Dr. Adam Clark joined the Mt. Diablo Unified School District in Concord, California as Superintendent in July 2020. He believes that educational systems need to address the gifts and talents of all student groups regardless of backgrounds or personal resources.
Dr. Michael Conner
Good morning, good evening, and good afternoon, everybody, from where you are. Happy Black History Month from my company, Agile Evolutionary Group, as well as anyone that is, or has been supporting AEG in this endeavor. My name is Dr. Michael Conner and I am the CEO and founder of the Agile Evolutionary Group Corporation. But more importantly, the host for Voices for Excellence. This is an episode in our Black Excellence series, and I am glad to have my brother on. From the left coast, as we say, the West Coast, from New York to California. Look, brother, run the clock. I’ll tell you this. We might be over 3200 miles away, but we share the same intensity about education. So I’m glad to have Dr. Adam Clark be a part of the Black Excellence series for Voices for Excellence, because he is an unapologetic leader, but more importantly, he is a leader that is steadfast not for just equity, but for excellence and justice. And Dr. Clark, I mean, he is a renowned superintendent, not just in California, but across the country. Just to let you know, Dr. Clark was just announced as the 2022 Superintendent of the year for the Association of California School Administrators. Yes the Superintendents in California elected him or bow to him and as the best Superintendent or the Superintendent of the Year to represent them at the AASA National Conference for the National superintendent of the Year. And also, Dr. Clark is the incoming California Association of African American Superintendents and Administrators Association. So that is the CAAAA. Yes, that’s a tongue twister for a lot of people, but not for us, because that is a strong association really supporting black administrators, more importantly, administrators and black leaders of color, our black leaders and leaders of color in California. But more importantly, he is the superintendent of Mt. Diablo Unified School District in California. So I would like to welcome you, black excellence itself, Dr. Adam Clark. Dr. Clark, welcome.
Dr. Adam Clark
Dr. Conner, it’s so good to have this time with you and this space for us just to talk about what’s going on here in education and in the world. But before I start, I do just have to make a slight correction that I was the superintendent of Region six, which is the San Francisco Bay area, so.
Dr. Michael Conner
Listen, brother, Region 6 in the state of California or region 1000, the recognition from your parents. Yes, I’m so happy for you to be on here. Because here I wanted to find a leader that emulates my unapologetic goodness within education. And Dr. Clark, he is a leader’s leader. And what I mean by that is he ensures that he is leading for the right causes. So it is such an honor to actually have Dr. Clark. But one thing I failed to mention is that as he takes over this president elect role within the CAAAA, he is also an active participant and member of our Brown brothers and sisters at CALSA. So I failed to forget that he is actively involved with them because there’s intentionality where black and brown leadership really have to join together. And Dr. Clark, you exemplify that on a daily basis. So again, thank you for being on the Black Excellence series of Voices for Excellence.
Dr. Adam Clark
Absolutely. And yes, working with CALSA has been great. They’re doing some great things in the state of California and our missions are the same. And just as we continue to unite, we’ve also brought in cable, which taps into our Asian and Pacific Islander brothers and sisters and and we’re all working in the same direction, working on the same things. And as you well know, it’s greater when you have allies and teams to go forward to do this extremely important, critical, difficult work and more and more hands, it makes the heavy lift a little lighter.
Dr. Michael Conner
California is leading this work in this. So let’s get right into this because I look to you, I’m not going to lie, to get my boldness where I got to do that. My unapologetic approach is you because I see you at some of the meetings, some of our presentations. I just want to just get up and run through a wall for you but before we go into that, before we go to that, Dr. Clark, this was an… I couldn’t wait to ask you this question because Dr. Tracy Davis, I always give her credit for this, I took this right out of her Rolodex with this question. And we know Dr. Tracy Davis, she’s one of those extraordinary black leaders, black excellence on a daily basis. But together, you and I, we participate on panels together. We attended some of these high level think tank sessions where we’re ready to throw pins across the room for equity in these various spaces. But, Dr. Clark, when people see you as the superintendent of Mount Diablo Unified School District, your constituents, your stakeholders, your broader business partnerships, university partnerships, what equity song comes to mind when you walk in the room and get ready to sit down to start that meeting?
Dr. Adam Clark
I loved seeing this question and I thought about this, but it came up to me right away and it was something that was sort of ground on me when I was a young teacher. But those values and stances that I took back then are still with me today. And the song would have to be Lean On Me. And let me tell you why. Because, as you well know, the great moving of the great leader, Joe Clark. I am a Clark. My father’s name is Joel Clark. And my father was an educator, a continuation school educator. And I remember the second and fifth graders that the school in South Richmond, California, where I started teaching at would go down the hall and they would chant free, free, Mr. Clark. So the movie really was made for me. It’s that, just… I’m an activist. I’m born and raised in Berkeley, California, born in 1968. During that, so much was going on in our country and in our culture at that time and I had parents who were just immersed in the struggle. And so from day one, that has been my DNA. It’s what’s right, doing what’s right for all people and working together to do that. So when you watched that movie Lean On Me and think of that song, then you can. That’s definitely what the people here at Mount Diablo think when I come into the room and I start talking and I start advocating for our young people. Joe Clark, that’s what it is.
Dr. Michael Conner
I mean, Adam, right? So I can’t look at that movie the same way. Because you know what? I never had that association until now with Joe Clark and Adam Clark. Yes. They are two of a kind when you know Dr. Adam Clark. But what do you know about Joe Clark and what do you know about Adam Clark? They get outcomes.
Dr. Adam Clark
Absolutely, absolutely. And student centered. I mean, that’s really nice. No, I never had a bullhorn or a baseball bat, but I mean, the message was the exact same. And it was, we have to do right by the system so that it can help each and every one of our kids. And who are most marginalized kids? Who are our kids who the system has has really not supported along the way? It’s black and brown students and students from lower socio economic areas. And so they definitely need someone to champion and need someone to support them and lead the way.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And this Segways right into our second question, Dr. Clark. To me, as well as a lot of people that follow your work, I mean the affinity work, when I think of what you’re doing specifically in my job, even in your previous capacity, you’re considered a strategic disruptor, right, from California. A lot of people… the Bay Area is known as the hub of innovation. And let’s be honest, Dr. Clark. Yes, you have that approach to it, but it’s strategic and you ground that level of innovation at every level of the system. So by definition, I’m going to say you are my book, Intentional, Bold, and Unapologetic, with no exceptions to it. But to prescribe you an aggressive, and I want to use that word aggressive lightly, because it’s strategic but accelerates the practices and capacity. This is your empowerment approach that you do with your leadership team, which I love, but we’re going to get to that. But when we talk about this continuous improvement cycle that challenges normalization beyond California, that’s kind of scary to people. Now, we moved into this AC stage of education. But how do you prepare? I want my listeners, I want the people that are going to engage in this because I think it’s really intentional on how they pick up on key strategies from you. Context does matter, but strategies can be adapted to context. How do you prepare to be bold and unapologetic when the status quo does not want to be challenged?
Dr. Adam Clark
So, I really lean back and depend on on my experiences. And, just briefly, I’ve had the opportunity and great fortune to work in some of the most impoverished districts and cities and some of the most wealthiest districts and cities. And in those I have really identified the commonalities that you see in both systems and what I found, and really what I build all of my philosophy on, is that in all of those experiences, I’ve been an elementary principal, middle school principal, high school principal, student services, air services, you name it. In all those experiences, the kids are the ones who need the… they’re going through a school and going through the changes that a middle schoolers goes through or the uncertainty of high school or those developmental years in kindergarten, elementary school. Our kids come to school no matter what background they come from, they come with they’re cup needing to be filled with the positivity and the excellence standard that adult educators have to give them. And often times we as the adults in all of these systems, we struggle to adequately connect with our students and get out of our own way. When it comes to past practices, past assumptions, you know how school was for us. And so as I go forward, I really always have to kind of fall back on those experiences and remember that what’s good for one really can be good for all. And what that’s good for is high quality first instruction and that personal connection. I mean, that is really what’s at the base of all the initiatives that are out there, the base of any sort of program or any sort of turnaround or an enrichment program. It’s really being excellent in instructional leaders. And that’s at every level level, it is all about the instruction and the academic achievement. But how do we get our students to buy into that? I mean, you can have students who are getting straight A’s and who are acing the standardized tests and things of that nature. But can they think and apply those those skills that they have? Can they be empathetic? Can they be innovative? I mean, a lot of students just get really, really skilled at kind of just repeating what you kind of give them. So that’s not innovative, just being able to read a book and being able to recite what was said in the book or whatever, you’re not going to innovate in that way. And so really, how can we make sure that that instruction is top notch and that it really is meeting the needs of those students to not only get them to meet the standards, but to put them in a place where they can apply those skills that they learn into real world situations, but then also be effective on the pencil and paper tasks that we so often put in front of them.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And high quality instruction, the impact, efficacy, pedagogy. And you highlighted it, which I’m looking at it right now just referencing, I know it’s instructional leadership. And we’re going to touch upon that because I want our listeners to know the actual approach you did to build instructional leadership with your administrators. But it’s more of this tightly, loosely coupled approach of building capacity, which I thought was fascinating. We’re going to get to that. But you talked about now. And I think that there’s this challenge around, it’s not just growth skills. It’s not these rudimentary levels of articulation of information to a test in order to get into a Harvard or Yale or Amherst or a Stanford or a CAL Berkeley. We need to develop individuals that are competent within these skill articulations. And I referenced this report that came out during COVID from McKinsey, and it was around Delta 2030. And they identified the Delta competencies, Delta meaning Distinct Element of Talent. So that transitions to competencies, and you highlighted two critical domains that are completely obsolete now more than ever that should be embedded within curriculum, pedagogy, systems change or change management to continue to improve. However you want to contextualize it, it needs to be self leadership of what you were just talking about and then also adding this digital component and that’s why there needs to be intentional shift around what instructional leadership should look like in the AC stage of education. I mean, you captured it in high quality instruction and instructional leadership. Dr. Clark, please expand on that because I really want our listeners to really dive deep into that comment.
Dr. Adam Clark
Yeah, so on those three things, I want to give an example. So when I was principal of one of the highest performing public high schools in California, I came up with the bold idea that we were going to core our freshman English and social studies classes and we were going to give each of these students an iPad. Now, mind you, this was back in 2010. And so we did. We purchased the iPads and we gave one to each kid. But the interesting part about it was the reaction to that. The first thing that came up was what filters are we going to put on it? And this came from parents, and the educators, that’s the first thing they wanted to do. And we said, we’re not going to filter it. We’re not going to filter. But what we are going to do is we’re going to start teaching students about digital citizenship and really teaching them about what online bullying is and what is appropriate to use a school device for. And so it was really, it was met by resistance. Just as most things in the educational world are. But then the angle that we had to start doing once we started getting these devices in the hands of kids was let the teachers know that it’s okay to let the kids explore and to create, and the students over time started to use that device to create. It wasn’t just to download a PDF on it, a fillable PDF that they could do their assignments on or anything like that. But they were using… they were making movies, they were recording stuff. They had pictures on there that, I mean, it was it was incredible. And again, this was back in 2010. Now, of course, as we were trying to roll this out, we were naive thinking they could have their textbooks loaded on that. And once we realized the cost of doing all that, that kind of went out. But this is 2010. This was a while ago, 13-14 years ago. But it really just shows our attitude in education of using tools the proper way to to be able to integrate that instruction in those high expectations and all that organizational stuff that we use so highly in schools. But how can a tool inspire and engage kids to be able to demonstrate what they could create and what they could do. Now, of course, when you’re looking at grading practices, when you’re looking at things like that, all of that had to be talked about and revamped. So that is something that I’ve tried to use throughout my leadership in this position. For example, making sure that principals understand that they are, I’m not going to say 100%, but maybe they’re 95% in charge of their schools. We all have to answer to someone. We’re all held accountable. But it your school, you are in control. It’s not the parents, it’s not the union, it’s not the the students, it’s not the teacher. It is you as as the instructional leader of that school. You’re not a manager. You’re a leader. So how can you ensure that at your schools that you’re you’re putting instruction first, you’re putting student achievement first, you’re making sure that students feel welcome and students feel supported. That’s in the hands of the principal. Now, not all principals can just pull up in the morning and do that. That takes a considerable amount of modeling support, revisiting missions and goals and consistency, coherence. So all those things are tailored into that. But to get the principal to have the mindset that I’m in charge of this school now, the last point I want to make is then taking that same thought and now putting that down to the teacher. Teacher, you are in charge of this class, these kids, the outcomes that these students experience or achieve are directly related to you. It’s not that, again, it’s not any outside situation. They are in your classroom and you have the ability to really impact each and every one of these kids. That’s the mindset now, the practice of that and making sure that happens in every class, again, after all the work happens. But that’s the mindset of that instructional leadership.
Dr. Michael Conner
Absolutely. And that’s the thing right, that I think that when we talk about you know problems of practice within an organization and that is the one main reason that a lot of where you see this disjunction between a really good strategic approach around change management and then the actual implementation and execution. And one thing is around capacity. Michael Fullen articulated it perfectly in his work with regards to how important and essential it is to be able to build specific social capital, and to build individual human capital through the capacity of your change process. And that’s what you’ve done so well. But before we get to the work about Diablo, I want to talk about how you’re an award winning superintendent. I’m going to highlight you brother, any time one of my brothers wins superintendent of the year, you won it, this past year a mutual friend of ours from Evanston, Dr. Devon Horton, got the NABSE National Superintendent of the Year. So it was a good year for us. It was a good year for us. Good year to see some superintendents get new jobs making moves. Also when we talk about black excellence, Dr. Barbara Mullen, who just became Superintendent of Rush Henrietta in New York, that’s good, one of our sisters getting jobs. But what you are doing out there, with CAAASA with regards to our brothers and sisters, you became a president elect. And then also what’s going on out there with the association with California School Administrators. I know you’re not… you didn’t win their award, but obviously being a part of that where just a few weeks ago, I believe you were in Monterey for the Superintendents conference. So please just elaborate what’s going on in the state.
Dr. Adam Clark
Yeah. So, first of all, CAAASA, the California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators, they are an organization that’s been prevalent in California and is actually nationally known for the for the work that we’re doing. And first of all, we’re we’re an organization that really supports African-American superintendents and making sure that they have a network and they have the support systems to not only get the positions, but then also to stay in the positions. Several years ago, it was expanded out to all administrators. So so we do various activities. We’re preparing administrators to go after those superintendent roles. And so we do that through our professional development and we do that through our different trainings. We do that through mentoring and coaching, interview prep, all of those, all of those types of things. However, we’re doing that so that we can ensure that that black and brown and under marginalized students have competent leaders who can who can lead them and who can ensure that that they’re going to be successful. So we do an annual conference. At that conference, we bring in Linda Darling-Hammond, she’s one of our one of our regulars. She’s the California State Board of Education president. She also has a long tenure working at Stanford. She brings in young African-American researchers who come to our conference and share their research. So we give them a space to share the latest and greatest research on ways to support African-American American students. We also do… we’re highly committed to current times. And so as we’ve been dealing with the pandemic the last couple of years, we’ve made a huge commitment to the to the health of our communities, of underserved communities. So whether it’s doing vaccine drives, whether it’s putting together a handbook for educators and for parents to be able to go through that handbook and to see how they can help their students get through the challenges and trials and tribulations of the pandemic. And to partner with their schools and partner with with with local organizations so that they can get the health and wellness that they need so that they can be with us. As many of our communities where we’re struggling, we also do partnerships with the California Department of Health with the attorney general’s office. We had a weekend conference and we had the attorney general of California at our conference speaking to us. We asked them questions about school resource officers, about all kinds of stuff really engaging in that dialog. And then the last thing we do is advocacy. We have partnership throughout the state. We have partnerships with Nancy. We took a trip out to Washington, DC for the Black Congressional Caucus, met with Congressman Scott, things like that, that we’re just doing just to find ways to support African-American superintendents and administrators. There’s 1100 school districts in California. There’s approximately 33-35 African-American superintendents. So you look at those numbers, it’s disproportionate to the number of African-American students in California. Again, we’re just working to increase those numbers and making sure that our members not only obtain these jobs, but that they are successful in them. And ultimately that they’re successful in supporting the students in which they serve.
Dr. Michael Conner
You know, Dr. Clark, I’m just marveled at the stuff that you’re doing out there. And just for you to be president elect, that is such an honor because I’m glad you were able to elaborate on the work of the CAAASA because the work that you’re doing, underscoring support, and when I heard about that partnership, where you have black research crews coming in and sharing their work, I’m like, that’s just an added plaque right there. When I heard that, I was like, that plaque is added. But that is that group. And the key word you said is advocacy. Not just getting them into positions but having to be successful in positions.
Dr. Adam Clark
Yeah, well, I want to just think back. I was a principal and I was at these conferences just as a member sitting in the room with Linda Darling-Hammond and a team of her researchers here in the latest research on the national level from Stanford University. And I’m a principal and I’m in there getting fired up, and then I’m going to a next session and I’m sitting there with the whole panel of superintendents and they’re sharing with me, and with others in the room as well, they’re sharing with me strategies and all the things about search firms and things of that nature. And I was able to experience that coming up. So this is just one of the many organizations that I’m involved with. But this is how it came about. Lastly, two weeks ago, we had a free session down in Burbank, California. And in California, there’s three main superintendent search firms. We had representatives from all three of those search firms in a room with, it was free. And anyone could come who signed up. All you had to do was sign up and come. And we spent an entire morning talking strategies, talking current events. We had members from the search firms talking to folks and giving them those nuggets about the the process of of going about in this field.
Dr. Michael Conner
Amazing. I mean that’s just amazing. Please keep that up. I mean, I know that there’s other verticals and threads within the organization but your steadfast work to advocate I think, it just encompasses all of the thread work that you guys are doing there. So great job, shout out there. But let’s go now down to your critical work. And this is about kids. And obviously, we want to have the sustainability with our leadership. Obviously, we want to build programs to make sure, again, the leadership. But now this goes down to your critical work and what a lot of peopl admire about you is your work that you’re doing now. But I want to focus on that whole instructional leadership piece because you said something specifically – high quality instruction in instructional leadership. But you have this organizational structure that I just absolutely love. And I heard you speak about it several times because people come to you and ask you, what does this look like from a context of science, but more importantly, how you lead. What does this look like from the context of art. So empowering leaders to be leaders. You have that measured approach of what we have or call in the transformation world, defined autonomy. This polarity of and between loosely coupled and tightly coupled– I know, brother, I know I’m getting into the language real quick. Really, really technical. And you’re going to put it to them in a simpler form. But more importantly, you always ask your leaders to innovate with equity of mind. That is amazing. So there’s an obvious strategy that you built with this with the defined autonomy approach. But the art to elicit innovation and equity, which is around this aspect of innovate. That’s kind of like a Silicon Valley stamp for design thinking approach to this, taking a traditional approach of leadership and now add in those elements of flexibility. How did you design this business model? That takes years and it takes risk and your board had to believe in you to do this. That is a lot to do over time, but you accomplished this now in the AC stage of education, the first typical year since ‘18-’19. Now we have to apply a practice as progressive practices like that. How did you do it and how do we encompass that in the stage of education?
Dr. Adam Clark
Yes. So you hit the nail on the on the head with something. And and again, you are an incredibly knowledgeable individual role. And the research that you have participated in and the research that you conduct and whatnot is incredible. However–
Dr. Michael Conner
Brother, yes. But–
Dr. Adam Clark
No, it has to be recognized. And I see all the certificates behind you and degrees and all that stuff and that stuff really is important. However, my job is to take all that very, very complex… And educating kids is probably one of the most complex and difficult things that there is. And schools are so complex, I try to simplify it. And I’m going to give you my secret. I’m going to give you the secret of what I do, what the secret sauce sources is really. In California, we have something that’s called the local control and accountability plan. It’s basically all of our money is in there. We got to come up with goals. We’ve got to come up with a plan. And it’s pretty much rooted in equity. So we’ve come up with LCAP goals and so we have four goals. And I’m not going to go over all of them but I am going to go over goal number one. But what I do is, these are our goals. This is what we live by. So on the governance team, which is the school board, I made sure that the board and I were on the same page of what our expectations were for the district, what our goals and hopes and luckily, I inherited a great board. They are five extremely different people. But they want what’s best for kids. And they don’t just say the lot. But this is our number one goal. This is goal one. All students will receive a high quality education in a safe and welcoming environment with equitable, high expectations, access to technology and instruction in the California state standards that prepare them for college and career. That’s all I need. Yeah, everything that our students need and everything that we need in this district, every student from every family is included in that number one goal. At every single meeting that I hold, whether it’s a board meeting, principal meeting, parent meeting, anything, I flash those goals up, I read them and that really kicks it off. It’s that coherent. Because if… you know, we all have goals, we all have missions and visions and all that. But if people can’t if people can’t cite them for one, then how are we ever going to implement? But the first thing is all students. And then the next sentence is will receive a high quality education. So what is that? So the things that I’ve done is I’m not afraid of the outside coming looking in. In Mount Diablo, I’m going to be open and transparent and tell you we do not have all the answers. And we are a district that is under state assistance. You are not moving certain kids. And you are not moving certain student groups. And so when we get under that state assistance, I don’t fight it and I don’t justify it and I don’t resist it, I embrace it. So you want to come in here and you want to assess our programs and what we’re doing, and then you want to give us support. I’m open to that. So we did something called a systemic instructional review, and it was done by an organization called the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence. They went into classes, they looked at our board minutes, they looked at our materials, they looked at everything. And what they found was that, we have pockets of excellence throughout our districts, but there was not a consistent educational program within our district. And, if you walk down any hallway in any school throughout America, you’re going to have those classrooms where they’re knocking it out of the park. You’re going to have some other classrooms where it’s developing and you’re going to have some under some other classrooms that aren’t there. And what they were saying in this review was we need to get that coherence. We need to come up really with that educational model. What are your educational priorities and goals? And then we need to be able to see that in all aspects of your organization. Is it being spoken about at a board meeting? Are the principals talking about it or are the teachers talking about it? Are parents aware, are students aware? And so that’s not some secret sauce. There’s no… you don’t need to read 20 books to know that. But, there are certain things that just have to happen. So what I do as superintendent is I try not to put 20 different programs in front of my teachers and that really comes from my background of understanding exactly what an elementary first grade teacher goes through, exactly what a middle school science teacher goes through, exactly what a what a high school AP English teacher or high school Algebra one teacher goes through really understanding that. So as we try to implement initiatives, I’ve got to take their culture and the readiness of the organization. That’s my top priority is what as a culture, can we sustain and can we actually just accept? And again, in education, you know how tough things are. I mean, this is the toughest profession out here, but it’s also the most important. And it’s also the most rewarding. And I think, and I am speaking hopefully to a group of educators, it is the most important profession that’s out there. So what I need to do is not overwhelm our folks with, hey, we’re going to do this for six months and then all of a sudden something’s going to change. And now we pivoted to this. So it’s that consistency. And one thing about me, I’m the most consistent person that there is like I have the same breakfast every day, seven days a week. So when it comes to being consistent on consistently supporting kids, that’s what I am. So no matter what I talk about, it’s always about supporting kids. And I’m not just talking, I don’t just target one group of kids. I’m talking to all kids. And when we start getting in the conversation of equity, when we start getting into the conversation of systemic racism, all those types of things, like I’m advocating for everybody. And the one group that you haven’t mentioned is that I do a lot of work up and down the state is with students who have individualized education programs or IEP students or special education students. And I get challenged all the time. Well, at our school, we only have so many students in this group and so many students in that group. And I say, okay, well, let me compare your students to your students who are special education students. There’s always a gap there. And so how do we ensure that our students who have special needs are being successful? And so that is the base of my philosophy. If we can work with those students, then let’s look at that. Let’s look at the disparity between how our socially, economically disadvantaged students sports are non socioeconomic there’s a gap there. Then when you start bringing in homeless and foster youth and you start looking at the different student ethnicities and things like that, I can’t have an administrator that oversees 12 different student groups. I can have 12 different administrators overseeing 12 different student groups. So if we just had high expectations for all kids, did great instruction and follow through and common assessments, the policy model, you probably from my tone, my my life changed the first time I heard Anthony Muhammad speak. When I heard Dr. Anthony Muhammad speak that was my awakening. And he goes on and on about that. And I could talk about that. But really, what can we just do for our kids? And so that’s the approach that I bring and that I really try to instill in my leaders so that my leaders aren’t overwhelming their departments, their schools, the members of their schools. They’re my leaders. Now, I just need to focus on on these few things. Now, as you well know, as a site administrator, you have to know everything. And that’s what I tell you. They’re all looking at me. And you know how educators are. They want details for everything. And I say, you need to know about every single thing at your school. You need to know when the trash is coming, you need to know what kid is known to run for the fences, you need to know what kid is going to show up there, the first one, the last one, what are their reading levels? You should be on your kids. Just run it down. And so anyway, I have high expectations for that stuff. However, for the extra tight stuff, it’s all about that instruction. It’s all about standards based on mean. We’re doing a huge district wide focus on math grade level standards. This sounds simple. People think, oh, grade level standards. Yeah, we’re doing that. All of our lessons are grade level. If you did an audit on those grade level standards, and every class would be surprised at what you see. That’s the work that we’re really embracing right this very second.
Dr. Michael Conner
That’s a heavy lift. That is a heavy lift for any teaching and learning organization because you focus on all one element to build capacity, did a comprehensive probably lesson plan analysis based off of the rigor and is instruction really reaching that level of rigor that is anticipated? Let’s go back to the basics, but I’m glad you brought up our different student groups. And when I talk about our student groups in the context of our special population students, because just this morning I had a really, really, really good zoom meeting with Carla Phillips. She’s a boss. And she’s on the state Board of Education for Arizona. And also she had worked under the Jeb Bush administration. And her biggest advocacy, Carla’s biggest advocacy has always been about having that equity within the special group population or special groups with special education students. Really, really huge advocacy with her work. To anybody that is out there, our listeners, please check out her work, her blogs and everything, working with Getting Smart with Tom Vanderark as well. But you are absolutely right, Dr. Clark. It is essential that when we look at all, it segways into our next question. This is just going to be a very simple question for you, because I want you… this is now loosely coupled. I’m just going to say, I’m just going to say the question and you just take it to that next level. What does a leadership disposition look like in the context of excellence and equity to ensure all for all families, all students to have those necessary conditions to be successful?
Dr. Adam Clark
We need to be able to to engage with our families and meet them where they are. And again, I mean, that’s really where it comes from. We are a disproportionate district. We’re disproportionate for our African-American students, we’re disproportionate for our homeless students, and we’re disproportionate in our foster youth. And that disproportionate goes in many different categories. And so as we look to engage and to make sure that we are engaging with our communities, our leaders, we have to give them support. So we’ve gone through, all of our leaders go through equity training. However you want to couple that implicit bias training, looking at your own story, telling your story, how your name came about, who you were, how you were raised, things like that. And really trying to get our administrators to to understand, regardless of where a family is coming from, you need to be able to meet them there and they need to be able to feel that. Because that partnership between school and home, I mean, that’s 90% of the work that needs to happen. And so that is that expectation that we are going to do this, but also we’re going to make mistakes. There’s going to be problems. There’s going to be things that that don’t work out as we have them planned. And you have to have some forgiveness in that process. If a different principal is tried and I, and what–
Dr. Michael Conner
Can I interject just because you said one word, I just want to be able to… because that’s a major theme for me. I want you to elaborate because a lot of leaders, it’s hard for leaders to actually say that – give other leaders a level of forgiveness. Just really fast, I know you wanted to–
Dr. Adam Clark
No, that’s perfect. Again, I set the tone myself and the school board with really putting… And I do a lot of talking about site leaders, but I’m also talking about my assistant superintendents, directors, things like that. I want them to lead and I want them to be innovative and I want them to try new things. So I’m setting the expectation. The expectation is that whatever it is, all students will receive high quality, safe, welcoming, parents engaged. That’s the expectation. How do you go about doing that? That’s where I’m going to let you lead. And you know your community, you know your system. And as long as you aren’t just giving me excuses why it’s not happening, but if you try something and say it doesn’t go well and it blows up, I can’t be there the next day, breathing down your neck, lecturing you and dressing you down for something like that. I need to sit back and say, Hey, I get it. I appreciate the fact that you that you put your neck out there. I appreciate the fact that you tried to do this. Tell me why you think this didn’t work and I’ll give some encouragement there. I’ll give some feedback or whatnot. But that spreads amongst the culture. And now you don’t have people… because when I came into this district, it had been a top down district throughout its history. And when I came in and started unleashing that, putting that leadership on my folks, they froze. They didn’t… they were hesitant to step out there on their own, seeing how I was going to react. And so that has had to happen where I’m constantly encouraging people to take risks, to try things out. I’m going to have their back now. We have to follow the law. We have to do what’s right. If we’re doing something that’s best for kids, that’s best for families and best for our folks, then, hey, I’ve got to be supportive but that’s what some people have a hard time doing. Because, hey, I want us to go 0 to 60 right now. I want us there now. But I know that that doesn’t work. That’s not practical in this world. We’re too complex. There’s too many challenges. So as long as I can just provide that support and I have the experience to be able to empathize with what they’re going through. Because of my past experiences. Sp you hit it right on the head, it’s that you got to let your leaders try stuff as long as they’re staying within the confines of the law, making sure it’s legal, making sure that you know we’re not doing things that are that are cruel to kids, discipline policies, homework policies, grading policies and stuff like that, like what’s best for kids. That’s the ultimate question. Is this good for kids? And again, I say it all the time. I’m not looking to make the lives of our adults… I’m not just looking to make their jobs easy. It’s not an easy job. And if it’s easy just to suspend a kid or to bench a kid at recess or to push a kid into a different program or something like that. No, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to do what’s right by our students. And that’s how you create that culture of excellence. That’s how it starts happening. And again, it’s just like this. It’s just like growing a garden. You plant, you do all that stuff, you expect that stuff to grow right away. Maybe if you grow a tomato, plants some, they grow pretty quick, but it takes time for things to grow and to develop and bear fruit and then have to be redone right with that, with the seasons. So, and you got me all fired up here. That’s why I said, I’m letting you go on this.
Dr. Michael Conner
This is a loosely connected answer. That’s why I’m saying just go ahead with that. I’m not giving any confines right here or putting a construct on that. Let my listeners learn.
Dr. Adam Clark
But you know what it all comes down to is… what I want is if the principals can do it, then the teachers can do it. I want teachers to say, Hey, class, here’s your assignment. Here goes the standards or the concepts that I want you to do, how you develop it is up to you. But here’s all your tools. You got your Chromebook, you got this, you have that, you can do it. And and that’s what I want. And if our principles are all locked up and only can see things in a particular box, then that’s how our teachers are going to be. And then that’s the environment that our students are going to be in. And so it’s all intentional to get down to the students. It’s all intentional.
Dr. Michael Conner
One word I want to say – culture. And that’s how you were able you establish that culture of risk, but more importantly, you establish a culture of trust with the leadership. And one point I want to bring up is what you were saying. This job is hard and we do have a need to recognize the complexities of it. But you got to love the kids a little bit more than the adults. And that’s the theme that I got from from you. But this is the only constraint, or I should say constraint that you are going to face is this last question, brother. Now this is tightly coupled. I’m going to keep you like this. I want to see how Adam Clarke replies to this in only three words. Dr. Clark, only three words. We are celebrating Black History Month, this is the Black Excellence series where we’re really focusing on intentional and bold transformation and leadership practices in the state of education. But what three words should our participants always adhere to when we reflect on how we can create better spaces? Everything that we talked about today, better spaces for all underpinning this intentionality and boldness regarding meaningful and sustainable systems where high quality instruction is noted everywhere, there’s not a pocket of of excellence, there is an organization of excellence. So what three words do you want our listeners to leave with today?
Dr. Adam Clark
So usually, I mean, we’ve been talking for almost an hour here, so I can’t do anything in three words, but I will follow the dialog, give you three words and then I’ll add a little dialog to it. But those three words that I would really think would be expectations and then dialog and then commitment. And really where we are, it’s all about the expectations. What are we, as the adults, expecting from our kids, from our communities, from our employees, from the system? What do we expect? And then we have to have dialog and you can put a fancy word like collaboration and all that. You have to talk it out. You have to be able to talk and–
Dr. Michael Conner
That foreword, Dr. Clark, that foreword–
Dr. Adam Clark
Oh, I got expectations. Dialog grew out of collaboration in there as a method lawyer collaboration of the same thing. That was the point I was trying to make. And then the idea… and then commitment. You have to be committed, you have to be committed to the work. You have to be committed to the process. You have to be committed to the cause or whatever. And again, you can be the lunch person. My kids feel that I’m still just concentrating on those three words. But if you’re committed to change and if you’re going to bringing in a program or change philosophy and you’re only talking to the teachers or you’re only talking to the principals, then you’re not talking to the lunch people, you’re not talking to the yard supervisors, you’re not talking to the instructional aids, you’re not talking to people. I mean, that’s commitment. You have to be committed to do the work and. That is, you have to bring everyone along and you have to keep going. Like I said, this has been a long journey for me. This has been, I mean, I started off as a seasonal summer camp counselor, all the way up to superintendent. I’ve done everything. I was committed to the process. And so you’ve got to do the work that commitment. It’s just, it’s a non-negotiable.
Dr. Michael Conner
And that exudes you, Dr. Clark, because you know what I think of your expectations. You have the hard conversations, that continuous dialog, and no one can ever question your unwavering commitment for all. And Dr. Clark, it is such an honor to have you on Voices for Excellence, Black Excellence Series. I’m sure I’m going to see you around. I’ll be out in California a few times. Brother, I’m looking to collaborate with you, it’s just going to be absolutely amazing what we’re doing for all of students. So like I said, my brother, my friend, my colleague, thank you, Dr. Clark. Free Mr. Clark!
Dr. Adam Clark
It truly has been a pleasure. And I appreciate you creating this space. I didn’t… I talked about so many other things. I didn’t go into our African-American student achievement department and program, I didn’t go into our Focus Scholar program, I didn’t talk about the HBCU fair that we had at one of our high schools yesterday. I didn’t talk about all that stuff, but you just have to know that that we’re doing things for all kids. And it’s reflected in the work. But I appreciate the work that you’re doing. You’re getting out there and you’re bringing a focus to this very complex work. And I know you got it. You got a lot of knowledge there. You’ve got a lot of experience. And you just have to keep bringing people together and talking about this stuff and this platform, this podcast. This is just one of those things that I’m so fortunate and thrilled and honored that I would even be listed upon all of the great leaders that you’ve had on this on this podcast. So thank you for your work and thank you for your expectation, your dialog, and your commitment to the to the cause. Thank you very much, Dr. Conner.
Dr. Michael Conner
Listen, you gave me a mic drop on my own show. On that note, everybody, I’m not saying anything more. Onward and upward, everybody. Have a great day. Happy Black History Month.
