Issuu

P OW E R E D BY A P P T EGY

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Sharing the Power of Leadership Community-Powered Innovation • Creating a Culture of Storytelling • Energize Your New Employees

If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you don’t need control.

They know what needs to be done, and they do it. Herb Kelleher Founder of nes Southwest Airli

M AG A Z I N E

P O D CA ST

BY A P P T EGY

What will it take for schools to thrive post-pandemic? A year ago, many of you told us how jarring it felt to make decisions that would fundamentally change the experience of school, with little idea of what the coming months would bring. It’s surreal now to compare those early pandemic days to the “new normal” you’ve created: a patchwork of unique practices designed to fit the needs of your communities. Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Widespread vaccination is underway across the country, and recent research has helped us refine how to open schools as safely as possible. School may never look the same again, but in that, there is possibility. This past year has required a degree of ingenuity that would have seemed impossible before, but this creativity has now become an integral part of your district’s DNA. In this issue of SchoolCEO, we explore a key part of moving forward: innovation. Many districts have embraced cultures of innovation over the last year, and we believe that even after the pandemic, those cultures can create and catalyze lasting change. After all, very few would argue that our pre-pandemic system served every student to the fullest capacity. We have long needed better ways to serve every child’s needs—and now is the opportunity to build systems that make this a reality.

OUR TEAM

Here you’ll find stories of school leaders who have successfully leveraged community support to create transformational change. You’ll meet Dr. David Vroonland, who decentralized his district’s problem-solving pipeline, and Dr. David Miyashiro, who is harnessing his students’ storytelling capabilities into district-wide TED Talks. We’ll also offer a process for orchestrating systemic, community-led change that will last beyond the pandemic—and even beyond your time as superintendent. Right now, you have the chance to create a culture of innovation that can weather whatever comes next, a change that is both fully sustainable and fully led by your community. This, of course, is easier said than done, but we hope the leaders featured in this issue can serve as beacons to light your way. When used to amplify your community’s voices, innovation can form the foundation for what your district’s students experience for years to come. What will it take to build thriving schools post-pandemic? We may not know yet, but we do know that it begins with a culture of innovation.

Writers/Researchers: Michael Cruice, Barrett Goodwin, Melissa Hite, Brittany Keil, Joy Spence, Corey Whaley Community Manager: Rheannon Burnside

Art Director: Sebastian Andrei Graphic Designer/Illustrator: Corbin Lawrence Video Producers: Ryan McDonald, Obatola Layiwola Apptegy CEO: Jeston George

IN THIS ISSUE CommunityPowered Innovation

Turning on a Dime Dr. David Vroonland is building a culture of ownership that spurs innovation in Texas’ Mesquite ISD.

To be truly effective, innovation can’t come from the top; it should come straight from the people you serve.

We’ll dig into Daniel Coyle’s book on strong cultures, sharing the signals and skills you’ll need to transform your school relationships.

Creating a Culture of Storytelling With a little help from TED, Dr. David Miyashiro is encouraging students in California’s Cajon Valley USD to share their stories.

Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Apptegy is an education technology company dedicated to helping school leaders build a powerful identity for their schools. Learn more at apptegy.com

Published by:

Cracking the Culture Code

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Q&A: A New Way Forward In Texas’ Aldine ISD, Dr. LaTonya Goffney is connecting with her community, creating leaders, and encouraging innovation.

The Cultural Lens SchoolCEO News Desk Energize Your New Employees With a better onboarding experience, you can set new hires up for success.

Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona points toward a post-pandemic future at SXSW EDU.

We’ll show you snapshots of school leaders doing the work to create strong cultures in their districts.

Digging into Data With the info provided by Google Analytics, you can gauge—and improve—the effectiveness of your web communications.

Vol. 3 No. 3 © 2021 by Apptegy, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint or quote excerpts granted by written request only. SchoolCEO� is published 4 times a year (November, February, May, and August) by Apptegy, Inc. 2201 Brookwood Dr Suite 115, Little Rock, AR 72202. Views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the magazine or Apptegy, Inc. Accordingly, no liability is assumed by the publisher thereof.

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Good News in Public Education Marksville, LA

Chattanooga, TN

At Marksville High School, two teachers have brought fun and excitement to their students with help from Fin the Duck and Hank the Goat. Earlier this year, teacher Sheena Grote let her students observe a batch of eggs in her agricultural science class, and before long, Fin hatched. The duck has since become a mascot for the school, and is cared for fulltime by a student named Amari. “It’s worth it—all animals need to be loved just like everybody else,” she told KALB.

A group of students at Hixson High have recently received their Certified Nursing Assistant licenses and plan to start helping at their local hospitals and nursing homes immediately. For Dante, a junior, the motivation is clear: “I want to be there for them when they’re in their darkest of times.” (News Channel 9)

Meanwhile, Hank the Goat has helped students in Sherie Bourgeois’ early childhood development class learn to care for baby animals. “It just helps everyone understand how to work with animals and move on to actual human beings,” said Trinity, a student in the class. Hank and Fin get along well, and both bring positivity to the classroom. (KALB)

Des Plaines, IL Seth MacLowry, an English teacher at Maine West High School, created the Inaugural Poem Project—an opportunity for students to study various inaugural poems and create their own. This year, in partnership with the Academy of American Poets, the project has been opened to classrooms nationwide and turned into a national contest, allowing students to submit their poems for a chance at publication. (Journal & Topics)

Seaford, NY Joe, a senior at Seaford High School, founded a program called Tech Mentors, allowing fellow students to ask questions about technology and get help with Microsoft Teams. Students in the program also help their peers with software and hardware issues. “I just want to help out in any way that I can,” Joe told Newsday. “This is a good way in which I can contribute to the school.” (Newsday)

Houston, TX

Springdale, AR

In an effort to help fellow students from across the city, Haiqa, a teen at Fort Bend ISD, created a nonprofit called Houston Helping Hands. The organization works to connect interested students with local volunteer opportunities. Since forming in September 2020, the 100% student-led organization has hosted three drives and amassed 200 members. (Click2Houston)

Pre-K teacher Brittany Cissell has published a children’s book about her struggle with anxiety during the pandemic. The book focuses on the newest member of her family— Otis the Aussiedoodle—and how he helps her feel better. It’s available online, and 10% of all proceeds go to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. (5News)

West Plains, MO Bridget Larsen, a math teacher at Glenwood Middle, has created a curriculum that teaches students about poverty and wealth from local and global perspectives. Students create sculpture representations of poverty and wealth, and even propose community outreach programs that could make a positive economic impact. “Income and wealth inequality is among the most popular new fields of study in economics,” Larsen explained. “We felt as though it was a topic important for our teachers to learn about, as well as the future of our community—our students.” For her work on the curriculum, Larsen was recently awarded a $3,000 grant from the Rural Schools Collaborative. (West Plains Daily Quill)

Potsdam, NY Eighth-grade English teacher Jennifer Hutchins is working hard to equip her students with tools that will help them practice mindfulness. “We want to be guided by science,” said Hutchins. “With COVID, we need mindfulness more than ever. In general, there has been a shift in the education field to an understanding that there needs to be work done in the social and emotional area in order to bring students into their academic potential.” (News 10)

Dallas, TX Teachers Lexi Rix and Joe Parthemore of GrapevineColleyville ISD have developed a new method of teaching engineering to elementary students through a partnership with Texas State University. By studying the lives of inventors and creating alternative solutions to the problems they solved, students are learning more about the field, gaining confidence, and even learning that “failure is okay.” (The Dallas Morning News)

Turning on a Dime How Dr. David Vroonland is building a culture of ownership that spurs innovation in Mesquite ISD

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Dr. David Vroonland From the outside, Mesquite ISD seems like a typical Texas school district. They go big—MISD’s Memorial Stadium, the largest high school stadium in the state, seats almost 20,000 Mesquiters under its Friday night lights. Embracing the Lone Star State, district videos are narrated with a cheerful Southern drawl. The city of Mesquite itself hosts an annual rodeo, complete with funnel cakes and bull riding. But like many suburban school systems across the nation, MISD’s demographics have shifted over the past two decades, bringing new challenges to the district. About 78% of Mesquite’s nearly 40,000 students are economically disadvantaged, almost doubling from the early 2000s. Though families’ needs have increased, Mesquite is performing at record highs. MISD has a graduation rate of over 90%, and disadvantaged students in the district are outperforming their peers across the state. The difference, it seems, is the culture created under the leadership of Superintendent Dr. David Vroonland. Just like his district, Vroonland is more than meets the eye. When he was about three years old, he and his siblings were

put into foster care, where he lived in a house that was sometimes inhabited by up to 20 other people. At age 10, he put his belongings into two paper grocery bags and sat in the back of a car, alone, on his way to a new town and a new last name. It was ultimately Vroonland’s experience in foster care that put him on the path to education. “I knew early on that school was my way of being as good as anyone, regardless of the circumstances of my birth,” he tells SchoolCEO. By the time he was 18, Vroonland had decided he would either be a doctor, a minister, or an educator. Luckily for Mesquite ISD and the thousands of students Vroonland has impacted in his nearly 35-year career, “educator” won out. Today, MISD is garnering attention on the national stage for their strong culture and made-in-Mesquite innovation. However, the district’s most groundbreaking ideas aren’t coming from Vroonland’s office. Instead, they’re coming from classrooms, from the district’s counseling department, and from the people who make up Mesquite. Vroonland is building a culture of ownership that empowers his employees to innovate in their own spaces. The results, as you’ll find, are revolutionary.

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Owning the Problem In Vroonland’s first few years at Mesquite, he prioritized building an ownership culture—one which empowers staff to build their own solutions to problems within their realms of influence. “There’s nothing wrong with the language of buy-in,” Vroonland tells us. “But the problem with buy-in is that it’s often a sales job. You’re selling a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist in the minds of the people who are having to implement it. Instead, how do you build ownership around problems and solutions?” When Vroonland arrived in Mesquite, the district was struggling to get kids on reading level by third grade. But instead of hiring an outside program or developing a solution in the central office, Vroonland got teachers involved from the start. “We were very clear from the get-go: We’re not bringing in a product,” he says. “We’re bringing in someone to help us work through the problems that exist.” To make sure teachers understood the need, Vroonland gave them time to investigate the issue. “Instead of bringing a specific problem to teachers, we actually had them do research for two months,” he says. “Then, teachers presented to administrators why we weren’t getting kids to that third-grade reading level. Doing that got them to own the problem. And once they owned the problem, they could own the solution.” Across the district, this mindset is resulting in new, adaptive systems. “We want to take leadership to the point of responsibility as much as possible, so that our teachers are actually able to drive innovation—to be highly nimble and responsive to the needs of students,” Vroonland explains. “You can’t design that from the superintendent’s office. If you attempt to do so, you end up limiting opportunities for young people because you designed scripted systems that slow down potential in the long term.”

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At Mesquite, culture isn’t ambiguous. Staff members work toward prescribed values in order to build ownership.

Growing Capacity Of course, many districts promote the idea of ownership. To Vroonland, what makes Mesquite uniquely successful is training. “A lot of people use the expression distributed leadership models,” he says. “But it still comes down to a question of how. So we focused a great deal in Mesquite on building the leadership capacity of our principals.” Vroonland makes a concerted effort to train principals and assistant principals—about 130 site leaders in total—multiple times a year in evening sessions. The Mesquite team also hired four Executive Directors of Leadership Development to work with principals, and the district implemented monthly instructional leadership trainings. “It’s a remarkable investment that has really paid off quite nicely for us,” he says. Recently, the district partnered with the Holdsworth Center, a leadership institute for education. When Holdsworth surveyed staff, the results were resounding. “The ownership culture came out loud and clear. We had the highest ratings of anyone they’ve ever surveyed,” says Vroonland. “When you start respecting the ability of the professional to innovate their spaces, people actually enjoy their work more—even if they take on extra responsibility.” In partnership with the Holdsworth Center, Mesquite has designed a leadership track for teachers and administrators. Working independently or collaboratively with a campus leader, teachers can direct their own development, completing modules in line with Mesquite’s leadership profile.

“Part of what excites me about this is building more equity in our leadership pipeline,” Vroonland notes. “It will allow more people to self-identify based on actual data because of the work they’ve done to grow their leadership.” In addition, the district has invested heavily in instructional coaching, building capacity even for those who don’t enroll in leadership training. As a result, performance has skyrocketed and discipline issues are down—”all of that without a district-driven initiative,” he says. This type of growth isn’t limited to teaching. Mesquite’s counseling program, for example, has been recognized across the state. At the high school level, counselors examined their practices and noticed holes in the system. Families needed mental health support, but many couldn’t afford individual counseling. “There wasn’t an initiative driven by the district; it was just our counselors saying, We need to do better for our students,” says Vroonland. Instead of buying a product or implementing a solution from the central office, counselors took ownership of their department’s outcomes. “We let our counselors identify the problem, and then our counselors became the designers of a solution,” he explains. MISD has now partnered with Texas A&M Commerce to offer individual therapy for any student or family member at the district’s Family Support Center. “We now serve more than 2,000 families free of charge,” says Vroonland. “I’m proud of where we’ve come.”

Photos courtesy of Mesquite ISD

Through instructional coaching and by owning the problem, staff are more able to address students’ needs.

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Removing Obstacles When ownership becomes less centralized, you may assume that implementation lags. But at MISD, the opposite is true. An ownership culture has made the district agile, allowing Vroonland to turn a big ship quickly. When Vroonland first learned about the severity of COVID-19, he was actually on a cruise ship. “My wife and I made the brilliant decision to cruise out of New Orleans,” he says with a smile. They left on March 8, 2020. By March 10, Dallas County had announced their first confirmed case. Vroonland started getting calls on the ship, even though the district was closed for spring break. “Mesquite ISD hadn’t made any plans up to that point about closures,” he says. From the ship, Vroonland had to cancel school for the following week and inform staff they wouldn’t be returning that Monday.

within a week or two, each student had a device in hand. Meal delivery was launched in under a week. For their quick work, Mesquite started gaining media attention. The creativity of the district’s teachers during the pandemic even garnered national and international media coverage on the BBC and ABC News online. For Vroonland, the idea that big ships are also slow ones just isn’t true—he’d seen his own cruise ship turn on a dime, even in a tiny port. “What is required,” says Vroonland, “is that the obstacles be removed.”

However, the disruption wouldn’t last long. “I announced that we would return to learning by Wednesday,” Vroonland says. And they did—every one of Mesquite ISD’s nearly 40,000 kids. The district hadn’t previously been one-to-one, but

Mesquite’s ownership culture encourages teachers to innovate—and that creativity is often recognized by local media.

Mesquite shows off their programs on social media, proving their commitment to innovation.

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These obstacles often present themselves in the form of red tape and micromanagement. So Vroonland has “learned to remove some of the obstacles to innovation and leadership,” he says. Before he joined the district, for example, principals were expected to contact the central office if they were dealing with a discipline issue. To Vroonland, that step isn’t necessary. “As a principal, you have to own your decisions, and we’re going to support them unless you violate our core values,” he says. ”That reduced the amount of time they had to spend on phone calls back and forth. We actually reduced their tasks while giving them more ownership.”

Selling Purpose Over Strategy Another mindset shift Vroonland encourages is to start with the why. “Sell purpose, not strategy,” he explains. “When you sell out to your purpose, you can change your strategy if needed.” Focusing on people, not numbers, gives Mesquite’s staff a clear target for growth. “We are not a data-driven district,” he explains. “We’re a values-driven district that’s informed by data.”

administration. But central office didn’t necessarily do anything with the reports, and principals were squeezing in most of their visits on Fridays—the worst day for walk-throughs— just to meet their quotas. Vroonland immediately recognized the problem: Principals didn’t own the practice. “So we went into a conversation around the value of walk-throughs,” he says. For him, walkthroughs are an opportunity to collect data that tells the principals whether or not the district’s values are being represented. After that initial chat, he kept the conversation going, continually prioritizing this idea of ownership. Over the next two years, he met with principals often, “pressing this thinking throughout the system”—and as a result, they started to understand the why. Now principals complete an average of more than 25 walk-throughs a week. “We’re shifting thinking from being centralized to being owned,” he says.

“Sell purpose, not strategy. When you sell out to your purpose, you can change your strategy if needed.”

For example, the district values having students in the classroom. The point isn’t a high graduation rate; the point is to bring each student to the finish line. When designing processes and systems to keep students in the classroom, then, the team focuses on student needs first. The numbers only tell them how they’re doing.

“One of the problems with data-driven anything is you tend to have prescribed outcomes,” he explains. ”If you meet that outcome, you have the tendency to stop at that point instead of meeting the needs of everyone. That doesn’t happen in a value-based system.” Vroonland gives the example of walk-throughs, where principals observe teachers in their classrooms. In his second month at Mesquite, he noticed that his principals kept warily asking him what he thought about them. “And I hesitated,” Vroonland tells us, “because I was thinking, Why are they asking that?” As it turns out, past leadership required principals to do 25 walk-throughs a week and report them to the district

Adding Accountability While ownership does give principals and teachers freedom, that freedom exists within a specified box. “You have to have frames of operation,” Vroonland says. “It’s not a free-for-all.”

Once the central office built this framework, Vroonland emphasized the importance of consistency. “The tenets that you have in place have to be clear, and they have to be adhered to,” he says. “If they’re not, then people are really going to feel like there’s been a violation.” At Mesquite, that meant following through on the promise to decentralize quickly. “One of the most important things we did was hold ourselves accountable to decentralization when we could,” Vroonland explains. When Vroonland needs to deviate from the ownership model—to implement new programs due to COVID-19, for example—he’s upfront about it. “I overtly communicate,” he says. “I explain that it is not in line with our behaviors or values, but in order for Mesquite to respond quickly as an organization, we need to put systems in place. And I remind them: As our capacity builds around these systems, we can start backing off and decoupling from that bureaucratic structure.”

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Unifying the System Recently, MISD has focused on bringing their culture of ownership to students. Through a partnership with Google and tech company SoftServe, the district formed the AYO program, named for a Yoruba word meaning joy. This program focuses on uncoupling students’ learning from standardization. Using artificial intelligence, AYO helps identify students’

“We’re designing a system that we believe will really give students strong agency over significant components of their learning.”

backgrounds, mental capacities, interests, and skillsets. This information allows teachers to customize learning based on students’ passions and aptitudes. To explain the program, Mesquite ISD created an Inspiration Book showcasing how it could affect individual students. They give the example of Emily, a student with an aptitude for design. Through the AYO system, each of Emily’s teachers would learn that she’s an only child; that she does well in English, art, and technical theatre; that she enjoys making and watching movies; and even that she is annoyed with the district’s dress code. With this information in mind, teachers can facilitate students’ learning on a track that combines their passions and

aptitudes—setting them up for success. In Mesquite’s example, Emily shows aptitude for high-level design, so teachers give her the platform to explore career options with an internship at a local architecture firm. They help her get certified in Adobe Premier Pro and provide her with a path to gain experience in audiovisual production. Working with her strengths and interests, Mesquite can help Emily drive her own learning. “We’re designing a system that we believe will really give students strong agency over significant components of their learning,” says Vroonland. “It’s an example of ownership being pervasive in everything we talk about here.” AYO goes beyond aptitudes; it also addresses issues of equity. “If we’re serious about equity, we need to understand that the system in which we’re operating was never designed for it,” says Vroonland. “The design mechanism of standardization was, frankly, to create ranking systems. It designated who was going to be the owners, the managers, and the workers. If you’re trying to get equity inside a system not designed for equity, you’re wasting your time. You’ve got to decouple from standardization.” More than anything, the point of AYO is to help students figure out who they are. “Agency is only found where one has passion,” says Vroonland. “You don’t seek agency in something you don’t care about. No one does. Simply giving kids more choices in class isn’t giving them more agency. Agency is when one takes control over their learning. And that’s found in your passion—no other place. As a district, we have to help students uncover who they uniquely are. With AYO, we’re trying to help students do just that.”

Building Community-Level Ownership Vroonland is vocal about the need for local ownership not just in the classroom, but at every level of a school system. “If you’re going to drive significant change in the system, ownership has to occur at the community level,” he says. In response, Mesquite ISD actually created their own accreditation and ratings system. Instead of relying on A-F scores from the Texas Education Agency—which are highly tied to standardized testing data—MISD schools are scored on a framework built by the Mesquite community itself. Building the framework took several years, requiring intense research and surveying. Finally, the MISD community narrowed down new metrics to measure a school’s success: student learning, professional learning systems, student involvement, community engagement, safety and well-being, and fiscal/operational systems. Based on these standards, the school board accredits each of the district’s schools individually. “The public values so much more than the state testing system,” Vroonland explains. MISD’s new accreditation system puts power behind those other values, allowing the district to focus on students’ educational experiences. To Vroonland, the importance of public education is deeply personal. “The fact that our republic created a system of public education communicates strongly how much we care about the individual as well as the corporate needs of our people,” he says. ”That’s an important piece of my life. Without it, there’s no way I would have gotten out of the circumstances of my birth.” Leaving a mark on public education is a passion that gives Vroonland agency of his own, too. “Creating opportunities for students to gain control over their lives has been a driver for me for 34 years,” he says. “To me, public education is a way in which a community tells its youngest and most vulnerable, We care about you. We love you. We’re going to meet your needs. That’s why public education exists.”

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Community-Powered Innovation Charging up your community to create lasting change

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Innovation. It’s a buzzword in education these days, one we throw around to describe almost any successful district. For you, the word probably calls to mind educational technology, from SMART boards to one-to-one devices to your current remote learning program. But when it comes down to it, innovation means much more than a set of flashy tools. Innovation is a mindset, a process, and a culture you can instill in your district, no matter your budget or size.

Innovation solves existing problems.

As we inch closer to a post-pandemic world, the demand for innovation in education is exploding. We hardly need to tell you that the last year has revealed cracks in the structure of the traditional public school system, from persistent inequities to flaws in pedagogy. According to research from the National Parents Union, 60% of parents believe schools should be focused on rethinking how to educate students moving forward. Simply put, there’s no going back to the way things used to be.

For Dawley, “having an innovator mindset is about viewing things as problems that can be solved.” Innovations present solutions to previously defined problems—and can be applied to solve those problems wherever they exist, even in other schools or districts.

Your school district needs to innovate to meet students’ changing needs. But what exactly is innovation? And what does it mean to be a truly innovative district?

Dr. Lisa Dawley has been at the forefront of innovation in ed tech for over 20 years. Author of the bestselling book The Tools for Successful Online Teaching, Dawley is a Stanford Fellow and the Executive Director of the University of San Diego’s Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education. Dawley’s team doesn’t just investigate ed tech; they examine the ingredients needed to grow innovative schools.

This may seem obvious, but it’s a crucial point: Innovation for innovation’s sake is no innovation at all. Introducing a hightech product or program just because it’s trendy won’t do anything but cost your district lots of money. Take, for example, one-to-one devices. In the wake of COVID-19, they’ve basically become non-negotiable. But there’s a huge difference between rolling out one-to-one devices to solve problems—inequity, lack of access to lessons—and rolling them out to check a box. The former is an innovation; the latter is not. Matthew Miller, superintendent of Ohio’s Lakota Local Schools, calls this misconception the device delusion. “So many districts purchase devices and just hand them to their teachers, who hand them to their kids, and they think that’s the end,” he says. But the devices themselves don’t solve those inequities; “they’re just the tools.” Teachers—and students—must know how to use devices effectively, or the same issues will persist. “If we didn’t have the expertise built in,” Miller explains, “we would be wasting money on a onesize-fits-all solution.” When districts blindly implement technology without considering the problems they’re ostensibly solving, those solutions inevitably fail.

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Innovation goes beyond technology; in fact, it doesn’t have to involve technology at all. When you begin by asking what challenges your community is facing—not what trendy new program you’d like to implement—you’re well on your way to true innovation.

Johansson believes that this space where different fields come together and combine—what he calls the Intersection—is the birthplace of innovation. The more perspectives you consider, the higher the probability that you’ll find an effective solution.

What is inclusive innovation?

In your work as a school leader, you’re probably used to solving problems with your executive team. That team may be extremely diverse in terms of gender or race, but you almost undoubtedly have one thing in common: You’re all high-level school administrators. While you approach an issue from slightly different angles, your range of possible perspectives is still pretty limited.

Seeing innovation as the solution to a problem is only the beginning. How do you know what problems need solving or which solutions will work best for your teachers, students, and community? The answer is simple: Bring them along. “Education has a history of top-down solutions, and we know that those don’t work,” says Dawley. “If you want truly sustainable, long-lasting change, it has to be owned by the people who are experiencing the problem.” This idea is a major driving practice for Digital Promise, one of the nation’s leading organizations in equitable school innovation. In a 2019 report on the subject, they introduce the idea of inclusive innovation, “a process of ensuring people closest to the challenge lead, participate in, and benefit from innovation.” This type of innovation doesn’t just meet its community’s needs; it values them as experts with crucial insight into the problem at hand.

“If you want truly sustainable, long-lasting change, it has to be owned by the people who are experiencing the problem.”

Engaging your community through every step of the problem-solving process will be difficult, no doubt. But if you want solutions that work, it’s the only way to go.

Inclusive innovation produces stronger solutions. In his book The Medici Effect, entrepreneur Frans Johansson claims to have hit on the magic formula that made the Renaissance a boom of cultural, artistic, and scientific innovation. He tells it like this: Bankrolled by a few wealthy families in the area, a flurry of sculptors, scientists, philosophers, poets, and architects descended on Florence all around the same time. “There they found each other, learned from one another, and broke down barriers between disciplines and cultures,” he writes. 18

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Add teachers into the mix and your range of perspectives widens, though it’s still limited to the field of education. But your support staff—custodians, food service workers, bus drivers—have experience outside the classroom, opening up a completely different set of perspectives. With a wide array of careers and backgrounds, families in your district can also bring their own valuable viewpoints to the table.

Of course, your district’s students should always play a crucial role in your innovation process. At McAllen ISD in Texas, Superintendent Dr. J.A. Gonzalez knows this well. Several McAllen students from all grade levels serve as “district ambassadors,” representing their schools to the administration. “We work with principals to find students they believe could represent their schools,” Gonzalez explains. It’s not just student council presidents— it’s everyone. “We have kids from all walks of life, with regard to disability and background and socioeconomic status,” he says. “It’s a good cross-section of our student body.” Whether you’re working with students, families, or outside community members, having that diverse representation is critical. Each new voice you add to the conversation adds a new way of thinking—and therefore new potential solutions that you and your team might never have considered. It may be a cliche, but it’s true: We are stronger together.

Inclusive innovation promotes equity. Think back to what we said previously about your executive team. They may be diverse in terms of gender, race, economic background, and so on—but then again, they may not be. This is why it’s crucial to engage all sectors of your community—especially marginalized groups—in your approach to innovation. Dr. Deborah Gist, superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools, has a reputation for innovation—so much so that she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2010. She, too, believes in letting those closest to a challenge lead the charge. But that’s a lesson she had to learn the hard way, beginning early in her career at Tulsa. Gist saw a real problem with equity in her district: an under-resourced seventh-grade center in North Tulsa. With only about a hundred kids in the building, the McLain 7th Grade Academy was financially unsustainable—but more importantly, cost restrictions were preventing students from receiving the same quality of education as their peers at other schools. So Gist proposed what she thought was a simple solution: combining the academy with a nearby junior and senior high school.

“The reaction was so strong,” Gist tells us—strong and negative. The North Tulsa community hated the idea, insisting that it wasn’t safe and disparaging Gist for having already “made up her mind” without them. As she watched her stakeholders react to the proposal, a realization dawned on the superintendent. She’d been searching for a more equitable solution, but she hadn’t reached that solution in an equitable way. “North Tulsa is a part of our city that has historically been oppressed, not represented in decision-making,” she explains. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 35% of North Tulsa’s population lives in poverty, compared with just 17% everywhere else in the city. The area’s unemployment rate is more than double that of the rest of Tulsa. What’s more, the closure of the 7th Grade Academy would be one more addition to a long list of North Tulsa school closures, all of which had been unpopular with the community. “There was a lot of mistrust,” says Gist, “because we had not served their children well for a very long time.” In order to find a plan that worked, Gist needed to reverse that pattern—to empower the North Tulsa community rather than leave them on the margins. So the TPS team gathered a task force of community leaders to propose their own solution. Whatever the community wanted, Gist and her team would work to make it happen.

Photo courtesy of Tulsa Public Schools

At Tulsa’s merged middle school, beautiful murals, developed in partnership with community leaders, remind students and staff of the school’s values.

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The resulting plan looked much different—and more elaborate—than Gist’s original vision. The 7th Grade Academy was merged with the Monroe Demonstration Academy, a magnet program that became the neighborhood’s 6th-8th grade middle school. Based on the recommendations of the task force, the school now offers rich programming, including swimming, chess, debate, boxing, and dance. It even has a nearby parent resource center. Three years later, the task force is still leading and serving as a crucial sounding board for district administration. Of course, building a new school program from scratch cost TPS a great deal more time and effort than simply shifting one grade to another building. But by letting the community lead the way, they provided an even better result for North Tulsa students—not just equity, but excellence. In their report on the topic, Digital Promise makes an important point: “The power of inclusive innovation is that it doesn’t just invite underrepresented voices and perspectives into the innovation ecosystem; it places them at the center of it.” It empowers marginalized groups not only to express their needs, but to take leadership roles in creating solutions.

Start with relationships. Inclusive innovation “begins with real relationships and partnerships,” says Dawley. “It’s getting out and talking to the community you’re serving, trying to understand what their needs are and what potential roles you could play in a partnership.”

underrepresented members of your community. These stakeholders, more than others, are likely to have needs that have previously gone unheard.

Dig deeper. Developing strong relationships with your community, especially those on the margins, will undoubtedly uncover challenges that need addressing. Maybe students of single parents are having trouble learning online and caring for their siblings at the same time. Maybe families who don’t speak English are facing language barriers when it comes to communication with their kids’ schools. Whatever the challenge is, now is the time to dig deeper. “Thoroughly research the problem, everything you can learn about it,” Dawley advises. As you’d imagine, this involves a lot of traditional research: examining hard data, seeking advice from outside experts, and learning what models have worked elsewhere. But a central part of inclusive innovation is valuing and prioritizing the lived experiences of those most impacted by the problem. “That involves empathizing with them, interviewing them, talking with them, collecting data with them,” says Dawley. Once you’ve identified a challenge that needs solving, zoom in. Leverage the relationships you’ve already developed to learn more about this specific problem. You need to understand this issue not just as a general concept, but within the specific contexts of your community members’ lives.

More likely than not, you’re already doing this. After all, the work of a school leader is practically impossible without building strong relationships within your community. Nearly every superintendent we’ve interviewed has mentioned beginning their tenure with listening tours, serving on boards for community organizations, and visiting school campuses as often as possible.

A few years ago, Gist knew TPS was facing a problem. In the 2017-2018 school year, the district’s graduation rate was 76.9%—up from 63% a few years prior, but still about 11 points below the national average. Only 33% of students were meeting the SAT’s College and Career Readiness Benchmarks in both reading and math. “I really believe that high schools have not worked for most kids for a long time,” she tells us.

What you may not be doing is connecting this work with the innovation process. As you learn more about what your families, students, and community members need, you’re also discovering opportunities for innovation; you’re identifying problems that need solving.

As Gist and her team began the process of solving this difficult problem, they went straight to the Tulsa community, conducting something called empathy interviews. “In the early stages, you’re really understanding people’s experiences,” Gist says—from current students to families to alumni.

At this stage, it’s crucial to build relationships across racial and socioeconomic lines, taking care to focus on typically

TPS isn’t the first to conduct empathy interviews; they’ve long been a foundational part of design thinking processes.

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The idea is to have an open-ended, one-on-one conversation, discovering how someone feels about something and, more importantly, why. You keep it neutral (ask, What do you think about the way high school is structured?—not What problems do you see in the traditional high school structure?). You avoid simple yes-or-no questions. You encourage your interviewee to share stories about their experiences, not just their opinions. Most importantly, you continually ask why, drilling down into the underlying reasons people feel the way

they do. This is why empathy interviews are so effective— they uncover insights and feelings participants might not have been consciously aware of beforehand. Gist and the TPS team conducted 150 empathy interviews in their community, in addition to more traditional methods of engagement like focus groups and surveys. All in all, they received input on the high school issue from about 5,000 people—but that’s not where their inclusion process ended.

Collaborate to design solutions. At this stage in the process, you’ve come a long way. You can be confident that you’re tackling challenges your community really needs solved, and you’ve even gained some insight into where those challenges might stem from. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for some school leaders to stop engaging their students and families here, satisfied that they’ve gathered enough community input. But this next step is actually the key to creating innovation that works and lasts. It’s not enough to let your community guide you to the root of an issue. After all, the same limitations you faced at the beginning of the innovation process—cultural blindspots and limited perspectives—still exist. To create effective solutions that serve everyone, you have to engage everyone, especially underrepresented members of your community. As Dawley says, “If it’s their problem, it has to be their solution.” Early in Gist’s superintendency, TPS held community forums in both English and Spanish to seek input for the district’s strategic plan.

After conducting their initial research, the TPS team continued down this path, including their community every step of the way. “Instead of taking that information and saying, Now we know what we need, let’s change it, we took it to the experts,” Gist says—”students, families, teachers, and school leaders.” TPS formed design teams, comprised of basically anyone in the community who wanted to join. The only prerequisite for participation was commitment to the process. Of course, adding more people to the design process presents new challenges. How can you truly collaborate with your community on solutions without the conversation devolving into chaos?

Foster team relationships. There’s a reason you’re tempted to make decisions within your cabinet, to consult only people you know well, to stay inside your own bubble. Our bubbles feel safe—and after all, you’ve hired a great team for a reason. Bringing together a Photos courtesy of Tulsa Public Schools SPRING 2021

diverse group of people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas creates an environment ripe not only for creativity, but also for conflict. That’s why it’s crucial to build trust among members of your design teams, just as you would a professional team. “At the beginning, a big part of it is team-building,” says Gist. “You want them to really get to know each other well, to understand each other’s stories, what drives them, why they’re part of the work.” This will involve setting a few parameters on your process, not to stifle creativity, but to make sure it can flourish. “For starters, it is important to depersonalize conflict,” suggests Johansson in The Medici Effect. “People should be able to disagree with anyone in the group—but not without a reason.” Make sure your participants are offering specific criticisms of an idea, not just vague rejection. This not only makes for stronger ideas, but also keeps members of the group from feeling personally targeted. “It is also important to maintain an open environment where all ideas get a fair hearing,” Johansson continues. This is, of course, crucial to producing stronger solutions—and, most importantly, more equitable ones. For true innovation to take place, Johansson says, “we need as many opportunities for random combinations of ideas as possible. A team of diverse people who feel free to exchange and combine their ideas is exactly what can make that happen.”

At Lakota Local Schools, Miller looks for ways to say Yes to his school community, especially his staff and students. “I believe our best ideas come from the classroom—whether it’s from our kids or from our teachers,” he tells us. “I like having the ability to say Yes to educators when it’s something that’s going to both benefit their kids and make their lives easier— something that they’re passionate or excited about.” Miller trusts those ideas because he trusts his staff as experts on what their students need. “We want to invest our resources with our teachers, not some outside provider who might not know our kids or our community,” he says. Kevin Coordt gets to say Yes more than most. As the founding principal of Bayside STEAM Academy in San Diego County’s South Bay Union School District, he’s looking for nontraditional approaches to education—and encouraging his teachers to bring their passions to the classroom. “As we were building the Academy, some people wanted to outsource the STEAM piece,” he explains—to bring in outside instructors and programs. Bayside did hire some new teachers and silo out a few classes. But Coordt wanted all his teachers to take ownership of the new school and bring STEAM into their classrooms—even those who weren’t Photo courtesy of Bayside STEAM Academy

To hear more about Dr. Gist’s grassroots movement to redesign the high school experience, check out our profile at schoolceo.com/Gist

Try to say Yes. According to Gist, a crucial part of the design process is offering your participants a “space where they can make decisions and have autonomy“—what she and her team call the sandbox. Remember, the process of inclusive innovation is about elevating your community as experts. That means valuing their ideas—not micromanaging or placing hard limits on their brainstorming. You don’t have to implement every idea your design teams develop, but don’t shoot them down before you’ve given them a chance.

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Kids at Bayside STEAM Academy use “exploration time” to learn about everything from robotics to birdwatching.

immediately comfortable with the idea. He started asking staff members, “What’s your passion? We’ll develop a class around that.” So a fourth-grade teacher who loved photography ended up teaching a course on it. A kindergarten teacher even worked her love of fairy tales into STEAM engineering, building the Three Little Pigs’ houses of straw, sticks, and stone to see which stood strongest. Instead of telling his staff how to teach, Coordt lets their interests inform the curriculum—and the results are excited teachers and more engaged students.

“Innovation by nature is iterative. It’s full of failure, it’s messy, it’s wobbly, and we had to embrace that from the very beginning.” Of course, you may have to impose some restrictions on the innovation process—and that’s okay. After all, every sandbox has walls. “It’s important for design teams to know the guiding principles,” Gist explains. “For our design team, it was basically the expectation that students be college and career ready. That is non-negotiable.” But once you’ve built your sandbox, walls and all, let your designers run free within those parameters. You never know what they’ll come up with.

Test it out. Once you’ve collaborated with your community to design an innovation, it’s time to put it to the test. But even at this stage, your stakeholders play a key role. Who better to gauge a solution’s success than its main beneficiaries? As we’re sure you know, no implementation process is perfect. Even a grassroots innovation, developed with your community, is unlikely to go off without a hitch right away. “The smartest managers and best-trained teams understand that

failure is part of innovation, and they therefore expect it to happen a certain percentage of the time,” Johansson writes in The Medici Effect. “Many assumptions you make during development will be wrong. This is why you must not only expect failures but plan for them.” As you implement your innovation, stay in constant communication with your stakeholders, keeping your finger on the pulse of what’s working and what’s not. Don’t hesitate to change course if your original plan isn’t solving the problem. “I’m a big believer in changing course if things are not working out well at Lakota,” says Miller. “If we have to go back and change our initial thought or plan to make something better, I’m okay doing that. We’re not going to wait until the end of the year to fix it. We’ll fix it as soon as we can.” At Bayside, the goal has never been to avoid failure—only to “fail forward,” says Coordt. “Some people want efficient innovation, but that’s an oxymoron, because innovation by nature is iterative. It’s full of failure, it’s messy, it’s wobbly, and we had to embrace that from the very beginning. We had never started a STEAM school before! So we just had to embrace the mess and the uncomfortableness of not knowing.” Take, for example, something the Bayside team calls exploration time, an hour of class time where all students—from kindergartners to sixth-graders—pursue electives of their own choice. “So if you’re in kindergarten, you have four different classes you can take,” Coordt explains. “Everyone gets to pick a different class for the trimester.” Options range from a birding class in partnership with the local Audubon Society to a science course involving miniature submarines. Understandably thrilled by the incredible opportunities they could offer kids, Coordt and his team bit off a little more than they could chew. “I think one of my particular mistakes was that I was so excited about this exploration time that I said, Hey, let’s do this four days a week, and kind of cajoled our teachers into doing that,” he tells us. “But eventually, they had to say, This is too much for us.” Coordt listened to that key part of his community—his staff. Over the last few years, Bayside has scaled exploration time back to two days a week. “That was a better, more comfortable pace for everyone,” he says. Modeling this willingness to fail and change course is more than good strategy; it’s part of Bayside’s philosophy. As a SPRING 2021

STEAM school, they’re training the next generation of innovators—and those students need to learn early that it’s okay to fail. “We want our kids to take risks,” Coordt says. “So as the adults in the building, we’ve got to take risks, too.”

Make it last. Like any system, product, or program, the innovations you create with your community will require constant refinement. As situations and contexts shift, you’ll need to check in with your stakeholders again and again, ensuring that your solutions are still working as planned. But here’s some good news: Unlike most initiatives spearheaded by your administration, inclusive innovations will likely survive without you. “They become more sustainable because the people are bought in for the long term,” Dawley says. “Then your role becomes that of a partner instead of a savior.” When you retire or move on from the district, the solution won’t fall apart—because it didn’t start with you in the first place. When you recognize your community as the experts they are and put the problem-solving power into their hands, an incredible chain of events is set in motion. Your district will solve the right problems. You’ll better understand why those problems occur. You’ll land on stronger solutions, and you’ll know how to recalibrate those solutions when they fail. Most importantly, you’ll have created lasting change in your district—because that change came from the district itself. The innovation belonged to your community all along.

For students, Bayside’s innovative activities are “a yearlong experiment in failure,” says Coordt. “It’s all about building perseverance and grit.” Photos courtesy of Bayside STEAM Academy

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t h e

CULTURE CODE In The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, Daniel Coyle asks, Why do some organizations add up to more than the sum of their parts, while others add up to less? The answer, of course, is culture. Talk of workplace culture has exploded over recent years, especially in the private sector, where research shows that group culture is the strongest indicator of success. In fact, according to a study from Harvard, a positive culture increases a company’s net income by as much as 756% over just 11 years. Culture saturates a work environment, affecting every employee and stakeholder. Whether you’ve experienced a toxic workplace culture or an excellent one, you know. But even if you can easily identify its effects, it’s hard to pin down exactly how to create a strong group culture. “We all know that it works,” Coyle writes. “We just don’t know quite how it works.” He spent years researching and visiting top-performing companies widely lauded for having strong cultures, attempting to crack The Culture Code. Coyle uses human psychology and his own observations to show that great cultures share three skills: fostering safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose. As humans, we are wired to want to belong to a group. Implementing these skills ”taps into our

social brain” by creating interconnected relationships that draw us together and give us a shared purpose. Organizational culture is ultimately defined by relationships. As a district leader, it’s important to create an environment that satisfies your team’s innate human needs for belonging and purpose. This increases interactions throughout your district, creating relationships built on connectedness, growth, and a shared goal. As Coyle points out, culture isn’t inherent in an organization’s DNA; it’s built through intentional efforts to create relationships and shared purpose. Throughout the book, he explores real-world examples of how each culture-building skill works, then provides practical ideas leaders can use and adapt to create strong organizational culture. Coyle’s ideas are based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, with the ultimate goal of helping your employees reach self-actualization. Sound familiar? That’s because you’ve probably encountered and implemented these ideas before, whether as a classroom teacher or as a coach. Just as teachers establish classroom cultures that drive students toward growth and purpose, you can do the same for your district team. These are skills you already have as an educator; it’s just about applying them in new ways. SPRING 2021

Sending Signals Before really diving in, it’s important to understand how your district’s culture is built in the first place—on relationships and interactions. Culture is formed through a multitude of small signals that convey each team member’s place within the district. It’s easy to see this through the customer service lens. If a parent walks into a school and sees trash on the ground, or is greeted by an unwelcoming employee, they’ve just received a host of signals that begin to shape their understanding of your schools. The same is true for your team; their interactions with leaders and coworkers shape their relationships with the district. Employees learn the culture of your district by interacting with the nearly infinite number of signals sent throughout your schools every day. They can receive these signals at any time: a passing conversation with a team leader in the hallway, an in-depth discussion about equity, or even the signage plastered throughout a school. Changing a culture is ultimately about changing the signals being sent out by everyone representing your schools—starting with you. Although key moments are important—like a teacher’s first interaction with their principal—a positive first impression won’t last long if that teacher feels unwelcome every day after. Culture, like any relationship, is built up over time through everyday moments. Shaping your district’s culture hinges

less on big moments and more on those seemingly mundane interactions your team has with you, with one another, and with their physical and digital spaces. In strong cultures, these signals are never subtle. Because most interactions are small, if you want to shape your culture, these signals must be vivid and clear. In fact, Coyle says that no matter what signal you’re transmitting—whether you’re listening to your staff or working to involve all voices—it should feel like you’re overdoing it. What feels like too much to you will be just enough in the eyes of your staff. Whether or not you realize it, you and the district are constantly signaling your culture. The key to a strong culture is shifting the signals you and your schools are sending, starting by creating a sense of safety and belonging.

Fostering Safety and Belonging When Coyle shares how top-performing cultures build safety, he’s talking less about physical environments and more about social and emotional well-being. It’s about having a sense of belonging—feeling connected, valued, supported, and safe to fail. To build a strong culture, leaders must build genuine relationships that signal to team members that they are connected, safe, and share a future. Coyle writes about Gregg Popovich, the legendary coach of the San Antonio Spurs and longest-tenured head coach in American professional sports. Popovich is known for giving tough feedback, but he’s also beloved by his players, past and present. The reason why is deceptively simple: He shows them he cares. Popovich goes out of his way to make his team feel seen and known. Whether it’s mock-wrestling with a player twice his size, hosting a private dinner with the team after a tough loss, or asking about a player’s child, his small, everyday interactions show his team that he values them as complex human beings. He is signaling that his team belongs and that they are important. This may not seem earth-shattering on the outside. However, these small signals gradually build authentic trust, allowing players to accept his trademark tough feedback. Because of the relationship that Popovich has built with them, they know his criticism is coming from a place of respect and a desire for his players to achieve their best.

Coyle also points out that instilling a sense of belonging is not about charismatic leadership; it’s about getting people to form relationships and engineering ways to make that happen. Your goal as a leader should be less about “rah-rah” moments and more about bringing strangers together as a unified team.

Sharing Vulnerability

Changing a culture is ultimately about changing the signals being sent out by everyone representing your schools—starting with you.

While conflict is uncomfortable, it’s a necessary part of improving your district. For example, say you’re meeting with faculty and staff about how to address equity gaps. If teachers aren’t comfortable being vulnerable—and maybe even wrong—they’ll be afraid to voice their ideas and concerns.

Because a strong culture is ultimately about creating an ever-evolving set of individual relationships, Coyle admits that while you can aim to engineer connections, you can’t take a paint-by-numbers approach. It’s a fluid skill that takes work and training—not a program you can simply implement. But while there is no one-size-fits-all solution, Coyle does offer some practical ideas for creating regular signals that build safety. Much of it is common sense—like listening and embracing your own fallibility—but he emphasizes how obvious these signals need to be. For example, thank-you’s and signs that you’re listening must be overcommunicated. These practical suggestions aren’t exactly novel, but Coyle is reminding leaders of what they do best: build relationships. Of course, Popovich hasn’t won five NBA championships just by wining and dining. He leverages the relationships he’s facilitated to make players feel safe and secure so they are willingly vulnerable enough to get better. Fostering belonging and safety for your team doesn’t just make your district a better place to work—it enables vulnerability.

Like belonging and safety, you likely know that vulnerability is important. But as Coyle points out, many have a misconception that vulnerability is about being “touchy-feely,” when it’s really about “sending clear signals that you have weaknesses, that you could use help.”

As the superintendent, you’re the one who needs to signal vulnerability first and foremost if you want the district to follow. But leaders are also responsible for overcommunicating an expectation of vulnerability by establishing spaces where conflict and tension create cohesion. Coyle shares how groups like SEAL Team Six and Pixar spend intentional time openly and candidly evaluating their own performance within their teams. You can obviously form teacher groups or other systems to get input, but Coyle is clear that if you want vulnerability to drive the district’s culture, it has to start with you.

Establishing Purpose Purpose ultimately answers the question of why we’re even here. Belonging and vulnerability are important, but the whole goal of an organization is to maximize human effort toward a shared vision. Strong cultures cohere around what a team is doing together, so focusing on a shared purpose makes your mission the true center of your culture. This skill is already widely practiced in education. Most teachers want to be educators for higher-level reasons like making a difference in the lives of children. However, in order for a mission to become a shared purpose, it has to be authentic, and it has to be communicated constantly and consistently. Just because you have a mission statement doesn’t mean it reflects the internalized feelings of the individuals within your schools. Coyle explains that high-purpose environments, no matter the industry, are “filled with small, vivid signals designed to create a link between the present and future ideal.” These small signals, like sayings, mottos, posters, and signs, create SPRING 2021

clear messages for those in and outside of the group as to what the district’s mission and goals are. Having a clear and bold shared purpose also provides a great litmus test for choosing new team members to join the district. For example, Dr. Lupita Hightower has built a culture in Arizona’s Tolleson Elementary School District based on the simple idea that every student can be successful— no exceptions. During interviews with teaching candidates, Tolleson leaders plainly ask, on a 1-10 scale, if candidates believe in that idea. “Our students need 10’s,” Hightowers tells us. “They don’t need 9’s or 9.5’s.

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Leading the Way In his epilogue, Coyle shares his own experience as a poetry coach for a local group of public middle school students. By giving the students more ownership, listening to them, creating strong connections, making it safe to fail, and uniting them behind a shared goal, he has helped his students excel like never before. The point is this: Leaders like you already have the tools you need to create strong cultures. If you can model, nurture, and grow those skills in all of your stakeholders, you’ll be well on your way to cracking the culture code.

Superintendent Perspectives: Dr. David Miyashiro, Cajon Valley Union School District, CA

President John Adams once said, “There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.” In everything we do at Cajon Valley USD, we aim to provide both. As educators, we’re trying to repair the fading American dream, so we have to get back to the basics of school—listening to our students and helping them discover and nurture their identities. In Cajon Valley, we’re doing that through the power of storytelling. The first thing a prospective employer says in a job interview is usually, “Tell me about yourself.” Our elementary students can tell you about themselves— about their ideas, their backgrounds, their struggles, their passions, their cultures and customs—in such compelling and comfortable ways that you feel like you’re sitting down with an old friend.

you harness that power to tell the stories of our kids and our schools, it changes the district culture. I’m in my eighth year here as superintendent, and I’ve learned that part of marketing and branding is nurturing your culture. We need to practice what we preach in terms of taking care of one another. Giving our students a platform like TED has allowed us to do just that—and to show the world who we really are as a school system in the process. After all, the best testimonials come directly from our students.

Why TED? In 2014, I was invited to a TEDx event at San Diego State University to speak about blended and personalized learning. This gave me my very first behindthe-scenes look at what goes into a TED event—and it turned out to be a humbling experience.

This all started a few years ago when I fell in love with the TED organization. Dr. David Miyashiro After watching Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 At first, I thought I would just get a time TED Talk “Do schools kill creativity?” I became enthralled limit from the event organizers, show up, and do my thing with TED and the power of personal storytelling. Then I without much preparation. When they told me I’d need to desaw Logan LaPlante’s 2013 talk “Hackschooling makes me liver a slide deck with a script months in advance of my talk, happy.” This confident 13-year-old gets up on stage and disI naively said, “I don’t work that way.” Then, they gave me the cusses self-directed learning, arguing that schools should option to either do it their way or not speak at all—so I went teach kids to be curious and, most of all, happy. In his talk, with their plan. LaPlante says, “hackers are people who challenge and change the systems to make That’s really where the potenthem work differently, to make tial application to our schools them work better.” started to reveal itself. I was assigned a speaker coach In Cajon Valley, we’ve chalwho pushed me in my writing lenged and changed our sysand helped me put together tems to be driven by student a PowerPoint catered to my voices and stories. Integrating specific audience. I had never the TED-Ed curriculum into been coached or mentored in our classrooms has been a big this sort of thing in my life. To part of that. I played LaPlante’s think about my audience and talk for my staff at one of our then participate in a community welcome back breakfasts and event with the mission of impeople really leaned in—they proving the human condition— wanted to hear what this kid it was just awesome. had to say. Video has such an effect on people, and when

I’ve learned that part of marketing and branding is nurturing your culture. We need to practice what we preach in terms of taking care of one another.

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Several of my colleagues from the district came to my talk at San Diego State, and afterward, we were all thinking the same thing: We have to do this for our kids. If we can give them coaching and mentoring on how to speak and deliver impactful messages, the value could be life-changing. Those skills carry over into everything. Every time we open our mouths or take a stage, we have the power to strengthen or wreck a relationship within a matter of seconds. Now that we’ve put these ideas into practice, we’re seeing tangible benefits. This new intentionality behind oral and written communication in our school district has helped English language learners, kids with special needs, and students on their paths to gainful employment. Now when our kids get up to speak about anything, their ability to captivate you is amazing.

Talking the (TED) Talk At the end of the day, we want students to be able to tell their own stories, and we’re seeing so much confidence and storytelling capacity develop in our kids. But incorporating TED into our schools isn’t just about teaching public speaking and confidence—it’s also about building community and teaching SEL. Photos courtesy of Cajon Valley USD

Around the same time I gave my first talk in 2014, we found out TED was launching a new branch called TED-Ed. They were developing a curriculum for young students to take ideas worth spreading and turn them into performances on stage, with intentional coaching and mentoring along the way. Our district actually served as co-collaborators on TED-Ed’s presentation literacy curriculum. Seven years later, every student in Cajon Valley USD explores that curriculum as part of their K-8 education. But it doesn’t end there. We wanted to give our kids the entire TED experience, so we asked: Why couldn’t this TED-Ed curriculum lead up to an annual community TEDx event? Like the one I participated in at San Diego State, TEDx events are organized by local communities, using the TED name, mission, and rules. You have to apply for a license to organize an event, and once that’s done, you have to follow stringent protocols: ensuring high video quality, intentionally keeping your audiences inclusive, and making sure speakers aren’t selling anything on stage. After attending a mandatory TED Organizer Workshop, organizers are given a TED bible to guide them long before they start inviting speakers. TEDx events have to be not-for-profit and must amplify voices within a community to invigorate and improve the local condition. I won’t lie—our first TEDx event was a little wonky. But after seeing all the possibilities, so many people volunteered to participate and help us organize the next one. Now, we are able to unite a district of 27 schools around a common vision and mission. It just gets better and better every year.

From Classroom to Stage In our TED-infused classrooms, not only are kids sharing ideas, but teachers are also coaching them on how to organize and present those ideas with the most impact. Our curriculum guides students through the process of writing a presentation script, organizing it with speaker notes, and presenting their stories effectively—with their peers acting as their first audience. Even though we’re an elementary district, we began building our curriculum by thinking about how we’d want a high school senior to present their story. Then, we scaffolded that

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down all the way back through middle school and elementary, starting in kindergarten. At that level, it begins simply with kids sitting in a circle, sharing things about themselves. Then, as our students move up and get more comfortable, we incorporate TED coaching methodology, helping them analyze and discuss videos of other kids’ presentations. As a result of this thoughtful curriculum, we’ve seen a transformation both in our students’ self-confidence and in their relationships with one another.

As our kids get to know one another deeply by telling their stories, they see the similarities between their lives—and that helps them form healthy relationships from the get-go.

As soon as we started blending the TED-Ed curriculum with our annual TEDx events, something interesting began happening. Telling their stories to a classroom audience helped our students form community with their classmates. When a student tells their own story, they go deep into why they’re talking about a topic: who they are, their beliefs, sometimes even their religious and cultural backgrounds. So our students started to know one another

deeply, developing friendships on different levels. We realized that so many of the problems we’re trying to address—inequity, injustice, bullying—can be mitigated by allowing children to tell their stories to one another. When kids build healthy relationships early on, a lot of those things just go away.

In partnership with the TED team, we’ve digitized the TED-Ed curriculum for our teachers and students. Our vision is to have happy kids engaged in healthy relationships on a path to gainful employment, and these explorations are a huge part of that. TED Talks help cultivate the longterm soft skills that every student needs: creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and emotional intelligence. Here, we call them “power skills.” It’s not just that our students can get up and speak; they can also talk about how they developed those ideas. The sense of community being built in our classrooms as a result of this one curriculum innovation is transformative.

Their Stories, Our Story Helping our kids tell their own stories has, in turn, allowed us to tell the Cajon Valley story in a special, far-reaching way. All the things we do in marketing and branding are centered around culture and connecting our community to our district vision. We want people to know that our diverse group of students and stakeholders embraces everyone. So TEDxKids@ ElCajon is impacting the way our community sees our brand and how our students and staff uphold our vision. Many of our teachers have taken part in the TED for Educators Masterclass, facilitated by a district employee who has been trained by the TED team. Like I did years ago, educators learn how to create their own talks—and how to speak with intentionality every time they’re in front of students, colleagues, or the community. We have to be thoughtful about what we say, just like our kids, and we need to have a plan that gives our words the greatest possible impact. Naturally, teachers who go through the TED process are more bought into helping our students develop their storytelling skills, and they’re more invested in our district culture as a whole. Hearing one another’s stories has created a culture where we teach our kids not only how to make a living, but also how to live. Take José, for instance. As a first-grader, he gave a talk about bullying at one of our TEDx events. By fourth grade, his love of public speaking had earned him an invitation to speak at San Diego State about sewage issues forcing beach closures near the Tijuana border. He didn’t just nail his speech; he presented it in English and Spanish. Then there’s Zia. He was one of our presenters in 2020, when our TEDx event had to go completely virtual. Because of the pandemic, our students gave their talks one at a time to an empty theater, with just their families watching in person. When he told his story, his father and brother cried the entire time. Zia, who had just come to the country a few years prior, was being validated not only for his public speaking, but because of his heritage in Afghanistan. Stories like this make the point of this curriculum clear: It helps every student be known and appreciated. One of my favorite talks came from a student a couple of years ago. “Imagine every time you leave your house, you know you have to be ready to expect hateful and cruel comments to be thrown at you,” her talk began. “Hey there, I’m

Ruqiya. I’m an ordinary young girl living life. I am full of dreams that will hopefully become true. I am a Hijabi—that means a girl with a scarf on her head. I came here to talk to you about my life as a Hijabi.” How do we combat racism and social inequities? We give every student a stage to tell their personal story. In that same classroom where Ruqiya is discussing her rite of passage, there could be a Jewish student who relates that to his bar mitzvah or a Latina student excited for her upcoming quinceañera. As our kids get to know one another deeply by telling their stories, they see the similarities between their lives—and that helps them form healthy relationships from the get-go. If we can foster those relationships, I believe we can avoid having to combat racism and bias in high school.

A Voice in This World While these are impressive examples, our program has nurtured confidence and storytelling ability in all of our students, making each one of them capable of giving these kinds of talks to any audience. Every school system would benefit from this type of learning, where kids are center stage and their stories are validated by peers and adults. If we want to have happy, healthy kids on their way to gainful employment, we have to create communities of support, empathy, and understanding. There’s no better way to do that than by hearing and sharing our kids’ stories. In her talk, our student Apiou called herself one of “the lucky ones.” She talked about the struggles of her father, a Lost Boy of Sudan, from growing up in refugee camps to getting Apiou’s family safely to the United States. Her story resonated so much with the community and her peers that she was invited as a guest on her school’s student-run news show. When asked how it feels to know that her TED Talk has inspired so many, Apiou answered, “It feels really great to know that I have a voice in this world.” In Cajon Valley, we are having a blast helping our kids find and share their voices. More importantly, we are changing lives through the power of storytelling and the community it can grow. Kids who can tell their own stories, feel comfortable in their own skin, and believe in their dreams for the future— those are happy kids.

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Superintendent Q&A:

A New Way Forward

Dr. LaTonya M. Goffney 38

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Unlike many school leaders, Dr. LaTonya M. Goffney didn’t grow up in a family of formal educators. She lived with her grandmother, who worked as a housekeeper for a local family in Coldspring, Texas. “My grandmother left early; she stayed late,” Goffney tells us. “She cleaned, she cooked, and she never complained. She taught me the value of hard work.” Goffney started her career as an educator right there in Coldspring, a town that spans a little less than two square miles. She succeeded as a teacher, and leadership noticed. Soon she added cheer coach to her rack of hats—then head of the language arts department, team lead, and sitebased chair. In each role, she more than rose to the occasion.

with more baggage. Demonstrating what is possible for students is now our mindset. At the time, everyone was also looking back to when Aldine won The Broad Prize or when our early childhood program won the H-E-B award. It was important for us to honor the solid foundation that Aldine was built on while staying focused on how we could move forward. So for my first year, I came up with the hashtag #AllN4Aldine. It gave us a reason to look toward the future and was a unifying message from Day One. My grandmother used to say, “Where there’s unity, there’s strength.” We started with that unifying message. While I was looking, listening, and learning during my first year, we began to formulate our strategic plan.

“Everywhere I’ve served, I’ve been reminded of how important it is to show As we focused on the notion of what Dr. LaTonya M. Goffney up and be the best that you can possiis possible, we were able to get parbly be,” she says. “For me, education became an opportunity ents and community members excited about the work we to give back. If education could change the trajectory of my were doing. They saw we weren’t just throwing everything life, it could also give others a path out of poverty.” up against a wall to see what stuck—they saw real work that would produce real change over time. In 2017, Goffney was named Superintendent of the Year by the Texas Association of School Boards for her innovative We made sure that change was led by strong leaders. I’m exleadership in Lufkin ISD. In 2018, she transitioned to her curcited and thankful to say that we moved from a C to a B on rent role in Aldine ISD, a neighbor of Houston ISD that serves our state accountability rating. Luck did not raise our rating. It around 67,000 students. was done through intentional effort. And we’re not done yet. That’s just a glimmer of our incremental progress. “I would never have dreamed that I would be able to be a superintendent,” she says. “But that same work ethic that I had How have you amplified Aldine’s story? as a teacher, I continue to have. I just try to leave every disWhile there were stories online about Aldine’s schools, stutrict better than it was when I got there and do the work that dents, and staff achievements, I didn’t see many stories needs to be done.” about specific district programs, or targeted messages about meeting strategic goals. Aldine is the ninth-largest district in the state, but most people in the area didn’t know that What growth have you seen in your fact. I found that employees in our district were working really time at Aldine ISD? hard, but unfortunately, they were often working in isolation. During my first year at Aldine, I focused on looking, listening, Our story just wasn’t getting to our community. and learning. I started to notice a theme of low expectations. In a district with Black and Brown students experiencing povOne of the first steps I made was getting staff to work toerty, people assumed that lowering expectations would help gether and to share information. Communication is key. The students. Some didn’t want to frustrate students because of community needs to know about the many great things haptheir perceived limitations or because they came to school pening in Aldine, and the choices and opportunities families SPRING 2021

and students in the district have. We regularly communicate with staff, students, and families. We involve them in decisions and planning. And we communicate the strategic plan, the goals we have achieved, and how we are increasing access to high-quality schools and learning experiences. We’ve been intentional about telling our story. Aldine is 73% Hispanic and 23% African American. and about 90% of our students are economically disadvantaged. When some people hear those demographics, they have a certain mindset about our students and district. Our storytelling has focused on the fact that even though our students may be facing more challenges prior to coming to school, school is where the magic happens. My grandmother used to say, Iron sharpens iron. Since everyone existed in silos before, it has been extremely powerful to see how aligning expectations and telling a unifying story has helped us move forward. Social media has provided a unique opportunity; we’ve been able to communicate that story not only across the district but also to all of our stakeholders. We’ve been able to tell families about the work that we’re doing and show how we’re paving a new way forward. Being intentional about telling our story and not waiting for someone else to tell it has helped others see the great work happening in our district. We’re showing that we’re so much more than our demographics.

How are you able to stay connected with so many stakeholders? I’ve just always been authentically me. When I first became superintendent of Aldine, I kept getting asked, How are you prepared to lead a large urban district? My thing is that if you can lead in a small district, you can lead anywhere. In a small school district, you have to put a smile on your face, greet Mom and Pop at the grocery store, and explain to them why you made a specific decision. I’m a country girl at heart, and one thing I know is that when you have good information, you can make good decisions. Starting in a smaller school district, I knew more because I was directly involved in every decision that was made. I knew how to engage and determine what our stakeholders were thinking and feeling, so I was able to make effective decisions. I’ve carried that mentality into Aldine.

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Whether online or in person, Dr. Goffney keeps in touch with her stakeholders.

Intentionally taking time to listen to all of our stakeholders has also allowed us to come up with new ways to move forward. If community members or business leaders have any ideas, I’ve told them: I don’t know magic. What I do know is that when everyone comes together, we can do magic. I’m probably more available than I should be, but I do that because it builds goodwill throughout the district. There are times when I make mistakes, so when I own those and communicate with my stakeholders, we’re able to move forward together.

How have you been able to develop strong leaders in the district? Once you have the right people in the right positions, everything changes. I love to ask this question: Would you rather have one mediocre principal and 60 amazing teachers, or one amazing principal and 60 mediocre teachers? When you have amazing teachers with weak leadership, they can’t be amazing. But when weak teachers have an amazing leader, they’re able to rise to the occasion. I can’t stress enough the importance of leadership. We all want amazing teachers, but I don’t think it happens by chance. Amazing teachers are fostered by highly effective leaders who can motivate and inspire them to want to do what’s best for their students. You cannot underestimate the power of a leader.

In 2019, we were selected as one of six Texas school districts to participate in The Holdsworth Center’s five-year partnership. The program focuses on growing a pipeline of inspiring leaders in their partner districts. Aldine was known for hiring from within, but now we focus on hiring the best person for the job—whether internal or external. I think it’s made a world of difference as we’re building leadership capacity in our district. We are also reorganizing our staff to make sure we are as effective as possible. We established a Director of Leadership Development and Chief of Schools specifically to help, support, and empower principals. We know that you can’t just have a highly effective or amazing principal alone. They have to have a support system of their own so that they can support our teachers. We’re really proud of that work. Through Holdsworth, we’ve been able to come up with our leadership definition. We desire to connect, inspire, and ultimately make an impact. We have to be focused on those qualities—not just focused on a position.

Photos courtesy of Aldine ISD

I truly believe that our district can move forward and improve faster with good leaders. With 82 campuses, we need people who want to be in leadership and really want to make a difference. You have to know how to love and inspire your teachers. People who fit that description—they’re the ones making the biggest difference for our students, and we can’t afford to lose good teachers because of bad leadership. That’s our focus.

How is Aldine innovating? We’re very proud of our ACE (Accelerating Campus Excellence) schools. Using the ACE model, we took two of our lowest-performing campuses and staffed them with our most highly effective principals and teachers. Those schools also have their own family and community engagement pieces, social-emotional learning supports, instructional supports, and an extra hour of instruction in the school day. Then we poured in additional resources through philanthropy. Now, our ACE schools outpace all of our other schools by all measures, whether it’s improved student outcomes or

By offering choice and innovative learning programs, Aldine ISD is able to stay ahead of their competition. 42

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student engagement—even during the COVID-19 crisis. So we’re certainly very proud of that work, of demonstrating what is possible. No one is wondering if Black kids, Brown kids, or poor kids can learn. We’re proving that when you have the right people doing the right work, it’s amazing. But it’s not just the ACE schools. A couple of years ago, we opened the Rose Avalos P-TECH School. At this campus, students will not only graduate with their high school diplomas, but they’ll also earn either workforce certificates or associate degrees at the same time. We were having trouble getting bilingual teachers, so now we are growing our own at Avalos. They’ll be able to leave Avalos P-TECH, go to college, and then have a job in Aldine ISD. That’s powerful. We also launched a two-way dual language immersion program. It is a hit with both our native and non-native speakers. It’s so important to be bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate. We’re very proud of that. This fall, we are launching a Young Women’s Leadership Academy. On top of that, Aldine ISD has quite a few families who are new to the country, so we’re launching a Newcomer School that will feed into a high school for dual language.

At Aldine, we’re always looking at where we are and how we can strengthen our programs, providing more choices for our students. We want to be the best choice for the 67,000 students who reside in these 111 square miles of possibility. We don’t want them to have to look at other opportunities through another district, charter, or private school.

How do you think about innovation—is it a mindset or a skill set? I think innovation is driven by urgency. It’s about creating the urgency to do what’s necessary for our students and not just do what we’ve always seen done. When I’m doing the work, I’m not thinking of innovation just for innovation’s sake. I’m thinking of changing a life, motivating a young mind, or providing a choice for our students. That’s the urgency that drives innovation. You definitely have to be clear on the why; you’ve got to get out of your head and give your students what they deserve. One of the things that I used to ask quite often at principal meetings was: Would you want your own kids in your school? It was evident which staff members did, because they actually did bring their kids to their schools. But most of our teachers, probably 90%, drive in from a suburb and send their children to a different school. If your campus isn’t good enough for your own kid, it’s not good enough for anybody’s kid. I need teachers and administrators manifesting schools that are good enough for their own kids, which makes them good enough for every kid.

This has been a tumultuous time. How have you adjusted your leadership? In March of 2020, we began dealing with COVID, and in May, we saw the killing of George Floyd. We all watched that eight minutes and 46 seconds of video. For a moment, we were all able to say that Black lives matter. Within weeks, it was gone; it became political when it shouldn’t have been. But as people were calling and asking what we were going to say, it became important for me to think about what we were going to do. Just like COVID-19 exasperated the digital divide, the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others exasperated some of the racial injustice that we knew existed.

superintendent? I didn’t want to just talk about it. I listened for two hours and took notes, and thanks to that conversation, we took some action. We ended up having a summit for male high school students. Male community leaders opened up a dialogue with these young men. They talked through hopes and fears, careers, relationships, education—anything on their minds. It gives me goosebumps thinking about it now. When I think about our strategic priorities, I’m also proud of our focus on literacy. During the same meeting, I had a high school assistant principal tell me about a student who was having discipline issues. The assistant principal pulled the student’s cumulative folder and saw that the young man had been struggling with reading for years. The student started getting in trouble in the third grade. What I know is that when you dislike school, get written up, and spend more time in out-of-school placement, you have an increased likelihood of having some type of encounter with the police. As we thought about both pandemics, we went back to our unifying message, our vision, and our strategic priorities. The one gift that we can give students is to ensure that they can read on grade level. It’s ignited a focused attention on getting the work right, educating kids, and making sure that we’re calling inequities out while moving forward.

As we focused on the notion of what is possible, we were able to get parents and community members excited about the work we were doing.

Perhaps one of the most powerful things I did was meet with a group of Black male leaders in our district. I just listened and said, What are some things that I can do as the

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We assembled cross-sections of people from throughout our district to create a think tank on how we can improve Black student outcomes—a BSO group. It’s been powerful as we think about our own orthodoxies and rules, like why kids wear their hair a certain way. Our Black students only make up 23% of the district, but they receive 70% of discipline infractions. We’ve been looking at ourselves in the mirror, peeling the onion back, and asking ourselves, How do we move forward? We’ve never lost sight of what I promised our community in June: Aldine ISD will be a place where all students are heard, are safe, and can thrive. I meant it when I wrote to our stakeholders that we would address academic achievement, focus on literacy, and implement a multifaceted approach to ensuring equity across our schools.

Are you comfortable sharing your own story with your team? For a while, I felt this sense of shame. I was never embarrassed about how I was raised—it just wasn’t a source of pride. My mentor, the late Dr. Susan Simpson Hull, called me right after I won the Texas Superintendent of the Year award. She was one of the few other women to win that award, and she told me, When you speak, people are going to listen now. Make sure you share from an honest place and share your most authentic self because that information is going to make a difference. After that conversation, I had the chance to speak in front of the State Board of Education. Typically, I would’ve just talked about the power of education, but I remembered my conversation with Dr. Hull. It was an opportunity to show what education can do. So I shared my story. I talked about how my mom gave birth to me when she was 15, how I never knew my father, and how I grew up in an environment of abject poverty and horrible abuse. But when I went to school, I had teachers, counselors, and principals who cared about me. It was my testimony of how education changed my life. I think my story resonates with people in that we don’t always have to put on airs. There are times when we overcome a difficult journey and want to forget about it. But it’s important to look back and share because there are people going through similar challenges.

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It doesn’t matter where you start. If you get your education, everything is possible. You may be going home to a place that doesn’t have indoor plumbing; your parents may be working as housekeepers for other families. But if you get your education, you won’t have to have that same life. You can graduate from high school with choices and opportunities.

We know superintendents learn best from each other. Every day at SchoolCEO, we talk with the nation’s leading superintendents about the amazing and innovative work happening in their schools. That’s why we launched the SchoolCEO Conversations Podcast—to provide a platform for school leaders to share their best ideas with each other and the world.

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We hope you’ll come away with not only new perspectives on the problems you face, but also a few expert contacts you can reach out to when the going gets tough.

To learn how these school leaders are tackling everything from marketing their schools to building racial equity in their communities, check out SchoolCEO Conversations wherever you get your podcasts.

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Energize Your New Employees How the private sector creates experiences to empower new hires Think back to the day you started your first job. No matter the employer, we’re guessing your onboarding included an overview of company policies and an introduction to your new teammates. But even with this preparation at the outset, it’s safe to assume you still felt like an outsider for a few weeks, maybe even months. Many companies—and school districts—focus their onboarding solely on logistics: paperwork and benefits packages. However, new employee onboarding can and should be much more than that. It’s not just about getting new employees familiar with the way your schools work; it’s about integrating them into your district culture as quickly and effectively as possible. 46

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“You have to connect with new staff,” says Dr. Kerri Nelson, superintendent of Iowa’s Shenandoah Community School District. “If you’re wanting to recruit teachers and keep them in place, you have to bring them in and make them a part of your system. They have to fall in love with your district.” In the private sector, great onboarding experiences have become integral to retaining talent and building strong cultures. “The work environment you’re building is a product,” explains Taylor Roa, Manager of Talent Acquisition at video software company Wistia. “If we’re not looking at future employees as potential customers for the life they’re buying into, then we won’t be able to compete.” This is especially true for school systems, where new teachers and staff often relocate their entire families and lives to work for you. You’re not just selling

your district’s culture to new hires—you’re likely welcoming them as current or future district parents as well. Their introduction to your schools needs to gain their buy-in both as employees and as customers. It’s not just Wistia—companies like Google and online shoe retailer Zappos are also investing in strong onboarding programs. Many are even creating positions specifically focused on integrating new hires. As a result, some of these culture-focused companies are fabled to be more selective than Harvard—and they’re staying at the top of Forbes’ and Fortune’s best employer lists.

You can also help new hires feel welcome and seen by introducing them to your stakeholders and celebrating their arrival on your team. “We started putting employee profiles up on our social media,” Dr. Nelson tells us. “Now, new hires know we value and recognize them, and people in the community get excited about new staff members.”

As a school leader, you certainly understand the impact of retaining talented, experienced teachers and staff members. Offering a great onboarding experience can help you attract new hires, but it can also help you retain your staff— and spend less time and resources on recruiting. You want employees who not only believe in your schools and their mission, but also become vital contributors to your district culture. A little investment upfront builds an experience that brings out the best in your new hires, allowing them to grow roots in your district and ultimately help strengthen it in diverse, innovative ways.

Align new hires to your culture. As one of the first experiences employees have with your school system, onboarding is perhaps your best opportunity to create lasting advocates for your culture. “Set up your onboarding in a way that proves what you actually value,” suggests Tyler Vawser. He’s the VP of People Operations at SchoolCEO’s parent company Apptegy, which was recently named one of America’s Best Startup Employers of 2021 by Forbes Magazine. Creating cultural alignment starts early. You want new hires learning to navigate and strengthen not only your school culture, but also your staff culture—they need to know the best practices expected of them. “It really begins in the recruiting process,” says Kelly Wolske, Senior Trainer at Zappos. ”We have identified behaviors for each of our Core Values, and we interview based on those. Even before that, though, we are very open about what our core values are and how we use them in our business decisions. Once in the onboarding process, we have key projects and activities designed to let new employees discover the culture in action for themselves.”

Shenandoah also brings in small groups of new teachers over the summer “so that their first week as an employee isn’t quite as overwhelming,” Nelson adds. Onboarding is an opportunity to get every new employee involved in the vital conversations taking place in your district and to let them know they are valued as active contributors to your school community. This establishes a foundation of trust and respect that pays dividends down the road. “You’re creating a starting point that lets you have a better conversation later on,” says Vawser.

Show new hires their context. The most basic purpose of culture-focused onboarding is to give new employees a context for their work. After the onboarding process, a new hire should understand exactly how their role fits into your district’s purpose or vision. And while we know the broader context of any school employee’s role is to educate and protect students, it’s important they know how they’re expected to do that specifically in your schools. SPRING 2021

“Find the most basic context someone needs to start finding their own way,” advises Vawser. “You have to learn about a company in layers.” In a school setting, context is vital. Sure, new teachers need to know where to find key resources in their buildings, but they also need to understand the community of students they’ll be teaching, the history of their new school, and the cultural vocabulary of your district. If new hires can see the potential impact of their work, they’ll start the school year with stronger footing. At Apptegy, Vawser’s team gives new employees a tour of the company on Day One. This, of course, serves a practical purpose: showing employees where to find the break room and other resources. But it also introduces new hires to each of Apptegy’s individual teams—even the ones they won’t be joining. The tour is structured around a customer’s typical life cycle, starting with development, moving to sales, then to client onboarding. This puts new hires into clients’ shoes, showing them how their work will fit into the company’s overall mission. The takeaway for schools is simple: Let new teachers and staff members see their campuses through the eyes of your students. Walk them through a typical school day, starting them at the bus stop. Introduce them to the food service workers feeding kids breakfast and lunch. Explain your school’s expectations of students as they enter the building—and the ways those expectations are either met or not. Let new staff members walk to First Period under the same time constraints as your students. Every little thing that makes a new hire feel informed and valuable in their role will add greater context to the work they’ve shown up to do. “People who don’t have that context—they’re limited to the ways that they can apply their creativity effectively,” Roa explains. “With context, you’re more prepared to add value in surprising ways.”

Give them a support system. For new teachers and staff still gaining their footing, connection is particularly important. You’ll want to set your new hires up with a support system as early as possible.

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Vawser asks a member from each department to meet new hires, even if only for 15 minutes. This keeps anyone from working in isolation. If a new marketing employee has a question about sales, they’ll know a friendly face to reach out to. This type of community building actually helps with efficiency, too. When your new English teacher has an established contact in the counselor’s office, they can provide help for struggling students more easily. If two second-grade teachers from different schools know each other, they can share lesson plans. A science teacher and a history teacher can coordinate on a cross-disciplinary project like a school garden. These are the support systems that make healthy, collaborative school communities thrive. Vawser also suggests choosing people who are bought into your culture for these connections. “Don’t just pick an expert; pick the person who’s most engaged,” he says. In a school setting, it’s essential to connect your new teachers and staff with bought-in, excited, and professional team members. Introduce them to the teachers who most believe in your school’s mission.

Starting a new job can be isolating, especially when you’re responsible for a classroom full of students all day. The key is to set up a system where no new teacher or staff member feels alone. You want to create an environment that fosters what the Harvard Business Review calls collisions—”chance encounters and unplanned interactions between knowledge workers.” New ideas, after all, spring from conversations in the break room, from the input of members in other departments, and from a shared and conversational understanding of your district’s purpose. Over at Zappos, Wolske says that’s part of the reason their onboarding lasts weeks. “It takes time to build the relationships that are key to a strong team; it takes time to develop an understanding of the values and culture; and it takes time to simply get up and running with new tools and systems that employees need to be successful,” she explains. Investing heavily upfront in employees’ well-being leads to a huge payoff in the long term. Wistia takes this idea a step further by connecting new hires with veteran employees. Before new employees even have their first day at the office, the onboarding team gives them the opportunity to reach out to current Wistians. This way, newcomers have a better understanding of company norms and expectations. By requiring employees to meet with a cross-section of people, you’re also building relationships naturally, giving them connections with different parts of your school or district.

Create memorable experiences. During new employee onboarding, you have the opportunity to create an experience that wows your new team members. That’s why it’s important to provide these experiences early. “People remember the beginning—their first experience at a new job—and the end,” Vawser explains. “If you have the option to give your employees 100 great experiences, don’t spread them out evenly. Put 40 of them in onboarding, 40 of them in offboarding, and the other 20 in the middle.” First impressions matter, and it’s worth spending the time and effort to set your team up for success. One way to create a great experience is through the element of surprise. “Try to disrupt people’s expectations,” Vawser says. He suggests focusing on creating “peak moments”— high points that will wow your new employees.

In life, we typically remember peak moments and generally forget the rest. For example, think about your last vacation. You probably recall the high points—standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon or laying on the beach—more than slight annoyances like waiting in line for a rollercoaster or stopping off for gas. The same is true for your new hires; when they think back on their time in onboarding, they’ll remember the best experiences more than all the rest. You don’t need to worry about removing all of your new staff members’ challenges. Instead, focus on creating the peak moments they’ll remember most. For the sake of competitive advantage and surprise, the HR professionals we spoke with were hesitant to share the peak moments they engineer for new employee onboarding. However, all would agree that the key to creating a good experience is making new employees feel seen, understood, and cared for. It could be as simple as giving them a gift card to a local restaurant on their first day or a personalized T-shirt with your district logo on the back. New hires often feel self-conscious—so receiving a personal note from their site leader during or after onboarding could also provide them with comfort and a memorable experience of their entrance into your district. Onboarding is an investment that produces engagement. “Don’t worry about your new hires reciprocating; go all in,” Vawser advises. “I want new employees to leave onboarding excited—like they can’t believe they’re here. Chances are, most people will reciprocate and be engaged.”

The key to creating a good experience is making new employees feel seen, understood, and cared for.

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SchoolCEO News Desk

Dr. Miguel Cardona In 2020, education leaders across the country pivoted in unison as the realities of the coronavirus pandemic set in. Now, as widespread vaccination promises a return to a new normal, school leaders are once again planning how to adjust to a rapidly changing educational landscape. One such leader is Dr. Miguel Cardona, the newly confirmed United States Secretary of Education. Like so many of you, Cardona recognizes that although we would love to return to life as it was before the pandemic, the needs of our students and communities have drastically changed. As we move into a post-pandemic era, Cardona joins the nationwide discussion on how to best meet the needs of students as they cope with one of the most confusing and traumatic years of their lives.

Dr. Tinisha Parker

Days after his confirmtion in early March, Secretary Cardona participated as a keynote speaker for SXSW EDU’s 2021 Online Conference. In this discussion, moderated by actress and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Connie Britton, Cardona was joined by Dr. Tinisha Parker of Georgia’s Gwinnett County Public Schools. Parker is well-known for leading programs designed to increase student success for at-risk populations. Cardona himself is a lifelong educator whose work has included building multi-level educational partnerships in Connecticut, where he formerly served as the state’s Commissioner of Education. Connie Britton

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Healing Together Although SXSW EDU was virtual this year, Cardona conveyed a great deal of enthusiasm about his first week on the job. He returned to one primary point throughout the conversation: The devastation of COVID-19 is a universal experience that requires universal healing. “We’ve all experienced trauma,” he told the virtual audience. “We have to heal. And I think our schools are important parts of healing together.” For Cardona, healing together necessitates his administration’s upcoming push for increased social-emotional learning supports in schools. Education researchers in recent years have often pointed to SEL as a necessary component of a well-rounded education, but given the trauma of living through a deadly pandemic, it has become even more important. Still, Cardona acknowledged that SEL cannot be assigned to teachers alone; this “has to be a part of the fabric of the school culture.” Parker agreed: “[We cannot consider SEL] as something additional to the plate. We really have to consider social-emotional learning as the plate.”

Designed to Listen In thinking about SEL, Cardona warned against trying to return to the pre-pandemic normal. “It’s our responsibility to make sure that our goal is not to get back to what [SEL] was on March 10th of 2020,” he said. “That’s a low bar. We really need to set the foundation.” Cardona praised school districts that worked to support families throughout the pandemic by providing services such as delivered meals and internet access. Although students’ and families’ needs will change as the bulk of the nation returns to in-person learning, schools must keep working to identify and address potential barriers to student growth. As Cardona explained, “It’s really about ensuring that our schools are equipped in the long haul to meet not only the academic areas, but the social-emotional needs that our students have.” Cardona also emphasized that schools cannot get caught up in the creation and implementation of new SEL programs but fail to listen once those programs are live. In order to ensure that students and communities are engaged with SEL initiatives, it’s essential that school leaders maintain easy avenues for feedback. “As a parent of a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old, I can assure you—students have a voice,” Cardona said. “Sometimes organizations are not designed to listen.”

“Are we designed to listen to the students we serve? If the answer is no, we have to set up systems to make sure it’s not just the high-performing students who have an opportunity, but all students.” Listening to student voices is more than being open to feedback; it’s also making sure all stakeholders feel comfortable with the avenues through which they can provide that feedback. “I think what we need to do is just check ourselves,” Cardona continued. “Are we designed to listen to the students we serve? If the answer is no, we have to set up systems to make sure it’s not just the high-performing students who have an opportunity, but all students.” In order to make sure schools are designed to listen, Cardona urged educators first and foremost “to establish that relational trust”—to rebuild networks with families so they can serve as full partners in their childrens’ emotional learning. This trust, he believes, goes far in helping families who have felt bereft trying to coach their children through the unprecedented realities of the pandemic. Families may look to schools for resources to help their children reintegrate into some semblance of normalcy. But because of the stigma attached to mental health in many communities, effective family-school relationships require trust. Both Cardona and Parker specifically emphasized that you may need to think creatively about how to connect families to the resources that could help their children thrive. “As an education community,” Cardona said, “we have to really work together to make sure we remove those stigmas and provide support for students.” SPRING 2021

Grace and Space Additionally, the economic burden of the pandemic won’t immediately vanish for many American families. Cardona and Parker advised schools to keep offering resources that help families support their children, while also leaning on community relationships to make those resources known. “We’ve got to strategize with community agencies that have leverage,” Parker explained. “Don’t try to carry that on your own, because you may not be the person that they’re going to best receive that message from initially.” In this way, schools can contribute to collective healing while preserving the agency of the families they serve. Parker imagined this support as giving families both grace and space. “We have gone through this struggle together,” she said, “but we still have a lot of pride in being able to take care of our kids.”

for example, had a school counselor-to-student ratio of 1 to 905 in 2017. Those numbers are only likely to worsen in a post-pandemic era. Many school leaders may also want more clarity as to how they can use funds from recent legislation such as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) and the American Rescue Plan Act to implement SEL in the upcoming school year. As you know, budgetary decisions are ethical as well as financial. SEL isn’t just a support for all students; it’s a critical tool for equity, especially considering the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on communities of color. These concerns and more must be accounted for as school leaders create plans to support families moving forward.

“We’re going to learn together and grow together ... but first we have to heal together.”

Both educators also acknowledged the important work that educators of color can do to help families of color feel comfortable within spheres that may feel unwelcome to them. “When you have any opportunity to diversify your staff, you need to do that,” Parker said. “When families [see] people that look like them and speak like them, they are more adapted.” If diversifying staff is not an option, Cardona and Parker again advised school leaders to connect with community advocacy groups that already know how to work successfully within communities of color. “A lot of those communities see educators as this super authority,” Parker explained. “We need to be sensitive and build our network with cultural agencies that serve communities in our districts and in our schools, and leverage the connections that they have.”

Moving Forward Dr. Cardona’s goal of not returning to a pre-pandemic normal begs the question of whether most American schools have the resources and infrastructure to support SEL in the ways he believes necessary. School leaders in small or rural communities may not be able to hire enough dedicated professionals, such as counselors and school psychologists, to allow for easy and frequent student access. In many states, school counselor ratios leave much to be desired; Arizona, 52

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We at SchoolCEO are eager to see Dr. Cardona’s plans solidify as the path out of the pandemic becomes clearer. We are hopeful that, given his emphasis on student and staff well-being, Cardona will advocate for the resources and legislation necessary to make this priority a reality. While our society is surely forever changed by the pandemic, we don’t yet know how this change will manifest years down the line. But if we can use our current focus to make school a kinder place, centered on the whole child, it will benefit us all. As Cardona so aptly puts it, “We’re going to learn together and grow together ... but first we have to heal together.”

The Cultural Lens: Snapshots From Districts Doing the Work From private sector companies to public school classrooms, culture has become the topic on everyone’s hearts and minds. Of course, that’s because it can make or break any organization or community. Think of culture as your district’s roots—the beliefs, values, and assumptions tying everyone in your school family together. Planting and nurturing a strong culture allows students, faculty, and staff to flourish as individuals and as a community. Here are four leaders who have instituted positive, empowering cultures in their districts—unifying students, staff, and community members around one central goal.

Culture of Inclusion: Dr. Yolanda Cargile | Center School District | MO

Dr. Yolanda Cargile was fighting for kids long before she became a school leader. Prior to her career in education, she was a practicing social worker, serving teen mothers and investigating childhood abuse and neglect. “My background is unique, but I think it makes me a better educator,” Cargile tells us. “Those experiences provided me with a framework for connecting with families to bridge the gaps between school and home.” Since February 2020, Cargile has been superintendent of Center School District in her home state of Missouri, where she’s helping create a culture of inclusion and equity for every student and staff member. “We know that across the nation, there’s an academic achievement gap where our white students are outperforming our Black and Brown students,” she says. “That’s an issue.” “For so many years, race has been a topic that’s not even discussed for fear of offending or sounding ignorant,” Cargile tells us. “I like to create spaces where we can have those conversations, provide opportunities to discuss biases, and gain a better understanding of white privilege. Equitable education only happens when your teachers have the tools that

For Cargile, building a culture of inclusion means crafting environments where people can engage with and learn from one another.

Photo courtesy of Center School District

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they need to better serve children. Luckily for me, I’ve joined a district and community that sees the importance of this work.” Cargile begins every district meeting with a quote focused on racial equity; staff then discuss how it resonates with them on professional and personal levels. “For my predominantly white team, that creates this level of comfort for them to be able to talk about race,” she explains. But Cargile isn’t just starting conversations about race; she’s working to create an actively anti-racist community, both in and out of schools. Last May, when the killing of George Floyd intensified the national conversation on police brutality toward the Black community, Cargile and the district knew they couldn’t stay quiet. “We released a statement to our community with a stance that promotes anti-racist beliefs and actions,” she tells us. The district is also leading a community book study in partnership with the Center Education Foundation—a local nonprofit that awards grants to Center teachers. The Center community is currently reading Unconscious Bias in Schools: A Developmental Approach to Exploring Race and Racism by Tracey A. Benson and Sarah E. Fiarman. “It’s written by a white woman and a Black man,” Cargile explains, “and their dialogue in this book is absolutely fabulous. They are able to have genuine and real conversations around their own biases and beliefs about race and how they show up for children. So reading this book allows us to see what the actual dialogue can look like in a healthy way.”

For Cargile, good leadership is about creating these kinds of environments, “where people can engage one another and learn from experiences,” she says. But it’s also about making sure every voice is heard. “When we’re making big decisions in the district, I always ask my team, Who else needs to be at this table?” she tells us. “The white people in the district shouldn’t be making all the decisions when we serve predominantly Black and Brown children.” In fact, Cargile has promoted the need for diverse voices on every committee and project the district has started since her tenure began. “When we roll out new initiatives or release big documents like our strategic plan, we’re really forcing our team to ask, Is it diverse?” she adds. She also got the school board behind CSD’s mission of anti-racism; they currently begin all board meetings with quotes on racial equity as well. While Cargile acknowledges the collective effort necessary to create and nurture an inclusive culture, she understands the importance of showing up, too. “I’m a firm believer in the idea that what you permit, you promote; what you measure, you get more of,” she says. To build crucial relationships with students, Cargile leads a group of middle and high school girls called Sisters Inspiring Sisters (SIS). Once a month, the group meets with Cargile and a guest speaker to talk about topics like education, community, self-esteem, and college and career readiness. Although SIS is specifically designed for girls, the district is working on launching a similar group for male students. “I want to model for my staff that this is how you make connections with children,” she says. “The only way you’re going to know them by their name, needs, and strengths is to create opportunities to build those relationships.” You could view Sisters Inspiring Sisters as a perfect microcosm of the equity work taking place across Center School District—a diverse group discussing their needs and perspectives to better understand and serve one another. “It’s important that I have a diverse group of young ladies because it allows them to interact with me as a Black female,” Cargile tells us. “To have that positive relationship tears away those misconceptions that the media often presents about Black and Brown women and men. I want to leave a positive image for all students so that I serve as a role model, a person they see in a positive light.”

Culture of Vulnerability: Dr. Tom Mahoney | Oregon Community Unit School District 220 | IL

When he first came to Oregon CUSD 220 fourteen years ago, Dr. Tom Mahoney faced some unique challenges. “I discovered that our entire district was a decade behind in technology infrastructure and instructional technology,” he tells SchoolCEO. “Not only that, but our social studies textbooks still had East and West Germany in them. For 20 years, there had been limited purchasing of new instructional resources.” Along with facing financial troubles, Mahoney’s new district had seen 23 different district administrators and five superintendents in just 10 years. Prior to that time, OCUSD 220 had undergone a forced consolidation with Mt. Morris, a neighboring school district, which left many feeling unwanted and unheard. Soon after the consolidation, a fire resulted in the destruction of a Mt. Morris elementary building. While no one was injured, the loss of the building forced two staffs to merge into one at the remaining elementary school. “There was a cultural disruption because there was little work done to integrate staff and develop a shared vision,” says Mahoney. “The impact of these incidents resulted in resentment and, at times, strife within our district community.” With his work cut out for him, Mahoney made it a priority to get everyone on the same page. “We first affirmed our mission statement with the board and community, making sure that our focus was on fulfilling that mission,” he tells us. “We identified four pillars—academics, activities, service, and leadership—and those became our focus as we deconstructed and reconstructed every system in the school district. This work laid the foundation for where we are today.” Mahoney also worked to bring both halves of the consolidated district together. “I made an intentional effort to serve in both communities, and I spent as much time as I could in Mt. Morris,” he says. “They were concerned they would lose their one remaining school building, but the board and I were able to reassure the Mt. Morris community that we would do everything in our power to keep the building open for as SPRING 2021

long as possible. It wasn’t any one event that brought us together—it was a combination of students being accepting of the change and the district being intentional in serving both communities.” While rebuilding OCUSD 220 from the inside out, Mahoney learned early on that vulnerability was a key part of being an effective leader. “At my first superintendent meeting in our region, there were probably about 22 superintendents talking about Common Core and how they were implementing it in their districts,” says Mahoney.

Photo courtesy of Oregon Community Unit School District 220

Through vulnerability and mentorship, Mahoney has allowed OCUSD faculty to thrive and overcome the obstacles brought on by COVID-19. “Every superintendent before me was saying that it was going great,” he tells us. “No one was talking about the problems they were having. So when it was my turn, I just said to them honestly, I think I’m screwed—because I knew that the work in my district was hard and often did not progress in a linear fashion.” This experience showed Mahoney the importance of being vulnerable. By admitting his own struggles, he could learn from others and get the help he needed. 56

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After the meeting, he intentionally started growing his own network to learn from and connect with other superintendents, as well as lean on them for support and guidance. “Every year I build a group of four or five superintendents to get together once a month and just be honest,” says Mahoney. “Every time there’s a new superintendent in our area, we invite that person to join us. It helps me share problems and gain insight, as well as remember what it was like when I first started in the position.” The experience of being vulnerable with his peers about failure showed Mahoney how important it was to extend this same grace to his teachers, board, and staff. By acknowledging areas where you can grow, he learned, you can reach success quicker. “My message to new teachers every year is to fail faster. We can’t innovate and change unless we embrace failure,” he says. “I have a fantastic board that understands this, too—we celebrate the failures. If we try an initiative and it fails, we look at the results, see what we can learn, and then look to what’s next. We recognize that to succeed, you have to fail quite often.” While the pandemic has brought unforeseen challenges to OCUSD 220’s staff, Mahoney and his team have built a culture of vulnerability that has stayed strong and helpful. “Remember, most teachers were good students and enjoyed school. They enjoyed primary school, went to college to study school, and left college to work in school. They’re not used to failure,” says Mahoney. “Since January I’ve been encouraging my team to have those hard conversations, sharing with our staff that it’s okay that they’re in a crisis, and we’re going to help them.” Mahoney understands that this change doesn’t happen overnight, but if they’re willing to be vulnerable, teachers can be what he calls comfortably uncomfortable. “By having these tough conversations, we’re getting

“My message to new teachers every year is to fail faster. We can’t innovate and change unless we embrace failure.”

back to the place where our teachers are facing new challenges, but not so much that the challenges feel unbearable.” With an environment that fosters this type of vulnerability, OCUSD 220’s faculty and staff are thriving. “It takes courage to have these conversations, and the culture that has been previously built with your team will determine your success in inviting vulnerability,” says Mahoney. “Culture is extremely fragile—it takes one poor decision to break it. You have to cultivate it, be careful with it, and behave in a way that builds it over time.”

Culture of Enthusiasm: Dr. Kevin McCahill | Nanuet Union Free School District | NY

McCahill began his career as a math teacher, eventually working his way from an assistant principalship at Pearl River School District to a curriculum coach position at nearby Nanuet. From the classroom to the administrative office, he was known for his over-the-top enthusiasm—and he’s brought that positive energy into his superintendency. “Especially since I left something and took a risk to do something new in this field, I think I would be cheating myself if I buttoned up just because I think that’s what I’m supposed to do,” he says. “Now, as a superintendent, I refuse to let up on the positivity and the enthusiasm, on being a cheerleader for the great work that schools do. I have the opportunity to be an ambassador for public schools, to scream at the top of a mountain with a megaphone how amazing schools are. I wear that with pride.” Photo courtesy of Nanuet Union Free School District

It’s not unusual to see a knight in shining armor walking the halls of Nanuet Union Free School District’s elementary schools. If you see him, don’t be alarmed—you haven’t traveled back in time. It’s just Superintendent Dr. Kevin McCahill, proclaiming his Nanuet pride. McCahill’s road to Nanuet started on Wall Street, where he began his career as a bond broker. Despite making good money and using his love of math and finance, he was left unsatisfied. “In my time in the corporate world, we were very goal-oriented about metrics and profits—not so much celebrating people’s efforts, acknowledging people, being proud of what we were doing,” he tells SchoolCEO. “I just felt like something was missing.” As it turns out, the missing piece was right in front of him. McCahill’s sister was a teacher. So was his fiancee, now wife. “They would tell me about their days, and I’d say, This is amazing,” he recalls. “You’re making a living but you’re also providing service.” Before long, the wheels in McCahill’s head started turning. “The education world checked two really big boxes for me,” he says. “I started thinking to myself, Why look any further?”

McCahill strives to make Nanuet a positive environment for students, staff, and faculty—one smile, high five, or elbow bump at a time.

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And he does wear his Nanuet pride—literally. “We’re the Nanuet Knights, so I dress up like a knight for the kids,” he says. “I go down to the elementary schools in full Knights gear and give high fives.” The kids, of course, love it. Seeing McCahill clunking around in armor amps them up, getting them just as excited about school as their superintendent is. We’ve all heard it before: Culture flows from the top. And in Nanuet’s case, McCahill’s enthusiasm is indeed contagious. “Are you a champion for the service of education?” he asks. “If you are, the teachers and the children that you serve will trust you. They will feel it in your soul. They will feel it in your voice. And then they will allow you to push them out of their comfort zones.” It’s just like teaching, he says. Kids will follow the lead of an enthusiastic teacher; a district will follow the lead of an enthusiastic superintendent. McCahill is quick to point out that enthusiasm doesn’t mean what he calls toxic positivity—pretending everything is going great when it’s not. “Just saying that everything is great and awesome—that becomes tone deaf after a while if there’s no substance behind it,” he explains. So McCahill works hard to make sure his enthusiasm is specific—that he’s not spreading vague platitudes, but celebrating the unique qualities that make Nanuet shine. “We value these traits, the Knights traits, that make us something special,” McCahill says. “I believe superintendents should be able to rattle off a million reasons to be excited about the community they serve, if asked at any moment in their career. I better be able to explain what makes it so special to be in Nanuet.” Of course, from a leadership standpoint, that also means making sure there are victories to be excited about. A culture of enthusiasm needs a strong foundation of pedagogy, communication, and excellence if it’s going to thrive. “But I believe equally as important as sound research-based practices is making your school community a place of creativity that connects people beyond just a dissemination of content and curriculum,” he says. “It’s the enthusiasm for community, for something bigger, that connects us. That’s the glue.”

To hear more about Dr. McCahill’s story and his approach to enthusiasm, check out his podcast episode at schoolceo.com/podcast

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Culture of Growth: Dr. Curtis Jones, | Bibb County School District | GA

Dr. Curtis Jones took a roundabout path to the superintendency. After graduating from high school, Jones joined the United States Army and served in the Infantry for 20 years. He then returned to his alma mater, where he became a junior ROTC high school instructor. Now, in his 12th year in the superintendency and his sixth at Bibb County, he recalls how the military shaped his idea of leadership. “I believe my military experience helped me in being an administrator by showing me how important it is to be a leader,” Jones tells us. “Leaders have to demonstrate that they’re here for something bigger than themselves—that they are here for the organization. People will follow you if they believe in you, if they trust you, and if they believe in your mission.” This type of leadership has created a culture of growth at Bibb County. “Our belief is that when teachers join us, we’re going to help them grow and get better,” says Jones. “The best teachers want to work in the best environments with great coworkers. So we encourage teachers and staff to develop cultures where they are willing to grow and trust one another.” This environment has allowed teachers not only to feel confident in the classroom, but also to grow professionally. The district offers several programs to help teachers develop their leadership skills, whether they’re aspiring to leadership roles or already serving in them. “We believe that when we hire our teachers, we have to make sure we know where they want to grow,” Jones tells us. Not only does Bibb County offer support to seasoned teachers, but they also make it a point to mentor and grow new educators. The district works with local universities to invite senior College of Education students to teach in Bibb County as teachers of record. Once they complete their bachelor’s degrees, they’re offered full-time positions. “We pay them a stipend, and we pair them with a master teacher who supervises them,” says Jones. “We want to give new teachers the opportunity to take on responsibility and to share what

The culture of growth Jones has fostered at Bibb County inspires students of all ages, reminding them that they are “Victories in Progress.”

a problem, they must first own the solution and then solve it. “This allows teachers and administrators to be proactive,” he says. “It’s a continuous process that we expect teachers to do, but in some ways want students to do as well.”

Photo courtesy of Bibb County School District

they’re thinking. And, in some cases, it helps us keep them in our system because they like where they are, and they see the support we give.” All of these programs fall under Bibb County’s mission of being a Victory in Progress, or VIP. This idea is ingrained in every aspect of Bibb County, from the district’s strategic plan to the pin Jones wears on his lapel. “Our strategic plan is called Victory in Our Schools, but everyday we are a victory in progress,” he says. “Victory in Our Schools isn’t just a strategic plan—we talk about our goals every year and we meet with staff throughout to brief us on how they’re implementing it. We’re always looking at what our needs were, what we’ve actually accomplished, and what we can do to improve.” This culture of improvement and growth has helped Bibb County’s staff understand the importance of their work in and outside the classroom. “For us, culture is the experiences people have and the beliefs they get from those experiences, which determine the actions they take,” Jones tells us. “If you have students who are not learning, you have to look at the experiences you’re providing them.” He believes that once staff see

The VIP mentality is not only growing among staff, but also inspiring students. “When we started passing out our VIP pins to our teachers, I had a third-grade student ask me, Are you a VIP?” Jones says with a smile. “I said, Well, I guess I am. And he looked at his friend and said, He’s a VIP! Then he looked back at me and asked, How do you get to be a VIP?” It’s those small interactions that prove to Jones that the district’s culture of growth is thriving. “These moments remind me of when we were first trying to change the culture in Bibb County,” he reminisces. “And I think we’re getting there.”

“Leaders have to demonstrate that they’re here for something bigger than themselves—that they are here for the organization. People will follow you if they believe in you, if they trust you, and if they believe in your mission.” SPRING 2021

Digging Into Data Using Google Analytics to optimize your web presence

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Every year, schools put a lot of hard work and time into their various communication channels and marketing efforts. But despite the power of mailers, newsletters, and open houses to make lasting impressions, your school website is often the number-one point of reference for both prospective families and potential employees. That makes your website traffic—the number of people visiting your site—one of the most valuable metrics you can track. However, it’s not as easy to immediately quantify as your physical mailing list or your email subscribers. That’s where Google Analytics comes in handy. Google Analytics is a free dashboard that provides insights into how people are reaching your website, which pages they’re visiting, and how they’re engaging with your content. You can use it not just to learn about the current state of your website but to also make it better for your community. It’s a powerful tool with a lot of capabilities, but there’s no need to get overwhelmed. We’ll focus only on the basics— how to apply the data Google Analytics provides on your website traffic to maximize your site’s reach and usefulness.

How to set up Google Analytics Google Analytics collects its insights through a tiny bit of computer code that you install on your website. We won’t bore you with how the code works, but rest assured that every page visit and click is being counted once it starts running in the background. Setup is actually fairly straightforward; Google even provides the code you’ll need for free. You just have to set up a Google Analytics account at www.google.com/analytics. An IT staff member or your website administrator can take care of this for you. Once you get everything set up, start by making one simple tweak in your Google Analytics account settings: creating a filter to exclude traffic from your district office and school IP addresses. This ignores any website visits from within your school buildings, giving you a more accurate picture of how your website is performing with your outside community. If you don’t know your IP address, ask your IT professional or systems administrator.

Note: Google Analytics can only measure website activity once it is active on your sites. This means that you cannot see any metrics from before you added the code.

Understanding Your Insights As we mentioned earlier, website traffic is a count of everyone who visits your site. This can be the total number of visitors over a given time period (such as the span of a month or just one day) or a count of visitors to a particular page. On the main page of Google Analytics, you can get a snapshot view of your website traffic, providing lots of valuable insights. For example, understanding how many visitors you draw to your website during the school year versus over the summer can tell you if your audience is staying engaged when school’s not in session. If your website traffic is heavy at particular times, those are good opportunities to post news stories. On the other hand, knowing when your traffic is slow tells you when you can update your website without inconveniencing your visitors. Additionally, analyzing your traffic by device type can inform how you approach your web content. Are most people in your community accessing your website on their desktop computers? Or do they prefer to use their smartphones? If most of your traffic is coming from mobile devices, take that as a reminder to ensure your website is mobile responsive. These are great numbers to know, but they’re pretty general; they don’t provide the full value of Google Analytics. More detailed information about where your visitors are coming from—and what they’re doing on your website when they get there—actually provides the most insight. Once you understand what these metrics mean, you can start using this tool to its full potential.

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You can get a similar breakdown for your social media traffic. Knowing which of your accounts is sending the most visitors to your website can tell you which platforms your community engages with most.

Traffic Source Once you know how many people are going to your website, the next step is finding out where they’re coming from. You can see these metrics by going to the Overview panel in the Acquisition section of Google Analytics. From here, you can view a breakdown of your website traffic by each of the general channels that Google tracks: • Direct traffic — Visitors who go directly to your website by typing your URL into their browsers • Organic search — Visitors who get to your website from a search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing • Paid search — Visitors who come to you from a Google ad or any other search engine ad • Referral — Visitors from an outside page that linked to yours, such as a PTA blog or a news article • Social — Visitors who come to your website from social media posts • Email — Visitors who come to your website from an email link • Other — Any website traffic with undefined origins This information lets you know which pieces of your communication strategy are driving the most visitors to your site. For example, getting a lot of visitors from organic search is a great sign your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is working. The vast majority of schools can expect most site visits to come from direct traffic, organic searches, emails, and social media. These will be your families and community members seeking out information about your schools. If you need a refresher on SEO, check out SchoolCEO’s guide for schools at schoolceo.com/seo

Traffic source data can also show you which referral links are sending visitors to your website. Maybe a news article about a new district initiative links to your site, or a community organization you’re partnering with is sending web traffic your way. This information helps you know who in the community is mentioning your schools online. If the local paper is sending people to your careers page, for example, that’s a sign that your press release about open positions was effective. 62

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By tapping into traffic source information, you can figure out what exactly is driving your website visitors. Then, it’s just a matter of doubling down on what’s working and tweaking your approach on the channels you want to improve.

Traffic Destination As you examine your website traffic, you’ll also want to be aware of which pages those visitors are landing on. Is your capital projects page getting a lot of attention? Are people navigating to your open enrollment section? These are valuable insights Google Analytics can provide. To get a breakdown of website traffic by page, check out either the Behavior or the Engagement tab (depending on what version of Google Analytics you’re using). You’ll see the different pages of your website listed by their titles, with detailed statistics for each one. While there are plenty of metrics you can measure, here are some important ones to keep in mind: • Pageviews — How many times a page has been visited • Average time on page — How long, on average, each user has spent on a given page • New users — How many new users have arrived on your site, as opposed to users who have visited your site before In a nutshell, pageviews tells you how much attention a particular page is getting. If some parts of your site are getting more views than others, you can start examining ways to either improve the underperforming content or make it easier for visitors to find info on your site. Average time on page, on the other hand, tells you whether or not users are actually engaging with your content. If people are spending a lot of time in your district news section, for example, that tells you they’re really reading up on what’s going on in your schools.

But if visitors aren’t spending much time on a page, you might want to redesign it to make it more intriguing. Examining site traffic at the page level also tells you how users navigate your website. Assuming someone arrives on your homepage first, where do they go from there? Google Analytics offers traffic flow data showing which specific pages people are visiting and how long they’re staying on each one. Are users bouncing from page to page, seemingly just checking out your website? Or is there some logic to how people are navigating—say, going from your high school’s sports schedule to a page about your marching band? Learning which pages visitors navigate to most—and where else on your site they’ve come from—can help you organize your menu structure more effectively. Take Washington’s Marysville School District 25, for instance. Google Analytics helped them discover that visitors to their website were being routed to countless out-of-date pages, all of which were filled with old content. By tracking how many users were visiting specific pages, the district was able to strategize a plan to delete obsolete content and update the frequently visited parts of their website. With this traffic destination data in hand, you can test how tweaks to your website impact engagement on pages you want to highlight. Does adding a more visible link to enrollment information on your homepage result in more traffic to that section? Or let’s say you’re not getting many applicants for open positions despite a substantial amount of traffic to your careers page—this could be a sign that your page needs to be updated with more in-depth information about your district and application process.

Google Analytics in Action In New Jersey’s Westwood Regional School District, Superintendent Dr. Ray Gonzalez has been navigating Google Analytics for years. “For me, using Google Analytics is about listening to the data and assessing whether or not I’m reaching my audience,” he tells us. Gonzalez first started experimenting with the tool in 2017, when his district was campaigning for a bond referendum to expand their middle school. For the campaign, Gonzalez created an online portal to provide a repository for all information related to the referendum. Because data was constantly being updated on the portal, Gonzalez needed a way to ensure his community stayed up to speed. “I wanted to make sure I was connecting with as wide an audience as possible,” he says. The answer? Google Analytics. Gonzalez was able to determine when his stakeholders were accessing the information portal, how long they were staying, and what links they were clicking on within the site. With these findings in hand, Gonzalez decided to add a button for referendum updates, which then allowed him to track how many visitors were looking specifically for that information—and when. “In my visits to schools or community groups to present information about the referendum, I could count how many people were in attendance,” Gonzalez tells us. “I could count how many emails I sent out. But Google Analytics spoke to the importance of our digital communication and our digital presence. Once upon a time, selling a referendum meant putting together packets of laminated brochures. But now we use more efficient communication to meet our stakeholders where they are. Engagement was really the missing piece.”

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Your Data at a Glance As you can see, Google Analytics can be a powerful tool for any school leader. However, there’s a drawback to its awesome capabilities: It can be easy to get lost in the weeds. We also recognize that, as school leaders, you’ve got a lot on your plate. That’s especially true for small districts where there isn’t always a technology point person on staff. Luckily, Google Analytics includes some reporting features that can make understanding all of your website’s data at a glance not only possible but easy. This can reduce the time you spend navigating various submenus and let you get right to your website’s insights. You can create custom dashboards that can contain any metrics or dimensions you like, displayed across tables, line charts, and more. These dashboards allow you to jump right into the insights we explored earlier without having to dig through various menu items. You can simply select the data you’d like to visualize and then arrange the various charts and tables to your liking. Google Analytics allows you to export these dashboard views as PDFs, as well as to schedule regular email reports to yourself and others. This is great for sharing website data with your team. Here we’ve included a sample dashboard that includes all of the various data points we’ve discussed in this article. These are the basic insights you need to hit the ground running with Google Analytics. Once you understand your website traffic and how it operates, you can greatly enhance your district marketing and communications efforts. As the saying goes, knowing is half the battle.

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Sample Dashboard Users 150

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New Users 8 6 4 2 April 1

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Traffic Type Organic Search Direct Traffic Referral Paid Search Social Email Other

Users 258 114 29 30 81 70 5

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