Oct-Nov 2019 Advisor

ENGAGING

6 CEA ADVISOR OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2019

10 QUESTIONS WITH DR. MIGUEL CARDONA New education commissioner opens up about educational equity, assessments, and how teaching has changed in the last 20 years

1 You started your career as a teacher. What made you decide to choose that path, and what did you find most rewarding in it? I still consider myself a teacher, just in a different capacity now. Interestingly, when I was in high school, I wasn’t one of those kids who said, “I want to be a teacher.” I was more interested in fine art—painting and drawing. But I had some influential teachers, and I eventually thought I would do that—teach art. Then, I interned at an elementary school, working with students who had disabilities, and I was hooked on working with that age group. The teaching profession is a people business, so the human connection is something that appeals to me. Teachers take on such a special role, because they are shaping lives. I still have notes that students gave me 20 years ago, and the fact that I was a small part of their K-12 experience reminds me that teaching is the most noble profession. 2 What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing Connecticut’s public school educators in 2019? Rather than challenges I’ll call them opportunities, and two of the major ones are the ever-changing needs of our learners and our state. Students are coming in with greater needs, and that is happening in all districts, not just some. There is the need for social and emotional development and learning. There is the need to be prepared for the jobs of today and tomorrow. Students are also learning in different ways—for example, using technology to communicate and exchange information. To meet the demands that exist today, educators must continue developing their own skills. Also, teachers today are being asked to do so much more. They are cheering up students when they are sad, they are feeding them when they’re hungry, they are helping them feel welcome and feel a sense of belonging, they are providing those extracurricular activities for students outside of the academic day. Teachers are major contributors in a community. When you sign up to be a teacher, you are helping so many children in a community thrive, so we need to provide the tools for teachers to succeed. 3 How have things changed for teachers since your own time in the classroom? How has the role of a teacher changed? They are obviously teaching newer things, because there’s a constant evolution of skills necessary to prepare students for Connecticut’s economy. But also, social and emotional development is a big part of teaching today. Many students are coming in with trauma, and teachers are doing not only the academic work but also tending to their students’ social and emotional needs. 4 What are some of your first priorities as commissioner of the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE)? I want to boldly challenge the disparities that exist in student outcomes in Connecticut through a collective effort of many stakeholders. True to the African opportunity to position Connecticut’s education system as the best economic driver in the state. With CEA’s partnership, including the state’s phenomenal teachers, we are in a position to write the narrative of Connecticut’s public schools.”  The CEA Advisor caught up with Cardona and asked him about everything from teachers’ changing roles to his top priorities for our schools. At 23, Miguel Cardona began his career at Israel Putnam School in Meriden. It was 1998, and the eager fourth-grade teacher was thrilled to have his own classroom in the city where he grew up. Born in a housing project to parents who moved here from Puerto Rico as children and studied in the same schools, Cardona understands well the importance of community, as well as excellence and equity in education.   Today, Dr. Cardona heads up the State Department of Education, making him the first Latino commissioner to oversee Connecticut’s education system.    “Overall,” he says, “we have a tremendous

Dr. Miguel Cardona, a former teacher and administrator from Meriden, has been tapped to head up the Connecticut State Department of Education

proverb, it takes a village. CEA needs to be at the table. Teachers, parents, students, elected officials, district leaders, administrators—all of us need to come together around strategies for improving student outcomes. I want to ensure quality curriculum, fiscal health for school districts, and a laser focus on equity. I’m also interested in creating a tapestry of collaborators in the state, where we learn from one another and we look at districts not only as pockets of innovation but also models and exemplars of what’s important and what’s working in Connecticut. There are districts that are excelling in different areas, such as closing achievement disparities, engaging parents, serving English learners, or establishing dual enrollment so that high school students receive college credits. We have districts outpacing average growth in many areas, and we want to replicate those best practices. 5 Safety is a growing concern in classrooms around the country. In addition to highly publicized incidents of gun violence, there is also the nearly silent daily crisis of students who are dysregulated or have other needs, who threaten, disrupt, or physically assault other students or their teachers. CEA has worked with CSDE and others on The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) launched its new Learn Together, Grow Together CT initiative to highlight districts’ innovative, successful approaches to common issues and problems. Learn Together, Grow Together CT will promote these promising practices in district profiles inventoried on the CSDE website so that other district leaders and educators can borrow, adapt, and put to use these proven models in their own schools. The initiative is part of Commissioner Cardona’s major points of focus to leverage the collective capacity and resources already in place around the state to achieve common goals. legislation that would provide much-needed support for dysregulated students and ensure that classrooms are safe learning environments. This will continue to be a focus for us in 2020. What is your view on this need for students in our classrooms? Students do best when they are physically and emotionally safe. Teachers do best, too, when they are physically and emotionally safe. We need to make sure we are providing a safe environment for students to learn and teachers to teach. To get there, we need to continue developing trauma-informed practice, restorative practice, and social/emotional learning for students. We need to ensure early intervention for students who show signs of dysregulation, and we have to provide content for kids that would make them successful—for example, promoting appropriate executive functioning skills in early grades. Ultimately,

students are communicating through their actions, so if they are acting out, we need to get at the root causes of those behaviors. We have to support children in crisis while at the same time supporting teachers whose students are dysregulated. As a building principal, I had early intervention programs with early education students. Teachers have shown me the importance of meeting children “I still feel like the teaching profession is under attack. In Connecticut, we have some of the best teachers, because they change lives, and we’re not doing enough to promote their profession.” Dr. Miguel Cardona where they are, and early childhood practices that make sense include ensuring our curriculum is developmentally appropriate and respects how children learn best. There is research behind that. We cannot have students learning to read at the expense of learning to self-regulate. They need explicit instruction in how to do that. Ask any teacher at the early education level, and they will tell you they spend these first few months of the school year teaching children how to share, how to take turns, how to follow directions, and handle their emotions. If anything, children will learn better when they have had a chance to get that foundational set. 6 Educational equity and access for students are priorities for CEA, as is diversity in our teaching force. As a product of public schools, a parent of public school students, and the first Latino education commissioner in the state, what are your plans to ensure that Connecticut students have better access to educational resources and more teachers of color? If you look at our student outcome data, there are disparities in educational achievement; by and large, black and brown students are not doing as well as other students. We can’t expect to have more teachers of color unless that changes. We need to have more students graduate who want to come back and be teachers. We need culturally relevant curriculum. We need to create more grow-your-own pathways for students to become teachers in their communities. We have diverse classrooms, so there’s no reason we shouldn’t have a diverse teaching force. We also need to put the teaching profession back on top, where it needs to be. I still feel like the teaching profession is under attack. In Connecticut, we have some of the best teachers, because they change lives, and we’re not doing enough to promote their profession. 7 In a recent interview, you indicated that schools are a reflection of myriad stressors outside the classroom. One such stressor—the tendency for children from low-income families to move and change schools frequently—can have a negative effect on children’s academic achievement.