Tomorrow’s Principal is hosted by Gene Pinkard, the Director of Practice with Aspen Education. This podcast explores how our conception of the principal’s job is putting the brakes on student achievement, and how that role needs to change if schools are going to be places where all kids can thrive. It will also discuss what the new role of the principal looks like, what this means for school systems and training programs, as all of these leaders strive for racial equity in their communities. It will also introduce a new understanding of what it means to lead racial equity work in schools.

Welcome to this episode of Tomorrow’s Principal. I'm your host, Gene Pinkard. And I’m the Director of Practice with the Aspen Education & Society Program. In this limited series, you’ll hear national education leaders discuss how to understand and redefine the role of the principal as one that’s both doable and durable, meaning we’re talking about creating the role such that it doesn’t always require superhuman stamina, and it’s a role built for the long journey to sustained achievement and racial equity.

One of our partners throughout the series is the Leadership Academy--an organization that’s already building durability and doability into principal support and preparation. We’ll be drawing attention to barriers that keep principals from becoming leaders for achievement and equity.

We will also dig into what systems are doing to eliminate those barriers, and put their energy into the aspirations of their communities, and build on the research foundations of excellent school leadership. Paying attention to what we expect of principals and normalizing speaking about racial equity within the school system is a big part of that.

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To learn more about Tomorrow’s Principal or the Aspen Insitute, head to aspeninstitute.org/education

Dr. Meisha Ross Porter, chancellor of NYC public schools, and Nancy Gutierrez are doing profound work in how kids learn nationwide. Something we all resonate within this episode is the incredible teachers that placed both positive and negative expectations on us as children, walking into the classroom each year, and how that shaped each of our behaviors that year in that classroom. That’s why episode 01 of Tomorrow’s Principal Podcast is about understanding and reflecting on your own student story.

In this episode of Tomorrow’s Principal Podcast, Nancy and Meisha are sharing the importance of your own past story and actionable steps you can take right now to unlearn through self-reflection to know where you are driving disruption to construction.

Some of the talking points Nancy, Meisha, and I go over in this episode include:

• With about 53% of the student population in this country, and over 70% in NYC, being student’s of color, there is a beautifully growing diverse population. Nancy brings up the call to action as school leaders that this diversity calls for in culturally responsive leadership.
• The biggest piece missing from the big conversation in this country around curriculum; there’s no one that doesn’t want to be in, or have their child in a classroom, where they don’t see themselves. Children want to be seen and Meisha explains how to do that.
• Three lists every school leader should make to better understand what’s missing from their educational community.
• The difference between the leader you aspire to be, and the leader your community needs you to be, and how to tell the difference.

It is so important to understand where you’ve come from as a person, as a leader, and as a past student, so when you are a leader looking to implement systemic change and culture responsiveness, you can see what to break down and what to construct. So be sure to tune in to all the episodes to receive tons of practical tips on culturally responsive leadership in the educational space and to hear even more about the points outlined above.

Thank you for listening!

If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me! And don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!