Leaders in Education: Elissa Kim
I keep coming back to the basics for districts, which often boils down
to the ability to ask and answer the right set of questions, over and
over and over again. For example, questions like, “Do we have a strong
recruiting strategy? How do we know? Are we TRULY holding ourselves
accountable for executing our strategy? Are we pivoting when we
don’t see the results we want? Do we have a professional development
approach that advances the learning of our teachers and is highly rated
by teachers themselves? Are we SURE that our efforts are world-class?
How do we know? Are we pivoting immediately if we see evidence that
we are not on track?” And so on. So much of the work requires a clear-
eyed focus on the facts and the willingness to ask and answer the hard
questions over and over; we need a collective ability to see things for
what they are and not as we wish them to be, as well as the ability to
see positives and negatives and not be daunted by the latter. Perhaps
counter-intuitively, my confidence level grows when I see a group of
people brave enough to face the facts and address them, day in and
day out. I already know we can meet the bar- I’ve worked with too many
great educators to believe otherwise. So now we need to continue the
collective press, which involves striving for more every day and asking
of ourselves what we ask of our children.
Q
Thanks for joining us today. Any final thoughts you would like to share
with educators across Tennessee?
A
Teaching requires heroic effort every single day, and too often these
heroics aren’t recognized. But I know firsthand that great teaching IS
heroic and has the power to change lives- both the lives of instructors
and those of the children we instruct. There are people across the state at
every level of government who recognize this and are working actively
to support the ongoing evolution needed at district and state levels to
ensure the success of ALL our children. Thank you for what you do every
day! You are much appreciated.