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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
A spiritually grounded source of inspiration and answers for education leaders in troubling times
Public confidence in schools is waning, and there remains an unprecedented teacher shortage in the United States. Leading with Heart and Soul: 30 Inspiring Lessons of Faith, Learning, and Leadership for Educators shows leaders how to use spiritual principles to care for teachers, students, and other stakeholders despite these obstacles. Principals, superintendents, and others will gain motivation from the stories and strategies inside. Drawing on spiritual principles and Dr. Irvin Scott's experience as a classroom, school, district, and non-profit leader, this book will reinvigorate you and your team as you try to answer your most pressing questions about the future of education, including:
- How do we empower innovative, servant-hearted educational leaders to meet the needs of students?
- How do we inspire whole communities to support the learning journeys of their youth?
- How do we engage the entire educational ecosystem—including nonprofits and other organizations—to uplift equitable opportunities to learning and ensure that every student has the resources needed to thrive?
This is not a time for leaders to turn away from our children, their caregivers, and the educators who teach and nurture them. Instead, it is a time to lift them up and celebrate the work they do while navigating our own administrative mandates and challenges. Leading with Heart and Soul speaks directly to the individuals in a position to achieve that goal. It is perfect for book clubs; personal study; and within public, Christian private, and faith-based charter schools.
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Seitenzahl: 308
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Introduction
The Power of Stories
The Power of Quotes
The Education Ecosystem
How to Read
Leading with Heart and Soul
Note
CHAPTER 1: “Without a vision the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)
A Vision for Life
In the Church Pew
Act from Where You Are
“The way you start has a lot to do with the way you end.” (Bishop Edgar L. Scott)
“Educators make a lot of withdrawals.” (Beverly Daniel Tatum)
A Walking Vision
Note
CHAPTER 2: “These are other people's children.” (Lisa Delpit)
Students at Home
Visiting Daquan
A Weighty Request
Driving Daquan
The Fast-Food Poet
“They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.” (Anonymous)
“I will not steal your students' struggles.” (A Fairfax Math Teacher)
CHAPTER 3: “Trust God; move on.” (I. L. Scott)
Waiting for Hezekiah
Starting a Choir
The Day We Were All Waiting for
“Fore!” (Golfers)
“Love Lifted Me” (James Rowe and Howard E. Smith)
CHAPTER 4: “You can't raise America's children if yours don't know you.” (I. L. Scott)
Car Seats
“My Life Is in Your Hands.” (Kirk Franklin)
“Suck it up and get it done!” (Coach Joseph McCoskey)
Goodnight, Leon
CHAPTER 5: “Cherish the person; challenge the employee.” (I. L. Scott)
The Third Person
Cherish the Person
Challenge the Employee
“What the … parent wants for his child, that must we want for all the children of the community.” (John Dewey)
“Does it pass the ILN test?” (I. L. Scott)
Note
CHAPTER 6: “Don't work for a jerk.” (A Harvard Professor)
A Principal's Story: Groove, off!
Servant-Leadership
Please, Don't Go
“No one knows teaching like teachers.” (Vicki Phillips)
“Leadership Matters.” (I. L. Scott)
CHAPTER 7: “Shoot for the stars, even if you only hit the treetops.” (Bishop Edgar L. Scott)
The Principal's Center
Flying Away
Shoot for the Stars
“…smart is something you get.” (Jeff Howard)
“You can't lead if you don't read.” (Phillip Schlechty)
Thank You, but…
Note
CHAPTER 8: “People don't think their way into a new way of acting…” (Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan)
“Yes, We Can!” (President Barack Obama)
I Don't Need This Class
“Politics are in education to stay.” (Richard Elmore)
Fighting for Dropouts in Boston
Note
CHAPTER 9: “If I could save time in a bottle…” (Jim Croce)
Time in a Bottle
The Offer
We Need a Name
Treat Them Like Royalty
“Know your story; share your story.” (ECET
2
Teachers)
“I knock unbidden…” (John Ingalls)
Note
CHAPTER 10: “Never forget the bridge that brought you over.” (Mother Minnie P. Scott)
Pictures on the Wall
A Love Story
“… pass on to others what [you] have learned.” (Robert Evans)
“Period. New paragraph.” (Richard Elmore)
Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Introduction
Begin Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
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“An insightful and topical expedition of the resilience and dedication of educators, Leading with Heart and Soul shares the remarkable achievements of teachers to overcome unprecedented challenges and inequities, along with valuable insights into the future of education leadership.”
—Sito Narcisse, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools, Louisiana
“Heartfelt, thought provoking, and deeply reflective, Irvin Scott literally pours his soul into this book, using his experience as an educator to teach others why education remains so vital to the kind of nation we are becoming. For any reader who wants to understand our system of education, this book will be an amazing resource. Written through stories from the perspective of someone who knows and understands schools inside and out, Leading with Heart and Soul will be eye opening and a source of inspiration.”
—Pedro A. Noguera, Ph.D., Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California
“Dr. Scott inspires those around him through his profound impact as a leader and educator. His ability to brilliantly intersect life, faith, education, and leadership is remarkable.”
—James Franklin,Coach, Penn State Football
“In a succession of stirring stories in Leading with Heart and Soul, Dr. Scott illustrates thirty ways that, in and out of the classrooms of under-resourced urban districts, its teachers and administrators must approach their work as a mission that demands expertise, passion, empathy, and existential well-being to thrive and excel. Indeed, the thirty lessons are universally applicable for educators' use in all districts and educational settings.”
—Melvin Allen, J.D., Associate Professor and Administrator Emeritus, Millersville University of Pennsylvania
“Dr. Scott delivers a riveting, nuanced, and heartfelt amalgamation of moral and impactful superintendence. A true gem for all parents and leaders.”
—William J. W. Jr.,Former student and Barber Entrepreneur, Sharper Image Barbershop
“Irvin Scott is the epitome of a servant leader—insightful, compassionate, empowering, visionary. He leads with intellectual humility, a deep abiding faith, and a fiery passion for meeting the needs of young people and those charged with their education and care. In Leading with Heart and Soul, Irvin shares his leadership journey, revealing the actions of impactful leaders and inspiring us to cultivate our calling.”
—Vicki Phillips,Chief Executive Officer, The National Center on Education and the Economy
“Having worked alongside Irvin, I can attest to his deep and abiding commitment to transforming the lives of students, educators, and communities. He's remained true to that commitment in multiple parts of the education sector. Through story and with powerful and accessible prose, this book allows readers behind the curtain of his personal and professional life to better understand how educators bring their whole selves to building America's future through its children.”
—John E. Deasy, Ph.D. President, Bezos Family Foundation
“Scott's Leading with Heart and Soul is, without question, a gift of knowledge. Brilliantly weaving together both the Sacred and the secular, Scott's text is a must-read for aspiring and current educational leaders.”
—Travis J. Bristol, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Teacher Education and Education Policy, School of Education, University of California, Berkeley
Leading with Heart and Soul
30 Inspiring Lessons of Faith, Learning, and Leadership for Educators
Irvin L. Scott
Copyright © 2024 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
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COVER DESIGN: PAUL MCCARTHYCOVER ART: © GETTY IMAGES | CATLANE
I dedicate this book to my lovely wife, Kisha. My life, career, and impact are indelibly intertwined together with her. I have been an educator for 33 years, and on December 15, 2023, we celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary. Without God and Kisha, there is no Irvin Scott: husband, father, grandfather, minister, teacher, choir director, non-profit leader, principal, academic superintendent, chief academic officer, foundation executive, professor…tbd.
But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
—Isaiah 43:1 (KJV)
Preface
When I first started writing Leading with Heart and Soul in 2019, the world was normal. “Normal” is a funny way to put it; the world was as chaotic, beautiful, and unpredictable as it has always been, but the chaos and unpredictability existed at their normal levels. Like the world, my life had its own mix of order and chaos, beauty and difficulty. I was living just outside of Boston, teaching at Harvard's Graduate School of Education (as I still do now), and balancing my work with my commitments to my wife, my three adult sons, other family members, and my church family. By the time I had finished writing, however, the COVID-19 pandemic had begun sweeping across the globe, mercilessly taking countless lives and severely disrupting the lives of survivors. Teaching, of course, is one of the professions that changed the most in the midst of COVID. My in-person classes went online (my wife teaches Math; her classes went online, too), my opportunities to engage in person with the community shrunk tremendously, and my caution around health and safety was heightened. Not long thereafter, a movement broke out in the United States and elsewhere advocating for widespread reforms related to racial justice. As a Black man living in the United States, the nationwide conversations on race had a direct bearing on me and my family. This movement led to incredible beauty, such as when a multiracial stream of people advocated for justice for George Floyd and so many others. Needless to say, alongside the beauty, chaos and unpredictability spiked in this season to levels far higher than normal.
Because of all the unpredictable dynamics in the world and my own life, as an unpublished manuscript, Leading with Heart and Soul got shelved for a few years. Navigating the tumultuous times of the early 2020s took loads of time and energy, and my book project took a back seat. Another major development in my family took up time and energy: we moved from the Boston area back near the Pennsylvania community where I got my start in education. The main reason for this move was so that I could join my siblings in helping care for my elderly parents who face acute health conditions. This meant that my Harvard classes moved to a hybrid model with most of the teaching happening virtually. Interestingly, in this familiar Pennsylvania environment, I was surrounded by reminders of why I chose a career in education in the first place: the high school where I first started teaching, the high school where I became principal, my former students who had begun their own careers and families, the parents and community members who would attend school events, my own parents who supported my career in countless ways—all elements of the stories I wrote in the manuscript sitting unused on my computer's hard drive.
Often, these reminders came in the form of casual conversations with people like Will Winder, my former student and current barber. In one conversation with Will, my manuscript jumped off the shelf and into the forefront of my mind. Will was reminding me of the dramatic impact my teaching, choir directing, and general role modeling have had on his life and the lives of so many students. He was telling me that I should tell those stories publicly. I told him about the book I had written and the troubles I had faced in getting it published. Will encouraged me to pick my manuscript back up and find a way to get it into the hands of a publisher and make these stories available to former students, current parents, educators, and people throughout the world. Will's words were not the only reason Leading with Heart and Soul is now in print—I had encouragement from my wife and sons, mentors, friends, and countless others—but I credit Will as the one who motivated me when I had lost momentum for this project.
The events that took place between the writing and publication of Leading with Heart and Soul have made the book's contents even more vital. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted children and educators in ways that are still being understood. Given the isolation and disconnectedness the pandemic has caused among school-aged students, school systems need strong, compassionate, relationally oriented leaders now more than ever before. Likewise, today's movement for racial justice has amplified a call to tear down racial inequities in education, and it has also brought difficult conversations about race and ethnicity to the forefront of many discussions in classrooms and administrative boardrooms. Through stories from my thirty years in education, Leading with Heart and Soul channels the wisdom I have received from my peers and elders, the insights I have gained through experience, and the faith and sense of calling that have sustained me through my career, making these lessons accessible for today's leaders both in the field of education and in other fields. One of the most important contributions this book makes to today's tough (and often divisive) conversations is its focus on hearing students and teachers, understanding their struggles, activating their strengths, and elevating their voices. Will Winder is proof: past and present students' voices have power, and so do the voices of parents, teachers, and community leaders. Leading with Heart and Soul is the story of one educator's trajectory through several spheres of educational leadership, but it aims to call out the stories of the leaders of today and tomorrow, inspiring these leaders to run toward challenges like COVID and racial inequities and be a part of the solution. New, complex challenges and barriers will continue to arise and get in the way of students succeeding. New, servant-hearted leaders must arise to break down these barriers and champion holistic student well-being.
Introduction
The Power of Stories
Toni Morrison once said, “Teaching is about taking things apart; writing is about putting things together.”1 For the past 30 years, I have been a teacher, preacher, leader, husband, and father. I have held leadership roles in Pennsylvania classrooms, schools like Harvard, school districts like Boston Public Schools, and influential organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I have taught people of all ages in classrooms, churches, and in my own home. However, one role I have not played until now is the role of an author. In the wisdom of Morrison's words, I am pausing from the world of deconstruction—taking things apart—and moving to a place of reconstructing the past 30 years of my personal and professional journey. I have learned an important lesson over the past three decades: every person has a story worth telling. At a basic level, to be human is to listen to one another's stories.
Stories are central to my work and my writing. One of my early writing tasks was an assignment for a college class where I had to interview my grandfather, who is one of the best storytellers I know. I hopped in my used Monza and drove half an hour to interview Grandad. I arrived at his front door, where he greeted me with his customary great-big hug, his whisker-filled face up against mine. Grandmom's greeting was just as warm and jovial, complete with a thorough wiping of her hands on the ever-present apron as she walked to greet me. After a simple but more than filling meal, I took out my tape recorder and began to ask Grandad a series of questions. He answered every question, and many of his answers came with a story filled with vivid imagery. He would close his eyes a bit as he spoke, accessing his stories from a place that was still very much with him. All he had to do was peek into the past to find them still there to greet him, memories painful and pleasing alike. The power of story transported my grandfather and me into times long past, and through these stories I gained wisdom that was not available to me in my own experience.
Likewise, the purpose of this book is to transport readers into my story, passing along the wisdom and insight I have gained through experience. The stories contained in this book pull on different heartstrings—some are tender and warm, others are perilous, and still others are heart wrenching. Some stories are from my younger, more inexperienced years, others from my older, wiser phase of life. These stories span the breadth of my 30-year career in education, from the classroom to the tables where big-picture decisions are made among administrators and foundation leaders. Not only that, but they display my role as a simple husband, father, and community member trying to love and serve others. Consequently, the stories are varied, but they all center on one thing: loving and serving the people around me, especially my family and the students under my care in my professional roles.
My flaws and shortcomings feature prominently in these stories, and most of my successes are the result of humble acceptance of help, collaboration with other good-hearted people, my practice of faith, and my tenacious desire to see young people thrive. My desire in telling my stories is not to tout my successes nor to dwell on my failures. My purpose is certainly not to relay dry teaching theories without practical application. Rather, my aim is for my stories to connect with readers and inspire them to write their own. Yes, to physically write down the stories of their lives or even share them with others verbally—but I'm aiming at more than that. My goal is for people to read these stories and be roused to go out and make a difference in the lives of students, families, schools, organizations, and entire communities. If writing is putting things together, then my desire as an author is to encourage readers to put together their talents, resources, and passions to build a narrative worth recounting, a narrative that centers on loving and serving others.
The Power of Quotes
Early in my career I sat beside my colleague, Deborah Jewell-Sherman, who showed me an interesting communication strategy she uses as a leader. Deborah had recently become a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education after working as a teacher, principal, central office leader, and district superintendent for Richmond Public Schools. At the time, she and I were co-leading a principal training session for school leaders from across the United States. As she prepared to close the session, she was searching for a quote that would capture the essence of everything the participants had experienced during the session. She pulled out her phone and began to scroll through a list of quotes that she had been compiling for many years. Finding and reciting a fitting quote, she facilitated a moving, memorable closing. It was almost as if she had used the quote to snap a photo of the training, like a freeze-frame the participants could store in their minds that would remind them of what they had learned.
I have never forgotten this moment. With a few simple words, Deborah was able to leave the training participants with a sense of deep meaning. Amazingly, the words she shared weren't even her own. Someone else spoke or wrote these words, and they shared them in a different time, for a different audience, and with a different purpose. But Deborah skillfully reframed those words to illustrate what the training was all about. In that moment, she made the quote her own.
The takeaway for me was profound: leaders learn in video, but they lead in snapshots. The work of leadership happens through thousands—perhaps millions—of micro-actions, reactions, interactions, and decisions, much like videos are made of infinite numbers of still shots. There is no way we can ever know, track, or remember each component. Consequently, part of effective leadership is synthesizing these individual experiences into a coherent whole and then distilling a memorable lesson from it all. This is why quotes are so useful. They have a way of helping leaders synthesize their experiences and make sense of their circumstances. Quotes can highlight the substance of an episode from a person's life—a chapter in a person's story—and succinctly communicate a lesson, emotion, or deep truth from this episode. Not only that, but quotes can capture truths, feelings, and experiences shared in common by entire groups of people, helping everyone involved to make sense of things and move forward with more wisdom. Once a leader can do this, that leader is then able to apply this learning to future experiences, thereby shortening the learning curve in similar situations.
My career in education has been full of experiences and interactions, many of them complex and difficult to endure, but most of them fulfilling and life-giving. Writing this book is like compiling an album of snapshots that encapsulates the video of my career. Each chapter centers on three quotes—one as the chapter title and two in the chapter text—that speak to vital lessons I have learned over three decades of leadership. Some of these quotes are from well-known figures. Others are from important people in my own life such as family members and coworkers. The Bible is the source of some of the quotes. Some quotes are even anonymous. But each quote represents a deep truth I have gained through experience. There are 30 quotes in total, representing the 30 years I have worked in education. The stories I share in this book are organized around these 30 quotes.
Figure created by Irvin L. Scott. © Irvin L. Scott
The Education Ecosystem
While my 30-year vocational journey has always centered on education, I have played several different roles within the broader system of educating our nation's children. As a schoolteacher, I did the hands-on work of teaching my students English. As a principal and district superintendent, I empowered teachers and resourced entire schools to better serve students. As a foundation leader, I partnered with other dedicated individuals to help enact programs and policies that have impacted millions of students, teachers, schools, and districts. Currently, as a graduate school professor, I pass my knowledge on to the next generation of educators. Not all of my roles in education have been my paid occupation. I fathered three sons who, between the three of them, spent decades as students. This means that my wife, Kisha, and I played the role of parents in the world of preschool-through-twelfth-grade education, navigating our children's back-to-school supply lists, class schedules, syllabi, and homework, not to mention helping three growing males navigate the complexities of existing and thriving in the world, with all their identities in tow. I even played a role as member and leader in a faith community, leading a gospel choir in the high school where I taught English. The roles I played were varied, but in all of them my focus remained the same. There was one set of questions I asked myself over and over again. I asked these questions in different ways and for different reasons depending on the season of my life and career, but the essence of the questions never changed: How can I improve learning for students? In my current role, how can I utilize my position, skills, training, and the resources available to me to maximize the well-being of students—not just their test scores, but their mental, physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual well-being? How can I partner with the individuals, families, clergy, business leaders, education-focused nonprofits, houses of worship, and other organizations around me in service of students? And how can I do all that while seeking to thrive in my calling to be husband to Kisha and father to Irvin, Leon, and Nicholas?
Holding so many different roles in school systems has allowed me to see education from a number of angles, affording me a unique perspective. Over decades, I have seen the interplay between several different elements of education. Of course, many of these elements exist within school systems: students, teachers, schools, and districts, to begin with. But plenty of these educational roles exist outside the direct sphere of influence of school systems: students' families who feed them breakfast in the morning and send them off to school; educational foundations and organizations that support schools, teachers, and students through funding, research, and programs; governmental agencies that make and enforce educational policies; faith communities that provide mentorship and spiritual support; businesses that sponsor school events; even down to community members who volunteer their time on school initiatives. The way these different elements interact with each other and affect student learning has led me to develop a way to map these things out: the Education Ecosystem.
I was an English teacher, but I learned about ecosystems in science class when I was a student. An ecosystem is the sum of the organisms in a given area and the inorganic matter that makes up their physical environment. Ecology, the study of ecosystems, maps out how organisms interact with other organisms as well as the nonliving physical things in their habitat. It analyzes how nutrients transfer from the surrounding environment into living organisms through processes like photosynthesis, as well as how they transfer from organism to organism through processes like predation. This study investigates details as intricate as the quality of the soil and the microbes and insects that decompose decaying plants. It observes phenomena as grand as bird migration and the adaptation of species to the ever-shifting environment. Ecology studies harmful patterns and outside influences that disrupt the ecological cycles that sustain life. Perhaps most importantly, this field of study proposes both preventative and corrective measures to optimize biodiversity and sustainability in ecosystems. Human civilization exists within various ecosystems, and part of ecology is to determine how humans can adapt their behavior to make the earth a better place to live.
As with ecosystems in nature, the Education Ecosystem refers to the sum of the elements involved in student learning and well-being. Like organisms, organizations and individuals interact in a complex web. This concept goes beyond the curriculum to map out the various factors that influence our nation's students. It asks questions like: How does knowledge enter into the minds of students? How do students' home life, household income, community involvement, and other environmental factors affect their learning? What resources exist in students' community environments to support their education? What are the environmental influences that cause harm to students and deter their learning? How can educators, administrators, organizations, faith communities, community members, and families work together to foster student learning and well-being? How can students themselves partner in this work?
Just as the study of nature's ecosystems maps out how organisms relate to each other and their collective environment, envisioning education as an ecosystem has to do with mapping out the ways each element of education—both within and without the four walls of the school building—interact and affect student learning and well-being. And just as ecology is concerned with optimizing ecosystems for humanity and for all the animals and plants that live in them, the concept of the Education Ecosystem exists to optimize the environment within which students learn, grow, and mature into adult members of society. This idea involves more than passively studying or mapping out these interactions; rather, the work of studying the Education Ecosystem is an active process centered on making schools, communities, and homes healthier.
Of course, at the center of the Education Ecosystem are the actual school systems. From preschool to twelfth grade, our nation's schools and school districts comprise the focal point around which the rest of the ecosystem revolves. State and federal funding in excess of $700 billion flows into school systems each year, not to mention private donations that help fund both private and public schools. More than 3.5 million teachers fill those schools and districts, turning those dollars into tangible classroom resources and lessons as well as doing the day-to-day teaching of students. Sports coaches, music directors, club directors, and leaders of other in-school extracurricular activities play a similar role of day-to-day education. Administrators like principals and superintendents oversee the work of the teachers and think about how schools and districts are functioning on a large scale. This higher-level school administration extends beyond particular school districts to city- or state-level departments of education. Private, independent, charter, faith-based, and other nonpublic models of school are included in this central element of the Education Ecosystem. School systems are critical, but we have to keep in mind that while schools have children in their care for only about 180 days a year, many organizations working with children have them for 365 days a year. Most people in the next part of the Education Ecosystem, local organizations, don't take summers off, and many of them work on weekends, too.
Local organizations are an aspect of the Education Ecosystem so closely related to schools that we depict them as embedded within school systems. These are entities that are not directly controlled by school systems, but they provide students and families—and often educators—with services that directly impact student well-being. Local organizations include community-based organizations, faith-based organizations such as houses of worship and faith-centric nonprofits, governmental agencies, and local branches of far-reaching charities. These organizations provide tangible benefits to students like after-school programs, meal programs, community service opportunities, summer camps, and more. They also provide intangible benefits like mentorship, affection, belonging, a sense of security, accountability, praise for good grades or strong performance in extracurriculars, and spiritual support, all of which contribute to the holistic health and well-being of students. While local organizations provide incredible benefits to schools, these two parts of the Education Ecosystem cannot do their work alone. There are specific organizations that provide targeted assistance to help schools and local organizations get better at serving children: technical assistance provider organizations.
Technical assistance provider organizations have skill sets that are technical and laser focused. Whereas local organizations are focused on aiding students and other community members (which can include teachers and administrators), technical assistance provider organizations are directly focused on partnering with education professionals. Some of these organizations provide professional development for educators, others help with designing curriculum, and others innovate various tools and resources to help teachers and administrators improve their job performance. They might concern themselves with teacher evaluation, teacher retention, help with funding, or compliance with state regulations. Often, the people who work in these organizations are people who have previous job experience as educators and are applying their experience to equip those currently working in the education field. Technical assistance provider organizations contribute to the Education Ecosystem by working in partnership with educators to support the day-to-day work of education to ensure students achieve.
Policy and advocacy organizations are another facet of the Education Ecosystem that is one step removed from hands-on work with students. While policy and advocacy organizations, like technical assistance provider organizations, do not provide direct services to students, they are designed to have a measurable impact on school systems. Through processes like activism, lobbying, research, and fundraising, these organizations exist to shape (or reshape) legislation and policy surrounding education. Legislation and policy can be compared to the inorganic environment in a natural ecosystem. The soil, rocks, air, water, and sunlight in an ecosystem are not alive, but they form the foundation from which life springs. In the same way, legislation and policy are not dynamic classroom resources like curricula or trainings for teachers; rather, they are the soil where the classroom experience takes root and grows. They are the source of mandates, prohibitions, and guidelines meant to standardize our nation's education outcomes. When legislation or policy is in any way deficient in compassion or effectiveness or infected with harmful attitudes or philosophies, policy and advocacy organizations work to find a remedy. Practically, this may take the form of fighting for funding, pushing for higher curricular standards, or advocating for vulnerable communities.
Research and evaluation organizations play a very different role in the Education Ecosystem. These organizations collect data through research, observation, and experimentation. They do this to determine what works
