When I was a kid, my grandparents would road-trip up from Missouri to visit our home in Minnesota. On the back right of their car was a bumper sticker that asked, “Is it good for the children?” Both my grandmother and grandfather had long careers in education. Working as teachers, administrators, in traditional classrooms, special education classrooms, district offices, political advocacy, and consulting, this question was always at the forefront. Their primary interest was not the whimsical or self-interested concerns of the adults in the room. They cared about the kids—for the wellbeing of the children they served.
As I conducted my Leadership in Action work this summer, this simple little bumper sticker stayed in my mind’s eye. Throughout my time at Georgetown, I have developed a strong academic and professional interest in equitable education policy. Whether focused on early childhood education, K-12 funding, or higher education access, I have dedicated work and service time to the yet unfulfilled challenge of providing each child in this country with a high-quality education. During my research project last summer, I studied an international dynamic of a similar question. Using a broad scan of Latin American countries, I researched how presidents spoke about conditional cash transfers—programs designed to decrease cycles of intergenerational poverty and increase children’s educational attainment. While this experience was important to me, I knew I wanted to work domestically this summer. I cannot solely look at education improvements abroad, when so many of our children at home still aren’t receiving the education that they deserve.
Over the past weeks, I have spent my Leadership in Action time working for Opportunity Consulting on a few different equitable education projects. Much of our work partners with state and municipal governments, to examine and reform system-wide policies. Given the very small size of our team, my portfolio has been varied. Over the summer I’ve attended U.S. Department of Education grantee conferences, supported teacher development workshops, and conducted municipal government research. However, the most impactful for me is the ongoing partnership with D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to facilitate recommendations on kindergarten readiness assessments (KRA) and early childhood education policy.
As I’ve come to know very well, many states administer a readiness assessment to all incoming kindergarteners. At their best, these assessments holistically examine children’s preparedness across domains of literacy and language skills, early mathematics, social-emotional development, physical and motor development, and approach to learning. Despite D.C.’s strong investment in early childhood education, the district does not use a uniform KRA. As a result, there is no straightforward way to compare kindergarteners’ preparedness across different school types. While there are pros and cons to such implementation, D.C. wants to consider the option.
The core of our job is facilitating an Advisory Committee to address this question: should D.C. implement a district-wide KRA? The committee is comprised of members from DC Public Schools, charter schools in the district, parents, and representatives of different community-based organizations. Additionally, my work involves conducting significant background research on best practices and the national landscape of KRA usage. Through this I have become a mini-expert on equitable early childhood assessment policy, the consequences of inappropriate usage, and the potential benefits for systems-level policy work.
While this may not be leadership in the traditional sense of the word, I have learned a significant amount about effective leadership through my LiA work. Leadership is often imagined as top-down, but this summer has been an exercise in bottom-up leadership. I don’t work for the OSSE, and I’m not on the Advisory committee. Ultimately, I don’t get to decide if or how a KRA gets used in the District. However, I’ve had the opportunity to inform and shape the decision-makers' perspectives. I don’t have to focus on the adult considerations: how much will it cost, will teachers like it, or is it too much work to implement. Rather, I get to focus on whether changes would be good for the children. It’s exciting; my work directly impacts D.C. kids' education and focuses on their needs. I’m not sure what will come of this project, but I know this style of morally principled leadership is a model I want to follow for the rest of my professional career.