The "Secret Sauce" for the 2022-23 School Year
The "Secret Sauce" for the 2022-23 School Year
The 2022-23 school year is rapidly approaching! Many students are returning to their classrooms this week and nearly everyone will be back in the "routine" of school within the next month!
In nearly every publication across America we read about the apprehension of students to return, the decision by parents to "make a different choice," the stress on teachers, and the massive amount of turnover at the principal and superintendent level.
I'm only one father, husband, educator, and thinker...but it seems to me that the solution is very simple. Everyone in the system has wants and needs and being attentive and responsive to those is the best way to leave the Pandemic in the past and move forward in a positive way. The starting point for discovering the "secret sauce" to your building/district is bringing the stakeholders below together, discovering and learning their "why" and their needs/wants, and building an ongoing improvement plan incorporating ALL of those variables. This work is not only ABSOLUTELY necessary but UNIQUIVOCABLY doable!
Students: Students want to be seen and heard. They want to be acknowledged. Students crave "being known well" by multiple adults within their school community. Students want to do real, meaningful work that connects to the world around them and to their futures. Students want to feel like "they matter." Students want to learn how to dream, be supported to dream, and to have adults come by their side to push, pull, support and encourage them to reach that dream.
Parents: Parents want the best for their scholar. They are exhausted by excuses and in many cases feel "trapped" in a system that they aren't sure is working for their sons/daughters. Parents want their kids to grow, thrive and mature and hope that the school experience helps to prepare their kids for what happens "after school." Parents demand that the future of their children not be defined by race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. Parents LOVE their kids with every part of their being and want them in an educational setting where it feels like the adults "have their backs" and are all pulling for the same outcomes. Parents would be thrilled for their kids to attend a school system where it "feels" like all the adults love their kids unconditionally.
Educators: To all the educators who are the "behind the scenes champions" within our schools... we see you and know that you want to be seen. You need to be an equal part of the "success equation" within our nation's schools. Each of you possess the magical capability to build genuine relationships with children and to support them within the process. Educators want to feel engaged and part of the process. They are more than counselors, para educators, custodians, bus drivers, secretaries, nutrition service workers, etc...they are the potential lifeline that will keep one child engaged, de-escalate another, and support teachers, students AND parents in ways that we'll never be able to measure. You are the first person our kids see in the morning and the last they see at night. Educators know their importance and the vital role they play within schools and long to be accepted and seen as such by the other stakeholders in the system.
Teachers: We feel your pain teachers! You have given your heart and soul to your work and in so many cases, policy makers, administrators, parents, and even sometimes students...don't understand the complexity of "the work." Teachers want to be valued and cared for. Not in artificial, once a year on "teacher appreciation week," kind of ways, but in real, genuine, daily support, encouragement kind of ways. Teachers want to be trusted that they have kids' best interest at heart. Teachers welcome accountability...the kind they can control and deliver. Teachers demand that the focus for evaluating their work be broader and deeper than a grade distribution list or number of students proficient. Teachers are saving lives every day and ultimately the measure of their worth must be based on ongoing student growth (academically), and ongoing student growth (socially and through mental health and development). Teachers want to be authentically involved in improvement planning...not told what to do. Teachers want ongoing relationships to grow and thrive with good, quality and measurable feedback....not an obligatory visit to "check off" their annual evaluation. Teachers, in the end, want to be acknowledged for the good work they do, celebrated, and encouraged, and empowered to lead the change necessary in our schools to move us from what schools "used to be" to what they "can be" in the future. Teachers are the linchpin to ensure the ongoing success of America's schools and should be treated as that invaluable commodity...each and every day!
Leaders: Leaders, we need you now more than ever before! The past two years have been hard, really hard. The turnover (some warranted and some not) for principals and superintendents has been higher than at any time in recent memory. That said, we are also in the midst of a phenomenal opportunity to use crisis to accelerate change and improvement. Leaders need to be more clear than ever about their "north star." There are tremendous waves of dissension, condemnation, and accusation in America today. Leaders are blamed for nearly everything and rarely celebrated. Leaders are the expected "miracle workers" even when the institutional variables are rarely known or understood. Leaders need, want and crave networks of support to ensure that during the "storm" they are able to hold the rudder and come out the other side. Leaders must remain relentlessly focused on the "service" of leadership. The "small p" of the principalship. We need leaders today more than ever and acknowledge that the rewards of leadership are sometimes intertwined with disappointment, anger, frustration, and insurmountable challenge. Leaders, in so many ways are the glue that hold the institutions called "school" together and will be the ones that will open the doors to a bright future and tomorrow or close doors and relegate us to mistakes from the past.
The "secret sauce" isn't all that secret, really! We know what it takes to make great schools, to make educators feel valued, build confidence with parents, and to help students to thrive. The challenge is doing the work with the system to ensure that we don't fall back into comfortable, "the way it's always been," and the way we "remember school" to be. The world is rapidly changing and the energy to propel us all forward is found in our willingness to be responsive to a new paradigm within our classrooms, schools and districts to ensure that every stakeholder is known well and leaves the experience feeling valued, honored, and prepared to meet their next cobblestone of their journey in life.
“We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do this. Whether we do it or not must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we have not done it so far.’'
Ron Edmonds