Innovation Includes Sustainability

Panelists
Julie Mitchell, Superintendent, Rowland Unified School District (CA), @_JulieMitchell_
Marlon Styles, Superintendent, Middletown City School District (OH), @MCSDSuper
Thomas C. Murray, Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools®, Alliance for Excellent Education, @thomascmurray (moderator)

On January 23, 2020, Future Ready Schools® held a webinar exploring the idea that innovation must include sustainability.  Each year, districts across the country embark on new initiatives, or look to broaden existing ones, often purchasing curricular materials, technologies, or equipment in the process. As school and district leadership teams work diligently to seek innovative new practices, some initiatives thrive long-term, while others flame out almost as quickly as they began. 

Future Ready Superintendents Julie Mitchell and Marlon Styles both understand that sustaining innovative practices means districts must put a vision in place, incorporate professional learning, involve the local community, and ensure that the financial components add up. It’s not simply about dollars and cents. 

 In this webinar, our panelists discussed

• evaluating the total costs of new initiatives; 
• looking past costs and including aspects such as professional learning and staffing needs; 
• including the community’s voice as a core component of the vision of sustainability; 
• evaluating the performance and effectiveness of the initiative; and 
• replicating lessons learned. 

Future Ready Schools® would like to thank Allovue, one of our Future Ready partners, for sponsoring this webinar. 

Please direct questions concerning the webinar to ldossin@all4ed.org. If you are unable to watch the webinar live, please register to receive the video archive directly in your inbox. 

Future Ready Schools® is a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed), a Washington, DC–based national policy, practice, and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those underperforming and those traditionally underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship.  www.FutureReady.org

Follow FRS on Twitter (twitter.com/FutureReady); Facebook (facebook.com/futurereadyschools); and the FRS Leadership Hub (futureready.org/hub).

If you are interested in renting the Alliance’s facilities for your next meeting or webinar, please visit our facilities page to learn more.