Accelerate Institute leaders across the country leveraged their training to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and meet the quickly changing needs of their school communities.
Following the stories of 31 leaders across 4 states, we have witnessed how they are fearlessly leading their teams, networks, students, and families through the toughest challenges of this crisis.
Many of the challenges our leaders are facing are similar to those of school leaders across the country, including:
- constantly changing information coming from states and districts;
- limited time to plan and transition to a new remote learning environment;
- and a need to re-negotiate teacher union contracts to ensure that students can continue learning.
But some of the challenges are unique to leading a high-poverty and high-minority school, and this crisis is shining an even brighter light on the inequities that are pervasive throughout our country. Our leaders have had to think through additional action plans for how to facilitate student access to computers and WiFi, how to distribute food to students who are food insecure, and how to best communicate with parents who might speak limited English but need to understand how to engage with their children as they are learning remotely.
The weight of inequity is on the shoulders of our leaders daily, but even more so throughout this crisis, as they know that the opportunity and achievement gaps that they are dedicated to helping their students overcome are only going to grow. Their students will face a greater “slide” because they have less resources and less opportunities to make up for lost learning experiences, such as field trips and college visits.
Their students are also more likely to experience trauma at home due to parent job loss and the stress of uncertainty, as well as higher numbers of parents and classmates testing positive for the virus with serious critical health needs and poorer outcomes.
Nonetheless, we have stories of leaders rising and responding to this crisis in ways that inspire and show the strength of an Accelerate Institute leader.
With student needs at the forefront, they are leveraging two key tools from their learning in our program: the Accelerate Framework and the Transformational Leadership Building Blocks.
The Accelerate Framework gave leaders a structure to guide their planning through this unforeseen crisis and ensure they were focused on the most important objectives without missing out on any key areas.
Click on the links below for more specific examples of how leaders are implementing the Accelerate Framework objectives in new ways.
Leaders’ Transformational Leadership Building Block skills, which they have honed during their time in our program, have helped them successfully manage their teams, families, and students in a new virtual world. In leading fearlessly through this crisis, they have exemplified all of the Transformational Leadership Building Blocks, but especially strategic thinking and planning, communication, relationship building, resilience, and “get it.”
They have had to be calm and controlled while everyone is looking at them for the answer. They have had to be vulnerable, name the challenges, and admit that they do not have all the answers and they are uncertain, too. These Building Blocks are at the heart of every leader’s ability to lead through this crisis.
Leading through this crisis is a “first time” experience for all our leaders, even the veterans. Accelerate Institute’s cohort program model has given leaders essential peer support, allowing time and virtual space for them to come together to problem solve and share ideas with each other.
Cohorts have been sharing resources, doing weekly problems of practice, and even gathering for virtual “happy hours” for some unstructured time to connect and de-stress. Each and every day, our fearless leaders fight for better outcomes for their students. And it’s clear that during the toughest of times, they rise to meet the challenges in front of them. That gives us so much hope for the future of education in America.
Maximizing Learnings from Accelerate Institute to Initiate a Two-Phase Response
Our leaders were faced with short timelines to respond to the directive that school buildings would be closed, and the length of the closure was uncertain. Accelerate leaders were able to leverage their learning from Accelerate Institute and apply it to their strategic response to the crisis at hand.
What we saw was a two-phase response:
Phase 1: Focus on Maslow’s Hierarchy to meet foundational student needs
Phase 2: Reach sustainability in student learning
In their Phase 1 response, our leaders were able to use the Accelerate Framework as a guide to focus on the foundational physiological and safety needs outlined in Maslow’s Hierarchy, Interventions to meet students’ basic needs for food, shelter, and stability align to the drivers in Aspirational & Constructive Environment and are supported by the drivers in High-Performing Team. In the Accelerate Framework, the Aspirational Environment is the door to the school and creates the foundation that students need to be able to learn and grow. Our leaders entered this crisis through the door of Aspirational Environment. As it turns out, creating an Aspirational Environment becomes even more important in a virtual school because you lose the face-to-face touch points, the informal relationship building moments, and the little stories teachers and students share with each other that fortifies their trusting relationships.
Additionally, for many of the students in the communities that our leaders serve, the basic physiological and safety needs from Maslow’s Hierarchy such as the school food program, a stable daily schedule, and heated buildings are lost when students are no longer coming to the building every day. And suddenly, forging even deeper parent partnerships becomes essential, not a “nice to have” for those that opt in but a must have if learning is going to continue in their homes. Along with the Aspirational Environment, its partner Constructive Environment is equally necessary for getting students ready to learn. A school’s Aspirational & Constructive Environment cannot exist without the staff, or High-Performing Team. As a leader in this time of crisis, getting teachers invested and prepared to do the work necessary to create a new school environment is a Phase I priority. In Phase I, a fully completed strategic plan was not in place. Accelerate leaders relied heavily on the Transformational Leadership Building Blocks to guide their team in the short-term: core strategic thinking and planning levers, get it, communication, resilience, and relationship building.
After the initial crisis hit, Accelerate Institute leaders sprang into action to meet the basic needs of students and teachers. Spring break gave many leaders a chance to regroup and strategize their Phase 2 response: a sustainable plan to take them to the end of the year. To do this, our leaders leveraged the drivers of Change Management. These drivers provide a structure for goal setting, buy-in, planning, execution, course correction, and time management.
The “bookend” of Change Management is Black-Belt Teaching. Our leaders needed to crystalize a vision for their remote learning instructional model that was sustainable. Meaning, it meets the developmental needs of students, is manageable for teachers, and still provides whole group, small group, and special education services to all students. There were many expectations coming at leaders from the district or network and from parents on what remote learning should look like, often in conflict with research that said that students should not be in front of a computer for 8 hours. How do you balance needing to meet the needs of students, while also creating sustainable workloads for teachers and meeting the expectations of other stakeholders?
Additionally, many teachers and leaders were fearful of remote learning due to a lack of experience and training. So how do you develop teachers’ confidence and skills on remote learning planning and execution? Our leaders leveraged the “Teacher Support Cycle” to create professional development experiences for teachers, leaning heavier on support and coaching rather than accountability.
Read more about the specific ways that Accelerate Institute leaders are leveraging the Accelerate Framework to put students first during the current challenge:
PHASE 1: Focus on Maslow’s Hierarchy
- Leveraging the Accelerate Framework during a crisis: Aspirational and Constructive Environment
- Leveraging the Accelerate Framework during a crisis: High-Performing Team
PHASE 2: Reach Sustainability
- Leveraging the Accelerate Framework during a crisis: Change Management
- Leveraging the Accelerate Framework during a crisis: Black-Belt Teaching
Sharing the stories of the following leaders with gratitude and respect for ALL of the leaders who continue to disrupt the status quo in education by finding innovative ways to meet the needs of our students and families, especially in a time of crisis.
Splash Splash, Baby!
Dave Trejo (Environmental Charter Middle School-Gardena, Los Angeles)
Aspirational and Constructive Environment
For the first two weeks, Dave focused on three things:
- parent communication using the Talking Points app;
- trauma response;
- and teacher tracking of attendance.
Parents have been very grateful for the consistent communication. He noticed that students that previously had behavior issues in a traditional classroom were producing consistent, quality work during their remote learning time.
Black Belt Teaching
Dave is chunking the academic plans in three-week cycles, using student focus groups and parent surveys to improve the implementation. Dave and his team focused heavily on overcommunication the first 2 weeks. Dave is keeping in mind building a scaffolded, sustainable plan. In the initial launch, the team focused on content review and getting tech worked out. Teachers started out tracking whether students were able to attend remote classes. The team is gradually shifting to a focus on the quality of work submitted. He has dedicated staff members tracking compliance so classroom teachers can focus on planning and instruction.
Javier Hernandez (Voices – Stockton, CA)
Aspirational and Constructive Environment
Javier was able to be a leader in his network in ensuring the basic needs of students were met first, before launching into rigorous e-learning plans. With the urgency that educators feel to deliver high-quality instruction consistently, reminders are needed that students cannot learn if their basic needs are not met. Javier continued to press for this and his network leadership responded, working relentlessly to meet the basic needs of all students before moving to Phase 2.
Katie Kirley and Duane Krambeck (Steel City Academy, Indiana)
Aspirational and Constructive Environment
These two leaders are living the philosophy of the school as a community, sending out daily morning messages to staff, students, and parents. Students remain engaged through daily class morning meetings and weekly classroom competitions. The school is able to provide meals, tech devices, and internet to all families through various grants and partnerships that Katie and Duane have worked to secure.
Kash Wilson (Noble Hansberry College Prep High, Chicago)
Aspirational and Constructive Environment
To support the social and emotional needs of students during this time of uncertainty, Kash is giving teachers access to the school social worker, who is providing support through Google Classroom. This benefits the students, parents and teachers who are all coping with the impact of uncertainty.
Black-Belt Teaching
Kash has used this crisis as an opportunity to create a new vision for learning. A crisis can force us to confront the status quo and ask ourselves, how can we do better for students and families? These leaders have seized that opportunity to look at current practice and innovate.
The question of how you support the professional development needs of teachers during this crisis is a main concern for leaders who rely on coaching and professional development to always improve practice. Kash and Whitney McIntosh are co-facilitating virtual professional development for teacher support on their instructional plan. They utilized Zoom meetings for whole group sessions and facilitated breakout rooms for teachers to practice and receive individualized support.
Jackson Sprayberry (Valor College Prep, Nashville)
Aspirational and Constructive Environment
Jackson is continuing his strong SEL support program by having weekly Valor circles between mentor and mentee groups to make sure that students’ emotional needs are still being met in addition to their academic needs.
Learn more about the SEL program used by Valor (powered by COMPASS)
Video: How One Nashville Public School is Transforming Education
Andi Hernandez (Watsonville Prep, California)
Aspirational and Constructive Environment
Andi and the Navigator family of schools have been obtaining and distributing hotspots to all families without Wi-Fi so that all students can continue to use their school-provided tablets.
Kawika Chun (Equitas Academy #5, Los Angeles)
Aspirational and Constructive Environment
Kawika and the Equitas family of schools have been serving 35,000 meals each week to the Pico Union community, deployed 1500 Chromebooks to scholars and purchased 270 Wi-Fi hotspots for families without internet access. They have also provided families with a toolkit that contains guidance for self-care, distance learning, and links to additional community resources.
High-Performing Team
To ensure that all staff members would continue to get paid, Kawika Chun (Equitas Academy #5, Los Angeles) assigned specific tasks to his school’s hourly workers, such as manning the parent hotline.
Katie-jo Ramirez (Legal Prep, Chicago)
High-Performing Team
Cascading communication in such uncertain times, Katie-jo facilitates daily staff huddles to provide information to staff as quickly as possible, conduct check-ins with them on how they are coping, and communicate to all about the health of staff and students.
Change Management
Via staff huddles, Katie-jo shifted her communication from her Phase I meetings to keep to a regular communication schedule about e-learning expectations, reminding teachers to “stay the course.”
Black-Belt Teaching
Katie-jo has used this crisis as an opportunity to create a new vision for learning. A crisis can force us to confront the status quo and ask ourselves, how can we do better for students and families? These leaders have seized that opportunity to look at current practice and innovate.
Dorothy Cotton-Kindred (University Pathways Medical Magnet Academy, Los Angeles)
High-Performing Team
Because of the positive collaboration between the Los Angeles union and the district, Dorothy has been able to communicate a clear plan for teachers to deliver online instruction and requirements for students to log 4 hours of online learning. She created a master schedule for students and teachers and is also holding weekly all-staff virtual meetings.
Adam Sparks (Acero-Cisneros, Chicago)
High-Performing Team
Adam’s commitment to communication has kept staff engagement high. He has been spending time participating in virtual calls with cohorts of teachers meeting with their Leadership Team members, Leadership Team meetings, professional development sessions, and informal staff huddles.
Black-Belt Teaching
Adam has teamed up with Allison Hansen (Acero-Marquez, Chicago) to take the lead on their charter network’s remote learning plan. They spearheaded the launch of #AceroLearnsEverywhere, the online platform for remote learning for the ACERO network, which has been a valuable resource for students, teachers, and families.
Angela Johnson-Williams (Providence Englewood Charter School, Chicago)
Change Management
Angela has her team so bought in to goals and systems that after the switch to remote working, they still wanted to keep their momentum going with virtual data analysis meetings.
Luke Corry (Acero-Brighton Park, Chicago)
Change Management
Luke and his team created a tracker to analyze student engagement in their remote learning, giving them a new set of data to use in their data analysis meetings.
Anoli Muñoz (Stella Elementary Charter Academy, Los Angeles)
Black-Belt Teaching
Anoli created a TK-2 plan focused on consistency and connection, while navigating the network’s expectations and proactively planning for a fall “slide” in student achievement.
Shavon Mathus (Great Lakes Academy, Chicago)
Black Belt Teaching
The question of how you support the professional development needs of teachers during this crisis is a main concern for leaders who rely on coaching and professional development to always improve practice. Shavon and Whitney McIntosh (Great Lakes Academy, Chicago) are co-facilitating virtual professional development for teacher support on their instructional plan. They utilized Zoom meetings for whole group sessions and facilitated breakout rooms for teachers to practice and receive individualized support.
Whitney McIntosh (Great Lakes Academy, Chicago)
Black-Belt Teaching
Whitney has used this crisis as an opportunity to create a new vision for learning. A crisis can force us to confront the status quo and ask ourselves, how can we do better for students and families? These leaders have seized that opportunity to look at current practice and innovate.
The question of how you support the professional development needs of teachers during this crisis is a main concern for leaders who rely on coaching and professional development to always improve practice. Whitney and Shavon Mathus are co-facilitating virtual professional development for teacher support on their instructional plan. They utilized Zoom meetings for whole group sessions and facilitated breakout rooms for teachers to practice and receive individualized support.
Allison Hansen (Acero-Marquez, Chicago)
Black-Belt Teaching
Allison teamed up with Adam Sparks (Acero-Cisneros, Chicago) to take the lead on their charter network’s remote learning plan. They spearheaded the launch of #AceroLearnsEverywhere, the online platform for remote learning for the ACERO network, which has been a valuable resource for students, teachers, and families
Chris Cigan (LEARN 10 Charter, North Chicago)
Black-Belt Teaching
After Chris distributed tech devices to the students that needed one, his teachers were able to start providing intervention classrooms based on what they were seeing in the student data.
Rachel Garber (High-Tech LA, Los Angeles)
Black-Belt Teaching
Rachel began preparations for the transition before students left the building by having staff practice the technology access, class structure and what accountability would look like once the transition happened. Every parent was contacted to determine who has access to internet and a computer with school laptops being sent home with those students needing them. The online platform for students was created and once the remote transition happened, the staff and students seamlessly made the switch.