How XQ Institute staff view our work at Washington Leadership Academy
Posted by XQ Institute on December 04, 2017
11/8/17 trip to Washington Leadership Academy
A poster hanging in the hallway between the teacher’s lounge and leadership office at Washington Leadership Academy (WLA) reads, “We Signed Up For This.”
A printout of student achievement targets hangs behind Executive Director Stacy Kane’s desk with “Our Kids, Our Goals” in large font across the top.
ELA teacher Chrystal Miller says the school’s motto is “everyone own everything” while Math teacher Rusty Lee says the school’s infrastructure is based on “embracing a collective approach.”
If there’s one main takeaway from School Support’s November visit to WLA, it’s that the team at WLA is just that — a team.
The team ethos is no accident. From staff development before the school year to daily practices that encourage ongoing communication and collaboration, the WLA collective culture is one that is intentionally cultivated and developed over time. When the goal is preparing students to succeed in the finest college and universities and serve as tomorrow’s leaders, a collective approach of shared responsibility is essential. Throughout the day, we see many examples of this in practice.
Every morning at 7:30am, the WLA staff gather to talk and plan for the day. This “morning huddle” keeps them grounded as a team and community. Science teacher Dr. Steve Robinson kicks off today’s circle with a reflection of gratitude as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches. Natalie Gould, Director of Operations, highlights the good work of a few teachers through a “shoutout”, before another teacher makes an announcement about an upcoming event involving girls and coding. The huddle ends with everyone putting their hands in the middle and shouting, “Cultivate the Karass” — a personal staff motto meant to keep each individual focused on their role as part of a team.
When we meet with Executive Director Stacy Kane and Principal Joey Webb later in the morning, they tell us more about WLA’s collective approach, how it’s developed and how it all adds up to a school that gives students unprecedented access to academic opportunity.
Joey tells us about the immersive learning experiences they create for staff to build group identity and establish trust. Examples include “false conflicts” like escape rooms or IKEA furniture-building challenges as well as setting up “speed bonding” sessions using NY Times 36 Questions that Lead to Love and reflecting together on the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. In fact, everything at WLA is collaborative — from the way teachers use the “special friend” staff channel on Slack to ping each other for help with “just-in-time” student support to the way the WLA leaders deliberately build staff capacity through a deep coaching model and three daily hours of planning time.
Every teacher is assigned a coach who is one of their peers at WLA. They meet for 15–30 minutes daily to review targeted areas based on their own identification of goals as well as results from student achievement data that indicate where instruction can be improved. Coaches review lesson plans, engage in regularly classroom observations and have a list of specific “look fors” aligned to that teacher’s goals.
It’s clear in our conversation with WLA leaders that they understand the importance of shared leadership, diversity in decision-making and building internal capacity among staff. All of this adds up to students who have the support they need.
“WLA has super high expectations for adults and kids,” explains Chrystal Miller. “They [both] have opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise…Being here has eradicated my concept of a teacher on an island. Now I feel the thread of all of our work being interwoven all the time.”
Teacher Rusty Lee adds, “This is not what happens in your room, stays in your room.”
Chrystal says this all comes down to the “sense of agency” teachers and students feel. “Everyone has liberty and freedom to act and voice their opinion.”
Our discussion turns to the way this sense of empowerment connects to the various roles that teachers play at WLA. 10th grade Team Lead Britney Wray explains, “We have many hats. They never come off. I am a counselor, I am a friend of the parents…We’re college counselors, we’re guidance counselors, we’re partnership developers…We care about our kids, we want them to see the best of themselves — teaching them self-beauty, teaching them self-confidence, teaching them so much more than how to multiply and divide.”
Jaishri underscores the importance of the “Our Kids, Our Goals” philosophy. “They’re not ‘these kids’ or ‘those kids,’ they’re not even ‘students,’ they’re ‘our kids’. You see that play out in every moment.”
It’s an especially poignant to hear this from teachers, because it validates the comments we heard from students during our Roundtable with them earlier that morning. We were only a few minutes into our discussion when freshman Lesley Rojas described her teachers as caring and loving. “They love us so much and we love them, too,” she says. “That’s family, you know. We’re WLA family.”
But it’s not all unicorns and rainbows at WLA. It takes a lot of work to create a culture of relationships coupled with high expectations for academic rigor that removes barriers to opportunity for high-poverty students and students of color — all while getting the kinds of results that confirm this approach is working.
Director of Operations Natalie Gould believes building a collective culture in support of students requires that leaders “find people who share your values and find people who want to build with you, not people who want it built for them.”
Acknowledging the sometimes herculean nature of teaching at a school like WLA, Chrystal attests, “If you are not willing to till the soil, then this is not the place for you. If you think of [building a school like WLA] like the process of planting a seed, [it grows] but you don’t see the work that’s done underneath the ground…We’re the dirt diggers.”
