The central theme of this discussion revolves around the notion of educational drift—specifically, the disconcerting disparity between what we profess to value in education and the actual practices that unfold within our classrooms. We assert that students and relationships matter, and we claim to be constructing future-ready schools. However, upon closer examination, we must confront the uncomfortable truth that our actions often fail to align with these declarations. This episode invites a profound introspection regarding whether our educational innovations genuinely catalyze change or merely serve as performative theater. Join us as we delve into the complexities of this phenomenon, exploring the systemic factors that contribute to drift and the imperative to realign our practices with our articulated values to foster an authentic commitment to student success.

Additional Notes

A rigorous examination of our educational systems reveals a dissonance between stated values and actual practices. The Wheelhouse team, comprising educators with extensive experience, delves deeply into the concept of 'drift'—the phenomenon whereby schools, despite their noble intentions, gradually lose sight of their mission and vision. This episode presents a candid discussion where the speakers reflect on the visible gap between what schools profess to value—such as student-centric learning and innovation—and what transpires in classrooms. By acknowledging this drift, the team aims to uncover the systemic flaws that engender such misalignments. They argue that true innovation must be more than mere rhetoric; it requires a comprehensive cultural shift within educational institutions, one that genuinely prioritizes the needs and voices of students over bureaucratic demands. The dialogue further explores how this drift manifests at different levels of the educational hierarchy, particularly affecting classroom teachers who are often caught between administrative mandates and the ideals they wish to uphold for their students. The discussion emphasizes the importance of recognizing and interrogating our practices, asking critical questions about whether our actions genuinely align with our stated values. The team posits that without a concerted effort to realign our educational systems with our core principles, we risk perpetuating a cycle of disillusionment among educators and students alike. Ultimately, the episode challenges listeners to engage in self-reflection about their own 'North Stars' and the extent to which they are willing to advocate for meaningful change within their own schools.

Takeaways:

• In educational discourse, we frequently assert that students are of utmost importance, yet our actions often betray this claim.
• We profess the significance of relationships within the educational sphere, but do we genuinely cultivate them in practice?
• The notion of building future-ready schools is prevalent, yet the tangible impact on classroom dynamics remains questionable.
• A critical examination reveals that, despite our rhetoric, substantial transformation in educational practices is often lacking.
• Our exploration today centers on the phenomenon of drift, which signifies a deviation from our core educational values and intentions.
• We must confront the uncomfortable truth that our systemic practices may not truly reflect our professed commitment to student success.

Follow Students Matter, LLC on Instagram or LinkedIn — or find any of us there: Kathy Mohney, Michael Pipa, Dr. Alicia Monroe, and Dr. Grant Chandler.

Students Matter

LearnHarbor

Until Next Time Remember: See every student. Keep your doors open and your hearts even wider.

We say students matter.

We say relationships matter.

We say we're building future ready schools.

But if we're honest, most of what we're doing isn't changing what's happening in classrooms.

So what is it?

Is it innovation or is it theater?

Today, it's just us, the Wheelhouse team.

No guests, no buffer.

Just a hard look at where we're drifting and whether we're willing to admit it.

A new episode of the Wheelhouse begins right now.

This is the Wheelhouse, a students matter podcast where we navigate the realities of education with clarity, precision, and humanity.

And today, we're turning the lens on ourselves.

Over the last several episodes, we've heard from students, leaders, and educators.

We've talked about voice.

We've talked about systems.

We've talked about shame, identity, and what it means to actually be seen.

But there's a question sitting underneath all of it.

Are we actually changing anything that matters, or are we just talking about it?

Because here's the truth.

Innovation.

That doesn't change instruction, theater.

And if that's true, then we have to ask a harder question.

Where are we drifting?

Not because we don't care, but because our systems aren't billed to hold this coherence.

So today, it's just the Wheelhouse team, Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro.

And me digging into where drift shows up, why it's so hard to interrupt, and what it actually takes to build systems that prove, not just say that students matter.

Let's get into it.

Good morning.

I'm Dr. Grant Chandler, and this is another episode of the Wheelhouse.

And I am sitting here today in our recording studio with three of the most amazing human beings that have ever walked the planet.

So good morning, Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro.

Hi, team.

Good morning.

I don't think good morning is powerful enough, team.

I know.

What do you say if you are one of the most incredible humans on the planet?

The planet.

Yeah.

What's a better response?

I'm just awe inspired.

And episode is over.

Mic drop.

We'll see you next week on the Wheelhouse.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

So, hey, welcome to episode eight.

Right.

This season is fast approaching its conclusion already?

It seems like we just started it.

Does it?

Does these recording sessions really just feed our souls and then, you know, keep us going?

And I think that's what makes it just fly by.

You know, we look.

I look forward to Tuesdays.

So it's.

What day is it?

What day is it?

It's recording day.

Terrific.

Tuesday.

Yes.

So here we are.

In episode eight of season 12, we've really been exploring this idea of future ready schools, innovation rooted in humanity, built by coherent human systems.

We've had some really powerful conversations with a whole bunch of people.

We had some college students that were fantastic.

We had a principal, we had an educator consultant who was also a parent talk to us.

We've had teacher candidates in the pipeline from Siena University talk to us.

And there's just been a lot of really powerful conversation.

And I hope, if you're listening, we're obviously trying to change the landscape, right?

We have a mission, and the mission is to significantly change what children and educators experience.

And I think if we listen to those voices of, you know, we've all been in education, but you know, those students that we listened to a few episodes ago are still there, right, as end users of that work.

And, you know, we've got principals leading and people wanting to come in and parents.

There's just lots of different voices.

And yet to come will be some K12 students who are right now in the system, and we'll be able to hear from them.

But one of the words that we've been using a lot, not our guests, but we've been using a lot, is this word drift.

What is that word?

What does it mean?

I love the image.

I use it in tactical leadership all the time because I think it's just powerful.

It's powerful when you are picturing yourself on some type of flotation device that has lost power and you can't head where you're going, where you want to go.

That's a powerful, powerful image.

And drift happens a lot in schools.

We say something super important.

We say we're about whatever it is that we're about.

Everybody says that a little bit differently.

And yet in reality, do we live into that North Star?

Do we live into that purpose every minute of every day?

And the answer, my friends, is no.

The pressure gets on.

The calendar takes over all of the myriad of priorities and needs and wants and desires.

And, you know, you put 200 people in a building and 200 people have a different or 200 different ways of looking at the same issue, right?

And so drift happens.

We float away.

Even if we don't want to, we float away slowly, sometimes rapidly, away from our North Star.

And we're going to explore that today.

I've got the coolest people that have ever walked the planet to help me do that.

So I just want to throw it out there.

You know, schools always say, every school does.

And I applaud them for saying it.

They talk about the things that they value, what's important.

You see mission statements, vision statements.

You see things plastered on websites and T shirts and posters, and you name it, right?

You can walk into a school and you can see beautiful intention, but if you look a little bit deeper, you start to uncover contradiction.

And I want to explore that for a few minutes.

What is something that you see where schools value, but their daily practices contradict it?

Schools move quickly.

All of us have sat, you know, are either currently sitting in those seats or have sat in those seats.

I was a high school principal, and I moved up every step of the way to that and then became an assistant superintendent.

Right.

I had 23 schools and programs under my supervision.

And it all moves so quickly.

I think about Kathy and her space, right?

It just moves so quickly.

It's easy to veer off track.

It's easy to veer off track because we're constantly doing what we needed to do yesterday, today, and it's just this.

And it switches, right?

This reform.

No, this program.

Next year we're doing this program, this reform.

It just moves to the point where it causes this rupture, right?

This schism.

And then all of a sudden, we get away from the mission and vision.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been in schools across the country and even internationally, and I bring up the mission statement, and the educators in the room first don't know what it is, and then they don't know where it lives, and then they don't really understand what they're supposed to do with that.

Some of them have been authored 20 years, and they're just outdated and really not relevant.

I'm not saying that they don't have value within themselves, but it's really not aligned with the students that we serve today and the vision of the.

In charge of the educational system overall.

So I'd love to hear from you all around.

Mission statements, vision statements, core principles.

I mean, we.

We have the nomenclature.

Oh, it's.

It sounds great, right?

Strategic plans.

It's wonderful.

But those pieces really need to be activated, so they need to move from 2D to 4D live and in full effect.

So I'm interested because honestly, Grant, when you.

When you kind of prompted us around some reflection questions, that's the one that sat with me the most.

I'm so glad you went right to, you know, the vision and the mission statements, Alicia, because in order to activate them, I feel like that's often the missing step that's a daily practice, that activation, it has to be.

And what are the questions we ask ourselves and each other when we're doing the work that helps us stay connected to that North Star you mentioned, Grant.

I wrote it down when Grant said, we have beautiful intention.

You know, I, I, we do.

And so even when Alicia said those, you know, bringing us to the mission and vision, it is plastered everywhere.

It is part of, you know, there are districts that recite that, you know, at meetings, and then we go and do the work.

And those that are doing the work say, okay, but do we value that?

You say that, but then your actions are very different.

And so in order to live into that space, it does cause us to drift.

And so when you think about those new educators, Michael, that are then saying, this is who I want to be.

This is what I know students deserve, but I'm afraid of this drift without using that word, I already see it.

And so when we look at those daily practices contradicting what we consistently say we value, school districts scream at, I mean, everywhere they scream it.

One of the questions I had was, what does the learning we love look like?

And how do we make space for that to happen?

That's an activating question.

That question takes a mission statement off the paper.

But how often are we having that conversation as practicing instructors, with each other, with our instructional leaders?

How often are our instructional leaders coming to us with that question?

Yeah, and that goes to, where does that come from?

Where is that damage occurring?

And so when we've had these conversations about coherent human systems, and what does it take to be able to lead within that, how do the leaders build these systems that allow teachers to provide these spaces so that the student experience is what they deserve?

I think visions and mission statements are often a lie.

First we write them.

Hold on just a second, Alicia.

And then you can.

First we spend all sorts of time crafting something.

I don't even encourage people to do that anymore.

I use different words.

But I mean, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a vision and mission, folks.

I mean, if you're listening out there and you go, but I've got one.

I mean, great.

It's great to.

You have one, right?

It's great that you have one.

But I've not seen a vision and mission statement yet that honestly says what we really care about is the end of the year proficiency exam.

Because we have to.

That's where the, the, the drift is caused.

Absolutely.

I mean, so let's just put it out there, right?

What we, what whether we like it or not, this is what we value.

Right?

And we're going to push.

We're going to push toward that.

And again, folks, if you're listening, Grant Chandler does not believe that children shouldn't be proficient.

Right.

He should.

He does not believe that at all.

Right.

He believes, however, that what we really need is bigger.

You know, proficiency should be a given.

We're a school.

We should be teaching children how to read, how to write, how to do math, how to think, how to have those 21st century skills.

If we don't do that, I'm not sure you should open your doors.

Right.

We should have that level of expertise, but it's bigger than all of that.

And our guests have told us that it is bigger.

So we really need to think about, in my opinion, right.

We just really need to think about what it is that we value.

What it is that we value.

Right.

That North Star.

Alicia, I think mission and vision statements conceptually are well intentioned.

Absolutely.

I do too.

I do too.

And I'm just echoing exactly what you shared, Brant, but to thine own selves be true.

Right?

So when we interrogate the space and realize that the mission statement is not emboldened in the actions that are going on actually in the learning space, then there is a major disconnect.

And what we see are these schisms and these fragmentations recycled through the system.

So we have new teachers coming in, right, that feel alone, Michael.

And they don't get good coaching from instructional leaders.

But we can't really blame the instructional leaders because the instructional leaders themselves have not been well coached and therefore becomes this recycling of poor practice.

But it's not intentional.

It just happens to be the residuals of the drift and fragmented established systems of education.

And you just kind of see this cycle continuing to happen.

And then those teachers that come in start to move up, right?

They start to get promoted to instructional leader.

They start to get promoted to IEP specialists, they start to get promoted to ap and then the principal.

And all of this, right.

I think about tactical leadership, right.

All of this is really not aligned with what the value is because no one even knows what the target is.

What's the bullseye, what we're intending, because it has been recycled through a system of people just not knowing.

There's the drift.

There's the drift.

There's the drift.

Elisa, you said something and then that I loved in one of your first comments, and you said it was, we drift.

We often drift.

You know, it moves so quickly, right?

I mean, everything moves so quickly, and yet it changes so slowly.

It moves so quickly.

Right.

I mean, I was having a conversation with somebody yesterday, and she was talking about all of these conversations she's having with principals who are like, you know, the day, the week, the month, the year is flies.

And yet education is notoriously famous for how slowly change occurs.

Because we're stuck.

Because we're stuck.

Right?

We're stuck.

We're stuck in trying to figure out what we value, what we really value.

Like, pull out all the layers and let's really think about what it is we really value.

Not because someone told us to, but because it's what we really, really want for children and what they need in the 21st century.

I don't know how a child will ever survive as an adult in the 21st century if they can't read.

I just want to say that at this point in my career, after 37 years, I feel like there was some real intention that created drift.

It didn't happen accidentally.

My experience was we were actively and deliberately talked out of what we knew to be true.

And we were asked, we were directed to accept the endorsement of leadership, of standardized assessment being the only legitimate way to value learning.

That was happening in our buildings.

And that wasn't accidental.

I'm going to let you know.

We oftentimes feel like pariahs when we're doing something new, innovative, and creative to truly meet the needs of the students that are before us.

Thank you.

So we are marginalized in the system that we signed on the line, dotted line for.

To impact and empower students to achieve their full potential.

That's right.

So then, if I'm a pariah and I sit on the margin.

Right.

How courageous am I going to be to really stand up and advocate.

For.

What we know as educators to be the right thing for the students?

Because we fear retribution and further marginalization,.

Because our colleagues are just that.

That level of comfort.

I think there's such comfort in these systems that are already built.

Because changing the educational landscape is really hard work.

It's really hard.

It's not for the faint of heart.

No.

And it creates discomfort, you know, and challenging this status quo around.

Well, we've always done this.

This is the way it works because it's the way it's been.

Okay.

But it's not working.

The students are telling us it's not working.

We're just choosing to not listen to them because listening to them means we might have to change some things.

And change is hard.

And it's so much easier to care about what we measure than it is to measure what we care about.

So we narrow the scope of things because it's easily measurable.

And it makes it easier for bureaucrats who've gained position and status to say, hey, I've created improvement.

Improvement takes intense commitment and responsiveness to those we serve.

And it doesn't lend itself to sound bites and quickly demonstrable initiatives that you can put in a newspaper article.

It's much more complex than that, and appropriately so.

Too often it feels like if I were in a restaurant and the server handed me a menu and said, here is what we offer.

Here are the meals, that I then took the menu and started to try to eat it.

The assessment isn't the learning, it represents the learning.

And it's our job to help our students engage and understand what that learning truly is and to lift that load and take ownership of it.

That's our job not to tell them, here's how you use this chart.

And this chart will lead you to proficiency.

That's nonsense.

And that's what I feel creates that drift at a student level in a classroom where kids want to learn.

They want to carry that load.

Yeah.

They want to be heard and not heard.

Ed.

Yes.

So I want to hearken back to Michael, and I heard you loud and clear, Kathy, because actually that's what I was thinking about and processing and reflecting on Michael.

You talked about improvements, but through an equity lens of education, are we improving for all, for all scholars?

So that is what I start to see.

Right.

Just because you're a blue ribbon school.

All right.

And you have achieved the percentile of what that distinction means, did you actually achieve that for all students that are sitting in your seats?

And these are questions.

These are those hard questions, those uncomfortable questions, and that interrogation that we must face.

This work is not for the faint of heart.

No.

So, but if we are in the.

The teaching and learning process, this is.

This is our business.

And us, our scholars, are our consumers.

What is satisfactory and exceptional service and product?

What does it look like?

What does it look, sound and feel like?

What is it to be H E A R D rather than H E R D?

That's the real question.

Yeah.

And the conversation needs to be, you know, for those communities and their schools that are traditionally under resourced and underserved, you and I know that there are classrooms where the learning is dynamic and dynamite.

It is incredible.

And all those scholars are learning and stepping up and they're carrying that load and they're intoxicated by that Learning the real conversation needs to be, how did that?

And how does that happen?

And how can I learn to begin to put those pieces together for my kids, who I serve, where I work?

That's the conversation.

It's not about do our scores in this particular building move.

That's a narrow, tiny conversation that produces very, very little.

So it depends on what your North Star is.

It depends on what your North Star is and what you're willing to do and not do to get there.

Right.

It's really.

I mean, it's a very difficult answer, but it's a simple question.

What do you value?

What are you willing to do to make it happen?

And can we be honest, right?

Can we be honest as a school, as a district, with what we really value and what we really don't?

Come on, just put it out there, right?

Just put it out there.

I remember.

I know you're worried that parents will choose something else, but put it out there.

I just remember the conversations, Grant, that we've.

I was thinking about, we've had, you know, with.

With superintendents, you know, with district leaders, with school boards to say, okay, here's.

Here's your mission, where it's.

I mean, they use this all word.

All students.

All students.

Just be honest.

Honest with your community and say, you know, we're just.

We're really about certain students.

Just say it, because that's what you're.

Doing, and put that in your value statement.

Just.

Just say it because that's what's happening.

And be honest.

So when you're creating these mission statements, these your value, your core values, and you're spending this money to get all of these beautiful banners and hanging everything everywhere.

Just be honest and let parents choose where.

Where what makes sense for.

For their child, for their children, based on honesty.

Are we a school that prefers to serve students who are all ready to be served?

Just say it.

We are just.

I remember a conversation I had with a board once, and I had pictures, right, of their students, and I laid them on a table and I put a trash can next to it and said, just be honest.

Get rid of the ones.

You don't roll them away.

You're gonna throw them away anyway, so.

Throw them away now.

Just do it.

And they were like, that's unfair.

You can't.

But it's what you're doing in practice.

So it goes back to, okay, this is what we say we value, but our practices do not align.

So if you say all students are going to be proficient at the end of grade six in math, then your numeric goal is 100.

It's not 34 plus six.

Because we got to make a goal that we can actually get to.

What the state said.

We have to.

Here's what the state is saying.

Here's the bar.

We need to be able to reach that bar in order to get maybe off of some list because, you know, we've now been deemed something horrible in their eyes.

And so.

So just say we're really only shooting for 40%.

Right.

That's the best we can do this year, folks.

We're gonna shoot for 40% or bureaucratically,.

You know, the whippings will cease as soon as morale improves.

So we'll continue to beat you with the same cudgel.

And it's not off the list for one year.

Oh, yeah, right, right.

It's.

We have to sustain the growth.

We have to sustain the improvement.

It has to become literally the true mission, vision, and core principles and core values of the school.

It comes with the practice.

It comes with intentionality, not as a buzzword, but the real work.

It really.

It has to be activated for each and every and all student.

And so we've had powerful intentions and a really strong drift.

Where does drift cause the most damage?

If we're so worried about.

We talk about drift as a bad word.

It is, right?

We don't like it.

We know it's inevitable, but we don't like it.

And we have to be mindful of knowing when we're drifting so we can paddle back to where we.

Where we need to be.

Where does drift do the most damage, Kathy?

To students, I mean, and they.

I said.

Like I said earlier, they tell us.

And they tell us right away.

I mean, we've.

We've had these conversations with educators and students that are saying the same thing over and over again year after year after year.

And it's.

If we listen to students, I don't know how people cannot be compelled to listen, to act.

Kathy, I just want to add, I think I totally agree with you.

I think the impact is hit the most by classroom teachers.

And then teachers have a hard time developing really good, competent, and effective practices because they're kind of the mediator between the bureaucratic and administrative movement.

That quick movement shifts focus, lack of focus.

I could go on and on.

We're familiar with that space.

And then how does that translate into.

Into.

Into what I deliver every day.

And the empathy rather than the apathy.

Right.

The connection, rather than being complicit, which you had mentioned earlier, it's.

How do I build that relationship with my students if I have to pace a lesson, seed every day, and move through this mechanically and transactionally rather than to be able to be creative, innovative, and transformational for the students so that they could achieve their full potential.

Educators, specifically classroom teachers.

I'm really being specific when I identified a role.

So my heart goes out to teachers and definitely students because they are impacted the most by the drift.

I think about culture and how culture is impacted by daily moves, daily practices that I hear in your comment, Alicia.

And that culture, if it isn't rooted in North Star values about what's important, it will take over because it will be comprised of the daily moves we are encouraged, coerced to make.

Being that, that captures everybody.

Yeah, it does.

Because being your, Your true self with that deep moral imperative, the advocacy is.

Is just.

You attempt to be just, but it's exhausting.

So back to your comment, Alicia, about being this pariah.

Do you.

It takes such a strong willingness to be courageous, to stand in that moral imperative and not allow it, you know, so it's.

I often use a silly thing from Dr. Seuss, you know, where it's like, you just speak for the trees, you know, the Lorax.

I speak for the Truffula trees.

And watch, like, you don't stop.

You, you just.

We can't.

And so as our listeners are thinking, like, okay, like, I'll just throw up my hands.

It's just these systems.

It's just all there.

And all these, you know, phenomenal educators that walk this planet that are talking on this podcast are saying that, okay, but these, these systems and this drift and all of these things, but takes that.

Those voices to say, we cannot.

We need those educators to be speaking up and speaking for our students.

So, you know, to swim against the current.

And that's what you're talking about, Kathy.

To swim against the current takes a lot of courage, takes a lot of strength.

It's that personal will and purpose Grant, as you opened our conversation today.

But it also takes others that are very supportive.

Yes.

Whether that be mentorship, like who is in the village.

Do you have the right tribe around you?

Because you can't fight this battle on your own.

Because it's.

It's systemic.

There are systemic inequities.

Right.

There's.

There are breaks in the system.

Right.

Which causes the drift, the fragments, the cracks.

And we can only mask ourselves, but so much, because we are going to show up in the space and either we acquiesce, we keep going, or we.

Just leave So I want to encourage you, right?

I want to encourage you.

There's a lot of deep thinking in this.

In this episode today, which is why I love it when these humans come together.

So if you're listening and you're like, oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, you're saying, I want to encourage you to do.

Do two things.

I want you to.

I want you to write down in your own language what your North Star is.

You identify it for yourself.

No one else can identify it for you.

Grant Chandler's North Star is not Cathy Monies.

They're darn close.

They're darn close, right?

But identify your North Star.

Print that somewhere.

Put that somewhere where you have to look at it every single day and try to live into it every single day.

Be cognizant of when you're living into your North Star and when you're drifting a little bit, right?

And when you're drifting a little bit.

And remember, the Wheelhouse is here to help.

We are here to help you, right?

We're here to help you.

You can reach out to us on LinkedIn, you can reach out on the website, you can keep listening to the Wheelhouse, but this is what the Wheelhouse is all about.

It's all about your North Star and our North Star.

And we aren't going anywhere.

Neither are you.

So let's do this together.

And we'll see you next week for another episode of the Wheelhouse.

And that's a wrap of episode 8 of season 12.

A special thank you to my amazing Wheelhouse team of Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa and Dr. Alicia Munro.

If this conversation felt a little uncomfortable, it should, because the gap between what we say and what we do in education, well, that's where drift lives.

And drift doesn't come from bad intentions.

It comes from misalignment.

It comes from systems that don't hold.

It comes from habits we don't question.

So the question today isn't whether we care.

The question is whether our systems prove it.

In classrooms, in conversations, in the daily experience of students.

And if they don't, then we have work to do.

Thank you for being with us in the Wheelhouse.

Until next time, keep your doors open and your hearts even wider.