Leader 2 Leader

  By:   Jenna Bartkiewicz, Partner, Education Elements   Ms. Evans had, by most demonstrable measures, a successful year. If you had popped by her classroom on any day of the week, you would have likely marked nearly all the boxes on whatever checklist you entered with: student engagement was high, but not disorderly. Kids supported each other and worked collaboratively as they grappled with rigorous content; and it was clear students had built plenty of endurance throughout the year: they could work long stretches without interruption, enabling Ms. Evans to conference with students at regular intervals. You could often find her after school diligently planning lessons on her own. Unsurprisingly, she quietly saw her student data begin to soar, and expectations were high as state testing came into view. Though scores hadn’t come back yet, students reported the tests being a breeze: “Way easier than what Ms. Evans makes us do”, reported one student with a sly smile. ...

   Leading Up While Managing the Unexpected? By: Elvis Epps, Principal, Lake Worth Community High School One of my favorite television shows was Star Trek as a child. No one on television was as cool and calm as Captain James T. Kirk. In every show, Captain Kirk would end up fighting an alien force. His primary duties as the captain of the USS Enterprise were to lead and protect his crew and his ship. If you were a fan of the show, you could probably finish this line from Captain Kirk. “Scotty, I need more ______! That’s right, and he always needed more power. Scotty would always respond, “Jim, I don’t have more power to give.” Captain Kirk would order him to find it wherever he could. Captain Kirk never accepted Scotty’s answers or excuses for not having extra power. Captain Kirk wanted more power, and that’s what Scotty usually came up with. Scotty never failed to deliver more power. The shows were exciting and memorable. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always hold when leading ...

  By: Cynthia L. Johnson As the number of teachers that leave a school increases, the struggle to recruit highly-qualified teachers also increases. At the same time, the quality of the teacher workforce decreases, negatively impacting student achievement.1 Nearly half of all teachers that enter education today will leave within the first five years of teaching. Those that teach in low-socioeconomic schools are twice as likely to leave. This continuous revolving door is detrimental to students, staff, and education as a whole. The study, Phenomenological Study: Recruitment and Retention of Highly Qualified Teachers in North Florida Title I Elementary Schools by Cynthia Johnson, reviewed literature regarding the background of teacher attrition and conducted a qualitative analysis on the best practices of principals of high-performing Title I schools in their efforts to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers. Through principal and teacher interviews, the study found a positive r...

    Five Lessons Learned as an Educational Leader By Richard Surrency, Superintendent, Putnam County Schools   I am the elected superintendent of the Putnam County School District serving in my sixth year. Since my first day in office, beginning in November of 2016, our district has focused on improving student achievement and on time graduation for our 10,500 students.   In 2015, only 54.9% of our seniors graduated on time. Through a strategic initiative, we improved the graduation rate to 92.5% in 2021. This is the largest increase in Florida during the same time period.   In 2017, 11 of our 18 schools were receiving state turnaround support to improve school performance as determined by Florida’s school grading system. Our instructional team led an initiative to improve school culture and standards-based core instruction and intervention. At this time, we have zero schools receiving state turnaround support.   These improvements highlight the importance ...