SAN ANTONIO — From technology to student voice to diversity, a litany of factors is forcing teaching and learning to evolve for the needs not just of a fast-changing work world, but for rapidly shifting student demographics.
In a Feb. 17 panel discussion at the National Conference on Education, hosted by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, three superintendents shared their best practices and lessons learned in navigating educational transformation.
Why does teaching and learning need to change?
“I believe that the world has always been changing, and that education needs to change with it,” said John Malloy, superintendent of San Ramon Valley Unified School District in Danville, California.
Despite that, education has stayed relatively the same, he said. But “there are really unique challenges and opportunities that are surrounding us right now that I think are going to demand the change we’re talking about.”
Malloy and his fellow panelists listed off some of those challenges: artificial intelligence, industry demand around specific skill sets, the aftermath of the pandemic, and the demands of parents, school board members and local communities.
While AI will “profoundly” shape instruction, Malloy said, he doesn’t see it happening in a way that is as fearful as the narrative often becomes.
“AI can never replace that which is us,” Malloy said, detailing how it cannot replicate things like empathy, compassion, contribution, service and voice, or the ability to analyze, synthesize, clarify, confirm and persuade in a way that incorporates those human qualities.
In a sense, AI presents an opportunity to apply more focus to soft skills, as it can simplify content delivery. “I’m looking forward to the opportunities it’s going to cause, because content is at our fingertips now even more than ever, and if we’re still focusing on content, I think we’re going to not be serving our kids as well as we should be,” Malloy said.
In Ohio’s Middletown City School District, former superintendent Marlon Styles — who recently left his position to become a consultant — said industry demand for skill sets is the No. 1 factor influencing his district.
“As far as the future lives our children want to live and what they want to be when they grow up in their authentic way, skill sets will be the currency that will give them opportunities in the future,” Styles said.
Educators, he said, must be willing to open the walls of the school building and start blending K-12 and the workforce in unique ways so schools can evolve their models and practices to best equip students for future success.
Building on that idea, Kristi Wilson, superintendent of Buckeye Elementary School District #33 in Arizona, said it’s critical to recognize opportunities that exist now to make changes and to collaborate on those with the community.
“If you’re in a district where you can build a new school or you can reimagine spaces or rebuild … you can think about what is it that you want your educational program to look like, because we don’t know what the future is going to hold” for what jobs will look like, Wilson said. By working with the community, district leaders can find ways to think about the future differently.
In her pre-K-8 district, such an opportunity presented itself with the construction of the John S. McCain III Elementary School. Over an 18-month planning period, she said, the district “really unwrapped those questions” and involved the community.
How can districts address DEI needs?
When it comes to initiatives targeting diversity, equity and inclusion, Styles said you only get one shot to have an authentic impact with adults, no matter the profession.
The first step in bringing DEI to schools, he said, is to build awareness around individual bias, beliefs and practices before moving into action. “During that awareness stage, we really take our time with our adults in our school system. We don’t ask them to do anything else [at that point] besides become self-aware,” Styles said.
Wilson echoed this, saying district leaders must make sure principals, leadership teams and senior staff all understand and are on board with DEI strategic plans, and that the work isn’t siloed. Efforts have to be aligned from the board level down to classrooms to make sure everyone understands the purpose and importance, she said.
Once that awareness is built, DEI goals must be attached to an educational initiative for staff on how their behavior impacts students’ sense of belonging. This can be done by bringing in experts, building deeper learning around educational environments related to DEI, and incentivizing staff to complete related microcredentials and put their learning into practice in the classroom.
“Will that get 100% completion? Absolutely not even close to 100%,” Styles said. But once the financial window closes for the funding used to incentivize this, his district plans to make the DEI microcredential part of its standard professional development program.
Malloy said it’s key to bring as many people as possible, including students and community members, to the table on DEI, along with all available data, so the work can’t be politicized.
“Whenever we start getting into the really intense discussions about people who think we should or shouldn’t be having this conversation or doing this work, we’ve really gone right back to the basics and said, ‘Does everyone in this room agree that each and every student must feel safe, included, cared for, and respected in order to learn?’” Malloy said. “Most everybody in the room will nod their head, even if they have some pretty profound reactions.”
If an explicit sense of care and honor isn’t there for every student, their needs aren’t being met in the classroom, he said.
Where does student voice fit into this?
As a superintendent, Wilson said she tries to spend time in school buildings for a chance to talk to students one on one. “It can be a little tricky, because they’re intimidated — you know, it’s the superintendent,” she said, but if superintendents are in classes all the time, students get used to them being there, and they’ll be more open to share what they’re learning, what they like and what’s on their minds.
“Whenever we are working on something, I remind my team, ‘What are the students saying?’” Malloy said. “Six times out of 10, we haven’t asked.”
The next question he asks is, “How do we know that we have truly in our engagement really connected with all views and perspectives, not just the ones who put their hands up?”
District leaders must also recognize that there’s a significant difference between involvement and engagement. While a lot of activities involve students, engagement has much more to do with reciprocal influence, Malloy said, so do leaders have evidence that students are actually influencing what they’re doing and why?
What does it mean to be college- and career-ready now?
Malloy said that while his district has been successful in helping students be college-ready, they are working on better equipping them to be career-ready. K-12’s purpose, he said, has to be more than getting students into certain colleges, because today’s learners need more opportunities and experiences.
He outlined a number of steps central to his district’s strategy on this front:
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Look at elementary school students’ strengths, interests and passions.
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Find ways to carry those into middle schools.
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Work to create more alignment and connections in those areas in high school.
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Make sure this is being done in ways that don’t box kids into a certain pathway early on.
Styles shared the story of a student named Dorothy, who told him she had dreams in life and could see a light at the end of the tunnel, but didn’t know how to get there.
His district created a “Passport to Tomorrow” where students earn a “Ready Now” certificate that is “more powerful than a high school diploma,” Styles said. The Cincinnati-area district is working to leverage around 100 industry endorsements around the region, in which industry partners will come into schools and open their workplaces to help students develop the skills those employers need.
A year and a half in, Styles said, the district is already at 42 partners on the Passport to Tomorrow initiative.
Wilson said she’s often asked what her district, as one serving only elementary and middle school students, has to add to this topic. She said her schools begin college and career work in kindergarten, citing early coding and robotics activities as examples.
As a result, some students are able to use Java programming language as early as 3rd grade, Wilson said.
Her job, she said, is to help parents, principals, business leaders and people in the community “to come see why we do that.”
“As early as 5 years old, we want [students] to be inspired and believe they can choose and they can do, with the opportunity, whatever they want to do, so whenever they do get into college, they have those foundational skills and the belief in themselves,” Wilson said.