This month, Leadership Support Services (LSS) welcomed Jesse Sanchez, Ed.D. as its newest administrator. Sanchez will help support charter schools and the LCAP development and approval process. LSS works with Tulare County district leaders to successfully navigate the world of state and federal requirements as they push their schools forward in a cycle of continuous improvement.

A native of the Central Valley, Sanchez brings nearly 30 years of educational experience to his new role. He previously served Dinuba Unified School District for over a decade as an elementary and middle school principal, and most recently, a district administrator. Prior to Dinuba, Sanchez was a counselor and assistant principal within Lindsay Unified School District. He also served Visalia Unified School District as an elementary principal and teacher.

Sanchez earned a bachelor’s degree and his doctorate in educational leadership from California State University, Fresno. He also holds a Master of Education in school counseling from Fresno Pacific University.

Last week, members of Leadership Support Services and Community Schools hosted a Compassionate Systems Foundations training. Nearly 120 educators from around the Valley spent three days at the workshop to discuss the current state of their school systems and, most importantly, develop practices to change those systems. 

Compassionate Systems is a program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Center for Systems Awareness.  The Center is led by Dr. Peter Sange, who has been at the forefront of organizational learning since publishing his classic text The Fifth Discipline in 1990. The Center is also led by Dr. Mette Miriam Boell, a biologist at MIT specializing in the evolution of complex social systems.

Their approach to systems change recognizes that school systems are comprised of people, and the only way for systems to improve is for the people in the system to grow. 

Two of TCOE’s charter schools – La Sierra Charter School and University Preparatory High School –embraced the Compassionate Systems model this past year.  Participants had the opportunity to hear from administrators from both schools, who shared the systems improvement work they recently accomplished. Both teams looked at academic improvement but were especially focused on improving school culture. La Sierra showed so much improvement in reducing suspensions that the school exited the state’s Differentiated Assistance support system. Administrators shared that both schools dramatically improved attendance with academic performance on the rise.  

Event organizers shared that most attendees are focusing on improving the academic performance (especially for English language arts and mathematics) or school culture, including improvement in suspension rates, expulsion rates, chronic absenteeism, graduation rates, and family engagement. 

“Quite a few schools are developing improvement efforts that target specific demographic groups that trend below the mean,” said John Davis, administrator for TCOE’s Community Schools. “In Tulare County, Long Term English Learners are a very important group of students who consistently underperform on state and local measures. Low socio-economic students, foster youth, English learners, and students with a disability are also groups commonly identified for targeted support and improvement.”

Schools and districts will choose improvement areas based on indicators displayed on the California Dashboard, informed by their local data. School improvements team doing systems improvement work reflect on the data, identify a problem of practice, and develop solutions to address the fundamental problem. Ideally, improvement is a collaborative process that includes administration, teachers, other school staff, students, families, and community partners. The best practice is a collaborative approach where all voices are heard and solutions arise from the collected group of improvers. 

This past school year, TCOE entered a multi-year partnership with Compassionate Systems to support systems improvement countywide. Additional trainings on Compassionate Systems will be announced soon. Administrators interested in learning more about the process are encouraged to contact Lisa Lemus (lisa.lemus@tcoe.org) or John Davis (john.davis@tcoe.org).

Photos above:

~ Dr. Mette Miriam Boell of MIT’s Center for Systems Awareness helped lead a training for Central Valley educators on the center’s Compassionate Systems program.

~ Nearly 120 educators attended to begin the process of identifying and designing improvements for academic and school culture systems to improve outcomes for students. 

Editor: Robert Herman, Communications Director
Contributors: Nayirah Dosu, Jennifer Fisher, Jaime Burnitzki, Jesse Sanchez, John Davis, Lisa Lemus

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