Leadership Paradoxes

2. Made a monumental shift in thinking so that learning was the priority, not teaching 3. Articulated that a change in API benefitted how the world viewed their students

When Jefferson staff stopped looking at the scoreboard (namely, the NCLB test scores) as a judgment of them and started looking at it as a judgment of their students’ abilities, it ignited a passion to prove to the world that this judgment was wrong. The vision of students being able to succeed in life redefined test scores as secondary to a greater purpose. That shift placed student learning front and center. If the staff were going to change the district, city, and state view of their students, then the staff had to strive to empower students to demonstrate what they learned on the test in order to achieve the vision for what the staff hoped they could accomplish. What connected to the heart of the work was that the state API rankings were a judgment by the state to the rest of the world about their students’ abilities, capabilities, and futures. Demonstrating student learning was the only way to prove that Jefferson students could surpass the expectations of the world and meet the expectations that staff already had. The reframing and refocusing of test scores as a secondary means to a vision ignited a powerful, symbolic representation that united the school around the right call to action. The remarkable improvement in performance served as a revelation to the world that Jefferson’s purpose was meaningful. Jefferson eventually became a lighthouse for researchers, funders, and those who desperately wanted to understand the how of school turnaround.

PRACTITIONER PERSPECTIVE

“We never would have ever imagined that Jefferson would have achieved such improved student outcomes. We never were motivated by the district’s idea of chasing test scores; we were motivated by a cause of using the test to show everyone how special our kids are.”

—Kellee Barsotti Fifth-Grade Teacher, Jefferson Elementary (1984–present)

Initially, district and site leaders all across Sanger faced the new challenge of creating the conditions necessary to connect teams to a greater purpose, as in the case of Jefferson. This isn’t to say that teachers didn’t have individual causes that motivated