The Answer is in the Room - Making a Case for Community-Driven School Transformation
Educators wear a lot of hats, both historically and presently. And that’s not just a metaphor, it’s actually the perfect description of the way teachers have to move, moment by moment, between instructor, mediator, data analyst, artist, scientist, professional organizer, project manager, and back to instructor, all while responding to all the real-time needs of 20 or 25 or sometimes 30 young people in their care. Not to mention the rapid advancement of technology tools (do we integrate them? Ban them? Both? Neither?) and the grief and challenge of educating through and during a global pandemic! The challenges facing educators - and education at large - often feel insurmountable.
And yet - now, more than ever, I firmly believe these challenges are solvable. And more than that, I don’t think anyone is more well-positioned to propose the right solutions than students and teachers. The answer is in the room. Teachers, students, families, and school leaders have the answers because they are in the daily work of teaching and learning. Those hats they wear? They’re heavy! But tucked under their brims are wisdom, experience, instincts, and lessons learned from relationships and students and mentors, from lessons gone well and lessons gone wrong.
In the field, it's time for us all to position ourselves toward teachers and students as the experienced, knowledgeable, and invested leaders they are. In Arkansas, we are partnering with Forward Arkansas to lead a two-phase, school-based initiative across the Delta and Northwest regions of the state focused on supporting educators to identify and solve local challenges. Instead of jumping in to force an approach, we gather with teachers, both as individual school teams and as a broader, professional Collective, to hear their experiences, come to learn their challenges, and support them as they generate and take action on solutions that make sense.
Some schools, like Marvell-Elaine Elementary School, have identified a gap in their school community’s culture of literacy. With support from their 2Revolutions Coach, Myrna Cervetti, they imagined and organized a family and community literacy night, designed to bring families together to learn practical literacy skills, be in community with each other, and grow that culture of literacy.
Other schools, like Lowell Elementary in Rogers, have focused their time in the Collective on developing school-wide systems that are co-designed by the entire staff. Here, the teachers are driving the change. They advocated for, co-designed, and created a set of schoolwide systems so that teachers could free up their time and energy to focus on their students and great instruction. School leader Stephen Bowman shared about his deep belief in his staff in this blog for the Arkansas Business Journal.
Eighteen schools across 11 districts participated in Phase I of The LeARner Collective during SY 23-24, each focused on a community-specific, school-generated area of focus. Our role was to respond to their identified needs: provide coaching, support, and resources that would accelerate schools toward their intended outcomes. Over and over, we heard from our Collective that simply providing the time and space to gather, collaborate, and progress on solutions was imperative. “I knew there was a need, but was overwhelmed by where and how to start. … [the LeARner Collective] created the time and space for being honest about our challenges and intentional about creating transformational change,” a principal in the Delta region shared.
In SY 24-25, we will enter Phase II of The LeARner Collective, where 15 of our schools will extend their work from Phase I, with six of those engaging in a deep, community-driven visioning process to drive and shape their work. I'm always inspired when I am in a room with these educators and school leaders, listening and collaborating as they reflect on their practice, their communities, and their goals. The room buzzes as folks move around, teachers from one school chatting with teachers from a different school about shared and different challenges, sparking ideas or sharing wins that can sustain change. When I’m in these rooms, it is abundantly clear why educators matter SO much in this rapidly changing educational landscape. The magic of their passion, investment, and instincts can’t be replicated or replaced.
The answer is in the room, and I’m honored to be along for the ride as we find it together.
