The Wheelhouse Reorientation: Designing for Coherence
What happens after we recognize drift? That is where this conversation begins.
In our last Wheelhouse Reorientation, we returned to the idea of drift—the slow movement away from what a school or system says matters and what students actually experience.
But naming drift is only the beginning. Eventually, we have to ask a harder question:
What would we have to build if we actually wanted to resist it?
This is a Wheelhouse Reorientation—an earlier conversation we believe is worth hearing again in light of where the work is taking us now.
In this episode, the Wheelhouse team turns its attention to the Students Matter Ecosystem and the role coherence plays in creating schools and systems that are more purposeful, more connected, and more human.
Kathy Mohney, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Monroe once again put me in the guest chair and press on the thinking behind the Ecosystem.
Why these four pillars? Why is coherence so difficult to create and sustain? Why do schools so often confuse activity with transformation?
And what changes when we stop treating leadership, instruction, student care, and preparation for the future as separate conversations?
The Students Matter Ecosystem is organized around four interconnected pillars:
Tactical Leadership — building the judgment, capacity, and leadership required to navigate complex systems with purpose.
Powerful Student Care — creating environments where students are known, valued, supported, and treated as distinctive and irreplaceable human beings.
Instructional Excellence — ensuring that what happens in classrooms consistently supports meaningful learning.
Future Ready Schools — helping schools prepare students not simply for the world as it is, but for the world they are entering.
The point is not to create four more initiatives. The point is to help these parts of the system reinforce one another.
One of the biggest challenges facing schools is not a lack of effort. It is disconnected effort.
People are working hard. Programs are being launched. Strategic plans are being written. Professional learning is happening.
And yet all of that activity does not automatically add up to coherence. A school can be busy and still be fragmented. A district can have strong individual programs and still produce an inconsistent student experience. And a system can keep moving while gradually losing sight of why the work exists in the first place.
That is why coherence matters.
It is not about making everything identical or creating a perfectly controlled system. It is about making sure the most important parts of the work are connected by a common purpose and consistently reflected in the experiences of students.
At the center of all of this is a question that continues to shape the Students Matter work:
What kind of educational system would we build if we truly believed every student was distinctive and irreplaceable?
That question changes the conversation. It moves us away from simply adding more and toward asking whether the pieces we already have are working together in service of what matters most.
A Few Things to Carry With You
Coherence is not the same thing as activity. A system can be extraordinarily busy and still be fragmented.
Drift is more difficult to resist when leadership, instruction, student care, and future readiness operate as separate priorities.
The four pillars of the Students Matter Ecosystem are designed to reinforce one another, not compete with one another.
Transformation does not come from continually adding new initiatives. It comes from creating greater alignment among purpose, people, structures, and practice.
And ultimately, coherence matters because students experience the whole system—not the individual initiatives adults use to organize it.
The goal isn’t to get every part of the system moving. It’s to get the parts that matter moving together.
Follow Students Matter, LLC on Instagram and LinkedIn, and connect with Kathy Mohney, Michael Pipa, Dr. Alicia Monroe, and Dr. Grant Chandler individually on LinkedIn,
To learn more about the Students Matter Ecosystem, visit Students Matter and LearnHarbor.
The challenge isn’t simply to keep the work moving. It’s to make sure we’re still moving toward what matters.
Stay Oriented.
Transcript
Last time, we returned to a conversation about drift.
Speaker A:Drift is that slow movement away from what we say matters and what students actually experience.
Speaker A:But recognizing drift only gets us so far.
Speaker A:Eventually, we have to ask a different what would we have to build if we actually wanted to resist it?
Speaker A:That question was at the center of this conversation when we first recorded it, and after everything we've explored during season 13, I think it matters even more now.
Speaker A:Coherence doesn't happen simply because people care.
Speaker A:It doesn't happen because we add another initiative, or we write another plan, or we ask already busy people to work even harder.
Speaker A:It has to be designed.
Speaker A:Leadership, learning, student care, future readiness.
Speaker A:Not operating beside one another, reinforcing one another.
Speaker A:This is a Wheelhouse reorientation, an earlier conversation we believe is worth hearing again in light of where the work is taking us now.
Speaker A:Today, the Wheelhouse team presses me on the architecture behind the Students Matter ecosystem.
Speaker A:Why these elements?
Speaker A:Why is coherence so difficult to sustain?
Speaker A:And what changes when we stop thinking about isolated programs and start thinking about the whole system Students experience?
Speaker A:A new episode of the Wheelhouse begins right now.
Speaker A:Welcome to the Wheelhouse, a Students Matter podcast where we navigate the intersection of leadership, learning, and humanity.
Speaker A:I'm Dr. Grant Chandler, along with the rest of the Wheelhouse team, Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro.
Speaker A:During this hiatus, we're returning to three foundational conversations about the thinking behind the Students Matter ecosystem.
Speaker A:Not at all because we're looking backward, but because these conversations help explain where the work is taking us now.
Speaker A:In our last reorientation, we returned to Drift, that gradual separation between what a system says matters and what students actually experience.
Speaker A:Today, we move away from diagnosis to design.
Speaker A:Once we recognize drift, we have a responsibility to ask what might prevent it.
Speaker A:What does it take to create greater coherence inside a school or district?
Speaker A:How do we stop layering disconnected initiatives onto already fragmented systems and begin building something where leadership, learning, student care, and preparation for the future reinforce one another?
Speaker A:And underneath all of that is a question that continues to shape everything we do as Students Matter.
Speaker A:What kind of system would we have to build if we truly believed each student was distinctive and irreplaceable?
Speaker A:In this conversation, Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa and Dr. Alicia Munro are once again in the host chairs, and they push me pretty hard on the thinking behind the Students Matter ecosystem.
Speaker A:Why it exists, why it's designed the way it is, and why coherence has become such an important part of our work.
Speaker A:It was a foundational conversation.
Speaker A:Then listen to It.
Speaker A:Now I hear even more in it.
Speaker A:Let's get oriented.
Speaker A:Good morning.
Speaker A:I'm Dr. Grant Chandler, and welcome to another hiatus episode of the Wheelhouse.
Speaker A:Here we are sitting between seasons 12 and 13, and we're doing something really different.
Speaker A:So we'll talk about that in just a minute.
Speaker A:But before we do.
Speaker A:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker A:I'm sitting here with amazing humans.
Speaker A:My amazing.
Speaker A:My amazing team, Kathy Mone and Michael Piper.
Speaker A:Good morning.
Speaker B:Good morning.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker B:Oh, Michael.
Speaker B:We've been off sync for a while, so that was.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:That put us right back in there.
Speaker B:Like, it was as if we were kind of coherent at that moment.
Speaker A:Oh, funny that you should say that word.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:We are missing Alicia today.
Speaker B:She's off doing phenomenal work.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So good morning, Dr. Alicia Munroe.
Speaker A:We hope you're having a great time wherever you are, doing whatever.
Speaker A:Well, we know what you're doing, but hope it's going well.
Speaker A:Again, we're going to do exactly what we did in the first episode, which is I'm giving up control, which is for anybody who knows me, that's really hard.
Speaker A:But I can give up control to these two people because they're amazing.
Speaker A:So I'm going to be quiet.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:We put you in the hot seat last week, Dr. Chandler, and I guess it wasn't too hot for you because you said, okay, you can have control again, which I have known you for a minute, and that.
Speaker B:That is tough for you.
Speaker B:So thank you for.
Speaker B:For trusting us with this.
Speaker B:We're looking forward to continuing the conversation.
Speaker A:So I am, too.
Speaker A:I'll do whatever you say.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Okay, well, I'm gonna go ahead and get away, you know, throw away the notes.
Speaker B:I'm gonna say forget it.
Speaker B:Y week we spent our conversation really talking about drift and where you.
Speaker B:You really explained all of.
Speaker B:All of the components.
Speaker B:We talked about kind of those puzzle pieces of it.
Speaker B:So we know this is happening, right.
Speaker B:That people are drifting.
Speaker B:And not intentionally, but it happens more and more and more.
Speaker B:So we really want to spend time understanding.
Speaker B:So what is it?
Speaker B:What do we do about it?
Speaker B:What do we do with this coherence that we've really inherited in school districts across the country?
Speaker A:It is normal and natural for districts, schools, and classrooms to drift.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And as we talked about last week, that wasn't because it's not because we don't care.
Speaker A:It's not because we're not smart people.
Speaker A:It's just because we are still living in the system that we inherited.
Speaker A:The opposite of drift is coherence, and it's really rethinking our approach in a way that brings about coherence.
Speaker A:So I'm just going to throw out the definition first, and then we can chew on that a little bit.
Speaker A:So when I use the term coherence, what I mean is coherence happens when leadership instruction systems and what students experience.
Speaker A:Here's the kicker.
Speaker A:Actually reinforce one another instead of competing with one another.
Speaker A:When leadership instruction systems and student experience actually reinforce one another rather than or instead of competing with one another.
Speaker C:So what I'm hearing that's not being said overtly in that definition, but is being hinted at, is that all of those things schools are trying to accomplish every day, every month, every school year, they require something else other than an action plan.
Speaker C:So what creates coherence?
Speaker A:So I think you nailed it right away, and that is that more stuff.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Doesn't bring coherence.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:The action plan, the strategic plan, the continuous improvement plan.
Speaker A:So what we don't want.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So what we don't want is simply just to layer on other things that doesn't bring about coherence.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So if all we do is bring something else on board, we're already struggling with coherence.
Speaker A:We're already struggling to bring all of these things to where they're working together.
Speaker A:And then we do the opposite of what's going to make it stronger.
Speaker A:We bring another layer.
Speaker A:We're struggling with the layers we have.
Speaker A:We bring another layer that takes us further away from coherence.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And we also.
Speaker A:Districts tend to believe that being busy, activity after activity after activity, brings about coherence.
Speaker A:Well, movement isn't coherence.
Speaker A:So drift doesn't happen because people don't care.
Speaker A:Drift happens when the work is disconnected.
Speaker A:So the problem isn't usually effort.
Speaker A:It's that the effort isn't integrated.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We're not thinking about how do we pull all of these pieces together.
Speaker A:And in fact, in many cases, we're not even thinking about some of those.
Speaker A:So how many times do we think about the connection between leadership instruction and student experience?
Speaker A:We don't even go there.
Speaker A:And so if in order.
Speaker A:So we gotta slow down, we gotta think a little bit differently, and we gotta understand all of the parts and how those parts are gonna come together.
Speaker B:But I can't slow down, Dr. Chandler.
Speaker B:I have a. I have a timeline.
Speaker B:I need to be able to meet my compliance deadlines.
Speaker B:I need to be able to show student growth.
Speaker B:I need to be able to do things so quickly.
Speaker B:So I want to purchase this shiny object over here.
Speaker B:I want to purchase this program because it says that it's gonna, you know, ensure results.
Speaker B:I'm gonna get.
Speaker B:Move the needle.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:It's gonna do it.
Speaker B:And so this program's gonna do it and.
Speaker B:Or this program's gonna do it.
Speaker B:And what are.
Speaker B:Or what about this program?
Speaker A:So that's movement and that's activity, but that isn't coherence.
Speaker A:So I was just reading an article this morning about fidelity.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because we buy the program, we buy the cute, shiny whatever.
Speaker A:Right, Whatever.
Speaker A:And I'm not gonna knock resources or software.
Speaker A:There's some good stuff out there.
Speaker A:But we grab onto them without thinking about coherence.
Speaker A:And then we haphazardly train adults who aren't really sure why we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker A:We train them sort of in how to use it, and then we demand fidelity.
Speaker A:Excuse me.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so really, all we've done is added another layer.
Speaker A:We've added another layer.
Speaker A:So as Students matter, everything that we do, everything that we think about or talk about is about coherence.
Speaker A:It's about.
Speaker A:We're going to continue to move forward.
Speaker A:We're going to continue to, you know, work toward our deadline.
Speaker A:I'm not working in a vacuum.
Speaker A:I understand.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Understand that state.
Speaker A:State departments and legislatures are demanding movement, are demanding all of these things, especially if you fall under corrective action.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I get it.
Speaker A:There's activity that we have to do.
Speaker A:But let's step back for a moment and think about if we're going to do all this great activity, how do we do it in a way that brings about coherence so that leadership, instruction systems, and what students experience actually support one another.
Speaker A:All season long on the Wheelhouse, we've been talking about the conditions that get in the way of the schools.
Speaker A:We say we want drift, fragmentation, dehumanization, instructional erosion, future confusion, and the lack of alignment.
Speaker A:But naming the problem isn't enough.
Speaker A:The Students Matter ecosystem was built to help schools do something about it through technical leadership, powerful student care, instructional excellence, future ready schools, and guided learning.
Speaker A:Through Learn harbor, we help educators create greater coherence, strengthen the human experience of school, and keep the work centered where it belongs, on students.
Speaker A:Because meaningful change doesn't come from adding one more initiative.
Speaker A:It comes from getting the important things working together.
Speaker A:The conversation it starts in the wheelhouse.
Speaker A:The work it continues through Students Matter.
Speaker A:Explore the Students Matter ecosystem and learn harbor@www.ourstudentsmatter.org.
Speaker A:We'd love to help you turn what matters into what happens.
Speaker A:So the Students Matter ecosystem.
Speaker A:It's an attempt to answer one question.
Speaker A:How do we build systems that consistently honor students as distinctive and irreplaceable?
Speaker A:How do we bring that human centered learning?
Speaker A:How do we bring coherence to everything that we do in the whole educational ecosystem?
Speaker A:And so we've really, we think we bring coherence into the table by using four pillars.
Speaker A:Leadership thinking about and we call that tactical leadership.
Speaker A:Thinking about what students experience, we call that powerful student care.
Speaker A:We're schools.
Speaker A:So thinking about instructional excellence and what does that look like and sound like and feel like for students?
Speaker A:And then of course putting it all together and making sure the system is moving us in the right direction.
Speaker A:And that pillar we call future ready schools.
Speaker A:And so the whole purpose of the students matter ecosystem is to bring about that coherence.
Speaker A:And let's start with leadership.
Speaker A:Tactical leadership is about, it's about navigation, it's about thinking very deeply.
Speaker A:It's about leading with clarity.
Speaker A:It's about acting with precision.
Speaker A:It's anchored in humanity.
Speaker A:And when leaders utilize the tactical leadership approach, they create stability, coherence and trust amongst all of the people and all of the parts that, that are working in a very complex system.
Speaker A:Tactical leaders, they don't just react to conditions their whole goal.
Speaker A:I think this is very different than the way we train principals and leaders.
Speaker A:Their whole goal is to move people together toward purpose.
Speaker B:So talk a little more about that grant.
Speaker B:Talk a little more about tactical leadership and how it is different and therefore what's going on with the traditional leadership models.
Speaker B:What's, what's wrong with what really we inherit.
Speaker B:We attempt to improve with our leaders.
Speaker A:Fundamentally, the leaders in education are good people and they're working really, really hard.
Speaker A:But we haven't empowered them to stop looking through everything with a deficit.
Speaker A:Len.
Speaker A:Every tool we give them, school improvement, teacher evaluation, walkthroughs, it all comes from, and those are all.
Speaker A:I mean there's nothing inherently wrong with all of those things, right?
Speaker A:But it all comes from a deficit lens.
Speaker A:Where are we missing the mark?
Speaker A:What are we going to do about it?
Speaker A:What are we going to do to get 2% growth?
Speaker A:I'm going to go into your classroom.
Speaker A:I expect to see all of these things.
Speaker A:We see evaluation tools that name 75 different indicators of what good being a good teacher looks like.
Speaker A:You're not going to see 75 in a 10 minute walk in a 10 minute visit.
Speaker A:You're not going to see a 75 in an hour long visit.
Speaker A:I mean, come on, what are we doing?
Speaker C:What are Our look fors.
Speaker A:Yeah, Right.
Speaker A:And so a tactical leader says what's really, really fundamentally important, whether I'm a superintendent, I'm a building leader, or I'm a classroom teacher, what's fundamentally my purpose, the purpose of this organization, and how am I going to read the conditions, how am I going to know where we are, how am I going to bring clarity to what we do?
Speaker A:How am I going to navigate us toward that purpose in a more coherent manner so that my leadership, what kids experience, what happens in the classroom, that they all.
Speaker A:And all of the systems that we provide, that they're all working together to get us toward that purpose.
Speaker A:And let us not forget that I gotta take adults with me, right?
Speaker A:I gotta take people with me on this journey, because ultimately I need all of the adults in order to create the experiences that we want students to.
Speaker A:To have every day in every classroom.
Speaker A:So I think that's fundamentally very different than what we.
Speaker A:Than what and how we train leaders to lead classrooms, districts, and schools.
Speaker A:Tactical leadership.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it was interesting that you talked about really every step of the way, right.
Speaker B:That it's not just leadership, you know, sitting in central office and what that looks like or at the school level, but the classroom level.
Speaker B:It's all levels of the organization and the significance of building that coherence, really.
Speaker B:So how would a tactical leader behave differently under pressure?
Speaker B:Because we're all feeling it.
Speaker B:We see and read the headlines across the nation with reading deficits, because that's how it's framed, right?
Speaker B:And there's a lot of pressure happening in districts and classrooms.
Speaker B:So how does a tactical leader behave differently under all of that pressure?
Speaker C:I love that you use that word, Kath.
Speaker C:Pressure.
Speaker C:Because, you know, unlike practice, the targets are all in motion and everybody is watching, listening.
Speaker C:Everyone has an opinion.
Speaker C:Nobody's shy about it.
Speaker C:There's intense pressure.
Speaker C:So what does the tactical leader rely on to manage that pressure and stay true to purpose?
Speaker A:So we've given tactical leaders a whole series of tools that they can use so that they can make sense of the pressure, right?
Speaker A:So a tactical leader needs to be able to think differently.
Speaker A:They need to be able to see differently, because eventually they need to act differently.
Speaker A:And a traditional leader, I mean, hey, and I did it too.
Speaker A:So this is.
Speaker A:I'm not.
Speaker A:I'm not faulting anyone, right?
Speaker A:The pressure's on, right?
Speaker A:Something happens, right?
Speaker A:The pressure's on.
Speaker A:What do we do?
Speaker A:Immediately, instinctively, we believe we need to move, like now, boom, move right?
Speaker A:Make a decision, go, right?
Speaker A:And sometimes in an emergency situation, you need to do that, right?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:But 99% of that pressure doesn't come in an emergency situation.
Speaker A:So we need to equip our leaders.
Speaker A:And tactical leaders have the tools to step back, see underneath all of that, orient themselves within all of that, think about the human terrain, and then make a decision and move forward.
Speaker A:And those decisions become far.
Speaker A:Are made with far more clarity and purpose than I would argue many leaders make today because they simply don't have the tools in order to do that and to do that quickly.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:This isn't about taking 20 years to make a decision, but this is about having some tools and skills and resources so that when you are under pressure, you know how to process what you need to process and think and hold true to that North Star, to that purpose.
Speaker B:And maybe, just maybe, stop playing whack a mole, because that's always the visual that I have.
Speaker B:It's just like I'm just trying to react because I have to, because everything's coming at me.
Speaker B:So we've got our leaders and we're doing some significant work within tactical leadership.
Speaker B:You talked about four pillars.
Speaker B:So what's that?
Speaker B:Student experience.
Speaker B:How do we layer that in to the work of the Students Matter ecosystem?
Speaker A:So powerful student care is all about what students experience.
Speaker A:And we've written a whole book around powerful student care that's out there.
Speaker A:But the fundamentally, it's about recognizing that teaching and learning is a fundamental relational endeavor and that what we need to do more than anything else is safeguard each student's dignity when we think about powerful student care.
Speaker A:And way back seven years ago, when I was conceptualizing this, right.
Speaker A:And I just did a, a powerful student care video, and I ended it thinking about my own grandson.
Speaker A:But if you think about the people that are near and dear to you that are children, and you think about what is it that we want children to experience in school every day?
Speaker A:Well, I don't want.
Speaker A:I never wanted a child to experience being on the, on the receiving end of the deficit model.
Speaker A:I don't think anybody intends for that to happen.
Speaker A:Right, but it does, right?
Speaker A:It does.
Speaker A:When we focus solely on intervention, we are pushing kids through a deficit lens.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And that deficit lens is compounded by issues with instruction.
Speaker A:But that's a whole nother pillar, Right?
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:But what do we want?
Speaker A:You know, if a student is going to be with us for 13 years, 13 plus years, what do we want them to understand about themselves and about each other?
Speaker A:I want two things.
Speaker A:I want.
Speaker A:Well, first, you know, of course, all the we know we want kids to read and write and do math and all that.
Speaker A:That's a given.
Speaker A:We're school.
Speaker A:But above all else, I want them to know that they're distinctive and irreplaceable, that they belong, that they're valued, that they matter, that they have a place, that society, the world is for them, that they have a place.
Speaker A:And the two words that I use are distinctive and irreplaceable.
Speaker A:And it's really built on this framework that human dignity is a birthright.
Speaker A:Respect has to be earned.
Speaker A:But human dignity is a birthright.
Speaker A:And we do not organize our schools currently around this expectation that every student experiences dignity as a birthright.
Speaker A:Not in how we grade, not in what we expect, not in how we organize our classrooms, not in how we do classroom management, not in how we deal with issues when they arise.
Speaker A:They're children.
Speaker A:They're going to mess up, right?
Speaker A:They're going to make mistakes, they're going to misbehave their children, right?
Speaker A:We don't throw our own children away at home just because they misbehave.
Speaker B:Or.
Speaker A:They don't meet whatever expectation that we set up for them.
Speaker A:So, yes, we need to deal with all of those things, but we need to do all that in a way where students experience dignity, where they come to know that they and everybody else in that school is distinctive and irreplaceable.
Speaker C:So I'm hearing a couple of things in those remarks, but I'm also very conscious of our instructional audience who is also aware that they didn't choose the grading system with which they must comply, nor did they choose the schedule that herds children through each school day.
Speaker C:But I am hearing in the initial frame that at its heart, teaching and learning is a relational endeavor.
Speaker C:And what that causes me to think is that we undervalue as participants in an existing system, our daily moment to moment impact.
Speaker C:When we prioritize another's dignity, that.
Speaker C:That in itself, moment to moment, day in and day out, that intention has a kind of P wave seismic impact on, on everything.
Speaker C:Am I off base?
Speaker C:Am I playing that up too much?
Speaker A:No, no, I think, I think that's fundamentally absolutely correct, Right?
Speaker A:I mean, we, we.
Speaker A:We don't have control.
Speaker A:Some of us have control over schedules and grading.
Speaker A:That's why tactical leadership is part of the ecosystem, right?
Speaker A:Because this is where we, where we get drift, right?
Speaker A:But even within those structures that I don't choose as a teacher, I still get to choose how I use them.
Speaker A:I still get to choose how I show up every single day in my classroom.
Speaker A:I still get to choose what kind of interactions I have in my classroom.
Speaker A:I still.
Speaker A:There's a lot of control.
Speaker A:There's a lot of control that teachers and leaders have every day, even in a system that we inherited.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so it's that approach, it's that thinking, it's that relational piece.
Speaker A:You know, there are five tenets of powerful student care and we've hit on a couple of them already.
Speaker A:But the ones we haven't mentioned are this belief that each and every student shows up to school every day wanting to do well, even if you can't see it.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Who chooses?
Speaker A:Nobody chooses to be a failure.
Speaker A:Why do we?
Speaker A:Why do we, why don't we stop treating children as if that's a choice they make?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Nobody does.
Speaker A:There is not a human being that chooses.
Speaker A:I prefer I wake up today and I prefer I want to be a failure today.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I want to fall flat on my face.
Speaker A:Nobody does that.
Speaker A:And we also need to build, we need to build into this conversation, into the work self efficacy students belief that they can be successful and self agency that they have the voice and the power to be able to make that happen.
Speaker A:And then of course there's this whole idea and we'll talk a little bit more about this in instructional excellence, but of this joy filled learning.
Speaker A:What happens when learning is authentic and relevant?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:What happens to learning when a student says I find purpose here.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:And not just some students each experiencing that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Each every day.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Eat them every day.
Speaker B:So let's go there.
Speaker B:That's, you know, we.
Speaker B:Sounds phenomenal to be able to, to ensure that powerful student care is, is a focus and in place.
Speaker B:But you've said it multiple times.
Speaker B:Ultimately we have to teach.
Speaker B:So you talked about or introduced instructional excellence.
Speaker B:What does that look like?
Speaker B:What is it?
Speaker A:So instructional excellence is very intentionally designed instruction.
Speaker A:Notice I didn't use the word lesson plan.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That's a dirty word.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:But it's very intentionally planned instruction that is humanized in nature.
Speaker A:It is relational in nature.
Speaker A:It brings joy filled learning to the space.
Speaker A:And joy filled doesn't mean haha, it was so much fun.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It was a game.
Speaker A:Joyful means it's relevant, it's authentic, touches upon the lives of students today, their lives now as second graders and not just what their lives are going to be like when they're adults.
Speaker A:Because what's second grader?
Speaker A:I don't know a second grader who can say, you know, oh, this is what my life is going to be like when I'm 25 years old and, oh, I probably need to.
Speaker A:I need.
Speaker A:I might need to be able to do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:It doesn't happen.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:It doesn't happen.
Speaker A:So we have to figure out instructionally, because we have powerful relationships with children.
Speaker A:We know what makes them tick.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We know how they think.
Speaker A:We know how they learn.
Speaker A:We know how they operate.
Speaker A:We can design instruction with that human factor in place and think about some of the things that we know and some of the assumptions that we make.
Speaker A:Does every second grader come in at the same level of readiness?
Speaker A:Does every second grader have to get to the finish line in May just because of their chronological age?
Speaker A:I mean, there's so many variables in this work.
Speaker A:That's where this coherence piece really, really matters.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Because it fundamentally forces us to think differently.
Speaker A:Not that we're saying, oh, well, you know, Grant's two years behind.
Speaker A:We're not going to expect him to learn how to read this year.
Speaker A:Yeah, we are.
Speaker A:Yeah, we are.
Speaker A:But that expectation is going to look differently for Grant.
Speaker A:How do I teach him to read intentionally?
Speaker A:Teach him to read in a place that's going to.
Speaker A:In a way that's going to celebrate his humanity, recognize his dignity, understand the context of where he is and where he needs to go, and think about what's actually doable in terms of growth.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:How am I going to get him as far as I can get him?
Speaker A:Because not every second grader is going to end up at the same place at the end of the year.
Speaker A:And we look at that as a deficit.
Speaker A:And it shouldn't be.
Speaker A:It shouldn't be.
Speaker C:We need other measures besides proficiency.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:But instructional excellence does not mean lowering the bar of expectation.
Speaker A:It means raising the bar of expectation, but personalizing that and knowing that not everybody fits into the same mold.
Speaker A:Who decides?
Speaker A:Who decided that every child who was 8 years old needed to be in this place at this moment in time?
Speaker A:It doesn't make any sense at all.
Speaker A:Any of you who have raised your own children know that your own two children were so dramatically different, right?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:So this instructional excellence is intentional.
Speaker A:It's being innovative and getting results.
Speaker A:Because we said this in the podcast earlier, right?
Speaker A:Innovation that doesn't change instruction is theater.
Speaker A:So it's really, you know, so there's an AI component.
Speaker A:How could we not.
Speaker A:How could we not think about artificial intelligence in the 21st century?
Speaker A:How could we not think about how we teach children to access and utilize these tools in the 21st century?
Speaker A:Because they're gonna need.
Speaker A:This is about self efficacy and agency, right?
Speaker A:They're gonna need to know how to do that when they leave us.
Speaker A:So the demands, the demands on us instructionally are huge, right?
Speaker A:But we have to stop and rethink how we do things, because simply responding to the deficit model that we've been doing, right?
Speaker A:And Kathy knows I'm a huge opponent to some of.
Speaker A:And I won't name them, but I'm a huge opponent to some of the ways that we go about doing this work.
Speaker A:Not because the idea was bad, right?
Speaker A:Not because the idea was bad, but because the ideas are still forcing children to respond and be pushed through a deficit model when we really need to be thinking about what our instruction provides first.
Speaker B:And as I, you know, I sit here listening, Grant, I just keep connecting it back to tactical leadership and really understanding the.
Speaker B:We don't lower the bar.
Speaker B:Students come in at various levels.
Speaker B:Our responsibility, our moral imperative is to ensure that students are reading, are writing, are able to do math, are able to do these things.
Speaker B:We cannot do it alone.
Speaker B:Not one single teacher can do it alone.
Speaker B:And without that tactical leadership piece in place and really understanding that the work of the leaders, including those in the classroom, and the significance of them moving together, what that looks like, because that pressure back to that word and that burden is immense.
Speaker B:And so to think I have to do it alone is just.
Speaker B:It's an impossible feat in many cases.
Speaker B:So talk to us a little bit more about the fourth pillar before we get into this connection of all four of them and the significance.
Speaker B:So this future ready schools, what do you mean by that?
Speaker A:Future ready schools is really.
Speaker A:It's the culmination of all of the work in the ecosystem.
Speaker A:Because this is where the systems reside, right?
Speaker A:All roads lead to the systems that are gonna help work coherently, right?
Speaker A:Coherently.
Speaker A:To make sure that our each and every student is ready for life in the 21st century.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And pretty soon we're gonna have to be talking about the 22nd century, right?
Speaker A:And I don't even know what any of that's really gonna look 30 or 40 years, but we need to be thinking about and be ready for that.
Speaker A:This pillar provides the frameworks and it's the pathways, the partnerships where it all comes together.
Speaker A:But it's not systems for systems sake.
Speaker A:It's a systematic approach where humanity is fundamental.
Speaker A:And if we look at all four pillars together, tactical leadership, powerful student care, how we lead, with purpose, with clarity, with precision, with humanity.
Speaker A:What we want students to experience, dignity, distinctive, irreplaceable Those five tenets of powerful student care, we think about our instructional excellence really intentionally planning instruction that's going to get each and every student there.
Speaker A:And we're supported by this systematic approach in doing so with future ready schools.
Speaker A:You know, you, you said it earlier, it takes, it's.
Speaker A:We believe as students matter, you don't just do one of these because if you do one of them, the you're not going to get where you need to go.
Speaker A:This is about all four of these pillars coming together, Aligning leadership, instruction systems, adult behavior, what students experience every single day, all in a way that gets us where we want to go.
Speaker A:If you take one of those pillars out, then the rest of them simply become initiatives.
Speaker A:And if we approach the pillars like an initiative, you just added another layer.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So what we don't want as students matter, right?
Speaker A:Is you say, oh, okay, I like it, I like it.
Speaker A:I like your approach.
Speaker A:I'm going to do tactical leadership.
Speaker A:And we would say you're missing the point.
Speaker A:You may start there, you may start there, but tactical leadership in order.
Speaker A:The whole point of tactical leadership is to employ powerful student care, instructional excellence, and future ready schools.
Speaker A:That future ready schools movement, in order to get you where you want to go.
Speaker A:So you may start in an area, but in order to really get to where you want to go.
Speaker A:That true north, that human centered experience for students, where we really accelerate what we want to have happen for students, it takes a coherent approach amongst all four of those pillars.
Speaker B:So if that's the goal, if coherence is the goal, what does it actually take to implement this in a real system with real people?
Speaker A:It takes a different way of thinking about how we do school.
Speaker A: to deal with the pressures of: Speaker A: wasn't really good enough in: Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:This approach is about fundamentally rethinking the work, not in terms of additional layers, but in more coherent moves.
Speaker A:And so it's not more.
Speaker A:It's not more work.
Speaker A:It's not more work.
Speaker A:It's different work.
Speaker A:It's rethinking what it means to lead an organization, whether that's at the classroom level, this building level, or the district level that is fundamentally tasked with growing young people.
Speaker A:We've lost sight of.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Our students are telling us, our students are telling us that they don't want to be herded.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That they, you know, that they want to experience something fundamentally different than what they're experiencing now.
Speaker A:And you see pockets where kids are completely motivated from what if you step back from relational human tactics?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Who would want to go to school every day and never be seen?
Speaker A:I don't know very many adults who would go to the workplace every single day and continue to show up every single day and never be seen or only seen through a deficit lens.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker A:Yet that's what we expect our students to do on a daily basis.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I'm hearing that there is something that leadership teams that members of learning organizations need to be conscious of and need to be focused on that guarantees intentions get realized in the system within which everybody is learning.
Speaker C:In your school, in your district, you have said kids do not experience our intentions, they experience our systems.
Speaker C:And if that's the case, how do we ensure that intentions make it into systemic practice?
Speaker A:So that's what happens when the four pieces come together.
Speaker A:That's why you need the four pieces.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You need leaders who navigate with clarity and act with purpose.
Speaker A:You need teachers who design and deliver instruction that's aligned, engaging and joy filled.
Speaker A:We need students to experience dignity, belonging, challenge and hope.
Speaker A:And when we have all of that, districts are building this shared, grounded identity in humanity and future readiness.
Speaker A:And we believe students matter, that it takes these four pillars to coming together.
Speaker A:And we've built an incredible amount of tools and resources because we know this is really hard.
Speaker A:We know this is not how most districts think or how most districts operate.
Speaker A:But we believe that this level of coherence between all of these moving parts is the missing link to getting what we want and to delivering what we want for students every single day.
Speaker A:A radical humanization of schools where clarity, coherence and innovation serve the dignity and potential of each student.
Speaker A:And with that, we'll all see you next week.
Speaker A:Once again, my thanks to Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa and Dr. Alicia Munro for leading that conversation.
Speaker A:Listening to it again.
Speaker A:Now, I keep coming back to one idea.
Speaker A:Most schools are not suffering from a lack of effort.
Speaker A:There is enormous effort happening every day.
Speaker A:The problem is that effort can become disconnected.
Speaker A:Different priorities, different initiatives, different understandings of what matters most.
Speaker A:Different parts of the organization working increasingly hard, sometimes even in completely different directions.
Speaker A:And students experience the whole thing.
Speaker A:That's why coherence matters.
Speaker A:Not because organizations need prettier frameworks, not because everything has to look the same, and certainly not because complexity can somehow be engineered out of schools.
Speaker A:Coherence matters because students should not have to navigate the consequences of adult fragmentation.
Speaker A:The Students Matter ecosystem grew from that belief.
Speaker A:Leadership, student care, instructional excellence, and future readiness cannot be separate conversations if students are experiencing all of them at the same time.
Speaker A:And coherence isn't something we achieve once it has to be built, protected, examined, and continually reoriented as circumstances change.
Speaker A:The idea has only become more important as this work has evolved.
Speaker A:In our next wheelhouse, Reorientation, we'll return to the third conversation in this original series.
Speaker A:Because understanding an architecture is one thing.
Speaker A:Trying to bring it to life inside real schools with real people, real pressures, competing priorities, and all of the complexities that come with leading human organizations is something else entirely.
Speaker A:And that conversation takes us another step closer to where this work is heading now.
Speaker A:Until then, remember, the goal isn't to get every part of the system moving.
Speaker A:It's to get the parts that matter moving together.
Speaker A:Stay oriented.
Speaker A:We'll see you next week for another episode of the Wheelhouse.
