What if we are a barrier?

What if the barrier to what we are trying to achieve in education is us? You. Me. Us. Our blind spots, our big assumptions.  Not policy, or funding, or research, or shared vision, or student readiness. Could we be unintentionally maintaining parts of our systems so that improvement initiatives whither?

 Inclusionary Practices is a model that integrates what we know about well-designed learning for all students without putting them in those familiar silos of Special Education, Highly Capable Services, Language Learner Services, etc. etc. etc.

 How do we support the adults in our system to gain different perspectives, develop different leadership skills, and gain confidence in system support for the risks that enacting their new skills will present?  Adult Development, like children’s developmental continuums normalizes each stage and guides the strategies and environments to foster that growth. This is a Growth Mindset for the rest of your life.   Without support for our adults, are we failing to equip the leaders at every level who are supposed to accomplish the vision of Inclusionary Practices or any other improvement strategy? The Wallace Foundation released a research synthesis on How Principals Affect Students and Schools Feb 2021. How can we support them?

Maybe now that we have a learning design model, and strategies to develop systems of support, the “next key” to education’s “wicked” challenge of high levels of achievement for all students, is to joyfully equip ourselves to grow into our own next stages of leadership skill, perspective and maturity. We have power, authority and agency right now. You. Me. Us. Maybe we could use it to also grow ourselves so that we achieve our goals for all students.