SchoolCEO Winter 2022 by SchoolCEO

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

WINTER 2022

Who Speaks For Your Brand? We surveyed more than 1,600 school employees to find out who’s acting as brand ambassadors for their districts—and why that matters. Solving the Substitute Problem Retaining Classified Staff

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” – H.E. Luccock

Who speaks for your district’s brand? It’s easy to treat school branding as a new phenomenon, ushered in by the age of school choice and vouchers. When we think about it, though, this isn’t really true. Schools have always had colors and mascots. Schools have always had mottos and values. Schools have even always had what we now recognize as brand ambassadors—before, we just saw them as people with school spirit. This issue of SchoolCEO is about two important marketing concepts—your brand and your brand ambassadors. We’re showcasing school leaders like Dr. Lupita Hightower and Dr. Jeffrey Collier, who know that a leader’s vision is critical to a school’s brand. We’re also going to show you how to use one of the marketing world’s favorite tools, the Net Promoter Score, to leverage the advocates in your community. If you’re interested in social media metrics that matter, we’ve got resources for that, too. Plus, we’ll share ideas on how to better serve and retain a core part of your community—your classified staff—and how to build classified positions that work for everyone.

OUR TEAM

As for your brand ambassadors, we’ve done the research. In the past few months, we surveyed over 1,600 school employees across the country about how comfortable they felt serving as brand ambassadors, and the results are telling. While teachers interact with students and families, serving as everyday representatives of their schools, far too many of them lack training on how their districts want them to communicate. Additionally, we dig into how feeling valued impacts your employees’ loyalty to your district and what that means for students. Like most challenges, managing a school brand amidst another pandemic school year is a profound and timely opportunity. In a moment when the relationship between schools and their communities is more important than ever, your advocates—your brand ambassadors—are already right in front of you. They’re the teachers cheering at every game, the crossing guard who knows every name, and the secretary whose desk is plastered with graduation invitations. Your district’s champions are waiting for you—what will you do to meet them?

Managing Editor: Melissa Hite Writers/Researchers: Barrett Goodwin, Brittany Keil, Marie Kressin, Corey Whaley Graphic Designers: Corbin Lawrence, Pamela Villarreal, Marisol Quintanilla

Video Producers: Ryan McDonald, Obatola Layiwola, Tanner Cox Director of Media: Michael Cruice Art Director: Sebastian Andrei Social Media Specialist: Thiphavanh “Bri” Vongvilay Apptegy CEO: Jeston George

IN THIS ISSUE Who Speaks For Your Brand?

No Exceptions Always leading with hope first, Dr. Lupita Hightower is fostering a community of future-forward learners.

We surveyed over 1,600 school employees to understand how districts can cultivate better brand ambassadors.

What If & Why Not? Ambassadors in Action Four school leaders share how they empower staff members at every level to be strong brand advocates

As Saginaw ISD’s storyteller in chief, Dr. Jeffrey Collier doesn’t shy away from authentic and enthusiastic district communications.

Score Big The marketing world has long championed the Net Promoter Score—and for good reason. How can it help school leaders?

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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:

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Essential Work Considering today’s hiring crisis, we discuss how best to support the backbone of your school community: classified staff.

Solving the Substitute Problem This Rhode Island district’s program ensures high-quality educators are in every classroom, 180 days a year.

Off the Charts In today’s data-driven world, data visualizations are an essential tool for telling your district’s story.

A Preview of Pre-K How can districts prepare for state or federal legislation expanding early childhood education?

Driving Insights Here’s a quick primer to help ensure your social media metrics align with your district goals.

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Off the Charts

Vol. 4 No. 2 © 2022 by Apptegy, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint or quote excerpts granted by written request only. SchoolCEO� is published four 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.

How to Use Data Visualization To

WINTER 2022

Good News

in Public Education

River Falls, WI The biggest staff news at Meyer Middle School this year is the addition of a golden retriever named Croix. The therapy dog works in the school counselor’s office to make students feel more comfortable visiting their counselor and processing the ongoing stress of the pandemic. Croix was adopted by school psychologist Sommer Bowers in June 2020 and has completed several obedience and training courses as well as his national certification through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. With a twoday workweek, Croix has 10 prescheduled visits per day with students. “I feel like I see a different side of kids, and I see a different side of the adults,” Principal Mark Chapin says. “I just feel like Croix brings up the goodness in people—and the kindness.” (River Falls Journal)

Solana Beach, CA

Waco, TX

Yufei, a Westview High School senior, was feeling helpless during the early months of the pandemic, so she decided to share her love of computer science while also giving back to those in need. Yufei organized virtual learning camp STEM for Success, charging students $10 each to attend and recruiting four college students to provide instruction. With the profits from her weeklong camp, Yufei was able to donate $2,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of America. (Del Mar Times)

With harmful trends like “devious licks” on the rise, one middle school in Waco has found a new way to push back against social media—by embracing it. Students at G.W. Carver/ Indian Spring Middle School are learning how to use online platforms like Snapchat and TikTok in constructive ways. When the school started #TikTokTuesday, so many students got involved that a Social Media Club was formed. Now, students are learning about positive social media use and becoming online ambassadors for their school. (KCEN-TV)

Virginia Beach, VA “A dolphin is a symbol of hope,” says Mya, a Kellam High School student. She and her classmates hand-painted the dolphin statue in front of their school with images of their mascot, crashing ocean waves, a strawberry field, and even a castle. It’s all in support of Operation Smile, a Virginia Beach nonprofit providing free surgeries for kids around the globe born with cleft lips or cleft palates. Custom dolphin statues can be purchased and displayed to raise awareness for the cause. Half the proceeds go toward patient surgeries while the other half funds scholarships for students and educators. (13News Now)

Natrona Heights, PA To help keep kids in class—and free from embarrassment— Highlands Middle School has expanded a small stack of emergency shirts and pants to an all-out clothing pantry. The Ram’s Den is a large-capacity stockroom with everything from toothpaste to sweatpants to canned food. “If a student...has violated dress code or gets a spill or a hole in their clothing, they are encouraged to use the Ram’s Den so they can comfortably finish the day,” project coordinator Melissa Billingsley says. Students can then keep the donated items. (Valley News Dispatch) WINTER 2022

No Exceptions A Profile of Dr. Lupita Hightower,

Tolleson Elementary School District #17 6

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Chasing the Dream Born in the border city of Nogales, Mexico, Hightower started dreaming of being a teacher at the age of 5. “I would teach the neighborhood kids and all my cousins and siblings,” she tells us. “I’m one of those lucky individuals who always knew I wanted to be an educator.” Hightower was particularly inspired by her sixth grade teacher, whom she and her classmates lovingly called Profa—short for profesora, or “teacher.” “She taught 44 sixth graders at a time,” Hightower adds. “She was quite inspiring and had really high expectations.”

Dr. Lupita Hightower

Recently, Dr. Lupita Hightower stumbled upon a VHS tape from her very first day as a teacher. She was practicing her lesson before the morning bell. The year was 1997. “You’re going to be wonderful,” her husband, Ken, says from behind the camera. “Just think where you’ll be in 15 years.” Little did they know what the future had in store for the young educator—or how many lives she would help change in the classroom and beyond. Now the superintendent of Arizona’s Tolleson Elementary School District #17, Hightower leads with positivity, conviction, and—above all else—hope. While these values may seem lofty to some, her team at Tolleson has fostered a culture where students envision their biggest dreams and pursue them in the real world. They even travel through time—but we’ll get to that later. With hope and high expectations at the center of her work, Hightower has earned an impressive number of accolades, both locally and nationally. In 2019 alone, she was named Arizona School Superintendent of the Year for midsize districts, the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents’ National Superintendent of the Year, and a Cox Communications Hispanic Heritage Awardee. Most importantly, though, her gift for dreaming and building relationships has helped Tolleson thrive as an innovative, collaborative, and family-centered learning community that believes in every student—no exceptions.

Hightower’s family moved across the border to Nogales, Arizona, when she was in seventh grade. Her parents thought their children would have better futures if they attended American schools. But for Hightower, the transition was a difficult one. “I had been a good student in Mexico,” she tells us, “but the language here was hard, and being a middle school student was hard, too.” One unexpected hurdle was the fact that Nogales, Arizona, is about 95% Latino, so for the most part, Hightower was only able to practice English at school. “Expressing myself was hard,” she says. She even had one teacher single her and a group of fellow English learners out, calling them “lazy Mexican kids” for not showing up for tutoring one morning. “That was impactful,” Hightower says. Refusing to accept the teacher’s insult, she started applying herself more, regularly attending English tutoring, and excelling in school. After high school, however, Hightower encountered another hurdle: Her parents were against her becoming a teacher. They thought she’d have more success if she studied business. So she took classes at a local trade school, then at a community college. “I really didn’t like it,” she tells us. “I didn’t think I needed that business knowledge, but here I am running a whole district.” Eventually, she was able to pursue her passion and study education. “I had a lot of believers at the University of Arizona,” she says, “people who believed in me without exception.” But Hightower was also met with some negativity, not so dissimilar to the racist language she heard as a seventh grader new to the country. “When I was six months shy of graduating, a professor wrote on my evaluation form: I doubt that you will ever be able to step into a classroom because you speak with an accent,” she recalls.

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With encouragement from her supportive and always positive husband, Hightower continued on her path and soon found her first teaching job in Tucson, Arizona. “I felt like I had won the lottery with my $21,000 contract,” she says. “I couldn’t believe I was being paid to do this job.” After a year of teaching kindergarten, Hightower interviewed for a position in Phoenix, where she encountered prejudice once again. “When I interviewed, a principal told me, We don’t need people like you in our district,” she says. “I left that interview crying and called my husband, who said: Too bad for them. They have no idea that they are missing out on a fantastic teacher.” Fortunately, Hightower found a position in central Phoenix’s Washington Elementary School District (WESD). “It was an amazing, beautiful place for kids,” she says. “It was diverse, with about 23 different languages represented in the school.” Hightower quickly started making her mark in the classroom with her dual-language instruction. “I had white kids, Black kids, and Latino kids reading and writing in two languages, and people were impressed with that,” she says. At the time, George W. Bush was campaigning for the presidency, and Hightower’s classroom was one of two at her school chosen for a visit from future first lady Laura Bush. “School board members, the superintendent, and the media were all there,” she says. That day, Hightower’s teaching skills

impressed administrators so much that the district invited her to mentor new teachers, even though she was only in her third year as an educator. As a teacher, mentor, and English learner coach, Hightower continued to build on her philosophy of hope and high expectations. Even though this approach was sometimes tested, she let challenges inspire rather than derail her. “I would hear other educators say things like, These kids don’t know anything. Their parents don’t care,” she explains. But Hightower knew this wasn’t true. “Even though they hadn’t mastered the standards, our students still knew a lot. And every single one of our parents cared about their child’s education.” Hightower wanted others to believe in students the way she did, so she started to consider her potential impact outside of the classroom. “I felt I could influence other educators if I went to school and got a master’s in administration,” she says. Hightower was a classroom teacher for five years before becoming an assistant principal in WESD. Shortly after she began her first principalship in Glendale, Arizona, in 2005, she enrolled in a doctoral program at Arizona State University. Four years later, Hightower earned her Ed.D. with a focus on leadership, innovation, and policy administration.

Photos courtesy of Tolleson Elementary School District #17

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At her graduation from ASU, she had another presidential encounter. The speaker that year was newly elected President Barack Obama, who shook her hand as she received her doctorate. “To have a president of the United States congratulate me was just amazing,” she says. By the time she became superintendent of Tolleson Elementary School District #17 (TESD) in 2011, Hightower had served as the district’s director of instructional support, curriculum director, and assistant superintendent. “Every time I switched roles, I had the hope that I could make a bigger difference and have a positive impact,” she tells us. “This job can be hard, but the work is absolutely incredible.”

Building on Hope Being the leader of a school system like Tolleson is not just a dream come true for Hightower—it’s a dream playing out in real time for every student in the district. “Students say to me, When I grow up, I’m going to be a superintendent,” she tells us. The historical significance of this is not lost on Hightower. Tolleson has a unique history with representation and inclusivity, and having a Latina immigrant as its leader is an important part of that story. In 1951, TESD was sued by a group of community members and a student named Johnny Camacho. The 17-year-old had pleaded with his superintendent to let Mexican students learn alongside their white peers—and be given the same opportunities and resources. The case ended up in U.S. district court, and history was made. Three years before Brown v. Board of Education, Tolleson was forced to integrate its schools and provide equal educational access for its large community of Latino students. Decades later, when Hightower was assistant superintendent, the district erected a memorial for the 60th anniversary of the monumental decision. “We listened to the stories of so many people,” she says of the anniversary. “And at the time, the principal was Latino, I was Latina, and the mayor was Latino. Who knows where we’d all be if this hadn’t happened?” Now Hightower leads a district that has fully embraced its diversity for decades. Currently, TESD is comprised of about 82% Latino students; 9% Black students; 4% white; and 5% Pacific Islander or Native American, Alaskan, or Hawaiian. These numbers also reflect the makeup of the city itself, which has proved to be wildly supportive of its schools. “It’s just an unbelievable community,” Hightower says. “In our

district we try to offer as many opportunities as possible. Thanks to all the community support, we passed a levy that pays for additional opportunities that really address the education of the whole child.” Today, opportunities abound for the students of TESD. Each of the district’s four schools provides art instruction, STEMfocused technology classes, and free after-school programs to all Tolleson students. Two schools also have their own jazz bands as well as award-winning mariachi and marching bands. Tolleson’s mariachi band teacher, Efrain Casillas, was even named a 2020 Music Teacher of Excellence by the Country Music Awards Foundation.

“Kids succeed when they can articulate their futures. We teach our students to mentally time travel to the future and create a plan to make their vision a reality.” WINTER 2022

Always focused on the whole child, Tolleson provides its students with counselors and social workers at all school sites and has partnered with the nonprofit Playworks to give students structured recess time. The district also has a school-based health center that provides care to uninsured or underinsured children along with wellness programs for students and staff. But that’s not all—TESD also runs a free supper program for its school community. When it comes to staffing, Hightower and her team have maintained a sharp focus on inclusivity, opportunity, and representation, accomplished through a rigorous hiring process for district leadership roles. “There’s a portion of our interviews that is completely blind—both for people applying from within the district and for external candidates,” she explains. “That has created a lot of diversity within our leadership team. It looks a lot like our student body.” Additionally, this team is made up of mostly women. “Through this very rigorous process, they turned out to be the top candidates,” Hightower adds. Furthermore, when the district interviews anyone new for a position, they ask them: Do you believe in all kids without exception? “It has provided us the opportunity to have a lot of believers join our district,” Hightower says, “Of course, we have also lost some staff members—those who say, I know

you want me to believe in kids at a 10 out of 10, but maybe I believe in them at a 9 or 9.5. And to that we always say: Our kids don’t need 9s or 9.5s. Our kids need 10s in their lives.”

Traveling Through Time When she became superintendent, Hightower brought the Kids at Hope philosophy with her. “Kids at Hope is a belief system,” she says. “Instead of looking at kids as being at risk, we look at our students as being at hope. We don’t use the phrase at risk in our school district at all.” This philosophy originates from the 2002 book Kids at Hope: Every Child Can Succeed, No Exceptions by John P. Carlos and Rick Miller. The belief system itself is based around three core tenets: We Believe. We Connect. We Time Travel. Don’t worry—there are no secret time machines in Arizona. This time travel is more about students envisioning and sharing their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. “Kids succeed when they can articulate their futures,” Hightower says. “We teach our students to mentally time travel to the future and create a plan to make their vision a reality.” Students are asked to consider four destinations when they time travel: Education and Career, Hobbies and Recreation, Community and Service, and Home and Family. Time traveling starts with every teacher in the district creating unique “passports” for each of their students. Then they interview those students about their four destinations, asking questions such as: What kind of family member do you want to be? What kind of career would you like to pursue? What kind of community service can you provide, starting now? “We try to start them as early as possible on all four pieces,” Hightower says. To address Hobbies and Recreation, for example, Tolleson offers a multitude of unexpected and nontraditional opportunities, especially for an elementary district. From a wide array of sports to STEM to future chef competitions, TESD gives students the chance to find their passions, talents, and skills. “They are able to determine what they really enjoy,” Hightower says.

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Many of the programs the district offers actually stem from the conversations teachers have with their time-traveling students. In fact, just this past school year, a group of students expressed their interest in learning ballet, so the district sought grants to add it to their offerings. Another aspect of being a Kids at Hope district is having the students recite a pledge each morning. “It’s a daily affirmation,” Hightower says. “I am a Kid at Hope. I am talented, smart, and capable of success. I have dreams for the future, and I will climb to reach those goals and dreams every day. All children are capable of success, no exceptions!” Teachers and administrators help their students live up to this pledge. “We call ourselves Treasure Hunters within the Kids at Hope belief system,” Hightower explains. “We have our own pledge: As an adult and a Treasure Hunter, I am committed to search for all the talents, skills, and intelligence that exist in all children and youth. I believe all chlidren are capable of success, no exceptions! It has a lot of implications for the work that we do and how we strategize.”

Sharing the Dream Outside of Tolleson, Hightower’s impact has had an impressive reach. She is the newly elected president of the Arizona School Administrators Association and serves as a mentor for the National Superintendent Certification Program run by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA). Hightower also helped develop and launch AASA’s Aspiring Superintendents Academy for Latino and Latina Leaders. The program is co-led by Dr. Gladys Cruz, the district superintendent of upstate New York’s Questar III BOCES. The yearlong academy, which welcomed its first cohort in January 2021, is designed around research and feedback from sitting Latino and Latina superintendents. Its curriculum is aligned to a framework from The Power of Latino Leadership: Culture, Inclusion, and Contribution by Juana Bordas.

Even though it was the “no exceptions” mentality that initially drew Hightower to the Kids at Hope way, it was personal experience that made her so passionate about the philosophy. “When you have these believers and Treasure Hunters looking at you and your skills, talents, and intelligence, and then fostering that in you, anything is possible,” she says. “So even though I had that professor who said I’d never be able to step into a classroom with my accent, I had another who used to say, Lupita, you’re going to come back and take my job someday. I just know it. She believed in me, so it became possible.” With Kids at Hope, the district has set itself apart in the surrounding area. “Something that makes us very proud is that, within this belief system, we have been able to keep students engaged and in school,” Hightower says. “In the last 10 years, we haven’t expelled a single student in our district, and we’ve only had one long-term suspension.” Tolleson has also welcomed students who’ve been expelled from other local school systems. “It’s a huge impact. All of our schools have accepted expelled students but always with a plan and a strategy.” It seems that with the help of Hightower and Kids at Hope, there really are no exceptions in TESD. To learn more about becoming a Kids at Hope district, visit kidsathope.org

The academy isn’t just part of Hightower’s continued effort to mentor other leaders; it also helps students everywhere be seen and heard. “When your leaders reflect the demographics you serve, suspensions and expulsions tend to be lower, and achievement tends to be higher,” Hightower says. “There’s a different accountability. I feel it in my own district as I walk into the classrooms and see the faces of our students.” During the program, Hightower and Cruz lead aspiring Latino and Latina superintendents through monthly professional development sessions focused on six key modules. One of the modules, “Leading for Equity with Urgency,” shows WINTER 2022

the program’s commitment to producing transformational leaders. And there’s no doubt the academy is focused on translating equity in leadership into equity in the classroom. “Looking at the framework from Bordas’ book, there’s this big piece on purpose,” Hightower says. “She calls it destino, or ‘destiny.’ If someone else can see themselves in our shoes and in our roles, that’s exactly what we want.” In Tolleson, the same language of high expectations Hightower learned as a child has become the district’s driving force. “My Profa always said she expected 150% from her students,” Hightower tells us. “So we could give her at least 100%. No exceptions.” After learning the story and impact of Hightower’s sixth grade teacher, one of Tolleson’s governing board members gifted her a T-shirt and hat reading, Profa. The superintendent also has a matching personalized license plate. It’s no surprise she would earn the title herself. During her tenure, Hightower has been a fierce champion for the historic Arizona district—and she’s done so by asking her students to believe in themselves and their futures. From her first classroom in Tucson to her decade-plus at Tolleson’s helm, there’s truly no way to count the lives touched by Hightower’s “no exceptions” leadership. This confident, proud leader would surely make the new, nervous teacher on that VHS tape very proud. Throughout her life, Hightower has chosen to listen to the believers, refusing to compromise on her dreams. “When I share my journey with students,” she says, “and I mention the professor who said I’d never step into a classroom, I always say: How many classrooms can I step into now? I share that story because I want them to follow their dreams and aspirations. I want everyone to know: Yes, you can.”

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Who Speaks For Your Brand? We surveyed more than 1,600 school employees to find out who’s acting as brand ambassadors for their districts—and why that matters.

You know this better than we do: Keeping a school district running is a team project. You can’t do it alone—your fellow administrators, building-level leaders, teachers, and support staff all play crucial roles in providing a quality education for your students a quality education. Even if you haven’t thought of it this way, maintaining your district brand also requires the strength of a team. You can’t be your district’s only spokesperson. With so many stories to tell, you need brand ambassadors up and down the ladder— people who wear your colors, live your values, and get others excited about your schools. But how often does a district’s brand actually trickle down into its classrooms? Are teachers acting as brand ambassadors? Are bus drivers? And if not, why? These are the questions we should all be asking as the landscape of K-12 education continues to evolve and competition for students WINTER 2022

and staff intensifies. In a survey of more than 1,600 school employees up and down the chain of command, we wanted to know: Who speaks for your district brand?

Who should speak for your brand? We asked respondents, Who do you feel is most responsible for promoting and protecting your district brand? They could pick one of the following options: • Superintendent • Communications Director • Other administrators • Teachers • Students and families Out of all participants, 44% selected “superintendent”; 27% selected “communications director”; 13% selected “teachers”; 10% selected “other administrators”; and just 6% selected “students and families” (see Figure 3). When we disaggregated the data by the respondents’ own positions, we found that more than half of superintendents (57%) saw themselves as most responsible for their district brands. Nearly a third of superintendents (30%) thought the communications director was most responsible, and just 5% saw teachers as most responsible. Teachers’ answers fell along similar lines: 43% said the superintendent was most responsible for the district brand, while 24% said the communications director bore that responsibility. About 16% of teachers viewed themselves as most responsible—more than three times the percentage of superintendents who saw teachers as most responsible.

Your voice as a school leader may carry the most weight, but the voices of your employees have the greatest volume. That’s why it’s crucial to turn your teachers and support staff into brand ambassadors.

Are school employees familiar with their district brands? Before your staff can champion your district brand, they need to know the basics. At the very start of our survey, we wanted to find out how familiar participants were with the simplest elements of their districts’ brand identities. We asked respondents, Which of the following brand elements of your district (not your individual school) can you recall and describe off the top of your head? They could select multiple answers from the following list: • Logos • Colors • Motto or Tagline • Mission Statement, Vision Statement, or Values • Hashtags • None of the above Across the board, public school employees at all levels expressed the greatest familiarity with district logos (66%) and colors (68%)—the most visible aspects of a brand. Other brand elements scored significantly lower: 40% said they could recall their district’s mission statement or values, and just 33% knew the motto or tagline. Only 13% of all school employees knew their district hashtags.

On the one hand, this makes sense. As the superintendent, you’re the official face of the district, often speaking for the brand at press conferences, events, and community meetings. But are superintendents really the ones with the most opportunities to advocate for their districts? Based on our data, we believe the role of the teacher in promoting and protecting a district’s brand is severely undervalued, both by school leaders and by teachers themselves.

Disaggregating this data provided further insight (see Figure 4). Even the highest-level district administrators had gaps in their knowledge. Similar to the broader pool of respondents, the superintendents we surveyed showed the most familiarity with their districts’ logos; more than four out of five (84%) said they could recall and describe them. District colors came next at 70%, followed by motto or tagline at 68%. But only a little more than half of our superintendents (55%) could describe their mission or values statements, and just 23% could recall district hashtags.

Think about this: While there are about 13,800 public school superintendents in the U.S., there are about 3.2 million public school teachers. For every one superintendent, more than 200 teachers are interacting with students every day. That’s not even mentioning the nation’s approximately 3 million school support employees, many of whom are student-facing.

This lack of brand recognition points to two possible conclusions—neither ideal. First, it’s possible that many superintendents don’t recognize brand elements like hashtags because they’re just not involved with the creation or promotion of their school brand, delegating those tasks completely to a communications director or other staff member. On the other hand, superintendents may not know their mission

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DEMOGRAPHICS

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*Throughout this article, the term "non-teaching staff" refers to school support staff such as paraprofessionals, secretaries, bus drivers, custodians, etc.

Fig. 3: Who is most responsible for promoting and protecting your district brand? Superintendent Communications Director Teachers Other Administrators Students and Families 0%

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Fig. 4: Which of the following brand elements of your district (not your individual school) can you recall and describe off the top of your head? Multiple selections allowed 100%

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lor s Mo tto Va lue Ha s sh tag (s) No ne

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statements or hashtags simply because those brand elements don’t exist at all in their districts. As a school leader, you should be intimately involved with your district’s brand and messaging. Branding, like so many other aspects of your schools, starts with you—and if you’re not familiar with it, your staff won’t be, either. If you’re not involved with your schools’ branding and messaging—or if your district doesn’t yet have a strong brand—that’s something to start fixing today. But even though school leaders aren’t as familiar with their brands as we might hope, in almost every case, administrators at both the building and district levels were more familiar with these brand elements than classroom teachers and non-teaching staff. This seems to indicate a communication breakdown between school leaders and their staff members. Somewhere between the district office and the classroom, knowledge about brand is getting lost.

Need help building a unified district brand? Check out “Tie It All Together” at www.schoolceo.com/brand

Are they just disinterested? So why do teachers and other school employees know less about their district brands than administrators? Based on our conversations with school leaders, we thought it was possible that some employees did not see the importance of brand at all. We asked respondents to agree or disagree with the following statement: It’s important for me to be familiar with my district’s brand and messaging priorities. According to the data, administrators both at the building and district levels overwhelmingly see the importance of brand: 82% of building-level leaders, 81% of non-superintendent district administrators, and a whopping 93% of superintendents said they “somewhat” or “strongly” agreed. While encouraging, this is unsurprising. It would be difficult for a successful administrator not to care about their district’s brand. But we were glad to see that lower-level school employees in also believed they should be familiar with their district brands. In their responses, 75% of teachers and 74% of non-teaching staff selected “somewhat agree” or “strongly agree.” Just 8% of teachers and 7% of non-teaching staff said they “somewhat disagree” or “strongly disagree” (see Figure 5). 16

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More likely than not, a majority of your school employees don’t need to be convinced that brand is important. That’s a huge win for school leaders—the first hurdle in turning your staff into brand ambassadors is already cleared. But if they believe it’s important, why are school employees so unfamiliar with their district brands?

Are they being trained? When we formulated our questions, it seemed like a strong possibility that if school employees weren’t familiar with their district brands, it would be due to a lack of training, not a lack of interest. So we asked respondents, On average, how often have you received training on your district’s brand and messaging priorities? The data revealed that, on average, school leaders are being trained on branding and messaging far more often than lower-level employees. More than half of superintendents reported receiving training at least once or twice a month; only 12% said they’d never been trained. Building-level leaders had also gotten more brand training; 50% said they’d been trained more than once or twice a year. Only 8% said they’d never been trained on their district brands. However, one in five teachers (21%) said they had never received training on this topic. For non-teaching staff, the number was even higher: 28% said they had never been trained on brand and messaging. What’s more, only 33% of teachers and 20% of non-teaching staff said they had received training more than once or twice a year (see Figure 6). In the end, it appears to be pretty simple: Administrators are more familiar with district brands because they actually receive training on the subject. Teachers and support staff often don’t. But we know now that school employees believe they should know their district brands—so if they’re willing to learn, this problem has a fairly straightforward fix. The people in your buildings have the potential to be your brand’s loudest voices, but they can’t be brand ambassadors if you don’t equip them.

At Pulaski County Special School District, Executive Director of Communications Jessica Duff is providing her staff members with the tools they need to stay on brand. Flip to page 24 to find out how.

Fig. 5: It’s important for me to be familiar with my district’s brand and messaging priorities.

Key

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Fig. 6: On average, how often have you received training on your district's brand and messaging priorities?

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have received NO training on their district’s brand and messaging priorities. WINTER 2022

Do school employees care about their impact on district reputation? When we talk about brand, we’re talking about a lot more than logos, colors, and hashtags. Your brand isn’t just your mascot or values; it’s the way people in your community think and feel about your schools. In many ways, your reputation is your brand, and almost no one influences that reputation as much as your employees. But we wanted to know: Do they realize their power—and responsibility—to influence public perception for the better? We asked respondents to agree or disagree with the following statement: My interactions with individual families impact their perceptions of my district as a whole. Administrators overwhelmingly agreed with this statement: 95% of superintendents, 78% of other district administrators, and 84% of building-level leaders said they “somewhat” or “strongly” agreed. Lower-level staff members also saw their power to impact perceptions of the district. Given the same statement, a staggering 87% of teachers and 78% of non-teaching staff “somewhat” or “strongly” agreed. Just 3% of teachers and 5% of non-teaching staff disagreed (see Figure 7). School staff members at all levels seem to see not only their power to improve district reputation, but also their responsibility to do so. We asked respondents to agree or disagree with the following statement: I feel it is my responsibility to improve the district’s reputation when I speak with someone about the district. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of school leaders, whether at the district or building level, agreed. A little over 90% of superintendents, 78% of other district-level administrators, and 90% of building-level leaders selected “somewhat” or “strongly agree.” But lower-level school employees also indicated this same feeling of responsibility. Two-thirds of non-teaching staff and 72% of teachers “somewhat” or “strongly” agreed. Less than 10% of either group disagreed (see Figure 8). As you well know, the hardest part of any culture shift or district initiative is getting your staff onboard. This can be especially difficult when staff members feel like you’re adding another task to their already full plates. But based on these answers, your employees already know they can—and should—be working to improve your district brand. They’re probably actively doing so; they just might not realize it yet. 18

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Your role, as a school leader, is to make the connection between reputation and brand clear. Reframe their mindsets to view brand strengthening as something they’re already doing, not as something extra to do. Not only will this empower your staff to continue their good work, but it will also increase the likelihood of their participation should you choose to implement brand training.

Are school employees already acting as brand ambassadors? Whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably acted as a brand ambassador before. Maybe you rave to your friends about the deals you find at Costco, tell all your coworkers to watch Ted Lasso, or share episodes of your favorite podcast on Twitter. If you’re excited enough about something to share it with others, you’re advocating for that brand. Your district probably already has brand ambassadors. Think about the teachers who show up to every football game, waving handmade signs and cheering for their students. Think about the custodian or school nurse who volunteers to help run the district booth at community events, proudly wearing their district swag. Back in the day, we would have just called that “school spirit”—but now, in the age of school marketing, it’s also brand advocacy. We wondered to what extent school employees were already acting as brand ambassadors. To find out, we focused our questions on two areas: conversations with others and social media.

Would school employees recommend their districts to others? We asked two questions along these lines: • How likely are you to recommend your district to families of potential students? • How likely are you to recommend your district as a workplace? While it may not be obvious at first, these questions have everything to do with brand. According to a study from market measurement firm Nielsen, 92% of people trust the recommendations of loved ones above all other forms of marketing. That means that what your employees say about your district impacts your reputation—and therefore your brand—far more than any glossy brochure or YouTube video ever could.

Key Strongly Agree (SA)

Somewhat Agree (SWA)

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Fig. 7: My interactions with individual families impact their perceptions of my district as a whole.

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Fig. 8: I feel it is my responsibility to improve the district's reputation when I speak with someone about the district.

Somewhat Disagree (SWD)

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Fig. 9: I feel like those above me in my district value my work. Teachers SA SWA ND SWD SD

SA SWA ND SWD SD

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Fig. 10: How frequently do you engage with or share your district's content on your personal social media? Key Once or twice a day Once or twice a week Once or twice a month Once or twice a year I don’t have personal social media I have personal social media, but I don't engage with my district's content 50%

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Happily, numbers across the board were positive. Of administrators at all levels, 86% said they were “somewhat” or “very likely” to recommend their districts to families of potential students. Three out of four teachers (76%) agreed, along with 73% of non-teaching staff. Answers were nearly the same for the next question: How likely are you to recommend your district as a workplace? Among administrators, responses were predictably high here as well: 79% selected “somewhat” or “very likely.” For teachers and non-teaching staff, 74% of each group answered “somewhat” or “very likely.” Here’s where it gets interesting. We also asked respondents to agree or disagree with the following statement: I feel like those above me in my district value my work. What does this have to do with your district brand? Well, according to data from business magazine Workplace Insight, 80% of people say feeling appreciated is important to their happiness at work. If your employees feel valued, they’ll be happier—and happier employees reflect better on your brand.

Would your employees would recommend your district? If you’re not sure, turn to page 24 to find out how Christy Perry keeps her finger on the pulse of staff sentiment at Salem-Keizer School District.

When we cross-referenced the data between this question and the ones about recommending districts, we found moderate positive correlations. Respondents who said they felt valued were more likely to recommend their districts to families of potential students. The opposite is also true: Those who didn’t feel valued were less likely to recommend their districts. The correlation was stronger (though still moderate) when it came to recommending their districts as workplaces. This means that those who don’t feel valued are even less likely to recommend their districts to fellow educators than they are to prospective families. Just over one in three teachers (36%) either disagreed or were neutral when asked if they believed those above them value their work. For non-teaching staff, the numbers were about the same: 38%. That’s a full third of school employees who don’t feel especially appreciated—and who are statistically unlikely to recommend their district (see Figure 9). The takeaway here is clear: To control the conversation around your brand, make sure your employees know you 20

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appreciate them. Their voices outnumber yours, sometimes by the thousands—make sure those voices are positive.

Flip to page 25 to see how Dr. Nathan McCann is celebrating and appreciating his staff at Ridgefield School District.

Are school employees engaging with district content on social media? These days, social media can make or break a brand. Even if you’re posting great content across your platforms on a regular basis, that content won’t do any good if no one is seeing it. But by engaging with and sharing your content, your staff members can amplify your brand’s reach. Look at it this way: Say your district has 600 employees total, each with about 300 Facebook friends. If every one of your employees shares just one district post, it has the potential to be seen by 180,000 people. That’s 180,000 possible touchpoints with your district’s brand. But are school employees actually engaging with their districts’ social media content? We asked respondents, How frequently do you engage with or share your district’s content on your personal social media? According to the numbers, superintendents engage with and share district content far more than any other group. Nearly three-fourths (73%) said they engage or share at least once or twice a week. About 31% said they did so once or twice a day. Other administrators weren’t quite so active. Just a third of other district administrators engage with or share district content at least once or twice a week, and 28% said that while they do have personal social media, they never interact with district content. Building-level leaders reported similar but slightly higher levels of engagement: 40% said they shared at least once or twice a week, while about one in four (24%) said they have social media but never engage. Teachers and support staff engage with district social media even less. Just 22% of teachers—a little over one in five— said they engage with or share district posts at least once or twice a week; 18% engage once or twice a month, 10% once or twice a year. Most staggeringly, half of teachers say they never engage with district content. While 12% say they don’t have personal social media at all, 38% say they simply don’t interact with their districts’ posts.

Key

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Fig. 11: It's important for me to be familiar with my school's brand and messaging priorities. Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Somewhat Disagree Strongly Disagree 0%

10%

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Fig. 12: On average, how often have you received training on your school's brand and messaging priorities? Once or twice a month Once or twice a semester Once or twice a school year Less than once per year Never 0%

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Fig. 13: How frequently do you engage with or share your school's content on personal social media? Once or twice a day Once or twice a week Once or twice a month Once or twice a year I don't engage with my district's content I don’t have personal social media 0%

10%

Non-teaching staff engaged the least of any group; 44% said that while they have personal social media, they don’t engage with district content. Another 18% don’t have social media at all. That means most non-teaching staff—62%— never engage with their districts’ social media content (see Figure 10). It’s important to note that we didn’t find a correlation between whether an employee engaged with district social media and whether they would recommend their district. If your staff members aren’t sharing your posts, it isn’t necessarily because they aren’t proud to work in your district. Some people keep their professional lives off their personal accounts;

15%

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25%

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others have social media, but don’t know how to use it. It may also be that you aren’t posting anything worth sharing. Once again, this sounds like a great opportunity for professional development. More likely than not, your staff members who aren’t engaging with your content don’t know how beneficial their comments and shares could be for your district. You can’t force anyone to use social media, but you can give people the tools and knowledge to advocate for your brand online if they choose to. To see how Andy Almos is working with his staff at East Central Public Schools to make social media a priority, turn to page 23. WINTER 2022

How do private schools measure up?

What now?

As we started thinking about this research, we wondered how private and charter schools compare to public school districts. By nature, these schools rely more on marketing and branding than their public counterparts—but does that make their teachers better brand ambassadors?

Make sure your district has a strong brand. Your employees can’t act as brand ambassadors if your district has no clear brand or messaging to speak of. Make sure you have consistent colors, logos, taglines, and hashtags, as well as a values statement that reflects the actual priorities of your school community.

In an abbreviated survey, we asked private and charter school employees three questions. First, we asked participants to agree or disagree with the following statement: It’s important for me to be familiar with my school’s brand and messaging priorities. About 79% of private and charter school teachers said they “somewhat” or “strongly agreed”— as compared to 75% of public school teachers (see Figure 11). Next, we asked participants, On average, how often have you received training on your school’s brand and messaging priorities? A little less than one in five private and charter school teachers (18%) said they had never received training on this topic, compared to 21% of public school teachers. Less than half of private and charter teachers (43%) said they received training more than once or twice a year, while only 33% of public school teachers said they were trained that frequently (see Figure 12). Finally, we asked respondents, How frequently do you engage with or share your school’s content on personal social media? Just under a third of private and charter school teachers (32%) said they engage or share at least once or twice a week, compared to 22% of public school teachers. While 50% of public school teachers never engage or share, only a slightly lower percentage of private and charter teachers—46%—said the same (see Figure 13). Here’s the upshot: You’d think private and charter schools would knock this out of the park, but that’s not what we discovered. These teachers are slightly more engaged with their schools’ brands than their public school peers—but only slightly. For all their extra resources and funding, private and charter schools have nearly as much room to grow as public school districts. It shouldn’t be difficult for public schools to close the gap—as long as they intentionally work to turn staff members into brand ambassadors.

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Consistently communicate brand and messaging priorities to your staff. As we’ve learned, your employees know that it’s important for them to be familiar with your district brand. If they aren’t, it’s not because they’re disinterested— they just aren’t being taught. Make branding and messaging updates part of your staff meetings, weekly newsletters, or even districtwide professional development. Then, make sure information about your district brand is easily accessible to your employees. Show staff the brand work they’re already doing. Your employees know they have the power to positively impact public perceptions of your schools, and they see their responsibility to do so. But they may not realize that by improving the district’s reputation, they’re also strengthening its brand. As you talk to your staff about brand, be sure to bring this point up. Being a brand ambassador isn’t a new task to add to their plates; it’s more than likely something they’re already doing. Make sure your staff feels valued. The voices of your employees probably outnumber yours by hundreds, maybe even thousands. If they don’t feel that your district appreciates them, your community will know, and it could cost you countless new students and teachers. To create enthusiastic brand ambassadors, foster an environment your employees can be proud of, one that shows them you care—and that their voices matter.

Ambassadors in Action In our recent survey, we recently asked 1,600 school employees to answer a simple question: Who speaks for your district brand? Our research showed how undervalued teachers and non-certified staff are when it comes to brand promotion. As we dug into the data, we found that the majority of lower-level school employees already see the importance of branding and care about improving their districts’ reputations. The key is to provide them with the tools they need to be effective brand ambassadors. But you may be thinking: What does that look like in the real world? Well, we were wondering the same thing. So we found a few districts that have successfully equipped their staff members to be strong brand ambassadors—from teaching them to use hashtags to creating an environment where positive conversations can thrive. The examples here are by no means exhaustive—but if you’re interested in empowering the brand advocates you already have on your payroll, this is a great place to start.

Offer optional social media training. Social media is an essential tool for school districts—and Andy Almos knows it. As superintendent of East Central Public Schools in Minnesota, Almos recruited staff volunteers for a communications committee that now has an agenda-led meeting every month. Their aim is to improve the

district’s communication efforts and online presence. “If we’re not telling our story,” Almos says, “somebody else is telling our story for us.” It was important to Almos that only interested staff members were brought into the fold. “We want to work with the living,” Almos says, “those who are really passionate about this. Let’s build them up as resident experts.” Of course, one of the hallmarks of an educator is the desire to be, well, educated. And as East Central developed a stronger online presence, staff members without social media found they were lagging behind. “Many of our staff members felt left out,” Almos says. “Without Twitter or Facebook, you have no idea what’s going on half the time.” But if Almos’ staff was interested in joining the online conversation, why weren’t they doing so? East Central isn’t the only district asking this question. According to our survey data, half of public school teachers say they never engage with their districts’ content on social media (see page 20). The East Central communications committee brought it to Almos’ attention that the largest barrier for most of his staff was a long-harbored distrust of social media. For so long, they’d seen social media as nothing more than a way for professionals to get into hot water. To mitigate this fear, the WINTER 2022

district began hosting informal social media training sessions. As with committee participation, social media training was voluntary. During the sessions, attendees learned how to create a Twitter account and use basic functions like retweeting.

use and what to avoid. They can also access templates for branded Google Slides and letterheads, download logo files, and copy and paste branded email signatures. PCSSD even provides video tutorials on updating signatures in Gmail.

For Almos, it was key to teach staff how to share content. East Central follows what they refer to as their COPE strategy: Create Once; Post Everywhere. “So when the superintendent creates a message, we don’t want a first grade teacher, for example, to put their own twist on it,” Almos says. Instead, team members retweet or share the exact messages that come out at the district level.

But while making your brand standards digitally accessible is a great move, it won’t be nearly as effective without proper training. And, according to our survey, one in five teachers has never had any brand or messaging training. For non-teaching staff, the number is even higher (see page 16).

At one training, Almos and his committee even included some real-time practice by posting a photo of the session online, giving attendees a chance to try retweeting, using hashtags, and tagging one another. This was also Almos’ way of telling the East Central community: “We believe in social media, and these are the people who are going to be our communication channels.”

Make brand guidelines accessible. Previously employed by a marketing agency, Jessica Duff was perfectly suited to the challenge faced by Arkansas’ Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD) when she came on as their Executive Director of Communications. At PCSSD, each school has its own specific branding in addition to the district brand. When Duff started, there were branding inconsistencies at the district level and at each of the schools. She put in the work on the front end, sifting through a mountain of different logos, fonts, and colors until she and her department developed branding guides for every single school—all 26 of them. Now, thanks to Duff and her team, any PCSSD employee can access the district’s branding guides via a Google site. From the homepage of the site, users can view each organization’s approved logos, fonts, and colors as well as tips for effective

“If we’re not telling our story, somebody else is telling our story for us.” 24

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Duff and her team recognize the importance of making themselves as accessible as their brand guidelines. During orientation, every employee learns how to navigate the PCSSD Brand Standards site. Duff is also available to work with staff one-on-one. Anytime a staff member fails to comply with PCSSD’s brand guidelines, she is quick to reach out to help correct their mistake. Just as teachers have clear expectations for their students, it’s imperative to set high expectations and hold your staff consistently accountable when it comes to branding. Like Duff says: “When you’re consistent, clean, and look sharp— that’s when you’re going to be taken seriously.”

Stay connected to your team. The staff of Oregon’s Salem-Keizer School District describes Superintendent Christy Perry not only as a strong leader, but as a leader they want to follow. “She is a relationship-oriented person to her core,” one staff member says. And the importance of connecting with your staff cannot be overstated—especially when it comes to branding. After all, what your staff members have to say about your district matters. Our research found that approximately three out of four teachers and non-teaching staff would recommend their districts (see page 20)—but staff sentiment is best understood on a case-by-case basis. So how can you know what sentiment looks like in your schools? Despite the size of her 42,000-student district, Perry has managed never to fall out of touch with her staff—even during the pandemic. For her, it’s about having meaningful conversations and building intentional relationships. To do that kind of work successfully, Perry believes in modeling vulnerability and creating safe spaces for others to be vulnerable, too. The pandemic is forcing her, like so many

others, to have difficult conversations with her staff—but it’s not just about starting those conversations. “It’s also about being present enough as a learner to hear what someone is teaching you,” Perry says. That means a good portion of her leadership boils down to setting her ego aside. Perry sees her staff as a resource; she doesn’t hesitate to tap into their knowledge base, experiences, and expertise. Recently, in an effort to boost staff morale, Perry went directly to other leaders in the district and asked them what three things could be done to improve sentiment. “Don’t pretend you know the answers,” she says. “Figure out ways to lean into the conversation, and try to get others to be part of your thinking.” Perry consistently keeps a finger on the pulse of her district by providing those around her with a seat at the table. “I come with an open heart,” she says. “I’m not the smartest person in every room. I can’t do this work alone. Systems and schools are so complex, and the needs of kids evolve. You have to have a variety of strengths on your team in order to do the work this right way.”

Thank and celebrate your staff. After the last two years, it might seem like there’s not much worth celebrating. But for Dr. Nathan McCann and his staff in Washington’s Ridgefield School District, everything deserves a celebration. They aren’t naive; COVID has colored every aspect of their community. But if one good thing came out of the pandemic, it’s an increased desire for strong relationships. “I’ve never seen school spirit like this,” McCann tells us. “When you go without something for so long, you start to realize what you’ve missed: the magic of human connection.”

Appreciation Day, McCann jumps at every opportunity to show appreciation to those around him. A true culture of celebration, though, goes beyond the superintendent. As a leader, you can empower your staff to take ownership of that culture by trusting them and championing their skills—including those that fall outside their job descriptions. McCann shares an example: One staff member, an avid baker, made sweets to pass out during National School Psychology Week. “You push people to see talent in themselves,” McCann says, “and then you unleash them and support the heck out of them.” Celebration is a full team effort. If you start pouring from the top, every cup beneath you will overflow. So it comes down to this: If you want your staff to talk positively about your district, you have to give them something good to talk about. “Thank and celebrate your staff every day,” McCann tells us. “They will become happier, and that positivity will overwhelm the negativity.”

“Don’t pretend you know the answers. Figure out ways to lean into the conversation, and try to get others to be part of your thinking.”

Capitalizing on this need for interpersonal relationships bolsters Ridgefield’s staff morale. “It’s about maintaining a sense of humanity,” McCann says. “There’s not a day in the district we won’t celebrate.” Sadly, our research shows that this practice isn’t universal; a third of the school employees we surveyed don’t believe those above them value their work (see page 20). As McCann puts it, “School superintendents need to be cheerleaders in chief.” In Ridgefield, this looks like a lot of tiny celebrations. Whether it’s a handwritten note, passing out gift cards to Ridgefield’s student-run coffee shop, or holding an ice cream social in recognition of National Custodian

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Here, Collier shares with us how he has molded branding and marketing into something authentic, inclusive, and liberated—something that looks like a story.

How have your thoughts on branding changed since joining Saginaw ISD?

Dr. Jeffrey Collier At the time of this interview, Jeffrey Collier, superintendent of Saginaw Intermediate School District in Michigan, had been an Ed.D. for just under 24 hours. Dr. Collier could not stop beaming as he shared the details of his dissertation defense, saying it felt “like the weight of the world” was off his shoulders at last. Previously the superintendent of Au Gres-Sims School District—a small, rural school system in Michigan—Collier is now at the helm of one of the state’s 56 intermediate school districts. Saginaw ISD serves 12 local districts, five school academies, and 22 non-public schools—totaling around 27,000 students. Collier has strong ties to Saginaw. He attended graduate school there, it’s his wife’s hometown, and he has partnered with school districts in Saginaw throughout his entire career. So when the opportunity arose to move into his current position, he was excited to begin building a new vision throughout Saginaw County. Leading a small district like Au Gres-Sims and leading Saginaw ISD are vastly different experiences, to say the least. But in both circumstances, Collier has prioritized acting as a servant leader. That means constructing an organizational identity that includes and empowers those around him. Self-described as progressive and motivated by positivity, Collier has a bit of a reputation for his unique take on school marketing. In fact, a few weeks after we spoke, Collier was recognized as the 2021 Superintendent Communicator of the Year by the Michigan School Public Relations Association.

It’s important to first understand the differences between where I am now and where I was as a local school leader. When we talk about local school districts, we have to understand that superintendents—as local servants—are the chief stewards of their specific communities. Having priorities beholden to a local community can really affect how a district’s identity is constructed. Local school leaders have to be cognizant of who and what they serve: the families in their communities as well as the pride and history there. Anytime a school leader talks about their district, they’re advocating for their local community. But as an ISD superintendent, I now represent a number of different communities. I’m not competing with anyone. I’m not beholden to a mascot; I’m beholden to everybody. That changes my approach to branding because it shifts the conversation toward storytelling. I’m no longer talking about an advertisement that says, Please move to our community so your children can go to this specific school. Now, I’m talking about broader concepts like what’s best for pedagogy, professionalism, talent attraction, and retention. I’m advocating for all—regardless of any specific brand identity. That’s where my role has changed: It’s less about branding a local district and more about being the storyteller in chief.

Why do you consider storytelling a shared responsibility? Storytelling means sharing what we do every single day. It’s an opportunity for us to make use of every unique perspective. As we talk about whose job it is to promote the brand, who the leader is, and whose voices should be heard—it really becomes a patchwork quilt. It’s about sharing ownership and asking how to approach that kind of shared narrative. If you’re a local school leader, think about all the touchpoints that one of your students has with your schools. There’s the bus driver who’s the first to say good morning and the last to say goodnight. There are cafeteria workers, maintenance crews, office secretaries, teachers, and coaches. Every single one of those people has a unique perspective. WINTER 2022

Photo courtesy of Saginaw ISD

When I’m working in the same school as another educator, we’ll both be working toward the same mission: putting kids first. But I’m willing to bet that their style and daily practices are going to be different from mine. Their Aha! moments, interactions with people, the morale they bring into the classroom—all of it’s going to be different. And yet so many districts fail to include that in their stories because they only speak from the standpoint of an organizational mission rather than through individual perspectives. When you find a way to share all these unique voices within a larger story about culture, climate, and organization, you begin to see the layers of what takes place every day. Storytelling is a shared lift. Sure, I can provide vision and delegate tasks because that’s my job, but if I’m the sole author of our story—well, that’s a pretty thin book.

You can learn more about storytelling at www. schoolceo.com/storytelling

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You sometimes describe good marketing and branding as “byproducts.” What do you mean by that? The University of Michigan has a pretty iconic logo—a big, yellow block “M.” When they have a football game, people around the state feel an emotional pull to the block “M.” They didn’t necessarily go to the University of Michigan or graduate from there—but there is still this strange connection. When I talk about branding and marketing as the byproduct of a story, I’m talking about how that iconic block “M” logo derives its energy and power from the overall product of the university: the narrative they’ve created for themselves. So that’s where it starts—with a story. Without a story, we find ourselves in this malaise of incomprehension. Our communities don’t understand who we are. When we don’t capture the story, we aren’t sharing the joy and inspiration of what happens in the classroom every day. You have to focus first on the joy that’s being brought to students. Ask yourself: What is your district known for? If you can’t answer that question, all you have is a logo and a mascot. But logos and mascots don’t show your community what your teachers do all day. Your teachers may interact with more than a hundred kids, have amazing classroom conversations, and write innovative lesson plans. But unless you tell that story, no one will know. Once you have a rich, enticing story of what you do, good branding and marketing are automatic byproducts.

How can you tell if your stories are impacting your community? I know a lot of organizations are bound to metrics, to the quantifiable: How many retweets did we get? How many views did we get on Facebook? But we should ask ourselves if these kinds of metrics are meaningful representations of our true work. I would much rather have one person become genuinely attached to our story every single day. That’s why I’ve focused on what I call the “+1 model”—simply reaching one more person every single day who may not have previously understood who we are. I really believe that if we focus on that, we will make more progress than we would by building a larger but less genuine audience. So while we can use the metrics of social media to understand the reach of our story, the success of a story depends on how genuine it is, on whether or not it hits home. And there aren’t really metrics for that. One of my mentors used to talk about how you can sense culture. When you walk into a building, you can just tell if it’s welcoming or not. It’s a feeling. You walk in, and you think, Oh. Yes. This place is for me. There’s an energy, a vibe. It’s a very difficult thing to measure. But if the story is right, then the feeling is right. And the more authentic a story is, the more potential you have for that feeling. Ultimately, it comes down to this: Creating a positive culture moves glacially—one person at a time, one professional at a time, one community member at a time.

What would you say to a school leader who thinks their staff won’t want to participate in storytelling? Our vision and mission here at Saginaw ISD is three words: Serve. Innovate. Empower. We bring everything back to that focus. Storytelling is about empowering everybody in the district to be an author.

The trick is to empower educators first. Give them the choice to be positive, to engage, to be authentic, and to add to your story. By giving them the choice, you’re showing them someone cares about what they’re doing. So many educators don’t feel appreciated, or they feel like others don’t take notice of what’s happening in their schools. Well, here’s an opportunity to communicate just that! But don’t force it. If they choose to engage, that’s a choice to be positive, to be authentic, and to add to the district’s overall message. If they choose not to engage, is it because they feel like they have nothing positive to share? If that’s the case, then I’d say maybe those are negative voices that don’t belong in your district’s narrative to begin with. Regardless of who chooses to participate, giving your staff the option creates an environment where it’s clear that the community cares about the work they’re doing.

Tell us about your philosophy: What if and why not? Our what if and why not philosophy was born out of the saying: If not us, then who? If not now, then when? I use this guiding principle to push the boundaries of everybody’s comfort levels. It’s my way of saying that nothing is out of bounds of what we can do. First, let’s ask: What if? Let’s dream to dream! It’s a progressive and creative opportunity to say everything is acceptable here and all ideas are welcome. What if we make one post a day? What if we share one positive moment a day? What if we convince one more community member to buy into our authentic story every single day? Of course, there’s another type of what if: What if we don’t share our story? What if we don’t elevate our positive voices? I’ll tell you this: If we aren’t the ones deciding who we are, someone else will decide for us. So, for me, it’s a kind of mantra. It says: Let’s go for it. What if we tell our own story—and why not?

Imagine administration coming through and saying, Hey, I have a great opportunity for you to share your authentic voice and what’s happening in your classroom. I’m going to ask you to share one positive thing a day. That’s it. You’ve worked incredibly hard on lesson plans and put all your energy into these kids, so I’m just asking for one positive thing to share with our community.

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Score Big

Using a Net Promoter Score to Win Advocates When it comes to word-of-mouth marketing, there is one powerful truth: What other people say about your company matters more than what you say about yourself. What can you do, then, to direct this conversation to benefit your school district—and identify who is having these conversations in the first place?

What your employees say about your schools has a huge impact on how your community—and even prospective teachers—feel about your district. Your school community, from teachers to families to students, acts similarly to guerrilla marketers, sharing messages about your schools organically.

Some of the most powerful advocates school districts can have are their teachers. Not only do teachers provide that personal touch that is so meaningful to students, but the actions of individual teachers can also keep many families in a particular district. The opposite is also true: Even if your district’s online brand is stellar, a family isn’t likely to stay happy if they are unimpressed by what happens in the classroom.

What can you do to take the pulse of this conversation and change it for the better? That is where the Net Promoter Score (NPS) comes in.

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What is a Net Promoter Score? In the marketing world, the Net Promoter Score answers a simple question: How likely is someone to recommend our business or product to a friend? This metric is considered to

be more valuable than whether or not a person simply likes a business or product, as they are theoretically willing to put their own reputation on the line by recommending it. Companies use this metric in one of two ways. First, they use an NPS to gauge how well their product or business is being received by the general public. For example, an online retailer might survey customers after their checkout process to determine how successful the process is from a consumer standpoint. This score helps businesses understand how well they’ve designed their product or process, and it’s a helpful metric to keep in mind as they make decisions about how to improve. Companies also use the NPS internally. This is called an eNPS or Employee Net Promoter Score. Employees respond to the question, How likely are you to recommend working at our company to a friend or acquaintance? This metric tells a company less about its product and more about the internal culture of its organization. If employees are not willing to recommend working at their company to people in their personal networks, the company needs to figure out why and track this metric as they make systemic improvements. The internal culture of a company can have a huge impact on the quality of its product. This is especially true in schools,

where the product in question is the education of children. If your staff doesn’t enjoy working in your district, it is unlikely that your schools will be able to produce a rigorous, thoughtful learning experience. A business with a low eNPS is more likely to have high turnover and thus spend more time and resources hiring and onboarding employees than on other, more worthwhile initiatives. In schools, high staff turnover can also make it harder to accomplish big picture goals. Districts are forced to use their resources to train and recruit new teachers rather than to further grow the teachers they already have. School leaders could find value in using the NPS in either capacity. For example, you might use it to see how supportive families are of your schools in light of a new charter network opening or before a bond campaign. You could also use an eNPS to better understand how your teachers and other staff members feel about working in your schools. Because, like most surveys, an NPS can be broken down by demographics, it can be very illuminating to see how different subpopulations vary in their perceptions of your district. For instance, if elementary school teachers are more likely to recommend their school as a workplace than middle school teachers, you can make targeted changes to address why this might be happening.

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How to Calculate an NPS If you have ever used a survey tool, coordinating an NPS will be a piece of cake. Because an NPS is typically derived from two questions at most, sending it is easy—but you may need to incentivize taking the survey if you want to increase your participation rate. You will also need to decide if you want to keep your survey anonymous and whether or not you want to include demographic questions. Requiring participants to identify themselves may make them less likely to answer truthfully or participate at all. However, having more specific information could help you better understand how to build your next steps after the survey. One fairly straightforward aspect of creating an NPS is writing the survey question itself. Although your question may vary a little bit, it generally follows the same flow as the two questions mentioned earlier: How likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend? Many marketers decide to enrich their data with a secondary open-ended question: Why did you chose the number you did? This way, you can combine your quantitative data with qualitative data to help identify your next steps. Interpreting your results is simple. Before you look at all of your responses together, each individual respondent is first scored alone and categorized based on their response as either a detractor, a neutral, or an advocate. A detractor is anyone with a score between 0-6. These people are generally unhappy with your organization. Neutrals are those who answered your question with a score of 7 or 8 and feel ambivalent about your organization. Finally, advocates—those with scores of either 9 or 10—are enthusiastic about their experience with your organization. Once you have your data, it is time to calculate your NPS. To do so, subtract the percent of respondents who are detractors from the percent of respondents who are advocates. This will leave a number between -100 and 100; that’s your NPS. A negative number indicates that there are more detractors than advocates, so a higher score is always better. While plenty of online calculators can help you get your NPS, the formula is never more complicated than this. For example, let’s say that you want to find out your NPS among classified staff in your district. Of the people you surveyed, 20% of your respondents were detractors, 38% were neutrals, and 42% were advocates. Your NPS would be 42% minus 20%, giving you a final score of +22. 32

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Is +22 a good score? Average net promoter scores vary widely by industry, with internet providers usually in last place, to no one’s surprise. Whether or not this score satisfies you depends on how you plan to use it. While a +22 may not sound fantastic when you’re accustomed to a traditional letter scale, it shows that you have more advocates than detractors—which is a challenge for many industries.

How to calculate your NPS % Advocates

- % Detractors = NPS (-100

100)

Example Advocates (9-10) Neutrals (7-8) Detractors (1-6)

42% 38% 20% 42 - 20 = 22 NPS

22 Using Net Promoter Scores to Improve Your Marketing An NPS is useful as a snapshot in time, or it can be used to zero in on how small groups of individuals feel compared to others. Conducting multiple surveys over time allows you to track sentiment as you enact changes, so this may be something that your administration will want to plan annually. If your NPS is internal, it can help you better understand the culture of various subsets of your workforce. Externally, it can also be used to figure out when family satisfaction starts to dip as students progress through your district.

Similar to businesses, school districts can use the NPS for a variety of purposes. Some schools, such as Mounds Park Academy in Minnesota, have used an NPS externally to continually measure family satisfaction. This way, they can track how decisions made at the administrative level impact families’ overall satisfaction with the quality of the education their children are receiving. Other districts, such as KIPP Texas Public Schools, have used NPS methodology to gauge their employee satisfaction, a crucial data point given the current national teacher shortage. KIPP Texas is able to use this data to target employee dissatisfaction in real time and track how teachers are feeling throughout the school year. For example, if they notice that first-year teachers almost always struggle in the middle of the fall semester, they can provide increased supports at that time to mitigate overall stress. Because the NPS is such a useful and easy-to-use tool, you won’t want your district missing out on the insights it provides. How you choose to use it could impact your school internally—by targeting groups of teachers who are most disaffected, for example—or externally by helping you figure out how your families are feeling as you prepare for major changes in your district. You can even coach your staff members on how to use the NPS with their own audiences, whether it’s with the teachers they’re leading or the students in their classrooms.

While many guides can help you harness your NPS in innovative ways, there’s one quick tip from the marketing world that applies to almost every situation: Know who to target. While it may be tempting to try and win over your detractors, it is almost always more worthwhile to target your neutrals. Because neutrals don’t feel as strongly about their positions, they are much easier to turn into advocates. Sometimes, even a simple conversation is enough to show them that you care about their perspective and that you are invested in making your district a better place to work and learn. Addressing your neutrals rather than your detractors isn’t just more effective; it also communicates that you’re devoted to making sure everyone has a great experience in your schools—not just the loudest complainers. If you engage with your neutrals, they are likely to value your efforts, time, and attention. In the end, too, these neutrals could become the advocates who eventually win over your detractors. The NPS can be a game changer as you seek to better understand the conversations surrounding your district— whether internally or externally. Simple but powerful, it can take you far in harnessing the work that is already happening in your schools. After all, your best recruiters are already right in front of you.

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SchoolCEO Conference March 14 - 16, 2022 Memphis, TN

Join us for an education experience like nothing you’ve ever seen. Memphis, TN March 2022

Get your school brand ready for takeoff. You’ll meet and grow with other like-minded superintendents who want to go deeper into understanding the strengths and virtues that define their schools. This isn’t your ordinary, note-taking conference. We’re crafting an immersive experience that will change how school leaders like you approach work, think about culture, and build a school identity that stands out.

Essential Work What classified employees need from their school leaders

For the last 18 years, Sara Valerie has worked in campus catering at California’s Clovis Unified School District. It started out as a great “mommy job,” she says—she could be home in the afternoons and over holiday breaks with her two daughters. But now, years after her girls have graduated, she’s still there, and she plans to stay another 12 years. The reason why is simple: She loves her students. “The best part of my job is seeing the children come in to get their breakfast every morning,” she says. “I’m the first person they see when they start their school day.” And Valerie, determined to make each morning a good one, greets every student by name. “We never know how their morning started off, so the way I greet them sets the tone for their entire day,” she says. “I’ve always treated each student the way I would want someone to treat my girls. In my mind, I’m a mom at work as well as at home.” When the average person thinks about public education employees, they typically picture classroom teachers, not groundskeepers, custodians, or food service workers. But in every single school district, classified staff members like Valerie are providing for students’ most basic needs while they’re at school: clean environments, comfortable conditions, hot meals.

employees worked with their schools to provide and distribute meals to communities affected by school closures. That March, the California State Public Health Officer listed school support staff as “Essential Critical Infrastructure Employees.” “In my 38 years of being a classified employee, that word— essential—had never been used to describe us,” says retired custodian Ben Valdepeña, former president of the California School Employees Association (CSEA). “But these past few years, schools realized they could not survive without us.” Unfortunately, schools all over the country are still attempting to survive without the number of classified employees they need. That will come as no surprise to most school leaders; if you’re not currently experiencing these staffing issues in your district, you’re in the minority. According to an October 2021 study by EdWeek Research Center, more than 75% of administrators surveyed reported “moderate” to “very severe” hiring shortages, especially for substitutes, bus drivers, and instructional aides.

“In my 38 years of being a classified employee, that word—essential— had never been used to describe us. But these past few years, schools realized they could not survive without us.”

These roles aren’t just improving students’ lives—they make school possible. It’s Maslow’s hierarchy: Kids must have their basic needs met before they can worry about learning. “If our bus drivers are not getting our children to and from school, we can’t hold classes,” says Dr. Jeff Butts, superintendent of Indiana’s Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. “Our child nutrition workers are critically important. If our children are worried about empty stomachs, they’re not going to be focused on what’s happening in the classroom.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has further emphasized the importance of school support staff. In early 2020, thousands of food service workers, bus drivers, and other classified Left: "Mr. Ben" Valdepeña (photo courtesy of Ben Valdepeña)

“We have a labor shortage,” says Butts. “That means classrooms aren’t getting cleaned as much. Some schools aren’t able to transport all their children in school buses. Many of our paraprofessionals are being pulled into classrooms to fill in for teachers because we don’t have enough subs. All of that has highlighted how valuable it is to have those individuals in our buildings and to have those positions filled.”

What’s behind the shortages? As much as we wish this question had a simple answer, it doesn’t. There’s a complex web of factors behind this issue, from inherent risks presented by the pandemic to hesitancy over masks and vaccines. But intertwined with those recent issues are more longstanding ones: respect, inclusion, culture, and compensation. When we spoke with Kelly Post in November, she was a special education behavioral coach at a 41,000-student district in Texas. “I go to all 48 campuses, wherever there’s a need WINTER 2022

for additional training or there’s a behavior situation that people just don’t know how to handle,” she says. Post’s role entails helping students replace destructive behaviors with healthier ones—which is often much easier said than done. She’s trained and certified in Satori Alternatives to Managing Aggression, or SAMA, a method that combines verbal de-escalation with physical management techniques. “My partner in the district and I are usually the ones who come in and help when kids are harming themselves or others,” she tells us. When the 2021-22 school year started, Post’s district was short 50% of the instructional assistants (IAs) it needed. Like Post, these employees often work to manage behavioral problems. Of course, the year of at-home learning in 2020-21 made the job much more difficult. “It’s really hard to do behavior coaching on a computer,” she says. “The kids just shut their laptops. ”It hasn’t gotten any easier as students re-enter their buildings. “All these kids coming back after COVID— they’re traumatized, even if they weren’t having trouble before,” she explains. “They’re all coming back from a hard place.” For some students, this emotional turmoil presents itself through behavioral issues. However, when we asked Post what she believed was behind the current IA shortage, she didn’t blame the pandemic or even its fallout. “Right now for our IAs and our district, I believe it’s the pay,” she says. “You can make more money at McDonald’s—and there, nobody is going to hit or kick or spit on you,” she says. “You can’t expect them to work for less pay than they could make at a less strenuous job.” Over the course of our conversation, other issues surfaced, too. “In the last couple of years, the appreciation for us has gone downhill,” she says. “I’m less likely to be included in situations, left out of more meetings. My last supervisor was really good at making sure we were part of planning and implementation. These days, it feels like we don’t have that.” It’s not just the lack of inclusion that bothers Post; it’s the effect it has on her students. “Sometimes I’m on one campus dealing with a big behavior issue on Friday, and then admin will want me to go to a different campus on Monday,” she tells us. “I really need to stay where I am, so the kids can see the continuation and consistency of dealing with that behavior— but I’ve had trouble convincing administration of that.” This January, Post left her position after 26 years with the district. In a follow-up email to us, she explained her decision: 38

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“The culture and concern for others that have always been part of this district are not there any longer.” Of course, Post is only one person, and each employee has their own story, whether good or bad. But perhaps, from her experience, we can learn a few ways school leaders can better support—and retain—their classified staff.

Check your attitude. At this point, it’s hard to deny how crucial classified employees are to the operation of your school district. But relying on your school support staff is not the same as respecting them. You or other members of your staff may be viewing classified employees as “less than” without even realizing it. In a 2020 New York Times article, political philosopher Michael J. Sandel draws attention to a series of studies conducted by social psychologist Toon Kuppens. When Kuppens and his team surveyed Americans and Europeans about a wide range of marginalized groups—Muslims, people with disabilities, people of color, just to name a few—they discovered that respondents with college degrees indicated more bias toward those without degrees than toward any other group. What’s more, Sandel points out, “the study also found that elites are unembarrassed by this prejudice. They Dr. Jeff Butts works to show his appreciation for classified staff at Wayne Township. Photo courtesy of Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township

may denounce racism and sexism, but they are unapologetic about their negative attitudes toward the less educated.” As Butts puts it, “Our schools are microcosms of our society.” Any prejudices that prevail outside the walls of your schools have the potential to creep into your classrooms. And in a profession where education is always top of mind and credentials are a particular point of pride, this bias against the less educated has even more potential to take root. In a school environment, this rarely acknowledged bias has tremendous implications. Most positions for school support staff do not require bachelor’s degrees, and about 43% of classified employees have no post-secondary degree at all. This set-up—people with less formal education working in an environment centered on education—can lead to an unfortunate dynamic where classified employees are seen as less important, less intelligent, or less skilled than the certified teachers in their buildings. “There are still people out there who feel that if we don’t have degrees, how important can our jobs be?” says Valdepeña. Many of the classified employees we spoke with referenced this dismissive attitude toward their positions. “Years ago, I had a superintendent tell me, IAs are a dime a dozen. We can For Appreciating Classified Employees (ACE) Day, California school leaders shadow their classified staff members. Photo courtesy of Ben Valdepeña

get another one tomorrow,” Post recalls. “I’ve made it my goal to say, I’m better than that—you’re not going to be able to find another me.” The truth is that you couldn’t pull just anyone off the street to fill one of your district’s classified positions. According to data from the National Education Association, 43% of education support professionals are required to have a special certificate, and 29% need a particular license. Bus drivers are required to have a Class B Commercial Driver’s License. Paraprofessionals are often certified in SAMA or other behavior management methods. Food service workers are trained in child nutrition and menu design. Classified roles may not require a traditional college education, but they do require specialized skills and training. Your classified staff members are no less capable and no less intelligent than your teachers and fellow administrators. Their expertise just lies in different areas. In a March 2020 issue of New York Magazine, journalist Sarah Jones hits the nail on the head: “It should be obvious now, if it wasn’t before, that there’s no such thing as unskilled labor.” This is a thorny problem, and it’s not limited to your district. You can’t completely eradicate a pervasive cultural prejudice or even guarantee it won’t show up in your classrooms. However, you can set a tone of respect in your schools. A simple first step toward respecting classified staff is acknowledging them—in public, at staff meetings, in your communications. If you’re not careful, it can be easy to focus your staffwide meetings and events solely on teachers, making support employees feel like second-class citizens. For Butts, it’s about being intentional. “I need to make sure I’m talking not only about issues that are important to our teaching staff, but also about the issues that are important to our classified staff,” he says. “Every time I communicate how proud I am of the successes happening in our buildings, I have to acknowledge that everyone in those buildings is responsible for that. Yes, that means teachers and administrators—but it also means our child nutrition workers, custodians, secretaries, and paraprofessionals.” You might even find a hands-on way to turn those biases on their heads. Each year, the CSEA chooses 10 districts to hold what they call “Appreciating Classified Employees (ACE) Day,” an opportunity for administrators to shadow WINTER 2022

Photo courtesy of Ben Valdepeña

ACE Day tends to be eye-opening for administrators. “They say things like, I never realized how hard this job is,” says Valdepeña.

their support staff. “You might meet the grounds guy and start mowing lawns at 5:30 in the morning,” says Valdepeña, “or work with a custodian, or serve lunches to the kids.” For administrators, this often leads to a striking revelation: I could not do this every day. “At the end of the day, the stories that you hear—there’s tears,” Valdepeña tells us. “They say things like, I never realized how hard this job is. I never realized how important it is.” Whether you choose to implement some version of ACE Day or not, it’s crucial that you instill in your teachers and administrators the idea that no fellow employee is beneath them. Without that basic bedrock of respect, your classified staff cannot thrive.

Treat them as experts. Respecting your classified staff is crucial—but it’s also the bare minimum. Once you’ve recognized them as professionals with unique and valuable skills, it makes sense to consult them on issues that pertain to their areas of expertise. 40

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However, many districts do not involve their classified staff in planning at all. No matter how hands-on you are, no matter how many classrooms and campuses you visit each semester, you don’t see nearly as much of your schools as your classified employees do. While you keep a bird’s eye view of the entire district, these employees are often dealing with a single building or subset of students day in and day out. It’s possible, then, that they know what those buildings and students need better than you do. So why not ask what they think? “You need your classified staff to help with planning because they will see things that administrators come up with that are wrong or that are really going to put a strain on the system,” says Valdepeña. He gives us an almost comical example: An administrator decided to serve buttered popcorn in his school’s cafeteria. “It literally looked like it snowed,” he tells us. “The popcorn was everywhere. The butter ruined the finish on the floor, along with the mops we were using to sweep it all up.” The night custodian even had to work outside his normal shift and spend four hours scrubbing the floors. “We could have stopped all that if we had been part of the planning,” Valdepeña says—”but quite often, we’re not.”

Including your classified staff in planning can not only prevent unnecessary problems, but also make a real difference for your students. Early in her career, Donna Mazyck, now the executive director of the National Association of School Nurses, changed a student’s life—and it all started with an attendance review meeting. “I was the first nurse at that school, and they were not accustomed to having a school nurse come to the attendance review committee,” she says. “But I had asked the principal if I could sit in because it was possible that I might have helpful information.” During the meeting, administrators were discussing a high school senior with chronic tardiness and absenteeism. “She was in danger of failing,” Mazyck says. “So I volunteered to contact that student and find out what was going on.” She suspected that—as is often the case—this attendance problem might have its roots in a health issue. It turned out that this student was dealing with a perfect storm of factors. Unbeknownst to the school, she was struggling with untreated arthritis, making it difficult for her to get up in the mornings. What’s more, her mom—her only caregiver—worked the night shift, not getting home until after morning classes started. The family also didn’t have a car, so if this student missed the bus, she didn’t have a ride to school. With this new knowledge in hand, the school worked to alleviate the student’s challenges and help her succeed. They were even able to secure much-needed health insurance for the family, allowing the student to receive treatment for the first time in years. The school counselor also changed the student’s schedule to make her first period class a study hall in case she needed more time getting there. “It was just amazing to see that conversation turn around,” Mazyck tells us. “I used my nursing knowledge to reach out and realize that the issues were deeper than they appeared.” The student went on to pass and graduate—something that might not have happened had Mazyck been excluded from the conversation.

Show them they’re valued. Basic respect and inclusion are great first steps toward a healthier environment for classified employees, but they’re just that—first steps. It’s crucial to also show your support staff that you appreciate and value them. This isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also a great retention strategy.

According to data from business consulting firm Deloitte, companies with employee recognition programs experience 31% less turnover than those without them. Other studies have shown that employees who feel valued have lower stress levels and feel more motivated. So how can you show your appreciation? Here are just three ideas.

Don’t outsource for classified roles. Research shows that the vast majority of classified staff members are deeply invested in their school communities. According to data from the National Education Association, 71% of educational support professionals live within the geographic boundaries of their districts. That number is a bit higher in Wayne Township—around 75%. “This is their community,” says Butts. “This is where they live. This is where their children go to school.” The same study indicated that more than one in five classified staff members help with extracurricular activities, like coaching a sport or supervising an after-school club. About one-third have even given their own money to help pay for classroom materials, field trips, and class projects. “They are very loyal and devoted,” Butts says. Don’t they deserve the district’s loyalty in return? For Butts, this means promising not to outsource for classified positions. “Our board has been very intentional and determined not to outsource, and our employees know that. We communicate that a lot,” he says. “They know that we value them, that they’re going to remain employees of ours, that we’re going to take care of them.” This arrangement benefits Wayne Township as much as its employees. Classified staff employed by the district—not contracted through outside companies—have much more reason to invest in your school culture.

Provide fair compensation. Of course, you also show your appreciation for your classified employees through the benefits and compensation you provide. Much like teachers, few school classified staff enter the profession expecting to get rich. “They know they’re not making a lot of money,” says Valdepeña. “They’re here for the kids.” But unfortunately, as the saying goes, passion doesn’t pay the bills—and across the country, many classified employees are having trouble making ends meet. These employees do have other options, and some of them may look more attractive. Since 2020, Target and WINTER 2022

Amazon have both offered a minimum wage of $15 per hour. McDonald’s is following suit, planning to reach an average hourly wage of $15 at its company-owned locations by 2024. By comparison, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median hourly wage for a full-time teacher assistant in the U.S. is $13.89—meaning that half of all employees in that role make even less. No matter where you are, the competition for your classified staff is only going to increase. Your wages should increase with it. As we’ve mentioned, staffing shortages are complicated, and increasing pay isn’t a magic bullet. But no matter how much your classified employees love the students they serve, it will be difficult for them to stay in your district if they’re not making enough to live on. To successfully recruit and retain these critical staff members, it’s important to ensure you’re offering a living wage. According to the most recent data from MIT, the living wage in the United States—the amount needed to meet a family’s basic needs—is $16.54 per hour before taxes for a family of two working adults and two children. But depending on your location, what constitutes a living wage for your employees could be higher or lower. You can use MIT’s Living Wage Calculator to find guidelines for living wages in your city or county. While you may not be able to meet this threshold immediately, the information this tool provides can help you justify higher wages to your board.

an employee health center. Operated through a company called miCare, the health center provides sick visits, preventative screenings, disease management services, and more—all with no copays for employees or their dependents. This arrangement benefits Clovis USD just as much as its staff, as the miCare model allows employers to buy health services at cost. Plus, when staff have easier access to primary care, they’re healthier in general—which leads to greater productivity. It’s a win-win. When it comes to cutting corners in your budget, your classified staff should not be the first expense on the chopping block. As we’ve seen over the course of the pandemic, your schools cannot run without them. What’s more, happy, well-paid employees are often your best advocates in the community. Remember: 71% of school classified staff live in their districts. Many of them are parents of your students. Their voices are a critical part of the overall conversation surrounding your schools—are those voices positive or negative?

Making classified employees feel appreciated is a great retention strategy. Studies have shown that employees who feel valued have lower stress levels and feel more motivated. Photo courtesy of Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township

To find the living wage in your area, check out MIT’s Living Wage Calculator at livingwage.mit.edu

While it may seem like your hands are tied when it comes to budgetary constraints, many superintendents have found creative ways to use ESSER funds or even Medicaid to help pay support staff. In fact, according to a 2017 survey by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), 68% of superintendents said their districts used Medicaid dollars to fund school nurses, counselors, and other student health services employees. Providing good benefits that offset some basic living expenses can also help make your district a competitive employer for classified workers. At California’s Clovis Unified School District, all support staff who work at least 20 hours per week have access to the district’s health plan, as well as 42

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Say thank you. Sometimes, showing that you value your classified staff is as simple as thanking them. This small expression of appreciation can make all the difference in an employee’s experience—as can the absence of it. Valdepeña once faced a demoralizing lack of gratitude from administration after literally saving a child’s life. When a kindergartener ran into the middle of the street, Valdepeña swiftly pulled him out of the path of a truck, averting what could have been a tragedy. “This shows you the value of classified employees: I walked into the office with this kid and nobody even thanked me,” he tells us. “I was miserable for the rest of the day.” Throughout your district, classified staff members are doing their essential jobs every day, and that alone deserves acknowledgement and appreciation. But they often go above and beyond their job descriptions, and your schools are better for it. “Spend time actually looking at your classified employees for what they do—not just what they’re supposed to be doing,” Valdepeña says. “You’ll find they’re doing a lot more.”

Recognize their impact on students.

Butts sees it at Wayne Township, too: kids confiding in and relying on educational support professionals. “Many of our classified staff develop relationships with our students, and those become mentoring relationships,” he says. “They sometimes fill the role of an adult that child doesn’t have in their life outside of school.” A variety of factors could explain why certain kids feel more comfortable with non-teaching staff: race, class, or language barriers, just to name a few. “We have to be cognizant of the cultures that our students are coming from, the environments that they’re coming from at home,” Butts says. “Some of our students don’t feel comfortable going up to somebody in a suit and tie.” For most classified employees, this dimension of the job isn’t an extra task on their plate; it’s the reason they come to work. “A lot of us, myself included, became classified employees for other reasons but stayed because we loved working with the kids,” says Valdepeña. As a school leader, it’s important for you to acknowledge and appreciate this aspect of a classified employee’s day-to-day work. They’re not just performing the crucial technical functions of their roles; they’re often changing lives—and being changed in return.

“Superintendents need to look at classified staff through the eyes of the children. Their worlds will change once they do.”

According to research from The Search Institute—an organization that examines the roles of relationships in child development—students who have strong relationships with caring adults are more likely to be engaged at school. Similarly, a study in the Journal of Community Psychology found that when middle and high school students have strong relationships with adults outside their families, they exhibit less risky behavior and an increase in general well-being. For some students, it’s easier to connect with adults they don’t see as authority figures—like classified staff. As a custodian, Valdepeña experienced this phenomenon often. “The kids would tell me things that they should have been telling a counselor,” he says, “and a lot of times, it was because I wasn’t wearing a tie. They felt more comfortable talking to me.” Once, a student confided in Valdepeña that she was pregnant; he took her to the counselor’s office and even helped her share the news with her mom.

“I have had many titles in my life,” Valdepeña tells us, “but the title that I love most is Mr. Ben. That came from the kids, from their hearts. They see the value in Mr. Ben or whoever is taking care of them at school.” Next time you see a member of your classified staff, look a little closer. See the skills they bring to the table, the time and effort they invest in certifications and licenses, the early mornings and late nights they spend keeping your school buildings running. See a human being, just like you, who needs to know they’re appreciated and valued. See what the kids see. “Superintendents need to look at classified staff through the eyes of the children,” says Valdepeña. “Their worlds will change once they do.”

Solving the Substitute Problem

Perspectives: Jay Midwood, Central Falls School District, RI Has anyone asked you lately how your substitute teacher coverage is going? If you’re like many school leaders, it’s just not. According to an EdWeek Research Center survey from October 2021, substitute teacher openings are currently harder to fill than any other position. About 77% of administrators surveyed said they couldn’t find enough subs to fill their classrooms. If you’ve been banging your head against a wall over coverage issues, I can guarantee you’re not alone. As the Chief of Human Capital for the Central Falls School District, I’m charged with attracting, cultivating, and retaining talent for our roughly 3,000-student urban school district in Rhode Island. I know firsthand how tough hiring substitute teachers is and always has been—even before the pandemic. But when you break down the traditional substitute teaching model, its failure isn’t surprising. It’s bad for everyone: the sub, the traditional educator, the administrators, and, most importantly, the students. That’s why, five years ago, our district decided to put an innovative twist on substitute teaching, creating a robust teaching pipeline that ensures students learn from bell to bell. Years later, in the midst of the pandemic, that innovation has saved us.

Why Substitutes? First and foremost, the traditional substitute teaching model hurts students. Do the kids in your classrooms expect to form strong relationships with a substitute? Probably not.

We know how important relationships are for students’ motivation, empowerment, and classroom engagement. Even if you have a brilliant substitute teacher, there is ultimately a limit to how meaningful their instruction can be. That’s because they’re not in the same classroom long enough to build purposeful and sustainable relationships with students.

The Fellowship is Formed

Unfortunately, by the time a student graduates from high school, they will have spent the equivalent of two-thirds to an entire school year with substitute teachers, according to a Gatehouse Media study. That’s an entire year without meaningful instruction because of the lack of relationships. We would never settle for a teacher who didn’t connect with any students for a year, but we constantly settle for a substitute teaching system that makes strong connections impossible.

When I started working here in July 2016, we were already grappling with the substitute teaching issue. We knew it was hurting our kids and our schools more than it was helping. Within a few weeks, the superintendent at the time, Victor Capellan, texted me a picture of some napkins with notes scribbled across them. Hey, he said. I have an idea.

It gets worse, though. Think about everyone else involved. For the substitute teacher, there is no consistency. They are in our schools one day and in a completely different district the next. There is no time to build relationships with the students, their coworkers, their supervisors, or the districts that employ them. We would never isolate any other employee like this—but we do that to our substitutes all the time. That isolation has consequences. If a substitute has no connections to anyone in the district—or doesn’t even know where to park without being ticketed—it’s no wonder they don’t return for a second day. In fact, that’s the issue we were seeing at Central Falls: We could hire substitutes and place them for a day, but we couldn’t keep them. They never felt valued or engaged. And if substitutes are always seen as outsiders, will your teachers ever really trust them to deliver meaningful instruction to their students? Think back to your days as a classroom teacher. How many times did you dread leaving substitute assignments because you didn’t think the sub would even open the folder? In my honest conversations with teachers at Central Falls, I learned that many often left “busy work” for a substitute—or nothing at all—because of that lack of trust. This doesn’t even get to the frustrations that the traditional substitute teaching model causes administrators and support staff. As the school leaders who either created or inherited this broken system, it’s our duty to our students and employees to figure out a better way.

The story here in Central Falls is a remarkable one. Since we are the smallest city—literally one square mile—in the smallest state, people often don’t realize what we have here. But, like our state, this town is a hidden gem: a hotbed for arts, culture, diversity, and food.

The concept was simple. Instead of hiring traditional longterm substitute teachers or scrambling to find daily coverage, we would create a cadre of educational leaders. We wanted to hire people with bachelor’s degrees, from both schools of education and other programs, who could serve in a school full time—whether that school needed coverage or not. I’ll never forget how Mr. Capellan first put it: What if we had City Year meets AmeriCorps meets Teach for America meets Central Falls? The Warrior Teaching Fellowship started a few weeks later, just in time for the 2016-17 school year. When the program began, we set out with three goals. First, we wanted to ensure that high-quality instruction continued when a teacher was out, whether for a day or a month. Second, we wanted to create a development pipeline so that educators could get more training before taking over classrooms of their own. This would also give us a qualified pool of candidates who already had connections to the district—like a feeder system. Third, we wanted to diversify the teacher pipeline by recruiting our own community members. With all these goals in mind, we designed the Warrior Teaching Fellowship as a 10-month per diem position, from August to June. Unlike the traditional substitute teaching approach, each fellow is assigned to work in a single school for the entire academic year. Fellows are never doing clerical work; they’re always student-focused, student-centered, or student-facing. So while the specifics of what a fellow does on any given day may vary, there is always a sense of consistency for the fellow, the school, and the students.

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When a teacher is absent, a fellow’s first priority is facilitating quality instruction—not just being present in the room to cover the class. This is great for unplanned absences, but it also makes planning for long-term coverage easier. The traditional teacher is able to coordinate with the fellow ahead of time so that student learning continues at the same level. When the fellows aren’t facilitating instruction for an absent teacher, they provide some form of student-centered support, whether it’s serving as an instructional aide, leading a small group assignment, co-teaching, or observing instructional practices. We currently employ about 25 fellows who can choose a daily pay rate of $195 with medical coverage or $225 without. And while we love for them to participate in after-school activities and professional development—and we even pay them extra for it—we know many can’t commit beyond the school day because of other jobs or family responsibilities. We make it extremely clear that fellows are only expected to be at the school from bell to bell. As our schools began using fellows and really seeing the benefit of having them in the buildings, the program skyrocketed. At the end of the first year, our principals and other leaders in the district said, We need more. We need a bigger cohort.

A Note on the Word “Substitutes” Despite using the term “substitute teacher” in this article, we have completely removed it from the Central Falls lexicon. I only use it here for clarity, but I still feel a little weird about it. We call all of our teachers, including fellows or substitutes, “educators.” No matter their position, they’re educating our students, and they deserve the respect that should come with that. Changing the language in our district was a big priority for us in the first year of the Warrior Teaching Fellowship. We knew that for this program to be successful, we had to change the culture around substitute teaching. It wouldn’t matter how good the fellows were if the traditional classroom teachers didn’t trust them to deliver meaningful instruction. That change in thinking was the toughest part of our first year, but it was necessary. The wording alone didn’t change the culture, but it did help set the stage for our district’s culture shift. 46

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Two Pathways Emerge When we started out in 2016, we were looking to hire about 15 fellows. I honestly thought we would get 20 applications at the most. Instead, we ended up getting 89. I knew then that we were onto something. While the program’s only tangible requirement is a bachelor’s degree, I expected that most applicants would be graduates from schools of education looking for a little more training before taking over their own classrooms. But when we broke down the applicant pool, about half had certifications and half did not. As a result, two different—but complementary— pathways organically emerged. Fellows who have a teaching certification or who graduated from a school of education usually view the fellowship as an opportunity to build their skills, get more classroom experience, or maybe pursue an additional specialization. When I think back to my own student teaching experience, I realize now that I was not ready to lead a classroom when I graduated. For these educators, the fellowship functions like student teaching on steroids. After they complete their first year with us, they usually move into a traditional classroom teaching role at Central Falls or another district. The fellowship has also empowered Central Falls’ diverse community members—including those without a background in education—to launch their own careers in the classroom. Almost all of the graduates we see from schools of education are white and monolingual. That’s a problem everyone is wrestling with across the nation. For example, the 2018 Condition of Education Report showed that of the teachers who took the traditional certification route, only 17% were people of color. Alternatively, 34% of nontraditional certifications were for teachers of color.

This makes me feel like a proud papa. I know these educators wouldn’t have wanted to stay with us full time—or even continue in public education at all—if they hadn’t felt valued while they were fellows. So while the program has been huge for us, it couldn’t have been successful if we hadn’t first cultivated a strong culture based on relationships and self-worth.

We can’t reflect the diversity of our students in our teaching force if we’re relying solely on graduates of education programs. But we’ve discovered that our own community might hold the solution to this problem. Despite our small geographic size, we have about 20,000 residents, many of whom speak Spanish, Portuguese, Cape Verdean Creole, Haitian Creole, or French Creole. These bilingual and trilingual individuals often have industry expertise, and some are interested in moving into education—but the traditional system creates too many barriers for them to enter the classroom. Whether they’re a career changer who always wanted to be a public educator or a 22-year-old accounting graduate whose true passion is helping students, these fellows usually jump into the program as a year of self-exploration. And while we always have a few who leave after the first year, many discover that they want to be educators for the rest of their lives. We invest heavily in this group, even if their pathway to certification is much longer. By the end of the year, most are ready to get a master’s degree or work toward certification. But that costs time and resources, presenting a challenge for many of our fellows. So we’re always trying to figure out how to build that pathway in partnership with the colleges and universities in our state.

Where To Next? Over the last five years, we’ve moved 20 fellows—just under 10% of our entire teaching force—into full-time positions here at Central Falls. Others have taken teaching positions elsewhere. This year, four former fellows even returned to Central Falls for full-time positions. When you look at our newest teachers, they’re almost all former fellows.

But this can’t be the end. While the fellowship has served us well by ensuring meaningful instruction and establishing a pipeline of high-quality, diverse educators, it’s not enough. We’ve all seen the pandemic exacerbate the struggles of hiring and retention in education. If we want to go beyond lip service and actually solve the teacher shortage in America, we have to look at this as a national crisis in talent acquisition. New England, for example, is very small geographically, especially Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Districts on either side of the border are constantly cannibalizing one another; when one district fills a need, it leaves another district struggling to serve its students. One child benefits only at the expense of another. It’s a zero-sum game. If we want to solve this for all students, we have to take a regionalized approach. At Central Falls, we’ve done a decent job because of our fellowship program, but it’s got to be taken to a whole new scale. That means that policymakers, fiscal decision-makers at the state level, and the rest of us all have to work together in a regionalized way. We also have to look outside of schools of education. This is about talent, not certificates. It’s about leaving a lasting impact on students, the school, and the community—not just filling positions. In education, we often talk about the need to diversify the teacher pipeline, to hire more bilingual and trilingual educators who represent our community. But when you look at the systemic barriers that are put in place, we’re excluding the very people we need. If we are really going to address the talent problem in public education, we all must collectively figure out how to get qualified individuals who aren’t from the traditional pathway into the classroom. After all, there should be no substitutions allowed when it comes to educating our kids.

To learn more about the Warrior Teaching Fellowship, reach out on Twitter at @JayMidwood.

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Rooms is a unified communication and messaging tool for teachers and staff that integrates directly with your district website and app. CLASSES

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ASSIGNMENTS

MESSAGES

L E A R N M O R E AT

www.apptegy.com/rooms

Off the Charts Using Data Visualization to Strengthen Your District’s Storytelling Over the past few years, it has become nearly impossible to encounter any new program in education without hearing the term “data-driven.” Instruction is data-driven. School scheduling is data-driven. Even bus routes are data-driven. But how does data contribute to the message your district is sending? The way you talk about data—and visualize it—tells a story about what’s happening in your schools. So how can you present that story in the clearest and most compelling way? A key point to remember is that data is a means, not an end. Numbers by themselves don’t say much. Think about the last time you read a report containing a string of percentages or data points. Remember how your eyes glazed over? That’s probably because most data is pretty hard to follow without context. Visualizations contextualize the numbers, giving your audience an idea of what your data actually means. 50

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What makes a visualization work? In our COVID-19 world, there are a lot of charts and graphs floating around seeking to make sense of case numbers. However, none of these efforts are new. In 1854, data visualization helped public health officials solve the mystery behind a rampant cholera outbreak in London. Survey results accurately listed the locations of reported cases and fatalities, but looking through this information— just a series of names and addresses—didn’t paint a clear enough picture. Dr. John Snow, however, realized that when he mapped this data, an otherwise unnoticeable pattern emerged: a large cluster of cases around Broad Street’s water pump. This pump was pulling from a contaminated drinking source, and thus was the origin of the localized outbreak.

When done right, data visualizations like charts and graphs can reveal insights that a table of numbers can’t. Of course, they also have the potential to bury your data’s insights and confuse your audience. You’ll want anything your district shares to be understandable, actionable, and—above all—accurate.

Make them understandable. Presenting complicated data in a way that everyone understands can be challenging—but if your audience can’t easily digest your data within a few seconds’ glance, your presentation will miss the mark. Visualizations that are too complex will fail to capture the message you’re trying to communicate. For example, you might be tempted to cram too much information into one chart or graph. Your visualizations may become cluttered with hard-to-read fonts or colors that are too difficult to differentiate from one another (see Figure 1). Keep in mind that the best graph is often the most straightforward. As statistician Edward Tufte explains in his seminal work The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, everything you

create should tie back to your underlying data. You want to design simple visualizations that spotlight the data you’re presenting, not your design choices. Even if your graph looks impressive at a glance, too many flourishes could distract your audience from the message you’re trying to convey. Even when following basic best practices, it may be worth it to run your visualizations by an outside pair of eyes before presenting them to your community. Choose someone who has qualifications similar to your intended audience. For example, if you’re making a presentation to the chamber of commerce, run your visualizations by a parent who is also a business owner. If they struggle to understand your point, it’s time to simplify further.

Make them actionable. If your visualizations are telling a story, how do you want your audience to feel at the end? You should keep this question front and center as you plan how best to display your data. A memorable example of letting the data tell the story comes from an interesting source—the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale.

Figure 1: Student Population by Race Black or African American 12%

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Using colors that are too similar to one another (as in the graph on the right) obscures your data. Bright, easily differentiated colors (as in the graph on the left) are easier to understand. Sometimes, it’s easier to compare arc lengths within donut charts (left) than slices within pie charts (right). WINTER 2022

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Sometimes, of course, you shouldn’t be creating a graph at all. That is to say, don’t include visualizations in a presentation just to fill space or to add some sort of authority. Sometimes a simple table is the right choice if the situation and the data call for it.

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This visualization, now called a polar area diagram or a rose diagram, broke through to both policymakers and the general public. That’s because when data visualization is done correctly, it can take the same information present in rows of data or long reports and deliver it with impact. As Nobel Prize-winning cognitive psychologist Daniel Kahneman puts it, “No one ever made a decision because of a number. They needed a story.”

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Despite the sexism of the time—which kept her from being a formal part of the effort—Nightingale contributed a memorable work of data visualization that made the findings of the taskforce strikingly obvious. Her visualization, entitled “Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army of the East,” presents the causes of death for soldiers, broken down by month, before and after sanitary improvements were made (see Figure 2). She clearly shows that preventable diseases (in purple) were the leading cause of death during the war in the months prior to the sanitary commission’s overhaul in March 1855. After the sanitary intervention, mortality rates immediately began to drop, demonstrating that so many of the deaths had been preventable all along.

Figure 2: Causes of Mortality in British Army based on Nightingale’s data

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Although Nightingale is now known for the contributions she made to nursing, she was also a social reformer who advocated for better sanitation and access to clean water to improve England’s public health. During the Crimean War, she witnessed the transformation that took place once a sanitary commission overhauled horrible conditions at the hospital where she worked. Nightingale came to believe that diseases, not battle wounds themselves, killed most soldiers—and that these diseases, by and large, could be prevented. She returned to England after the war and requested that Queen Victoria form a taskforce to examine health conditions throughout the entire British army.

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Numbers don’t lie—but the way they’re presented can be 30 misleading for your audience, even if that isn’t your intention. 20 Sometimes simple errors or rushed design choices can result in graphs that convey information incorrectly or even 10 present a different story entirely. How does this happen? 0 are a few basic things to watch out for, such as your laThere 99 99 99 99 99 presentation. bels, your scales, and your 9,9 general data 9,9 4,9 4,9 4,9 $4

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ing to present. When the labels are confusing, the graph as 100 a whole may fall apart. Keep in mind that most people will read80a graph and start drawing conclusions within a matter of seconds. That’s difficult to do when your labels make things 60 harder to understand rather than easier.

The type of data visualization you use matters for what you’re trying to accomplish. Let’s say you want to understand how virtual learning is impacting your district’s students. Figure 3 breaks down parent perceptions of their students’ workloads along family income lines. You can compare answers within income groups in the top graph, but the way data is displayed along the x-axis makes it difficult to compare answers across + 9 00 like the bottommost graph in Figure groups. A ,99stacked chart, 0,0 49 1 5 $ you to compare $1 3, allows answers both within each group 0,00 5 2 across income brackets. and $1 All graphs have certain elements, such as axis labels and gridlines, that serve as signposts for the reader. Without these visual cues, it can be very hard to understand what you’re looking at—and what conclusion you’re supposed to draw from the data.

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The structure of your visualization impacts the story you tell. It is easier to illustrate the relationships across different groups in a stacked chart (bottom) than in independent, disparate graphs (top).

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A confusing or poorly-designed scale, either along the x-axis or y-axis, can also obscure your intended point. More often than not, a graph with a bad scale seems to mean one thing when viewed at a glance, but something else entirely when examined more closely.

from. That means understanding what your data says first, then making a chart or graph to illuminate your insights. After all, that’s the benefit of data visualization: highlighting what the numbers are saying so that your audience can better grasp your district’s story.

Figure 4 demonstrates how misleading a poorly designed graph can be. Without proper labels, the bar graph on the left appears completely divorced from the data table. What’s more, the leftmost graph makes it look like expulsions are generally decreasing year by year—but that’s not the story the data is telling. Instead, out-of-school suspensions actually increased from 2015-16 to 2017-18—something that’s obvious when the x-axis is ordered chronologically.

Finally, you should refrain from manipulating data to create your own narrative. If you find yourself tempted to adjust a visualization so that it looks more favorable to you or the district—don’t. Being candid about your data is a crucial first step toward building an honest, transparent relationship with your stakeholders.

You should be using data to inform your decisions rather than defend them, and the visualizations you show your community should help them see where those decisions are coming

When should you use data visualizations? Once you understand what good data visualization can do for your communications, the next step is figuring out when

Figure 4: District Suspensions and Expulsions

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In the bar graph on the left, the misordered x-axis and the lack of a y-axis results in a confusing graph that, at first glance, suggests an incorrect conclusion. The graph on the right offers a much clearer—and more accurate—picture.

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to break out a nice chart or graph. As a school leader, you’ll have several opportunities to use visualizations to make information easier to interpret. One common opportunity for data visualization is reporting around your district’s strategic plan. You no doubt have certain academic benchmarks you want students to reach over the lifetime of your current strategic plan—what better way to chart progress than with a well-crafted graph? Complicated data points such as test scores or attendance rates might cause eyes to glaze over in a massive spreadsheet. But plotting this information into simple graphs keeps your students’ achievements and challenges front and center. You are also likely to rely heavily on graphs and numbers during bond or levy campaigns. Community members will want to understand how current millage rates compare to previous ones or what the district will spend on construction projects over time. In this situation, it’s especially important to ensure you’re not putting out anything confusing or poorly designed. The very last thing you want is to create the impression that you manipulated or concealed data.

Ultimately, the benefits of a data visualization depend on the data set. Plotting discipline rates in your district by race, for example, might highlight disparities that need to be addressed by new or improved policies. Anytime there is important information worthy of further inspection or discussion, that’s a prime opportunity to use clear, actionable, and accurate data visualizations. Depending on the size of your district, the task of creating data visualizations may not always fall to you. However, knowing best practices for sharing data with your community can help ensure that nothing gets miscommunicated or overlooked. After all, your district brand ultimately falls to you as a school leader. You have to own the narrative you’re sharing with your stakeholders and wider community. Soon, you’ll be confident in the story your school data is telling— and showing.

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A Preview of Pre-K? How Alabama’s First Class program could serve as a model for things to come

Photos courtesy of Pre-K

Photo Courtesy of Wake County Smart Start

Not too many people spend their Friday nights watching C-SPAN, but advocates for expanded pre-kindergarten were paying rapt attention on November 19, 2021, when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act. Among the many provisions of the proposed legislation is a grant program aimed at helping states bring universal pre-K to more 3- and 4-year-olds.

According to Dr. Steven Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research, poverty is a moving target. “Targeted programs in practice are like leaky buckets because poverty is not a constant condition,” he tells us. Low-income families frequently move above and below the poverty line—presenting a challenge for programs that use income to determine eligibility.

While there’s still a lot up in the air (including passage of the bill in the Senate), it’s safe to say there’s never been such a bright national spotlight on the importance of early childhood education. Fortunately, it’s not hard to imagine a country where pre-K is accessible to more kids; in some states, this dream is already a reality. One such state is Alabama, whose carefully constructed model for universal pre-K could serve as a blueprint for the rest of the country. In fact, much of the framework for expanded pre-K outlined in Build Back Better is already part of Alabama’s program.

“About half of the children who enter Head Start at age 3 below the poverty line will no longer be considered eligible by the time they leave for kindergarten,” Barnett explains. “And many children who were not eligible during the enrollment window will go unserved.” A universal approach solves this problem by recognizing that every kid can benefit from early childhood education.

Alabama’s “First Class” Approach Alabama’s First Class program provides full-year pre-K for any 4-year-old who is a resident of the state, at no cost to parents. Each of the following components allows the state to reach more kids while clearly defining what a high-quality classroom experience looks like.

Universal Eligibility For starters, First Class is open to all kids, regardless of household income. This is in contrast with pre-K models that only serve families classified as low-income—and determining eligibility can be slippery.

“Targeted programs in practice are like leaky buckets because poverty is not a constant condition.”

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Support for Pre-K Teachers Another key component of Alabama’s approach is recognizing pre-K teachers as professionals. Teachers of young children are sometimes seen by the general public as glorified babysitters, and, unfortunately, their pay usually reflects this mindset. Within the First Class program, pre-K teachers are paid the same as kindergarten teachers, reflecting the importance of their positions and holding them to the same high expectations set for all educators. To guarantee that every pre-K teacher lives up to the program’s high standards, Alabama has built supporting teachers into the First Class framework by creating positions for teacher coaches. These positions aren’t designed to look over teachers’ shoulders or find fault in their work, but to provide them with help and guidance. And there’s not one prescribed routine for everyone; for example, new teachers get more attention and focus than veteran teachers. The overarching goal is to equip teachers to be effective educators.

Mixed-Delivery Instruction Both Alabama’s First Class program and the Build Back Better Framework recognize that public schools should not have to bear the burden of implementing universal pre-K alone. Instead, both frameworks make funding available to different types of providers—whether that’s local schools or community organizations like nonprofits.

In order for organizations in Alabama to access funding, they must adhere to program guidelines, including caps on the maximum number of students per classroom and clear student-teacher ratios. First Class hires monitors who conduct site visits and meet with participating partners to ensure these guidelines are followed. Organizations that fail to meet program standards can have their funding taken away. It sounds drastic, but it’s how Alabama guarantees every dollar of funding is used to best serve students. “There are always programs that want the money,” says Dr. James Ernest, a professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Yes, you might be taking money away, but that allows you to give money to another organization that will meet those standards.”

Challenges Remain The pre-K provision in Build Back Better proposes the biggest federal investment in early childhood education since the creation of Head Start in 1965. However, if the legislation passes, it falls on individual states to create universal pre-K programs that conform to the bill’s guidelines. States will likely find that there are challenges to expanding early childhood education.

States with Publicly Funded Pre-K Programs No Public Pre-K

Pre-K for 4-year-olds

Pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds

*Source: The State of Preschool 2020, National Institute for Early Education Research

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Here, too, we can learn from Alabama’s program, which intentionally crafted standards and goals before allocating funding. It can be tempting for legislators to start with a budget number and then design a program around that dollar amount. But Alabama’s success has shown that starting with sound program design and refusing to compromise on that vision pays off in the end. Experts say that while this approach costs more and may result in slower expansion, it is preferable to have a high-quality program that takes longer to roll out than a low-quality program implemented in one budget cycle. Another challenge states may encounter is the unpredictability of federal funding. Nothing is ever truly set in stone, and even the version of Build Back Better passed by the House only sets aside money for pre-K expansion for six years. However, there is plenty of precedent for states seizing the opportunity to implement new programs for young learners when incentivized. For example, grant funding provided through the 1986 Program for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities enticed states to implement early intervention services. While states weren’t required to establish these services, every state eventually did so. “Obviously, it’s about education, but it also becomes about economics at some point in time—it’s just a good investment,” says Ernest. “No state has said, We’re not going to do that.” In addition, expansion in and of itself presents challenges. Gayle E. Headen is the Executive Director of Wake County Smart Start, a North Carolina nonprofit. Their work includes supporting and funding community partners that offer early childhood education and family support programs, including the NC Pre-K program in Wake. Headen fears a big push for more early childhood education programs could make expansion the overriding objective—when a high-quality experience should always be the main goal. “There’s a balance that will be important to maintain,” says Headen. “Beyond just having more seats, you have to ensure children are being nurtured. These are the most critical years for kids.”

Pre-K: Here to Stay Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in numbers and technical details, but what’s important is the impact these programs have on families. At Wake County Smart Start, Headen takes pride in the systems her team has built, but she knows the real

impact happens on a more granular level. “Now, I’m working to help my board make the connection between what we’re doing at a systems level and what that means in the life of an individual,” she says. During meetings with her board members, Headen starts with what she calls Mission Moments—opportunities to look beyond budget numbers and program documents and focus instead on the real people Wake County Smart Start is impacting. In one memorable Mission Moment, a mother was at a public health clinic, talking with doctors about the worrying diagnosis her infant had received. Clinic staff realized that, with an old, cracked phone and no home internet, she wasn’t able to stay on top of her child’s care. So the staff gave her an 11-inch tablet preloaded with a data plan. Wake County Smart Start had provided the clinic with these tablets as part of a public and private initiative partially funded by the RBC Foundation and Verizon. This mother walked out of the clinic with the technology she needed to coordinate care for her child. Her story demonstrated to everyone in the boardroom that the point of the program wasn’t the number of tablets distributed. “All of that system-level work is fantastic,” Headen says, “but what matters is the impact on the child and their mother.” So what role do school leaders have to play in the expansion of pre-K access? As respected educators, you can use your community platform to help shape proposed policies or advocate for changes to existing programs. In this important national conversation about how to best serve our youngest learners, you have a voice. And if—or when—your district is eligible for funding to implement pre-K programs, use those dollars to the best of your ability. Show your communities that pre-K can be done well, that early childhood education is a valuable investment, and that our youngest learners are worth every cent.

Driving Insights How to Analyze and Organize Social Media to Your Advantage

Let’s face it—social media can get a little overwhelming sometimes. A lot of thought goes into what you post, when you post it, and what platforms you should use. But are your posts making the impact you want? It’s easy to tell how many likes a post has received or if you’re getting comments on your content, but what about more in-depth metrics? Knowing data points such as how many people viewed a post or clicked a link you’ve shared can help inform your approach to social media in the future. Fortunately, the social media platforms used by most schools—Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram—all have robust analytics capabilities built right in. But making the most of this information starts with understanding what metrics to look for and what these numbers indicate. With that data in hand, you can begin pulling insights that will shape and inform your social media strategy.

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Measuring Your Impact Each platform approaches its analytics section slightly differently, but they all measure the same core set of information: Followers: Your follower count is the number of people who’ve indicated that they want to see your posts in their individual feeds. Impressions: Impressions measure how many times a post has been viewed in users’ feeds. It’s a quick—but imperfect— way to gauge how much traction your content is getting. Reach: Reach measures the number of individual users who have seen your content. You may watch a funny cat video six times in a row (impressions = six), but you’re still the only one watching it (reach = one). One set of eyes equals one user reached but can account for multiple impressions. Likes and Reactions: When most people think of measuring success on social media, they think of likes. This is simply a count of how many users have indicated that they, well, like your post. In recent years, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn have added post reactions that allow a user to express sentiments other than “liking,” such as “crying,” “laughing,” or “angry.” This can convey specific reactions, as opposed to simple acknowledgement or appreciation. A high number of likes—or reactions—may make your post show up higher in a user’s feed, but your likes count is not the end-all be-all of social media metrics. Other factors like comments and shares play a large role in the virality of a post, and depending on your objective, they may completely override likes as the primary metric to track. Comments: Social media is meant to be a space for conversations. That’s why each individual post has space for comments (or replies on Twitter). The more comments you have, the more users are interacting with your content in some way. That being said, not all comments are created equal. Sometimes people leave comments because they are angry about something or wish to lodge a complaint. That’s probably not the sort of engagement schools are looking for on social media, so it’s important to keep an eye on your comments and respond when necessary.

Shares: Are users sharing your content with their networks? That’s what your number of shares or retweets is measuring. Shares expand the reach of your school brand beyond your existing audience. Link Clicks: This is less a measurement of your posts themselves and more a measurement of how many times users have clicked a link you’ve shared. This is an important metric to track if you’re using social media to promote a news story, a blog post, or your careers page. It’s good to know if people are not only seeing your posts, but actually taking the actions you want them to take.

Goals Over Metrics Each of these metrics tells you something different about your performance on social media. Understandably, you might be tempted to dive into the numbers and fixate on certain measurements. Social media seems so much easier when you can hold up a single value, such as likes or followers, as an indicator of success. However, likes, comments, and shares don’t really mean much on their own. These numbers can inform your approach to social media only when placed within the larger context of what you’re trying to accomplish on a given platform. Again, think about Facebook comments—if you have a lot of negative ones, a high number of comments isn’t necessarily a good thing. It’s a common trap to become focused on one or two metrics and base success solely on whether those numbers are increasing or decreasing. But if you really want to be strategic when managing your accounts, you have to always think about the bigger picture. For example, having a large number of followers doesn’t tell you much about how well your audience knows you. Perhaps one popular post drove people to like your page, but your posts since then haven’t gotten nearly as much engagement. Let your desired outcomes guide your metrics. If you want to increase the number of people keeping up with your schools (your brand awareness), track the number of followers you have and how many times your posts are shared. If, instead, your goal is to drive engagement with your content, you should drill into the posts that have the most likes, link clicks, and comments. The information you find could be valuable if you’re wanting to promote a bond election or another important event to your community. WINTER 2022

The specific metrics that matter to you are specific to your district and could even change month to month depending on your larger goals. Viewing metrics in a vacuum doesn’t provide any context, and, more importantly, it doesn’t leave you with much insight for your future content strategy.

Making Sense of Your Metrics Just as you shouldn’t obsess over your number of likes or impressions, you shouldn’t take a single popular Facebook post or tweet as a reflection of overall social media success. Look instead for patterns that reveal underlying trends. Perhaps your teacher appreciation posts consistently receive more engagement month to month than your other content. That’s a good reason to create and publish more posts highlighting not just teachers but your paraprofessionals as well. Finding patterns in how posts perform can teach you more than analyzing each post individually. You also need to understand your posts in the context of how well your entire account is performing. Tracking your account performance can be as simple as benchmarking the metrics you’re interested in over time. Knowing how many new followers you gained on Twitter last month is helpful on its own, but it’s ultimately more meaningful to compare that number to your new follower count from previous months. By studying your social media data at this level, you’ll better understand how your efforts are contributing to your larger goals. Remember: Social media platforms are tools you can maximize to communicate better or build momentum behind an initiative. Don’t lose sight of the big picture.

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Fine-Tuning Your Strategy Sometimes, a particular post will gain far more traction with your audience than usual, and you won’t always be able to put your finger on why. These outliers offer a chance to experiment. Maybe you’ve noticed that posting to Instagram at 5 p.m. results in more engagement than at other times. That gives you some insight into when your audience checks their Instagram feeds. If you never experiment with how and when you post, you could miss these sorts of insights. Finding out what content performs best with your audience may take some experimentation, too. In some cases, it could be district announcements; other times, updates from athletics or other extracurricular events could perform best. It’s only by digging into post-level insights that you’re able to see what’s resonating and what’s not. A great example of this is better understanding what types of media get the most engagement. It’s generally understood that videos perform better than static images, but is that true in your context? Whatever you find, these types of insights can be invaluable as you continue to formulate and tweak your approach to social media. Ultimately, the value of your social media insights depends on your overall strategy. Once you know what you want your posts to achieve, social media metrics can tell you whether or not you met your desired outcome. If your accounts haven’t performed as well as you hoped, no sweat! Those same insights can inform how you adapt and change your approach going forward. You probably won’t ever feel like you’ve mastered social media—and that’s okay. Iteration is the name of the game, and that allows a lot of room to find an approach that fits your unique school community.

Accessing Your Metrics by Platform

Twitter

Facebook

Every tweet you send will have a button underneath that looks like a bar graph.

You should always create a Facebook Page—not a profile or group—for your district. On a Page, administrators will be able to see advanced metrics for reach and engagement for each post, not just likes and comments. This button will allow you to see detailed information about how users engaged with that specific tweet.

In order to view Page-level metrics, you’ll need to access the “Insights” section located in the sidebar on the left when you’re viewing your page. This section allows you to track metrics such as Page views, post reach, and more across time—either the last 28 days or the last seven days. In addition, you’ll find graphs that map trendlines for certain points of interest, such as Page likes, across your chosen timeframe.

To see account-level insights, click on the “More” button (on desktop) in the lefthand menu to find “Analytics.” Once there, you can find data for your account broken down in a 28-day summary as well as a month-by-month view that highlights top tweets and provides information about overall account performance.

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Instagram You can only see advanced metrics on Instagram if you have a Business Account. On the Instagram app, there is a button under each post called “View Insights”—this button will lead you to more detailed stats for that post, such as reach and post-generated profile visits. In order to see metrics for your entire account, click on the “Menu” button, then “Settings,” and finally “Insights.” The “Insights” page can also be found under your bio on your profile page.

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The Insights section allows you to filter your account metrics by either the past seven days or the past 30. Taken altogether, you’ll be able to accurately track how your accounts are performing both on a per-post basis as well as over time. Once you know which metrics to prioritize given your current strategy, you’ll be well on your way to turning these insights into actionable next steps.