Mira Education
3 Takeaways from Learning Forward’s Annual Conference
Education organizations have a responsibility to also be learning organizations. Recently, Mira Education staff Alesha Daughtrey and Lori Nazareno, alongside Richland School District Two principal Dr. Cassandra Bosier, had the opportunity to present at the Learning Forward’s 2023 Annual Conference. The conference theme, Evidence into Action, concentrated on evidence-based practices and bridging research and implementation to improve student outcomes.
Their session focused on, “Leading Collectively: Strategies for Effective and Inclusive Change,” and participants explored ways their districts and organizations are seeking to improve. Those changes covered almost every aspect of what schools do: teacher retention, making up for learning loss, supporting new educators, addressing needs of increasingly diverse learners, engaging students and families, and taking on new instructional approaches.
But as different as these improvement challenges sound, their success turns on the same three interlocking questions – questions not uncommon across schools and districts.
How do we find time to do the work that makes improvement possible?
There will never be enough time in the day – let alone in a school schedule – for everything educators want to do for their students. The secret to success lies not in making time for everything but getting clear about the most important thing for right now – and then systematically releasing everything that stands in the way of that focus. Leadership means presence not everywhere, but where your expertise can be most supportive. Releasing the tasks that do not require your expertise is an effective strategy for finding time to address the priority that does.
How can we intentionally set priorities?
The word “priority” means “something that comes before all other things.” If we have multiple priorities, we don’t know which of those comes before the others – and then we have no priority at all. So, the secret is in choosing a singular priority that is most critical for what we need to do and lead now, knowing we can select a new priority once we’ve tackled the first. Until then, other matters may be important focuses or things to watch, but they are not our top priority.
How do we build the idea of “one team”?
When working in a team, defining a single priority for work can feel more complex. It is also an opportunity to do two things.
First, we can acknowledge that each individual on a team has a different role, perspective, and bank of expertise that informs a distinct priority. Sometimes, we disagree about what others’ priority should be. Those disagreements can be challenging to navigate but are essential to getting to shared clarity about how each professional contributes.
Second, we do have to agree on a team priority: the singular aim to which all of our efforts add up. We may disagree on this too at times, but developing a sense of authentic collaboration and co-ownership of work relies on a shared vision. Without it, we can’t have a common identity for our teams.
If these questions sounded familiar, we invite you to join us – whether you joined our session or not. Download the session handout for a free resource for school improvement planning and more information on leading collectively.
Reflecting and Reframing: How a mindset shift helped this school leader focus on what matters most
Principals are key players in the delicate and ever-evolving ecosystem of a school’s culture and growth.
School leadership matters. Second only to teachers as a primary in-school influence on student success, principals are key players in the delicate and ever-evolving ecosystem of a school’s culture and growth.
We had the pleasure of catching up with a passionate educator, leader, and member of the Mira Education community: Vanessa Valencia, former Assistant Principal at Vista Peak Exploratory in Aurora, Colorado. Vanessa shared important insights from her leadership journey with us.
Read on to learn how a shift in mindset has helped her remain joyful, flexible, and solution-oriented in the face of systemic challenges and competing demands.
Q: What’s a typical “day in the life” of a school leader? How has your view of the role shifted from your first year as a school leader to the present?
A: Every day is different. Like teaching, your best “plan” doesn’t always (or ever) go as planned. You can have a full schedule of commitments, and one event, emergency, or unexpected hallway conversation can take the day in a completely different direction. The role requires immense flexibility. When I first started, I struggled when a day didn’t go as planned. I felt like I was always letting someone down. Now I approach the day from an ‘I don’t know how this day is going to go’ mindset. This has impacted how I show up — in classrooms, meetings, and one-on-one conversations — in a positive way.
I’ve come to realize school leadership is incredibly creative work. I’ve been at my school since it opened seven years ago, which has allowed me to observe growth and improvement over time. Schools are constantly iterating, refining, and co-creating systems. This is why staff retention and growing leaders committed to the school community are so important. Focusing on this, the fact that at its core, school leadership is about creating better learning experiences for kids helps me remain flexible and responsive to each day’s demands.
Q: What brings you joy in your work?
A: Witnessing the development and growth in a teacher’s practice and its impact on student learning. For example, one member of our staff was an effective teacher, yet very traditional, a few years ago. Her classroom was always on-task and compliant but didn’t necessarily reflect the cognitive engagement she knew was possible. I worked with her, initially as her coach and eventually as her evaluator. Today her classroom is completely different. Every day she offers students opportunities for interactive and hands-on learning, and cognitive engagement is high. Seeing authentic student engagement and the growth in her teaching, and knowing I played a role in impacting her practice, brings me great joy.
While instructional leadership has always been really important to me, I made it the primary focus of my daily work. As an assistant principal, I spent as much time in classrooms as possible. When I started working as a school leader, I was so worried about completing tasks as they came in that my inbox consumed large chunks of the work day.
Through reflection and conversations with my colleagues, I realized a clean inbox is never going to impact student achievement! This shift in mindset helped me reframe where and how I should be spending my time.
Prioritizing being in classrooms resulted in stronger relationships with staff, a deeper understanding of each educator’s professional growth goals, and an increase in timely and specific feedback to each staff member I evaluated. This feedback has resulted in more risk-taking and implementation of the feedback by teachers in classrooms. It shifted the culture from one of compliance to one where teachers say, ‘I’m trying something new today. Can you come watch?’
Q: Mira Education believes unleashing the collective capacity of teachers and administrators is the key to creating an equitable public school system that serves all students and their communities. What is your reaction to this? How does this value show up in the work you do?
A: I couldn’t agree more that we must work to remove the line that still exists between teachers and administrators. We cannot be divided if we are serious about serving all students. We must view and respect each other as professionals and leverage the collective genius that exists within our system.
One of the ways we’re doing this is through our professional learning studio structure. As a teacher, it was frustrating to me when professional learning didn’t mirror the instructional practice expected in classrooms. This made me realize our professional learning must model what we expect — if we want differentiated and personalized learning for students, we must orchestrate what that might look like with adults. Choice, and teachers’ real inquiry questions and problems of practice, should always drive professional learning. All studio-based learning that happened in our building happens through other teachers, including collaboration with practitioners at other schools.
Keeping a “teacher mindset” at the forefront and constantly reflecting on what it was like to be a full-time practitioner helped me co-create meaningful professional learning experiences with staff.
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Leading Improvement, Together: Walker Gamble Elementary and the SC Collective Leadership Initiative
Like many other Title I schools in small, rural districts, Walker-Gamble Elementary felt stuck between ambitious goals for student learning and the staff’s ability to reach them. In this case study, read how engaging in the South Carolina Collective Leadership Initiative helped this school leverage the collective expertise of its staff to sharpen focus on instruction, boost achievement, and narrow achievement gaps.
From One Leader to Many Leaders: Stone Creek Elementary and the Transition to Collective Leadership
Taking a leadership approach that engages the expertise of each educator in improvement work and decision-making requires shifts in every educator’s practice. This case study describes how teachers and administrators can make that transition together, and how schools and district offices can work together to make it a successful lever for improvement.
Personalizing Professional Learning through Micro-credentials: Wake Co. Public School System
DETAILS
Who: Wake County Public School System
When: 2021 – 2023
Where: Raleigh, NC
What: PPL systems design, PPL system pilot implementation, Micro-credential development, MC assessor training
WHY
Wake Co. Public School System spent years exploring micro-credentials as a way to personalize professional learning, identify expertise among educators, and develop capacity among instructional assistants and other support professionals. Such a strategy could create the basis of a “grow your own” approach as new teachers and support professionals had opportunities to build their skills and leadership – and could provide incentives to remain in the district. But while district staff had achieved consensus on the approach, they needed a way to turn ideas into action.
WHAT
The opportunity that Wake County saw was with Instructional Assistants and 4th and 5th year teachers who were often less fully engaged with regular professional learning than certified early-career educators. The district assembled a design team including representatives of several departments. Mira Education facilitated their efforts to develop systems that would not only produce high-quality micro-credentials for the initial pilot but that could supply a replicable template for launching competency-based professional learning across their complex, large district.
Our team knew a lot about micro-credentials and what we wanted to accomplish. But [Mira Education’s] facilitation and expertise was still helpful. …Having a partnership that structured our work made a difference.
– Sonya Stephens, Senior Director of Data, Research, and Accountability, WCPSS
HOW
Mira Education facilitated a series of virtual design sessions that laid essential groundwork for the pilot: specifying a clear theory of action, naming meaningful metrics for learning and success, and framing clear language to communicate about the pilot. A series of online retreats focused not only on building the development skills of the design team, but also with an eye on equipping the team to lead this work with other departments.
By providing personalized tools and focused small-group coaching, Mira Education was able to guide the design team to create development systems that reflected the best practices cultivated by Mira and the specific needs of the Wake County Public School System. Mira Education also led members of the team through an experiential assessment training that compelled the team to think about the full micro-credential ecosystem they were creating and how they could streamline roles and responsibilities across the team.
In addition to the technical aspects of the work, Mira Education provided support and feedback to the design team as they navigated the adaptive challenges. This support led to streamlined tools that were embedded in district practices already in place, and clear communication strategies that fostered collaboration. With this support, the design team was able to enlist other departments in the effort to support instructional assistants and fourth and fifth year teachers through personalized learning.
OUTCOME
As a result of this work, Wake Co. has created comprehensive systems of micro-credential development and assessment that are embedded in the practices of a team within the district office. That team has developed several micro-credentials, consistent communications about their intended audiences, and the role that they can play in professional learning and staff retention across the district. As a result, the team that designed the initial pilot is now in deeper partnerships with two other departments, preparing for sustainability and scale in supporting instructional assistants and 4th and 5th year teachers. Additionally, Wake County is positioned to lead up to a dozen other North Carolina districts in similar efforts as the state works to retain educators.
The information presented by [Mira Education] unlocked the power of the group work time by providing us with useful context and framing so we could successfully create our micro-credentials.
– Spencer Ziegler, Performance Assessment Administrator, Data, Research, & Accountability Department, WCPSS
IMPACT
The pilot enrolled 75% of invited instructional assistants and early-career educators in 2020-21, allowing the district to identify specific knowledge and skills held by nearly 200 educators that could be leveraged to support instructional improvement and equity.