Category: 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness

A Name Remembered

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness

What sticks with people long after an interaction with us has ended? Last weekend, I visited a store I frequent. The person who usually helps me was busy with another customer. We made eye contact, and I could tell she was disappointed that she couldn’t help me. But I understood completely. Why shouldn’t someone else …

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What Kind of Thinking Are We Making Room For?

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, 6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel

Recently, I have been in spaces where people have asked me about my weekly writing and how I maintain a blog while juggling so many other responsibilities. The answer is actually pretty simple. Learning is important to me.Growing is important to me.Thinking is important to me.Writing to think through ideas is important to me. Going …

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Before We Plan the Learning

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 10. School Improvement, 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, 4. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, 6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel, 7. Professional Community for Teachers and Staff, 9. Operations and Management2 Comments

I have a routine…Every morning, I read a few pages from a book to spark my thinking and frame my day. Recently, I returned to The Pivot Year by Brianna Wiest and paused at this line: “Comfort becomes a vice when what’s familiar becomes the only thing that feels possible.” As a district leader planning …

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I See That You’re Trying: What Writer’s Block Reminded Me About Learning

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, 6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel

This week, I struggled to write. I tried to find inspiration in the usual places. A book. A podcast. An experience. A moment from the week that would spark something. Usually, that works like a charm. I listen to a podcast, read a few pages from a book, think about something that happened in a …

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Turning Classroom Observation into Dynamic Hubs Where Learning Comes Alive

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 10. School Improvement, 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, 4. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, 5. Community of Care and Support for Students, 7. Professional Community for Teachers and Staff

This is my 20th year in education, and before I stepped into my first leadership role, I kept returning to a question that I share in my book The Leader Inside: "Lauren, what type of leader do you want to be?" My answer was simple: "The type of leader I always needed." When I think …

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Making Learning Matter

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, 4. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, performance-based assessments, Portrait of a Graduate1 Comment

For much of my time as a student, learning often felt like the consumption of information. Read the chapter. Listen to the lesson. Take notes. Study for the test. Repeat. Can you relate? To be clear, knowledge matters. Learners need background knowledge. They need vocabulary. They need the foundational literacy skills of reading, writing, speaking, …

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The Moment Before

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 10. School Improvement, 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, 4. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, 5. Community of Care and Support for Students, 6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel, 7. Professional Community for Teachers and Staff, Professional Standards For Educational Leaders

Who recognized a gift in you that you could not yet see in yourself? Not the accomplished version of you.Not the leader you have grown into.Not the title you hold today. But the earlier version.The person you were. Take a moment. Really take a moment.Picture that person. Because someone did. There’s a quote by Dr. …

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And What Else?

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 10. School Improvement, 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, 4. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, 5. Community of Care and Support for Students, 7. Professional Community for Teachers and Staff2 Comments

Recently I sat in a classroom where high school students were presenting a group project. They had just read Julius Caesar and were comparing some of the main themes with other historical themes that have transpired in our world. I was excited to see students standing in front of the classroom not only bringing a …

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Three Definitions of Confidence (And Why They Matter in Schools)

On By LaurenMKaufmanIn 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values, 2. Ethics and Professional Norms, 3. Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, 6. Professional Capacity of School Personnel

In my last blog post of 2025, I wrote a piece titled Five Lessons I’m Carrying Forward. The first lesson I shared was this: Confidence isn’t certainty. It’s comfort with failure. Teaching and leading ask us to learn in public. Lessons may not always land.Conversations may feel messy before they feel productive. Priorities may need …

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