by Daron Pressley

March 7, 2014

Women’s History Month: Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools Talks Dynamic Leadership in Teaching

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Named by Forbes as one of “the world’s most powerful educators,” Washington D.C. Public Schools chancellor, Kaya Henderson, (@HendersonKaya) is delivering results in an extremely challenging urban public school environment. Results from the 2013 Comprehensive System Test show that the DCPS system is on the right track. Students improved in both reading and math, and have made the largest gains in test scores since 2008.

That was last year, and Henderson knows that previous results, although good, do not mean victory for education reform or DCPS. The stakes are even higher now, and Kaya Henderson has built a team of administrators and educators that believe each and every student, given the proper tools, can and will succeed.

I sat down with Henderson to discuss education and development for a career in teaching that makes an impact.

In a very difficult urban public school environment, how do you lead your administration and teachers to improve on measurables despite challenges?

Kaya Henderson: I am a parent first. Furthermore, I am a parent of two DCPS students, so I am creating a school district for my kids and our kids. If I want my kids to have a solid academic background, play an instrument, master a foreign language and excel in sports then that is what I want for all of our kids. Understanding what we need to deliver to the current students in front of us everyday keeps us very present and creates a sense of urgency about the work we are doing.

Second, we have amassed a legion of people that believe these children can achieve at the same level as other children. We are very competitive and pressed to show people what an excellent urban education can look like. The result is that we are meeting and exceeding requirements, because we believe we can demonstrate what a excellent urban education looks like with our 50,000 students.

New technologies are emerging that impact the teaching profession. How do we ensure that we do not overlook the teacher who is an indispensable piece to education?

All of the research shows that the single most important in-school factor to improving student achievement is the quality of the teacher. Whether you use technology or not, the quality of the teacher still matters. You can be in a blended learning environment where the room is technologically outfitted with laptops and smartboards, but without a high-quality teacher, the lesson can be just as terrible as it would have been without technology.

Technology is a tool, and there is no way that it can replace the teacher. People will try to foolproof teaching, but teaching is not just about conveying information. Teaching is also about the relationships you build and the connections that are made with students. Students need to know that everyday someone cares about them, that they are being held accountable, and a computer cannot do that for them.