Major Instructional Shifts? Here’s How to Respond with Dr. Natasha Crain

0:03 Welcome to the Catching Up with Casey show. If you are tired of chasing buy in, frustrated with teams who can't seem to get on the same page, or over the constant struggle of holding people accountable without micromanaging, this is the show for you. I'm Casey Watts, speaker, author and the creator of the Clarity Cycle Framework. I help leaders just like you take teams from frustration to alignment, so teams can work collectively toward a common purpose in a committed way instead of against each other as though they are functioning in different organizations. And we do it all through the craft of clarity. Whether you lead from the middle or you were the front facing leader of your organization.

0:45 On this show, we bring clarity to the seemingly small things in leadership that make the biggest difference because clarity precedes capacity. Now, with all of that said, let's dive into today's episode. Tonight's episode is all about those major instructional shifts that happen in schools, districts or campuses and how exactly you can respond as a leader. And I am joined with Doctor Natasha Crane. She is the assistant Superintendent of Marshall ISD. Natasha, welcome to the show.

1:30 Thank you for having me. Yeah. So tell us a little bit, Doctor Crane, about the work that you do and a little bit about who you are as leader. The work that I do is enormous. It's enormous. First of all, I am the assistant Superintendent of Curriculum instruction and assessment here in Marshall ISD. And so I supervise all things instruction, all things academic, all things assessment. So I have content coordinators, I have about four directors, So special education department, career technology, AVID. We are district wide, AVID implementation throughout and that's elementary and secondary campuses. I also oversee accountability, so all of our local and state assessments, Fine Arts, PE, STEM, GT, you name it. One thing that's new for me and under that CTE umbrella is the the agricultural department.

2:39 Not really surprisingly enough. I know people really aren't like odd. I'm not an animal lover, so learning about pigs last year was great. Disdain and interest at the same time. So that's all the things that I do. We are in the process of implementing some new curriculum things, and so that's where we are at this year. Before that, I was the principal for seven years at an elementary campus, spent 14 years in Tyler ISD, was an English teacher and secondary, and I've also had a stint in curriculum and instruction when I first moved out of the classroom, so also been an assistant principal at middle school.

3:30 So all of the things as well has gotten me to this point of my assignment. Yeah, that's amazing. So much what a varied experience and and it's growing too, just like you said, like you are getting to learn new and different things even in the role that you have now, it does not remain stagnant. So I just, I have to ask a question and you answer it however you want to answer it. But I know as a a high achieving woman in just kind of thinking about everything that you've done, I know you probably have other aspirations as well. Like, do you have thoughts about what's next for you? I absolutely have thoughts about what's next. I believe it or not, I can retire in about 5 years. So that is kind of like on my mind of like where do I want to land next?

4:29 You know, when you retire, that kind of opens up a little bit more freedom, you know, to do some different things. And so I, I often think about that. I'll have some things planned. I really enjoy supporting leaders, campus leaders, and so really stepping into that realm more, it's something that I aspire to do. That's awesome. Yeah. And leaders are eager for it. And especially I think the topic that we're going to talk about tonight is it's such a valuable thing to have someone who knows what it's like to go through major instructional shifts and how to respond to those because it can be a little bit chaotic and uncertain for lots of different people, including the leader themselves.

5:16 So before we dive into that, let's get really real. What's something just unique about you or or something that just makes you the average Joe? Like, tell us something human about you. Something human. Well, I you know, I tell people they don't really. Teachers or educators are not supposed to like certain things. But I love rap music. I love it. So, you know, but I love gospel music. So I could be on either spectrum depending on what kind of day I'm having or what kind of day I'm expecting. Some mornings I need a little more Jesus and some days I'll I'll in and ready to win and everybody hands go up, you know?

6:00 So it just depends. Yes, that's fantastic. Oh my gosh, that reminds me of just a quick tangent, y'all, My cousin is getting married in the next year and she was talking about her reception and how much of a party it's going to be. And she was talking about bringing back the music from the 90s. And I was like, Oh yeah, that's going to be a lot of fun. And she said, but also like, I want some Christian music at during the, you know, beginning during the ceremony and everything she said, But Jesus knows he knows that I'm he knows all of the all of my different beings. So anyway, it was just really funny. OK.

6:41 So while we're talking about things that are real, instructional shifts are absolutely real. You talked about how your district has moved, has made an instructional shift this year, right. And I'm curious if you could tell a little bit more about that specifically. And then, and then we're going to move into, OK, we know the shifts are going to happen. It is inevitable. We are in a system that changes frequently or at least the the materials we use and the the initiatives that we implement that changes frequently. So I want to hear from your perspective, like what you guys have been, what you've been implementing, but also how leaders can create clarity when they're implementing some new instructional initiatives or curriculum shifts.

7:32 Sure. So this year, two major things that that we're implementing, we applied for a LASSO Cycle 3 grant Olive the the educators know about that. And so that allowed us to really move into adopting state curriculum, so-called Bluebonnet math. We focused on math 1st. And so looking at the data from the last five years, we saw that, you know, we were kind of going back and forth with should we look at reading, Should we look at math? And so of course, every, every decision is data-driven. So looking at the data for the last five years, it makes sense for us to start with math to try to get some games there and, and close some achievement gaps.

8:19 And so Bluebonnet math is one of the new things that we've implemented. We also felt like it was time to have a more rigorous diagnostic. And so looking at, you know what have we been using, you know, for the past probably more like 7 or 8 years, this is my second year here, but they have been using one diagnostic for several years. And so really looking at that diagnostic compared to the rigor of state assessment is where we landed on looking at some different things. And so with that, we landed on already, we also wanted to make sure that we had something that was solid for Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention as well as an opportunity to make sure that we really had a great focus on how well our students were growing. And so looking at making sure that each student gets one years growth, we vetted several resources and we landed it already.

9:19 So with those two instructional pieces and keeping in mind and curriculum instruction, assessment, they had not really changed or adopted anything in a very long time. You know you I really thought about like, is this the time to move? Because thinking, you know, with where we landed with accountability last year, we did move quite a bit with the current resources that we had. But then the other question for that, is that sustainable? How long can we continue to grow with with what we have? And so we did go through really looking at what resources, starting with campus principles, what resources do we currently have? What are we using with fidelity?

10:03 What are we not using? And so had a period of like, what are we going to de implement? Because we don't really need to bring something new in on top of what we already have. And so we went through actually the book study with the with the implementation and really put that theory into practice. And so once we figured out, you know, what resources were not yielding results, what resources we necessarily weren't even using, where they had even been in the district over five years, then once we kind of eliminated those things, then it's time to bring in something new. And so with that, you know, one of the things that I always tell them I'm a Brené Brown fan. I'm like clearest kind.

10:50 So let's make sure that everyone is on the same page. Let's make sure that we all agree. I'm really a collaborative leader. And so I think that one of the things that really, really helped us get off to a good start is to have that shared leadership. You can have buy in versus commitment. Buy in gets you compliance, consistency leads to commitment. And so we want to make sure that, you know, we're going to be committed to these things that we say that we're going to do. So we did focus groups, information sessions, we vetted resources, we made rubrics. People voted, so we selected resources that were the People's Choice per SE.

11:35 And so that means, you know, that everyone was on the same page and, you know, the majority are coming to a consensus with some of these things. And so that has really made just, you know, a huge difference when you look at the resistance or non resistance to change. They use Noster's model at Region 7 quite a bit. And it's like, you know, what's missing? Is it the vision? Is it the skills? You know, what's creating anxiety was creating uncertainty. And so a lot of the other districts are like, you know, our teachers just, you know, they're not really moving or they're not really open to change. Well, because we selected the People's Choice, pretty much everyone is on board.

12:16 And so, you know, that's the the path that that we chose to implement something new because change is hard, especially if you haven't done that in a very long time. There's a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of uncertainty, you know, teacher capacity, leadership capacity, for that matter, you know, you have to consider all of those things. Yeah, yeah. Man, there's so much good stuff that you mentioned in that you talked about how you did a book study on de implementate the book DE implementation. Who's doing that book study with you? Like who do you pull in for that book study? So in our principal, our monthly principals meetings, part of the agenda is a book study. So our principals are are reading those books that we select from year to year.

13:08 And then of course, if some of them choose to take that to their campuses, if they, you know, if they feel like they can do that with their leadership team or just a core group of staff on their campuses. But for the most part, our book studies are are LED, you know, we do those in our principals meetings. And so this year, this year, the book that was selected was the craft of clarity. And so now that we've de implemented some things, now we want to be sure, sure that we are communicating effectively the expectations for I'm going to keep the People's Choice. So what now, what are those expectations and how do we make sure that we are really being clear so that we can move from buy in because right now it's buy in.

13:59 We move from buy in to to commitment. Yes, girl, preach it like, but I mean mic drop right there. Buy into commitment. And one of the things that I've been talking about a lot lately is just transferring the ownership of goals or transferring the ownership of the initiatives that you have from your leaders to your teams. And if you cannot live out the clearest kind a value statement, then it's really next to impossible to shift that ownership and move from buying in to commitment. So I love, love, love that you keep bringing it back to that. And I just imagine too, that that's probably something you as a Superintendent or assistant Superintendent are continuously sharing or vision casting to your leaders that you work with.

14:51 Yes, we're also, you know, our service provider with this new curriculum is Region 7 Educational Service Center. And so with that we're also going through Texas Instructional Leadership and, and we just finished the the cycle with observation and feedback. And how do you communicate, you know, seeing the gap, naming the gap, and then what are you going to do about it? And all of that is really evolved around effective and clear communication and having those high expectations. You can have high expectations and not really see an impact on your results because you have gaps in your communication. As you said in your book, you have to paint done, you know, what does that look like? And I've, you know, that was really something that that was eye opening for me because done for me may not be done for you. And so you know, those expectations and taking it back to the instructional component of that's why it's important to have an exemplar or a model so that they can see that clear expectation of what painting done or being finished or being mastery really looks like.

16:00 Yes, that's awesome. OK, now let's talk about let's get even more real. We feel like are some common pitfalls that leaders face when they're trying to communicate expectations, especially across a system. So what I normally see is too many things happening. So you know, it's a huge endeavor for us to implement new curriculum and new diagnostics and so really narrowing that focus with what do we really want to accomplish. So what's the end goal? So when you fail to state the Y or the the end goal 1st and then give them the path of how you're going to get there, then it's too many things all at once.

16:47 And so it's like you can't see the forest for the trees. You know that whatever they say it is. And so when you have too many initiatives going on, which is the importance of also de implementing like we couldn't have the two diagnostics going on at the same time or we couldn't say, OK, we're going to implement this curriculum, but you can still use some pieces from XYZ. And so really making that focus narrowed as much as possible. Bite size instructions, bite size steps so that they can actually stamp their success and see that they're working towards that end goal. I also think your message across the board is a top down approach.

17:31 So the message across when you have inconsistent communication or you know, from the district, they said this, but you know, my principal said we're going to do it this way. Or, you know, from grade level to grade level on the campus, Well, you know, third grade, they're doing this, but you know, this works better for us to do it this way in fifth grade. And so when you have like inconsistent communication, inconsistent messages, you know, among leaders and even among, you know, teachers and then, you know, you inspect what you expect. And so when you do walkthroughs and when you're talking about instruction, it has to be aligned.

18:11 And so if you're saying that we're doing all these initiatives and you never go in and you never check on it, you never spend time in PLCS, then there's a disconnect. And so then what are teachers doing? They're saying this too shall pass and they're waiting on the next thing. And so and I think, you know, just the way you communicate and invite teachers in. So sometimes teachers feel like you're talking at them and not to them. Why, You know, they're the ones that's the boots on the ground. So the success of what we're implementing really depends on the teachers, no matter, you know, how good we think we are as leaders. So you have to include, it has to be all stakeholders.

18:53 Yeah, man, I was thinking about that the other day. I was working with a school who they, the they weren't working within. You know, you talked about earlier how you have a, is it monthly or is it, I know it's periodic, like it's common that you guys meet with principals from campuses together, like they're meeting together. We made monthly. So incredibly valuable and I not all schools practice that. It is not a practice that is common. I would say from my experience in being in schools across the nation, I don't think it's very common. And a lot of the time I hear from especially smaller rural districts that, well, they just don't have time for it because they're wearing so many hats.

19:43 But that's true for all that's true for any any district, any campus, any leader. Everyone is wearing lots of different hats. They have major to do lists, but prioritizing your time is incredibly valuable. The other thing that I heard you mentioned was how you, your principles that you work with may go back and work with their instructional leadership team to do more of the work together. There's this sense of togetherness and team leadership that I hear coming out of your messaging that is so incredibly valuable because we cannot go at this alone. And as soon as we do try to go at it alone, well, we're.

20:25 We're going to notice those really wide gaps in communication and it's going to be hard for us to hold people accountable without micromanaging. So I love just how much you talked about the People's Choice. Like what a great phrase to lean into. I think that's been kind of a common theme is people. We should have put that in the podcast episode titles. So good. I'm going to write it down. I'm going to coin it. Doctor Tasha, train People's Choice. OK, So then you, you also mentioned like feedback and visibility earlier in our conversation. How do leaders build that culture where the feedback, the visibility and that alignment that you talked about, that aligned practice, it just becomes the norm instead of something that's by chance. Well, I think it goes back to when you set a goal, you know, like not too many initiatives.

21:26 And so really as a leader, you have to, you know, that culture of and the, you know, like having that vulnerability, because, you know, one of the things that we also do in our principals meetings is that we do learning walks from campus to campus. And so you, you have to be open because I use that as a coaching session for the principal. So, you know, based on these classrooms, what did you see? What are some action steps? Now I want you to think about what you're seeing on your own campus and how are you going to take what we talked about today back to your campus? And so it's not a you know, not you type of situation, It's not a, you know, this campus is doing better than the next campus. It really you have to create a culture of learning. And within that culture of learning, like I said, it is a lot of vulnerability because I don't expect you to show me all of your rock star teachers, you know, that that's not the goal of coming to the campus.

22:24 The goal is to come and learn. And so as we're introducing, you know, those bite size things, for example, last year we were only looking at learning objectives for probably the first semester. You know, do these teachers have solid learning objectives and then is it aligned to the standard? And so how do you how do you give feedback on that? And I think once you give those bite sized things and you convey that, again, it's about communication. You let like as a district, they knew that, you know, last year it was about solid Tier 1 instruction with with the focus on a daily learning target and an explicit direct I do, can you teach?

23:06 And so they knew that, you know, when we were coming in, we're looking at that one thing or those two things. And so you feel like you can stamp your success if you know, I'm coming in your room and your daily learning target is aligned to your standard, your own pace with the curriculum. And what you said that you were going to teach is actually what you delivered, you know, so really just focusing on small bite sized things to narrow that success and communicate what you're looking for. You know, if you don't communicate what you're looking for, as soon as you walk in the room, someone is going to be guarded. Because I don't know if you're looking to see if Jimmy is on task, if, if Jimmy is rolling around on the floor, I, I don't know if you're looking to see, you know, if, if students are engaged. So you have to name that expectation. And then once you name that expectation, people will perform because they're clear on what you want. Yes, yeah, you mentioned now, you mentioned it just now, but you also mentioned earlier when people have too many initiatives coming at them, it's just too hard to focus on anything, any one thing and get committed to it. So by the time you buy in, well, we're moving on to the next thing because I never, I never had the time to build commitment or there was never a strategic plan in place to help me build commitment or take ownership.

24:34 And that's one of the things that when, when I'm taking people through the clarity cycle framework training and doing this two day training, what we start to look at is what is your area of focus? A lot of the times they're looking at their campus improvement plans and they're like, oh, it's too hard to narrow down because we have so many goals. But it is possible to say, well based on your data you can choose something that if you focus on this so intentionally that it will address all of these other goals that you are trying to. Give you the biggest impact? Yes, yes. If you can get people committed to this thing, to this goal, and you can transfer ownership, guess what?

25:17 It's going to take care of all of these other things or it's going to help improve all of those other things. There this there was something else that you mentioned to the principals doing going to different campuses like doing learning walks essentially as a principal group, how awesome that is. I mean, kudos to you guys for making that happen because what I, what I envision is that you are giving them the experience of what they can be implementing on their own campus. Absolutely. And that's the whole goal, yes. Yes, love it. Oh my gosh, how how have people responded to that? Like initially when you guys started that, do you feel like there was a little bit of resistance or concern about it?

26:01 And has it shifted over time? I think, you know, it, it was, they had, they had been doing that before I got here. So I don't, I'm not sure exactly how that looked before I, you know, I got here, but I know that they were doing learning walks from campus to campus within their, their principals meetings. But I, I am very intentional about when we come to your campus, we're looking for, you know, as we're implementing Bluebonnet math, I'm only looking for one component. So schedule classrooms where we can see concept development because that is, it's the meat of the lesson. And so, you know, they know what we're looking for and I don't mind them sharing that with their teachers. Like I'm, you know, this is the schedule and we're coming to see how you have implemented concept development or application problem or you know, how you are ending your lesson with your exit tickets and making sure that it's aligned to the, the daily learning target.

26:59 So, you know, I think again, I think once you communicate and it's not a got you moment, they know what we're coming to see. So you know it, the teachers are receptive and they're always like, OK, what did they say? You know what, what, what was the feedback? You know, and of course, it's a little unnerving when 5 or 6 people are walking in your room at a time. So we do split up in two or three groups, you know, so that it's not ten people walking there one time. So, you know, but I think that communication of saying when I come to your campus, this is what I'm looking for. And of course, communicate that to your teachers. So this is what we're going to give you feedback on for today. Yeah, yeah, I as you were talking about transparency, it just, I was like, there's got to be a way for us to create a phrase where we're thinking about things that are clear, are transparent.

27:57 There, there is a thread of transparency in that always with anything that is clear. Oh my gosh, this has been such a good conversation. I keep talking to you. But I do want to ask this before we start to end our conversation. What do you feel like makes educational leadership challenging? Adults. Yeah, gosh, the adults are. So adults, the kids are great. That's why I'm an educator. The kids are great. But adult learning, you know, one of the things you have to realize is once you stepped in leadership is that adult learning is so different from student learning. And so you're not able to shift and have that mind shift. The adults will literally eat you alive. And so, you know, I think that's something that makes leadership kind of challenging because just like there's different modes of learning for kids, there's different modes of learning for adults, there's different capacities for adults. And so I think really, and I use the word capacity all the time. I'm like, you know, do you have the capacity for that? That sounds great, but think about your staff. Does the majority of your staff have the capacity to execute that with fidelity to get you the impact that you need? If not, we need to come back to the table and rethink that. Not saying that you won't get there yet. It's the power of yet you're not

29:27 there yet. But what are some other things that you can do? Because again, just like kids want to know that they're on the right track and stamp their success, adults want to know that they're being successful too. Adults that really care about kids and they care about making a difference in the in the lives of kids. They want to know that they're doing right by their students. They want to know that, you know, they're growing kids and that their kids are going to be ready for the next grade level. So just really knowing how to nurture adult learning is something that's challenging. And it varies from campus to campus. It varies from year to year. It varies from situation to situation, depending on, you know, what's going on on those campuses, what culture they already have, what culture they're trying to create, what culture they're trying to, to eliminate sometimes. And so, you know, just really focusing on like, what does it look like for adult learning?

30:22 I think another thing is just the whole, like you said, education is ever changing. And really, you know, curriculum, instruction, assessment, you're constantly having to monitor and adjust, standards are changing, testing is changing. You know, I just presented our file benchmark data tonight at the board meeting and it was not, it didn't really feel good to say, well, we don't know what the science cut points are. We're guessing. And so, you know, we raised it, we took a fab at it. So, you know, it's some of those moments of uncertainty that are, you know, just beyond your control, but you still want to make sure that you're making the right decision and that you're doing right by kids. I always say, you know, this is a kids business. So if your decision doesn't start with kids, again, with kids, then no matter what you're doing, you're not making the right decision.

31:19 Boom girl. I'm, I'm curious about, you've been in education for a while, but you've held the leadership capacity in one way or another for several years too. How, what do you like, what habits or what have you done to help you stick with it? Because a lot of people burn out. What's up? Just being, you know, I'm really a, I'm a reflective person and I start with me. So I'm always thinking like, you know, what am I doing that has impacted this situation positively or negatively? And I think, you know, as a person that that has that moment of self reflection is a moment to where I can also be vulnerable and say I was wrong or this is what we said and it's not working.

32:16 And I think just just being human and being, being vulnerable. I, like I said, I can only I, I think I'm very authentic. Sometimes I say what's on my mind the way I think it and probably shouldn't sometimes, but I once you know, like my team, they get to know me. I'm, I'm really saying that out of care, love and sometimes concern because like I said, I I really am about doing what's best for kids. And I think that is something that keeps me grounded and keeps me focused because I'm really passionate about the work that I do, because I'm passionate about seeing the difference in the lives of kids.

32:57 Yeah, and I think it's important to have a certain level of passion in order to be able to sustain yourself as a leader. So as soon as you start to notice that passion waning, I'm going to suggest listeners, you just take a step back and do some of that deep reflection that Doctor Crane is talking about. Yeah, I love that. OK, so Doctor Crane, tell our listeners where they can find you. You find me a marshallized date, you can find me on social media, I'm on LinkedIn. I love to have thought leaders, thought partners. I love to collaborate. I'm always reading things.

33:40 I read blogs, I'm listening to podcast. I read books when I have time. But just those short Nuggets of, you know, quick articles that facilitate a great discussion. I'm all for that. So I I am on LinkedIn. So just my name, Natasha Crane. And I would love to collaborate with more thought leaders that are passionate about making the difference in the lives. Of kids, yeah. And. And we've arranged. You told me you're going to wrap us out. Just kidding. Now my other life I do want to be a DJ, so keep that in mind. Like I love, I just love music so much. But in the other life, I'll do it for you. Okay, that sounds good.

34:28 All right. Thank you so much for joining me. This has been great. Thank you for having me, it's been a great time. OK guys, we will catch you in the next episode. Bye. Hey listener, I am so honored that you listen to today's episode and I hope you gained something valuable from it. I'd also be honored if you did ME3 solid favors. First, subscribe to this show. I've got a lot of great content coming up and I don't want you to miss any of it. 2nd, be sure you're following me on social media platforms. You can find me at Catch up with Casey on LinkedIn or Instagram. And finally, if you were looking to book a dynamic and relatable speaker for your next event, conference, or retreat, I would love to bring a message about how the craft of clarity makes a significant impact on both leadership and life. Until next time, always remember clarity. Receives capacity.