ICYMI: Leading a Culture of Effective Innovation in Districts
Roads to Reinvention: Building Equitable Learning Environments webinar series by Transcend x AASA
By The BELE Network
In February, Transcend Education and AASA hosted an installment of their Roads to Reinvention webinar series on equitably responding, recovering, and reinventing school systems.
The webinar featured Superintendent Scott Muri from Ector County ISD (Texas), who has deep experience in launching system-wide reinvention initiatives throughout his career. Dr. Muri was also joined by a principal, teacher, and student, all involved in the reinvention work to discuss how the district uses Research and Development (R&D) cycles as a method of launching innovation.
The guests shared their experiences and stressed the importance of being iterative and responsive to changes in real time in order to adapt to the real world. The session also included a live empathy interview between a teacher and a student to demonstrate how to take a human-centered approach to understand students’ feelings and experiences.
Watch the highlight reel here, and for the full webinar, visit this link.
Transcend has an exciting schedule of upcoming webinar opportunities in 2021 that you can view here. If you aren’t a member of the no-cost Transcend Design Community, read more about it and join.
For more information, see the resources below:
- Slide presentation from Sujata Bhatt, Bryan Joffe, and Dr. Scott Muri of Ector County (TX) ISD
- The Pandemic Closed Our Doors But Opened Our Minds: Why My School District Will Not Return to ‘Normal’ by Dr. Scott Muri in EdSurge
- 4 superintendents to watch in 2021 in K-12 Dive
- Roads to Reinvention Journey Stories, including Ector County ISD
- Fundamentals of School Design by Transcend
Transcend Education’s work with school communities and the larger ecosystem is guided by five fundamental beliefs: all children have infinite potential; to realize this potential, we must reimagine “schooling” as we know it; the work is most successful when pursued through a rigorous, community-driven R&D process grounded in equity; while never easy, innovation is absolutely possible, accelerating progress requires strong local leadership, surrounded by a conducive ecosystem.
AASA is the premier association for school system leaders and serves as the national voice for public education and district leadership on Capitol Hill. Learn more.
The BELE Network is dedicated to reimagining our inequitable school system that has failed too many for too long, and is committed to transforming our classrooms into learning environments that nurture the intellectual, emotional and cultural growth of all students — especially students of color. Learn more about BELE on our website, and access our resource library to get the best and most up-to-date thinking on how to make learning environments more equitable.
