Standing Tall: Voices in Leadership

Build a School Where Every Student Feels They Belong with Jennifer Anderson

Episode Summary

What changes when school leaders help students see possibilities they haven’t yet imagined for themselves? In this episode, Jennifer Anderson joins Randy to explore how school leaders can build belonging, recognize students’ strengths, and create opportunities for young people to grow beyond the identities they bring into school. Drawing on her own path into education, Jennifer shares how watching her parents return to college shaped her belief that education can change a family’s future. Jennifer describes belonging as “oxygen” for teenagers and explains why it requires intentional attention to both adult–student and student–student relationships. She shares how student interviews have challenged staff assumptions, how everyday experiences can reveal transferable skills, and how a graduate profile can connect academic learning to life beyond school. The conversation also explores the conditions adults need to grow: permission to experiment, opportunities to learn alongside colleagues, and leaders who model thoughtful risk-taking. Jennifer offers practical reflections on protecting important work, sharing leadership, and preserving dignity when difficult decisions arise.

Episode Notes

Discussion Questions for School Leadership Teams

Help Students See Their Potential

• Which students in our school may feel confined by a label, reputation, or past experience? How are we helping them see other possibilities?
• How do we help students recognize the strengths they develop through work, extracurricular activities, family responsibilities, and interests outside school?

Make Belonging an Everyday Practice

• What evidence tells us that every student has a meaningful connection with an adult? Whose experience might that evidence overlook?
• How intentionally do our classrooms build relationships between students, especially those who might otherwise feel excluded?
• Where could a small change in a daily routine create a stronger sense of belonging?

Let Student Voice Change Our Thinking

• When did student feedback last challenge an assumption we held? What changed as a result?
• What might we learn through conversations with students that our surveys aren’t revealing?
• How do students know their input has influenced a decision?

Connect Our Vision to Daily Learning

• Where can students see and practice the skills in our graduate profile during an ordinary school day?
• How are students learning to recognize, describe, and assess their own growth in those skills?

Create Conditions for Adult Growth

• What happens in our school when a teacher tries something purposeful and it doesn’t work? Does our response encourage another attempt?
• What opportunities do teachers have to observe colleagues, find thought partners, and learn beyond their own classrooms?

Lead With Dignity and Purpose

• During difficult decisions, how do we ensure that a conflict or mistake does not become a person’s defining identity?
• What important leadership work keeps getting displaced by immediate demands? What would help us protect time for it?

Choose a Next Step

• What is one practice we will change after this conversation, who will take responsibility, and what evidence will we revisit in six weeks to understand its effect?

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