Bridging Vision and Action: How to Align Your School District's Goals

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It's a massive change of pace. What worked for you in your old district might not work for you in this one. So how do you build an integrated district while getting up to speed in a completely new setting That's the central question that we're going to tackle in today's conversation and who's going to be guiding us today We have anna alvarado joining us.

ite a bit of time. She was a [: 00:01:00

In the last two years in CPS, Dr. Alvarado took on a role of chief officer of teaching and learning, where she worked alongside network chiefs and academic chiefs. Although it was difficult to measure the impact of her work in the large urban district, it is the working relationships and empowering neighborhood schools to lift up the educational experiences of students that made the experience meaningful.

of the legacy of the school [: 00:02:00

Anna. Welcome to the show

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[00:02:04] Dr. Jim: I'm looking forward to this conversation because it's going to have a lot of texture to it. And we're talking about a big change of pace in terms of the transition that you went through when you shifted from CPS to the Freeport district. But before we dive into that part of the conversation, I think it's important for you to give the listeners and viewers a little bit more context in terms of your career.

And what I'm specifically interested in is understanding some of those key moments through your career that really helped shape your leadership philosophy and how that shows up in the various districts that you've worked at.

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And I learned so much about the power of community and the power of creating a strong partnership between, hey, if you're a family and you're paying for tuition, chances are, you're going to be very invested right in that. After 14 years, I thought, Hey, I'll try the public sector. So that's where I transitioned to CPS in 2001.

And that was a very different experience still focus on community and neighborhood schools, but that's where I really began to understand, the importance of public school as an equity piece where our job really in the public education is to make sure kids have opportunities that kids had resources, and how do we as caretakers of the taxpayer dollars, make sure that it, it really benefits all students in, in the school.

So I was there for 18 years in Chicago public school.

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When you look at that transition between public school district or a private school district, a public school district, what were some of the big differences that you noticed and how did that shape how you had to navigate the system and allocate resources to effectively deliver what the districts needed?

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That means working with the adults. That means communicating how does our vision align to our actions. Because you can have great mission statement, vision statements, but the actions you're seeing in school are not necessarily aligning you. To what you want the output to be so to me in my career, I started what I call building on ramps, right?

The on ramps is for students to see themselves as opportunities for, when I have a good quality education, I can get on this ramp and I can also have access to an off ramp, right? More focus on the larger picture rather than just teaching, reading and all that. I began to start thinking about.

y in the lives of these kids [: 00:06:00

[00:06:06] Dr. Jim: So there is an interesting aspect of your answer that I think would be helpful for a lot of people that are listening to the conversation, and that's when you mentioned the disconnect between the alignment of vision and action. That's common across a lot of organizations. You have mission and vision statements that are plastered up all over the place, but the behavior doesn't line up.

So what were some of the things that you did to embed that the accepted behavior into The operating rhythm of an organization that lined up really well with mission and vision

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And that's where I really learned how to get into the arena. I call it the arena, right? I always tell my people you can't make decisions from your office. Let's say as a principal, I can't make decisions when I don't know how the kids are learning. I can't make good decisions when I'm not speaking to parents, when I'm not inviting parents in.

I can't make good decisions when I never talk to my teachers and I don't know their struggles or challenges or the resources that they need and the supports they need. So I think I had to me. It was really removing that disconnect between, the work of central office, the bureaucracy that can exist there and what truly happens in a school.

So anything all. Initiatives that you have in programs, while it's all great, it's really how the kids are experiencing learning in the classroom with their teachers that matter the most.

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[00:08:19] Dr. Anna Alvarado: First of all, I'm, I love taking risks. I love, again, for my little comfort zone of 14 years in a private school, challenging myself to go to a Chicago public school was already a huge move, even if it's in the same city. And, that was a huge move, right? After 18 years, immersed in that work, when I got that call about, would you be interested in, applying for, and I said, no, but come on, just talk to the board and it's funny I'm just going to let it go.

with just the commitment to [: 00:09:00

One thing that tells me a lot about what kind of superintendent a district will get depends on their search. Their search process told me a lot how serious they were and what they wanted and who they wanted to have, lead the school district. So to me, the first draw was the board because I needed to make sure if these 7 people are going to be my bosses, I want to make sure that all of us can.

Can share our common values and the values that really came out of that board was we're in for all the kids here, like we want what's best for our kids. I never sense a huge political, landscape where I needed to tiptoe around who these individuals are. They were just so committed.

To doing what's best for the school community. So that to me was the number one thing because I always say I will not work for a dysfunctional board because nothing gets done.

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[00:10:20] Dr. Anna Alvarado: So they, this the search firm that the board had hired to, help them do their search was very comprehensive. This, the process was comprehensive. Like they first did a survey of the community. I actually read the survey before I agreed to accept, to meet the board because I wanted to know what is it they're looking for.

hools were feeling the staff [: 00:11:00

Trust there was a feeling of you have, you were probably going to be suffering, paying a consequence for not going along or getting along or something like that. So that to me was a big signal about. There's a lot of healing that needed to happen within the community itself, and part of that process was so the first interview after that, they called me back and then they had done their homework, right?

teachers the FEA, so just a [: 00:12:00

So I really appreciated that because when I felt it was time to make a decision, when they offered it to me, I had a really clear picture of what I was getting myself into. I literally did not come here thinking, what the heck did I do? When I came here, it was, I am so excited to work for this board and I'm so excited to get to know the community more.

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[00:12:36] Dr. Anna Alvarado: Yep.

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So when you got into the district, what was your process to get your bearings on? What are the real things that I need to pay attention to and impact in a very short amount of time?

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I went to schools. I wasn't looking for anything like bulletin board. I wasn't looking for. I really truly just wanted to see people. I wanted to see how the kids interacted. I wanted to get to know the teachers. I wanted to get a sense of the needs of the principles, the supports that they have or resources or lack of.

ht? And then with that, most [: 00:14:00

That was important to me. So I remember I asked them, can I do the retreat with you? Because typically they were hire someone to do a retreat and it was more of a data retreat. I wanted the board to understand. Hey, if my marching orders is you want to see academic achievement. That's not a light switch.

I can't just like tomorrow. We're going to be, this kind of school. That's a brick by brick work. And that kind of work is a communal work, which is how do we get on the same page? How do we look at our vision and our mission statement? And does it make sense to us? And then of course, COVID hit, which was even more, but COVID gave me the opportunity to connect with people at a different level, right?

Because now I'm not in buildings, I'm here looking at the screen. And so at that time, the district was also, it was their last year of their five year strategic plan. And on the 5th year, that means we have to write a new strategic plan for the next 3 years. How do I do that when it's during COVID?

Because usually that's a [: 00:15:00

Versus we judge each other.

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What was your process for [00:16:00] whittling that down?

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We really have to accelerate academic achievement for our students. You're talking growth, proficiency, school safety, all fell under that, right? What are we going to do with our special education students, our multilingual learners, our curriculum? Is it viable? All that. The second one, the second big rock is operational efficiency.

ol programs, our career tech [: 00:17:00

So those all came together. So we stayed on those three big rocks because otherwise if you're trying to do everything it's too broad. It's like a mile wide and just right. So we tried to really stay on those three big rocks that we have.

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[00:17:35] Dr. Anna Alvarado: Yes, the first thing to me was the academic excellence commitment, because under there is when we had the opportunity to revisit the curriculum, what are we using to teach reading, what are we using to teach math, and then evaluate the resources, the curriculum that's there. It also, one of the things too is there's three tenants that came from that is how are we going to [00:18:00] teach.

So it's how we teach and how do we offer support and how do we collaborate. Defining the how we teach, how do we support, and how do we collaborate became about we teach AVID strategies in the district, that's how we teach. How do we collaborate is through PLCs, Professional Learning Communities, with teachers.

And the last one is. How do we support is the multi tiered support where we have core instruction, improving that, and then the school safety fell under that because if you don't have a safe school environment, it's hard to make, staff and students and parents feel safe.

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And when I think of that question in the K through 12 context, If we're talking about educators, the support care and feeding of educators really sits at [00:19:00] the building leadership level. So what were the things that you were doing to get your building leaders better equipped to support the educators and even other staff in those buildings so that you could drive that academic excellence.

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It's your fault. So there's no ownership. So what we did was I put so much time and emphasis on helping and supporting schools on building their school improvement plan. We're in the schools, we look at, they look at their data. At different times during the year. They have what you call the data days when they look at their data They look at their priorities based on the data that they looked at [00:20:00] What are we prioritizing and I don't want priorities more than two or three things Because that's not a priority when everything is important Nothing is important, right and sometimes that's hard for schools because they think they have to fix everything But let's say we're looking at a certain let's say you're looking at your reading scores what you could do with that is look at is there a group of students?

That are not growing and they're not showing proficiency within your reading scores versus saying we're going to increase reading scores for all kids in our school be targeted, be focused, and sometimes again, that's hard for schools because you tendencies we want to fix everything, but true progress comes in small increments.

help you. Be your extension, [: 00:21:00

Because you can't do everything. So we taught teachers and principals who are in the school improvement plan how to look at the data, how to identify root causes. Why is this group of students, why are we seeing them not progressing over time? And the thing about root cause is you have to be able to name a root cause that you can control.

So you can't say, the parents don't read to them at night, you can't control that. So therefore we're not fixing that, right? And then they had to write a strong theory of action, meaning if we did these things, Then this is what's gonna happen. And the result of that is we're gonna achieve the goal that we set for reading math or your climate, culture, whatever.

And then you monitor your work.

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[00:22:04] Dr. Anna Alvarado: So once you have laid out, you understood your data, you now wrote your goal and you have your root costs and your theory of action. Now you're going to put the most important piece of that strategic plan, which are your strategies and your actions. Which of your strategy is about shifting the behavior, shifting dynamics, shifting the way you thought about the work with your teachers, and what are the actions that are going to take you to achieve your goal?

gues and work with a reading [: 00:23:00

And then when we do our assessment, whether it's end of a unit assessment, whether it's interim assessment, we're looking at that data closely and seeing what are we missing, where are the gaps? And we look at the standards. Are we all aligned? So again, it's it, that's why it's called the logic model.

You think about you can't just have an action not tied to a strategy, but your strategy is what should bring you back to are these things going to few things going to help me achieve my goal. And if and then you track it throughout the year. So we have a middle of the year performance management, and we have an end of the year performance management.

continue the work and let's [: 00:24:00

Internalizing a unit before they teach it or looking at data to see, are there students that need to be on a tier two level, meaning additional math time, additional reading time? And what would that look like?

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You're not moving. 15 different items that you need to keep track of. And that creates a really low load from a management and tracking perspective. So keeping things simple really helps streamline the tracking process over time. I think up to this point in the conversation, we have a fairly decent framework of how you hit the ground running once you're dropped in the middle of a strategic plan in the middle of a Completely different context and how you accelerate the pace of change So I think all of this stuff that we talked [00:25:00] about is pretty solid You One of the things that I'm wondering is when you looked at the scenario that you were in and your emphasis on focusing on academic impact as the first element of the strategic plan that you wanted to drill in on, when you look back now, what was the impact of that work and how did it reshape the district?

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And they're not looked down as what do you mean? Why won't you be able? Why can't you do that? But let's figure it out together, right? Another thing is, there is a sense of we are moving. And this is what I hear from the community is that we are, most people say we are moving in the right direction. And I think what they're really saying is, I'm seeing how the mission of the district.

Is now aligning to the work of schools, right? They might not say 85 percent of our students are proficient or are growing or right. What that's all good. Cause that's the data that, the Illinois school report card report reports. But I think when I'm seeing some of the surveys that we're getting especially from the staff, we just did what you call our HR department gave Conducted a state interview with all the staff.

that we were able to secure. [: 00:27:00

I've only, I've already been here for six years. That's like a blink of an eye, right? So every time I start the kickoff in the beginning of the year, I'm like, I'm still here because there is, I know, trepidation to hire a superintendent who doesn't live in the district because chances are they'll come and go, right?

They'll, they're not from here. They're, but again, I've proven I'm not a hopper. I grow roots in the community. I want to always be part of doing good work and hard work, and that's what I'm seeing in every school. Just the care that comes into, who are our children that are constantly chronic absent.

d this year, our focus is on [: 00:28:00

Freeport was 35 percent. Chronic, right? And the biggest culprit for us were the preschoolers and kindergarten students. That means we have work to do when it, those kids don't drive themselves to school, right? So we have work to do in terms of educating our parents. Coming to school is a habit you form and it's a life skill, right?

kids to: 3500

But the level of [00:29:00] commitment is the same, right? In fact, here, it's more on a microscope. It's under a microscope because your small moves in a small community gets broadcasted. And right, it's a very different dynamic. But the people here in Freeport are just they really want genuine positive experience.

They understand, that we've been there, done that. And right. It's there, there's so much of, yeah, here's another new superintendent coming in here. There's like a level of exhaustion almost that what's new again what's the flavor of the year kind of thing. So I try to really walk away from that kind of leadership, which is what's the flavor of the year kind of leadership, but that's why the school improvement planning that I talked to you about is a two year planning.

at's a three year work, then [: 00:30:00

[00:30:06] Dr. Jim: When you think about this conversation that we had and, the scenario that you were faced with was big change in context. Getting dropped into a district that's completely different than what you're used to learning on the fly and then driving impact If you're advising somebody else that's listening to this, this conversation On the two or three key things that they need to keep in mind to pull that off effectively What were the most valuable things that you learned from your process that you think others can use?

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Ask questions like you don't have to solve all the problems. You can't come to a community thinking you're going to fix it. Imagine if I just [00:31:00] came here hey, everything you're doing here is wrong. Holy cow. I would probably be out of here after a year. Because who wants to work with a superintendent with a know it all, thinks she could do it all.

And the third one is vulnerability. I still have so much, areas where, I can improve, as a leader. So walking in people's spaces and being visible and learning alongside people I love taking principles to, PD or professional development where I'm learning alongside them, because I might be learning from a different lens and they're learning from a different lens, but all together.

We have a very powerful connection when we know we get to appreciate your perspective and my perspective. Yeah, and with all those, the umbrella to me is be bold. You can't operate from a fear perspective, right? When you can't be fearful of what are they going to say? I think when people get to know you well enough.

and the standard of how you [: 00:32:00

It just means, hey, learn from mistakes, right? As long as it doesn't cost us a lot of money.

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[00:32:25] Dr. Anna Alvarado: Oh, they can email me.

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When I look at the formula for success in terms of getting hitting the ground running, there are three things that you did that I think are impactful for anybody that's in this facing this similar scenario. The first thing that you did is you kept things simple rather than focus on 15 different priorities.

You identified a [: 00:33:00

So those two things were. Really impactful. And then the third thing that you did was when you talked about ownership and letting the front line drive, and I think this is where a lot of leaders can fall over is that they build the strategy and they want to execute, but execution and successful execution is driven by the front lines.

reciate you hanging out with [: 00:34:00

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