We are an urban school district with limited resources, which presents additional challenges, but we are committed to using every means at our disposal to provide equitable and accessible learning for all of our scholars.

The pandemic accelerated the need for wider adoption of tech tools, requiring us to put Chromebooks in the hands of every teacher immediately—and we’ve since ensured that every scholar has their own device, too. Providing access to those devices and the learning experiences they enable is only the first step, though.

Fast forward four years and it is incredible to see where we are and where we are going. Here are seven key strategies we employ to provide technology-rich educational experiences to our scholars.

1. Persist in providing technology equity and access

My first attempt at integrating a new technology came when I was a principal back in 2013. I launched a coding program and only one girl expressed any interest. It was disheartening because I wanted all of our scholars to understand that they had access to this technology.

Fast forward to last year, however, and we have made coding available to all of our elementary scholars with Ozobots, Lego Spike and Brick U. It may have taken a decade but we expanded access from one scholar to thousands.

2. Support and empower educators

When we implement new tech tools, we provide ongoing professional development to demonstrate how they can make teaching more convenient, efficient and engaging. We provide in-house PD where we can but we also tap outside help when we need to. For example, our technology solution partner, Bluum, provided professional development for our teachers when we deployed virtual reality headsets, as they have for tech initiatives since deploying Chromebooks in 2020.

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We have teachers who have been with the district for 30 or 40 years who have shared how much this PD has helped new technology feel less threatening to integrate into their classrooms. Just as exciting, we’ve seen a number of educators who have found their second wind through technology and have chosen to delay retirement and continue their careers as educators.

3. Prepare scholars for a tech-saturated world

Our scholars will graduate into a world that is rich in technology and we want them to be ready to engage in that world. Beyond providing 1:1 devices, we also have 3D printers and interactive whiteboards at all our schools, helping scholars become comfortable using technology as part of their daily lives.

4. Create and offer learning experiences that transcend time and place

Many of our scholars have not left our zipcode let alone the state of New Jersey. Our virtual reality headsets empower scholars to experience places across the globe they might not otherwise visit and to apply concepts and learning across the curriculum.

5. Collaborate with like-minded leaders

I belong to a number of superintendents’ groups. In one of them, we often share tech ideas so that no one is stuck reinventing the wheel when another of us has already perfected it.

For example, Irvington worked with two phenomenal partners from other districts as we planned and launched our STEAM Academy in the 2022-23 school year. They allowed us to visit, observe their models and leverage the work they had already done.

6. Choose partners with a human touch

Whatever company you buy your technology from, make sure they understand your entry points, desired outcomes, expectations of them and how they will address challenges that will arise. We chose Bluum as our strategic partner, and they’ve been instrumental in helping us plan and achieve our goals. This collaboration provided a comfortable, focused, and integrated technology experience.

7. Embrace continuous learning

Our technology director, John Amberg, does a great job staying on top of what is happening outside of our district, which allows us to stay on the cutting edge of teaching and learning with technology. Earlier this year, he organized our first artificial intelligence community summit to discuss issues related to this new technology. We will be launching an AI academy later this school year to provide support, guidance and training to our staff as the use of this technology continues to grow.

All of these efforts have paid off because our focus on technology is making a difference in our scholars’ lives. This past school year, one of our scholars achieved a perfect score on our statewide mathematics assessment. She attributed her success to having her own Chromebook so she could practice on i-Ready, an adaptive program that serves scholars practice math problems targeted at their existing skill level, whenever she had a chance.

My favorite lesson learned along the way is to not be afraid to take a risk and make a change for your district. Even if only one little girl shows up at the beginning, it’s a first step in leveraging technology to create equitable and accessible learning for every scholar in our district.

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Starting on Aug. 1, LGBTQ+ students will be legally protected from harassment based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. The updated Title IX regulations released by the Department of Education last week offered no guidance about transgender and nonbinary students joining sports teams that align with their gender.

On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter directly to Biden claiming the updates are “illegal” and that he has ordered the Texas Education Agency to ignore the new rules. Title IX, Abbott wrote, recognizes only two genders and its purpose is to support the advancement of women academically and athletically.

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“You have rewritten Title IX to force schools to treat boys as if they were girls and to accept every student’s self-declared gender identity,” Abbott argued. “This ham-handed effort to impose a leftist belief onto Title IX exceeds your authority as president.”

Lousiana State Superintendent Cade Brumley told district leaders and school boards not to alter any of their policies despite the Biden Administration’s ruling. The new rule “alters the long-standing definition that has created fairness and equal access to opportunity for women and men,” Brumley wrote in a letter to Louisiana school system leaders. “The Title IX rule changes recklessly endanger students and seek to dismantle equal opportunities for females.”

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis posted a video to X saying, “We will not comply.”

Lousiana has joined with Texas and several other states in a lawsuit against the Title IX updates. State superintendents in Montana, Oklahoma and South Carolina also told districts not to comply or make any new policies to protect their LGBTQ communities.

South Carolina’s ACLU chapter blasted state Superintendent Ellen Weaver’s rejection of the Title IX update, calling it the latest move in state leaders’ “cruel” efforts to marginalize LGBTQ students and communities.

“In addition to encouraging districts to ignore federal regulations—and putting our underfunded schools at risk of losing critically needed dollars—her letter suggests transgender kids don’t exist and shouldn’t be protected from discrimination,” South Carolina ACLU Executive Director Jace Woodrum said in a statement.

“The rights of transgender and cisgender people are not a zero-sum game,” the organization added. “Trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people belong in South Carolina, and they deserve to be protected from discrimination, not vilified by politicians.”

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Those numbers mean book bans, which are taking place in both red and blue districts, are “soaring to a record level,” PEN America says in its latest report, “Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis.”

“Book bans are targeting narratives about race and sexual identities and sexual content writ large, and they show no sign of stopping,” said Sabrina Baêta, Freedom to Read program manager at PEN America and a lead author of the report.

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“The bans we’re seeing are broad, harsh and pernicious–and they’re undermining the education of millions of students across the country.”

The latest report focuses on books about women, sexual violence and rape that are being challenged based on obscenity. It also found that titles on race and racism, LGBTQ+ and transgender identities remain frequent targets of censors.

PEN America has tracked over 10,000 removals between July 2021 to December 2023, with Florida tallying the most bans at 3,135 across 11 school districts. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill this week that limits residents without children in a particular school system to one book challenge per month. Parents can still contest as many books as they want at their children’s schools.

Meanwhile, according to PEN America’s research, censorship activity is accelerating in other states:

• Wisconsin: 481 bans across three school districts, including 444 books challenged by just one parent
• Iowa: 142 bans in three school districts
• Texas: 141 bans at four school districts
• Kentucky: One district, Boyle County Schools, removed 106 books
• Virginia: Three school districts banned 100 titles.

Pushback on book bans

The good news, the report asserts, is that students are taking action. Students are protesting, forming after-school banned book clubs and “working with teachers to distribute books under the radar,” the report points out.

“Students are at the epicenter of the book-banning movement, and they’re fearlessly spearheading the fight against this insidious encroachment into what they can read and learn across the country,” said Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America. “By suppressing these stories, censors seek to delegitimize experiences that resonate deeply with young people.”

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These disparities are a result of districts being created to serve either poor or wealthy, or white or non-white communities, according to New America’s “Crossing the Lines” report. This, of course, leaves the less affluent districts with lower property tax bases to support schools.

“Along the school district borders that mark the steepest racial and economic divides, students are getting shortchanged,” the report’s authors write. “In too many cases, the districts serving more students in poverty or more students of color are more cash-strapped than their neighbors.”

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The difference in local revenue along those most segregated borders is an average of $4,119.46 per pupil, and state funding doesn’t always close the gap. For example, when state and local funding are combined in Ohio, higher-poverty districts receive about 14% more per pupil. But next door in Pennsylvania, school systems get 11% less.

Moreover, there are impacts on both sides of the boundaries. “In all of the districts defined by these borders,” the researchers add, “children are segregated from their peers, deprived of the opportunity to learn alongside students of different backgrounds.”

Divides beyond poverty

Gaps along school district boundaries also persist along racial lines. While more than half of public school students identify as students of color, 46% of these learners attend just 1% of all districts, the report explains.

A closer look at this divide finds that neighboring districts are an average 14 percentage points “apart in their proportions of students of color.” But that gap soars to nearly 80% along the most-segregated boundaries, the study finds. “The separation is, on average, between a district that is 92.4% white and a district that is 86% students of color,” the authors state.

The solutions start with district leaders lobbying for new state policies, such as redrawing districts intentionally to serve a more racially and economically diverse mix of communities, the report advises.

Superintendents and their teams can also advocate for eliminating or reducing the use of local property taxes to fund school systems. Alternative funding methods would pool property taxes across multiple districts to “share the wealth,” the report contends.

“If local property taxes are to remain a significant source of school funding,” the authors conclude, “guardrails should be put in place to ensure that communities of different wealth levels pay their fair share toward school funding totals—no more and no less—and that local funds are appropriately constrained, to limit the kind of extravagant spending in high-wealth districts that creates ground-level inequality.”

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But there are deliberate steps that district leaders can take to encourage more men of color to aspire to principalships, superintendencies and other administrative positions, adds Peters, a former K12 administrator and now CEO of the nonprofit Men of Color in Education Leadership, a mentoring and PD organization also known by its acronym, MCEL.

Peters, like many Black educators, explains how he was typecast at the beginning of his teaching career. He was assigned lunch room, bus and coaching duties while similarly-experienced white teachers were placed on curriculum and school improvement committees.

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“We know bias creeps in when you’re a leader of color,” he notes. “We’ve heard themes—they say ‘I feel isolated,’ ‘I don’t have the resources’ and ‘I don’t feel as if I have the runway to turn schools around that my counterparts have.'”

10 keys to success

There are also steps Black educators can take to better position themselves for promotion, Peters notes. MCEL collected input from more than 300 leaders to identify 10 keys to success.

The first, “strategic disarming,” is a technique for breaking down preconceived notions that others may have of Black educators. “It’s how I walk into a space so people can hear my message,” Peters explains. Another skill, “mirror moments,” describes how leaders reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and set a course of improvement.

Other “essential competencies”—with MCEL’s descriptions—include:

• Executive stance: Communicates confidence and steadiness during difficult times and adapts to new situations.
• Handles disequilibrium: Puts stressful experiences into perspective and manages mistakes, stress and ambiguity.
• Recognizes trade-offs: Understands every decision has conflicting interests; balances short-term pay-offs with long-term improvement.
• Work/life harmony: Balances work priorities with personal life.

“If we don’t intervene,” Peters says of the prospects of Black K12 leaders, “we will reach an extinction-level event in the next decade.”

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In the latest nationwide numbers on staff shortages, for example, districts reported that 9% of their teachers retired or resigned during the 2022–2023 school year, the RAND Corporation’s latest American School District Panel found. That turnover rate was similar to the previous school year but still higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Districts continue to struggle the hardest to hire substitutes and special education teachers, the survey noted. Nearly eight in 10 districts reported considerable shortages of substitutes in fall 2021 compared to just more than half that cited the same difficulty in fall 2023. When it comes to math shortages of math teachers during that same period, the number of district leaders reporting hiring challenges dropped from 32% to 20%.

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The survey also tracked a decline in the pandemic-era spike in principal resignations. A whopping 16% of principals left their jobs in 2021-22 compared to 9% the following year. Before the COVID outbreak, that number hovered around 3%.

The nonprofit research organization also surveyed educators on five other components of school climate, including politicization, curriculum restrictions and funding.

Political polarization intrudes

Four in 10 districts reported that politicization had interfered with teachers’ ability to cover race and LGBTQ issues effectively:

This polarization is more pronounced in suburban and rural districts, where leaders were twice as likely to report political challenges.

Navigating sensitive discussions

Since the 2020-21 school year, some 5% of districts have disciplined educators for violating policies restricting classroom discussions about race, gender or sexuality. More than half of leaders, meanwhile, say their school boards and states have enacted curriculum restrictions on race, gender, sexuality and other topics.

“Unsurprisingly, districts located in conservative areas were almost twice as likely as their counterparts in liberal areas to indicate that their educators were subject to such a state or district policy,” the report notes.

Budgetary concerns loom

Despite the looming ESSER “fiscal cliff,” only about one-quarter of districts expect revenues to drop by at least 5% in the 2024–2025 school year. About half of the leaders said they anticipated 2023-34 funding to remain about the same in 2024-25 while, perhaps surprisingly, 15% expect revenues to increase. However, high-poverty districts and those serving mostly students of color were more likely to expect funding to drop.

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Here are the sizes of the exposure gaps in major STEM and career disciplines:

• Advanced manufacturing: 75%
• Health science: 57%
• Finance: 56%
• Architecture and construction: 53%
• Computers and technology: 51%

“The solution to this lies within redefining education for Black students through access to identity-affirming informal learning environments; so they understand the full scope of their aptitudes, and also the full scope of what careers are possible,” said Cynthia Chapple, founder and CEO of Black Girls Do STEM.

What’s an exposure gap?

As of 2021, just 9% of the STEM workforce was Black. Still, that’s an increase from 7% a decade earlier, the report points out.

The difference between students’ aptitudes (as demonstrated on assessments) and their expressed interests is how the organizations behind the study calculate exposure gaps. The gaps also identify which fields a student hasn’t had the opportunity to explore—particularly the careers that might be a good fit.

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For Black female students, the gaps between aptitude and interest are even more substantial:

• Advanced manufacturing: 88%
• Computers and technology: 73%
• Architecture and construction: 72%

Let’s close the STEM divide

Solving the problem starts with administrators using aptitudes to create more personalized career pathways for Black students. Once students’ aptitudes are identified, educators should engage with families to map out STEM and CTE courses that lead to industry certifications. Students are more likely to follow their aptitudes when they have family support.

These pathways should also be interdisciplinary and career-connected, comprising work-based learning, internships and
apprenticeships.

Black Girls Do STEM, for instance, is a seven-year pathway program that exposes students to STEM fields to stimulate their interests in various career fields. The nonprofit’s two programs, which include a Saturday academy, include mentoring, SAT/ACT preparation, college tours and internships and externships, among other components.

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Over the last two years, some 18 states have passed at least one law barring educators from teaching about or even discussing race, sexual orientation, gender identity and other topics. “Students do not feel comfortable asking honest questions and teachers do not feel comfortable about giving honest answers,” one teacher said in the survey conducted by the RAND Corporation, a think tank that is closely tracking the impact of curriculum restrictions.

About a quarter of the teachers participating in the nationwide survey said that race or gender restrictions are influencing their instruction. The rates were higher in conservative-leaning counties even in states without laws that narrowed curriculum.

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Overall, nearly 30% of teachers reported that restrictions had negative impacts. They said the new regulations diminish students’ sense of belonging and “could lead to long-term consequences for the future of the education system, country, and democracy,” the survey noted. Black teachers and Eng,ish language arts and secondary teachers were the most likely to see limitations as harmful for student learning.

Teachers who favored the limitations contended that race and gender are better discussed at home because the topics are inappropriate for younger kids and divide and distract students.

Here is a sampling of what teachers told the researchers about curriculum laws:

• “It unnecessarily makes the learning environment more difficult and hostile to an open exchange of ideas.”
• “If I followed the state law to the letter of the law, I couldn’t teach basic history or connect student learning to current topics and modern books.”
• “I teach in a setting that is predominantly students of color. . . . To suppress the availability of materials that reflect their lived experiences will only harm them, both socially and academically.”
• “It makes it difficult to form relationships with students that are potentially struggling with their identity. When students identify as a different name/gender and if I can’t refer to them as their preferred name it doesn’t let that student know they are valued in my classroom. When they don’t feel like a valuable classroom community member, why would they want to learn and be involved in it?”
• “I’m very grateful that my state has placed limitations on discussions of gender expression because social media does a good enough job confusing and perverting the minds of our youth [on] their own, without help from the schools.”
• “Each human being has the right to believe whatever they choose, but I will not influence nor go against what their families teach them in the home in my classroom.”

Un-limited curriculums

Some states have done the opposite of limiting curriculum and have passed laws or offered guidance to help teachers include diverse identities in instruction.

New York has provided guidance to teachers around creating a “safe, supportive, and affirming school environment for transgender and gender expansive students.” Its Board of Regents has also developed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Framework to encourage schools to adopt culturally responsive instruction.

California has funded professional development in creating a positive school climate around diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds while Washington requires educators to undergo PD in “cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion,” RAND noted.

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Camille Hibbler is moving from the interim role to full-time superintendent of Ferndale Public Schools near Detroit, Michigan. Hibbler had been serving as the district’s assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and assessment and previously held leadership positions in several other area districts, including director of curriculum, principal, and dean of students.

Cherry Hill Public Schools in New Jersey has also promoted its acting superintendent, Kwame Morton, to become its next permanent leader. Morton has been an administrator in the district since 2008, having served as assistant superintendent for preK-12 and curriculum and instruction, and high school principal. In 2021, he was named New Jerseu Visionary Principal of the Year.

Carlos M. Cotto, Jr. was promoted at the Schenectady City School District to take over as superintendent on May 1. Cotto has been the New York district’s assistant superintendent of innovation, equity, and engagement since 2021. He also served as the executive director of health, physical education and athletics in Rochester City School District since 2008.

The Ridgefield School District in Washington has selected as its next leader Jenny Rodriquez, who is currently the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning in the Yakima School District and was previously a high school principal and executive director of teaching and learning in the Pasco School District.

In Texas, the Calvert Independent School District has named its principal, Latisha Crockett-Tennell, as the lone finalist for superintendent. “Ms. Crockett-Tennell’s vision for fostering an inclusive and dynamic learning environment aligns perfectly with the District values and goals,” Calvert ISD said in a statement.

Superintendent Joe Lopez is among the leaders moving to a new district. Lopez will take the helm of Greenville ISD in Texas in the coming weeks after having served as superintendent of Kermit ISD. Lopez was also the superintendent of Taft ISD.

Also in Texas, Edgar B. Camacho was the lone superintendent finalist at Sabinal ISD. Camacho, who is now the director of support services for Natalia ISD, was previously the superintendent of Baird and Freer ISDs.

And in New Mexico, Sharon Rowley, currently a principal in another district, has been chosen as the next superintendent of Portales Municipal Schools.

More superintendents are on the move

Several leaders have found new homes within the last week. Troy Lentz has been hired to lead the Mexico School District in Missouri after having been superintendent of Osceola Public Schools and the Norborne School District, KXEO reported. Joseph Libby, currently superintendent of Sibley East Public Schools in Minnesota, has been chosen to lead Sweetwater County School District No. 1 in Wyoming, SweewaterNOW reported.

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Casey Hallgarth is moving to the Baker School District in Oregon after having served as superintendent of the Prairie City School District since 2018, according to the Baker City Herald. In Texas, Archer City ISD has named Hico Superintendent Jon Hartgraves as its next superintendent. Hartgraves has previously served as superintendent of Hico and Gordon ISDs, the Archer County News reported.

And in Ohio, Orrville City Schools has picked Crestwood Local Schools Superintendent David Toth as its next superintendent.

More new leaders

Here are the incoming superintendents who have been hired elsewhere:

• Jason Bowman, Neshaminy School District (Pennsylvania)
• Jason Hostetler, Prairiland ISD (Texas)
• T. Kenneth James, Batesville School District (Arkansas)
• Stephen Linkous, Liberal Unified School District No. 480 (Kansas)
• Justin Shaffer, Camanche Community School District (Iowa)
• Zach Wigle, Fairfield Community School District (Iowa)

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Small and rural high schools and those in which a majority of the students live in poverty are less likely than students in other settings to be offered Advanced Placement math courses, according to the high school principals surveyed for the RAND Corporation’s “American Mathematics Educator Study.”

“Achievement in mathematics, particularly in advanced mathematics courses—such as trigonometry, precalculus, calculus, or Advanced Placement courses—is important for long-term college and career success,” the report says. “However, many students—particularly students who are Black, Hispanic, or from low-income households—do not have access to advanced mathematics courses.”

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However, the biggest obstacles math instruction faces are absenteeism among students and teacher shortages. Another hurdle is how students are “tracked,” or grouped by achievement level. A majority of principals reported that teacher recommendations play an important role in tracking.

“Although tracking may be intended to ensure that students are exposed to appropriately challenging content, in practice it can limit access to advanced mathematics courses in high school based on early achievement levels,” the authors of the report caution.

Principals also noted that students have greater access to college prep courses than career-oriented math instruction.

New formulas for high school math

The report offers several ideas for enrolling more students in advanced classes and bolstering math’s role in the transition to college and careers:

1. Expanding access: High schools should offer the full range of math classes that meet state graduation requirements. Schools that have limited capacity to expand math offerings should partner with other districts, colleges or online providers of advanced courses. It’s also important to ensure that students in all math courses are covering grade-level content.
2. Making placement decisions equitably: Most high school principals blend assessment data and educator recommendations to place students in math courses. To make these decisions more equitable, district and school leaders should use multiple data sources consistently and transparently. Administrators should also receive training on correcting the inherent bias in various data sources.
3. Supporting career preparation: Administrators should ramp up efforts to connect students with college and career mentors and invest more heavily in business partnerships that provide job-shadowing opportunities, including virtual experiences when limited by geography or financial resources. However, many of the principals surveyed reported that they did not have enough data to determine precisely what postsecondary transitions and career support students are receiving.
4. Identifying barriers to postsecondary readiness: Educators should share more information with families about courses, math pathways and postsecondary options.

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