Institute For Courageous Leadership

I am fortunate to be a member of a cohort of leaders participating in a two year program, Institute for Courageous Principal Leadership, through Minnesota State University. The focus of this work centers around increasing our capacity to eliminate achievement gaps which are racially predictable, especially so in the state of Minnesota.

Our cohort came together for three days in July to begin this work together. We will be collaborating with leaders from around the state including, Mankato, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and other metro districts. Day one was an opportunity to dialog with our newly established small groups, participate in activities such as concentric circle based sharing as well as hearing from a panel of principals who are past participants of the Institute. I recall feeling that we just jumped in on the deep end when we were asked to discuss (with people we were meeting for the first time) how schools have contributed to the recent police shootings in our state and nation. We participated in Beyond Diversity training on days two and three. I have been part of this training in the past and was grateful for the opportunity to refresh my learning as we focused on the four agreements and six conditions outlined in Singleton's Courageous Conversations About Race.

Moving forward we will come together once a month to continue our conversation and our learning. We'll be examining Strengths Based Leadership, we'll be exploring further how whiteness and white culture impact student achievement, and we'll all be carrying out a research project which will be shared with the cohort during the course of the next two years.

The three days were energizing and thought provoking. No matter how many times I engage in learning and discussion on this topic, I consistently realize how much I don't know... or fail to consider...when making decisions that impact students. And this is an unintentional omission we cannot afford to continue given that we are teaching in a state that leads the pack in terms of racially predictable achievement gaps.