Systems Change Requires Courageous Patience
Culture change is slow. At the same time, as inequitable student outcomes persist year after year, the need for change is urgent. Leaders who seek systemwide transformation are often caught between their sense of urgency and the pace at which accustomed ways of doing, thinking, and being can realistically shift. In this environment, creating the space and time for real and lasting change in the ways that educators lead, learn, and improve together requires steadfast, courageous patience. It requires, too, a tenacious commitment to bringing others on board to a multi-year vision for a sustained effort toward a collective, transformative goal.
In Alameda Unified School District, under the leadership of Assistant Superintendent Kirsten Zazo and the Educational Services team, culture change is happening. Since 2021, AUSD has partnered with Lead by Learning to shift away from a culture of compliance around School Plans for Student Achievement (SPSA) and toward a culture of distributive leadership of meaningful integration of SPSA goals. Each year of this multi-year partnership has built strategically on the last:
- In 2021-22, Lead by Learning introduced district and site leaders to the principles of adult learning to create the conditions for collaboration at their school sites to bring their School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) to life.
- In 2022-23, Lead by Learning supported cross-site, districtwide inquiry for principal and teacher leader teams to build a shared vision and site-level commitment around a unified instructional focus. Each team added a priority adult learning goal to their goals for student learning.
- In 2023-24, Lead by Learning supported collaborative inquiry at multiple levels of the AUSD system, including the district leadership team, principals, and teacher leaders, to help ensure a smooth launch of systemwide, teacher-led PLC collaboration in service of SPSA goals.
- In 2024-25, Lead by Learning will continue to engage teacher leaders in collaborative inquiry while partnering with district leaders to increase alignment and coherence between all systemwide collaborative spaces.
Through the expected ups and downs, Assistant Superintendent Zazo and her colleagues have demonstrated courageous patience, tenacity, and commitment to nurturing an empowered community of site and teacher leaders. They have supported these leaders in unifying their colleagues around equity-centered goals and collaborative routines to improve instructional practice and outcomes for students.
The photos below give a small snapshot of AUSD’s unfolding journey.
Lead by Learning met with AUSD principals monthly in the 2021-2022 school year to lay the foundation of inquiry-based collaboration. Leaders were introduced to and engaged with Public Learning, Supportive Challenge, and Street Data to begin setting the wheels in motion for student-centered, teacher leader-led collaboration.
The AUSD Ed Services Team kicked off 2022 with Lead by Learning, building community and refining their vision for supporting site leaders to unify their teams around an equity-driven instructional focus. They returned to Mills College at Northeastern two more times that year to revisit their vision and understand their effectiveness at supporting sites to reach their SPSA goals.
In 2022-23, Lead by Learning led twice monthly collaborative inquiry sessions for principals and teacher leaders to refine their instructional foci, plan next steps for building shared commitment and buy-in at their sites, and reflect on the success of those plans. By reflecting on models of Public Learning and engaging in it themselves, administrators and teacher leaders worked in partnership to reflect on student and adult learning data and understand the equity implications for their sites. For a concrete example, check out Assistant Principal Alison Krasnow’s blog post on how Lead by Learning helped her think about attending not only to satellite data metrics but also to individual student voice through focal groups.
In Summer 2023, teacher leaders and principals reflected with Lead by Learning on their leadership identity, core values, and vision as they prepared to launch Year 1 of systemwide teacher-led PLC collaboration. Lead by Learning views teacher leaders as the critical lever for transforming instructional practice and supports them to exercise their agency to articulate goals for their PLCs that align with their sites’ SPSA and overall vision for student success.
The teacher leaders continued to convene on Zoom throughout the 2023-24 school year to build their facilitation toolkits and grapple with the challenges of leading adult learning. Through experiencing, reflecting on, and planning to use these Essential Building Blocks for Adult Learning and Collaboration, the teacher leaders engaged their colleagues in thinking about data and practicing Public Learning.
In 2023-24, Lead by Learning facilitated quarterly visioning and progress monitoring retreat with the AUSD Educational Services Team to articulate their shared indicators of success for site leaders who empower teacher leadership of PLCs.
At Lead by Learning’s Inquiry in Action Forum at Mills College in May 2024, Assistant Superintendent Kirsten Zazo shared the story of Alameda Unified’s commitment to transforming the culture of adult learning. (Watch Zazo’s presentation.)
In May 2024, AUSD teacher leaders, principals, district leaders, and coaches met for a final Inquiry Share and Celebration during which PLC leaders reflected on and shared their takeaways from a year of leading colleagues’ collaboration. To prepare for the session, Lead by Learning supported AUSD teacher leaders and site leaders to collect district-wide data about student and adult learning using the Lead by Learning Spring Impact Survey.
In Summer 2024, the newest cohort of AUSD teacher leaders and their principals came together in partnership with Lead by Learning and prepared to embark on their second year of systemwide teacher-led PLC collaboration.
Interested in working with Lead by Learning to support professional learning and systems change in your district? Connect with a member of our team to learn more about our partnerships.
