PD365 Summer 2026 Journal

Impact • Service • Advocacy

Quarterly Journal - Summer 2026

STUDENTS AS LEADERS

A Letter from the President

PD365 Leaders Amy Warke, President awarke2008@gmail.com Scott England, Past President esengland@umes.edu Amy MacCrindle, President-elect amaccrindle@district158.org Sarah Cacciatore, Treasurer scacciatore@d75.org Andrew Lobdell, Secretary lobdella@le-win.net Debbie Poffinbarger, Media Director debkpoff@gmail.com

Amy Warke ILASCD President Welcome to our Summer Issue, Students

Ryan Nevius, Executive Director rcneviu@me.com

as Leaders! This issue focuses on a theme

Bill Dodds, Associate Director dwdodds1@me.com

education. I can remember discussions

that lies at the heart of transformative going back 20 years where educators

Task Force Leaders:

discussed ways for students to have

Membership & Partnerships Denise Makowski, Amie Corso Reed

choice, voice, and agency in the classroom.

Communications & Publications Belinda Veillon, Jacquie Duginske

to advance, and we continue to learn

As the years pass, technology continues

Advocacy & Influence Richard Lange

more about leadership and intentionally

Program Development Jamie Bajer, Heather Bowman, Scott England, Amy MacCrindle, Ami Engel, Amie Reed, Dee Ann Schnautz, Belinda Veillon, Amy Warke, Doug Wood

student to become a leader.

cultivating and building capacity for every

The articles in this issue illustrate how Illinois districts are turning the theory of Student Leadership into a functional reality by positioning students as primary architects of school culture and policy, 2

Quick Links 4

cultivating leadership inside the classroom each day, leveraging tools and anchoring socialemotional well-being, and sharing visions for the future.

As you read through this journal, I challenge you to reflect on your own practices and consider if any of the thoughts in this edition can enhance your learning environment. When we move from managing to co-creating with students, we see the classroom and the school environment

Whole Child

Book Review: Brave 16 New Words

20 Resource Corner 24 Coding Classroom 31 Build Mathematical Leaders

37 Student Leadership as Strategic Asset

evolve and grow.

Thank you for your continued dedication to empowering the next generation of student

42 Check In, Check Out Connection

46 Leveraging AI

leaders. Enjoy this Summer Issue!

Amy Warke, Ed.D. President, IL ASCD - PD 365

52 Student-Led Design

60 Leadership Lab 66 What Changes

When We Listen

71 Consumers to Co-Creators

78 Silent Leaders 84 Upcoming Events 3

Whole Child

Michael Gecan

Andrea Dinaro

Every Student Should Be a Captain: Building Student Leadership in a Safe & Structured Learning Environment with Student Voice as the Focus

Remember being in class, and your teacher asks, "Who would like to be the leader?" Usually, this may happen when you have a small group discussion or project. Often, the same hands immediately rise while most students avoid eye contact, looking down, and quietly hope they are not selected. Yet leadership, communication, adaptability, and collaboration are skills that every student deserves opportunities to develop. Throughout this article, we share classroom samples, and practical strategies alongside practitioner resources and relevant social science, leadership, and pedagogical literature to support educators interested in fostering student leadership. First-person reflections refer to first author Gecan's experiences teaching physical education.

In classrooms centered on participation and growth, leadership should not belong only to the most outspoken students or the top performers. Instead, leadership opportunities must be intentionally scaffolded so that 4

...leadership opportunities must be intentionally scaffolded so that all students experience challenges within a safe and supportive learning environment. all students experience challenges within a safe and supportive learning environment. This shift can create changes not only to how we teach, but also how students see themselves.

Such environments foster students' sense of agency, belonging, and identity development, often transforming how students view themselves as capable leaders (Darling-Hammond et al., 2020).

The purpose is not simply to have students complete activities. The purpose is to teach students how to lead activities in the future. This becomes especially important for learners who have limited, or do not already have, access to apparent leadership opportunities, such as described in Legatt (2025) the 10 Opportunities to Gain Leadership Experience as a Student.

veteran PE coordinator Paul Zientarski.

As a PE teacher that works with 9-12th grade students myself, I noticed that students were learning about the same sports, activities, and routines year after year. Often, activities revolved around the strongest athletes or the most confident students. The traditional physical education curriculum format unintentionally allowed some students to dominate while others remained passive participants.

This reflection led to a much larger question: What would happen if the students led the activities?

The change was not immediate because it required restructuring some lessons, rethinking participation, and purposefully creating systems that balanced both a safe learning environment, and challenging my students in different ways in comparison to what they were used to. Instead of solely large-group activities where students could disappear into the background, we shifted toward smaller groups, collaborative planning, and student-led experiences.

Rethinking Traditional Participation Several years ago, I began to reflect on my own teaching practices with more intentionality after watching an old TEDx talk regarding the Naperville Central High School’s physical education program called Want Smarter, Healthier Kids? Try Physical Education! given by 5

Whole Child (cont.)

As a developing and emerging leader, students need to understand:

For example, instead of traditional fullteam formats of 5v5 and all the way up to 11v11, students began working in teams of 2v2 to 4v4 max. This naturally increased participation, communication,

• It is okay if leadership is imperfect.

• Mistakes are expected.

One of the most powerful shifts occurred when the class culture moved away from criticism and toward constructive support.

• Growth is valuable, not a sole emphasis on performance.

and accountability. More importantly, it created a safer entry point for students to start taking on leadership roles. Students who might have never volunteered to lead were now more comfortable accepting these types of responsibilities.

• The classroom community shall support those who take risks.

One of the most powerful shifts occurred when the class culture moved away from criticism and toward constructive support.

Safety as a Bridge to Leadership Leadership often requires vulnerability.

For many students, especially those experiencing apprehension/anxiousness, communication variances, or previous struggles with confidence, leadership can feel overwhelming. Over time, I have observed that before students who are new to leadership can effectively lead, they must first feel safe. Creating this safety starts with the teacher as the leader. Even when the students are in charge of guiding the rest of their peers through an activity, it’s the teacher's responsibility to monitor the classroom to make sure it is a safe environment.

Instead of focusing on "what went wrong," students learned to identify solutions, adaptations, and improvements, reflecting a growth-oriented approach to learning that emphasizes revision and self-improvement (Dweck, 2007; Mason, 2016). Positive feedback became an integral part of instruction, guiding students toward deeper learning and future success (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).

Further, I frequently reminded students that "failure is an important part of learning how to succeed." This philosophy mirrors Denis Waitley's assertion that "failure should teach us, not defeat us" and reinforces a growth-oriented 6

approach to leadership and learning (Dweck, 2007; McCarron et. al., 2023).

more importantly during this stage the students will be observing how to: • Explain rules changes

This mindset reduced fear or distress, and encouraged participation from students who previously avoided leadership roles, or had a desire but did not feel ‘qualified.’ This approach aligns with Hau’s description of the importance of the science of wonder’ (Curiosity, Connection, and the Future of Learning, 2026) and Law’s (A Leader's Guide to Creating the Optimal Culture and Climate for Learning, 2026) Positive school climate, trust, and supportive relationships create the conditions necessary for students and teachers to engage in healthy risk-taking and deeper learning.

• Demonstrate new skills • Make safety modifications • Communicate expectations • Encourage participation Along with participating in these activities the students will always be thinking about how they can help make the activity better by making suggestions to both the teacher and fellow students.

Phase Two: Shared Leadership This phase will focus on the class supporting each other, but in a unique way. The teacher will put the students groups of 4 to 5 students to present a team-building activity of their choice.

Each member of the group will have the opportunity to lead a small segment of the class at the same time during the activity (essentially acting as a coach for their peers).

A Scaffolded Leadership as a Model Student leadership doesn’t emerge automatically; it requires intentional scaffolding.

The following examples are supported by the ASCD Whole Child Approach, CAST Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines educational framework, CEC High Leverage Practices, and TPACK Learning Activity Types LATs.

Visual aids and supports become especially helpful (Fray & Fisher, 2023; CEC HLP 18; UNC, EBP Brief Packet: Visual Supports, 2024). The groups design lesson outlines, diagrams, or simple planning templates to organize their ideas.

Phase One: Lead by Example The first phase is focused heavily on modeling. The teacher will present a few different team building activities, but

Allowing the students to plan and prepare reduces uneasiness or 7

Whole Child (cont.) anxiousness because they were not expected to “figure it out” independently. The hardest part of

determines whether the activities are fun or not. Lopsided scores or outcomes can lead to one team or both losing

Providing supports for all students does not limit advanced leaders; it expands their leadership repertoire. this experience is having the students create or implement modifications to the activities that will increase inclusion and engagement. Groups adjusted game rules, changed scoring systems, or redesigned rotations to keep more students involved.

interest, thus leading to many learners not wanting to play anymore.

This approach also benefits students who are already experienced leaders by challenging them to lead in different ways, support their peers, and recognize that effective leadership is not about doing everything themselves. Providing supports for all students does not limit advanced leaders; it expands their leadership repertoire.

Team Work The focus is not on perfection; the emphasis is increasing participation and teamwork. An example of this would be to make teams smaller teams during the activities to increase participation at first, and then increasing the size of the teams later to focus on teamwork. Another way to increase teamwork is to add a piece of equipment that everyone has to touch or hold at some point. Also, how you group teams matters when it comes to participation. At first you want to build everyone's confidence by putting them with students they’re familiar with or are at their ability level, but you can also change teams throughout the activity to make the teams a little bit more fair. This also helps with engagement. Fairness

This structure aligns with and promotes UDL practices, as well as the Least Dangerous Assumption approach (Donnellan, 1984; Jorgensen, 2005).

Assuming students are capable and providing access and supports for all learners does not harm students who already have leadership experience and skills. Instead, by design, it actively supports students with limited or no prior leadership experience. A recent analysis of UDL research conducted between 2014 and 2024 found that "UDL-based instruction frequently 8

applies multiple modes of engagement, representation, and expression" and that reported outcomes included "improved motivation, academic engagement, and social inclusion" (Alhassan & Adebisi, 2025, p. 64).

gradually learned that leadership can look different depending on individual strengths. Some students led vocally, others led through modeling, encouragement, creativity, or organization. Leadership became broader and more inclusive. Leadership is experiential (Developing Student Leadership Skills, Chapman, 2024).

Each student can contribute meaningfully within the class community and incorporate their strengths. Moments like

Phase Three: Student Choice and Confidence Once students experienced success in a guided leadership setting, they moved into greater independence. Students

Leadership became less about “presenting in front of others” and more about helping peers succeed together. began selecting activities, co-leading lessons, and making more instructional decisions. Choice increased engagement pointedly. Students often stated that they felt more invested because they had ownership over the activity structure. Leadership became less about “presenting in front of others” and more about helping peers succeed together.

these reinforce an important reminder: leadership opportunities should not be reserved for a select few students.

Designing the educational environments inclusively responds to the diversity of learning and learners.

Learning to Adapt One of the hardest parts of leadership is adaptability. Students quickly discover that leadership is not simply reading from a slide presentation or following a script. Leadership involves responding to people, emotions, misunderstandings, and solving problems in the moment.

Effectively pairing partners also became important during this phase. Sometimes students who were both new to leadership were partnered together intentionally. This created healthier risk-taking because neither student felt significantly more experienced or dominant than the other. Students

For example, students frequently encountered challenges such as: 9

Whole Child (cont.)

• Dominant personalities within groups

communicate more effectively than repeated verbal explanations. Most importantly, they learned that leadership requires flexibility, and each student had capacity and capability.

• Limited communication • Disagreements over rules • Uneven participation • Confusion during activities

Reflection as a Leadership Tool At the end of activities, feedback as reflection became one of the most valuable components of the process.

Students discussed questions such as:

Rather than fixing every problem for students, the teacher shifts into a coaching role. Students were encouraged to problem-solve collaboratively and think critically about adjustments.

• What advice would you give the next group?

Questions became part of the instructional process:

• Which modifications increased participation the most?

• What changes can we implement to make this activity more enjoyable?

• What worked well?

• What would you change?

• How could we get more students participating in your activity?

• How did your group support one another?

• What’s another way we could explain your activity to make it easier to understand?

These conversations reinforced that leadership is developmental. Reflection allowed students to recognize growth (in themselves, and each other), identify challenges, and celebrate successes. The process also encouraged students to think beyond themselves and focus on the benefit of the whole group, like a team.

• How could someone become injured in an activity like this, and how could that risk be reduced?

These reflective conversations strengthen not only leadership skills but also social-emotional learning competencies (ISBE SEL Standards; CASEL). Students learned to (a) communicate without becoming authoritarian, (b) give advice instead of commands, and (c) how visuals, demonstrations, and modeling often

This shift from individual performance toward collective success transformed classroom culture. Similarly, as Kagaba (2024) noted, research exploring collaborative cultures within schools suggests that "to enhance student 10

• Smaller group settings

achievement and well-being, and to create learning environments that are different from what they were for us, we must work differently than we did" (p.

1). Further, this example highlights the importance of student voice in learning experiences (Framework for Teaching, Domain 3c Engaging Students in Learning, Danielson 2022).

• Positive feedback • Structured planning tools • Teacher coaching • Flexible opportunities for success When both challenge and support exist together, students begin to develop confidence that extends beyond the

Students who initially declined to speak often begin by partnering silently, then co-leading, and eventually volunteering independently. classroom. Students who initially declined to speak often begin by partnering silently, then co-leading, and eventually volunteering independently. Students who once identified themselves as “not leaders” begin to recognize their own strengths. The goal is not flawless presentations or perfectly managed activities. The goal is helping students believe:

Challenge and Support Must Coexist With a foundation of a safe and supported community of learning, the greatest strength of scaffolding students as leaders is the balance between challenge and support.

Students are challenged to: • Communicate • Collaborate

• “I am capable.”

• Adapt

• “I can contribute.”

• Create

• “My opinion matters.”

• Reflect

• “I can lead.”

• Lead others

Every Student a Captain The purpose of this article was to emphasize and amplify the often less visible yet essential ‘transferable skills’

At the same time, they are supported through: • Scaffolded instruction (Law et al., 2026) 11

Whole Child (cont.) of participating and leading, along with potential for connections to a wider net of content areas.

Some will

The example activities presented throughout this article are intentionally aligned with the ISBE Physical Education Standards. Specifically, these activities address Standard 19.C.4a (Develop rules and safety procedures for physical activity) and Standard 19.C.4b (Select and apply offensive, defensive, and cooperative strategies in selected activities, games, and sports). In addition, the daily activity rubric used to assess each student is aligned with these standards and provides opportunities for students to actively participate in and support peer-led group presentations. Table 1 illustrates samples of how daily participation expectations and group project activities align with the ISBE PE Standards.

• lead through creativity.

• lead loudly.

• lead quietly.

• lead through encouragement.

• lead simply by trying something difficult for the first time.

All of those expressions of leading are substantive. Leadership is not reserved for the most outspoken students or those who naturally step into the spotlight. Rather, leadership can be intentionally designed, scaffolded, and experienced by all students. As educators continue to rethink the skills of engagement, participation, and student voice, we can find that when students are trusted with leadership, they often exceed the expectations they once placed on themselves. In order to master anything, students should eventually be able to teach it to someone else. Finding ways to place students in leadership positions at an early age is important, but it must occur after they have learned the fundamentals. Supports and opportunities promote the confidence to take the next step of teaching, leading, or helping others.

Perhaps the most important realization from this work is that leadership should not be reserved for a select group of students. Every student deserves opportunities to experience responsibility, voice, and growth (Danielson, 2022; ASCD, 2007, 2013).

When teachers intentionally create environments that are safe, scaffolded, reflective, and with inclusive design, students rise to those opportunities in remarkable ways.

Ask yourself and your teams: In what ways are we already creating opportunities for every student to actively practice leadership, and where can we continue to expand?

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Table 1 State Standard (Early HS) Grade Objective/Assessment

Sophomore PE Application

19.A.4a

Perform skills efficiently in a variety 9&10 of leisure activities.

Daily Activity Rubric (Rules)

19.A.4b

Participate daily in moderate to vigorous physical activity while performing movement patterns in a 9&10 variety of activities.

19.C.4a

Develop rules and safety procedures Modified Sports Unit (Modifications 9&10 for physical activities. & Safety Rules/Guidelines in Rubric)

19.C.4b

Select and apply offensive, defensive, and cooperative strategies in selected activities, games, and Team Building Unit (Teamwork 9&10 sports.

Objective in Rubric)

20.A.4a

Interpret the effects of exercise/physical activity on the level of health-related and 9&10 skill-related fitness components.

21.A.4a

Demonstrate decision making skills both independently and with others Daily Activity Rubric (Activity Involvement & Cooperation) 9&10 during physical activity.

21.A.4b

Apply identified procedures to all 9&10 group physical activity settings.

Daily Activity Rubric (Rules)

21.A.4c

9&10 Complete a given task on time.

Daily Activity Rubric (Objective)

21.B.4a

Work cooperatively with others to achieve group goals in competitive and no-competitive situations 9&10 (baseball, choreographing a dance).

Daily Activity Rubric (Cooperation)

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Daily Activity Rubric (Activity Involvement)

Team Building Unit & Modified Sports Unit - (Health & Skill Related Fitness Components Application in Rubrics)

Whole Child (cont.)

Dweck, C. (2007). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.

References ASCD. (2007). Whole child approach to education [tenets]. https://files.ascd. org/staticfiles/ascd/pdf/siteASCD/ publications/wholechild/WC-OnePager.pdf

Fray, N., and Fisher, D. (2023). Teaching with visuals. ASCD, 80(7). https:// www.ascd.org/el/articles/teachingwith-visuals

ASCD. (2013). The whole child approach.

ASCD. https://www.ascd.org/wholechild

Hattie & Timperley, (2007). The Power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. https:// journals.sagepub.com/doi/ abs/10.3102/003465430298487

Chapman, M. (2024). Developing student leadership: Schools can use experiential learning as an opportunity to let all students develop their leadership skills.

Edutopia. https://www.edutopia. org/article/developing-studentleadership

Hua, I. (2026) Curiosity, Connection, and the Future of Learning) ASCD, 83(7). https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/ curiosity-connection-and-thefuture-of-learning

Danielson, C. (2022). The Danielson group’s framework for teaching. https://danielsongroup.org/ resources/

Jorgensen, C. (2005). The least dangerous assumption. Disability Solutions, 6(3), 1–9. http://www. uwosh.edu/coehs/cmagproject/ readings/documents/Least_ Dangerous_Assumption.pdf

Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., CookHarvey, C., Barron, B., & Osher, D. (2020). Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 24(2), 97–140. https://eric. ed.gov/?id=EJ1249443

Kagaba, A. G. (2024). Building collaborative cultures in schools.

Eurasian Experiment Journal of Arts and Management, 6(3): 1-5.

Law, N. V., Hollins-Alexander, S., & Hattie, J. (2026). A leader's guide to creating the optimal culture and climate for learning. Corwin.

Donnellan, A. M. (1984). The criterion of the least dangerous assumption.

Behavioral Disorders, 9(2), 141–150.

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Michael S. Gecan is a physical education teacher at Central High School in District 301 in Burlington, Illinois, and is currently working toward a Masters Degree in Curriculum & Instruction from Concordia University Chicago. His experiences and interests include coaching, peer support, and curriculum for student development Contact: crf_gecanms@cuchicago.edu

Mason, A 2016). Learning from mistakes: The effect of students' written selfdiagnoses on subsequent problem solving. The Physics Teacher 54(2). https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4940171 McCarron, G. P., McKenzie, B. L., & Yamanaka, A. (2023). Leadership identity development. In J. E. Owen (Ed.), New Directions for Student Leadership: 178. Deepening leadership identity development (pp. 31–43).

Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/ yd.20552

Dr. Andrea Dinaro is a full Professor of Special Education at Concordia University Chicago, is the Chair of the Division of Curriculum, Technology, and Inclusive Education, and Program Leader for the Special Education Leadership and Advocacy doctoral program, and the Director of Special Education Program. Her research interests include assistive technology, disability in the curriculum, specialized instruction, and special education leadership. Contact: andrea.dinaro@ cuchicago.edu

OpenAI. (2026) ChaptGPT-5 version (subscription): Large language model. https://openai.com/ [Authors’ note: for formatting and crosschecking alignment].

TEDx Talks. (2015, May 26). Want smarter, healthier kids? Try physical education! | Paul Zientarski | TEDxBend [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=V81cO8xyMaI Sam, A., & AFIRM Team. (2024). Visual supports, updated. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, Autism Focused Intervention Resources and Modules. https://afirm. fpg.unc.edu

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Book Review Fired Up Student Leadership

by Frank Rudnesky

Click the cover to view on Amazon.

Review by Kari Waller

Fired Up Student Leadership by Dr. Frank Rudnesky is a guide for both educators and students. At a time when schools are focused on student agency, voice, and belonging, this book is both a practical guide and an inspiration for individuals striving to become better versions of themselves. Rudnesky, who has authored several books centered on his "Fired Up" philosophy, continues that theme by presenting leadership in a way that students and adults can immediately connect with and apply.

leadership concepts into ideas that younger audiences can understand and implement right away. His philosophy is not just about developing leadership skills; he encourages readers to become better people by reviewing their mindset, actions, and relationships with others.

At the same time, the book offers important insights for educators seeking to change school cultures that value leadership in all students, not just those in formal leadership positions. As I read, I began reflecting on ways I could grow as a leader while also considering how the book could be used within schools, both for staff and students. Rudnesky's

What I appreciated most about this book is Rudnesky's ability to break down 16

prompts encourage readers to set goals and reflect on themselves, making the book more interactive than a traditional leadership guide. As an educator, I could see these activities as discussion starters for a student leadership program.

emphasis on self-improvement, reflection, and mindset shifts makes his leadership development accessible to all.

Tapping into his personal experiences in education, Rudnesky emphasizes that leadership is a journey of mindset shifts, discovery, and growth. Over the course of the book, Rudnesky focuses on leadership not as a title but as a process of growth and development, organized around five domains. These domains

​ ne of the strengths of the book is its O accessibility to a variety of audiences.

Rudnesky’s writing reminds me of a motivational speaker, and I frequently found myself nodding along and

... Rudnesky asks the reader to consider his ideas, reflect on their own experiences, and identify ways to implement his ideas. agreeing with what he was saying. I can easily see students from middle school through college connecting with the examples and lessons throughout the book. Although written at a level middle school students can understand, I appreciated his explicit leadership development strategies, which educators will find valuable as well.

serve as a framework to help educators and students identify their potential and gain the confidence to become not only better people but also leaders among their peers. Rudnesky structures the book so that readers not only learn about each domain but also receive practical strategies for personal growth, along with questions and prompts that promote self-reflection.

Readers looking for tight alignment with scholarly research or established frameworks may find the book falls short in this regard compared to other leadership texts. However, its practical focus, motivational tone, and emphasis on reflection make it a valuable book for both educators and students.

I also appreciate that it’s not just a book; it comes with a built-in workbook. Instead of simply presenting ideas to the reader, Rudnesky asks the reader to consider his ideas, reflect on their own experiences, and identify ways to implement his ideas. The in-the-moment reflection 17

Book Review (cont.) reminder about communication is very timely. By encouraging reflection before responding and promoting respectful

Central to Rudnesky’s approach is the idea that leadership is not a title but rather a development process.

When it comes to problem-solving, he stresses the importance of having a plan rather than being reactive. dialogue, the book highlights skills that are increasingly important for both individual and professional success.

He organizes this philosophy into five easy-to-follow domains. Within domain one, Rudnesky focuses on the value of self-care—something most people, students, as well as educators, can dedicate attention to. He provides examples of small daily habits we can make to strengthen our leadership skills. In domain two, the focus turns to communication—positive selfcommunication as well as gratitude to have a more positive attitude, which leads to effective leadership.

His discussion and emphasis on communication are extremely important, as students live in an era when most communication occurs digitally. The emphasis on listening, gratitude, and thoughtful communication reminds us that leadership goes beyond our face-to-face conversations. This is important because students are constantly navigating digital spaces where misunderstandings and negativity are common. Given the influence social media has on students and adults, this

​ omains three through five focus on the D areas that most people usually associate with effective leadership. Domain three centers on critical thinking, problemsolving, and team building. Rudnesky discusses the significance of critical thinking and continuous learning, highlighting the importance of educating themselves and learning from those around them. When it comes to problemsolving, he stresses the importance of having a plan rather than being reactive.

He concludes by emphasizing the importance of team building, reinforcing the idea that leadership is rarely achieved in isolation.

In domain four, Rudnesky circles back to the notion of being the best version of oneself by highlighting examples of positive character. This suggests that powerful leadership is focused on serving others rather than oneself.

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popularity; it is about discovering one's purpose, developing character, building relationships, and taking action to serve others. For educators, it is a quick read that provides a practical roadmap to developing leaders in all students. For students, it provides an easy-to-follow workbook to improve leadership skills and become a better person. I​t is a quick read with useful applications, and I found myself continually identifying ways its ideas could be incorporated into both professional learning and student leadership development.

He discusses the difference between completing service hours to check a box versus service learning, where you make a connection and consider the needs of those you are serving. Rudnesky concludes with the importance of finding your own passion, arguing that purpose-driven individuals are more likely to inspire and influence others. This final domain ties the entire framework together.

What I appreciate most about the book is Rudnesky’s reminder that leadership development is truly for all, not just for a select few who get voted into leadership positions. Keeping that in mind, this book can support professional learning for an entire staff, focusing on being the best versions of themselves to model for students.

Dr. Kari Waller is an educational leader with more than 20 years of experience in mathematics education. She began her career as a high school mathematics teacher and has since served as a mathematics department chair and district director of mathematics. Currently, she serves as the Math/Science Division Head.

Dr. Waller is dedicated to supporting teachers, cultivating collaborative leadership, and promoting high-quality instruction that enhances student learning and achievement.

Schools looking to grow their leadership opportunities could utilize this book in various ways. Student councils or student leader programs could use the book as their curriculum, then lead sessions with the rest of the students throughout the school year. Since the ideas and concepts are accessible and easy to implement, schools can incorporate them without extensive training or expensive resources.

Fired Up Student Leadership hits the mark as it delivers a simple but powerful message: leadership is not about titles or 19

Resource Corner

THE STUDENT VOICE TOOLKIT The following research, tools, and resources support educators in developing and refining student voice practices in K-12 classrooms and schools so that they can more effectively involve students in classroom and school decisionmaking.

READ MORE...

CREATING A STUDENT LEADERSHIP PROGRAM Running an effective student leadership program takes structure and vision from all levels of a school.

READ MORE...

HOW 9 LEADERS THINK ABOUT DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION IN THEIR SCHOOLS To better understand where school and district leaders stand on what DEI offers K-12 education and what belonging and inclusion for all means, Education Week reached out to school and district leaders who are members of AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

READ MORE...

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THE AI SKILLS NOBODY IS TEACHING (AND EVERYONE NEEDS) | AI EXPERT ETHAN MOLLICK Ethan Mollic believes that the future of AI isn't something that will just happen to us… It's something we get to build together. He's interviewed here by Simon Sinek. WATCH THE VIDEO...

NEW STUDY IDENTIFIES KEY CONDITIONS FOR AMPLIFYING STUDENT VOICES IN SCHOOLS A new study led by Penn State College of Education Professor Dana Mitra finds that amplifying student voices in schools requires a combination of teacher mindsets that value student input, trusting relationships and practical structures to support participation.

READ MORE...

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Resource Corner (cont.)

Including Voice in Education: Empowering Student Voice in School Design Incorporating student voice into school decision making is a topic of growing interest for educators across the United States and the Pacific Region.1 Student voice can be a promising strategy for enhancing education access, opportunity, and success for students who are historically marginalized within the prekindergarten to grade 12 education system.2, 3 By supporting student voice, educators can gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of their students’ varying cultural, economic, and geographic circumstances to ultimately better serve their students.

Student Voice Implementation in Schools There are multiple ways to structure student voice opportunities for maximum engagement. Models that decision makers can use to guide how they will engage their students include: Adult-run; active listening.7 Adults solicit student feedback and input through surveys, interviews, focus groups etc. and incorporate student experiences into decision making.

Example: A teacher soliciting feedback on a lesson.

What is Student Voice?

Student voice is defined as

“the ways in which all students have opportunities to participate in and/or influence the education decisions that will shape their lives and the lives of their peers.”4, 5

Adult-run; shared decisions with students.8 Adults organize the activities, but students directly contribute to decision making.

Example: Incorporating student representatives on school community councils where they have decision-making power.

Student Voice in School Design The Hawai‘i Department of Education (HIDOE) defines school design as “the purposeful design of schools to ensure that every student is highly engaged in a rigorous, relevant, and innovative academic curriculum; in their learning environment, and in powerful applied learning practices aligned to careers.”6 HIDOE’s four main principles for school design include:

Student-run; shared decisions with adults.9 Students organize the activities, but adults approve the decisions that students make.

Example: Creating a student advisory group in which students have the responsibility to make and execute a school-related decision that adults have approved.

• Core Values and Mindset.

• Curriculum and Learning Design.

• Infrastructure.

• Student Learning Products and Voice.

Student-run; limited influence over decisions from adults.10 Students organize the activities and make decisions with limited influence from adults.

Example: Students organizing a monthly town hall meeting to discuss concerns in their school, identify ways to address concerns, and outline specific ways both students and educators can effectively address concerns.

Including student voice in school design can support administrators in ensuring that the school design meets the needs of students.

Click HERE to view the PDF

Include learning objectives to help students know what they are expected to learn and how they will be evaluated on their learning.7

Connecting Social and Emotional Learning, School Climate, and Student Voice Strategies to promote social and emotional learning (SEL), school climate, and student voice have been connected with improvements in student academic achievement, well-being, and college and career readiness.1

Social and Emotional Learning Social and emotional learning involves teaching students and educators the skills to support their personal and academic well-being.4 By incorporating SEL strategies into student learning activities, students and educators are better able to manage their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and relationships.5

Given these benefits, schools and districts across the United States and the Pacific Region are using SEL, school climate, and student voice to help their students become better prepared for college and/or a career.2, 3

Click HERE to view the PDF

School Climate School climate includes the practices that support students and adults in feeling safe, respected, and engaged in the environment.6 When school climate strategies are implemented, teachers and families are able to build partnerships and create policies

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Student Voice Student voice enables students to indirectly or directly participate in education decision making.8 When student voice strategies are used, students are better able to advocate for their needs and the needs of their peers, and educators are more

WHAT CAN EDUCATORS DO TO ELEVATE STUDENT VOICE? Teacher educators share how instructors can give students greater opportunities for classroom leadership and self-directed learning. READ MORE...

STUDENT VOICE TO TRANSFORM EDUCATION FOR EQUITY In these times of deep division and trauma, our nation’s youth are leading us forward to healing and equity in K-12 schools, if only we listen, tap into their strengths, and respond to their needs. READ MORE...

REDEFINING STUDENT LEADERSHIP | MISBAH AZIZ | TEDXCLEARBROOKHIGHSCHOOL Drew Bent, Student leader Misbah Aziz makes a compelling argument for expanding what we think leadership looks like in schools. WATCH THE VIDEO...

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Article Students as Leaders in the Coding Classroom

Frances Zale

During the spring of 2025, I was asked to develop an instructional plan for a new special-area curriculum focused on computer science. I was excited by the opportunity to teach kindergarten, first, and secondgrade students using age-appropriate coding tools that encouraged not only foundational programming skills, but also creativity, design thinking, and perseverance.

For many students, this experience introduced an entirely new way of learning, allowing them to engage in problem-solving and innovation in meaningful and developmentally appropriate ways. Through this new curriculum, we found that we were really creating leaders in our classrooms.

Figure 1: Data taken from grade two students after a year of coding curriculum and instruction in May 2026.

Data shows that eighty percent of students like the opportunity to work with partners.

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Marina Bers has written extensively on how learning coding and computational skills naturally aligns with social and emotional competencies that help cultivate leadership in the classroom. In 2012, Bers developed the Positive Technological Development (PTD) Framework, which identifies key behaviors such as collaboration, communication, community building, content creation, creativity, and ethical choices of conduct (Bers, 2021, 222). Throughout the year, I intentionally incorporated this framework into instruction with our primary-grade students.

While students sometimes worked independently, we frequently collaborated in pairs or small groups using platforms and products such as Sphero Indi, Ozobot Evo, and ScratchJr. Thoughtfully planning the new coding curriculum involved deeply thinking about how to embed community building, collaboration, and socialemotional skills into our coding days.

As students learned foundational coding concepts such as sequencing, conditionals, and loops, they naturally gravitated toward collaborative planning, designing, testing, and revising their projects. Students’ faces lit up when their Blockly code successfully executed in the Ozobot app, enthusiastically sharing how they animated characters and told stories using ScratchJr. Through whole-class discussions, Top: Second-grade students intentionally engage in coding through communication and collaboration.

Middle & Bottom: Second-grade students thoughtfully coding Blocky software to move their Ozobot Evo through the hand-drawn scenes.

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Coding Classroom (cont.) partnerships, and small-group collaboration, students continuously generated and refined ideas while engaging in block-based coding projects, conceptualizing with both computational thinking and design thinking.

community.” (Bers, 135). After coding in ScratchJr., we frequently gathered to learn from one another. Students eagerly projected to the screen, and others would learn to compliment, notice, suggest, and question one another’s work. It took a few months to understand how important listening and communicating with one another were to the coding process. In the coding classroom, we value how we can lead

Sharing and talking about work was a large part of our coding classroom.

“Technology circles present a good opportunity for problem-solving as a

Figure 2: In data gathered from second graders in May 2026, after a year of their new coding special, the data overwhelmingly displays that helping others was an integral part of their coding practice. In the “other write-in” category, unprompted students wrote they worked on partner planning, being nice, listening to others, and staying on topic. These are all traits that we want to develop in our future leaders.

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In the coding classroom, we continually modeled a design process of generating ideas, testing and improving our ideas, and discussing our creations. creative expression necessary to lead to innovation. Resnick discusses how sharing and reflecting are all part of an iterative learning process and an ideal preparation for today's fast-changing society. One in which people must continually come up with innovative solutions to unexpected situations in their lives (Resnick 2009).

In the coding classroom, we continually modeled a design process of generating ideas, testing and improving our ideas, and discussing our creations. By the end of the year, students naturally discussed debugging and improving projects as a

and learn from one another. I found it valuable to also have students honor other students, noticing how others were working in ways that modeled our schoolwide positive behavior model.

They could give each other recognition for demonstrating leadership skills like respect, responsibility, persevering, improving, collaborating and communicating effectively.

In Edutopia in 2009, Mitch Resnick metaphorically connects how playing and coding in Scratch allows students the

Top: Three kindergarten students are designing an Ozobot Evobot attachment with found materials to clean up trash on a beach using color codes.

Bottom: Kindergarten students using Ozobot Color Code magnets to plan sequences moving Ozobot Evo along their created path.

Above: First-grade students are planning code retelling of a story from their language arts curriculum using Sphero Indi.

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Coding Classroom (cont.) success in their code. I recognized how much they grew as students and coders in our classroom. First-grader Robert took pride in being a leader and recognized how he could combine his two group members’ ideas into a third new idea. Sarah, another first-grader, stated with great energy and confidence that a leader guides the group to their destination and helps by creating. This was the coding community that I had imagined. Ending the 2025-2026 school year, I feel good about this pursuit, as well as the synergy that coding and social-emotional learning can ignite in our primary students.

regular part of the classroom language.

By the end of the year, all students learned more about how to code, but also how to bring their own ideas to life through a lot of choice and open-ended frameworks in the coding curriculum.

Marina Bers emphasizes, “that while the engineering process focuses on problemsolving and solutions, the process involved in ‘coding as literacy’ starts with imagination and curiosity and culminates with pride and ownership of the work in the community context.” (Bers, 2021, 121). As the coding teacher at the end of a full year of teaching this special class, I could not feel more successful when students asked questions, worked together, and understood that making mistakes was part of learning to find

Left & Above: Second-grade students sharing and asking questions about their animations coded through ScratchJr. Application.

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If you are looking to adopt the Illinois Computer Science Standards in your school, consider the following steps we took at Lake Bluff Elementary School in Lake Bluff, Illinois.

Background Research

Review the best practice literature and curricula. Talk to product developers and sales representatives. Explore free online resources, educator communities, and pilot programs to identify effective and practical options.

Collaboration Within the School

Talk to other teachers. What do students have experience with?

What resources and tools already exist? Do they work? Create a plan to test the tools and resources that may already be harbored somewhere in the school. Create a plan with the technology staff to ensure you can access new apps and tools, as well as anticipated sections of students. Think about how this new specials class can already fit into an existing master schedule.

Think about your Goals

There are many game-based coding tools and applications.

Consider the platforms that will most allow students the opportunities to learn the collaboration and communication skills to be leaders. Prioritize the technologies that are going to be the ones that allow creating and applying the design thinking with other students. They will learn to innovate together when there are designs and options to choose from within your framework and tools.

Budgeting and Resource Management

Conduct an inventory of existing hardware, software, and instructional materials before making purchases. Plan for the strategic use of resources across grade levels by rotating tools and robotics kits throughout the year. Consider free or low-cost options, such as ScratchJr. Tablet pencils are relatively inexpensive for students to draw within the app to design their own characters and backgrounds.

Consider how materials will be charged and how many robots are needed if students will be working in pairs and groups.

Standards in Mind

Always start with the standards, but consider these key social-emotional pieces that lead to student leadership. Use ongoing skilled observations to identify students’ academic and emotional needs and provide appropriate challenges and supports.

Sharing and Celebrating

Create intentional opportunities for students to showcase their learning. Digital platforms such as Seesaw can support documentation and reflection when teaching two hundred students. Celebrating student work fosters confidence, reinforces learning, and encourages students to articulate their coding, design, and problem-solving processes to authentic audiences. First graders loved sharing with older students and answering their questions like experts in an end-of-unit showcase.

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Coding Classroom (cont.)

Frances Zale ihas been an educator in Lake Bluff School District 65 for over 25 years. Currently, she is a K-2 specials teacher in the area of coding. She is passionate about using assessment to drive instruction, infusing technology into the school day, interdisciplinary curriculum, and creating strong classroom communities and learning environments grounded in the social-emotional wellness of students. She holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from NationalLouis University, as well as a CAS degree in Educational Organization and Leadership also from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

References Bers, Marina Umaschi. Coding as a Playground. New York, New York: Routledge, 2021.

Resnick, Mitchel. 2009. Kindergarten Is the Model for Lifelong Learning.

Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation. May 27, 2009. https:// www.edutopia.org/kindergartencreativity-collaboration-lifelonglearning.

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Article Using the Concepts of Building Thinking Classrooms to Build Mathematical Leaders Kathleen Meyer Leaders grow in a variety of different ways. Some leaders are the ones with the loudest voices, while others are the ones who can take in information and effectively share it with others. As leaders develop throughout their educational career, each of these leaders develops a set of skills that both reflects their personalities and allows them to work collaboratively and effectively with a wide range of people.

For generations, mathematics has been considered a subject that is teacher-driven. In many mathematics classrooms, teachers provide direct instruction, and students copy down the information that is shared.

Students are encouraged to learn algorithms, but often have few opportunities to work collaboratively to understand how to persevere through problem-solving, especially when the concept is new or unfamiliar. In many mathematics classrooms, there are generally a small number of students who “do the thinking” when given the opportunity, but most of the rest of the students are perfecting avoidance tactics, including mimicking, stalling, and faking understanding (Liljedahl et al., 2021). The framework established by Building Thinking Classrooms 31

Build Mathematical Leaders (cont.) shifts the trajectory of a mathematics classroom from a teacher-driven space to a student-driven space that encourages students to take increased ownership of their own learning.

avoid math or avoid feeling incompetent in math (Tal et al., 2025). However, the 21st-century learning goals in math are designed to encourage students to be critical thinkers (Liljedahl et al., 2021).

Creative thinking is valued, and for students who have spent years avoiding math, their thinking is often a valued

For many students, mathematics can be extremely daunting, especially

... they would simply sit and stare at their blank papers rather than take the risks involved in solving problems before them. contribution to the group, eventually reducing the levels of math anxiety that some students feel.

when words are interspersed with the numbers and higher-level thinking needs to be utilized to complete problems.

In addition, nearly sixty percent of students are plagued by math anxiety, as the problems that are presented can cause fear, tension, and apprehension (Tal et al., 2025). With so many students experiencing math anxiety, there needs to be ways for students to work together to help alleviate their own math anxiety and support alleviating the math anxiety of their classmates.

Ownership As leaders are developed, it is important for students to know when to gather information and when to share information. In a normal math classroom, the teacher does much of the planning and sharing of information, often demonstrating how to do the task, while the student copies and replicates the information being shared (Liljedahl et al., 2021). Understanding that this was the status quo in many classrooms, Liljedahl et al. (2021) observed students as they would simply sit and stare at their blank papers rather than take the risks involved in solving problems before them. For many classes, the traditional manner of

Through developing leaders in a math class, students gain the confidence to be successful not only in math but also gain skills that can be transferred across all content areas. When students continue to feel anxiety in math class, skills become diminished in the efforts to 32

mathematics instruction created a room of followers, but few leaders and few students were willing to take ownership of their own learning.

when to ask for support to successfully move forward.

Articulating Thoughts All students and all leaders approach a task with the knowledge that they currently possess and the information that they will need to acquire. Knowledge can move around, and ideas can be borrowed, compared, or debated among peers and through groups (Liljedahl, 2021). Since all students possess different forms of knowledge, the leaders of the group need to be able to share what they come to the group knowing, but also receive what they need to successfully navigate a problem.

To create authentic opportunities for students to collaborate, students were provided with roles including being a scribe, a coach, or a collector of information. Each student had a specific role that needed to be completed for the success of the group. In groups, stronger discussions were occurring, and multiple solution pathways were being developed, which allowed students to share their experiences, ideas, and expertise with their peers (Beinke et al., 2024). As students created increased ownership of their learning, they were more willing to share information and to focus on sharing approaches to problem-solving, even if the solution was still a work in progress (Beinke et al., 2024).

Thoughts need to be conveyed by the leaders of each team both verbally and visually. By using a non-permanent surface, like a whiteboard, learning becomes visible to all groups within a classroom, and knowledge can be used by other individuals or groups to advance learning (Beinke et al., 2024).

Since the information is also shared as a team, it breaks down the barriers that some students experience when working through math. Each member of the group also becomes a leader who can explain their learning both to their groupmates and to their classmates.

Within groups, some of the leaders needed to be the voice of the team, while other leaders had to accept the guidance and support of their group members.

Collaboratively, all these developing leaders can solve increasingly complex problems as each student not only gains the confidence to share what they know but to also to ask questions about more challenging concepts and skills.

Leaders not only need to be able to share information, but they also need to know

Developing Networks of Peer Mentors Many students often prefer to only work 33

Build Mathematical Leaders (cont.) with their chosen peers, and working with other students can be a challenge.

Allowing randomized groups requires students to work with nearly every student in a classroom over the course of a year (Liljedahl, 2021). When students are assigned to work with peers they normally would not work with, they are, in turn, developing the skills to collaborate with a wide range of people.

Having the groups visibly randomized removes social barriers within a classroom and allows for an increase in

(Tal et al., 2025). Additionally, many math classes are made up of students who are English language learners or who are students with special needs. By creating a collaborative environment, all students learn to work with one another, either by becoming the support system for their peers or learning how to receive help from their peers. By having collaborative math activities, differentiated instruction occurs naturally as each group gets the level and frequency of support that they need to continue progressing

When students are assigned to work with peers they normally would not work with, they are, in turn, developing the skills to collaborate with a wide range of people. knowledge moving between students (Beinke et al., 2024). As students gain confidence in working with a wide range of people who may or may not agree with them or may or may not work collaboratively with them, they are also learning a skillset that can be transferred to other areas of their lives.

successfully (Liljedahl et al., 2021).

As leaders continue to develop in the groups, students can receive and convey information, which are both skills that strong leaders need to possess.

Conclusion For many years, leaders in mathematics were seen as the students who did the best on their tests or volunteered the most to answer questions that were posed by the teacher. Many of the elements that make Building Thinking Classrooms successful in a growing number of classrooms are subsequently developing many student

In any content area, there will be students who struggle with the content or having confidence in the subject area.

There are many students who come into a math class with math anxiety who additionally struggle with the linguistic problems proliferating in math classes 34

Reports, 15(1), 1–13. https://doi. org/10.1038/s41598-025-16997-0

leaders in mathematics. As students gain confidence and competence in mathematics, these skills become transferable to other academic settings and into many different life settings.

These strong leaders not only understand how to articulate their own thoughts but can also absorb and implement information shared by their peers.

Kathleen Meyer is currently a sixth-grade general education mathematics teacher and an eighth-grade special education resource teacher at Indian Trail Junior High School in Addison, Illinois. She has taught STEM, language arts, math intervention, instructional math and instructional language arts. Kathleen is a regular participant in the STEAM in the PARK program through Expeditions in Education, which allows her to collaborate with educators while exploring different National Parks.

References Beinke, A, O’Keeffe, L., Albrecht, A. & White, B. (2024). An approach to building thinking classrooms in year 7 Mathematics. Australian Mathematics Education Journal, 6(1), 4–10.

The concept of being a lifelong learner is something that Kathleen takes seriously.

She completed a master’s degree in effective teaching with a concentration in special education at Butler University, continued her graduate education at Concordia University and earned a second master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a focus on supporting English language learners. Just to keep things exciting, she also earned her bilingual certification in Spanish.

Liljedahl, P. (2021). Building thinking classrooms in mathematics: 14 teaching practices for enhancing learning. Corwin.

Liljedahl, P., Clarke, A., & Morrison, N. (2021). Building thinking classrooms: A conversation with Dr. Peter Liljedahl. Journal of Mathematics Education at Teachers College, 12(1), 1–7.

Tal, D., Dotan, S., Ben-Yair, M., Katzir, T., & Rubinsten, O. (2025). Arithmetic and reading skills mediate the link between math and reading anxiety and word problem solving. Scientific 35

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Article Student Leadership as a Strategic Asset: Lessons from Plainfield 202

Paula Sereleas

Introduction Plainfield CCSD 202 is a large unit district encompassing 31 schools and 25,000+ students. The tapestry of learners is beautiful and complex in this district, so the term student voice is probably over-utilized in an environment with thousands of student voices. The initiative to include student input into District level conversations coincided with the beginning of the Plainfield 202 District Strategic Plan. As the community collaborated with the district to identify priorities and goals for the upcoming five years, it became evident that the most vital stakeholders were absent from the conversation. Under the stewardship of district administration, the High School Advisory Group was established to bridge this gap.

The annual Strategic Planning Community Meetings position student leaders in the middle of the action, working side by side with the local stakeholders to evaluate the progress and outcomes of the Strategic Plan. Student leaders are a staple at the meetings and as noted by Darrisaw-Akil (2024) “like everything else in schools, creating an environment that fosters student voice begins with shared beliefs about the value of student input.” The Board of Education's commitment is 37

Student Leadership as a Strategic Asset (cont.) clearly demonstrated by their purposeful inclusion and valuation of student voices in top-tier planning efforts. This strategic priority establishes a foundation for all future efforts to integrate students as key leaders and decision-makers.

Superintendent Dr. Glenn Wood had leaned on student input for many years, and the support of the Board of Education was paramount to solidifying the value of the student voice.

were recognized by their respective school administrators because they display leadership qualities. In some instances, these are students with significant untapped potential who may not yet recognize the leadership traits that others see in them. Take Grant for example, he is about to begin his freshman year as a college studentathlete. He is softly spoken, painfully shy, and still not completely comfortable in front of peers, but his journey illustrates the power of this group.

“As a leader on the district level committee, I have learned that being a leader is not just about leading others, it is taking advice and listening to others too” shared Jairo Gomez, rising senior at Plainfield East High School in a comment written in the end of year survey. Student leaders meet monthly with Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Paula Sereleas. The purpose of this group is to pull together the voices of students from across the district.

“When I first came to a meeting, I had no idea why I was here and what my purpose was. I was afraid to talk, I looked down, I didn’t make eye contact. I wasn’t sure where I belonged. But how things have changed! I have applied for college scholarships, and I use this experience every time when I tell them about why they should accept me. I am more confident; I understand my role now. I believe in myself as a leader and I wouldn’t have thought that without this opportunity” ~ Grant Withaeger. Plainfield East High School, 2026 graduate.

The Evolution The collection of student leaders has evolved each year with the caveat that students earn a place on the committee and remain through graduation. Many of these students are heavily involved in everything school. They are soccer team captains, National Honors Society officers, fine arts leaders, football players, social activists, and lighthouses in their different cultural groups. These individuals share a common bond: they

Strategic Impact and Contributions Grant and his peers have driven a student focused agenda for the past three years. These students have left their fingerprints on District policy 38

Beginning the 26-27 school year, parents in the district may opt their student’s number into the communication platform for the early morning messages. A simple fix to a simple problem that we adults didn’t consider when migrating to a new platform two years ago.

language related to cell phone usage, implementation and validation of the high school eight period day, and expectations related to the use of Artificial Intelligence in the classroom.

These high school students were ahead of the curve, advocating for reduced laptop use in K-2 classrooms well before the topic became a staple in educational and parenting literature.

In the fall of 2025, Plainfield 202 decreased the minutes in each high school class period and moved from a seven to an eight period day. Malcolm Hennes from Plainfield South High School informed us early on to ensure district

Leilany Corona, a rising Senior at Plainfield High School-Central Campus highlighted the need for improved communication

At times in education, we get caught up in all the reasons why things won’t or can’t work, this group pushes the barriers and brings solutions to the table. common assessments can be completed in the shorter class period. All examples of bringing concerns and solutions to the table and embracing the opportunity to advocate for improvement.

with students. Corona shared that school closures and early morning communications go directly to parents and guardians. In a district with high school schedules beginning shortly after 7:00 a.m., a lack of direct messaging often means students arrive at school unaware of closures. Leilany brought this problem to the advisory group and worked with her peers to solve the problem.

Beyond their problem-solving opportunities, the Student Leadership Advisory Group has taken on new challenges. During the 24-25 school year, the Illinois State Board of Education selected Plainfield 202 as a host site for an ISBE meeting. As a leadership team, we discussed how we could best utilize the students to highlight

At times in education, we get caught up in all the reasons why things won’t or can’t work—this group pushes the barriers and brings solutions to the table.

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Student Leadership as a Strategic Asset (cont.)

Left: Plainfield high school students Malcolm Henes and Luigi Perri presenting to CAPE.

who are moving schools at the start of the 25-26 school year and developed a “welcome message” to share through the different student organizations.

the many wonderful opportunities our students have in our District. The student ambassadors spent the day with members of the Illinois State Board of Education touring the group around the district. Rubbing elbows and sharing ideas with leaders from the State level provided adult opportunities in a studentbased environment.

Brittany Beasley of Plainfield East High School proposed adding a student representative to the district level parent organization, CAPE. Student representatives present to the parent organization monthly. CAPE president Blair Kramer shared “having the student representatives at the meetings was the piece that we did not realize was missing” Student representatives deliver monthly updates on high school developments, concluding each session with an inquiry designed to spark immediate dialogue and provide CAPE delegates with topics to bring back to the 31 PTOs and PTAs throughout the District. The influence of this student leadership initiative is extending across the entirety of our 64-square-mile community.

During the 25-26 school year, the advisory group provided recommendations to the committee currently developing the Profile of a Graduate, another initiative anchored in the Strategic Plan. Students provided real time input including suggestions about the technology component of the profile and language related to global competencies.

They act as the conduit between their peers and the district messaging around changes to the high school boundaries.

The group was incredibly concerned about the experience of the students 40

org/article/student-leadershipmeaningful-change/

As we plan for the upcoming school year, the students have begun to formalize the Cabinet meeting structure. Over the past four years the student leaders have progressed through Mitra’s Pyramid of Student Voice from simply wanting to be heard, to collaborating with adults, and are now moving into the building capacity for student leadership phase.

Our final conversation of the 2025-2026 school year was brainstorming ideas to develop mechanisms within the structure of this large unit district to ensure that when our students graduate and administrators move on, the framework of this initiative remains. And with that conversation, the summer planning for the 2026-2027 school year began.

Mitra, D. L. (2009, June 19).

Increasing Student Voice in High School Reform. Sage Journals, 37(4), 523. https://doi. org/10.1177/1741143209334577 Paula Sereleas, Ed.D. began her career in education 30 years ago as a high school history teacher in the south suburbs of Chicago. She has served as an administrator for over 18 years, the last 12 spent in the Plainfield 202 school district, where she currently leads the Curriculum and Instruction department. She is amazed by what she continues to learn, especially when interacting with teenagers! Her special interests in the education field are around principal leadership and leadership at the student level.

NOTE: The author used Gemini to organize and edit the manuscript. The content was written, reviewed, revised, and verified by the author. 6/9/2026.

Prompt :Organize the document and develop section headings. Prompt: Rephrase specific statement.

References Akil, M. D. (2024, October 10). How to Meaningfully Involve Students in Leadership: A district wide approach to including students in decisionmaking creates opportunities for change. Edutopia. Retrieved June 8, 2026, from https://www.edutopia.

Student leaders, L-R: Malcolm Henes - PSHS, Brittany Beasley - PEHS, Simi Kolowale PNHS, Grace Newberry - PHS-CC, Leilany Corona - PHS-CC 41

Article Heart-to-Heart, Start-toFinish: The Power of the CICO Connection

Courtney Goodman

For many students, entering a school building can feel like stepping onto a fast-moving train. The transition from the unstructured environment of home to the set expectations of the classroom requires a level of emotional regulation and cognitive shift that not every child is equipped to handle seamlessly. When a student struggles to find their footing, behavioral challenges can follow, not out of a desire to disrupt but as a symptom of feeling untethered to the learning environment.

Enter Check-In/Check-Out (CICO), a Tier 2 positive behavioral intervention that acts as a consistent emotional anchor for students who need a little extra support. Rather than waiting for a student to fail and then responding with punitive measures, CICO proactively sets students up for success at the start and end of their day. By pairing these identified learners with a dedicated staff member, this intervention bridges the gap between behavioral expectations and social-emotional well-being and success.

The Morning Launch: Setting the Emotional Anchor The magic of CICO begins the moment a student walks through the school doors. Instead of navigating the prebell environment alone, the student heads directly to 42

child struggling with executive functioning or emotional regulation.

their designated CICO coach. This works best when the coach is a consistent, supportive adult who is also not the child’s primary classroom teacher. This brief, two-to-three-minute interaction is intentionally designed to be positive, predictable, and welcoming.

CICO can help to turn these broad, abstract notions into concrete, bite-sized actions tailored to the individual student.

For example: • Being Respectful: Raising a hand to speak instead of calling out.

During the morning check-in, the coach walks through the expectations of the day, typically using a specific chart aligned to building-wide positive behavior expectations. This check-in might also include details related to the specific daily schedule, what’s new to the day’s routine, as well as setting a goal for the day. Informally, the coach is assessing the student’s readiness for a successful day. The coach may be able to identify that the student is hungry, tired, or dysregulated. This individualized checkin allows the coach to respond to these needs in the moment. It might be setting a specific goal for the day, allowing the student to eat breakfast before starting the day, or connecting the student with a social worker for a longer reset.

• Being Responsible: Having a pencil and notebook ready when the timer starts.

• Being Safe: Keeping hands and feet to self during transitions.

Because these expectations are explicitly mapped out on the student’s individualized chart, the guesswork is removed for both the student and the adults working with the child. The chart breaks the day into manageable chunks— usually by class period or subject area.

Instead of trying to "be good for the whole day" (an overwhelming mountain to climb), the student only has to focus on being responsible for the next 30 minutes.

At the end of each instructional block, the classroom teacher quickly rates the student’s performance on a simple point scale (e.g., 0, 1, or 2 points). This ongoing feedback loop provides the student with immediate data on their behavior, reinforcing positive choices in real-time and allowing them to self-correct during

Internalizing Values Through Personalized Goals Most schools rally around a central matrix of behavioral expectations, typically focusing on three pillars: being respectful, responsible, and safe. While these concepts are easy to print on a poster in the hallway, they can feel abstract to a 43

The CICO Connection (cont.)

This shift from constant correction to frequent, authentic validation builds a student's self-efficacy. They begin to view themselves as a capable learner who can meet the expectations of the school, rather than as a "bad kid" who gets sent to the principal's office.

the very next instructional timeframe.

Shifting the Paradigm: Honoring and Celebrating Success Traditional school discipline frameworks are notoriously reactive. They function on a deficit model: a student misbehaves,

By structuring the day around attainable, measurable goals, the intervention ensures that students who typically struggle with self-regulation have a clear, guaranteed pathway to being honored and celebrated. an adult notices, and a negative consequence is delivered. For a student who constantly finds themselves in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, school quickly becomes a place associated with shame and failure.

The Afternoon Wrap-Up: Reflection and Recalibration If the morning check-in is the anchor that stabilizes the day, the afternoon check-out is the reflective bookend that seals the daily experience. At the end of the school day, the student returns to their CICO coach to review their chart and success.

CICO completely flips this dynamic. It is intentionally designed to catch students being good. By structuring the day around attainable, measurable goals, the intervention ensures that students who typically struggle with self-regulation have a clear, guaranteed pathway to being honored and celebrated.

The coach tallies the total points earned throughout the day to see if the student met their percentage goal (typically set around 80%). However, the magic of the check-out is much more than just the raw numbers. The connection between student and coach is the real measure of success.

When a teacher hands back a CICO chart marked with maximum points for a reading block, it sends a powerful message to the student: I see your effort. You are capable of success.

When the Goal is Met If the student hits their target, the check-out becomes a celebration.

The coach offers enthusiastic verbal 44

fundamental psychological needs of safety, belonging, and competence. It transforms the school experience for learners who thrive off this positive and personal connection.

praise, and the student may earn a small tangible reward or privilege. This positive reinforcement solidifies the link between effort and reward, encoding the behavior for the future.

When the Goal is Missed If the student had a tough day and missed their point goal, the afternoon check-out serves an even more critical function: safe, non-punitive recalibration.

The coach does not scold or express disappointment. Instead, they look at the chart objectively alongside the student:

Dr. Courtney Goodman is the principal at Eugene Field Elementary School in Park Ridge, Illinois, serving approximately 600 students in grades K-5. Courtney holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, which is what brought her to the Chicago area.

She worked at Chicago magazine before pursuing a master’s degree in secondary education from DePaul University, as well as a certificate of advanced studies in educational leadership and a doctoral degree in educational leadership, both from National Louis University. Courtney has served as an elementary principal for the past 9 years.

"I see math was really tough today, but look how you turned it around and earned top points in art! What can we do differently tomorrow during math to help you stay on track?"

This conversation strips away the shame of a bad day and replaces it with an actionable strategy for the next morning.

The student leaves the school building knowing that their mistakes do not define them, and that tomorrow offers a completely blank slate with an adult who still believes in them.

Bridging the Gap to Total Well-Being The beauty of Check-In/Check-Out lies in its simplicity. It requires human connection, consistency, and clarity. By grounding a student’s day in predictable adult relationships and clear behavioral expectations, CICO addresses the 45

Article The Cognitive Shift: Leveraging AI to Build High-Impact Student-Led Learning Classrooms Steve Oertle

For decades, educational technology has promised to “transform learning.” However, in many classrooms, technology has often done more than digitize traditional teaching. Worksheets became Google Docs. Lectures became slide decks. Assessment became online quizzes.

The instructional core itself frequently remained unchanged. The teacher delivered information, and students attempted to absorb it. Artificial Intelligence presents a different opportunity.

The true potential of AI in education is not simply speed or efficiency. Instead, it is in its ability to fundamentally shift the cognitive role of the teacher from “information deliverer” to “learning architect.” If it is leveraged intentionally, AI can greatly reduce portions of the immense mental load that educators carry every day. This load is heavy with standard alignment, unit and lesson sequencing, assessment drafting, success criteria and rubric creation, resource acquisition, and a myriad of other organizational tasks. This shift creates something teachers desperately need, but rarely receive: cognitive space… and cognitive space matters!

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educational strategies. The pragmatic issue, however, is that these active learning approaches almost always require more significant planning, preparation time, thoughtful facilitation, and intentional instructional design.

Teaching has always been cognitively demanding work. Educators make thousands of instructional decisions each day while simultaneously managing classroom climate, pacing, student needs, curriculum expectations, interventions,

Ironically, those high-impact practices are often the very strategies that teachers have the least time to design well.

This is where AI begins to matter for teachers, not as a productivity tool, but as a support system that helps teachers create deeper learning opportunities.

and assessment data. The challenge is not simply working harder, but working smarter. Many educators are already operating at maximum capacity. The challenge is creating enough mental bandwidth to focus on the instructional practices that research consistently shows have the greatest impact on learning. Ironically, those high-impact practices are often the very strategies that teachers have the least time to design well.

Consider the amount of time required to create a rigorous, student-led lesson sequence aligned to essential standards.

A teacher needs to unpack those standards, create scaffolded learning progressions indicating the level of rigor and number of days to spend on the skill, develop the relevant success criteria that students will use to self-assess, make feedback make sense, design checks for understanding, differentiate multiple readiness levels, generate collaborative structures, develop formative assessments, and curate resources that match every part of the instructional design. For many educators, the sheer time investment pushes instruction toward efficiency rather than depth.

Direct instruction becomes much easier

Research from John Hattie and other cognitive science scholars continues to reinforce that learning is strengthened when students process information rather than passively receive it. Strategies such as retrieval practice, spaced and interleaved learning, classroom discussion, elaborative questioning, writing for processing, self-assessment, and collaborative problem solving consistently outperform more passive 47

Leveraging AI (cont.) feedback, motivation, and overall facilitation. In high-impact student-led classrooms, the teacher is not absent.

The teacher is essential, but their role and function evolve. Instead of dominating classroom talk, the teacher designs opportunities for students to think visibly. Instead of spending

to manage than designing rich student discourse. Coverage overtakes inquiry. AI changes that equation.

A teacher can now use AI to generate a lesson framework aligned to essential standards within minutes. Aligned assessment drafts connected to lesson

AI can help build these structures quickly, but only skilled educators can facilitate them effectively. success criteria can be created quickly and then refined professionally by the educator. Differentiated reading passages, vocabulary supports, discussion prompts, retrieval practice questions, and scaffolded examples can all be generated rapidly. Rather than spending hours creating the first draft of instructional materials, teachers can devote their expertise to refining learning experiences, anticipating misconceptions, facilitating discussion and inquiry, and analyzing student thinking. This is a major cognitive shift.

the majority of class time presenting information, the teacher structures experiences in which students explain reasoning, debate ideas, retrieve prior learning, justify claims with evidence, and collaborate to solve problems. AI can help build these structures quickly, but only skilled educators can facilitate them effectively.

As an example, a middle school science teacher studying ecosystems might traditionally spend an entire class period presenting content through lecture and guided notes. With AI support, however, the teacher could rapidly generate station activities, case studies, retrieval prompts, vocabulary supports, and discussion protocols aligned to the same standards. The classroom experience changes dramatically. Students rotate through collaborative inquiry tasks,

The teacher’s value doesn’t diminish when AI assists with planning tasks. In many ways, it increases. The teacher becomes less consumed by production work and more focused on the deeply human aspects of learning, like relationships, connections, questioning, 48

analyze ecological scenarios, debate environmental impacts, write evidencebased explanations, and engage in structured peer discussion while the teacher circulates, questions, clarifies, and provides feedback in real time. The learning becomes active rather than passive and compliant.

enormously effective but time-intensive to design manually. Teachers can now use AI tools to quickly generate spiral review questions, cumulative practice opportunities, mixed-skill tasks, and varied examples that revisit prior learning over time and in a myriad of changing contexts. Instead of treating units as isolated learning events, educators can continuously reactivate essential knowledge throughout the year.

This shift aligns closely with what cognitive science tells us about how the brain learns. Learning is not created by exposure alone. Students do not learn deeply simply because information was presented clearly. Durable learning occurs when students retrieve information, connect ideas, process meaning, wrestle with misconceptions,

Similarly, AI can support stronger differentiation without dramatically increasing teacher workload. A single learning target can be supported with multiple reading levels, language scaffolds, enrichment pathways, and

…differentiation becomes less about creating separate lessons and more about creating multiple entry points... and apply their understanding in varied contexts. Passive listening may create familiarity, but active processing creates retention. AI has the potential to help teachers create more opportunities for this kind of processing consistently.

varied modalities within minutes.

This allows more students to access rigorous learning while preserving high expectations. Most importantly, differentiation becomes less about creating separate lessons and more about creating multiple entry points into shared learning experiences.

A couple of particularly powerful applications that are not currently implemented in many classrooms are retrieval practice and interleaving.

These evidence-based strategies are

Of course, the use of AI clearly requires caution and professional discernment.

The danger is not that AI will make 49

Leveraging AI (cont.) classrooms less rigorous. The danger is that educators may use AI merely to accelerate low-impact instructional practices. Faster worksheet creation is not instructional transformation.

More slide decks do not automatically produce deeper learning. If AI simply helps teachers lecture more efficiently, its potential will be wasted. The instructional vision must come first.

experiences do we want our students to have? If the answer involves curiosity, discourse, problem-solving, selfregulation, critical thinking, and active cognitive engagement, then AI becomes a remarkably powerful support tool. If, on the other hand, classrooms remain rooted primarily in passive compliance, AI simply digitizes traditional instruction at a greater speed. The future of effective teaching may depend less on how much AI teachers use and more on how intentionally they use it.

Educators must begin by asking an essential question: What kind of learning

AI-generated graphic based on the following prompt: “Create a visual that represents the connection and correlative relationship between the intense amount of time required of teachers to create more student-led lessons as opposed to less time required to cover material with teacher-led direct instruction.”

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Bjork, R., & Bjork, E. Desirable Difficulties in Learning.

The schools that will see the greatest impact from AI will likely not be those with the newest tools, but those with the clearest instructional vision. Districts that anchor AI implementation in evidencebased instructional practices, cognitive science, and student-centered learning will position teachers to reclaim time for the work that matters most.

Willingham, D. (2009). Why Don’t Students Like School?

Agarwal, P., & Bain, P. (2019). Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning.

Lemov, D. (2021). Teach Like a Champion 3.0.

The goal has never been to cover content. The goal is to uncover understanding. And understanding grows when students are doing the thinking, the discussing, the questioning, and ultimately, the learning.

Stephen Oertle recently retired as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at Roxana Community Unit School District #1 in Southern Illinois, is the founder and director of CourseMason LLC, and is an independent consultant specializing in the development of curriculum, assessments, instructional best practices, and practical school improvement plans.

References Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement.

Hattie, J., & Clarke, S. (2018). Visible Learning: Feedback.

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Article Cultivating the "Portrait of a Graduate" Through StudentLed Design

David Carson

Introduction: Flipping the Script on Strategic Planning Every school district values "student voice." We print it in our mission statements, feature it in promotional videos, and invite students to sit on advisory panels. Yet, too often, student voice operates as a passive checkbox in systemic planning. We ask students for their opinions, thank them for their time, and then dismiss them while the adults roll up their sleeves to do the actual heavy lifting of institutional design.

When District 100 embarked on a mission to build our new Portrait of a Graduate (PoG), we decided to challenge this traditional paradigm. We recognized that if we were going to define the durable skills and character traits our graduates need to thrive in a complex future world, the individuals with the greatest stake in that future should not just be sitting at the table —they should be running the meeting.

As the Chief Strategy Officer and lead coordinator of our strategic planning processes, I knew that shifting from student participation to genuine student leadership would require an intentional redistribution of authority.

We didn't want students to simply attend our community 52

chance; it requires intentional structural support. Our journey began in the fall when I sent a call to action to our high school staff, asking them to nominate student leaders who possessed strong communication skills, poise, active listening capabilities, and a commitment to follow through . We explicitly sought a diverse cohort across grade levels and backgrounds, intentionally looking beyond traditional student council officers to find raw leadership potential.

design sessions; we wanted them to facilitate them. This meant trusting high school students to guide diverse groups of adults—including teachers, school board members, parents, and community leaders—through high-stakes, visionsetting conversations.

The result was a transformative experience that culminated in three distinct, successful outcomes: 1. Identifying a core set of competencies that comprise the District 100 Portrait of a Graduate.

Following the nomination process, I hosted informational sessions at the high schools to explain the scope of the project, answer questions, and extend an invitation to our first formal training session. Twelve dedicated students accepted the challenge, volunteering approximately 15 hours of their personal

2. Developing a comprehensive, community-vetted definition for each of those competencies.

3. Creating an authentic visual representation of our Portrait of a Graduate.

During these preparation sessions, I would periodically "pause" the activities to pull back the curtain on my own leadership moves.

Achieving these milestones was a testament to the power of our students, who proved that when given the proper training and support, young people are fully capable of leading systemic change.

time across training, preparation, and live facilitation.

To prepare them to lead a room full of adults, I relied on my own training in professional facilitation processes and consensus-building models. Instead of lecturing the students on facilitation theory, I designed a training environment

The Blueprint: Moving From Nomination to Preparation True student leadership cannot be left to 53

Student-led Design (cont.)

In Action: When Students Lead the Adults The design sessions brought together a large, diverse cross-section of our community. To facilitate deep, thoughtful conversations, we broke the large assembly down into small, collaborative rooms. Rather than utilizing district administrators or external consultants to manage these tables, a pair of student facilitators led each group in a classroom.

where the students experienced the consensus-building activities as participants first. This dual-layered approach allowed us to collect their student perspectives as a distinct, unvarnished dataset, ensuring their pure voice was captured before being integrated into the broader community feedback.

During these preparation sessions, I would periodically "pause" the activities to pull back the curtain on my own leadership moves. We analyzed why certain questions were framed in specific ways, how to handle silent rooms, and how to gently redirect dominating voices. The students provided invaluable feedback on how the activities felt from a participant's perspective, allowing us to make realtime adjustments to the process.

A typical design session was fast-paced and highly interactive. The student facilitators introduced the brainstorming prompts, distributed materials from their kits, managed the strict timelines, and synthesized ideas. At the end of the sessions, they coordinated "gallery walks," allowing participants to cycle through each group’s work, expand their thinking, and use dot stickers to identify the ideas that resonated most deeply.

I monitored the rooms, watching these high schoolers use the exact consensusbuilding processes we had practiced. It was inspiring to watch them make the scripts their own—tweaking questions, adjusting their prompts, and reading and responding to the energy of the room.

To support their success, I developed a detailed facilitation guide complete with clear time parameters to keep multiple breakout groups moving at a synchronized pace. We also provided each student with a physical "facilitator kit" containing markers, sticky notes, chart paper, dot stickers, scratch paper, and, crucially, snacks. Equipped with these tools and their personal experience with the protocol, our 12 student facilitators were ready to step into the room with the adults.

The dynamic between the adults and the students was remarkable. Several adult participants instinctively turned to the students, asking them to share their own personal experiences with the 54

district's curriculum and school culture.

While our facilitators gracefully shared their perspectives, they maintained their professional boundaries, ensuring that the adults also had equitable space to air their voices. They balanced leadership

control over a major strategic initiative can cause anxiety. Having spent ten years in District 100, I am deeply invested in our strategic planning and scorecard processes. As I watched the students lead, I initially wrestled

I quickly learned that the secret to student leadership lies in finding the exact balance between structural support and radical trust. with humility, keeping the conversations heavily focused on our primary goals: identifying competencies, crafting definitions, and brainstorming the visual look of the final Portrait.

with standard administrative worries: Will they hit their timelines? Will they capture clean data? Will the adults push back or try to take over?

I quickly learned that the secret to student leadership lies in finding the exact balance between structural support and radical trust. By providing

The Strategic and Leadership Perspective: Learning to Step Back For any district leader, relinquishing

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Student-led Design (cont.) the room provided an immediate, empathetic reality check, keeping our conversations firmly grounded in the modern, lived student experience.

comprehensive guides and resources up front, I could confidently step back and give the students the latitude to truly pilot the experience. My anxieties proved

Having articulate, trained students running the room provided an immediate, empathetic reality check, keeping our conversations firmly grounded in the modern, lived student experience.

Furthermore, this process completely altered how our community views student capability. Following the conclusion of the design sessions, I received an email from an adult participant that perfectly encapsulated the success of the project. They wrote:

entirely unfounded; the students met every timeline, handled adult dynamics with immense professionalism, and collected incredibly clear, rich data.

Following the sessions, I aggregated the data gathered by the students to isolate the top themes and trends. These themes were subsequently vetted by a small subset of the design teams, our Core Leadership Team, forming the structural foundation of our finalized Portrait of a Graduate (following page.)

"I have to say, the three young people who were in our room were absolutely amazing! They were, in my mind, a portrait of what a graduate should be! I enjoyed how engaging they were able to be as they brought us all along in the session. I left that meeting energized and inspired to help my students reach their highest potential!”

The Ultimate Impact: Living the Portrait The impact of this initiative extended far beyond the immediate data collected. By placing students at the helm, we created a mechanism that kept the adults inherently honest.

In education, adult-only committees often try to leverage what they think students need or want. Having articulate, trained students running

By designing the process this way, we didn't just build a theoretical framework for the future; we demonstrated what our students are capable of achieving right now. We have cultivated a dedicated pipeline of student leaders 56

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Student-led Design (cont.)

Dave Carson serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for the Belvidere School District.

He has held this position for ten years and is responsible for supporting and coordinating continuous improvement efforts aligned to the district's strategic plan. He serves as the supervisor of the secondary school principals and district administrators who lead bilingual programming, student services, and career readiness. Prior to his position in Belvidere, Dave worked in the Rockford Public Schools’ district office as the Executive Director of College and Career Readiness where he led the transition of their high schools to wall-to-wall College and Career Academies. His classroom experience includes teaching social studies at Jefferson High School in Rockford, the start-up of a small charter high school in Oceanside, California, a traditional high school in Chino, California and in a Chicago-suburban middle school.

who are profoundly committed to our systemic work. Those who are not graduating this year are already planning to support the next phases of our strategic rollout. As we move into the 2026–2027 school year, we will lean heavily on this Portrait of a Graduate to construct our brand-new district strategic plan and performance scorecard. We know it will be successful, because our students have already drawn the map.

AI DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: The author used an AI-assisted writing tool to support initial brainstorming, structural organization, and text editing. All content was reviewed, revised, and verified for accuracy and authenticity by the author.

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PD356 Area Representatives Our Area Reps are led by members of our PD365 Board of Directors, Denise Makowski and Amie Corso Reed.

Denise Makowski

Chicago 618.203.3993 dmkowski224@gmail.com

Our Area Reps are led by a members of our PD365 Board of Directors, Denise Makowski.

Amie Corso Reed

O'Fallon School District 618.203.3993 amie.corso@gmail.com

Current Area Reps AREA 1: (Green)

AREA 2: (Dark Blue) AREA 3: (Yellow) AREA 4: (Pink) AREA 5: (Light Blue) AREA 6: (Gold)

April Jordan Jennifer Winters Stacy Stewart Jen Pollack Chad Dougherty Heather Bowman Jamie Bajer Mica Ike Vacant

Contact information for them can be found HERE.

The roles of the PD365 Area Representatives are: •

Encouraging PD365 membership to educators in their local areas;

•

Assisting with professional development;

•

Attend board meetings and the annual leadership retreat, when possible;

•

Disseminating information from PD365 board meetings or other sanctioned PD365 activities to local school districts or other regional members

•

Being a two-way communication vehicle between the local PD365 members regarding PD365 or any educational issues.

•

Keeping PD365 Board of Directors apprised of pertinent information regarding personnel issues (e.g., job vacancies, job promotions) and district program awards/recognition within the local area.

•

Communicating regularly with PD365 Executive Director and the Co-Leaders of the Membership and Partnerships Focus Area.

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Article Cooperative Learning as a Leadership Lab

Adam Roubitchek

We say that leadership skills are important, but why don’t we develop them in the classroom? These are largely outsourced to sports and activities, and sometimes we let those who have the skills naturally emerge. If we believe that leadership consists of a series of skills rather than inborn traits, those skills need to be taught to all of our students. Thoroughly developed leadership skills top the list of post-secondary keys to success. Specifically, collaboration and initiative are vitally important (Johnson, 2014) for students to be successful once we send them out into the world.

We can develop those skills in the classroom, but traditional classroom structures present a sizable hurdle.

Direct instruction and individualistic strategies can lead to social isolation and unhealthy competition. How can students be leaders if the teacher is doing the majority of the talking, thinking, and processing? ALL students can be leaders if we develop those skills in a safe and cooperative context. How can we structure our classrooms to ensure that leadership skills in schools are practiced regularly?

Cooperative Learning is an instructional practice that increases academic achievement, decreases student violence, and develops these all-important skills (Güngör et al., 2025).

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poor lab procedures, or developing understanding at different rates.

Students aren’t expected to be able to ‘do’ science when they walk into the classroom on day one. We teach, practice,

One way to build those leadership skills is to treat our classrooms like a science lab. In the lab, we make hypotheses, collect data, come to conclusions, and most importantly, refine our procedures

Just as students need to learn how to balance chemical reactions, they need to learn how to encourage the participation of their peers. and try again! The laboratory is a place where mistakes are valued. Every change, every iteration, and every revision is an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop.

Students develop a basic understanding of scientific laws through repetition and revision. We don’t shame students for drawing incorrect conclusions, having

and assess what they know and can do in and out of the lab. We make it clear to our students that learning these skills takes time and effort. Our guidance and support are key to academic skill development. So why would we expect leadership skills to be any different?

Leadership skills are just that…skills that can be taught and assessed just like academic skills. Just as students need to learn how to balance chemical reactions, they need to learn how to encourage the participation of their peers.

Cooperative Learning (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 2013, p. 1:31) is an instructional framework that emphasizes five essential elements: • Positive Interdependence • Individual Accountability • Group Processing • Social Skills

Figure 1: How Science Really Works (Understanding Science, n.d.).

• Face-to-Face interaction 61

Leadership Lab (cont.)

Students have responsibilities to their teammates and must demonstrate their mastery of those skills after explicit instruction.

The explicit teaching of social skills is are. As we circulate the room, we can foundational to cooperative learning. monitor the usage of these skills, just These skills can be divided into four as we monitor their academic work. categories: forming, Leadership skills functioning, become embedded formulating, in the day-toand fermenting. day functioning Leadership skills lie of our groups. in the functioning In a cooperative category. learning classroom, Functioning skills student leadership are those that skill development are “needed is embedded within to manage the the structure group’s activities in of the activity. completing the task Students have and in maintaining responsibilities to effective working their teammates Figure 2: Image created by the author using relationships among and must ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2026). members” (Johnson demonstrate their & Johnson, 2015, p. 7:5 ). Some examples mastery of those skills after explicit of these skills are “Giving directions instruction. to the group’s work” or “Encouraging Jose notices that Sarah has been sitting everyone to participate.” quietly in their group of four. He glances at But it's not simply enough to let students the poster on the wall labeled “Encouraging know that these skills are important.

Participation,” one of the skills that the Students can generate examples of what teacher has been stressing. He asks, these skills look like in practice. We can “Sarah, what are some ideas about how post their suggestions on our walls to to build this data table that we haven’t remind them of what our expectations mentioned?” Sarah takes a moment and 62

processing. At the end of a lesson, the class reflects on their group dynamic.

They ask meta-cognitive questions about their actions: How was someone a good group member? How was someone a good group member to someone else? Group processing ensures that students have time to recognize and refine leadership behaviors. Just like in the science lab, time is taken to analyze data and refine procedures; we don’t just jump into another trial.

then turns her notebook to face the group.

“We need to make sure that we include all variables in the title. Everyone has mentioned a few of them…we just need to write it using parts of everyone’s work.”

Imagine a classroom where this is a regular occurrence. Jose had all of the tools at his disposal to step up and include Sarah, and by including her, the group benefited from her knowledge.

This is a high-functioning team that is benefitting socially, as well as academically.

In class discussion at the end of the period, Sarah raised her hand. “Everyone was talking so fast and had such good ideas, I didn’t know how to give my idea about the data table title. Jose asked me what I thought. That gave me an in.” Jose responded, “I was worried that Sarah would think I was calling her out for not saying anything. I knew she had good ideas, and we needed to hear them. Now I know that we need to slow down a little so that everyone shares.” Not only could others learn from their interaction, but Jose also learned that leadership includes making space for others.

How did Jose know that he was supposed to include Sarah in that moment? Jose was not assigned to be the team leader; in fact, there was no team leader. The lesson had positive interdependence built in: all students needed to have a data table that was ready to take into the lab. The task could not be completed unless all team members did their part.

Jose knew this and took the initiative to include Sarah. Without the explicit expectation and practice, he may not have had the tools or confidence to encourage Sarah. A cooperative learning classroom is one where the pre-instructional decisions lead to these types of spontaneous leadership.

Group processing is also a space in which leadership struggles come to light. Jose and Sarah’s group were doing lots of talking without listening, but they recovered. We may find that other groups in class didn’t take the time to listen. Some students may

But how do we make sure that those moments stick? Another essential element of cooperative learning is group 63

Leadership Lab (cont.) responsibilities shared across the group.

Cooperative learning makes leadership a regular practice for all students.

Leadership is a series of actions…NOT a title that someone bestows upon someone else. Jose demonstrated leadership by including Sarah. Sarah demonstrated leadership by correcting her group members’ work. If we were to ask Sarah, Jose, and their group members who is in charge, they would most likely answer “All of us!”

dominate the conversation without taking a breath to include their group members. This is not a failure, but an opportunity to work with those groups to further develop their skills. Just like in the lab, we analyze unexpected results and refine procedures, students can reflect on their interactions so that their next cooperative interactions are more productive.

Any classroom can be a leadership lab.

What opportunities are you presenting to have students work together? What

The trick to making the lessons stick is that no individual student is "in charge," but rather they have leadership responsibilities shared across the group.

References

structures have you put in place? When leadership goes wrong, how do you empower students to learn from their mistakes? Cooperative learning provides a structure to develop leadership skills in all of your students and to prepare them for what lies outside of our school walls.

Students are scientists when they engage in scientific inquiry, and they are leaders when they take responsibility for the success of the group.

Güngör, F., Altunbaşak, İ., Aydın, A.T. et al. A second-order meta-analysis on the effects of cooperative learning on students’ academic achievement, higher-order thinking, and affective behaviors. Curr Psychol 45, 552 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12144-025-08943-0 Johnson, B. (2014, January 1). Why these 5 soft skills are more important than ever.

Edutopia. https://www.edutopia. org/blog/college-career-ready-softskills-crucial-ben-johnson

The trick to making the lessons stick is that no individual student is "in charge," but rather they have leadership 64

Dr. Adam Roubitchek is Assistant Principal for Teaching & Learning at East Leyden High School and an adjunct professor at Elmhurst University. He has dedicated his career to creating engaging and rigorous classroom experiences.

Dr. Roubitchek is the Treasurer and a founding member of the Illinois Council of Instructional Coaching, as well as the founder of AR Educational Consulting.

His research and professional interests include cooperative learning, instructional coaching, building belonging in the classroom, and developing teacher & student leadership.

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2015).

Advanced cooperative learning (3rd ed.). Interaction Book Company.

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec, E.J. (2013). Cooperation in the classroom (9th ed.). Interaction Book Company.

OpenAI. (2026). ChatGPT (May 31 version) [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com Understanding Science. (n.d.). How science really works [Flowchart].

University of California Museum of Paleontology. https://undsci. berkeley.edu/science-flowchart/

MORE INFORMATION 65

Article What Changes When We Listen? Insights from Teaching, Coaching, and Governance Jennifer Ciok

Student leadership often seems like a simple idea. Let students lead. Student voice also seems like a simple concept. Listen to student voices. But it goes so much deeper than that. In my book, The Meaningful Middle School Classroom, I highlight the phrase, “Nothing about us without us,” which is a call to action that spread from the disability community in the 1990s to the studentvoice space today. The idea behind this slogan is that “no policies, from education reform, to employment protections, to better treatment and care in hospitals, should be created without the full and direct participation of those it affects” (Zarkhosh, 2024, para. 2). And yet, in schools, especially in a leadership capacity, those most important voices are left out.

You often hear administrators or teachers say that they have student leadership in their schools. But when you dig into what that leadership looks like, it is often having students helping to decide on assemblies or themes for dances or planning a field day. And though those things are important to building school culture, are they truly leadership? I have had a variety of roles in education, from teacher to coach to manager to school board member, 66

• Authentic audiences are important.

If students are leading the work, they deserve authentic feedback from the community being impacted.

and have seen student leadership play out in unique ways in each space.

Where Student Voice Begins: Classroom-Level Opportunities for Leadership As a teacher, authentic student leadership came about organically for me. I was a middle school social studies teacher for fifteen years, and in year seven, after helping my students write letters to their congressperson, she came to speak to them regarding their concerns about the issue of child labor around the world. In that conversation, she told them that writing letters was great, but if they wanted to make an impact, they needed to do more. This sent us on a multi-year project led by my students to raise money and awareness for organizations combatting this issue.

Coaching for Student-Centered Leadership: Bridging Practice and Purpose As a coach and manager, elevating authentic student leadership was core to my work with teams of educators.

Instead of an organic process, this student leadership work was instrumental to understanding students’ experiences and how to improve learning environments using that information. In this case, students were trained in how to collect and analyze data, along with how to give feedback and suggestions to their teachers and administrators.

This type of sharing of power can be uncomfortable for teachers and challenging to embrace, but it leads to students understanding that they have a say in their learning. What this looks like in practice is having students analyze schoolwide, grade-level, or classroom-level de-identified data. It means listening to and acting on what students have to say, not just as surfacelevel feedback, but as partners in making classroom learning conditions better. It means listening to students when they say that they have an idea for what data to collect or what changes could be

They planned and organized events, reached out to experts and supporters in the community, co-wrote and performed original songs, and gave hundreds of hours to making a difference. In doing this work with students, I learned a few very important lessons about what letting students lead in the classroom means: • Be OK with the unknown! You never know where students are going to take the journey.

• Remove barriers. Be a guide and help remove obstacles along the way.

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What Changes When We Listen (cont.)

• Be open and honest with yourself and with your students. Let students know what is feasible and what is not. Share what you are working on and why you need their help in making it happen.

made to meet schoolwide goals. It means inviting students into building teams to define schoolwide goals and be partners in solving issues. This is not easy, and I definitely stumbled along the way. Here are some important lessons I learned:

Listening at the System Level: The Role of School Boards in Advancing Student Voice The school board table is often seen as an imposing place where big decisions are being made about classrooms and students, with very little input from those

• Students are more perceptive than you think. It’s amazing how much students know and understand about what is happening in the school.

They may not have the educational terms for it, but they are remarkably

It definitely takes some time to define what the role of a student board member will look like, but the input and experience outweigh those concerns. who are being affected. In my experience in this space, it wasn’t that student voice and leadership weren’t valued, but that it was hard to imagine how students, and especially middle schoolers in our case, could effectively be integrated into this space where members are elected to serve, and truly have a voice at the table.

good at identifying and naming the celebrations and areas of concern that are happening throughout the day.

• Start small but with intentionality.

Having students lead in this way doesn’t need to happen all at once. It could start by having all teachers share a specific data set back with students to get their input, or inviting a group of students onto one influential team in the building. The most important piece here is to make sure that their feedback is heard and that the students understand what you are going to do with it.

Having student board members is still a relatively new concept, especially in Illinois. States like New York and New Hampshire require a non-voting high school board member on every board, while Maryland has some districts that have student board members cast binding votes on certain issues (Hendrie, 68

“This is building civic engagement and helping prepare students for the world that awaits them once they leave school” 2024). And when it comes to student leadership, this can have lasting impacts on the entire community. It definitely takes some time to define what the role of a student board member will look like, but the input and experience outweigh those concerns. As Koung, a former student board member from Maryland, said, “This is building civic engagement and helping prepare students for the world that awaits them once they leave school” (Hendrie, 2024). The following are a few important lessons I learned in this process:

building before adding student board members. This helped students to be more comfortable serving in that leadership role before sitting at the board table.

• Know that it won’t be perfect on the first try. Like many new initiatives, it takes time to figure out the right balance and process. Don’t give up if the first idea doesn’t work. Gather feedback from the students and elected board members on what is and isn’t working.

Watching young people take the lead in so many different types of spaces has been one of the most rewarding parts of my career. To see a student’s eyes light up as they see the impact their leadership made as a middle schooler and then watch as they take on a similar challenge in high school or beyond not only fuels me as someone who has worked in education for over 25 years, but also means that our country and world are getting passionate young people who are willing to stand up, speak out and make an impact on their community. Take the step and give students the opportunity to lead.

• Learn from other districts. Don’t embark on this journey alone. Even though it’s a newer practice, there are districts that have been doing this for a number of years. Learning from those districts allows you to iterate on what is working and see what will fit best into your district’s practices.

• Let administrators take the lead.

If this is a board recommendation, remember to let administrators take the lead on the process. On my board, the superintendent recommended we start with Principal Advisory Councils to begin to elicit student voice at each 69

What Changes When We Listen (cont.)

Jennifer Ciok is the Director of Government Relations for the Illinois Association of School Boards. She has worked in education for over 25 years, working to create equitable and supportive educational environments where students thrive. She is the author of the ASCD published book, The Meaningful Middle School Classroom. Jennifer has delivered professional development to hundreds of educators, served on her community’s local school board, and has been invited to write articles for various publications and to speak on panels, podcasts, and at national conferences. She is also the cochair for the AMLE Advocacy Committee.

In her role at IASB, she is developing tools to enhance involvement and awareness of advocacy efforts for school board members and supporting legislative efforts. Jennifer graduated with her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ohio University.

References Ciok, J. K. (2025). The meaningful middle school classroom: how to spark engagement that fosters deep learning.

ASCD. Hendrie, C. (2024, Nov 19). Districts and States Give Students a Seat at the Boardroom Table. Education Next. www.educationnext.org/districtsstates-give-students-seatboardroom-table-authority-voti Zarkhosh, H. (2024, March 6). Nothing about Us without Us: Promoting Disability History and Awareness in Classrooms. Facing History. Retrieved June 26, 2024, from https://www. facinghistory.org/ideas-week/ nothing-about-us-without-uspromoting-disability-historyawareness-classrooms

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Article From Consumers to CoCreators: How Student-Led AI Governance Transformed a School District Michael Lubelfeld

Introduction The data from our engagement surveys told us students lacked choice. Generative AI gave us the opportunity— and the obligation—to address that deficit, not by choosing for the students, but by building the structures

The future of AI in schools will not be determined by the tools we purchase. It will be determined by who we trust to govern them. that let them choose for themselves. The future of AI in schools will not be determined by the tools we purchase.

It will be determined by who we trust to govern them.

When our longitudinal student engagement data landed on my desk in early 2024, one metric stopped me cold.

Across every school in North Shore School District 112— nine buildings, roughly 3,800 students—the “Choice” dimension consistently ranked last. Students felt safe, supported, and connected to their teachers. But they did not feel ownership over their learning. This gap was not a survey anomaly; it was a structural condition that 71

From Consumers to Co-Creators (cont.)

The Walled Garden did not homogenize student writing. It amplified authentic expression by removing mechanical barriers while preserving the productive struggle that builds skill. demanded a structural response. Similar concerns about student agency and engagement have been documented more broadly in education, including in Ken Robinson’s widely viewed RSA work and Gallup’s recent findings on Gen Z engagement in school.

technology implementation. A nine-yearold multilingual learner and a fourteenyear-old adolescent have fundamentally different developmental needs, risk profiles, and capacities for autonomy. Our AI strategy reflected that reality.

We designed two philosophically aligned but operationally distinct pilots.

For 4th-grade multilingual learners at Oak Terrace Elementary in Highwood, Illinois, we built what we called a “Walled Garden.” Using MagicSchool AI’s Student Rooms feature, teacher Kaye Piña curated a protected suite of tools—an Idea Generator, a Text Proofreader, and a custom Writing Feedback bot aligned to Grade 3–5 standards—while blocking open-ended chatbots and external browsing. The pedagogical focus was literacy and narrative construction, with AI serving as a scaffold for language acquisition rather than a shortcut around it.

At the same time, generative AI was arriving in classrooms, whether we were ready or not. Many districts defaulted to a familiar playbook: block the tools, police plagiarism, and purchase “teacheronly” platforms. We recognized that such an approach would only deepen the agency deficit our data exposed.

If students already lacked meaningful decision-making power, locking them out of the most consequential technology of their generation would make that problem worse, not better.

So we asked a different question—not “How do we use AI?” but “Who decides how we use AI?”

The results were as individual as the students. One student barely touched the proofreader, preferring to wrestle with English on her own terms—grammatical errors intact, voice

Designing for Development, Not Just Devices Equity requires differentiation—a principle we apply to instruction but too rarely to 72

scaffolding to move from abstract goals to concrete classroom practice.

Partnerships with Monika Patel of Playlab and Stephanie Cardella Barraza of LEAP Innovations provided additional design and research support.

unmistakably hers. Another engaged heavily with the feedback tools, producing polished prose while keeping the narrative deeply personal. A third used translation features to toggle between Spanish and English, processing complex ideas in his native language before expressing them in his second.

The Walled Garden did not homogenize student writing. It amplified authentic

The applications students built were not toys. One student, a volunteer with refugee families, created a

This thirteen-year-old built a citation guardrail that many commercial products lack. expression by removing mechanical barriers while preserving the productive struggle that builds skill.

From Users to Builders The 8th-grade pilot at Edgewood Middle School in Highland Park, Illinois, operated on a different premise: creative agency.

Using Playlab.ai, a no-code platform, students in John Whitehead’s social studies class did not simply use AI tools designed by adults—they built their own.

bilingual U.S. Immigration Guide that walks users through asylum, visa, and refugee applications in English and Spanish. The most sophisticated feature was a verification protocol that the student programmed into the system instructions: the AI must cross-reference information from reliable sources and cite where it was obtained. This thirteenyear-old built a citation guardrail that many commercial products lack.

Over ten 40-minute sessions, students moved through a structured progression: AI literacy and ethical debate, design thinking and problem identification, then prompt engineering and iterative development. The work was grounded in the ISTE–ASCD Transformational Learning framework of Nurture, Guide, and Empower, which provided theoretical

Another student created a multilingual tutor for math and science that was explicitly programmed to refuse to give answers. The workflow followed a locked pedagogical sequence: explanation, then example problem, then study guide, then—and only then—an answer key.

The student addressed the “cheating problem” not through detection, but 73

From Consumers to Co-Creators (cont.) student reflections, we heard phrases like “I feel like a designer now” and “I didn’t

through design. A third student built a “Hangout Ideas” bot that filters out

... staff members with higher levels of AI familiarity often exhibited greater resistance to adoption. This was not technophobia. It was a conscientious objection. know I could build something like this,” reinforcing that the real outcome was identity, not just skill.

screen-based activities and nudges teens toward in-person connection, with guardrails against judgmental language about the cost of suggested activities.

The Familiarity–Skepticism Paradox While the student pilots were encouraging, our broader staff engagement revealed a more complicated picture. Longitudinal survey data from March 2024 through November 2025 uncovered what we came to call the Familiarity–Skepticism Paradox: staff members with higher levels of AI familiarity often exhibited greater resistance to adoption.

This was not technophobia. It was a conscientious objection.

Students used AI to solve problems created by technology itself—a level of dialectical thinking that should give pause to anyone who underestimates adolescents. One of our students, Luc Sever, was later named Illinois State Champion in the middle school Track 2 competition of the Presidential AI Challenge for his “Personalized News” tool. What stands out is not only that he created a working solution, but that he kept improving it, persisted through setbacks, and thought carefully about responsible design.

As teachers learned how large language models actually work—how they consume energy, process data, and generate probabilistic text—some developed principled concerns. The most significant barrier was environmental ethics. In our community, many educators hold strong sustainability values, and the cognitive dissonance between those values and the

Quantitative outcomes mirrored what we saw qualitatively. In pilot surveys, 77 percent of participating students reported increased AI skill levels, 54 percent reported increased comfort with AI, and 62 percent reported a more positive overall outlook toward AI. In 74

work was not the applications students built. It was the power they secured.

energy demands of large-scale AI became what we internally called the “Green Wall.”

Emerging analyses of AI’s carbon footprint and water use have amplified these concerns for educators nationwide.

In a move with few precedents in public education, we appointed two 8thgrade students from the Playlab pilot as full voting members of the District Educational Technology Committee.

These students do not serve in an

The second pillar of resistance was pedagogical. Teachers observed students losing “stamina” for sustained

...creation is the antidote to atrophy. When students build the tool, they think deeply. When they merely use it, they risk disengagement. advisory role; they have the same voting authority as administrators and teachers on decisions regarding software procurement, data privacy, and the instructional use of AI. This step aligns with research on student voice that shows the greatest impact when schools move from consultation to genuine partnership and shared decision-making.

reading and writing when AI was used as a consumption tool rather than a creation tool. When students simply asked AI for answers or summaries, their engagement, persistence, and depth of thinking declined. These concerns were legitimate, and we treated them that way—not as obstacles to overcome but as data points to integrate into our implementation strategy.

Those same students are co-authoring our district’s comprehensive AI use policy, scheduled for Board presentation in 2026. The policy addresses academic integrity in the age of generative AI, data privacy standards for vendor relationships, and instructional guardrails that preserve space for human creativity. Ethical principles that our students embedded in their Playlab applications, including citation

This reinforced our central thesis: creation is the antidote to atrophy.

When students build the tool, they think deeply. When they merely use it, they risk disengagement. The staff paradox and the student outcomes pointed to the same conclusion from opposite directions.

Governance as the Final Frontier The culminating achievement of this 75

From Consumers to Co-Creators (cont.) requirements, anti-bias filters, and pedagogical sequencing, are now being codified into district governance.

to trust. Instead, design assessments that value the process of creation— oral defenses, iterative drafts, public

This is what we mean by moving from urgency to agency.

This is what we mean by moving from urgency to agency. The urgency is real: AI has arrived quickly, and schools must respond. But responding with agency means ensuring that the people most affected by these decisions, students, have genuine authority in making them.

presentations—and the plagiarism question largely resolves itself. Our students showed that when you give them tools to build, they build things more ethically rigorous than many adult-designed products.

• Structuralize student voice. Advisory councils are a start, but they are not governance. If students are going to live in an AI-shaped world, they need practice exercising democratic authority over these systems now.

Granting students voting rights on a technology committee is a concrete, replicable step that transforms student voice from metaphor to mechanism.

What Districts Can Do on Monday Morning Our journey is still unfolding, but three principles from our experience are immediately portable for other districts.

• Differentiate the implementation, not just the instruction. A Walled Garden for younger or more vulnerable learners and an opencreation model for adolescents are not a compromise—they are a developmentally responsive design.

This bifurcated approach lets you move forward on AI without forcing a one-size-fits-all rollout that inevitably underserves someone.

We began this work because a data point told us our students lacked choice.

We continue it because our students showed us what is possible when they move from consumers of AI to cocreators and co-governors.

• Invest in creation, not detection.

The arms race against AI-generated cheating is unwinnable and corrosive

Dr. Michael Lubelfeld has served as a public school superintendent in Illinois 76

School Leadership Framework for Growth & Development (2021), and The Unfinished Teacher: Becoming the Next Version of Yourself (2024). His latest book is Leading for Tomorrow’s Schools Today. In 2025, he was named one of the top 100 Influencers in education and he received the 2025 Delta Award for Innovation from the Illinois Educational Technology Leaders (IETL).

since 2010 and most recently retired from North Shore School District 112, just north of Chicago. A nationally recognized educational leader, Dr. Lubelfeld is deeply engaged in leadership development and professional growth, collaborating with state and national associations to inspire the next generation of educational leaders. Dr. Lubelfeld has co-authored several influential books, including The Unfinished Leader: A

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77

Article Recognizing Silent Leaders in Our Schools

Sage A. England

E. Scott England

Introduction Many mission statements of school districts have some form of call to action on serving the students today to become the leaders of tomorrow. The definition of a leader from these statements is somewhat ambiguous, though. This leaves people to envision what leaders of tomorrow may look like. Some kind of executive? A vocal, boisterous individual who can command a room?

Someone who takes charge of a situation they are in to guide those around them?

None of these is wrong, but it often narrows the focus on who qualifies or exemplifies a leader. In education, we often look at the students who are outgoing to become our leaders. Which, we admit, is a helpful attribute in leadership positions such as student council, FFA, and

None of these is wrong, but it often narrows the focus on who qualifies or exemplifies a leader. other clubs and organizations in our schools. As Susan Cain (2013) wrote in her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, quiet students are often “prodded to come ‘out of [their] shell’” (p. 6). But what if we are missing an amazing subset of 78

students who desire leadership roles but err on the side of quiet?

that quiet students do not desire a leadership role. While they may find themselves in clubs, organizations, and athletic teams, it may be wrongfully assumed that they just want to participate rather than lead.

Many quiet students may show amazing leadership potential but are often hindered by traditional models of leadership. That is, to say, a more vocal, extroverted presence. We do not believe that educators intentionally overlook the quieter students. In fact, we propose that the quieter students are often highlighted for just that, their quietness in times of more chaotic settings.

To help combat this, we provide the following tools, strategies, and processes educators can use to not only recognize but to nurture silent student leaders.

Observation Tools Discovering quiet leaders begins with observation. Students who are quiet are often viewed as compliant above all else, but they can provide small clues as to their

Even that, though, is often overlooked as time, energy, and effort have to be expended to restore control in louder

The idea for these rubrics is to identify leadership behaviors through actions, influence, and emotional intelligence rather than traditional models of verbal dominance and visibility. settings. The quiet students simply exist, providing a calm to the environment. We pause here to separate shy from quiet.

To do so, we again turn to Cain (2013): “Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating. Shyness is inherently painful; introversion is not” (p. 12).

desire for leadership roles. Observations can be followed by private conversations with the quiet leader to determine where they stand in leadership.

1. Non-speaking Leadership Rubrics The idea for these rubrics is to identify leadership behaviors through actions, influence, and emotional intelligence rather than traditional models of verbal dominance and visibility. The rubric can highlight many areas such

It is also possible, when considering traditional leadership models, to assume 79

Recognizing Silent Leaders (cont.) as modeling behaviors, reliability, emotional stability, relational influence, and quiet initiative. While this is not an exhaustive list, it can provide the foundation for beginning to assess quiet leaders.

the qualities of a leader. Again, inventories take a step away from traditional leadership assessments that typically prioritize visibility, charisma, assertiveness, and verbal dominance. A strengths-based inventory for silent leaders recognizes other forms of leadership expressed in non-traditional modes.

Quiet leaders provide a calm demeanor, even in the height of chaos. Consistency in the key as they provide steadiness and reassurance to those around them. They also influence behaviors through the same

This style of inventory can focus on other attributes such as reflection, listening, reliability, emotional

A strengths-based inventory for silent leaders recognizes other forms of leadership expressed in non-traditional modes. mode of consistency as their own behaviors guide others to imitate their practices without prompting.

intelligence, and ethical consistency.

Each would have an indicator (e.g., for reflective thinking: quiet leaders often process deeply before speaking or acting. Thoughtful judgement and reflection are valued). This would be followed by inventory statements (e.g., I think carefully before responding to difficult situations).

Each statement would be scored on a scale from rarely true to highly true.

Quiet leaders are often trustworthy individuals. They are dependable while discreet, but again, through consistency, demonstrate a followthrough without seeking recognition.

If quiet leaders are tasked with something, they will be sure to get it done. If they say will do something, they carry out that task without reminders.

3. Peer Nomination Surveys Gaining perspectives on leadership from students is another great tool. Rather than traditional ways of students campaigning for top

2. Strengths-based Inventories Inventories are great tools to affirm 80

they quietly observe peers and help identify unseen or unheard peers. A thought partner would help serve as a sounding board for ideas in the classroom or enhance peers’ thinking through thoughtful questioning.

leadership roles, we propose creating nomination surveys that are tailored to include all students.

Surprisingly, students are often quite adept at picking out strong leaders in the classroom. But to help aid them, educators can create nomination surveys by adapting the rubrics and inventories above. A carefully curated survey can allow all students to consider a wider selection of leadership candidates.

A quiet leader yearns for tasks that will allow them to contribute. Tasking them with observing, organizing, researching, or mediating gives them tasks that are well within their leadership abilities. It also allows them to contribute to the classroom environment without having to take center stage.

Classroom Strategies Teachers carry a responsibility for cultivating quiet students into quiet leaders. These practices are often highlighted in primary grades and should continue as students progress through the grades. We offer a few suggestions as to how we envision teachers supporting quiet leaders.

2. Modeling and Celebrating Silent Leadership While silent leaders do not often seek the spotlight, they do like to be recognized and celebrated for the work they do. This would not be via traditional celebrations in front of the entire class, but privately held moments can allow for silent leaders to be proud of what they do to contribute.

1. Non-traditional Leadership Roles Leadership opportunities are bountiful in classrooms. Many are often just overlooked because they are outsidethe-box of leadership as we know it.

For those quiet leaders, they can be tasked with leadership opportunities that play well into their skillsets we have discussed already. This could include being a silent observer or thought partner. Both of these require emotional intelligence as

This is not to say that every interaction and celebration with silent leaders must be done non-publicly. As educators foster the growth of silent leaders, it will undoubtedly become noticed by others. However, it will strengthen the overall leadership in classrooms and schools as a balance 81

Recognizing Silent Leaders (cont.)

Shifting the mindset can also be redefining what leadership could look like—influence, not volume.

And students are impressionable. If an educator tells a student something like that, they often internalize that as truth.

is created between vocal leaders and silent leaders.

3. Facilitating Silent Collaboration Structures Silent leaders may participate in open discussions, but they truly thrive in quieter collaboration structures. This allows them to think more deeply and consider their responses rather than being put on the spot. Journaling or other advance-notice writing prompts can allow silent leaders the time to become more articulate in their responses. This can further demonstrate their leadership abilities as they apply their critical thinking.

Quiet students do have a place in leadership. Valuing silence as agency begins with shifting the mindset from traditional leadership. Educators need to be mindful of the subtle signals of who the silent leaders are in the schools. Shifting the mindset can also be redefining what leadership could look like—influence, not volume.

References Cain, S. (2013). Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. Crown.

Schools, often unintentionally, lead students to believe that something is wrong with them if they are quiet. The idea is solidified sometimes within kids. If students were taught that it is okay to be quiet, we could help them recognize that they hold abilities that the outgoing kids do not have. They could be encouraged to become leaders in school and feel more secure in that knowledge.

Sage A. England is a sophomore at Sullivan High School. She is an advocate for educators, recognizing the power of silent leadership.

E. Scott England is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

As a quiet person, you are taught that if you cannot become more outgoing, you will not be able to do much leading.

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