PMP416: Every Student Has a Name with Will Parker and Jen Schwanke

A quick note to listeners: 

Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answered a listener question in a 5-minute response. 

The question is: What’s the best way to find a ‘balanced’ leadership team when interviewing?

 It’s hard sometimes to go ‘deep’ and really see who people are in a formal interview.

Will mentions a resource from Jimmy Casas. Go here for a summary of his Hiring for Excellence tips and other links to Jimmy’s great resources.

Listen in for our response and thank you for doing what matters!

Mark Your Calendars! Virtual Series in Partnership with SAANYS

Jen and Will also talk about a year-long virtual series they and other Principal Matters Associates are offering in partnership with the School Administrators Association of New York State, Managing Culture, Conflict and Conversations. This offering begins October 16, 2024, and is followed by ongoing learning once a month through the spring semester. You can find out more via this flyer: https://qrs.ly/sgg4bzu. Or register here.

From Will:

Every Student Has a Name

by William D. Parker

This week’s episode is a conversation I had with Jen Schwanke based on a post I wrote while traveling to an education conference. I’m including the post below, but the conversation in today’s episode includes Jen’s feedback as we expanded the conversation to include the following:

1. How accountability standards often de-motivate schools from their essential mission.
2. How collective efficacy and the belief that all children can learn proves to be one of the most influential forces in positive school outcomes.
3. How understanding the dynamics of individual significance and collective results leads to better outcomes for everyone.

I hope you enjoy the conversation and the post below. Thank you for learning together and for doing what matters! ~ Will Parker

This past semester, I flew over a sea of humanity on my way to an education conference. It was sunrise above Chicago, and a rose-colored sky was awakening above the dark expanse of Lake Michigan. As our plane banked and turned toward the airport landing, the panorama of city life was already crawling with the thousands of twinkling yellows and reds of headlights and taillights. 

Every highway was lined and several were already stalled with traffic flowing into the city. It was 7:00 a.m. CT, and surrounding every street were the millions of lights marking humanity — homes, businesses, and schools. Although my vantage point only allowed me to see headlights, porch lights, or street lights, I realized each one marked a spot where someone was sleeping, waking, working, or traveling. 

In one way of seeing the world, this is just a panorama of lights, but from another vantage point, these lights mark something much more significant. For me, it’s a bit overwhelming. If every light marks a point of humanity, then how do you reconcile yourself to the unique, individual gifts and talents of each person marked by those lights?

In contrast, I recently watched the documentary, My Name is Salt, by Farida Pacha, about families who work eight months each year in the desert of Little Rann of Kutch, a 5000 sq km of saline desert in the Gujarat State in India. Filmed in 2013, the story with no script follows the lives of one family who works eight months each year in this desert. Each year, 40,000 people return to this area from villages to flood fields of mud and uncover salt. The painstaking work requires