superintendent of academics and chief academic officer since 2018. Keller ISD has promoted Tracy Johnson to superintendent from her previous role as the district’s chief human resources officer.

Fort Bend ISD near Houston named as its next leader Duncanville ISD Superintendent Marc Smith, who is set to sign his new contract next week. Smith, a 30-year educator, also served as the superintendent of Marshall ISD and was previously a principal and assistant superintendent in Fort Bend. Arlington ISD near Dallas has appointed Matt Smith, who is currently the superintendent of Belton ISD and has been a K12 administrator for more than 20 years.

More new leaders

In Wisconsin, Superintendent Monica Kelsey-Brown is moving to the Waunakee Community School District from the Brown Deer School District, which she has led since the 2020-2021 school year. She has also served as a student achievement supervisor with Milwaukee Public Schools.

Another superintendent changing places is Russell Dyer, who was unanimously voted in as the new director of Collierville Schools in Tennessee after having led Cleveland City Schools in the same state for eight years. He also served as Collierville’s chief of staff from 2014-16.

In another hire from within, interim superintendent Lori Wilson was the unanimous choice to become the next leader of the Ozark School District in Missouri. She had been Ozark’s assistant superintendent of business and chief financial officer since 2022, previously serving as superintendent of the West Plains School District, also in Missouri.

And in Mississippi, Ted Poore was selected to become the superintendent of Madison County Schools after having served the district for 26 years. Poore, who will take over for retiring Superintendent Charlotte Seals in July, will immediately become Madison County’s deputy superintendent. He was previously a teacher, coach, counselor and school-level administrator in the district.

These new leaders were also chosen in the following districts:

• Jim DuBois, Goshen Community Schools (Indiana)
• Scott Faul, Minot Public Schools (North Dakota)
• Cleo Perry, St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools (Louisiana)
• Casey Wright, Nordonia Hills City School District (Ohio)

The post Districts charge into 2024 with a diverse group of new leaders appeared first on District Administration.

“In 2024, schools will focus on partnering with families to support the whole student,” says Kara Stern, head of education solutions at SchoolStatus. “Communication between schools and K12 families will shift from focusing heavily on grades and test scores to providing more consistent, well-rounded updates on a student’s overall well-being.”

Here are the concepts Stern and her colleagues say school leaders will embrace as they look to strengthen school climate:

1. School-home communication will focus on more than just students’ grades and test scores: “This could include emotional health, progress in soft skills development and feedback on social interactions. This change is driven by the need for a comprehensive understanding of student well-being in a post-pandemic world, acknowledgment of the impact of isolation and stress on a student, as well as the growing demand for holistic education. To accomplish this, schools will integrate regular communication channels, conduct educational sessions, incorporate more in-depth assessments of overall student well-being, and build collaborative support systems involving counselors, teachers, parents, and community resources.

“This collaborative effort acknowledges that a student’s success is multifaceted and requires a comprehensive supportive ecosystem involving both educators and families to create an environment where students can thrive academically, emotionally and socially.” —Kara Stern

2. Meaningful, tailored communication will be imperative to supporting academic recovery and addressing chronic absenteeism: “Developing more meaningful school-home relationships and partnering with families to support better student outcomes will be imperative. Currently, more than 25% of K-12 students are chronically absent and most students have ground to make up in math and reading. Research shows that the average student would need more than four additional months of instruction to catch up to pre-COVID reading levels.

“At the same time, there’s a gap between how parents and caregivers think their children are doing and the reality. Many families aren’t aware if their child is behind academically, or may not understand how absenteeism is impacting their child’s progress. We will see more districts leveraging real-time data so families can understand more than just what their child’s grades are. Communications with student-level data tied to outcomes feel relevant and actionable to families.

Read more from DA: Latest school closures force leaders everywhere to make tough choices

“School-home communications will focus on driving meaningful results, promoting student success and engaging all families. Meaningful connections with families encourage engagement that supports better student outcomes.”—Russ Davis, founder and CEO

3. Greater emphasis on how well-being, school environments and connectedness impact attendance and academic progress: “As schools work to get students back in the classroom, they will need to place a greater emphasis on overall student well-being and making sure students feel welcome and included in the school community. Educational institutions realize that students’ mental well-being is a crucial factor in determining their overall success and academic performance and that school connectedness is key to consistent attendance.

“Districts will implement comprehensive, targeted programs aimed at providing accessible resources like counseling services, peer support groups and mental health education integrated into the curriculum. Through a wider understanding of mental health and the thorough implementation of technological tools and resources, schools can address the needs of the whole student. By implementing communication systems and programs ensuring every student is connected to a caring adult in the building, schools will foster a culture of showing up.”—Kara Stern

4. Data will better support students and their unique needs: “Data can tell a story about our students and can be extremely useful for educators when making critical decisions. Throughout the pandemic, when our educators had little face time with students, they had to rely on student data to capture their understanding of materials and assess their overall progress and well-being. When schools returned to in-person learning and students were back in classrooms, we saw teachers utilize student data to assess their students’ knowledge.

“Now, teachers continue to use data to track student recovery, in addition to their supplemental learning needs, high-dose tutoring needs, SEL and much more. We have learned that data reveals much more than whether a student passes a class or submits an assignment. Data can be used to understand the complexities of each student—from their social-emotional state and comprehension of specific subjects to their involvement in extracurricular activities.”—Joy Smithson, data scientist.

5. Schools will use two-way communication to understand absences: “We will see more personalized attendance interventions and increased school-home communication. Educators will engage families through proactive communication about the importance of attendance—before students become chronically absent.

“We will also see more educators reaching out to families to enhance connections and build partnerships. When families feel supported they are more likely to collaborate and work together with the district to better understand and address the root causes of student absences. With this information, personalized interventions will be designed to address specific challenges that students may face in maintaining regular attendance.

“Collaboration between families and schools will play a crucial role in addressing the unique needs of each student, considering factors such as health, transportation and socioeconomic conditions.”—Grace Spencer, vice president, marketing & product development.

6. Proactive family communication and data will grow in addressing chronic absenteeism: “A recent California study of 320,000 students across 29 districts found that close to a third of public school students in the sample were chronically absent during the 2022–2023 school year. Collectively that equates to nearly 19 million hours of valuable missed learning time.

“In 2024, schools will prioritize proactive communication with parents and guardians about the importance of attendance. As districts shift the focus to communicating before students miss school, families will receive consistent, positive communication from districts about the importance of attendance—rather than waiting until punitive measures are needed.

“Districts will use positive messaging to educate families and encourage attendance before students become chronically absent, which is proven to increase attendance. Technology will prove to be invaluable in this type of communication. Districts will utilize predictive analytics not only to identify absenteeism trends but also to test and refine intervention strategies.

“This data-driven approach will enable continuous improvement in attendance initiatives. These strategies are meant to set students up for success. Moreover, educators will pivot away from punitive measures when addressing absenteeism, opting instead for a holistic communication approach involving the entire family to support the overall well-being of the student.”—Grace Spencer

The post Experts: 6 things that will strengthen school climate in 2024 appeared first on District Administration.

I am excited about the possibilities and the challenges that this role brings. Setting policy, working closely with our district’s outstanding superintendent, making informed and thoughtful budgetary decisions and approving curriculum (my true passion) are all parts of the role that have great impact on the education of our children. I also believe that my background, and in particular, my former positions as a school and district administrator, bring a unique perspective to the role. One area I believe I am uniquely suited to support my school district and its administrators is by helping my fellow school board members understand the natural changes in the education landscape and the innovative ideas and tools driving these changes.

Consider the integration of technology into everyday instruction. This is a new concept for most parents, and certainly for grandparents and many community members. After all, many of us have had tremendous experiences in education and we want to give the children of our communities the same, and an even better, experience. However, just as technology has changed our everyday lives, it’s changed education.

Backing up your board of directors

So, we have some work to do in helping our school boards, our parents and our communities understand how the education landscape has changed, the value of the edtech infrastructure that was built during the COVID-era of education, and how this infrastructure can now be utilized to support the success of all learners and improve achievement.

Here are three key things I’ve learned through my experience that school administrators can do to help school board members understand and support education technology:

1. Understand the why: It’s common for school board members to be asked by community members why certain decisions are made. When it comes to technology, it’s important to clearly articulate the why. Technology can support accessibility to different kinds of resources, provide equitable learning opportunities for students, and ensure differentiation of instruction. School administrators should help school board members understand why different technologies are an integral part of student learning by creating a compelling picture of what the district hopes to achieve through edtech innovations.

2. What’s the purpose? Remember that for the majority of school board members, the use of technology in schools is not an experience they are familiar with. While a variety of digital resources and tools are being incorporated into learning, many technologies are used for different purposes: hall passes, learning management systems, cafeteria lunch payments, etc.

Education in 2024: Your K12 partners break down 8 big learning trends

Ensure that school board members know the purpose of each technology as well as the specifics of it, i.e. Will students be tracked? Will parents be notified? These are often the types of issues that raise concerns with parents and the public. School administrators should provide a clear purpose for each of the different technologies.

A particularly useful way to do this is to have members of your board of directors shadow a student for the day to see how they use the technologies in your school before providing them a primer on each technology’s use. Seeing students using edtech is often very helpful.

3. It’s all about the research: There is clear research on the impact that technology has on different aspects of learning for students. Whether it’s the effects of digital gamification on students’ math fact fluency or the ability of digital resources to bring multimodal learning to the classroom, the research can provide important third-party validation of the use of educational technology in your district.

In addition, be prepared to answer school board members’ questions about the use of specific technologies with data that shows a comprehensive understanding of how the resource substantiates measurable student success specifically aligned with standards-based objectives. A compelling alignment to outcomes and robust evidence of learning should drive a positive decision to continue tech-driven innovations.

In my new role as a member of the board of directors, I anticipate that the integration of technology will be a current and future topic. It’s an important one for many reasons. But, as technology continues to change and innovate, we need to draw on something that’s been around for quite a while: collaboration. School administrators and school boards need to collaborate to make the best technology decisions for students and their learning.

The post 3 important ways leaders can help school boards empower edtech appeared first on District Administration.

• Joe Gothard, Saint Paul Public Schools, Minn.
• Martha Salazar-Zamora, Tomball Independent School District, Texas
• Kimberly Rizzo Saunders, Contoocook Valley School District, N.H.
• Frederick Williams, Dublin City Schools, Ga.

“Our honorees took their respective school districts and their entire school communities to higher heights of excellence,” said David R. Schuler, executive director, AASA, the School Superintendents Association. “They are prime examples of what it means to be a superintendent in today’s post-COVID world.”

The Superintendent of the Year finalists were chosen based on achievements in the following categories: leadership for learning, communication, professionalism and community involvement. Here is a snapshot of each of the finalists:

Joe Gothard, Saint Paul Public Schools: Gothard has served since 2017 as superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS), Minnesota’s second-largest and most diverse district with 33,000 students and over 6,000 employees. He launched the SPPS Achieves strategic plan in December 2018 to set goals for student achievement, guide decision-making and focus on long-term student outcomes.

Throughout the pandemic, he has prioritized community well-being, equity, and fiscal sustainability. He was previously superintendent of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191, Burnsville, also in Minnesota and an assistant superintendent for secondary schools in the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin.

Martha Salazar-Zamora, Tomball Independent School District: Salazar-Zamora has been an educator in Texas for over 36 years and Tomball ISD’s leader since 2017. She is the Houston-area district’s first female and first Hispanic superintendent. “My leadership philosophy is centered around decision-making that puts students first,” Salazar-Zamora told District Administration in July.

“As the world continues to rapidly change around us, it requires us to be progressive and innovative,” she said. “I continually push my team to create strategies and initiatives that progress us into the future so that our students are ready.”

Read more from DA: How to help families overcome social media health problems

She was previously the chief academic officer of the rapidly growing district, which is among the highest-achieving school systems in Texas. She has led the implementation of Tomball Star Academy, the District’s early college high school, Tomball ISD’s Two-Way Dual Language Academy, the District’s first P-TECH focused on healthcare, and a Pre-K Center for young learners.

Kimberly Rizzo Saunders, Contoocook Valley School District: Saunders has been Contoocook Valley’s superintendent since 2015 and has worked as a New Hampshire educator for 28 years. As a teacher and adjunct professor, she taught students from sixth grade to graduate school, in classrooms from North Carolina to New Hampshire.

She has also served as an administrator in New Hampshire’s Londonderry, Hollis-Brookline, Winnisquam and school districts. At national and regional conferences, she has presented on on curriculum and instructional improvement, student retention and drop-out prevention, equity, high-school redesign and adequate funding of education. She has also been a strong supporter of women in the superintendency.

Frederick Williams, Dublin City Schools: Williams has been Dublin City Schools’ superintendent since 2015, using his strategic plan as a guidepost to prepare “all students to be effective communicators, problem solvers, and lifelong learners.” Under his leadership, the high school graduation rate has increased by 27.4 points, with the rate reaching a record high, 97.7%, for the class of 2023.

He began his career in 1993 as a health and physical education teacher in one of Dublin City’s elementary schools and also coached for the Dublin High School Football Team. He has since served the district as assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent. Dublin City Schools has consistently earned the Exemplary Board Status Award through the Georgia School Boards Association from 2015 to the present. He and his team have also been recognized for their work in advancing literacy and community engagement.

The post AASA Superintendent of the Year finalists named for 2024 appeared first on District Administration.

The high-poverty elementary recently recorded the highest number of students completing their ESOL classes in the history of the Hall County School District northeast of the Atlanta metro area, Rodriguez says. That has a direct correlation to high school graduation. “In middle school and high school, they don’t teach reading,” he adds. “[Students] getting into middle and high school without finishing their ESOL, it’s just very hard on them to stay engaged, to stay connected.”

Lyman Hall’s test scores are the highest in the school’s history while Rodriguez and his team also have ensured that dozens more English learners and other students are being identified as gifted. When he became Lyman Hall’s principal, only three English learners in a school of 700 students were identified as such. “I thought this can’t be right,” he recalls. “We need to work harder to provide these kids with the educational opportunities they deserve.”

After his first year, he and his team increased the number of gifted EL students to 13 and several years later, there are now around 115, giving Lyman Hall one of the highest EL gifted percentages in Georgia and, potentially, in the nation, he notes.

‘SWIRLing all day’

Lyman Hall’s ESOL and gifted achievements have everything to do with expanding the capacity of teachers, explains Rodriguez, who is also a former elementary school teacher. Rather than taking a traditional approach of putting the school’s best teachers in the “testing” grades (such as third grade), he placed his “rock star” educators in literacy, K2 and ESOL.

About 80% of his current team of ESOL educators are former teachers of the year and grade chairs. “It was an area of need and I needed the people with the capacity to do this type of work,” he notes. Instruction is encapsulated by the acronym “SWiRL”—which stands for speaking, writing, reading and listening. 

“They’ve had to create a lot of their own materials,” Rodriguez points out. “Their intentional focus was to SWiRL with the kids … SWiRLing all day. And it can’t just be something that occurs only when the ESOL teacher walks in, it has to got to be something ingrained, that’s embedded in their practice throughout the day.”

He’s also working to expand the number of teachers who have gifted endorsements to go with their ESOL credentials. “Once you get a group of highly capable teachers … get that core group in place and then they come to me with ‘hey we want to do this, hey we want to do that,'” he says. “My job is to step back and discern what the good ideas are and help put them into place.”

3 types of invitations to engagement

A third big achievement has been consistently high family engagement. In other districts where Rodriguez has worked, events maxed out at about 3% family engagement. Lyman Hall regularly sees nearly 30% participation in its activities, a rate Rodriguez calls an “outlier level.” He and his team’s focus on engagement boils down to three types of “invitations to engagement.”

Bolder visions: New elementary and middle school rankings take a deeper look at test scores

The most effective are student-centered invitations such as notifications of concerts and recitals. Next on the list are teacher-centered invitations, such as requests for conferences with parents. Finally, “general engagement” covers newsletters, email blasts and other forms of mass communication. Recently, attendance skyrocketed at curriculum nights because they focused on individual grades rather than blocks of grades, as had been done in the past.

Rodriguez also encourages teachers to add hand-written notes, such as “I saw this and thought of you,” on flyers sent home to parents.

“No one is as excited about seeing our families show up as our teachers are,” he concludes. “We don’t make assumptions about what [families] can or cannot bring to the table. We just try to know them as much as we know the students, we try to communicate with them as much as possible and look for invitations for them to be engaged with school.”

The post ELs excelling: Principal shares the keys to 3 big achievements appeared first on District Administration.

No, it’s not some scheme to turn a big profit by buying up abandoned real estate. Rather, it has everything to do with putting students on track for successful futures in college and the workforce, says Superintendent Michelle Hubbard, whose district covers 14 suburban cities.

The market value assets—also known as “MVAs”—that Hubbard wants students to leave high school with include nine hours of college credit, a professional certification, a 120-hour internship or completion of a client-based project. It’s that last asset that was earned by about 300 sophomores from Shawnee Mission South High School when they helped the city of Overland Park open its swimming pools last summer for the first time since COVID.

The problem was a lack of lifeguards. The students, as part of their English classes, investigated the labor shortage, which required them to get feedback from the Overland Park city council on the way to reopening the pools. “It was a project where kids learned, they did the research and were able to solve the problem,” says Hubbard, who was recently named Kansas Superintendent of the Year.

And here’s the achievement of which she says she’s proudest. In 2022-23, more than double the number of African American students, English learners, special education students, and students on free and reduced lunch not only graduated but also earned a market value asset. By 2030, the district expects to have every student graduate with a diploma and an MVA.

Also on the career front are its hospital-style emergency room, biotech, engineering and aerospace labs, and an urban farm, which sits right outside Hubbard’s office and provides food for its “first-class” bistro. “Our community is so supportive of education and supportive of bond issues to have state-of-the-art facilities for our students,” she explains.

During her time in Shawnee Mission, the district has opened 11 new elementary schools. “They’re not new because of enrollment but because we need better facilities,” she adds. “We’re landlocked so our enrollment is pretty flat … we will tear down a facility and rebuild it so our students have great collaboration spaces.”

She spends as much time as possible in those elementaries and her other schools getting to know students and staff. Every Thursday she visits a different school with members of her leadership team. “My goal, every time I’m in a building, is to meet someone new,” she points out. “It’s really important to be able to call them by name, and know something about them and know about the work they’re doing.”

Read more from DA: What makes this unique middle school one of the coziest places in town

When she’s not visiting a school, she tries to maintain steady communication with her community. That includes a new podcast (she’s recorded seven episodes so far) and being transparent with all of her operations. “When I became superintendent, we were struggling with culture … people were burnt out, we had a large amount of turnover, especially in our teaching staff and support staff,” she notes. “It was really important to turn that culture around and I think we’ve done a great job.”

At the same time, the role of the superintendent has changed significantly since the pandemic and political turmoil of recent years. She worries that parents no longer trust educators or the education system as much as they once did. “It’s made it really hard to be a teacher, which makes it hard to be a superintendent,” she concludes. “I cannot be successful at this level unless teachers are happy and teaching kids.”

The post Don’t know about market value assets? Let this superintendent explain appeared first on District Administration.

The Poudre School District in Colorado highlights each of its three big goals on its web page.

When it comes to priorities, graduation is no longer the goal in the latest wave of strategic plans. Superintendents and their teams are increasingly expanding their focus to ensuring their graduates find academic and professional success after completing high school. “To empower and inspire our students to achieve academic excellence and make a positive contribution to the world,” is the mission set by Superintendent Lewis Brooks and Shelby County Schools in Alabama.

The visions laid out by K12 leaders in the second half of 2023 also cover school safety, staff development and facilities upgrades, among other major pillars. Here’s what those strategic plans look like online and a few details about the paths charted by district leaders:

Albuquerque Public Schools (New Mexico)

Albuquerque’s plan is mapped out across four clickable categories—goals, rules of the road, strategic priorities and “our work.” Rules of the road lists the rules the district has set for itself, such as providing students with wraparound support, allocating resources equitably and supporting staff through professional development and giving employees a bigger role in decision-making. “Our Work” is a series of stories and photos of student and school and achievements and activities.

Billings Public Schools (Montana)

Four strategic priorities are listed in drop-down menus that lay out Billings’ goals, accompanied by expected outcomes. Under one priority, foster a safe and positive environment, Billings leaders plan to increase parent and family involvement by creating a “Family Friendly School Program.” Among the outcomes the district is striving for are increasing enrollment in dual-credit and AO courses, and raising the number of students who earn career certifications.

Read more from DA: How 2 superintendents strive to be “real people”

Cedar Rapids Community School District (Iowa)

Cedar Rapids relies on graphics, namely hardhats, to illustrate the four pillars of its plan (see above). Each pillar is linked to a set of “strategic anchors”—for instance, “Energize the Staff” is underpinned by diversity and cultural competence, development and promotion, stable attendance and staff efficacy.

Charles County Public Schools (Maryland)

A “Strategic Plan Data Dashboard” covers Charles County’s three leading priorities: student learning and achievement; access and opportunities; and culture and climate. The district provides the metrics leaders are tracking under each priority. Culture and climate, for example, are being assessed by the number of suspensions and referrals, participation in extracurricular activities, and the completion of school improvement plans, among other data.

Poudre School District (Colorado)

Literacy, mental health and belonging, and graduating with options are the Denver-area district’s three big priorities—and each has its own web page that details projects and goals. Under “Graduate With Options,” the district will update its graduation requirements to better support multiple post-secondary pathways, covering college, the workforce and the military. It will also tackle chronic absenteeism and give middle school principals more time to collaborate around student readiness and grading practices.

Shelby County Schools (Alabama)

Shelby County’s plan is driven by five “commitments”—innovation, community partnerships, leadership development, recruitment and retention, and organizational commitment. That last commitment covers getting buy-in for the strategic plan by communicating goals clearly and fostering a stronger culture of teamwork. The district is also pledging to maintain two-way communications with its stakeholders, provide staff with opportunities for continuous professional growth and prioritize fiscal responsibility.

The post Bolder visions: What 6 new strategic plans look like online appeared first on District Administration.