The Wheelhouse Hiatus Special: From Ecosystem to Alliance
What if schools and districts did not have to do the hardest work of coherence alone?
That question sits at the center of this Wheelhouse Hiatus Special—and it is where our three Reorientations have been leading us.
We began with drift: the slow movement away from what schools and systems say matters and what students actually experience. Then we explored what it means to design for coherence. And finally, we confronted the harder reality that coherence does not sustain itself. It requires discipline, evidence, leadership, continual reorientation, and an unwavering attention to the human experience our systems are actually producing.
So what comes next?
In this special episode, The Wheelhouse team and I begin talking publicly about an idea that has been growing out of the Students Matter Ecosystem:
The Students Matter Alliance.
The Alliance is not another framework to adopt.It is not another program to implement.It is not a compliance process.And it is not a designation an organization can simply purchase.
We are building it as a developmental community for schools and districts willing to examine their systems honestly, learn alongside others, build greater coherence, and remain accountable for what students actually experience.
That distinction matters.
Because schools are filled with people working incredibly hard. The challenge is rarely a lack of effort. The challenge is building systems in which purpose, leadership, learning, student care, structures, and decisions reinforce one another rather than compete with one another.
And doing that consistently is difficult.
The Alliance begins with the belief that perhaps organizations should not have to figure all of this out in isolation.
- What might change if schools and districts could learn together?
- What if they could examine evidence together?
- What if leaders could test assumptions, share what they are learning, wrestle honestly with where their systems are falling short, and continually reorient toward what matters most?
- And what if students were not simply asked for their opinions after adults had made the important decisions, but became meaningful participants in understanding and improving the systems they experience every day?
Those are some of the questions underneath the Alliance. They are also why our first partners will be more than participants. They will help us build it.
We want the Alliance itself to live by the same principles we are asking schools and districts to embrace: purpose, humanity, coherence, evidence, learning, and continual reorientation. That means testing our own assumptions, listening carefully, learning from what happens in practice, and being willing to change the design when the evidence tells us we should.
This is an emerging idea. We do not have every answer. But we believe this question is worth pursuing:
What might become possible if schools and districts committed to building more coherent, human-centered systems—and did that work together?
That is where the Students Matter work is taking us next.
A Few Things to Carry With You
- Coherence is difficult to sustain against the pressures that continually pull organizations toward fragmentation.
- The Students Matter Alliance is being designed as a developmental community—not a product, compliance program, or designation that can simply be purchased.
- The evidence that matters includes what students, adults, and the organization itself are actually experiencing—not simply whether an initiative was implemented.
- Students must be meaningful participants in understanding and improving the systems they experience, not merely sources of occasional feedback.
- The first Alliance partners will help shape the work by testing assumptions, examining evidence, learning together, and contributing to the design as it develops.
- Humanity, purpose, coherence, evidence, and continual reorientation must remain central—not only to the organizations participating in the Alliance, but to the Alliance itself.
And perhaps the biggest idea is the simplest: We do not have to do this work alone.
The Reorientations helped us understand where this work came from. The Students Matter Alliance begins to show us where it might go next.
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.
Stay Oriented.
Transcript
We've spent the past few weeks reorienting.
Speaker A:We went back to Drift.
Speaker A:We explored what it means to design for coherence, and we confronted the harder question of what it takes to sustain that coherence when the pressure is real.
Speaker A:But all of that leaves us with another question.
Speaker A:What if schools and districts didn't have to do this work alone?
Speaker A:What if there was a way for organizations committed to purpose, humanity, coherence, and the lived experience of students to learn together, to build together, to examine evidence together, and to keep reorienting together over time?
Speaker A:That question has been growing underneath the Students Matter work for quite a while, and today we're ready to talk about where it's taking us.
Speaker A:This is not another framework, and it's not a destination you can simply purchase.
Speaker A:It's not a new initiative to layer into everything else.
Speaker A:It's an attempt to create something larger around the work we've already been doing.
Speaker A:The Students Matter Alliance.
Speaker A:Why now?
Speaker A:Why this?
Speaker A:And what might become possible if schools and districts committed to this work together.
Speaker A:A new episode of the Wheelhouse begins right now, When 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 Wheelhouse team of Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro.
Speaker A:Over our last three episodes, we did something a little different.
Speaker A:We went back not because we wanted to revisit old conversations just for the sake of revisiting them, but because those conversations helped us see more clearly where the work is taking us now.
Speaker A:We talked about drift, we talked about designing for coherence, and we talked about the discipline required to sustain coherence over time.
Speaker A:Together, those conversations point towards something bigger.
Speaker A:If we believe coherence matters, if we believe students should consistently experience schools as human centered, purposeful, and aligned, and if we know how difficult that work is to sustain inside complex organizations, then we eventually have to ask what kind of structure might help schools and districts do this work together?
Speaker A:That question is what led us toward the Students Matter Alliance.
Speaker A:And I want to be clear about something.
Speaker A:From the very beginning, the alliance is not a finished answer.
Speaker A:It's not a badge.
Speaker A:It's not a membership program disguised as transformation, and it's not something organizations can simply buy their way into.
Speaker A:It is an emerging developmental model for schools and districts willing to examine their systems honestly, build greater coherence, strengthen their capacity, and remain accountable for what students actually experience.
Speaker A:Today, we're going to talk about why we believe something like this is needed, how it connects to the Students matter, ecosystem, what we're beginning to build and what we still need to learn.
Speaker A:This feels like an important next chapter.
Speaker A:Let's get oriented.
Speaker A:Good morning.
Speaker A:I'm Dr. Grant Chandler.
Speaker A:This is a hiatus special episode.
Speaker A:It brings us back together as we get ready for season 14.
Speaker A:But we're going to talk about some really exciting news and some exciting plans as we continue this work.
Speaker A:So before we go too far, let me say good morning to the most incredible humans on the planet.
Speaker A:Kathy mone, Michael Piper, Dr. Alicia Monroe.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the Wheelhouse.
Speaker B:Good morning.
Speaker A:Good morning.
Speaker C:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker C:We couldn't stay away from each other.
Speaker C:This is what we do.
Speaker C:We're like, oh, it's hiatus time.
Speaker D:That's right.
Speaker C:No, no, we gotta be back together.
Speaker A:No hiatus for us.
Speaker C:No, no.
Speaker C:We were talking beforehand, before you, Grant, hit that record button about everything that's been happening in of the Wheelhouse.
Speaker C:And so not a lot of a hiatus.
Speaker C:Do too much.
Speaker C:You know, there's just way too many exciting things happening.
Speaker A:So I just want to say thank you to all of our listeners in 82 countries for staying the course and continuing to listen to some incredible conversations, not just with us, but with some incredible educators from all walks of life and some incredible students of varying ages who are willing to tell us about their experiences and what they hope for this entity we call education.
Speaker A:So I just want to say thank you to everybody out there who's listening.
Speaker A:We work really, really hard to continue to have great conversations with great people and to help start a movement.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:This is a movement.
Speaker A:Alicia and I said this a couple years ago at a conference.
Speaker A:This is a movement.
Speaker A:We're just getting started.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:So, you know, and we're talking today about, you know, this episode comes on the heels of the three orientation episodes where we've talked about drift and we've talked about how do you design systems that, you know, kind of combat that and make sure that we're coherent and.
Speaker A:And then how do you sustain that coherence over time, especially when politics and accountability and pressure and everything is there that, you know, everything that schools confront, whether it's not really its purpose, but all of those things pull us away, Pull us away from coherence.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:They unintentionally accelerate or have the potential to accelerate Drift.
Speaker A:Right, Drift, which is that difference between what we say we want students to experience and what they really are experiencing.
Speaker A:And we've heard some pretty compelling stories from students about what they are experiencing and what they would like to experience instead.
Speaker A:So today's episode is really the culmination of, of the reorientation episodes and a look forward to this thing we're going to call the Students Matter Alliance.
Speaker A:And I talked a little bit about that in the introduction.
Speaker A:But I just want to start with this question with this amazing group of educators here.
Speaker A:If an organization says it believes students matter, what should eventually become different in the lived experience of students, adults and the organization itself?
Speaker C:I just think about experiences I've had, you know, with students over the years.
Speaker C:And I would imagine each of us can picture students throughout the course of our educational journeys that we've had the privilege to work with.
Speaker C:I think about how they initially approach us in thinking that there's, they've got their guards up, right?
Speaker C:There's a. I don't trust, I don't, I don't know, as though I can believe what it is that you're saying, you know, kind of thinking like, I'm not, I'm not buying what you're selling.
Speaker C:And then in this space where it is an environment that exudes that students matter, those walls are, are removed.
Speaker C:Those.
Speaker C:There isn't this sense of, you know, distrust and thinking that I, I mean, I just can, you know, picture this like tense bodies from students and versus this very open shoulders kind of got, you know, concept of I believe that you are here to help me be the best that I can possibly be.
Speaker C:And I'm open to those conversations.
Speaker C:I'm open to the challenges and all things that we want students to, to experience in their educational journeys.
Speaker C:So I picture students faces and what those faces and that body language say to us and how it changes.
Speaker B:So as I process that, Kathy, and that was so nicely and eloquently said.
Speaker B:It's about what's in a name.
Speaker B:And we've talked about this.
Speaker B:It's about do you really know who's in the space?
Speaker B:It's about relationship.
Speaker B:Think about all the students that have crossed our thresholds and we've impacted and we've actually touched their lives, which is truly a privilege.
Speaker B:We've done this because we are passionate about what we do.
Speaker B:We are called Michael, you use that term often.
Speaker B:We are called to do this work.
Speaker B:We build relationship.
Speaker B:The students that we've had on the podcast that have been our guests have really accentuated the fact that they want to be seen in relationship and they want to be heard.
Speaker B:H E A R D not H E R D. That's really powerful.
Speaker B:So if all students matter, then they have to be seen and heard.
Speaker B:Kathy, it's about Relationship.
Speaker B:It's about knowing their name, knowing how to clearly articulate it and understand that with every name, there's a story that.
Speaker D:We have to dignify, I think, about how the dots connect for our students, not just our adult learners.
Speaker D:And so when there is that trust that you talk about, Kath, and that sense of belonging, when students recognize that dignity, as you say, Dr. Munroe, is the priority, then they can access purpose, and community happens, and all of those dots begin to connect.
Speaker D:And rigor isn't something we have to coerce students into.
Speaker D:It's something they demand, they are hungry for, they want.
Speaker D:And then there's that sense of agency and eventually authorship.
Speaker D:And that's where I feel the plane take off.
Speaker B:So, Grant, you always ask the questions.
Speaker B:However, we all know that you are really, really passionate and purpose driven around this question and then some.
Speaker B:So how would you respond to this question?
Speaker C:Good one, Dr. Monroe.
Speaker C:Good one.
Speaker A:Oh, girl.
Speaker A:I would absolutely 100% scream and echo and reinforce everything that the three of you have just said.
Speaker A:And then as you were talking, all three of you, I was thinking about, yeah, that's our goal, right?
Speaker A:That's our goal.
Speaker A:That is absolutely our goal.
Speaker A:Sadly, however, that is not the reality of most students.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Most students come to school and they learn if they didn't know before, they learn that they are living in poverty because we tell them, we show them that in so many ways.
Speaker A:We show them that their neurodivergent identities are not necessarily considered all that important by a lot of people.
Speaker A:And they're not valued, they're looked down upon, heard from folks who say that they have to shrink in order to feel as if they belong.
Speaker A:And there's this focus.
Speaker A:This focus has been on accountability and assessments which has made students and their families enemies of the state.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Because we have held in the wrong way, we have held educators, teachers and leaders accountable for the snapshot test score rather than thinking about it in real measurement terms.
Speaker A:And so this is, of course, what we're all about, is creating this experience that we want each and every student to have.
Speaker A:And yes, there are places where students do experience what we want them to experience, and there are great educators doing great work to do that.
Speaker A:But we also know there's the reality that so many of our students, this is not what they.
Speaker A:This is not what they experience.
Speaker A:And this is why.
Speaker A:This is why the wheelhouse exists, right?
Speaker A:To be able to highlight that and to put that out there and to help guide.
Speaker A:Help guide this journey so that every student will each and Every student will experience that.
Speaker A:So that's what I think.
Speaker A:That's what I was thinking of, Dr. Monroe, when you asked that question.
Speaker D:It sounds like what an alliance is for.
Speaker D:So that it's not just some, that it's most.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think there's tremendous value in schools that are trying to do this work.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:To create those experiences for each and every student.
Speaker A:So first, I think they need support.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So they need support.
Speaker A:They need people to help them do that.
Speaker A:They need tools that will help them.
Speaker A:They need guidance and direction.
Speaker A:Because the pressure.
Speaker A:Because the pressure is too strong.
Speaker A:I often say in conversation with superintendents and principals that I work with, it's like, hey, I have time.
Speaker A:When they go, oh, I should have thought of that.
Speaker A:And I go, maybe, but I don't have a district or a building to run.
Speaker A:So I got a little time to be able to have that conversation with myself, do that research.
Speaker A:Think about that.
Speaker A:You don't necessarily have that.
Speaker A:That's what you have me for, is to help you when you don't have time.
Speaker A:Because there's so many different demands on your time and attention every single day.
Speaker A:And so I think there's, you know, we hope that the Students Matter alliance will provide that guidance.
Speaker A:But also I think there's tremendous value in schools and districts who are doing this work to learn from each other.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:And talk about what you think about that.
Speaker A:An opportunity for schools and districts who are trying to do this work, humanizing the learning experience for each and every student to be able to share with each other and learn from each other.
Speaker A:What do you think?
Speaker C:I immediately was thinking about an experience that you and I had, Grant, many, many moons ago when we brought some superintendents together.
Speaker C:And it was the same kind of visual that I painted with students.
Speaker C:There's this.
Speaker C:I don't regarded and we don't trust and we think that, oh, this is yet another thing.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Somebody's just trying to get me to do something else.
Speaker C:And busting through and understanding that you're not the only one out there that so desires to do things different for kids.
Speaker C:You're trying and needing and welcoming the support and ready and craving.
Speaker C:I mean, we talked about it with our listeners, with the wheelhouse, that people are just craving that community, craving that opportunity to learn and grow from each other once they are willing to kind of let that guard down and understand and trust that there are.
Speaker C:There are people out there in education like those of us in this.
Speaker C:This space, and many people that are listening that are.
Speaker C:They're just they just want to do good work for kids and are willing to work with the adults, to do really good work with adults so they can do the really good work with kids.
Speaker D:I love that idea of a collaborative conversation that when we come together as educators, not accepting, you know, the myth that because we belong to separate districts, separate learning communities, oftentimes our school and our district's performance is pitted against others who are demographically alike, et cetera, et cetera, and you know, you're invited to believe the story that you're in competition because of these finite resources and you're being judged by these scores.
Speaker D:And that when we allow educators to come together to have conversation with each other, to learn about their respective communities, learning journeys and aspirations, and then to build trust over time and to begin sharing not only problems of practice and challenges, but what you care about most and where you've been able to make headway and why and where you'd like to go next.
Speaker D:Those conversations are waiting to be had and those conversations people are hungry for.
Speaker D:And that to me is, that's what an alliance does.
Speaker D:An alliance connects, it brings people together, it establishes the common purpose and a sense of community.
Speaker D:And, and that conversation has infinite potential.
Speaker B:And what I like about the entire alliance as part of an ecosystem is that there are constant levels of support and growth and it's uninterrupted space.
Speaker B:So oftentimes when we're in our learning environments, we'll start off with good intentions.
Speaker B:And then throughout the day or the week or the months or the year, those intentions are thrown away because of interruptions and disturbances and shifted mandates and test scores.
Speaker B:And now we have to try something new and, and, and the layers upon layers upon layers.
Speaker B:And you know, educators, we just want to have a conversation, a real collaborative conversation.
Speaker B:So when we go into collaborative sessions that there is authentic connections being made, right.
Speaker B:And that we're kind of developing on our own agendas, right at that age, that agenda is not slapped on us and say we gotta get this done and we're gonna sit in there to make sure that you get it done.
Speaker B:You know, it's something that is self propelled and it feels really organic and that's truly community building.
Speaker B:That's authentic engagement.
Speaker A:So we know that education has seen a lot of models, there's a lot of programs.
Speaker A:I mean, you can Google models and frameworks and you know, reform movements until you want to jump off the roo, right?
Speaker A:Because they're there in force.
Speaker A:That's not what we're building.
Speaker A:I'm not Interested?
Speaker A:None of you are interested in building something like that, right?
Speaker A:That is not.
Speaker A:We have tools to support you.
Speaker A:But this is not about a framework.
Speaker A:This is not about a model.
Speaker A:This is a movement, not a framework.
Speaker A:And there's a difference.
Speaker A:There's a difference between championing our students as a movement, right.
Speaker A:And thereby our educators and our leaders versus a reform model that says blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah.
Speaker A:So as we think about, right.
Speaker A:As we're in the thinking stage of this entity, we call this movement, we'll call the Students Matter Alliance.
Speaker A:What do you not want it to be?
Speaker A:What is it not going to be?
Speaker C:Got a list a mile long, right?
Speaker C:Experiences over and over.
Speaker A:What's it not going to be?
Speaker A:Mrs. Moni?
Speaker C:Well, I think it's that, I mean we go back to the definition of drift that you started this conversation around and reminding us.
Speaker C:So I don't want it to be this difference between what we say.
Speaker C:We want students in schools and therefore the adults in schools to experience and what they actually experience.
Speaker C:So we can't say that it's going to be this, that we are grounded in humanity, that this is what matters and this is what we're going to support you with and then come in and impose our will our way.
Speaker C:Check boxes.
Speaker C:Check, check, check, check.
Speaker C:We did that.
Speaker C:Woo hoo.
Speaker C:Now let's move on to the next.
Speaker C:Like there's a significant disconnect there.
Speaker C:I think that sums up many years of my experience in education.
Speaker C:They sell a bill of goods.
Speaker D:Here's our series of plug and play programs that you can insert and they will produce the desired result.
Speaker D:Stand back and watch the magic happen.
Speaker D:It's the reframing and the reorienting toward life affirming practices that are at the heart of learning.
Speaker D:And it's committing ourselves to the idea that if this is what we want our students to experience, then we have to pay attention when we ask them, are we getting there?
Speaker C:And really listen, really listen and understand those authentic voices.
Speaker B:We're not factoring in time on digital intervention program as an indicator of student success.
Speaker A:You know, I.
Speaker B:Yay.
Speaker A:It's so interesting to me.
Speaker A:You're listening to the three of you who this is why I love you, because you're so darn brilliant.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:But I mean the solutions aren't that simple, right?
Speaker A:I mean if it were that simple, somebody would have, would have created the right software platform and it had been done right, we'd have figured this out long before I ever became an educator.
Speaker A:This is not about I loved Your term, Michael.
Speaker A:Plug and play.
Speaker A:As I was giggling when you said that, right.
Speaker A:I was like, this isn't about.
Speaker A:This is about.
Speaker A:This work is about coherence.
Speaker A:It's about how does each and every district school that we work with, how do they understand coherence?
Speaker A:How do they understand the relationship between what you do, what you say, and what it is that you want students to experience?
Speaker A:And how do you remain coherent?
Speaker A:How do you do that in light of all of the pressure and all of the stuff that comes at us every single day?
Speaker A:Nobody here in this room, in this room, in this wheelhouse room would say that this is easy, right?
Speaker A:Because there are so many distractors that come into play, right?
Speaker A:Sitting here.
Speaker A:There's like 80 or 90 or 100 years of experience in this room.
Speaker A:And it's like, we all know, because we've been there, the distractions that are there.
Speaker A:This is about coherence.
Speaker A:It's about holding firmly to what we want students to experience and making sure that our actions and what we say, what we do, what we plan to do is aligned to that so that we can recognize drift when it happens.
Speaker A:Because it's inevitable, right?
Speaker A:It's inevitable.
Speaker A:And also make sure that we know how to get back on track when we slowly drift away from.
Speaker A:From what it is that we're.
Speaker A:That we're heading toward.
Speaker A:So no two districts in the alliance can ever look alike, can they?
Speaker B:I would venture to guess that no two schools in a district will ever look alike.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Because we serve different demographics.
Speaker B:There are different needs.
Speaker B:Even if there are similar demographics, each of us are beautifully unique.
Speaker B:And when you started to talk about coherence, I started to really unpack that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Coherence has to be activated through the human lens.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So coherence has to be activated through heart, through spirit, through compassion, through empathy, through purpose.
Speaker B:I mean, it's not this textbook thing we grab and go and we place on and say, okay, now we're going to round everybody up around this, and this is going to be our mission and our vision.
Speaker B:It's really important that we understand the human frame of the schools in which we reside or the districts in which we reside.
Speaker B:And oftentimes, as we come in as servants of this human frame, we forget the one entity that's supposed to be driving us the most.
Speaker B:And that's human beings.
Speaker C:I was going to say.
Speaker C:And dramatic pause.
Speaker A:Dramatic pause.
Speaker C:And students.
Speaker C:Humans.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And if we're building schools and districts that are completely connected to human beings, students, teachers, leaders, families, the community, then while There may be similar characteristics or similar approaches that an alliance school or district may make.
Speaker A:It is not plug and play because context matters.
Speaker A:The humans in the loop.
Speaker A:The humans in the loop.
Speaker A:Oh, Janice Colbert.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:The humans in the loop, they matter.
Speaker A:They matter.
Speaker A:And it's going to look differently.
Speaker A:Even though there are going to be some similarities, it'll look differently.
Speaker A:But when we start to think about one alliance school or district versus another school or district.
Speaker A:But boy, if they are truly on the path to doing this work for students, and when they do the work for students, folks, don't forget this benefits teachers, it benefits leaders.
Speaker A:So we're not forgetting them, we're not forgetting teachers and leaders.
Speaker A:But when we focus on our students, everybody wins.
Speaker A:Everybody wins.
Speaker A:That's a non negotiable in the Students Matter alliance.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:If we focus on our kids, everybody wins.
Speaker A:But no two schools or districts could ever be the same.
Speaker A:And that is not the goal.
Speaker A:The goal for the Students Matter alliance is that we learn from one another and that we figure out how each in our own context.
Speaker A:How do we support each and every student that Kathy says we are absolutely privileged to serve.
Speaker A:So when we think about that,.
Speaker C:We.
Speaker A:Think about other, other entities that are out there, other approaches to the work.
Speaker A:When you think about the Students Matter alliance, my friends, how would you describe it in terms of how different it is from the other work that's out there?
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean it's completely grounded in who we are and what the purpose of the wheelhouse is, which is it's about humans.
Speaker C:Which sounds incredibly silly because wouldn't they all be?
Speaker C:Because after all, they are school systems with, you know, lots of, lots of bodies.
Speaker C:But humanity seems to be missing.
Speaker C:And so thinking about at the core, all the other pieces are connected to that.
Speaker C:And so as there's the navigation and understanding purpose and all of these things like that.
Speaker C:How it's grounded, why we exist is humanity is ensuring that every student truly believes, understands that they are distinctive and irreplaceable.
Speaker C:And so all pieces then connect to that.
Speaker C:And so decisions that we're making.
Speaker C:I was thinking as you were talking, Grant, almost like Jiminy Cricket, kind of on your shoulder, like let your conscious be your guide kind of thing with some.
Speaker C:But that voice of I'm making decisions in this, you know, whirlwind that constantly happens in districts, in schools, in classrooms.
Speaker C:But I'm making decisions through a very different lens because we're all making those decisions through that lens.
Speaker C:So I think that to me, that's the heart and soul going Back to what Alicia said, it really is the significant difference of the alliance versus any other dozens or hundreds of programs that exist.
Speaker C:And I put that as a program because I don't see this as a program.
Speaker C:You know, that's not.
Speaker C:Even the others are programs.
Speaker C:The alliance is not.
Speaker A:It's a movement.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:The alliance is, Is an experience.
Speaker B:So I agree with you, Kathy.
Speaker B:It's hard to label it because it is a movement.
Speaker B:And that means that it's organic.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And organic is an accepted norm.
Speaker B:So we don't have to shrink to fit.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We don't have to comply with a metric driven system.
Speaker B:It's really organic.
Speaker B:So, Kathy, as you were describing it, and Grant, as you clearly articulated and have deepened the understanding of what this alliance is, and Michael, as you've grounded it in purpose, we have to understand that it's the human in the loop, right.
Speaker B:That really drives the alliance.
Speaker B:I also want to elevate that.
Speaker B:We're walking the talk, right?
Speaker B:And that's what makes it different.
Speaker B:We are really educators developing this for other educators.
Speaker B:You know, I've been in education for over 30 years, and there's over a century's worth of experience in this space at all different levels of education.
Speaker B:And we have rose through the ranks, all right?
Speaker B:We have fail forward moments, and we're very transparent with that.
Speaker B:We bring that experience into the experience.
Speaker B:So this is something that we really are doing this in a heartfelt way and for listeners to understand even the composition of our team.
Speaker B:The only person that I have met personally on this in the wheelhouse family is Grant.
Speaker B:And I do feel connected to Kathy and Michael.
Speaker B:They're like my sisters and brothers, because we all have that common thread, that common heart.
Speaker B:So to come into this space from different areas of the country and to come about this is that we are serving as an example of this practice that we are actually supporting and championing in the space.
Speaker C:The first time I met Grant, he sat across the table from me in the district that I was working with at the time.
Speaker C:And it was one of my toughest spots to be in as a leader.
Speaker C:And so all of these, you know, fail forward moments, you're talking about Alicia.
Speaker C:And he, he asked me, what are you?
Speaker C:What's your biggest concern?
Speaker C:And I said, I, I cannot carry this alone.
Speaker C:I can't like this.
Speaker C:This is not something I can do.
Speaker C:I can carry alone.
Speaker C:And he said, with such honesty, I'm here to carry it with you.
Speaker C:You're not alone.
Speaker C:And so that's the alliance, that's the because it doesn't matter what it is.
Speaker C:You can't carry it alone.
Speaker C:And that the alliance isn't going to let you.
Speaker C:And I don't know of any other entity that says that, let alone is.
Speaker A:That we'll carry it with you.
Speaker A:We'll do it with you.
Speaker A:We'll help you.
Speaker A:I think the other thing, as we wrap up this episode, I think the other thing that separates.
Speaker A:Distinguishes.
Speaker A:Differentiates whatever word you want this work from, perhaps other work that you've seen, is that to be a students matter alliance, school or district, you can't make these decisions in isolation.
Speaker A:You have to make them with students.
Speaker A:You have to make them.
Speaker A:So this is.
Speaker A:We go beyond student voice to student agency, right?
Speaker A:Because we, you know, you cannot build.
Speaker A:You cannot build the system that says each and every student matters, is valued, is championed, whatever word, whatever verb you like, whatever.
Speaker A:Whatever language speaks to you.
Speaker A:So you can't do that without doing that with children, right?
Speaker A:With the children you serve currently.
Speaker A:Not the children you had 10 years ago, not the children you want in 10 years from now, but the children you have sitting in your classrooms today.
Speaker A:And so that's a fundamental part of the alliance, is we do this work with our students, right?
Speaker A:We do this work.
Speaker A:We listen, we do this work with them because they know.
Speaker A:They know even better than we do what's going to help them and what's going to move them forward.
Speaker A:Next week is the premiere of season 14 of the Wheelhouse.
Speaker A:So we look forward to seeing you in season 14.
Speaker A:As we close this conversation, I keep coming back to where we began.
Speaker A:Drift systems can lose their way slowly.
Speaker A:They can become fragmented while good people continue to work incredibly hard.
Speaker A:And even when leaders recognize that fragmentation, designing coherence is difficult, sustaining it is harder still.
Speaker A:That's the problem the students matter alliance is trying to respond to.
Speaker A:Not by promising perfection and not by creating another compliance system, and certainly not by handing organizations another label to chase.
Speaker A:The hope is to create a developmental community of schools and districts willing to do something much more demanding, See clearly, examine what their systems are actually producing.
Speaker A:Build greater coherence around what matters most.
Speaker A:Strengthen the capacity of the people doing the work.
Speaker A:Listen seriously to students, use evidence honestly and continually, reorient as they learn.
Speaker A:We're still building this, and I think that matters because the alliance itself has to live by the same principles we're asking of participating organizations.
Speaker A:We have to learn.
Speaker A:We have to test assumptions.
Speaker A:We have to listen, and we have to be willing to change what we build when the evidence tells us something.
Speaker A:Different.
Speaker A:That is why our first partners will not simply be participants.
Speaker A:They will help us design this with integrity.
Speaker A:And perhaps that's the larger invitation underneath this episode.
Speaker A:What might become possible if schools and districts stop trying to solve the hardest problems of coherence entirely on their own?
Speaker A:What could we learn from one another?
Speaker A:What might students experience differently?
Speaker A:Those are questions we intend to keep asking.
Speaker A:And when the Wheelhouse returns for season 14 next week, we'll return to the conversations that make those questions necessary.
Speaker A:Bringing back voices we are not finished, learning from, creating new combinations of people and ideas and continuing to wrestle with the conditions shaping schools right now.
Speaker A:The reorientations helped us look back.
Speaker A:This hiatus special has helped us look forward.
Speaker A:And now the work continues.
Speaker A:Stay oriented.
Speaker A:We'll see you next week for the season premiere of the Wheelhouse.
