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.”

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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.”

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“Because we only have them one year, we spent a lot of time building relationships with students,” explains Bevel, whose campus is part of Virginia Beach City Public Schools. “We’ve figured out that sense of belonging is key for our kids—everything we do goes around that.”

That sense of belonging is grounded in a house system that fosters a range of competitions in which students earn points for academics, behavior, character development and participation, among other K12 benchmarks. Everyone from students and teachers to bus drivers and custodians belong to one of the school’s four houses. Students also participate in Amazing Shake competitions that stress eye contact, listening and, of course, shaking hands, among other soft skills.

Because not all students are top athletes or high academic achievers, educators also reward students for making progress. All of these engagement approaches are paying off—Bayside is now tops among Virginia Beach’s middle schools for attendance, having climbed from the bottom of the list in recent years.

Bevel also encourages all of her staff—including cafeteria workers and security guards—to speak to children regularly. “Everybody has a role in being part of our kids’ lives here while they’re in the school,” she notes. “[Kids] want to be here. They know we care.”

Engagement equals achievement

The intense focus on creating a sense of belonging is having an impact on achievement. In the 2021-22 school year, less than a third of students met grade-level expectations for reading. By the end of the year, almost 90% of students passed the same reading test.

Embedding tutoring into the school day is one new approach that is driving achievement—because it ensures students will get individualized support, Bevel explains. She and her team have also created space for peer-to-peer student tutoring by expanding the cafeteria into a learning center.

“Most kids don’t want to stay after school, especially for tutoring,” she adds. “When you add it to the instructional programs, it winds up being a mandatory piece.”

Importance of teaching abroad

As unique as her school is Bevel’s pathway to the principal’s post. After teaching science in another Virginia district, she taught the same subject in Abu Dhabi, where she eventually became a middle school math and science department chair. One reason she chose Abu Dhabi was that it followed Virginia’s curriculum. The bigger reasons were to expand her horizons as a teacher and learn more about inclusivity and cultural competence, she says.

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Someone who considers themselves a good teacher should be able to teach any children, anywhere, she asserts. The experience abroad also showed her how to integrate what she learned about the students’ backgrounds and cultures into science instruction.

“As a leader, it’s helping me do the same thing—being able to support all cultures, all types of diversity, and adapt to different children,” she concludes. “And just being able to speak to that when I talk to teachers about diversity—teaching is not just about talking, talking, talking. You have to be able to absorb and learn and respect.”

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Douglas Killian, who has been superintendent of Pflugerville ISD in Texas since 2017, was named Monday as the lone finalist to lead Cypress-Fairbanks ISD outside Houston. Killian, a U.S. military veteran, has also served as superintendent of Hutto ISD, Huffman ISD and Poteet ISD, racking up nearly 20 years of experience in the top spot in Texas districts.

A Texas Superintendent of the Year finalist in 2022, Killian spearheaded the passage of a $370 million bond package in Hutto ISD. “I believe in leading with honesty and integrity, setting high expectations, striving for continual growth and treating all students the same,” Killian said on Cypress-Fairbanks ISD’s website.

Among the other superintendents relocating is Christopher Moran, who will move from Whitehouse ISD to San Angelo ISD (both districts are in Texas). Moran, who has been an educator for 32 years, will replace Carl Dethloff, who is retiring at the end of December. Moran has also served as superintendent of Brownsboro ISD and as an administrator in Clear Creek ISD.

And in Pennsylvania, Superintendent Daniel T. Potutschnig has found a new home in the Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District, where he will take the helm in early 2024. Potutschnig has been superintendent of the Millersburg Area School District since July 2022.

He previously served as the administrative director of the Mifflin County Academy of Science and Technology for 11 years and as assistant director of the Huntingdon County Career and Technology Center.

First-time superintendents

Newton County Schools in Mississippi and Lee County Schools in North Carolina have both promoted their next superintendents from within. Newton County Schools chose Assistant Superintendent Brooke Sibley to take the helm on July 1, 2024, replacing Superintendent Tyler Hansford.

Prior to becoming assistant superintendent earlier this year, Sibley served the district as a director in various capacities, including in special education, talented and gifted, federal programs, curriculum, assessment, accreditation and accountability.

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Lee County Schools picked interim superintendent Chris Dossenbach to become its next leader. Dossenbach, a Lee County native and graduate of the district, has also served as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and high school principal.

Finally, the Penn Hills School District in Pennsylvania has chosen its next superintendent, John Mozzocio, who is currently the director of pupil services and special programs supervisor at the New Castle Area School District.

A handful of retirements

On the other end of the career ladder, a handful of superintendents announced their plans to retire:

• Todd Martin will retire from Yadkin County Schools in North Carolina on March 1, after serving as the district’s leader since 2013.
• Tom Moore‘s last day at Great Falls Public Schools in Montana will be June 28, 2024.
• Superintendent Charlotte Seals will leave Madison County Schools in Mississippi at the end of the school year after 35 years with the district.

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“They are embracing some different practices we’ve put in place to take the really good things to the next level and improve the things that need to be improved,” says Mendez, who was previously principal of Seymour Middle School in Seymour Community Schools.

He has devoted a lot of his energy toward his teachers and to offering more intensive instructional coaching, in particular. He hired four full-time coaches this year to provide embedded professional development through one-on-one co-teaching and observations. “We always say we need to grow ourselves to grow our kids,” Mendez notes.

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Mendez also created instructional coaching residencies that pair coaches with a different teacher each week, for an entire week. In some cases, the coach may teach and ask the teacher for feedback. Along with improving teachers’ skills, the more comprehensive PD should also help North Central—Indiana’s largest urban high school—retain its educators.

“Teacher support—the most important piece—is giving them the tools and coaching them up in instructional capacity so they’re successful with their students,” Mendez explains. “It makes them more confident. It lets them know they have somewhere to go if they need help and are lost vs. some models where they have to go outside the building.”

How to be a great simplifier

Another high-priority project for the school year is aligning the high school’s course offerings with more intentionally guided career pathways that go beyond traditional CTE. The goal is to grow into areas such as engineering and biomedical fields that are highly relevant for today’s students. “Getting that engagement from them will help with achievement and give them options when they go on to college,” he notes.

That drive to help students succeed after completing high school comes from Mendez’s experience working with high-needs schools. And once again, teaching is the key to helping students in these schools defy expectations and break cycles of marginalization. “I always tell teachers in job interviews that we need people who believe a student’s circumstances don’t have to dictate the outcome,” he continues. “Whether they come from a house of drugs, a house of poverty, a house of trauma—that does not sentence them to a life of the same.”

The key to motivating staff to achieve these goals is for a principal to be “a great simplifier” who can take difficult concepts and help educators find a comfortable place to start. “It’s partly simplifying incredibly complex things, but also talking about ‘why this school exists,'” he asserts. “This is the one profession that helps create all the other professions. It’s being a storyteller about our kids—who they are, what they need, what they want to be and what their dreams are.”

An important part of the narrative is detailing the reasons behind the actions leaders are taking and the goals that are being set. However, exploring the flip side can also have a significant impact. “One of the powerful pieces is talking about, ‘If we don’t do this, what happens?'” he explains. “If we aren’t all in, what happens? If we don’t grow ourselves, what happens? Who gets hurt if we don’t take these steps?”

One of the biggest challenges he’s contending with is building students’ social-emotional skills so they feel safe to focus on academics. Digital literacy is a crucial tool in this effort. He and his educators are teaching students how to handle the responsibilities that come with “the ability the grab information from anywhere at any time.

“They are growing up in a world that moves much faster than what a lot of the adults had to deal with when they were growing up,” Mendez concludes. “They have exposure to a lot of things earlier.”

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“What is best for the children? If you don’t know, ask them,” Rowland told District Administration. “Student voice will carry the way. Allow what’s best for the students to guide your decisions and you will never go wrong.”

Before arriving at LaSalle, Rowland served as the Dean of Students at the Robert Black Magnet School for 16 years. There, she would be surrounded by a network of dynamic leaders who would inevitably take her under their wing and give her a gentle push into a new era of educational leadership.

Rowland’s transition to the principalship is unlike most who choose to enter educational leadership. She took the reins at the onset of the pandemic, an experience that she’s been able to leverage to her advantage.

“It was a very unique opportunity for us to make the changes because at this time it just made sense,” she says. COVID-19 provided leaders with the unique opportunity to look within their system’s policies and make adjustments based on the foundational inequities that were present at the time.

“What we had was limited access,” Rowland says. “We didn’t have an equitable lens. Now, post-pandemic, we have a reason to be looking at these policies, we have reasons to be looking at these protocols and we have an opportunity to make the changes that we know [students] need.”

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Pursuing innovation and addressing the needs of children was something she learned prior to the pandemic thanks to New Leaders, an organization that offers pathways to principal certification. It was a program that gave Rowland behind-the-scenes experience pivotal in becoming the authentic and transformative leader she is today.

Mentoring never ends

If you were to sit down with Rowland, you would quickly discover that New Leaders continues to play an important role in her professional life. She and many other inspiring education leaders across the country understand the importance of leaning on mentors and coaches, no matter how experienced a leader you may be.

“We’re family. They will never leave,” she says regarding her New Leaders cohort. “We call our cohort by numbers. I’m cohort 19, and we always say we are the pandemic cohort. Those are my first lines of support. They’re the people I was able to go through this process with. They will always be my thought partners, my journey partners and my accountability partners. The coaches that were offered to me, I can call and count on them at any time of the day.

“They’re still offering resources to me. And the cohort, they are truly a part of my life.”

It’s all about the mindset

K12 leaders have the power to instill motivation and passion among their teams, but those same characteristics must be present in their leader first. Rowland’s dedication to her students and staff is simply contagious. Every decision she and her staff make, she says, is ultimately for the benefit of her students and their individual needs.

District Administration’s Micah Ward asked Rowland to share her priorities for the remainder of the 2023-24 school year. Here’s what she had to say.

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“There were no traditions or routines yet,” says Davis, Arkansas’ high school principal of the year. “As a faculty and staff, we got to create the school that we wanted based on shared goals, ideas and philosophies. Ten years later, it is still a fantastic school.”

The academy, part of Cabot Public Schools, aims the bridge the crucial gap between ninth and 10th grades, which is when students are most likely to drop out. Davis recently talked to District Administration about the school’s unique programs (such as “Adulting Day”), how she promote student wellness and her goals for the next few years.

1. What was your role in creating Cabot Freshman Academy?

We opened Cabot Freshman Academy in the fall of 2014. At that time, I was asked to help open the building as an assistant principal. What an experience it was! We built a school from the ground up by putting in systems, assigning rooms, hiring faculty and staff.

The freshman academy concept has been around for about 15 years. Research has shown that most students make the decision to drop out between ninth and 10th grade. Those who are successful in ninth grade have a high likelihood of graduating high school. Students who feel accepted and have a sense of ownership at their school are more likely going to stay the course.

At Cabot Freshman Academy, we try to provide that experience. All of our students are ninth graders experiencing high school for the first time but in a warm, nurturing environment that allows them to begin discovering who they are as young adults by exposing them to various careers, colleges, skills, etc. Our teachers are dedicated to making sure ALL of our students are successful.

2. What programs are unique to the academy?

• College Board Pre-AP for All—We were selected by the College Board to be one of 200 schools to embrace the “Pre-AP for All” concept. As a result, all our math and English teachers took part in a series of training sessions that allowed them to enhance their pedagogy using Pre-AP strategies and techniques. When I say ALL students were assigned to a Pre-AP class, I mean ALL students, including those with special needs. Although our College Board Pre-AP Cohort has ended, our teachers still use those strategies and techniques in their daily lessons.
• Adulting Day—Our entire faculty and staff decide on a life skill they feel students need to know as adults and teach it to them during the first week of school. Adulting Day skills vary from how to change a tire, take care of a pet, tie a tie or even set up a checking account. We offer over 60 different sessions for them to choose from. It is probably one of my favorite activities that we offer.
• Mock Interview Days—These occur once in the winter and once in the spring. Every student is required to take our Professional Communications class. One of the frameworks is that students learn how to write resumes, and cover letters and engage in an interview. Community members, teachers, district administrators and even fellow building principals, set aside some time to conduct interviews with the students throughout the day. The students dress up in their best attire, present them with their résumés and participate in a mock interview as if they were really applying for the job. So many of our students come back and thank our teachers for teaching them this skill because it helped them acquire a job later on.
• Commitment to Graduate (C2G) program—This program is the foundation of all we do at CFA. Our mission statement is “Graduation Starts Here.” Our No. 1 focus is to ensure that ALL students leave with all of their credits and are on track to graduate. Over the last 10 years, we have averaged right at 97% of our students leaving our school with all of their credits. Our C2G program was put in place to allow us to ensure that we are doing all we can to help students succeed. The actual program is a 40-minute period of time built into our daily schedule that allows students to seek help from a teacher if they need it, or teachers can assign students for intervention if they are lacking in skills needed to be successful. We also offer enrichment and extensions during this time period, as well. For example, students can choose to participate in our “Walk-It Out” program, Gardening Club, take a master class where they acquire skills above and beyond what they would learn in class and we even offer self-care sessions to allow students time to decompress.

3. How do you create an environment that promotes student well-being? What are the hallmarks of this environment?

“We want every student to feel like they matter and have a voice. Although it may sound cliche, we truly do provide opportunities for students to be successful in all aspects of their lives. I have worked in several schools, and I can truly say that we want the well-being of every student we serve to be at the forefront.

If a student is in a bad place mentally, physically or even socially, then the academic piece is the last thing on their mind. We truly do take the initiative in ensuring that the whole child is addressed. One of the things I am so proud of in regard to our students and what we offer them to be healthy, happy students is our annual Self-Care Day.

I thought of this concept about two years ago and asked our counselors to make the thought and idea come to life. Let me tell you, they did it! They asked local community leaders, therapists, churches, outreach programs, our district administrators, other building administrators and even our own teachers to lead sessions on self-care and mental health issues. Our students have embraced it, and because of that, we feel they have taken on tools to help them navigate the struggles of being a teenager.

Our district has also allowed principals to train and use service dogs in our schools. I bring Gus, our school dog, every day to school to help provide happiness and bring down anxiety in our students, faculty and staff. There’s just this sense of belonging and comfort that only a dog can bring. It is funny because I always say that people would much rather see Gus than me on a regular basis. He truly has been a blessing to our school.

We also have various programs in place to catch our at-risk students early. Our superintendent, Tony Thurman (who is awesome by the way), listened to my concerns regarding hiring a dedicated person (a student support coordinator) to help identify, track and intervene with students who have all the factors we deem as at-risk so that we can provide point-in-time help.

As a result, we have had students who had zero confidence in themselves and their abilities begin to shine. Their confidence in school and within themselves blossomed, and the transformation and excitement they showed when they passed all their classes or saw that their teachers truly cared about them was an amazing sight to see.

4. How would you describe other aspects of your leadership philosophy?

“I am a very hands-on leader, but I also trust people to do their job. To me, we are all in this together. No one person is any more important than anyone else. We all have one goal in mind to move our school forward and make it the best place it can be.

We are a team and that has always been the philosophy I have followed. Yes, the ultimate decision lies on me, but I take time to listen to our teachers and staff to make an informed decision so that it benefits our school as a whole, not just a few. I also want to empower teachers and staff in our building to go above and beyond and to take ownership in our school. I am a firm believer in believing in those who I serve and letting them shine. In the end, we all win, including our students.”

5. What exciting things are happening this year at Cabot Freshman Academy? What are your goals over the next few years?

“We have so many great things happening at our school. We have started year two of the Arkansas Department of Education PLC Project as a member of Cohort 6. We were one of 10 schools chosen to be part of Cohort 6 last year. It is a three-year process that we hope will lead us to becoming a model PLC school.

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We are going to continue doing all of the great things we have done in the past, such as our annual college visits, career fair, adulting day, Red River Reading Program and so many more things that help students become the best that they can be. We live and breathe our mission of “Graduation Starts Here” every single day. We want our students to be prepared and ready for the next step.

Our goals include becoming a model PLC school. We would love to get over the high ‘B’ hump and earn an A on our school report card. We are so close. Plus, we want to continue the work that we started 10 years ago ensuring that ALL of our students leave with all of their credits and on track to graduate.”

6. What are the biggest challenges your school is facing right now?

“We have a great school, but we do face challenges just like other schools in our state and nation. We understand the importance of mental health and helping students overcome the challenges they have in regard to their mental health. We have been working hard to help inform our teachers in regards to trauma-based practices, understanding the issues that our students enter their classrooms with and just being able to give them tools to help those students.

It is hard because everyone struggled with the pandemic and the issues that we once thought were only minimal are truly coming to light. To us, time and being able to keep up with the demands that our students need to be healthy both mentally and physically can be challenging. However, we are slowly mending that gap and helping our teachers and students overcome those challenges.

Another challenge is closing the academic gaps gained during COVID. We have really honed in on our RTI program during C2G to provide more prescriptive interventions to students who may still lack the skills they need to successfully move forward. One of those skills is reading. We have asked all of our teachers—core and non-core classes—to take a more proactive approach to reading in their classrooms.

Our media specialist has created our Red River Reading program we begin every January after the holiday break to get students geared up for the state tests. As a faculty, we know that reading is the No. 1 fundamental indicator of a student’s success. If students are confident in reading, everything else will fall into place.”

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For one, the principal’s impact on learning growth is “significantly larger in scope” than that of teachers, say the authors of “Redefining the Role of the Principal: Innovative Approaches to Empower School Leaders,” a new report from the Aspen Institute that looks at the new ways principals are being empowered by their districts.

That impact is magnified when principals create strong learning climates that promote high expectations for students and teachers, continuous analysis of student data, and a culture of accountability, the researchers assert. While the principal workforce is more diverse than it was 30 years ago—and is now majority female—it still does not reflect the racial-ethnic diversity of the student population.

Moreover, a staggering 85% of principals reported high levels of stress compared to just a little more than a third of the general workforce that said the same. Finally, principal turnover leads to teacher turnover, which can also depress student achievement. “While teachers are facing formidable challenges right now, districts cannot afford to lose sight of school leaders,” the researchers counseled in the report.

Against this backdrop, states and districts are taking steps to redefine and empower principals.

Redefining the role of principals

The Aspen Institute’s researchers detailed what four districts and one state are doing to help principals improve their craft and focus on instructional leadership. The report also notes “why principals love” each of the initiatives:

1. More capacity to focus on strategic priorities, District of Columbia Public Schools: A newly created, school-level leadership position—the director of strategy and logistics—oversees administrative tasks such as operations, enrollment, facilities, security, food and nutrition, and inventory. This frees principals up to work on academics, culture and climate.

“Prior to the creation of this position, principals in DCPS reported spending nearly half of their time on building management, and teachers reported a lack of administrative support as a primary reason for departure,” Aspen’s researchers wrote.

Why principals love it: They have more time to focus on instructional leadership and other strategic priorities.

2. Responsive PD for principals, Cleveland Metropolitan School District: Professional development now zeroes in on areas where principals have the most impact. PD has shifted from procedural updates and compliance to teaching, learning, and leadership. Also, the district’s PD provider regularly collects feedback from principals and assistant principals on content and scheduling.

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Why principals love it: Principals’ feedback helped create “rigorous and relevant learning opportunities.” Principals are now confident student achievement is also a priority for district leadership.

3. Support from content specialists, Tulsa Public Schools: Teams of content specialists now provide principals and principal supervisors with additional expertise. Principals also have access to a “School Partner Team” of central office administrators and, early in their careers, leadership development coaches. School Partner Teams analyze school-level data, determine strategic shifts and offer PD to improve outcomes.

Why principals love it: School Partner Teams’ serve as thought partners and content experts to expand principals’ capacity. Content leaders synthesize data to help principals make informed decisions.

4. Differentiated professional learning for principals, Long Beach Unified School District: Differentiated professional development covers “competencies and leadership dispositions that effective principals should demonstrate and the subsequent support principals need to achieve those competencies.”

Why principals love it: Principals receive support from coaches or principal supervisors who are former principals.

5. Evaluating readiness through authentic tasks, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education: The “Performance Assessment for Leaders” measures school leadership candidates’ skills in evaluating teacher effectiveness, analyzing data, and creating a professional learning community.

Why principals love it: The assessment prepares principals by emphasizing technical and adaptive skills.

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Bear with us, because it’s student-centered.

The Highlands Ranch High School leader worked with other principals from Colorado’s Douglas County School District to create a universal schedule that gives students access to a wider range of classes that aren’t offered at their home high schools. For example, his school doesn’t offer Calculus 3, but a nearby high school does. In the past, the student schedule would have been adjusted, but taking Calculus at another school meant they could lose two or three other classes, Page explains.

To go with the schedule, the district added a busing system to transport students. “Kids don’t miss school anymore,” says Page, Colorado’s reigning Principal of the Year. “They might miss five or 10 minutes, but they have more access to more classes.”

In his own building, he introduced a homeroom period that gives students opportunities to retake tests and access other interventions, without having to be pulled out of a core academic class. It has also become a key part of the school’s efforts to support mental health. Students can meet with groups that focus on topics such as grief and test anxiety. Page and his team are now digging into the data to see how the universal schedule and homeroom approach is impacting student achievement.

“Even though we’re a well-achieving district and school, being able to continue to move the needle is important,” Page asserts. “We want kids to feel success.” 

He also helped write the district’s equity policy, which stipulates that all students should have access to all the resources they need to learn and grow. And the policy survived a recent review by a newly elected school board despite the controversies that have been drummed up around critical race theory and DEI, he notes.

“After it was put out to the community to review, analyze and discuss, the community collectively agreed this is the right work, this is what we need to do,” Page adds.

‘The Streets of Highlands Ranch’

Along with the schedules, Page is also excited about the efforts he and his educators are making to improve grades. More specifically, he and his teachers are working on differentiating and aligning the curriculum. This will not only smooth the transition when students switch schools but will better support special education and more culturally responsive instruction, Page asserts.

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Instruction is now aligned with the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” framework and more diverse books have been added to the ELA curriculum. “It’s embedding the culture of different peoples into our schools,” he says. “We do things like ‘The Streets of Highlands Ranch,’ where we highlight all the different types of people who are in our halls.”

He and his educators are also exploring how to use ChatGT in education, rather than banishing it as a threat to academic integrity. His goal is to teach students to use it to analyze their work. “As opposed to seeing it as an antithesis, seeing it a support—there is a productive way to use it without cheating,” he says.  

One of the biggest challenges he and his educators are facing in the wake of the COVID pandemic and remote instruction is a widespread and more severe level of disengagement among students. While some students aren’t showing up at all, others are in school but skipping class.

“When you confront them in the hallway, historically it used to be, ‘Hey, you need to go class,’ ‘Hey where supposed to be?’ and kids were, for the most part, compliant,” he says. “Now, we’ve got a lot more kids who are pushing back, saying ‘Well, I need to walk around.’ Their catchall is, ‘I can’t be in there right now, I’ve got some mental health issues.'”

The post How Colorado’s Principal of the Year is giving students more learning time appeared first on District Administration.

“It’s embedded in our culture,” says Brady, who was recently named a National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principals. “We are giving them good, real-life examples of what a leader in the community can achieve.”

Her students are developing competencies in socialization, public speaking and taking initiative, among other skills, adds Brady, whose building, named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2022, is a part of the Red Clay Consolidated School District.

For the adults in the building, she has prioritized distributive leadership by creating grade-level and multidisciplinary leadership teams that include special education teachers and counselors. Among their key roles are helping to set goals and craft Linden Hill’s continuous improvement plan.

The school also has a staff recognition team called the Sunshine Committee, which organizes regular events such as staff yoga and meal training for ailing colleagues. “It’s so important for people to know that, yes, we work very hard but we are also human beings and we have other priorities outside school,” she says.

How being a principal is changing

Brady, like many other superintendents and principals District Administration, has spoken with over the past few months, is finally feeling confident that school is returning to normal after the disruptions of the last several years.

“We are really getting to where teachers, myself and support staff are falling in love with teaching again,” she notes. “Teaching to a screen is not where elementary teachers are at their best—they are active, they are animated, they move around, and we’ve gotten back to that.”

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Her own focus is shifting back to instructional leadership and coaching, and tracking special education compliance, all tasks she finds more fulfilling than worrying about who and who isn’t logged into Zoom. However, Linden Hill and many other elementary schools in Delaware and across the nation are contending with a widening gap in the skills students have when they enter the early grades.

“It’s very hard to fund all of the support that is needed to level the playing field,” Brady explains. “Our teachers and our school counselors are being asked to do some pretty remarkable things.”

Complicating the issue are Delaware’s charter schools, which have siphoned off more affluent students from the state’s public K12 system. Marginalized families don’t have the same bandwidth to research their K12 alternatives, she contends. “Some of the charters have become quite elite,” she concludes.

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“I understand that being an African-American male principal and receiving this award is a unique honor,” says Walker, whose school is part of Anne Arundel County Public Schools. “I hope this award provides inspiration to other principals of color to continue their work and dedication.”

Walker recently spoke to District Administration about diversifying Brooklyn Park Elementary School’s staff, better connecting with Hispanic families and becoming a community school.

1. How did you diversify your staff and why was this a priority for you?

Recruiting and retaining a diverse staff has been important at Brooklyn Park Elementary School. When I started nine years ago, there were no teachers of color. Starting the summer of my principalship, I started the work of creating a diverse staff at BPES.

The creation of a diverse staff is personal to me. First, I did not have a teacher of color until I was a senior in college. I did not have an African-American male teacher until I started my doctoral program at the University of Maryland. I can count on one hand how many teachers of color taught me. I never wanted any student under my care to experience this lack of connection.

Second, I partnered with human resources to attend job fairs and hiring events. This partnership has provided me the opportunity to hire teachers of color for my school. Principals need to understand the greatest recruitment tool is retention. To retain teachers of color, you must connect with them, understand their struggles and provide leadership opportunities.

2. You’ve received recognition for your Boys of Distinction program. How does it work and how are you going to measure success?

Boys of Distinction is a partnership grant with the Maryland Department of Education. The grant provides schools the opportunity to provide experiences and mentoring for African-American boys. We monitor growth by analyzing the following data:

• Attendance
• Behavior referrals
• District benchmarks

3. You’ve also made it a priority to increase outreach to Hispanic families. Are you making progress?

We are still working to better connect with our Hispanic families. Our work started by hiring a bilingual secretary to assist with communication and registration.

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Second, we increased the number of days our bilingual facilitator was present in our building. The bilingual facilitator assists by translating documents and meeting with parents. Third, we have offered English classes to parents in the community.

Additionally, we have been very intentional with our communication by having both English and Spanish versions for our community. Our Hispanic population continues to grow and we as a BPES community need to continue to provide opportunities for connection and inclusion for our Hispanic families.

4. What other exciting things happening at Brooklyn Park Elementary School?

I am very excited about being a community school and the opportunities this will provide for our community. We hired a community schools manager who will partner with me to provide opportunities for our families.

5. What are the keys to your leadership philosophy, and how do these contribute to the school’s success?

1. Parents send us the best that they have. It’s our job to care for ALL kids.
2. Positive relationships and connections matter. You must connect with your kids.
3. Be open to feedback and focus on continuous improvement.
4. Have fun and celebrate success.

6. How have your job/responsibilities changed over the last few years?

The pandemic and post-pandemic have been tough. The social and emotional needs since the pandemic have increased. Not only are we still dealing with learning loss, but the SEL needs are very real.

My assistant principal said, “Kids have forgotten how to play and be nice to each other”. I totally agree. Additionally, the SEL needs of our staff—teachers and staff are human beings, and we forget they have personal needs.

7. What are the biggest challenges Brooklyn Park Elementary is facing right now?

Our greatest challenge is chronic absenteeism. We are working with our families to best support their needs and improve their children’s attendance.

Leadership shifts:: Turnover at the top continues to churn coast to coast

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