“Is the glass half-empty or overflowing with endless verse?” This comes from a custom poem created for Leadership Summit by students with Get Lit, a youth literacy and empowerment curriculum that transforms students into artists, activists, scholars and stars.

“There are some bright spots.” ACSA Legislative Advocate Diana Vu shared this during a session with Lindsay Tornatore of California County Superintendents on the California School Dashboard. Vu explained how to frame the newly released student assessment scores as a “new baseline” for post-COVID. She said districts can highlight the positives in their data as evidence of what’s working. “Show that off, send it to your communities,” Vu said. “I think that’s going to help change the conversation.”

“I was going to end up dead or in prison.” Keynote Dr. Victor Rios shared his fatalistic outlook on life during high school, when he was a convicted felon and gang member. But he also had a teacher, Ms. Russ, who said she would be there for him when he was ready to turn his life around. Now a professor and expert on the school-to-prison pipeline, Rios urged educators to stop predicting children’s futures based on labels (“thug” “drop-out”) and instead see their potential. He advocated for balancing serving the emotional needs of students with holding them to high standards — like Ms. Russ said, “Victor, I care for you, but I can’t carry you.”

“You are some of the most important people in America right now because of what’s happening in our country.” Keynote and The Who We Are Project Founder Jeffrey Robinson explained the importance of educators teaching the truth about racism in U.S. History. Robinson cited numerous examples of laws, including the U.S. Constitution, that were enacted to preserve slavery and prevent Black people from attaining education and power in our country. He also detailed how America has sought to erase this part of its history by pretending racism is not a problem anymore. Robinson pointed to vocal opponents of Critical Race Theory as an indication of the “desperation” some people have to prevent the truth from being known. “Somebody is really scared about this information becoming endemic in America,” he said.

“One of the ongoing, chronic problems that faces our field ... is the separation between theory and research and practice.” Pedro Noguera said this during day two of the ACSA/USC Rossier School of Education Leadership Institute for Superintendents. He spoke about the need for education researchers and practitioners to be in the same room together. He said researchers must find ways to make their findings accessible and useful to those doing the work in schools. School leaders must also follow the research, he said, noting that many schools place the newest, least experienced teachers with the neediest kids. “We don’t do it because the research says that’s what you should do,” Noguera said. “We do it for political reasons, because it’s politically expedient.”