Improving Education Through Sound Policy Making with Kirsten Baesler

In this episode of Swimming Upstream, we have Kirsten Baesler, the State School Superintendent and Administrator of the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. A position she has held since 2012 and has been reelected twice. She has more than 30 years of education advocacy experience and is committed to working with families to provide each child with the resources they need to reach the highest levels of success.

Kirsten discusses the three things she’s focused on accomplishing: providing creativity, flexibility, and autonomy in schools through policy, investing more in early childhood education, and closing the gap for minority students. She also explains the changes they’ve made to allow students to be more fluid and to have a mastery-based way of learning.

Listen in to learn the importance of being courageous and having community backing as an education leader when swimming upstream.

“To be able to have that constant community backing is swimming upstream.”- Kirsten

What You Will Discover:

• 00:00 Episode Begins

• 01:28 Her experience working with two governors.

• 03:54 The input needed to accomplish her three main goals to improve education.

• 06:22 The changes made to allow students to take ownership of their learning.

• 09:53 The courage it takes for education stakeholders to swim upstream.

• 11:52 How to build a bridge between home and school by investing in early education.

Connect with Kirsten on LinkedIn