Las Abuelitas dance member, Dolores Savage, with South San Antonio ISD elementary student performing at the Tobin Center in San Antonio, Texas. The group opened a Dia De Los Muertos event headlined by national touring group, Ballet Nepantla.
CEL MISSION
Leadership Development & Professional Services. The CEL develops and implements educational and professional development opportunities for school and community leaders, including offering seminars and aspiring leadership workshops for members of the San Antonio community.
Praxis-Oriented Research. The CEL facilitates and conducts research that is relevant to educational policy and practice, meaningful to the schools and communities of San Antonio and South Texas, and transformational for schools, communities, and students and their families.
Educational Initiatives & Partnerships. The CEL engages with partners to build leadership pathways across school-community contexts, and leads major educational transformation initiatives with non-profit, policy, research and philanthropic organizations across the P20 continuum.
Convenings & Events. The CEL convenes education and community thought leaders to share ideas, programs and approaches to improving education, and facilitates conversations on increasing educational opportunity, fostering transformational leadership, and promoting community-building and social justice praxis.
SUBMIT TO THE FORUM
The CEL invites authors to submit pieces of 1,500-2,000 words on topics related to educational leadership program innovations, educational policy, community building, and youth and teacher leadership. Any inquiries may be directed to CEL staff.
TRINITY
LEADERSHIP FORUM
Editor Enrique Alemán, Jr., Ph.D
Associate Editors
Lisa Mendoza Knecht, Ph.D.
Vangie Aguilera, Ed.D.
Graphic Designer
Genevieve Humphreys
Publication is published by the Center for Educational Leadership. Trinity’s Center for Educational Leadership provides regular cohortbased convenings, national speakers on critical education issues, as well as targeted learning seminars for continued leadership development. Since its establishment in 1982, CEL has provided thought leadership, innovative leadership programs, and professional development for school districts.
CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM
Enrique Alemán, Jr., Ph.D. Lillian Radford Endowed Professor of Education Director, CEL Director, Trinity Tomorrow’s Leaders Program ealeman@trinity.edu
Angela Breidenstein, Ed.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Education abreiden@trinity.edu
Evangeline Aguilera, Ed.D. Leadership Coordinator, CEL Executive Director, Trinity School Design Network eaguiler@trinity.edu
Lisa Mendoza Knecht, Ph.D. Educational Research Associate, CEL lknecht@trinity.edu
Lisa Chavez, M.S. Senior Program Coordinator, CEL lchavez2@trinity.edu
ABUELITA EPISTEMOLOGIES IN URBAN SCHOOLS
Katherine Espinoza 1
MY JOURNEY TOWARD ADVOCACY AND HUMANIZATION IN THE EDUCATIONAL POLICY PROCESS
Elizabeth McLain 2
PARTNERING ON EVALUATION MODELS OF EQUITY AND INNOVATION
Vangie Aguilera
Michelle Askeland 3
Tomorrow’s Leaders Program, Cohort 25 meeting with U.S. Congressman Greg Casar on the east steps of the U.S. Capitol during the April 2024 D.C. Policy Trip. Congressman Casar’s district encompasses several San Antonio districts and schools.
KATHERINE ESPINOZA
ABUELITA EPISTEMOLOGIES IN URBAN SCHOOLS 1
We have to be the ones to teach los chiquitos [the little ones] about what we know, how we learned it, and who we learned it from. If we don’t do it, who will? I graduated from Fox Tech in 1957 and I never remember a teacher asking me about my dancing. I feel like this is not something that is extra, it is a part of our culture and it belongs in schools. I’m so blessed that we are dancing for these niños because that could have been me a really long time ago.
Manuela, Las Abuelitas Dancer
During the months of October and November, schools around the city partake in a myriad of experiences related to Día de Los Muertos/Day of the Dead. This is a vibrant and meaningful holiday celebrated primarily in Mexico and by people of Latinx heritage worldwide. It typically takes place on November 1st and 2nd, coinciding with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. For years, San Antonio has embraced the commemoration of this day through city-wide celebrations such as Muertos Fest and the Day of the Dead River Parade. Local K-12 schools have also coordinated events that celebrate this day. As a new faculty member at Trinity
University, I participated in the university’s cluster hire initiative, which focused on recruiting faculty members whose scholarship aligns with building more inclusive communities. And, as part of grounding myself in the Trinity University community, I have worked purposefully to find ways of aligning my research, teaching, and service with my engagement in our department’s partnership school in the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD). In this piece, I share some of the emerging research that I’ve conducted in collaboration with my colleague, Dr. Rocío Delgado, in which we orchestrated a visit by the Las Abuelitas dance group to Lamar Elementary for the school’s Dia de Los Muertos event. In coordi-
nating this event, teaching our Trinity students and conducting my research, I continue to ask: How can my research and teaching connect service opportunities grounded in a school community’s needs and interests? And what impact can using culturally sustainable practices and methods have on the historically underserved students and communities with whom we work?
LAS ABUELITAS: GRANDMOTHERS TEACHING THROUGH DANCE
Las Abuelitas, a local group of senior ladies and grandmothers who dance baile
folklórico, has existed since 2010. I first met the group of senior dancers when I saw them dancing at the WellMed Center and became more formally affiliated with them in 2021 when they were invited to dance for a school that I volunteered for. Since then, my relationship with the group has grown to my serving as their unofficial manager, coordinating and booking events, managing their schedule, and brainstorming fundraising opportunities. Throughout this time, they have taught me so much about the compromiso (commitment) that researchers must have when conducting research with community educators and leaders. They also challenge me to think about the ways I can continue to cultivate relationships with them, and to re-think the methodological approaches that I utilize in my research.
As a tenure track scholar who studies the experiences of Latinx students and family engagement, I’ve engaged in par-
ticipatory and collaborative scholarship with these elders. This work has enabled me to grow as a scholar and extended my thinking on my epistemology and methodological approaches. For example, I have learned that working with abuelitas in schools not only enhances research endeavors by providing rich qualitative data but it also enriches teaching practices and serves the community by promoting intergenerational dialogue and cultural exchange. This approach contributes to a more inclusive and meaningful educational experience based on the ancestral knowledge they share. Thus far, the group has performed at three local schools, including Neil Armstrong Elementary in the South San Antonio Independent School District, Winston Intermediate School of Excellence in Edgewood Independent School District, and Lamar Academy in San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD). They have also performed at several
festivals including the Fiesta Flambeau Parade and Frida Fest. The group continues to push me to think about how our elders are often the guardians of cultural traditions, history, and values. By listening to them, students can gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of their cultural heritage, fostering a sense of identity and connection to their community. For example, in Manuela’s quote above, she explicitly calls for more culturally relevant teaching and states how she feels it is important for abuelitas to share experiences related to culture with students. The quote was captured as Las Abuelitas met at Carmelitas, a Mexican restaurant close to the school, as they were discussing their connections to SAISD and their emotions about dancing. In her own words, Manuela shared why she felt a responsibility for doing this work, “If we don’t do it, who will?”
Members of the Las Abuelitas dance group, Mary Ann Aguirre, Dolores Savage, Sandy Rodriguez, Mary Cimadevilla (from left to right). Las Abuelitas dancers range in age from 72 and 84 and have been dancing for over 10 years.
LAMAR ELEMENTARY AND SAISD’S PARTNERSHIP WITH TRINITY UNIVERSITY
The niños Manuela refers to in the opening quote attend Lamar Academy, a school within SAISD that mirrors the district’s majority Latina/o demographic makeup, and one of Trinity University’s professional development schools. Lamar receives Trinity students who are part of the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) graduate program, enabling our students to gain valuable in-class experience in their year-long teacher preparation internship. Established as a partnership school in 2013, Trinity’s Department of Education grounds the collaboration on the following goals:
1. Prepare outstanding teacher candidates;
2. Develop outstanding instructional practices;
3. Use inquiry as a tool to drive school transformation; and,
4. Improve student learning.
As a successful partnership for over ten years, our collective work was dealt a significant setback in the past academic year. During early fall, SAISD board of trustees voted to close 15 schools as part of the district’s “right-sizing” initiative. Lamar Academy was placed on the district’s list of the closures. With this school closing, our work with MAT students and a new professional development school will continue. In the following sections, I share how our partnership leveraged the richness of this school community and engaged with its community members in ways that allowed our Trinity students to apply and embed culturally sustainable practices.
Las
ABUELITA
EPISTEMOLOGIES AND EDUCATION
Our abuelitas, or grandmothers, are vitally important to many of our families. They teach and nurture us, pass on knowledge and history, and ground our families in the wisdom that has been passed down from generation to generation. Educational and Chicana/o-Latina/o scholars have begun to theorize and write about the ways that abuelitas pass on their knowledge - their epistemologies - and possibilities for incorporating these ways of knowing into our scholarship and practice. Utilizing the knowledge of abuelitas in schools is crucial for fostering a rich educational environment that goes beyond textbooks and academic theories, providing students with invaluable real-life wisdom and perspectives.
Gonzalez’s (2015) autoethnographic inquiry grounds the idea and practice of abuelita epistemologies as a critical tool for counteracting subtractive schooling practices (Valenzuela, 1999) in education. Drawing from her memories of her grandmother, she asserts that “grandmothers help their families adapt to new
contexts and new cultures while preserving sacred traditions and ways of knowing” (p. 43). Gonzalez documents how abuelita ways of knowing and being can be shared in the classroom through culturally sensitive ways, including through music, with food, and by storytelling. As such, she argues that schools should draw from the knowledge that students carry with them from their grandmothers and that educators should insert these opportunities into school pedagogical practices. In some of my previous collaborative work (Kohler and Espinoza, 2023), we also provide examples of how abuelita epistemologies can be incorporated into curriculum with elementary school students related to arts integration in content area instruction. My current work with Las Abuelitas aligns explicitly with abuelita epistemological approaches to language arts instruction through storytelling and read-alouds. Here, I extend my previous work by connecting abuelita epistemologies to school praxis in culturally sustaining ways through dance, baile folklórico, and Lamar’s Dia de Los Muertos celebration.
Abuelitas dancers, Dolores Savage and Erly Perkins, helping a South San Antonio ISD student with a Jalisco dress. The group was practicing for their Tobin Center performance, held in October 2023.
for their end
Students in San Antonio ISD’s Lamar Elementary practicing
of year celebration/despedida. The group is led by 3rd grade teacher Ms Nava along with Dr. Espinoza.
TEACHING DIVERSE LEARNERS COURSE
Within Trinity’s MAT program, pre-service teachers are placed in classrooms for a year-long internship program. Simultaneously, they continue to take courses at the university. During the fall 2023 semester, I co-taught the “Teaching Diverse Learners” course with Dr. Delgado. In this course, our students examine programming and services that facilitate culturally and linguistically responsive instruction for learners with and without disabilities. Additionally, our students learn strategies for teaching diverse students in general and special education classes. At the conclusion of the course, our pre-service teachers are intended to acquire the ability to successfully:
1. Identify the impact of cultural and linguistic diversity on learning and teaching.
2. Articulate historical and legal precedents that impact the education of students with learning differences.
3. Integrate culturally responsive practices into lesson planning/ instruction for students with diverse learning needs.
4. Identify and respond to issues that impact educational equity for all learners, including those who may be culturally and linguistically diverse and/or have special needs.
5. Explore strategies they can apply in the classroom to meet the needs of diverse learners.
6. Engage in extended research that will inform their practice of effective instruction for diverse learners.
During the month of October, I taught four sessions on emergent bilinguals and
policies and practices that impact their educational trajectories. These topics included emergent bilingual students with different language proficiency levels, cultivating relationships with emergent bilingual students and families that reflect cultural sensitivity, unpacking emergent bilingual English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS), analyzing content and language objectives, and implementing linguistic accommodations and strategies. The “Teaching Diverse Learners” course was the inception point for the Lamar Dia de Los Muertos experience. Fresh from the announcement of school closures, pre-service teachers at Lamar were eager to share their feelings and reactions to what was happening within their campus community. It was during this time that Dania (a pseudonym for one of our students) shared that she was concerned that because of the announcement of the school’s closure, the school might not want to continue with their plans to host the event. During our daily class check-in, she stated:
Dania’s response documents how as a pre-service teacher she was wrestling with and processing the closure of the school. She shared her feelings on the closure announcement and what impact this would have on the entire school community. Dania situated her response by questioning how a school like Lamar can continue to function when coping with the reality that they would be closing. Cervantes-Soon (2018) reminds us that, “In this way, not just language and ethnicity, but also race, class, patriarchy,
and heteronormativity within a global understanding of borders, colonial histories, and hierarchies become the center of analysis” (p. 870). As the Lamar community was dealing with the announcement of the school’s closure and also acknowledging that the pre-service teachers themselves were very much a part of the community they were serving, it seemed appropriate to continue interrogating the systems and power structures at play.
JustaMinute by Yuyi Morales ←
2023-2024 MAT Elementary School Preservice Teachers working on math activity based on JustaMinute
During the same class session, I shared teaching practices embedded in culturally sustaining read-alouds. Students were introduced to Cervantes-Soon’s (2018) notion of Xicana Feminist framework for bilingual teacher preparation as a culturally sustaining biliteracy practice. I incorporated abuelita epistemologies as a culturally sustaining praxis through a read-aloud of the children’s book, “Just a Minute” by Yuyi Morales. This was then paired with a hands-on activity connected to measurement and math, and culminated with learning two traditional dances used for teaching students about Dia de Los Muertos, Calaverita de Azucar and Tumbas Por Aqui, Tumbas Por Alla.
After the presentations and activities were completed, I collaborated with the pre-service teachers placed at Lamar who came together to organize a DDLM with the school community. Leading up to the event, I worked with one of the dual language teachers who had a split classroom of third and fourth-grade students on a unit that taught Dia de Los Muertos through abuelita epistemologies. Dania, read a book and modeled the math activity she had used in class. She then had students engage in a writing activity she created herself after which she reflected:
Dania’s reflection illustrates her own experience with having to adhere to a “scripted curriculum that the school adopted.” She shared the importance of being able to craft and create resources herself as a pre-service teacher and how implementing a lesson like this increased student engagement. Dania equated engagement with the excitement students had in response to the learning they participated in.
LAMAR STUDENTS AND LAS ABUELITAS
The Dia de Los Muertos experience at Lamar combined the synergy between the Lamar students, their MAT pre-service teachers, and Las Abuelitas. The combined third and fourth-grade class learned the dances Calaverita de Azucar (2023) and Tumbas Por Aquí, Tumbas Por Allá (2020). Through this experience, students learned valuable information from Las Abuelitas related to the attire worn by dancers. Las Abuelitas dance instructor, Ms. Chapa led the discussion with the young students as they were preparing for the performance. She stated:
Boysandgirls,doyouseehowcolorful these dresses are? I want to tellyouwhytheyaresospecial.The solidcolorsofthedresscomefrom theSpain.Doyouseetheribbons andthelace?Iliketocallthatflair, andthatcomesfromtheindigenous peoplefromMexico,theMayans andtheAztec.Whenyoucombine thesestylestogetherwecallthisa Jaliscodressandthatiswhatthe girlsarewearingtoday.
After the conversation Ms. Chapa had with the students, the other Las Abuelita dancers helped dress and prepare all of the students for the performance. As they got ready, Las Abuelitas took time to reinforce Ms. Chapa’s words and showed the students the addition of lace and ribbons that were present on the dresses they were wearing. That afternoon, students danced Calaverita de Azucar (2023) and Tumbas Por Aquí, Tumbas Por Allá (2020) for a packed audience in the school cafeteria. The entire Lamar student body was present in addition to parents, Trinity University pre-service teachers, faculty, staff, and community members.
MOVING TRINITY UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP SCHOOLS FORWARD
This initial experience grounded in the Dia De Los Muertos celebration opened the door for more collaborations with other teachers and Las Abuelitas. What began as one classroom and one teacher spread to an end-of-year experience that incorporated three dual-language classrooms and teachers. As Trinity University continues to explore and commit to future partnerships with other public schools in our surrounding community, we must continue to find ways to build partnerships grounded in culturally sustainable practices. As teacher educators, we continue learning from each other and collaborating with schools, teachers, students, and communities.
In the inaugural Trinity University Leadership Forum, Alemán and Mendoza Knecht (2024) share, “cultivating spaces and coordinating learning sessions that promote deep and authentic dialogue takes consistent attention and continuous efforts at relationship building” (p. 12). With this in mind, as we begin a new academic year, my hope is to continue to find ways that afford the opportunity to align research, teaching, and service in meaningful ways that continue to have a positive impact on our local community. We create and sustain spaces where Trinity University’s pre-service teachers are able to engage and reflect on their teaching dispositions related to working and serving communities that are predominantly Latina/o.
← Las Abuelitas dancer, Sandy Rodriguez, performing at the Dia De Los Muertos event at the Tobin Center.
← Elementary students from South San Antonio ISD practicing with Dr. Espinoza, Las Abuelitas and parents at a parent engagement event.
Las Abuelitas dancer, Mary Cimadevilla and two elementary students from Neil Armstrong Elementary in the South San Antonio ISD, performing at the Tobin Center for Dia De Los Muertos.
REFERENCES
Alemán, E., Jr. & Mendoza Knecht, L. (2024). Engaging youth as leaders. Trinity Leadership Forum, Winter 2024, No. 1, pp. 8-13. Center for Educational Leadership.
Cervantes-Soon, C. G. (2018). Using a Xicana feminist framework in bilingual teacher preparation: Toward an anticolonial path. The Urban Review, 50(5), 857-888.
EducababyTV. (2020). Tumbas por aquí, tumbas por allá. Canciones Infantiles de Halloween-Día de los Muertos.https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=zpuw3y3Vmr4
Gonzales, S. M. (2015). Abuelita epistemologies: Counteracting subtractive schools in American education. Journal of Latinos and Education, 14(1), 40-54.
Kohler, K. L., & Espinoza, K. (2023). Embracing abuelita epistemologies,“Nací para bailar”: A pathway for creating culturally sustaining lessons for LatinX students. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 43, 100768. Morales, Y. (2003). Just a minute!: A trickster tale and counting book. Chronicle Books. Toycontando. (2023). Calaverita de azúcar. Canciones infantiles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khsZ-1sj1sw
Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: Issues of caring in education of US-Mexican youth. State University of New York Press.
ELIZABETH MCLAIN
MY JOURNEY TOWARD ADVOCACY AND HUMANIZATION IN THE EDUCATIONAL POLICY PROCESS 2
II have been an educator for nine years and taught in classrooms from Pre-K through 8th Grade, and am blessed with this experience. It has given me the opportunity to work in a self-contained classroom as well as in compartmentalized subjects. Over the last four years, I have taught students about history and the U.S. government. However, completing the Educational Law and Policy course as part of the Trinity Tomorrow’s Leaders graduate program provided me the opportunity to directly advocate for policy change on behalf of my students.
As part of our program, I worked with a team of two other San Antonio-based teacher leaders and completed a policy project in which our team then visited the U.S. Capitol and met with five legislative offices, including Congressman Tony Gonzalez of Texas, Congressman Nathaniel Moran of Texas, and R.J. Martin of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. We presented our work, gave research-based recommendations
and shared our experiences and perspectives as educators with a combined over 25 years of experience. This work was critical for building our confidence and allowing me to find my voice in pushing for equity in our schools.
ADVOCATING FOR HR 2690
Specifically, our team worked on bringing more awareness and support to House Resolution (H.R.) 2690, or the Ending PUSHOUT Act of 2023. This legislation seeks to reduce suspensions and expulsions (otherwise known as exclusionary discipline), especially as this form of discipline targets and disrupts the education of students of color. The Ending PUSHOUT Act seeks to proactively address this issue by providing grant money to bolster schools with better access to resources like social workers, counselors, and systems like Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered
← Elizabeth McLain advocating for her team’s policy recommendation with legislative staffer for U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro during the D.C. Policy Trip to U.S. Capitol.
TSystems of Support (MTSS).
hese resources help provide better training to support students and teachers with positive behavior interventions. Our team examined the impact of exclusionary discipline on students of color in our own schools, interviewing them so their voices could be incorporated and centered in our project, and so that they could be shared when we visited the U.S. Capitol. Ultimately, we shared what we found with policymakers and described how many minutes of instructional time are lost due to suspensions (the minutes our schools lost in total during the 2022-23 school year was over 3,706,747 million) and how students of color are disproportionately suspended within our own schools. During our team work we continually asked: Where are the equity gaps on our own campuses? How does federal policy impact our classrooms? Our findings led us to making recommendations for reforming our disciplinary systems and practices on our own campuses.
JULIANA’S STORY: THE IMPORTANCE OF CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF DISCIPLINARY DATA
Many of us who are educators know firsthand the negative impact that disproportionate disciplinary practices can have on the educational success of our students. However, if you are unfamiliar with discipline demographics and their potential impact at your own school, it is vital that educators and educational leaders take the time to look into them. We should ask: What proportion of our population are students of color? How do these data compare to the proportion of students who receive disciplinary action in our
school? In our team’s case, we noticed that while only 9.3% of our collective student demographic was African American, they made up 21.1% of exclusionary discipline. During our program, our team was prompted to ask why this disproportionally existed and what we could do to change it. We were able to research and discuss the systems in place within education that contribute to this issue, and to problematize the power dynamics that make them possible. Knowing the history of systemic oppression that is inherent in education is critical. There were American Indian residential schools that worked to eliminate Indigenous cultures in favor of Eurocentric cultures (O’Gara, 2021). Texas school systems punished students for speaking Spanish and had dedicated repeat-grade classes for students of Mexican-descent (Alemán & Luna, 2017). There is the ongoing challenge that we face in the United States related to the school-to-prison pipeline (DuVernay, 2016). All of this is important to framing discussions around what we see happening now, and what we can do to change it.
Educational leaders must reflect about the students who we see missing from our classrooms and consider the impact that this discipline has left on their time with us. Educators are aware of this and have felt these impacts in their classroom, however, have those who make policy been impacted in the same way? Do the policymakers - or their staffers - know the stories and experiences of young people disparately affected by disciplinary policy? Do they understand, for example, how my 8th grader Juliana couldn’t study for her Biology midterm because she was assigned in-school suspension for being out of dress code and needed to wait for her mother to bring her a new pair of pants? School policy and district dress code created a situation where she was removed from a learning environment.
Likewise, policymakers and staffers do not know the story of my teammate’s fifth grade student who left a suicide note in her desk. Teachers and school leaders were able to get her help through the school’s social worker, who can provide more therapeutic interventions than a school counselor, but funding cuts and “right-sizing” in my teammate’s district will have worrying implications for next year. This particular school will have a third more students, and the social worker will be split across two campuses.
These stories humanize the impact that state-level legislation is having on students and teachers. While Texas has a budget surplus, state lawmakers have not increased the per student allotment since 2019, and it is currently $4,000 behind the national average in per-pupil spending (see Raise Your Hand Texas, 2023). What’s more, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds expire in September of this year which means schools will be left with even less money to use toward supporting student needs. Receiving more federal funding through legislation like the Ending PUSHOUT Act would ensure that schools in similar positions are able to receive the funding they need to support students like Juliana and my teammate’s fifth grader, especially when they cannot rely on funding from their states.
Our power lies in telling stories like Juliana’s and in using them to advocate and argue for bills like the Ending PUSHOUT Act. Educators and school leaders are in direct contact with students, parents, and their communities. We see the impact of the decisions made on Capitol Hill daily, and as advocates, we can make change by sharing the stories within our classroom. During our Washington D.C. educational policy experience, as we told our stories and shared how supporting this bill could make a difference, the atmosphere in the room changed markedly. The tone of a
genial greeting changed to one of action and concern. A staffer for Congressman Tony Gonzales mentioned to us that he could not guarantee that his boss would sign on to this bill, but he assured us that he would present our work on the Ending PUSHOUT Act to him.
When education and advocacy are aligned, they can move together in the right direction. Both shape the future, and as educators and educational leaders, we are uniquely situated to have a hand in both. Policy affects our daily lives and impacts our profession constantly. Yet, there are so few educators with their hand in the educational policy making process. Perhaps we feel we do not have enough expertise, or maybe we do not understand the legislative process or structures of authority built into the policy systems that legislators and their staff interact with on a daily basis. However, what this experience has taught me more than anything else is that one’s time in the classroom gives you the expertise, understanding, and authority to discuss education policy with legislators (Craven & Moreno, 2021). Teachers have lived the policy that policymakers are writing. Educators have seen it in action and are specifically trained to educate children. We can put faces, names, and stories to the way a specific educational policy plays out within the context of our classroom and school (Craven & Moreno, 2021).
MY TAKE-AWAYS AND STEPS FORWARD
My biggest take-away from my experince with Trinity Tomorrow’s Leaders Program and with my policy project team is that understanding a topic and all of its details is critical to advocacy. There are many resources available to help ensure that “knowledge is power” is more than a cliche. For example, organizations like
the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) and Raise Your Hand Texas (2023) provided me with information and concepts that aided me in explaining the legislative process to peers, parents, and students. I experienced how educating colleagues on issues lessened their confusion and empowered them to ask more questions. The policy project in general also humanized legislators. When we discussed our issues and experiences with staffers, they were interested in what we were sharing and genuinely wanted to help as best they could. It made calling my legislative representatives seem more accessible and reminded me that they do truly work for the public and should care about the public they serve. Above all, I learned that advocacy is a radical act of love, and that if we are to continue to move forward in a positive direction, we must continually advocate for the changes we wish to see.
In terms of ways forward, there are several things that we can do to continue to shape the future. First and foremost, we need to humanize and listen to our students. We must ask them what they would like to change, what would help them learn better, and what would make school feel safe. Their perspective is critical and should be included. If we want to change things on a national level, we need to start on our campuses. Start by including student voice in campus decisions wherever possible. In discipline policies especially, we must involve the community. When campuses and districts roll out disciplinary policies, school leaders must ask: Who is sitting at the table? Are parents, teachers, students, counselors and social workers involved? If not, they should be. Parents are disciplinarians at home and are partners with the school in following through with school policies; they have a window into how district policy impacts their children and themselves on economic, cultural, emotional, and social levels.
Teachers have perspectives on the impact of discipline policy in the classroom; students have insight into the specific impact of policy on the student body; and social workers and counselors can provide perspective on the social-emotional reach of policies. We should take care that those that write discipline policies come from diverse backgrounds and cultures as well. If not, we run the risk of writing policies that could unwittingly punish students or staff for their economic or cultural backgrounds.
MAINTAINING CRITICAL HOPE AS TEACHER LEADERS AND ASPIRING SCHOOL LEADERS
Educational philosopher, Paolo Freire (1970) states that “the pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity…No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so” (p. 86). It is so incredibly easy to look around your classroom and feel alone. Do not despair. Remember the humanity and struggle of your students, and involve them. If we encourage students to “be the change,” then educators need to empower them to act on the changes they would like to see. By nurturing this spirit of activism, we create change-makers and build the skills and resilience students need to navigate and shape the world. Empower them to start with the changes they see in your classroom. We must do the same for our colleagues and help them to find where actionable changes can be made.
One of the best things about the Trinity Tomorrow’s Leaders Program is that it gave me tools, and therefore hope, to work with policy. In our educator lives it can be hard to look at the policy process,
especially in the field of education, and feel hopeful. The questions that we ask do not always have clear answers, and responses are complicated. Our work can feel overwhelming and never-ending. In those moments, we want to turn to critical hope (Duncan-Andrade, 2009). Specifically, we want to think about ensuring our hope nurtures both ourselves and our students. When I’m exhausted, I think back to a conversation I had with my middle school students when I returned from
the nation’s capital. My students wanted to know if having the policy advocacy experience in D.C. was worth it. I explained the Ending PUSHOUT Act to them, and that its purpose was to make sure that there were other ways that teachers and social workers could get help and support before suspending or expelling students. One of my students, Nick, asked, “That’s what you went to talk about? That’s what they’re writing laws about?” I replied “They’re trying, yeah. We’re trying to get
REFERENCES
more people to support it.” He grinned and yelled excitedly, “That’s some changethe-world shit! I wanna learn to do that!” When students know we care about them enough to make changes for them and for their benefit, it inspires them to become the next wave of change. This is what gives me hope and energy to keep going. They are the future, and they deserve the best presently possible. I owe it to them to do all I can so they can do the same for the next generationon.
Alemán, E., Jr. & Luna, R. (Directors). (2017). Stolen Education. [Film]. Video Project.
Craven, M., J.D. & Moreno, C., J.D. (Hosts). (2021, December 30). The future of education advocacy and being pushy (No. 217) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classnotes Podcast. Intercultural Development Research Association. https://www.idra.org/resource-center/the-future-of-education-advocacy-and-being-pushy-podcast-episode-217/
Duncan-Andrade, J. (2009). Note to educators: Hope required when growing roses in concrete. Harvard educational review, 79(2), 181-194.
Duvernay, A. (Director). (2016). 13th. [Film]. Forward Movement. Ending Punitive, Unfair, School-Based Harm That Is Overt and Unresponsive to Trauma Act of 2023, H.R. 2690, 118th Congress (2023-2024). www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/ house-bill/2690. Accessed 13 July 2024.
Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Bloomsbury Academic, New York.
O’Gara, G. (Director). (2021). Home from school: The children of Carlisle. [Film]. Vision Maker Media. Raise Your Hand Texas (2023 April). School Funding. Raise Your Hand Texas. www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/policy/school-funding/#:~:text=Texas%20is%20currently%20%244%2 000%20behind,has%20not%20increased%20since%202019
Valenzuela, A. (2005). Subtractive schooling, caring relations, and social capital in the schooling of US-Mexican youth. Beyond silenced voices: Class, race, and gender in United States schools, 83-94.
Members of Cohort 25 advocating for their policy recommendations with Representative Greg Casar outside the U.S. Capitol.
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Trinity coaches and team on the northside of the White House, Washington, D.C.
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VANGIE AGUILERA & MICHELLE ASKELAND
PARTNERING ON EVALUATION MODELS OF EQUITY AND INNOVATION 3
While most grant-funded projects and their associated evaluations require flexibility, the Trinity School Design Network (TSDN) project, a multiyear cohort-based principal fellow program, is an example of the importance of adaptability and perseverance. In five years, the project survived a global pandemic, major personnel changes, funding cutbacks, and revised goals, and still wrapped up with a cohort of fellows who have grown as leaders and become agents of change in their communities. “It’s a tribute to both their resilience and flexibility that they were able to complete the project with some really positive outcomes,” said Dr. Jeanette King from McREL International, who served as an external evaluator of the project.
Despite these disruptions, new relationships were forged mid-project. In the case of the program leaders and
McREL’s evaluation team, it grew into a working dynamic that can be a model for other education projects that are needing an external evaluation partnership but are unable to develop a traditional evaluation.
“Our partnership with TSDN is really a beautiful story about the creation of a new evaluation process that, even with limited resources, was still able to inform their project team, participants, and stakeholders about the project’s designs, processes, and outcomes,” said McREL evaluator Sayansk Queiroz Da Silva.
As the project director, I (Dr. Aguilera) believe our university team formed a strong partnership with McREL. They understood the transition we were going through, adapted to the changing university landscape, and accommodated as they managed the data in a structured, well organized way. Ultimately, the partnership was very supportive of our project goals.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Launched in 2019 and housed at Trinity University, TSDN aimed to promote broader systemic change by increasing the number of innovative school opportunities for often marginalized students across the San Antonio area. The curriculum and learning experience was developed to be intense and rigorous to help principal fellows attain the critical skills and competencies necessary to design new schools with a lens focused on equity, empowerment, and innovation. However, in the first full year of the five-year project, the pandemic hit. Instead of realizing the dream of opening new schools, we watched as existing schools shut down and went remote. To put it lightly, “It was very bad timing for the project to start,” said Queiroz Da Silva.
With the realization that opening new schools in the current climate was not realistic, the project needed to shift. The original project leaders went back to the project’s funders, the Walton Fam-
ily Foundation, and changed the focus from designing new schools to building leadership development and capacity. The participating fellows already were distinguished, change-oriented school leaders, and supporting their efforts to bring even more innovative changes into their existing schools, instead of opening new schools, was deemed more achievable. However, since they were no longer opening new schools and the number of cohorts shrank from five groups to three, the grant funding was revised. Then amidst the pandemic upheaval, there were staff changes across the board, leading to disillusionment among participating fellows as the expectations and goals shifted. In 2022, the new team came together. I assumed the role of project director and Dr. Nilka Avilés served as the new leadership coach for the fellows, as well as King and Queiroz Da Silva from McREL, as the external evaluators. The third and final cohort of fellows had just finished their first year of the program, presented their plans and were getting ready to launch them as the new team came on board.
Over the course of the final two years of the project, the focus was on design implementation, coaching and peer engagement through a series of convenings and field experiences intended to deepen their knowledge and leadership skills. Offerings included seminars, book studies, speaker series, discussions, research, reflection and opportunities to share their design work with scholars and practitioners in various academic settings (for a list of resources that we used, see below). The coaching component not only supported the fellows in the implementation of the designs; it often served as a conduit for the exchange of data between the campuses and the evaluators.“This program has been so effective and impactful, even though there were interruptions,” Dr. Avilés explained. “At the beginning, I was struggling to figure out how I could
best support the principal fellows,” she said. “But now, they have become agents of change and transformational leaders.”
A PARTICIPATORY MODEL OF EVALUATION
McREL began working with the Trinity team to re-envision the evaluation process in light of the changes to the project scope and funding. When the grant structure changed, the evaluation budget was trimmed to about 30% of what it had been. However, the assessment questions and the expectation to meet the needs of the client and its funder’s expectations remained. In other words, the McREL staff needed to do some extensive overhauling of the evaluation processes with limited resources.
At the beginning of the project, prior to COVID, McREL had outlined a traditional evaluation model that relied heavily on student achievement data, state assessment data, interviews, and surveys that went out to the school leaders, the leaders’ supervisors, teachers, students, and family members. Then all the data were collected and displayed quantitatively to show if the redesigns were being implemented and if the implementation was meeting the desired school metric outcomes. However, when COVID hit, survey participation declined, interviews became more challenging to schedule and hold, and state assessments were suspended. During the interviews that did happen, the evaluators were hearing rich, informative stories that weren’t being captured in the data. “When rethinking how to do the evaluation, we knew that sharing these stories would be critical,” said King.
The McREL team also knew that in-person meetings remained an important piece of the evaluation puzzle. While the number and frequency of in-person
meetings had to be reduced, a McREL evaluator still met in-person with the project leaders, conducted in-person focus groups with the fellows (in place of individual fellow interviews), and made school site visits. King, Aguilera, and Avilés got creative and found ways to meet up at conferences that they were already attending. From this retooling came a more participatory model of evaluation, which also offered a quicker transfer of information between the fellows, the project’s leadership, and McREL’s evaluators.
“We were able to build trust and shared purpose, and it evolved into the project it is today, which is sort of a partnered evaluation. It’s cooperative. TSDN leaders had to do a lot more evaluation lifting on their side, while evaluators provided them just-in-time feedback. We have this strong relationship and partnership, and they’re learning from us as much as we’re getting the data from them,” King said.
The TSDN team collected data and uploaded it to a shared folder, which was then analyzed by the McREL evaluation team. Part of the new process included expanding everyone’s definition of data. For example, when looking at family engagement, rather than basing the data on a survey that no one was taking, they looked to tell the story in other ways. The principal fellows started to share descriptions and photos of family events, along with attendance data.
At Kriewald Road School of the Arts, student-led “informances” resulted in an increase in family engagement. You can immediately see the level of engagement in the photographs taken at the event. Students were eager to share details of their projects and parents were excited to hear what their students were learning.
presenting at a parent and community engagement at Kriewald Road School of the Arts Elementary.
We captured parent input when a local news station visited Somerset ISD’s THRIVE Center to discuss the innovative ways they are addressing staff and student mental health and wellness. One parent spoke of how the district was making investments in staff mental health after seeing the need arise. “As a parent, I want to know the person who is with my child every day is of sound mind and body so they can do what they need to do—teach.”
At Franz Leadership Academy in Judson ISD, the Parent Advisory Council met regularly, so the agendas of those meetings became evidence. “We looked beyond the traditional method of data collection,” King said. “The TSDN team and the fellows started to see data everywhere—which is how we live here at McREL, we see data everywhere— but I think that’s really helped them, and I think they will carry that forward.” This new process took several months to get used to, but it was worth it. “It became more like a partnership than a McREL–client relationship,” said Queiroz Da Silva. “We’re working together to get this done and to see how these redesigns have affected the schools and the students, and that change really helped improve engagement.” Since data was being collected on a continuous basis, information could be shared more frequently. “By making the TSDN team part of our data collection team, it helped strengthen our relationship, because they learned things from us in real time,” said King.
(RE)DESIGNING INDICATORS OF SUCCESS
The five-year program wrapped up in May 2024 with five principal fellows in Cohort
3 implementing their innovative school redesigns and one new school model. Dr. Melissa Holguin launched THRIVE, a health and wellness center at her campus, Shirleen Zacharias Early College Leadership Academy in Somerset Independent School District. Rosie Hidalgo redesigned her school, Kriewald Road School of the Arts in Southwest Independent School District, to embed fine arts into core instruction. Dr. Kelle Lofton redesigned Franz Elementary into Franz Leadership Academy as part of the Judson ISD’s department of innovation. China Cardriche redesigned her school, Compass Rose Legacy Secondary, to be a community school focusing on entrepreneurship. Additionally, Dr. Megan Correia launched TriPoint Academy, San Antonio’s first free and public micro school. In addition to academic achievement data, each campus submitted artifacts to address the impact of their design on areas such as pedagogical effectiveness, school learning strategies, school/program choices, and teacher-student relationships.
An example of one of the project’s successes in the evaluation partnership is the (re)design campus at Kriewald Road School of the Arts (KRSA) currently in its second year of implementation of the innovative model redesign of a fine arts-infused curriculum. KRSA, located in Southwest ISD, serves a student enrollment of approximately 540 PreK- 5th grade students that is 78% Latina/o/x and 80% economically disadvantaged. The School of the Arts model was predicated on KRSA students receiving expanded and deeper fine arts experiences over and beyond the comprehensive elementary school model. The impact of the redesign has allowed for higher student achievement and engagement, fewer disciplinary referrals, improved attendance, and higher levels of parent engagement. Student and teacher creativity is at the core of this redesign.
When describing the leadership and program development that occurred, Dr. Avilés states, “We started with a very talented group of educators who report that their leadership skills have gone to the next level and that what they learned, the relationships and the networks that they built have been very impactful in their professional life.”
Another example of success in the evaluation process is exemplified by TSDN’s site visit to a university and a community school. In May 2024, the TSDN fellows were invited to share
their experiences in school design with faculty and students at the University of Puerto Rico. Four of the fellows were able to attend. Each one discussed their model and the process, time, and challenges faced, as well as the impact that this work has had on creating more equitable and innovative schools. The culminating experience served as an opportunity for the fellows to reflect on their growth over the last three years and to look back with a sense of pride and joy on their accomplishments and those of their fellow colleagues. Their reflections added to the rich data collected regarding their growth as change agents in their communities.
KRIEWALD ROAD SCHOOL OF THE ARTS DESIGN IMPACT
• Positive School Climate and Culture
• Improved Attendance
• Increased Parental and Community Engagement
• Student and Teacher Creativity
• Staff Collaboration
• Decreased Discipline Referrals
(left to right): Dr. José Soto (University of Puerto Rico, College of Education, Director of Graduate School), Dr. Nilka Avilés, Dr. Margarita Moscoso (UPR Professor & Consultant), Dr. Vangie Aguilera, Rosie Hidalgo, Dr. Kelle Lofton, China Cardriche, Dr. Megan Correia, Dr. Mercedes Reyes (UPR Professor Ret.)
EQUAL PARTNERSHIP MODEL OF EVALUATION
“This slimmed down, streamlined, equal partnership model of doing evaluation— maybe with a small e instead of a capital E— could benefit other innovative education projects or smaller projects that have limited room in their budget for evaluation,” said King. The new version of the annual report presents data that the team collectively believed to be the essential pieces of the TSDN story, namely the outcomes displayed in tables and graphs rather than lengthy narratives. It highlights the status of each outcome and includes key quotes regarding the process undertaken by this final cohort of fellows. The report’s creation became participatory when the TSDN team had the opportunity to make suggestions on whether more or different data points were needed to complete the story. Our team continuously posed questions to each other, such as:
• Is this data complete? Does it tell the whole story?
• Is it aligned with the outcomes we wanted to measure?
• Are we sharing data from multiple perspectives?
• Does it make sense to all stakeholders?
• Is it in a format that is understandable - clear and concise?
• Does it capture the process as well as the impact?
“We wanted their input on how the report would make sense for them, their funders, and their stakeholders,” said Queiroz Da Silva. The TSDN team ensured that the evaluators had access to the data as they coordinated on-site visits and focus groups.
The evaluation team found ways to accommodate the busy schedules of the fellows and followed up with each one, oftentimes rescheduling and with multiple reminders, balancing persistence with patience.
The McREL team reflected on the work, the partnership, and the project’s success. “I’m glad I was able to participate in helping them address the needs of those students in those communities and also help them navigate through those changes and the evaluation redesign,” said Queiroz Da Silva. This participatory model of evaluation is perhaps one of our most notable successes. It is only fitting that a school design project focused on designing “models of equity and innovation” has generated an evaluation process that highlights an equitable partnership and innovative model for evaluation.
Redesign framework developed by Compass Rose Public Schools.
RESOURCES USED IN TSDN CONVENINGS
Aguilar, E. & Corbin, L., (2022). The PD Book: 7 Habits that Transform Professional Development. John Wiley & Sons.
Brown, Tim. (2019). Change by Design. HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY.
Casas, Jimmy. (2017). Culturize. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., San Diego, CA.
Desravines, J., Aquino, J., & Fenton, B. (2016). Breakthrough principals: A step-by-step guide to building stronger schools. John Wiley & Sons.
Edmonds, Amy C. (2013). Teaming to innovate, Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, CA.
Hinnant-Crawford, B. N. (2020). Improvement science in education: A primer. Myers Education Press.
Nash, John B. (2019). Design thinking in schools: A leader’s guide to collaborating for improvement. Harvard Education Press. Cambridge, MA.
Venet, Alex S. (2021) Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education, National Geographic Books.
TSDN Fellows, China Cardriche and Rosie Hidalgo (third and fourth from left), with Trinity team, Drs. Enrique Alemán, Jr., Vangie Aguilera and Nilka Avilés. ←
