Christi Barrett: That’s also what makes this work so special in that it’s not just about classroom instruction and teaching and learning; it’s about the way of being in our organization because all people matter.

[Intro music plays in background]

Introduction

Janet Pilcher: Hello everyone, welcome to today’s Accelerate Your Performance podcast where we gather each week to share strategies for hardwiring excellence in education. I’m your host Janet Pilcher and today I’m welcoming Dr. Christi Barrett back to the show. Christi is the Superintendent of Hemet Unified School District in Hemet, California. She has 22 years of experience in education and has won Superintendent of the Year three times in her region. Christi is a leader deeply committed to improvement work in each classroom throughout her district.

I invite you to listen and notice how she and her team engage their teachers and students all throughout the improvement process and to apply that improvement process in classrooms and across the organization. And she also focuses on how building trust is the cornerstone to creating positive outcomes.

In a couple of weeks, you’ll also get to hear from two more leaders in her district that go even deeper into how they’re building buy-in with students. Make sure you follow or subscribe so you can hear the episode when it releases.

This is really a outstanding group of people and teachers and staff and leaders who are doing excellent work in a school district that truly serves as one of our best models. So let’s jump right in and connect with Christi.

Interview

Janet Pilcher: 

Janet Pilcher: It’s with great pleasure that I welcome back to our show, Dr. Christi Barrett. Welcome back.

Christi Barrett: Thank you. It’s wonderful to be back. Appreciate it.

Janet Pilcher: I’m looking forward to this time with you. We know we spent some time with you and your team and just watching all the good work that you all are doing. So looking forward to learning more and hearing more about the continued journey of improvement that you and your team are doing and that you’re leading. And by the way, Pat Greco just always sings your praises.

Christi Barrett: Well, thank you. It is mutual. We feel the same about her. So thank you.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah. She and I, you know, years ago when I when we were first starting this work and I had an opportunity to connect with her and, you know, she always tells people I was her coach and I’m like, “yeah, good luck with that.” [laughs] But it was a wonderful experience working with her.

So the other thing just before we get started, I use your example of your huddles that we talked about before in the podcast and the way you’re tracking your data. You know, I use that as a as just a best practice example for others to see. So just great work that you all are doing.

So let’s jump in. As I mentioned a couple of months ago, some of our Studer Education team members had an opportunity to visit you and your staff in your district and capture the work that you all are doing. And one thing that they wrote down is you said in a video interview with us that how students are educated shouldn’t be a lottery for them that caught their attention. So what do you mean by that? And how does that mindset drive the work that you do?

Christi Barrett: When we speak about the opportunities that we afford our students, that should not be dependent upon which school building or which classroom they walk into. We would want high quality teaching and learning happening in every nook and cranny of our school district. And what we mean by our children, our students’ success shouldn’t be a lottery or shouldn’t be like a lottery, is it shouldn’t be by chance that they get with a person who we would describe as a good teacher, right?

Every teacher should be a great teacher. And when I talk about this more explicitly with our staffs, what I share with them is that as educators who are part of this system, we hold a privilege in that we get to select for the most part, which teachers our personal children get to have. And our families don’t get that.

It is true that we have a process where people can request, you know, a particular teacher, but very few, if you think about percentage of families that do that, very few parents do that. And quite frankly, they shouldn’t have to do that, right? They do that because they want to ensure that their child has the best educational experience in whatever grade it happens to be that they’re going into. And so when we talk about it not being a lottery for our kids, what we mean by that is it should not matter which school, which classroom, what grade level, they should have an outstanding experience no matter where they are.

Janet Pilcher: Yes. Yeah, you know, I think about sometimes when we talk to parents, you know, they’ll say, “oh, we got lucky this year,” you know, and that should, although that’s a compliment to that teacher, we want every parent to feel like they got lucky that year from the teacher. So what drives that, Christi? You know, what, you know, as you think about how do you build that consistency with the teachers that you have? How to ensure that?

Christi Barrett: You know, we focus a lot on what’s happening in our classrooms in terms of what’s good, what is maybe a space for improvement. We first look at it from a systems lens, right? Is it a systems issue or is it a person issue, right? And it’s also this idea, is it a skill issue or is it a will issue?

Janet Pilcher: Yeah.

Christi Barrett: And so we want to make sure that we have scaffolds and systems in place so that every educator has the opportunity to be successful and to deliver essentially a quality consistent product to our students for their learning. And so, you know, how we do that, it’s complicated.

And what I mean by that is we have several scaffolds in place to help reduce the variation that we would describe as not a positive variation, but a negative variation in terms of the quality of teaching and learning. And so, for example, you know, our principals, they are first line, right? We expect that they are present with staff, that they are working with staff to build capacity to remove barriers for them. And we have to be very explicit in the teaching and learning of the adults, which is inclusive of our principals of what do we mean by quality teaching and learning.

And so we have an instructional framework that we have used to help calibrate us as a leadership team about what happens in a classroom, what would be the observable behaviors and artifacts. We’ve been, of course, very transparent with our teaching staff. We also have lead teachers who help facilitate that work with their teams. We have improvement specialists that are part of that work. And then we also have coaches that help support principals because they’re a learner in this work too.

And so we have a very robust system to care for our professionals and our teachers in our classrooms. And it’s all built around this idea of when we say “this is what first best instruction looks like,” we all have a common definition of what we mean by that, what you would observe if you were to go into a classroom to see it. We just try to be very tight on that.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And I knew that’s the answer that you would provide in terms of it’s not just left up to the teacher, right? I mean, there’s a teacher in the classroom, but it really is focusing on that system support and the continuous support and the scaffolding of that support that gives that teacher every opportunity to be the best teacher that they can be and providing that support structure and then addressing it if not, right? I mean, having those systems to address if that’s not occurring. And sometimes I think teachers are just, it’s kind of left to chance. And I know you all really have that systems thinking approach that where you’re not leaving anything to chance.

Christi Barrett: That would be right. And that plays back into that idea again of the lottery. And you know, I say it joking, not joking, but I tell our staffs often like hope isn’t a plan. Like we’re not just hope that things get better. We’re going to be very intentional about the adult behaviors and what have you in terms of how that supports student learning.

The other thing that I would say is that we can say that we have a system of support for our teaching staff. We can say that we have scaffolds, but none of that can be acted on, if you will, if there isn’t trust. So we also do a lot of work around building our culture and building trust because when you come in and you’re working alongside someone and having these what we would want to be meaningful conversations around the work that’s happening in the classrooms, that can only happen if you trust who you’re engaging with. And so that’s a really critical part of the work also.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, that’s so good. So you were talking a few minutes about moving your improvement focus coaches or support. And you’ve moved from that concept of instructional coach model to an improvement coach model.

I love that, by the way. It’s a word change, but it’s a significant word change in terms of what the purpose and intent is. So tell us a little bit about that change and what was the need and how does that look different than what you had as an instructional coach?

Christi Barrett: The title has changed and the job description has changed. And so it really is a different body of work that’s being led by these very talented and professional educators, right? And so I guess the background that I would add to that is if simply working harder were the solution, we would already be receiving and producing the results that we want.

And so as we began on our improvement journey, everything was and continues to be questioned. And in that, what we found last year was that the model that we had established as it relates to instructional coaching, that was no longer our need because we had other mechanisms in the system to make sure that our teachers understand best first instruction, how to use the curriculum, all the scope and sequence, all of that type of work that instructional coaches might have supported in the past.

And instead, now what we do with our improvement coaches is we’ve pivoted from more of the surface level things that, and I say that it’s not exactly so, but you know, more of the traditional things that you would expect an instructional coach to do to now this place of improvement, right? Well, we’re delivering the lesson, we’re delivering it in the way that it should be. And yet students aren’t learning at the rate that we would expect them to learn. So let’s seek to understand and do some problem solving so that we can make changes in the instruction that will have an impact on the outcome in a positive way.

And so it’s a mindset shift that needed to go along with a resource shift. And the resource that we had, which is instructional coaches, was no longer meeting the needs of the district because we are doubling down on the improvement work, understanding the problem, what is the change that we can implement to improve the outcome, and also how are we engaging students to be part of that problem solving, right? And so we are, you know, working diligently to get our students engaged in PDSA cycles. Our improvement coaches are now trained in those tools where our instructional coaches didn’t have that improvement background. Our improvement coaches do. We’ve poured a lot into them.

And now, of course, they can’t stop at the adult. It’s how are we structuring the classroom so that our students are also involved in the PDSA cycles and plus deltas, the different improvement tools, the lightweight tools that can have very significant impact in terms of their learning.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And so as you do that, I’m sure you’re seeing some bright spots right now from the, all of what you’re talking about from the improvement coaches to the culture pieces to the systems pieces. So what are some of those bright spots? And can you just give us a feel for that one pretty deeply?

Christi Barrett: Absolutely. So I would say a bright spot is that this is my ninth year as superintendent. And last year was the first year where I could go into any school in our district and see the change, meaning it was actually observable. And it was observable because even if I hadn’t visited a classroom during a period of time where the teacher was actively engaged and lifting the voices of students, if you will, the walls spoke. And to me, and that might be long way to get there. But our walls spoke, they continue to speak about the improvement work that our students are involved in alongside their teacher. And that is just such a powerful shift. And I get goosebumps just talking about it.

And, you know, we talk about the lottery. What has happened as a result of that is that the variation has greatly decreased because now there’s a standard set of practices that teachers are engaging in as it relates to the improvement work. But understanding that the improvement work is happening within the context of the grade level and state standards.

So it’s not something more, it’s now just part of the instruction. And the evidence to point to that is I can walk classrooms with nobody in the classroom. I’ve gone to grade level teams and from one classroom to the next, you can see how a grade level or a team, like they’re in unison and how they’re engaging students in the work. And that to me is just such a bright spot.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, it’s hard to explain, I know, but when you can really walk in classroom, I love the idea too that you’re talking about variation, that you’re not seeing that variation, you’re seeing the consistency of practice. You’re seeing probably that in leaders as well as within teachers. And when you walk into those schools in those classrooms, you know, they’re speaking to you with consistency. It doesn’t mean everybody’s doing the same thing all the time or that there’s not personality embedded within, but there’s that same consistency of practice that diminishes that variation that helps us understand what’s working, what’s not, and how we make those adjustments along the way.

I’m just curious, Christi, as you’re talking about that in the classroom, what does that look like, the progress that you’ve made of engaging teachers and students in those improvement cycles? What’s got you there in terms of the progress and where do you still see that you’re going?

Christi Barrett: I think where I would start, and it’s part of the bright spot, was last year we were really focused on some of our teacher leaders to begin to test the work of improvement. And so it was rather small scale last year, if you will, if you think about the size of our organization because, you know, we have 1500-ish teachers. And so we probably had, I want to say, probably about maybe 100 teachers or so that were involved. And where those teachers were located is where you could just see, you could observe this change in practice. Like it was very evident.

And it is also true that if you look at the student results, that our results also improved. I hesitate a bit there because it’s important to know our context and that alongside the work of classroom improvement, which is where the teacher and the students are engaging in cycles, we also have been working on larger scale improvement efforts for the entire organization. And so those two things coupled together have just created a synergy so that even though we had a small but mighty group of teachers who were taking on the explicit improvement tools, if you will, within the instruction of their classroom, we had other efforts like the instructional framework, our daily huddles, other things that were working in conjunction with those that were testing, if you will, the improvement cycles in the classrooms, the leading classroom improvement work. And together we have ample evidence to suggest that outcomes are improving as a result of that work. As an example, our chronic absenteeism has decreased, our student behavior has improved, and our literacy outcomes have also made improvement. And I would say, in my tenure as a superintendent, we’ve had more growth this year than we’ve had in the prior seven years. And I attribute that to this work.

In terms of an additional bright spot is that I have talked with both our teachers as well as some of our classified staff who are taking on this improvement mindset, if you will. And they are jazzed. I mean, they are so excited and good begets good. And so we went from what I would describe as a handful of teachers doing the work to this year we have about a quarter, about 25 to 30% of our teachers, if not more than that, that are now actively involved in seeking out opportunities to get trained in classroom improvement and so forth and so on.

So that’s significant when you talk about from 100 educators and I’m generalizing the number to 700 educators. It’s incredible and—

Janet Pilcher: It is.

Christi Barrett: —it happens so quick. But again, good news spreads and good begets good. So it’s just, it’s very energizing.

And again, I think, you know, there’s always this, I think initial hesitancy to engage and change, but then when someone’s willing to go first and find that it’s actually creating better working conditions and better outcomes. And it just is the work. It’s not extra. It’s not something more. It becomes contagious really quick. And that’s the space that we’re now in.

Janet Pilcher: That’s good. And you know, that’s I go back to the flywheel. You know, I mean, that’s why I love the flywheel. I mean, it’s the building those inspiring workplaces, the right place where you’re building places where teachers want to get, be engaged, you’re building strength in your people by developing them. And then you build the combination and you see the results.

I love the results of part and accelerating at the end of that flywheel. When they start seeing positive results, then people want to be involved in the win, right? They want to be involved in seeing good things happen. When they see that, they feel good about results that they’re able to contribute to. And that just really gets that flywheel spinning.

Christi Barrett: And I also think what’s so energizing about this is that we now have students who can speak to their experiences.

Janet Pilcher: I love it.

Christi Barrett: You know, and we joke, not joke. In fact, we just did a session with about 200 of our leaders here in the district. And we showed a video clip of a third grade student. And the third grade student was speaking to their results on their most recent math assessment because the teacher engaging in these PDSA cycles and measuring what matters, they were following their progress. And this young man, he said, “well, even if I’m doing well now, it’s about making everyone do well.”

Janet Pilcher: [laughs]

Christi Barrett: And so, you know, it’s so again, like it’s the mindset that comes with it. And when you have a room full of adults who hear a third grader speaking about how powerful the work is and how easy it is, it’s like if a third grader can do it, come on, people, like we can all do this.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah.

Christi Barrett: Yeah. And, you know—

Janet Pilcher: I love that.

Christi Barrett: Yeah, it was awesome. And he also because the teacher had done a plus delta. And, you know, the question was post to him like, “well, how do you feel about the plus delta?”

And his response was, “I really appreciate that the teacher cares about my experience and is going to work to adjust things that didn’t go as we had wanted.” And again, I mean, that’s a child speaking, but as adults, we want the same thing.

Janet Pilcher: We want the same thing. Yeah.

Christi Barrett: We want the same thing. And I think that’s also what makes this work so special in that it’s not just about classroom instruction and teaching and learning. It’s about the way of being in our organization, because all people matter, right.

And, yeah, and there are a lot of outcomes in addition to student outcomes that we care about. So I don’t know if I was very concise Janet, but we have a bright spots and I’m just really thrilled with the process.

Janet Pilcher: You should be. Yeah, and really, very pretty quickly, Christi, I mean, you think about the work and going from 100 to like 700. I mean, I mean, that’s a big jump and you’ll just continue to build that momentum. So something to be proud of and people step up to the plate. You know, they do step up to the plate.

Christi Barrett: Well, and you know, the work of being a teacher, it’s complicated.

Janet Pilcher: Yes.

Christi Barrett: And it’s challenging. And it’s vital to the well being of our students. And so, you know, for our teaching staff to engage with a set of tools that genuinely makes their job easier and then shares the responsibility with their students. It’s a very empowering feeling for our teachers. And I don’t know that I would have predicted for that to be one of the outcomes.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good.

Christi Barrett: But it provides relief because again, it’s not the adult carrying the weight of the learning by themselves. They’re doing that with their students, and we have some phenomenal kids who could tell you exactly what’s working for them and not.

Janet Pilcher: [laughs]

Christi Barrett: And so, you know, I think that too is just really important because again, we expect our teachers to do a lot and to know that we’ve provided tools and we’ve invested in building their capacity and something that really can make their life better as a professional and can help them improve outcomes. Why wouldn’t you do that?

Janet Pilcher: Absolutely. As leaders, that’s really what we do and our responsibility to do. So good. So good for what you’re doing.

So I’m going to close with this. You know, as you think, because you talked about in the recent years and seeing what you’re seeing now, you know, compared to where you started. Let’s close with how’s it changed you? You know, how’s it changed you as a leader? Or what’s the impact if you woke up five or six years ago and you’re waking up today? You know, what’s different?

Christi Barrett: I feel what’s different. I’m trying to be concise because I care deeply about our work, and I care deeply about our people and of course our students and our families. And as I mentioned earlier, we were working really hard going into the pandemic and then post pandemic and all of that to say it’s not that we’re working less hard, but we’re working smarter.

And I really feel like what’s changed for me as a leader is understanding that the most simplest of tools can have the biggest impact and to engage people closest to the work and experiencing that so that they can help in influencing others so that we as the leader, if you will, or the superintendent doesn’t have, that we don’t have to be the ones to carry it all. That for me has been the biggest change for me as a leader.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah.

Christi Barrett: You know, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel like, you know, how is this ever going to be?  It feels so, so big. And again, I think it’s not about being perfect. It’s just about getting started. And to be in a mindset where that’s okay, that for me has just been a really important change.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And you know, it’s when I get a chance to have conversations with leaders like you, you know, I always walk out Christi thinking, “gosh, if we if every leader, if every system, if this just occurred, we would really do unbelievable things in our profession.” It would reduce the variance. Every child would have that great teacher and the leaders would be doing the work that they do and seeing great success and having a great feeling of satisfaction and knowing that they have achieved in ways that have helped people be better.

Christi Barrett: Absolutely. I’m in agreement with that. And I think for me personally, it’s, and again, I would hope that all leaders care deeply, but I do care deeply. And I worry about our professionals because our teams have to take care of themselves to be able to care for others, meaning our students. And so over the course of our improvement journey at first, prior to us partnering with Studer, the work was really heavy.

And so it weighed on me because I felt as though I wasn’t caring for our team, because it really was an additional layer that wasn’t producing results. And the pivot with Studer is this idea that the lightest tool wins, and it doesn’t have to be complicated to be powerful. And so not only do I feel great about the work that’s happening in our classrooms, I feel great also because I feel that it’s helping our educators and our staffs to be healthier and care for themselves and that it lightens their load just a little bit. And I feel really good about that.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. As I close today, you just make me become more reflective. You know, about a decade ago, yeah, I made a critical decision to leave a university to start this work because of exactly what you’re talking about. And it’s because I saw, felt, felt at that time that it could make a difference. And I saw the opportunity where I had a chance to lead something that could change people’s lives is what I say, Christi.

I know that sounds so, so heavy. But at the end of the day I’m closer to the end than the beginning, I always say that. But at the end of the day, if I can say that we did things that would really change people’s life for the better, you know, then, you know, I’ve accomplished something in the last decade or so of my life that’s meaningful. And it’s people like you that helped me understand why making those types of decisions are important. So I appreciate you so much.

Christi Barrett: Well, thank you Janet. It’s mutual. I’m just very appreciative that you have worked diligently to have the work of Studer Education work to be in our lives. And what I mean by that is we wouldn’t be where we are if it weren’t for you and if it weren’t for Pat. And so I’m just deeply appreciative of that. And not that I would want all of this to end tomorrow, but if it did, I would feel really great about what we’ve done.

Janet Pilcher: Yeah.

Christi Barrett: Thank you, Janet.

Janet Pilcher: Absolutely. And I’ll see you in Colorado, right?

Christi Barrett: Absolutely. We will see you in October for sure.

Janet Pilcher: I look forward to seeing you there. Thanks again for being with us.

Christi Barrett: You bet.

Conclusion

[Outro music plays in the background.]

Janet Pilcher: I really appreciate Christi’s insight on how engaging and improvement work is another way for her to care for her staff so they too can best care for their students. That’s evident in Christi’s leadership. It’s so important to see how it all interconnects so we can keep that flywheel spinning.

If you enjoyed hearing from Christi today, I know you’ll enjoy our annual K-12 Leadership Conference, What’s Right in Education. Christi, as we talked about, will be there speaking along with Pat Greco about achieving and sustaining organizational excellence through systems of improvement. Come and join us. We’d love to have you there to have fun with us, learn with us, and network with us and our partner organizations. Please connect to studereducation.com/WRIE to view the agenda and get registered. Hope to see you there.

And as always, thank you for tuning in to this episode of Accelerate Your Performance. I look forward to connecting with you next time as we continue to focus on the Nine Principles framework so that we can be our best at work. Have a great week, everyone.