Feb. 23, 2026
Episode 63: Assistant Principal Leadership Playbook with Dr. Sonia Matthew: Equity, School Systems & Student Achievement
Send a text A single line can change a career: “You’re not just an assistant principal.” Dr. Sonia Matthew joins us to show what that looks like when reflection, equity, and well-built systems collide to keep students in classrooms and learning at high levels. From her beginnings as a first-generation Canadian navigating language and stuttering to earning Maryland’s National Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year, Sonia traces a journey defined by empathy, discipline, and community. We ...
A single line can change a career: “You’re not just an assistant principal.” Dr. Sonia Matthew joins us to show what that looks like when reflection, equity, and well-built systems collide to keep students in classrooms and learning at high levels. From her beginnings as a first-generation Canadian navigating language and stuttering to earning Maryland’s National Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year, Sonia traces a journey defined by empathy, discipline, and community.
We dig into the core moves that transform culture: knowing students and families deeply, streamlining interventions to protect instructional time, and measuring what matters so effort becomes impact. Sonia explains how adaptive leadership, SEL, and adult wellness help leaders listen with purpose, build trust, and tap hidden strengths across a staff. She walks us through concrete practices, clear routines for hallways and passes, progress monitoring with teeth, and collaborative decision-making, that reduce chaos and raise achievement.
Sonia also shares how advisory councils shaped her view of policy and practice, why journaling and pattern-spotting power better decisions, and how optimism can be a strategic choice. Her nonprofit Imaginate and her forthcoming book, The Assistant Principal’s Blueprint: From Survival To Success, extend these ideas with practical tools for emerging leaders. If you’re an educator looking to sharpen systems, elevate equity, and energize your team, this conversation offers a playbook anchored in respect and results.
Listen, share with a colleague who needs a spark, and subscribe so you never miss a story that moves education forward. If the episode resonates, leave a review and tell us: which school system would you streamline first?
Connect with Dr. Sonia Matthew:
Website: https://www.drsoniaamatthew.com/
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00:00 - Meet Dr. Sonia Matthew
04:40 - Finding A Calling In Education
09:50 - Teaching Philosophy And Whole Child Focus
16:26 - From Classroom To Administration
20:06 - School Context And Community Needs
27:07 - Connecting Through Lived Experience
31:57 - Systems, Interventions, And Time
39:17 - Collaboration And Policy Influence
43:57 - Reflection As A Leadership Engine
48:37 - Adaptive Leadership And Adult Wellness
WEBVTT
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Have you thought I'm just an assistant principal?
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I cannot lead like that.
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Well, today's guest blows that perception out of the water.
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I am honored to welcome Dr.
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Sonia Matthew.
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She is currently the 2025 Maryland's National Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year, recognized by both MAESP and NAESP, with 27 years of service in public education.
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Her leadership fingerprints are everywhere, across classrooms, districts, advisory boards, and the lives of countless students.
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Dr.
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Matthew has served as a teacher, reading specialist, a tag coordinator, and an assistant principal at both middle and elementary levels in Texas and Maryland.
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She has been a master teacher for the Maryland State Department of Education, an advisor on the MSDE Superintendent's Principal Advisory Council, and a member of NAESP's Professional Learning Advisory Council.
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Her leadership is grounded in reflection, equity, adaptive leadership, and whole child wellness.
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She has also founded Imaginate, a nonprofit built on the belief that if you can imagine greatness, you can achieve it.
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Now let's get to the conversation with Dr.
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Sonia Matthews.
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Thank you for having me, Jeff.
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I'm excited to be here.
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I'm going to go ahead and start you off with the same question that I ask everybody on the show.
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What inspired you to become an educator?
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So, my dad, and if you follow me on social media, I'm very open with my why.
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And that is my dad.
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He has been my role model from the very beginning, always being a steady, consistent force in my life and supportive, very humble.
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And so he definitely, he definitely is my inspiration, hands down.
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All right.
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So becoming an educator, what was that like?
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What did you go to school?
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You know, of course you went to school, of course, but what did you uh become a what type of teacher were you?
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And then let's talk about just like your teaching experiences.
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How did your teaching experiences inform the leadership that you have today as an assistant principal?
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Okay, so I started off in Ottawa, Canada.
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That's where I'm from.
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My parents actually immigrated from a poor village in India back in the 70s.
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So I'm first generation and I grew up educated in Canada.
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But what's interesting is I didn't actually enter school.
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I entered in kindergarten, but I entered not speaking English.
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Not speaking English and also having, well, I later found out that I had a stuttering, a stuttering problem.
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So that's kind of my, you know, that's kind of like how I started as a child.
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But the reason I didn't speak English is because I was actually born in Canada, but my parents had to work, remember them being immigrants.
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They had to work and make money.
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So they had to send me to India to live with my grandparents.
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And so coming into a kindergarten Canadian classroom and not being able to really, you know, know a lot and all the nuances, that was definitely hard.
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But I did go through the whole system in Canada.
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Great education system, by the way.
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And I didn't actually go into college to be an educator.
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I went into college to be a journalist, a journalist.
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I was a journalism major.
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Now I didn't make the cut, it was very difficult.
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So I just went into an arts degree and then I started to do very well.
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There was a mentor who changed my life.
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Her name, her name is Doris Keithner.
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And I remember I was struggling, and she told me, Jeff, if you can make a if you can make an F, you can make an A.
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And she showed me how to do it.
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She took me under her wing, changed my life.
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And from there, I knew I wanted to teach.
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And so applied to Teachers College.
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It was very difficult.
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We only have, I think, 30 teachers' colleges in the whole country.
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So it's not an easy, it's not an easy field to get into in Canada, but I did it.
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And I was able to go through the process with my education degree.
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And then I was recruited to teach in the state.
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So in 1998, immigrated right on to Texas and started my teaching career.
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What was it like as a teacher?
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I was always, and I still am, I'm really into the holistic aspect of the work.
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So making sure that my students have what they need, meet them where they are.
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And so that does require, you know, outside the box thinking.
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Like what is it that are, what is it that this kid needs, and what do we need to do?
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Like now we talk about it as interventions, right?
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So wraparound services, interventions.
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Whatever my students in my classrooms needed, as in my classroom when I was a teacher, I do the same thing as an AP.
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I try to really lead in ways that we're thinking about what do each of our students need academically, social, emotionally, and then what do we need to do to plan to make sure that we're meeting those students, each and every one of them where they are, bringing them, giving them the tools that they need.
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So that's really how I've always been as a teacher, and I still am as a school leader.
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Did that answer your question, Jeff?
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Oh, yeah.
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I think, I mean, you mean it kind of like you're able to give me a really good picture of just like growing up in Canada.
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And I didn't realize it was a difficult thing to get into a teacher college because in the states, like there's like several colleges you can become a teacher in, but there are some colleges in the state or the do they do specialize, like they would be known.
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Like the University of Nebraska and Kearney is known as a teacher college, and there's other ones out there just to give you an example, but like every other university has you know their kind of niche.
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So I thought that was interesting to learn that man, there's only 30 teacher colleges in the whole.
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Yeah, so it was it very competitive, it's very competitive, very, very competitive.
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Absolutely.
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So I don't have the stats on all of that, but I can tell you it was very like it's not you have to get interviewed.
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It depends on your merit.
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We did not have a lot of standardized testing, so that really wasn't the criteria.
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It's more your grades, your merit, your experience, student teaching, who you are as a as a person, as a you know, what type of person are you that that makes you the type of educator that we're looking for?
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Awesome.
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So you went from Canada.
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Where at in Canada did you live?
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Ottawa, the capital.
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Okay, and then you went from Ottawa, Canada.
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Now you're in Texas.
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Where in Texas did you teach?
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So I was in, I was in Texas for 10 years and then migrated up to Maryland back in 2008.
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So I've been in this country now for 27 years.
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So I've been here longer than I've actually been in Canada.
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So as a as a teacher, what subjects did you teach, or were you an elementary teacher?
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Or yeah, I started off elementary, so it was all subjects, and then I went into middle school teaching reading, reading and writing.
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Yeah.
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So you got to see kind of like the elementary and then a middle school setting, and you know, God bless you.
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I am a secondary, like give me high school all day long, and you can have elementary.
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I mean, elementary, I had I was in a K-12 district, I was a 7-12 principal.
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So I got to like have experiences with the elementary kids, and the one thing I I remember the most is like if I was having a bad day, let's go to the elementary side, the kids would give me hugs.
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Like, I made it like worth it, but then I go back over to the other side, and you know, I was more comfortable there, but like they wouldn't brighten up your day.
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So that's one, those are some experiences I had, not like being an elementary principal, but working with an elementary principal.
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Because there's times where they would be gone and I have to go over and handle situations, not a not a not a big deal, but at the same time, give me secondary holiday along.
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It's just a different world, a different base down in the elementary.
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And I realized that, especially with my daughter being a fifth grade teacher in Kansas City area.
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So um, that's a lot of fun to like watch her journey as well.
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And so you're in Texas, go to Maryland, you taught middle uh elementary, middle school.
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And so, what was it that made you go, hmm, I'm gonna take the next step and become an administrator and become an assistant principal like you are today?
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Just I'm really never satisfied.
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I'm not the I'm not a creature of habit.
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The only thing I'm a habit of is really like things that have to do with my health.
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So I can eat the same thing every day.
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I can, you know, I have my exercise routine, like things that you don't really like to do, I can be a habit with if it's going to be beneficial.
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But when it comes to my career and what I'm passionate about, it's a constant state of evolution.
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So I'm constantly thinking about what more can I do?
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What greater impact can I have?
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So my mind just would go beyond the classroom.
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So thinking about these 30 students, how can I now help their families?
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Like I would think this way.
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How could I now, if I'm working with these teachers, how could I help this whole department?
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Like, what can I do to make that impact?
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So that's really where my head has always been.
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And so, and that, and that's really that's it.
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And I'm still that way.
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I'm always thinking about the next thing.
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I don't, I can't explain it.
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It's just how it's just what I see in my head.
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So how are you?
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I want you to kind of describe the demographics of your school because I want to I want to just kind of understand, like, you know, you're in Maryland.
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Where in Maryland are you?
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I'll let you let I'll let you talk about that, and just tell me about the type of students you have demographically, social economics, those things like that.
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Just try to paint a picture of your your school building.
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Yeah, and I'm gonna tell you in Canada, we don't even have these discussions.
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Isn't that interesting?
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We don't talk about demographics and race of students and social economic stuff, like that's not even a thing, right?
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So when I came to Texas and I remember sitting in a staff meeting, and that's what we were talking about.
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Like we were talking about black, white, Hispanic kids performance.
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We were talking about free and reduced lunch, and I was like, this is weird because I'm not used to this, right?
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But to answer your question, I'm very used to it now because it's been 27 years.
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The school I'm currently at is a suburban school.
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So we are a suburban area of Maryland.
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We're out in southern Maryland, and it is a predominantly black school.
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We I think our it's 90 something percent African American.
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And we are just on like we are just under, I think 40 or 40 percent, 40 to 30 30 to 40 percent free and reduced meals.
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We have a very high, we actually have the most students with IEPs in our building, and we have about 600 students pre-K to fifth grade.
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What's your IEP percentage?
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Um, I don't know it.
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It's it's like in the 20, it's 20, 22 percent.
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It's pretty high.
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Okay, can sit compared to the other school.
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Yeah, to give you an idea of my high school, we're 52% free and reduce.
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All right, we're in the middle of south central Nebraska, where we're probably about six, about 70% Caucasian.
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We have about another 20% is our Hispanic population, and then we have everything else, right?
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All the other different demographics you could think of on that end.
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I kind of look at things kind of like social economics more than anything, because it doesn't matter like you know what you look like, it matters like what your social economics is, because that will determine the kind of support you have at home, that will determine the kind of upbringing you have.
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Because if you if you grow up poor, no matter what, or if you grow up with parents, you know, that are doing well and you don't have the struggles as other kids do, that's that's kind of an important thing to point out because no matter where you're at, if you're in Maryland or if you're in Nebraska, just understanding your free reduced lunch and then understanding your social economics of your district will will help you with those things.
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So, with that, I know you, you know, a child of immigrants and you kind of just made your way through the Canadian system and you immigrated to the US.
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So, would you say your experiences, your background helps you connect with those kids?
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And if so, how does that help you connect?
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Because I am not an immigrant, and so I can't connect those ways.
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I connect other ways, but not that way.
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Oh my gosh, a thousand percent, a thousand, like a million percent.
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I mean, again, going back to being a teacher and and knowing that my kids, not like knowing, hey, because the first the first school that I was in in Texas was a was a school in a Hamlet area, it's a little area in Texas.
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And the school I was teaching in had generational poverty.
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So these kids, you know, their parents or grandparents, there's a lot of poverty.
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And I knew that, and it was just a matter of I didn't have to look at the data actually as a teacher.
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Like I did, I just knew my kids.
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I got to know my kids, I got to know my families, and that's that's it.
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Once I had that trust, and once I took that time to invest in what they needed and did that, it was a game changer, right?
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It was a game changer.
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And because I come like I'm East Indian, you know, I'm coming from Canada, never, never like I grew up with in classrooms where I was, you know, there's only one or two or three kids of color, right?
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Whether they were black, brown, whatever they were, it was mostly white, okay?
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And we just never, the discussions were never had.
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We never felt, I never felt the sense of, okay, you know, you're in this category.
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Even as I was in college, and even now talking with my friends who are educators in Canada, we just don't have those conversations.
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But it is a different, you know, it's a different country, I get it.
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It's a different kind of social environment.
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But going back to your question, it's definitely a value added to be able to come in, even as an outsider, and perhaps not being from the same culture, but having a deep respect and a deep honor for the challenges that some of our families were encountering.
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So, like I said, it was a school that was generational poverty.
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I've been my whole time in Texas, they were all Title I schools.
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That was 10 years.
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I spent three, two or three, two years at a school in Maryland that it was Title I as an assistant principal.
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So being in all types of environments, I found that through it all, Jeff, it's just knowing your students at deep levels and taking that time to really invest in understanding who they are and their families.
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Because if we don't understand where they come from and what their unique challenges are, then we're not, we're not going to have empathy.
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And we're not, and really understanding them is deeper than just kind of talking to them.
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It's really going into their environments.
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It's that deep, you know.
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So I would do that as a new teacher back in the day.
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I remember taking my kids in my classroom.
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Like I would take them, I would like go on the weekends and take my kids out to the pool, to the park.
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I mean, we could do that back then, like in my car.
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I couldn't believe it.
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Like, I can't believe I did that, but that's what we were allowed to do.
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And then as I as I traveled on this, you know, on this educational road as a teacher, doing different things to show my students, my families, and now my staff that I am invested in your well-being and your growth.
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And demonstrating that consistently allows me to have success no matter where people come from, or no matter where you know they're lacking in their resources.
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Awesome.
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Well, and you're kind of hitting a lot of things there because I I agree.
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I really think that our job as educators is to meet our kids where they're at, no matter what, remove barriers and then help families as they need it.
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Because even here in South Central Nebraska, we're doing a lot of the same work that you would do in Maryland and in your school as well.
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So it's like no matter where you're at, we're all doing, you know, we're all doing that work because we want to help kids succeed.
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And I think that's really interesting to listen to you and just have you know have that perspective because I'm over here like going, yeah, I agree because you know, we see the same things.
00:20:28.899 --> 00:20:32.499
And I think that's that's a great thing how we connect in that way.
00:20:32.499 --> 00:20:35.539
So as an assistant principal, how have you grown?
00:20:35.539 --> 00:20:41.699
Is there lessons you've learned, things you say, you know what, if I could have that back, I would do that differently.
00:20:41.699 --> 00:20:48.659
What have you learned as an AP, you know, that really has evolved you into your leadership?
00:20:49.059 --> 00:21:01.939
So I would say my sense of focus on making sure that I'm using my time in ways that are going to maximize student success.
00:21:01.939 --> 00:21:08.739
Because one of the things that bothers me a lot is that we have students who are not on level.
00:21:08.739 --> 00:21:10.019
Like that really bothers me.
00:21:10.019 --> 00:21:11.939
That's the sense of urgency, right?
00:21:11.939 --> 00:21:31.059
So doing all these things that I mentioned to you, like going into the homes, like things that I used to do as a teacher, like doing all those holistic things, they can be done, but we have to figure out as leaders how do we streamline these processes so they work?
00:21:31.059 --> 00:21:44.179
And how are we making sure that we're not wasting time and doing them effectively to check in to see how these systems are working for our students?
00:21:44.179 --> 00:21:47.219
So, what kind of interventions are we putting into place?
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Why are we putting these interventions into place?
00:21:49.699 --> 00:21:53.699
Are we able to sustain these interventions for our kids?
00:21:53.699 --> 00:22:03.059
So that's really something that has short has been become more sharp for me as an assistant principal, especially coming from the middle school level.
00:22:03.059 --> 00:22:06.739
So I spent I spent several years at the middle school level.
00:22:06.739 --> 00:22:08.979
This is my fifth year as an AP.
00:22:08.979 --> 00:22:16.259
Now I was, so for three of those two of those years, I was at an I was at a middle school.
00:22:16.259 --> 00:22:18.659
This is my third year at an elementary school.
00:22:18.659 --> 00:22:24.579
But for five years, I was a middle school admin intern.
00:22:24.579 --> 00:22:31.779
So in total, I was in, I was at the middle school level as an administrator for seven years.
00:22:31.779 --> 00:22:36.979
And I did a whole lot of discipline, a whole lot of discipline.
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And we were talking before we aired, right?
00:22:41.379 --> 00:22:42.979
That it's every school is different.
00:22:42.979 --> 00:22:46.659
So listen, we weren't doing a lot of instruction.
00:22:46.659 --> 00:23:02.019
Kids were out of the classroom for a lot of time, and that bothered me because I could walk into a classroom and the same kids who are sitting in those class in that classroom engaged is over here, like walking out of class in the hallways, right?
00:23:02.019 --> 00:23:05.699
So these are things that really really bother me.
00:23:05.699 --> 00:23:08.659
And I think they bother all of us as educators, right?
00:23:08.659 --> 00:23:31.859
But as as far as becoming just becoming sharper as a vice principal, as an assistant principal, it's been my ability, it's been really just figuring out how to make sure those systems are in place, assessing, evaluating, I would say, those systems to see how well they're working so that we can continue with those systems.
00:23:31.859 --> 00:23:33.699
That's how I've become better.
00:23:33.699 --> 00:23:36.899
And I am naturally, I think, very reflective.
00:23:36.899 --> 00:23:38.739
I'm there, I think a lot.
00:23:38.739 --> 00:23:50.979
So I think that reflection has helped me in this work to constantly go back and figure out how to improve in certain areas, never just keeping things how they are.
00:23:50.979 --> 00:23:56.819
If they're not working, what do we need to do to make it better continually?
00:23:56.819 --> 00:24:03.459
Like that's that whole progress monitoring piece that I've become better at doing as an assistant principal.
00:24:03.779 --> 00:24:04.259
Awesome.
00:24:04.259 --> 00:24:59.200
I really love that you kind of talked about systems and streamlining and things like that, because you know, someday, someday you'll be a building principal, you know, and you got to think that way already.
00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:09.920
Because, like when I came into the job I have right now, we kind of have the same issue with well, kids are out of the classrooms a lot, and you know what the what we're doing isn't working.
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How do we streamline it?
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