iven the imperative decisions school districts are making due to the challenges and opportunities in today’s public education landscape, AASA, The School Superintendents Association, in partnership with an array of stakeholder organizations, has created a coalition to develop recommendations on transforming education to be more student-centered, equity focused and forward reaching.

Learning 2025: National Commission on Student-Centered, Equity-Focused Education is comprised of school district, business and non-profit leaders and is chaired by Daniel A. Domenech, Executive Director of AASA, and Bill Daggett, Founder of the International Center on Leadership for Education and the Successful Practices Network. The commission’s chief objective is to safely and equitably prepare all students for their workplaces and society of the future. I am honored to represent Achieve3000 as one of a couple dozen Learning 2025 National Commissioners.

The timing could not be more advantageous for this commission. With the changes experienced from the Coronavirus pandemic and the fact that education has lagged behind other sectors in transforming itself to meet the needs of a technological society, what is needed is a blueprint for change in public education. The recommendations produced by this AASA coalition, along with demonstration sites, will become a roadmap for the changes our children will need, as well as our children’s children.

There is an old saying here that I keep coming back to. If you don’t know the location of your harbor, no wind will take you there. Too often, we have made reactionary changes, placing the cart before the horse in a race that is much too important to lose. With the advent of this coalition, we’ll have the opportunity to get back on track and help our children advance — in equity, and in charge. The association’s picks to lead the effort, AASA Executive Director Dr. Dan Domenech (my own superintendent 35 years ago!) and my dear friend Dr. Bill Daggett, are exactly who we need to ask just the right probing questions.

It seems like yesterday that my team and I were sitting in a Zoom meeting, wondering what an Achieve Magazine might look like. It is hard to believe that we are already sharing our third issue with you, but here it is. One of the things we wanted to do with the new Achieve Magazine was to create a platform to share not only best practices, but to share voices that could inspire, create and reignite a passion in every educator. Clark County’s Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara is such a voice. In this issue of Achieve Magazine, the superintendent recounts the wonderful lessons learned from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. According to Jara, “The pandemic would mean increased stress for many of our students already vulnerable to the effects of unemployment, food insecurity, and other high-risk factors. Within this reality, I felt the pandemic could be an opportunity for my staff and our community to respond to these pre-existing issues with a fresh perspective. The old ways of doing things, that were not helping all children, have needed to change for some time. So, I challenged my staff to examine everything from grading and attendance policies to general course requirements. I knew we could not come back from this unchanged.”