Embracing the Affirmative

Profile

Superintendent Pamela Moran looks at the Albemarle County Public Schools as an ecosystem.

A former science teacher who once brought a snake to school in a paper bag, Moran pushes for evolution at every level. She’s an assessor of information, a questioner whose comments often spur creativity among her staff, and a risk taker not averse to failure, as long as it’s paired with reflection.

That’s among the reasons the national finalist for AASA’s Superintendent of the Year award says she’s open to new ideas in her central Virginia district. “If a teacher comes to you with an idea and you tell them no, not only will they be unlikely to come back, but they’ll also tell 20 other people not to bother,” she says.

Embracing the affirmative has spawned a host of new initiatives in the 13,700-student Albemarle system. They include a one-to-one laptop program, school “maker spaces” and a future districtwide network for students’ home Internet access. She blogs and mines Twitter for new ideas and professional connections.

Practices aimed at underperforming Latino and African-American students, including the successful M-Cubed program (Math, Men, Mission), pairing African-American middle school boys with adult mentors, have had an impact. Though the number of low-income district students increased, the dropout rate among these students fell by 40 percent.

Moran’s entrepreneurial spirit, always student-focused, is behind many of these changes, says Diantha McKeel, a former school board member and now vice chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Moran’s resourcefulness, McKeel says, allowed her to avoid laying off teachers or cutting arts programs during the recession.

Moran often tosses out ideas that spark action, McKeel says. Visiting Albemarle High School last year, Moran noted empty student lockers and wondered about alternate uses. This inspired lockers’ replacement with benches and technology charging stations where students now gather.

“She drops these little ideas that give you something to think about,” McKeel adds. “Often it’s the very beginning of something really creative.”

Part of supporting boundary-pushing work means Moran, who came to the district in 1986, knows not every experiment will succeed. “Failure will happen,” she says. “You don’t necessarily throw the idea out, you refine it.”

Lisa Molinaro, principal at Woodbrook Elementary School, considers Moran “a visionary” who constantly pushes for more. “She is not happy with the status quo, ever,” Molinaro says.

Under the superintendent’s requirement this school year that all principals shadow a student, Molinaro followed her school’s 5th-grade special-needs students, whose math scores were low. The close-up showed the students needed more instructional time, so Molinaro added an hour of math after school. The result: Nearly all special-needs students showed gains in math.

“That’s an idea she had that caused the school leader to reflect in a way that drives a positive change,” Molinaro says.

Moran says as she monitors the district’s transformation, she’s hopeful about where public schooling is headed.

“We should be as optimistic as we’ve ever been about education,” she says. “If leaders are able to invest in educators as designers, investors, solution finders and makers, that will become a viral movement with a positive impact on our kids.”