1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,340 I want to share something before I completely answer your question. 2 00:00:05,340 --> 00:00:09,760 Members of my team and I interview kids all of the time. 3 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:14,320 And maybe it's the case that every chief academic officer would say this, but when I say it, 4 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,420 I mean it from the depths of my being. 5 00:00:17,420 --> 00:00:23,720 We have the most brilliant, capable students. 6 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:29,120 When you speak to them, their student achievement in no way matches who they are when you talk 7 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:30,120 to them. 8 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:34,040 I'm not just saying that in a warm, fuzzy, educator way. 9 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:38,320 I'm saying that as someone who has spoken to them, who has listened to them articulate 10 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:40,840 their view of the district. 11 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:44,440 They are breathtakingly brilliant and amazing. 12 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:49,320 Are you a teacher? 13 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:53,640 Are you a teacher? 14 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:54,640 I'm recording a podcast. 15 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:55,640 Are you recording right now? 16 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:56,640 Okay. 17 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:57,640 Mom, I hope you're proud of me. 18 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:00,400 I love you. 19 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:01,400 Tell me what you love about school. 20 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:05,440 I love that people are very nice. 21 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:10,080 I want to say that I like Highland a lot. 22 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:14,160 As students, what do you guys want your school to do for you? 23 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:16,680 What kind of things do you expect from your school? 24 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:20,280 I expect the highest education there is. 25 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,480 I expect the hardest math. 26 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:24,480 You like math? 27 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:25,480 Yes. 28 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:26,480 I like science. 29 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,600 I like science and it's so fun. 30 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:35,000 You have good principals, you have good friends and they have good teachers. 31 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,000 Miss Francis. 32 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,000 Miss Wimfield and Miss Rose. 33 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:41,000 Miss Garcia. 34 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:42,000 Miss Nuggets. 35 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,000 And they have the principal, Mr. Yoh. 36 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,080 That's what I hope us to learn. 37 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,320 The school cares for you. 38 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:56,760 Here at Highland Elementary in Inglewood, California, a district in the southwestern 39 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:02,960 part of Los Angeles County with a population of just over 100,000 residents. 40 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:08,320 You may know Inglewood for Sofie Stadium or the home of Randy's Donuts. 41 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:13,320 But not too long ago, Inglewood was a blue ribbon school district and one of the most 42 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,240 well regarded programs in the nation. 43 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,960 From page of the LA Times, April 13th, the Inglewood Miracle. 44 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:24,720 This district had the highest test scores of any district in the state of California. 45 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:29,480 Not only a national blue ribbon, we were a California Distinguished School and we were 46 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,240 a Title I academic achievement school. 47 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:34,720 We received all three awards and won. 48 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:40,200 And many districts came from across the country to visit Inglewood and to see what they were 49 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,000 doing. 50 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:47,160 This once blue ribbon school district, labeled as one of the best in the nation, fell on 51 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:51,080 tough times, landing them in state receivership. 52 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:55,360 This is a district that has so much promise and so much potential, but there are some 53 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:58,640 tough decisions that have to be made in the school district. 54 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:01,080 But what does that mean for the students? 55 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:05,600 What does it mean for the teachers, the staff, admin? 56 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:13,480 What the hell does state receivership even mean? 57 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:18,160 When you're in state receivership, there's this sense of hopelessness that sets in. 58 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:23,720 Inglewood faces many challenges, some due to mismanaged financial issues that then trickle 59 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:26,160 down to school sites across the district. 60 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:31,240 One of the challenges Inglewood has is the district's enrollment has gone from 18,000 61 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:35,160 students to 7,000 students. 62 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:40,600 There was a point where teachers were being laid off because of declining enrollment. 63 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:42,480 Test scores begin to decline. 64 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:47,440 If you look at a system that has been told for 12 years, you're in receivership. 65 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:49,640 The effect that has on people. 66 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:51,920 There's definitely a negative perception sometimes. 67 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:52,920 Where do you work? 68 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:53,920 Inglewood. 69 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:54,920 Oh. 70 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:56,560 Teacher raises begin being deferred. 71 00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:02,760 Teachers just like students have to be emotionally healthy and feel respected and feel that sense 72 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:06,440 of belonging and feel like they have a say and they have a voice. 73 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:08,400 Brown starts to fall off. 74 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,320 And I've also noticed students are not prepared. 75 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:16,160 They just are not prepared and I don't know where that ball is being dropped. 76 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:21,000 School sites are being held up by duct tape, literally and figuratively. 77 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,720 And they have 155 accountabilities that the district has to meet. 78 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:29,040 These are requirements for the fiscal crisis and management assistance team. 79 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,680 This is what you have to do in order to get out of receivership. 80 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:35,000 And on and on and on. 81 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,400 It has gone on 12 years now. 82 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:42,080 They had money being thrown at them and people wanting to start different types of charter 83 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,080 schools, having different partnerships. 84 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:48,880 The culture that made Highland a blue ribbon school quickly vanished. 85 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:51,760 Just a lot of initiatives. 86 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:56,040 Constant changes in leadership, opinions coming in left and right. 87 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:01,280 Not all help is good help and some of that help was detracting Inglewood. 88 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:06,400 What was once a harmonious setting was now a train derailed, trying to find its way back 89 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:07,400 on track. 90 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:11,440 Being a part of state receivership means that you lose local control. 91 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:17,600 But an element of that was a lesson learned that having a state administrator in a local 92 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:20,040 school district was not beneficial. 93 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:26,880 The passing of AB 1840 allows for the district to be supported more locally with the County 94 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:29,000 Office of Education. 95 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:34,120 If you're like me and you're having trouble keeping up with all of this, good. 96 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:38,360 Try and imagine for a moment just what it might feel like for that type of confusion 97 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:42,920 to be in your brain all the while trying to lead a classroom full of students. 98 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:47,520 And not just lead them, but meaningfully focus on them. 99 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:50,400 Give them your full attention. 100 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:55,440 To not feel like you're constantly short changing them. 101 00:05:55,440 --> 00:06:00,960 This is Rising from the Margins, the podcast that delves deep into the triumphs and challenges 102 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:06,920 of some of California's most economically challenged schools. 103 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:16,360 Chapter 2, Part 1, Highland Elementary in Inglewood, California. 104 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,280 If you're new to the podcast, welcome. 105 00:06:19,280 --> 00:06:22,040 I'm your host Byron Watkins. 106 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:26,960 Our previous episode has excellent insights into the intensive assistance model that's 107 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:31,160 working well at Washington Elementary in Madera, California. 108 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:35,920 I would check that out, as it may help you follow along with today's episode. 109 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:40,480 Because while there are similarities between these schools, Highland comes with tremendous 110 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:46,360 challenges, weighted context, and it can all feel deflating at times. 111 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:48,120 But there is hope. 112 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:53,360 Hope comes in the form of CCEE, an acronym you'll hear used quite a bit. 113 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:57,080 It stands for the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence. 114 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:01,840 They've been involved with Inglewood since April of 2018, and specifically with Highland 115 00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:05,520 for the past two years, implementing the intensive assistance model. 116 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:11,920 And you get the heart of CCEE's job is to help districts look in the mirror and understand 117 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:19,640 how their systems, their policies, their practices are impacting student outcomes. 118 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:24,840 And that's really, really challenging work because it is human work. 119 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:29,760 Meet Stephanie Gregson, Deputy Executive Director for CCEE. 120 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:34,800 In her role, she's hands-on in the trenches, overseeing the direct technical assistance 121 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:40,480 efforts focusing on school turnaround, which includes a number of school sites across California 122 00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:44,440 who have adopted the intensive assistance model. 123 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,320 And Highland Elementary is one of them. 124 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:51,800 This has actually been a test school for the entire Inglewood School District. 125 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:57,120 And Inglewood at that time did not have an infrastructure in place to handle systems 126 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:01,720 improvement because a system is created by the people. 127 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:08,640 And so they have the decision to change the system, to disrupt it and do something differently. 128 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:14,880 And so our work is centered on helping them do exactly that by asking different questions 129 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:19,440 by coaching, by lifting up all of those different places. 130 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:28,880 I think one of the things we tend to do in education is, you know, we adopt every disjointed, 131 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:32,240 fragmented innovation that comes along. 132 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:35,720 And then we expect teachers to implement it. 133 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:38,320 That is Dr. Jim Morris. 134 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:42,280 He's the newly appointed county administrator for Inglewood School District. 135 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:44,680 He comes with a wealth of experience. 136 00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:49,960 He began his career as a teacher, on the principal, superintendent, retiree, and now 137 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:54,840 has been tasked with steering the district back on course to get it out of receivership 138 00:08:54,840 --> 00:09:00,200 and return Inglewood and Highland back to its rightful place. 139 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:07,240 So what Jim is trying to do is peel away all of those detractors from teaching and learning. 140 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:11,880 And that's why he, one of the reasons he likes this model is because it focuses and on teaching 141 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:13,400 and learning. 142 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:17,840 CCEE has been a remarkable partner. 143 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:23,880 Right now our work is really overcoming that label that folks feel, oh, you're a district 144 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:25,800 that hasn't been successful. 145 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:28,840 You're a school district that, you know, had to take out a state loan because you couldn't 146 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:30,400 pay your bills. 147 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:32,640 What exactly is receivership? 148 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:36,800 The simplest way to put it, it's an emergency loan from the state to help when a school 149 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:42,920 district is having financial and budgetary issues, from mismanagement to declining enrollment. 150 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:48,840 And until the school meets a list of requirements and pays back that loan, they are in receivership. 151 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:53,720 In Inglewood's case, they've been stuck here longer than any other school district. 152 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:59,080 It's overcoming that negative stigma and really helping people to believe in themselves and 153 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:01,400 be empowered again. 154 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:07,400 And so CCEE's role has really been in that set of accountability standards in the area 155 00:10:07,400 --> 00:10:15,080 of instruction, helping to define, refine, and narrow the instructional focus of the 156 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:21,040 district. 157 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:25,520 What's becoming clear is that throughout these 12 years of state receivership, the school 158 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:31,320 has been polled in so many directions, and the amount of, quote, unquote, noise has increased 159 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:32,320 tremendously. 160 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:38,240 It has reverberated throughout the school sites, been amplified by the isolation of teachers, 161 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:40,760 and without a light at the end of the tunnel. 162 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:46,280 How does one find the motivation to move forward? 163 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:47,280 It's hard. 164 00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:52,400 It's very hard to get up and just teach. 165 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:54,680 That's what I want to do, teach. 166 00:10:54,680 --> 00:11:00,080 And I got to go through a lot of different things in order to do that. 167 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,280 That's fourth grade teacher Michael Reed. 168 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:05,720 He started his career at Highland 27 years ago. 169 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:09,960 So to say he's seen it all would be a bit of an understatement. 170 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:16,280 Because we are in receivership and we do have other people coming in and they have their 171 00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:22,800 own set of ways that they want to do certain things and what they want to see. 172 00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:26,920 So they come in, so we have to, you know, adhere to that. 173 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:33,040 I don't know, I'm just finding that I don't quite have time to teach because I'm doing 174 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:38,600 a lot of that and not enough with my students. 175 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:44,000 Here's 20 year veteran teacher, Steph Rulodukas of Highland's third grade. 176 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:49,480 There was a time where we thought we were doing PLC back in the day, our principal said, 177 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:54,200 they go to your collaborative group and we would just get this paper fill out what you 178 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:59,480 talked about and then we just turn in the paper, you know, that really isn't a process. 179 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:05,280 And 25 year veteran teacher and guiding coalition member Valerie DeMorris. 180 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:09,720 We had different leadership at the top, which was difficult to implement any one thing. 181 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:11,920 We also have had a lot of different principles over the years. 182 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:16,760 I think I've had 12, 13 different principles in the time that I've been here. 183 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:20,480 A lot of people were just kind of using it as a stepping stone to go on to something else 184 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:25,640 and so we didn't have consistency either at the district or at the top of the school either, 185 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:29,440 so it made it difficult for those of us that were still here putting in the hard work to 186 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:32,040 do what we needed to do for the kids. 187 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:39,560 It's kind of an isolating profession, right, because you're not, you're in the classroom, 188 00:12:39,560 --> 00:12:45,360 right, and then you might see each other at lunch, but not usually, especially if the 189 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:50,840 lunches are staggered, so who are you going to see maybe one other grade level? 190 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:53,720 Teachers that don't get good professional development from their district just have to 191 00:12:53,720 --> 00:13:00,200 look for it elsewhere, so I would find teachers online and I went to conferences outside of 192 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:04,560 Inglewood to get what I needed to be a better teacher and really meet the kids where they 193 00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:06,680 were at and really help them achieve. 194 00:13:06,680 --> 00:13:10,880 But we didn't get any professional development on things that were actually going to be effective 195 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,360 for the kids in the classrooms. 196 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:18,040 But I feel like the district is finally starting to come back around. 197 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:22,360 These are honest and straightforward shares and thoughts from a well-rounded group of 198 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:26,720 teachers, and when you add up the tenure of just the teachers I spoke with today, we're 199 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:30,400 well over a hundred combined years of teaching at Highland alone. 200 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:33,560 They've spent their entire careers here. 201 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:37,920 One thing that we have to remember is that every teacher comes from a different type 202 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:45,160 of credentialing program, a different understanding around the role of a teacher and the different 203 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:50,200 knowledge bases that a teacher must have, especially in elementary school. 204 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:53,720 And they also come with their own thoughts around what a teacher should be and what they 205 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:55,440 shouldn't be. 206 00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:59,120 And so it's human work. 207 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:05,760 But yes, this is about common sense, not being common practice, and this model makes it 208 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:09,120 common practice. 209 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:15,560 If you listen to episode one, you may recall Todd Lyle, the superintendent of Madeira Unified, 210 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:19,880 sharing with us how we need to be better at respecting the degrees and talent that we 211 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:22,040 have within our schools. 212 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:28,960 We need to be better about valuing what we have right in front of us. 213 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:33,200 I think in the beginning the district was doing everything and doing nothing well, and it's 214 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:38,320 changing that to say we're going to focus on a small number of things and do them in 215 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:41,480 a quality way. 216 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:47,680 And I think CCE has been there really from the very beginning to help the district develop 217 00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:51,440 that theory of action. 218 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:53,640 What is the need of this community? 219 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:56,640 Because every school community is a little bit different. 220 00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:01,760 This is Dr. Deborah Duardo, LA County Office of Education's superintendent, who has the 221 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:07,160 distinct privilege of looking after close to two million students within LA County. 222 00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:11,320 You know, making sure that everybody feels that sense of community, that students feel 223 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:12,920 a sense of belonging. 224 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:19,480 And I think when you get to that place where everybody is coming together with one common 225 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:26,120 vision and goal of serving our students as they deserve to be served, we're going to 226 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:31,040 make sure that our district students receive the type of resources, support, the strong 227 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:39,360 instructional program that they're entitled to and that they should have. 228 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:42,000 Let's use a little metaphor here. 229 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:43,800 Consider a wrist watch. 230 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:48,640 It's a precision instrument where all the parts have to work together to tell time. 231 00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:53,680 If you wanted to understand how a watch worked, you would take it apart carefully, understanding 232 00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:58,480 how each part fit together and works with each surrounding part. 233 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:04,440 It is one whole instrument filled with many parts that work together to tell time. 234 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:10,280 Now, imagine wanting to understand how a wrist watch works and grabbing a hammer and then 235 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:11,480 just smashing it. 236 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:16,640 Then trying to see how all the broken shards fit together. 237 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:20,000 This is incoherent. 238 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:25,360 I think it's just typical for most teachers to follow the curriculum. 239 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:31,200 It is effectively what we're doing when we don't see the whole, but a school is one whole 240 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:32,640 thing. 241 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:38,680 Each teacher, each and every grade, and what is being taught in each grade fit together, 242 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:41,880 like a watch, to tell time. 243 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:46,240 I'd say probably the knowledge base is probably a block and not else does they time. 244 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:48,760 It's probably been a block. 245 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:54,160 True intensive model PLCs unfold coherence in relationships. 246 00:16:54,160 --> 00:17:00,200 They do this by creating shared meaning among teachers and allowing them the space and time 247 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:08,080 to solve problems in real time, not months down the road. 248 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:12,800 And I think for so long, so many teachers were acting in isolation. 249 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:15,280 25 year teacher, Valerie DeMorris. 250 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:19,600 There wasn't a lot of collaboration going on and so everyone's feeling so stretched 251 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:25,120 doing all these extra things and yet not collaborating with other people about, hey, what really 252 00:17:25,120 --> 00:17:29,680 works best for you and sharing ideas and we didn't have a lot of that. 253 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:34,680 So I think bringing the attention back to that collaboration is what gets me the most 254 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:38,200 excited how we can really share ideas with each other and learn from each other because 255 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:41,400 we do have good teachers here and they have great ideas. 256 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:45,560 It's just a matter of bringing those out and being able to share them with each other. 257 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:48,120 Stephanie Gregson of CCEE. 258 00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:49,120 In our model. 259 00:17:49,120 --> 00:17:54,400 It's a three year project and year one is extremely hard and challenging, but it's the 260 00:17:54,400 --> 00:18:00,400 groundwork in order for the school to impact student achievement. 261 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:04,920 I think for Highland, being a National Blue Ribbon School and you have staff that were 262 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:10,920 there when it was a National Blue Ribbon School and then being in the state that it was prior 263 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:14,120 to last year, it's hard. 264 00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:15,800 They saw what they were. 265 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,480 They saw what they could be. 266 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:22,680 What they're doing the work and they're doing the right thing. 267 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:28,720 The teacher come up to me and say, well, why isn't this more scripted? 268 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:32,560 That's the voice of Trevenia Jones, third year principal at Highland. 269 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:38,720 And I had to share with the teacher that because it's ours, this is our work. 270 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:41,080 It's about us. 271 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:45,360 Before stepping into the principal's chair, he spent 24 years teaching at, you guessed 272 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:47,960 it, Highland Elementary. 273 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:52,520 This isn't something that you just come in and you get directions and because if that 274 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:57,120 were the case, you could just recreate it, pass it to every school in America. 275 00:18:57,120 --> 00:18:59,080 The answer would be there. 276 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:03,160 That's the piece that I so appreciate because I think that's probably why so many schools 277 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:05,160 are failing. 278 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:09,600 I try what worked at your school at my school and I don't find the same level of success 279 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:13,280 that you had doing this very same thing. 280 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:16,280 County Administrator Dr. Jim Morris. 281 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:18,320 We do that a lot in education. 282 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:20,080 Okay, here's the magic answer. 283 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:21,560 Everybody scurry over here. 284 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:27,520 Oh no, the magic answer was over there. 285 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:32,760 Whereas with this motto is geared towards whatever your school and your situation is. 286 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:34,480 So our kids are uniquely different. 287 00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:35,920 Our struggles are different. 288 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:38,360 The communities we serve are different. 289 00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:41,760 L.A. County Superintendent Dr. Deborah Duardo. 290 00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:44,880 Kids come to school at different places. 291 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,960 We have students who have immigrated from another country that don't speak the language. 292 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:50,680 We have children who are unhoused. 293 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:57,000 We have children where there's substance abuse or domestic violence or a parent is incarcerated. 294 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:03,320 You could just go on and on and on about some of the challenges that can be a barrier to 295 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:04,320 learning. 296 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:08,360 It's like you have to think about this holistically. 297 00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:15,640 But as we've heard, teachers are bogged down by a lot of noise. 298 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:17,360 Blocked. 299 00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:22,040 How can we be truly sensitive to the relationships right in front of us? 300 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:24,960 Sensitive to the personal struggles of our students. 301 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:29,000 Their own brand of noise that keeps them blocked from learning. 302 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:33,520 Blocked from the very experiences that we must provide them so they can believe in themselves 303 00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:35,520 and change their futures. 304 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:39,760 If we're blocked by so many incoherent thoughts and ideas. 305 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:43,960 And that noise at Highland and Inglewood has persisted for years now. 306 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:45,920 We still feel it. 307 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:46,920 Receivership. 308 00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:47,920 Low pay. 309 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:48,920 Unprepared kids. 310 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:49,920 Try this idea. 311 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:50,920 Try that idea. 312 00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,720 Etcetera, etc, etc. 313 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:55,320 And it's hard. 314 00:20:55,320 --> 00:21:01,920 It's very hard to give rid of all that white noise. 315 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,520 And just teach. 316 00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:06,120 That's what I want to do. 317 00:21:06,120 --> 00:21:07,120 Teach. 318 00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:13,080 Anything worth having is going to require us to have to do some difficult work. 319 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:15,800 It's going to require the heavy lift. 320 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,680 And it's going to probably require us to change some things that we're used to. 321 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:25,200 And I think those things are things that I try and reassure teachers that we're moving 322 00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:26,840 in the right direction. 323 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:32,800 And just as you and I spoke earlier, we spoke about this district being a receivership. 324 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:38,880 My question would then be, what do we have to lose? 325 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,560 To me, this model is no critical. 326 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:56,560 It is probably the last hurrah for our district if it does not work. 327 00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:02,520 This former blue ribbon school, now fighting to stay alive, isn't an anomaly. 328 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:07,040 The declining enrollment was a major contributing factor to its receivership. 329 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:11,880 And then the dominoes fell, one by one. 330 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:17,600 So if this can happen to one of the best districts in the nation, can it happen anywhere? 331 00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:21,280 From page of the LA Times, April 13th, the Inglewood Miracle. 332 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:25,440 I was the assistant superintendent of instruction in LAUSD at the time. 333 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:31,760 And we stole people right and left from Inglewood because this district was highly, highly 334 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:34,960 successful. 335 00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:40,080 Perhaps your school is not as immune to this type of situation as you'd like to believe, 336 00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:43,200 or maybe have ever even considered. 337 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:47,960 When things are going great, we tend not to look at what might be going wrong. 338 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:51,040 The old why upset the apple cart. 339 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:56,400 Can we see the lessons of Highland so we can prevent it from happening elsewhere? 340 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,680 If we pay attention to the details of what is being shared with us here, we can see a 341 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:05,000 blueprint begin to take shape of how it happened at Highland. 342 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:09,640 One strong leader leaves, and along with them goes the strong culture. 343 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:13,680 Then incoherence sets in, confusion, fragmentation. 344 00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:16,560 This causes a search for an answer. 345 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:19,960 We look outside of ourselves for those answers because we don't believe that we have the 346 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:21,300 answers. 347 00:23:21,300 --> 00:23:26,760 This act adds noise, too many ideas, making it hard to impossible to see what really needs 348 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:28,240 to be done. 349 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:32,440 This leads to a loss of hope and belief in our abilities that we had when the culture 350 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:36,200 was strong, when our relationships were strong. 351 00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:42,680 A loss of culture, a loss of leadership, and a loss of coherence, all blocked by more 352 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:46,520 and more noise until we cannot see what is actually happening anymore. 353 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:50,000 And that snowball just gets bigger. 354 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,240 This is the smashed watch trying to be fit back together. 355 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:59,520 But the beautiful thing is, we have the answers in us of what needs to be done. 356 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:05,000 100 plus years of teaching talent in just the four teachers we spoke to. 357 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:08,960 Four leaders at Highland. 358 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:13,240 The answer to every problem of practice that we have in this district is already in this 359 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:14,240 district. 360 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:19,680 That's the voice of Dr. Bernadette Lucas, Chief Academic Officer for Inglewood. 361 00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:23,140 And no one can convince me otherwise. 362 00:24:23,140 --> 00:24:28,280 Just imagine what happens when all the teachers, all of the leaders at Highland are collaborating, 363 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:32,600 sharing, and communicating together, working in relationship. 364 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:37,640 PLCs are a way to honor the fact that those answers are already in the district. 365 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,640 It kind of gives you chills. 366 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:47,360 All this requires is us seeing these facts, then actually believing them, then we just 367 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:50,600 got to actually do it. 368 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:55,080 After those two girls from the open, the ones that were so close that they were completely 369 00:24:55,080 --> 00:25:00,600 in sync, they were telling us the right answers to our problems before we even started. 370 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:13,520 We just got to listen. 371 00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:19,240 Kind of gives you chills. 372 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:24,120 Those were responsible for things, not because they are our fault, but because we're the 373 00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:28,280 only ones who can change them. 374 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:33,960 I cannot express to you without seeming crazy how strongly I believe this. 375 00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:39,080 And the culture of PLCs, the practice, the structures bring that about. 376 00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:43,440 That's why I'm so vested in this and have chosen this as one of the drivers for educational 377 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:48,920 services because I do feel so strongly about all these issues related to the kids' liberation. 378 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:58,040 Dr. Lucas is incredible, and you'll hear much more from her in part two of our episode on 379 00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:00,240 Highland and Inglewood. 380 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:05,640 The story is big and there are lots of inspiring and interesting things to share, so we hope 381 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:07,640 that you'll join us for part two. 382 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:12,400 We'll talk more about the work being done, how well it's working, and how it's beginning 383 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:17,240 to reestablish these things that had been lost. 384 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:19,920 Things are shifting and I feel it. 385 00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:21,080 I know what this feels like. 386 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:22,920 I've been here before. 387 00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:31,360 It feels a lot like the shift that we had 13 years ago. 388 00:26:31,360 --> 00:26:36,240 Join us next time for more on Highland Elementary in Inglewood, California. 389 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,120 This is Rising from the Margins. 390 00:26:39,120 --> 00:26:45,280 This series was brought to you by CCEE, the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, 391 00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:50,880 whose mission is to help transform public education so that every student is left inspired 392 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,440 and prepared to thrive as their best self in the world. 393 00:26:54,440 --> 00:27:01,320 If you would like to learn more about CCEE, log on to ccee-ca.org. 394 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:03,920 Additional support was provided by Parssec Education. 395 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:08,520 It was produced in Fresno, California at Winsong Productions. 396 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:15,520 Thank you for listening.