[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_137":-5,"_138":-5,"_139":140,"_141":142,"_143":144},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/2074/when-youre-facing-a-tsunami-of-challenges-surf-it","id",2074,"title","When you’re facing a tsunami of challenges, surf it","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.560\nAnd we certainly took advantage of that.\n\n2\n00:00:01.560 --> 00:00:06.200\nAnd we decided to ride this tsunami of economic conditions\n\n3\n00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:11.360\nas an opportunity to, number one, slay the sacred cows,\n\n4\n00:00:11.360 --> 00:00:14.920\nto divest ourselves of poor performers\n\n5\n00:00:14.920 --> 00:00:17.360\nas far as the workforce is concerned,\n\n6\n00:00:17.360 --> 00:00:21.320\nrenegotiate contracts, emphasizing on productivity,\n\n7\n00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:24.960\non results, on outcomes, not just inputs driven\n\n8\n00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:29.520\nby time spent at work, and reinvent the school system\n\n9\n00:00:29.520 --> 00:00:32.360\non the basis of choice, parental choice.\n\n10\n00:00:32.360 --> 00:00:36.800\nSo we went from a school system that basically offered\n\n11\n00:00:36.800 --> 00:00:41.800\na one size fits all to one that prizes one size fits none\n\n12\n00:00:41.800 --> 00:00:44.760\nwith 1,000 parental choices.\n\n13\n00:00:44.760 --> 00:00:47.560\nSo as some in the country we're complaining about,\n\n14\n00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:49.440\ncharter schools and vouchers,\n\n15\n00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:52.160\nwe said that tsunami of choice is upon us.\n\n16\n00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:56.120\nYou cannot out swim it, out run it, you cannot dive under it.\n\n17\n00:00:56.120 --> 00:00:59.400\nThe only way to deal with it,\n\n18\n00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:01.760\nis by riding the top, surf it.\n\n19\n00:01:01.760 --> 00:01:03.160\nAnd that we did.\n\n20\n00:01:03.160 --> 00:01:08.160\nAnd today David, look, graduation rates are 93.1%.\n\n21\n00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:11.180\nWe have over 1,000 choice programs,\n\n22\n00:01:11.180 --> 00:01:14.680\nthree years in a row that we are an A rated school,\n\n23\n00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:19.680\nzero F rated schools, zero D rated schools,\n\n24\n00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:22.520\na best system in the country in advanced placement,\n\n25\n00:01:22.520 --> 00:01:25.640\ncollege, a board, a coursework,\n\n26\n00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:29.640\nbest system in the country as far as choice\n\n27\n00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:31.520\nthrough magnet schools of America.\n\n28\n00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:36.120\nAnd award after award for financial management.\n\n29\n00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:39.880\nAnd two, referendum passed right here in Miami\n\n30\n00:01:39.880 --> 00:01:43.920\nbringing in excess of $2 billion for teacher salaries,\n\n31\n00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.920\nconstruction and technology because of the results\n\n32\n00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:48.640\nthat we were able to amass.\n\n33\n00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:53.640\nWe turned them into political opportunities\n\n34\n00:01:54.440 --> 00:01:55.960\nwith the voters in our community.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",675519,"end_time",789749,"keywords","sacred cows, divest, economic conditions, productivity, outcomes","slug","when-youre-facing-a-tsunami-of-challenges-surf-it","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","4ka4IBassem8hZIx9EyKw2gLUsj5O7LErDDPcPQ7WrU","mux_asset_id","hXyXF5PerTp00dPGp761uM3q00fSN902DqEshnbZeaKAAE","leader_id",90,"episode_id",238,"updated_at","2025-03-07T15:22:32.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/2074/when-youre-facing-a-tsunami-of-challenges-surf-it","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_101":102,"_103":104,"_105":106,"_25":107,"_108":109,"_62":110,"_59":110,"_111":112,"_69":113,"_39":114,"_115":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_116":117,"_89":118,"_44":119,"_120":121,"_122":123,"_46":-5,"_124":125,"_126":127,"_93":128,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":58,"_59":60,"_61":-5,"_62":60,"_63":-5,"_64":65,"_66":67,"_68":-5,"_69":-5,"_70":71,"_72":73,"_74":-5,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_76":77,"_78":79,"_80":81,"_82":83,"_84":-5,"_85":-5,"_86":87,"_88":-5,"_89":-5,"_46":-5,"_90":91,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Define Reality (Even When It’s Ugly)","define-reality-even-when-its-ugly","Learn what it takes to lead through a turnaround by defining reality, making tough personnel decisions, measuring progress, and building a unified leadership team. This is the inspiration you need to transform even the most difficult situations.","summary","

One of your most important jobs as a leader is to define reality. You have to figure out what is really happening in your organization if you want to make it better.

And today’s guest is Alberto Carvalho, the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and someone who knows exactly how to define reality.

He leads the fourth largest school district in the nation, and it’s quite the success story today.

But it sure wasn’t when Alberto took charge. Schools were failing. The finances were an absolute mess. And there was a real lack of conviction in leadership positions.

Alberto had to define a tough reality at Miami-Dade. But once he understood what wasn’t working, he used it as the foundation for their turnaround – and you’ll hear exactly how he’s done it.

This conversation is going to give you the inspiration and courage you need to tackle whatever tough reality you may be facing right now.

You’ll also learn:

One breakthrough idea to help you build unity in your top leadership team
What to do when a major disruption hits your space (instead of panicking or giving up)
Practical ways to bust through bureaucracy and eliminate roadblocks
Why it’s so crucial for kids to learn about leadership while they’re young

Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources:

The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go

Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day

Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.700\nWelcome to Hal leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I\n\n2\n00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:08.380\ninterview some\n\n3\n00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:10.600\nof the very best leaders in the world.\n\n4\n00:00:10.600 --> 00:00:13.730\nI break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have\n\n5\n00:00:13.730 --> 00:00:14.320\nsomething\n\n6\n00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:18.000\nsimple you can apply as you develop into a better leader.\n\n7\n00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:20.680\nThat's what this podcast is all about.\n\n8\n00:00:20.680 --> 00:00:25.360\nYou know, I always say one of the most important jobs as a leader is to define\n\n9\n00:00:25.360 --> 00:00:26.160\nreality.\n\n10\n00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.990\nYou have to figure out what is really happening in your organization and in\n\n11\n00:00:29.990 --> 00:00:30.960\nyour business if\n\n12\n00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:32.960\nyou want to make it better.\n\n13\n00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:37.110\nAnd today's guest is a leader who can show you how to do just that, the\n\n14\n00:00:37.110 --> 00:00:38.120\nsuperintendent\n\n15\n00:00:38.120 --> 00:00:42.920\nof the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Alberto Carvalo.\n\n16\n00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:46.200\nHe leads the fourth largest school district in the nation.\n\n17\n00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:49.480\nAnd believe me, it is one success story.\n\n18\n00:00:49.480 --> 00:00:52.360\nBut it sure wasn't when Alberto took charge.\n\n19\n00:00:52.360 --> 00:00:53.360\nSchools were failing.\n\n20\n00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:57.330\nThe finances were an absolute mess and there was a real lack of conviction in\n\n21\n00:00:57.330 --> 00:00:58.040\nleadership\n\n22\n00:00:58.040 --> 00:00:59.040\npositions.\n\n23\n00:00:59.040 --> 00:01:02.520\nAlberto defined a tough reality at Miami-Dade.\n\n24\n00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:07.000\nBut once he understood what wasn't working, he used it as the foundation for\n\n25\n00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:08.360\ntheir turnaround.\n\n26\n00:01:08.360 --> 00:01:11.080\nAnd you'll hear exactly how he's done it.\n\n27\n00:01:11.080 --> 00:01:14.450\nI just know that this conversation is going to give you the inspiration and\n\n28\n00:01:14.450 --> 00:01:15.040\ncourage you\n\n29\n00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:19.720\nneed to tackle whatever tough reality you may be facing right now.\n\n30\n00:01:19.720 --> 00:01:24.390\nSo here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Alberto Car\n\n31\n00:01:24.390 --> 00:01:25.000\nvalo.\n\n32\n00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:33.710\nAlberto, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to have this\n\n33\n00:01:33.710 --> 00:01:36.160\nconversation.\n\n34\n00:01:36.160 --> 00:01:37.160\nThanks David.\n\n35\n00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:38.160\nReally appreciate the opportunity.\n\n36\n00:01:38.160 --> 00:01:39.160\nLet's get started.\n\n37\n00:01:39.160 --> 00:01:40.160\nOkay.\n\n38\n00:01:40.160 --> 00:01:42.160\nWell, you have a huge challenge at Miami-Dade.\n\n39\n00:01:42.160 --> 00:01:45.440\nIt's a very unique school district.\n\n40\n00:01:45.440 --> 00:01:48.400\nGive us a snapshot on what makes it so unique.\n\n41\n00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:52.280\nWell number one, let's start with the fact that we are the fourth soon to be\n\n42\n00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:53.120\nthird largest\n\n43\n00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:59.270\nschool system in America with over 350,000 students coming from over 160\n\n44\n00:01:59.270 --> 00:02:00.440\nnations speaking\n\n45\n00:02:00.440 --> 00:02:03.560\nin excess of 70 languages and dialects.\n\n46\n00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:08.240\nWell, yeah, 74% of them are poor.\n\n47\n00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:11.840\n60,000 of them are English language learners.\n\n48\n00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:16.990\nAs recent immigrants or they grew up with families that did not speak English\n\n49\n00:02:16.990 --> 00:02:18.120\nat proficiency\n\n50\n00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:19.120\nlevel.\n\n51\n00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:22.960\n11% of them with one or more disabilities.\n\n52\n00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:28.390\nSo you put all that together and most would say there's no way that this system\n\n53\n00:02:28.390 --> 00:02:28.920\ncould\n\n54\n00:02:28.920 --> 00:02:30.080\npunch above its weight.\n\n55\n00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:33.680\nThere's no way that this system could exceed expectations.\n\n56\n00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:38.470\nAnd the data at all levels, academic performance data, graduation data, post-\n\n57\n00:02:38.470 --> 00:02:39.600\nsecondary success\n\n58\n00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:41.640\ndata show otherwise.\n\n59\n00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:48.300\nSo it is possible even when you're in the face of impossible circumstances and\n\n60\n00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:49.000\nI think\n\n61\n00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:54.330\nthe key ingredient there is leadership and great teams that are actually are\n\n62\n00:02:54.330 --> 00:02:54.960\ncomposed\n\n63\n00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:56.440\nof leaders themselves.\n\n64\n00:02:56.440 --> 00:02:57.840\nNo question.\n\n65\n00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:01.900\nAnd speaking of that, the rest of the country, many people think that public\n\n66\n00:03:01.900 --> 00:03:02.680\neducation is\n\n67\n00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:06.920\none of the biggest, if not the biggest problem in our country.\n\n68\n00:03:06.920 --> 00:03:10.240\nAnd what's your perspective on that?\n\n69\n00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:11.400\nI don't think so.\n\n70\n00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:16.830\nYou know, David, I actually feel that public education is the basic foundation\n\n71\n00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:17.720\nof enabling\n\n72\n00:03:17.720 --> 00:03:19.880\ndemocracy in America.\n\n73\n00:03:19.880 --> 00:03:24.920\n90% of kids in America today are educated in public schools.\n\n74\n00:03:24.920 --> 00:03:30.720\n90% of kids, 100 years ago in America, were educated in public schools.\n\n75\n00:03:30.720 --> 00:03:35.100\nAnd when people see the demise, they don't believe that they see things going\n\n76\n00:03:35.100 --> 00:03:35.720\nthe other\n\n77\n00:03:35.720 --> 00:03:36.720\nway.\n\n78\n00:03:36.720 --> 00:03:37.720\nRight.\n\n79\n00:03:37.720 --> 00:03:38.720\nDo you or not?\n\n80\n00:03:38.720 --> 00:03:40.560\nNo, you see.\n\n81\n00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:41.800\nAnd there's good reason for that.\n\n82\n00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:45.500\nI mean, they look at America's standing in terms of reading proficiency, math\n\n83\n00:03:45.500 --> 00:03:46.240\nproficiency,\n\n84\n00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:48.800\nscience proficiency internationally.\n\n85\n00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:54.270\nThey see the stagnation of the NAIP performance, which is the gold standard of\n\n86\n00:03:54.270 --> 00:03:55.920\nAmerican assessment.\n\n87\n00:03:55.920 --> 00:04:00.200\nI happen to be a sitting board member of NAIP.\n\n88\n00:04:00.200 --> 00:04:03.860\nAnd you see that for the better part of 30 years, America as a whole is not\n\n89\n00:04:03.860 --> 00:04:04.440\nmoved.\n\n90\n00:04:04.440 --> 00:04:07.750\nBut that same data shows that actually the poorest districts, most urban\n\n91\n00:04:07.750 --> 00:04:08.440\ndistricts in\n\n92\n00:04:08.440 --> 00:04:14.140\nthe country, have actually moved towards suburban America faster than suburban\n\n93\n00:04:14.140 --> 00:04:15.000\nAmerica has\n\n94\n00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.840\nmoved toward alignment with their international counterparts.\n\n95\n00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:22.200\nSo is there a need for reform?\n\n96\n00:04:22.200 --> 00:04:23.800\nAbsolutely.\n\n97\n00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:26.400\nAnd for that to happen, I'll tell you one thing.\n\n98\n00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:29.360\nIt's not just a matter of trimming around the edges.\n\n99\n00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:33.810\nWe really need to look at the insanity of funding education on the basis of\n\n100\n00:04:33.810 --> 00:04:34.520\nmandated\n\n101\n00:04:34.520 --> 00:04:35.760\nseat time.\n\n102\n00:04:35.760 --> 00:04:39.320\nWe need to look at education beyond schools.\n\n103\n00:04:39.320 --> 00:04:44.120\nWe need to look at empowering tools that expand learning opportunity, utilizing\n\n104\n00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:44.320\nbest\n\n105\n00:04:44.320 --> 00:04:47.840\nin class technology, connectivity, digital content.\n\n106\n00:04:47.840 --> 00:04:52.890\nWe need to emphasize more parental choice and student choice as a means of\n\n107\n00:04:52.890 --> 00:04:54.600\nadding relevance,\n\n108\n00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:56.680\nrigor, and relationship.\n\n109\n00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:00.480\nWe need to emphasize the soft skills that today's economy requires.\n\n110\n00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:06.930\nWe need to emphasize the need for bilingualism as a means of better training\n\n111\n00:05:06.930 --> 00:05:08.040\nour kids.\n\n112\n00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:12.080\nBut to the extent that all we talk about is school governance and funding will\n\n113\n00:05:12.080 --> 00:05:12.480\nnever\n\n114\n00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:13.600\nget there.\n\n115\n00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:16.560\nAnd that's the problem with American public education today.\n\n116\n00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:20.330\nA lot of conversation about policy, a lot of conversation about governance,\n\n117\n00:05:20.330 --> 00:05:21.040\ncharter versus\n\n118\n00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:22.360\ntraditional.\n\n119\n00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:27.380\nA lot of conversation about funding, but very little conversation about the\n\n120\n00:05:27.380 --> 00:05:28.400\nelements that\n\n121\n00:05:28.400 --> 00:05:32.960\nare direct inputs to children's academic outcomes.\n\n122\n00:05:32.960 --> 00:05:35.600\nWell, Albert, are you really fired me up there?\n\n123\n00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:39.800\nAnd usually I save my lightning round Q&A for the end, but I'm going to shift\n\n124\n00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:40.320\nthings\n\n125\n00:05:40.320 --> 00:05:44.300\nup a little bit here because I want to get people get to know you on a personal\n\n126\n00:05:44.300 --> 00:05:44.920\nlevel.\n\n127\n00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:47.120\nSo let's get ready for a lightning round of Q&A.\n\n128\n00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:48.120\nYou sat?\n\n129\n00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:49.120\nAll right.\n\n130\n00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:51.120\nWhat three words best describe you?\n\n131\n00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:56.200\nTough, compassionate, smart.\n\n132\n00:05:56.200 --> 00:06:00.080\nIf you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be and why?\n\n133\n00:06:00.080 --> 00:06:01.320\nWow.\n\n134\n00:06:01.320 --> 00:06:03.520\nThat's a tough one.\n\n135\n00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:09.440\nFor one day, I'd love to be a virtuoso musician, not president.\n\n136\n00:06:09.440 --> 00:06:13.100\nI'd love to play an instrument at a high level of proficiency because that's\n\n137\n00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:13.800\nsomething I\n\n138\n00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:16.320\ndon't know how to do.\n\n139\n00:06:16.320 --> 00:06:17.960\nAnd those people amazed me.\n\n140\n00:06:17.960 --> 00:06:21.720\nSo a great musician for one day.\n\n141\n00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:23.200\nLet me be Drake for one day.\n\n142\n00:06:23.200 --> 00:06:25.440\nLet me be Beethoven for one day.\n\n143\n00:06:25.440 --> 00:06:27.760\nThat would suit me just fine.\n\n144\n00:06:27.760 --> 00:06:29.600\nYour biggest pet peeve?\n\n145\n00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:31.840\nMy biggest pet peeve is stupidity.\n\n146\n00:06:31.840 --> 00:06:37.380\nIt's associated with people knowing better and more than what they do to their\n\n147\n00:06:37.380 --> 00:06:37.880\nwords\n\n148\n00:06:37.880 --> 00:06:39.280\nor their actions.\n\n149\n00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:46.000\nIs also reflective of lack of courage, apathetic demeanor to life.\n\n150\n00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:47.840\nHow many languages are you fluent in?\n\n151\n00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:49.360\nI'm fluent in five languages.\n\n152\n00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:51.960\nI'm trying really hard to learn the sixth one.\n\n153\n00:06:51.960 --> 00:06:58.160\nAnd that's Latin because I really do want to read some of the classics in the\n\n154\n00:06:58.160 --> 00:06:58.840\nnative\n\n155\n00:06:58.840 --> 00:07:01.280\nlanguage, but five languages.\n\n156\n00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:04.720\nTell us something about you that few people would know.\n\n157\n00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:06.280\nI'm a very good paddleboarder.\n\n158\n00:07:06.280 --> 00:07:12.520\nSo I take to the waves and the water on a surfboard with paddle or no paddle.\n\n159\n00:07:12.520 --> 00:07:13.880\nAnd I'll give you another one.\n\n160\n00:07:13.880 --> 00:07:18.900\nI was once homeless, blocks away from the office where today I sit as super\n\n161\n00:07:18.900 --> 00:07:19.960\nintendents.\n\n162\n00:07:19.960 --> 00:07:21.880\nOh, that's so awesome.\n\n163\n00:07:21.880 --> 00:07:25.040\nDo you have any hidden talents?\n\n164\n00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:31.650\nAside from playing doorbells in the radio very well, yeah, I think I'm a good\n\n165\n00:07:31.650 --> 00:07:32.440\npoet.\n\n166\n00:07:32.440 --> 00:07:36.920\nI'm not a good musician, but I have my own hidden poetry that I read that I\n\n167\n00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:37.560\nwrite and\n\n168\n00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:40.120\nI've been writing for many years.\n\n169\n00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:42.120\nAnd I think I'm a pretty good athlete.\n\n170\n00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:48.120\nI was a wrestler and a star in my home country.\n\n171\n00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:51.920\nBut today, more water sports than anything else.\n\n172\n00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:56.400\nWhat's your most prized recognition you've received?\n\n173\n00:07:56.400 --> 00:07:59.740\nYou know, I was going to say national and urban superintendents of the year,\n\n174\n00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:00.160\nback to\n\n175\n00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:01.360\nback.\n\n176\n00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:09.860\nBut the most prized recognition, I think, was being knighted by my home country\n\n177\n00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:11.080\nof Portugal.\n\n178\n00:08:11.080 --> 00:08:12.560\nOh, excellent.\n\n179\n00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:17.270\nYeah, that to me was very meaningful, particularly considering my early\n\n180\n00:08:17.270 --> 00:08:18.080\nexperience.\n\n181\n00:08:18.080 --> 00:08:21.040\nI think there was an existence in that country as a poor kid who never saw an\n\n182\n00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:21.120\nopportunity\n\n183\n00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:27.160\nand to be knighted was very special, very, very special.\n\n184\n00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:29.560\nYour students have a nickname for it.\n\n185\n00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:34.560\nYes, I'm the weatherman.\n\n186\n00:08:34.560 --> 00:08:38.940\nThey were particularly the little kids when I go into schools because they see\n\n187\n00:08:38.940 --> 00:08:39.560\nme on TV\n\n188\n00:08:39.560 --> 00:08:40.800\nquite often.\n\n189\n00:08:40.800 --> 00:08:43.600\nThey think I'm the weatherman because I dress like the weatherman.\n\n190\n00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:45.640\nThat is fantastic.\n\n191\n00:08:45.640 --> 00:08:51.040\nI want to now get into how you really turn this system around because you've\n\n192\n00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:51.560\ncertainly\n\n193\n00:08:51.560 --> 00:08:52.560\ndone that.\n\n194\n00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:59.710\nYou took over as superintendent in 2008 and you made the decision that you were\n\n195\n00:08:59.710 --> 00:09:00.320\ngoing\n\n196\n00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:03.080\nto reinvent the school system.\n\n197\n00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:05.880\nWhat did reinvention mean to you?\n\n198\n00:09:05.880 --> 00:09:10.040\nWell, when I became superintendent, we were facing three levels of bankruptcy.\n\n199\n00:09:10.040 --> 00:09:16.440\nNumber one, a financial bankruptcy made worse by the great recession of 2008-19\n\n200\n00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:16.600\n.\n\n201\n00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:21.650\nFlorida was the last state in and the last state out of that recession and\n\n202\n00:09:21.650 --> 00:09:22.400\nlacking a\n\n203\n00:09:22.400 --> 00:09:26.160\nstable industry other than hospitality and farming.\n\n204\n00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:27.760\nWe were really hit hard.\n\n205\n00:09:27.760 --> 00:09:33.920\nSo our system, shortly after I became superintendent, lost about $2 billion of\n\n206\n00:09:33.920 --> 00:09:35.120\ncapital revenue.\n\n207\n00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:39.750\nTo make matters worse, as a result of some technical management deficiencies,\n\n208\n00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:40.280\nthat's\n\n209\n00:09:40.280 --> 00:09:44.480\na very polite way of saying people really screwed up.\n\n210\n00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:49.680\nThere was an overestimation of revenues and an under recognition of liabilities\n\n211\n00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:50.040\n, particularly\n\n212\n00:09:50.040 --> 00:09:57.240\naround the healthcare program, which was overspending by as much as $73 million\n\n213\n00:09:57.240 --> 00:09:57.560\n.\n\n214\n00:09:57.560 --> 00:10:02.960\nAnd that just added more to the financial bankruptcy level that we were facing.\n\n215\n00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:08.750\nSecondly, we were facing an academic bankruptcy defined by a graduation rate\n\n216\n00:10:08.750 --> 00:10:09.760\nthat was as low\n\n217\n00:10:09.760 --> 00:10:17.450\nas 53 percent, but some high schools with a graduation rate as low as 36\n\n218\n00:10:17.450 --> 00:10:18.240\npercent.\n\n219\n00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:22.860\nNine schools under a threat of shutdown by the state of Florida for performance\n\n220\n00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:23.280\n, for\n\n221\n00:10:23.280 --> 00:10:29.740\nproficiency reading levels and mathematics were at 10 or less percent and\n\n222\n00:10:29.740 --> 00:10:30.600\ndozens of\n\n223\n00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:33.800\nF-rated schools and D-rated schools.\n\n224\n00:10:33.800 --> 00:10:38.700\nThe third level of bankruptcy is what I call moral and ethical management\n\n225\n00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:39.800\nbankruptcy, which\n\n226\n00:10:39.800 --> 00:10:43.940\nis when your core function is compromised side by side with the finances that\n\n227\n00:10:43.940 --> 00:10:44.400\nfuel your\n\n228\n00:10:44.400 --> 00:10:45.400\ncore function.\n\n229\n00:10:45.400 --> 00:10:50.600\nThen the leadership is bankrupt and the governance system is bankrupt.\n\n230\n00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:55.430\nAnd for me, incredible challenge, but quite frankly, was a diamond of an\n\n231\n00:10:55.430 --> 00:10:56.720\nopportunity because\n\n232\n00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:01.960\nthings were so bad anything we would do, we could blame it on the economy, we\n\n233\n00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:02.800\ncould blame\n\n234\n00:11:02.800 --> 00:11:06.960\nit on circumstances around us outside of our control.\n\n235\n00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:10.480\nSo never allow a crisis to go to waste.\n\n236\n00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:13.920\nLook for the opportunities that it actually leverages.\n\n237\n00:11:13.920 --> 00:11:15.520\nAnd we certainly took advantage of that.\n\n238\n00:11:15.520 --> 00:11:21.980\nAnd we decided to ride this tsunami of economic conditions as an opportunity to\n\n239\n00:11:21.980 --> 00:11:22.920\nnumber one,\n\n240\n00:11:22.920 --> 00:11:28.920\nplay the sacred cows to divest ourselves of poor performers as far as the\n\n241\n00:11:28.920 --> 00:11:30.000\nworkforce is\n\n242\n00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:36.180\nconcerned, renegotiate contracts, emphasizing on productivity, on results, on\n\n243\n00:11:36.180 --> 00:11:37.200\noutcomes,\n\n244\n00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:43.240\nnot just inputs driven by time spent at work, and reinvent the school system on\n\n245\n00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:44.000\nthe basis\n\n246\n00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:46.360\nof choice, parental choice.\n\n247\n00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:53.220\nSo we went from a school system that basically offered a one size fits all to\n\n248\n00:11:53.220 --> 00:11:54.760\none that prizes\n\n249\n00:11:54.760 --> 00:11:58.760\none size fits none with 1000 parental choices.\n\n250\n00:11:58.760 --> 00:12:03.380\nSo as some in the country were complaining about charter schools and vouchers,\n\n251\n00:12:03.380 --> 00:12:03.800\nwe said\n\n252\n00:12:03.800 --> 00:12:06.120\nthat tsunami of choice is upon us.\n\n253\n00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:10.080\nYou cannot outswim it, outrun it, you cannot dive under it.\n\n254\n00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:15.840\nThe only way to deal with it is by riding the top, surf it.\n\n255\n00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:17.320\nThat we did.\n\n256\n00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:22.200\nAnd today, David, look, graduation rates are 93.1%.\n\n257\n00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:28.020\nWe have over 1000 choice programs, three years in a row that we are in a rated\n\n258\n00:12:28.020 --> 00:12:28.880\nschool,\n\n259\n00:12:28.880 --> 00:12:35.440\n0F rated schools, 0D rated schools, best system in the country in advanced\n\n260\n00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:36.400\nplacement\n\n261\n00:12:36.400 --> 00:12:43.450\ncollege, board, coursework, best system in the country as far as choice through\n\n262\n00:12:43.450 --> 00:12:44.120\nmagnet\n\n263\n00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:50.940\nschools of America, and award after award for financial management, and two,\n\n264\n00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:51.680\nreferend the\n\n265\n00:12:51.680 --> 00:12:57.790\npast right here in Miami, bringing in excess of $2 billion for teacher salaries\n\n266\n00:12:57.790 --> 00:12:58.920\n, construction\n\n267\n00:12:58.920 --> 00:13:02.640\nand technology because of the results that we were able to amass.\n\n268\n00:13:02.640 --> 00:13:10.000\nWe turned them into political opportunities with the voters in our community.\n\n269\n00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.360\nThat is absolutely fantastic and in such good news for America.\n\n270\n00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:17.160\nI would expect with those kind of results and that kind of turnaround, you\n\n271\n00:13:17.160 --> 00:13:17.640\nwould have\n\n272\n00:13:17.640 --> 00:13:21.810\na lot of other superintendents coming and visiting you and figuring out what is\n\n273\n00:13:21.810 --> 00:13:22.240\ngoing\n\n274\n00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:23.240\non.\n\n275\n00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:24.240\nIs that the case?\n\n276\n00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:25.240\nThat is the case.\n\n277\n00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:28.560\nAnd not just the superintendent's school board members, ministers and\n\n278\n00:13:28.560 --> 00:13:30.000\nsecretaries of education\n\n279\n00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:36.360\nfrom other nations, as well as commissions of education from different states.\n\n280\n00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:38.960\nYou know, everybody wants to know what the secret sauce is.\n\n281\n00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:43.210\nNow, where do you go yourself now as you think about taking your district to\n\n282\n00:13:43.210 --> 00:13:44.240\nthe next level?\n\n283\n00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:46.760\nWhere is your source of inspiration and learning?\n\n284\n00:13:46.760 --> 00:13:51.640\nIt is a very good and difficult question to answer because some of the best\n\n285\n00:13:51.640 --> 00:13:52.440\npractices\n\n286\n00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:57.800\nnow that we look at are actually at the international level.\n\n287\n00:13:57.800 --> 00:14:02.350\nAnd we have become very good at actually looking at our challenges still where\n\n288\n00:14:02.350 --> 00:14:03.400\nthe gaps continue\n\n289\n00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:05.840\nto exist and persist.\n\n290\n00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:11.640\nAnd we have become very surgical in our identification of possible solutions.\n\n291\n00:14:11.640 --> 00:14:18.380\nSo we are very intrigued, for example, with the German career and technical\n\n292\n00:14:18.380 --> 00:14:19.480\nprogramming.\n\n293\n00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:21.000\nWe are very intrigued.\n\n294\n00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:22.000\nWe are very intrigued.\n\n295\n00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:26.080\nNow we know the why and the how.\n\n296\n00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:34.120\nHow Finland has remarkable student achievement results in an environment that\n\n297\n00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:35.800\nis 100% percent\n\n298\n00:14:35.800 --> 00:14:42.160\nunionized and a very liberal approach to education.\n\n299\n00:14:42.160 --> 00:14:44.600\nWe're interested in Singapore's math results.\n\n300\n00:14:44.600 --> 00:14:47.520\nWe're interested in Shanghai's math results.\n\n301\n00:14:47.520 --> 00:14:52.650\nWe're very interested in Portugal's, a little Portugal graduation improvements\n\n302\n00:14:52.650 --> 00:14:53.560\nover time.\n\n303\n00:14:53.560 --> 00:14:59.320\nSo we look certainly a best in class performers in this country.\n\n304\n00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:01.440\nThere are defined expectations.\n\n305\n00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:04.080\nAnd Chicago has taught us some things.\n\n306\n00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:07.120\nThere are some best practices emanating out of Boston.\n\n307\n00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:12.070\nWe're also looking at the international landscape for very specific solutions\n\n308\n00:15:12.070 --> 00:15:13.360\nto enduring challenges\n\n309\n00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:15.000\nin Miami Bay.\n\n310\n00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:17.240\nYou know, Alberta, that's fantastic.\n\n311\n00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:21.950\nAnd all leaders need to really be looking at specifically where you can go find\n\n312\n00:15:21.950 --> 00:15:22.440\nthe best\n\n313\n00:15:22.440 --> 00:15:25.720\npractices on specific things, not just general.\n\n314\n00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:30.360\nAnd I want to get back to one of the things you mentioned earlier.\n\n315\n00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:33.520\nWhen you were turning around the system, you had to make some tough calls.\n\n316\n00:15:33.520 --> 00:15:37.720\nI understand that you took out nine principals from underperforming schools.\n\n317\n00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:41.760\nYou know, that kind of seems like most people think that can't happen in\n\n318\n00:15:41.760 --> 00:15:42.840\neducation and it's\n\n319\n00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:45.080\njust got to put up with the status quo.\n\n320\n00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:50.640\nHow did you go about doing that and how do you hold people accountable today?\n\n321\n00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:57.410\nWell, so we needed to be bold in what we would do to quite frankly obtain\n\n322\n00:15:57.410 --> 00:15:58.480\nresults that\n\n323\n00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:05.560\nwere truly extraordinary very early on when the window of opportunity was wide\n\n324\n00:16:05.560 --> 00:16:06.200\nopen.\n\n325\n00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:12.280\nAnd that window of opportunity speaks to how recently I had been appointed as\n\n326\n00:16:12.280 --> 00:16:13.880\nsuperintendent,\n\n327\n00:16:13.880 --> 00:16:20.160\nbut also the economic conditions around us, which gave us powerful\n\n328\n00:16:20.160 --> 00:16:22.000\nopportunities.\n\n329\n00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.240\nAnd leadership matters.\n\n330\n00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:25.240\nLeadership matters.\n\n331\n00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:29.260\nAnd the things that really are important in education and, you know, whether a\n\n332\n00:16:29.260 --> 00:16:29.640\nlittle\n\n333\n00:16:29.640 --> 00:16:36.040\nTyrone, Maria, Richard are able to read and compute is no longer a skill set\n\n334\n00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:37.360\ndeficiency.\n\n335\n00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:38.880\nWe know exactly what it takes.\n\n336\n00:16:38.880 --> 00:16:40.760\nIt's a will set conundrum.\n\n337\n00:16:40.760 --> 00:16:43.620\nDo people have the political courage, the professional courage to do that,\n\n338\n00:16:43.620 --> 00:16:44.880\nwhich is right\n\n339\n00:16:44.880 --> 00:16:46.080\nfor these kids?\n\n340\n00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:50.150\nOr are you just going to go with a flow with a current because you do not want\n\n341\n00:16:50.150 --> 00:16:51.880\nthe blowback?\n\n342\n00:16:51.880 --> 00:16:57.720\nSo early on, we recognize that principals are the captains of our industry.\n\n343\n00:16:57.720 --> 00:16:59.760\nAnd they hire teachers.\n\n344\n00:16:59.760 --> 00:17:01.120\nThey set the tone.\n\n345\n00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:03.000\nThey implement curriculum.\n\n346\n00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.860\nThey are the negotiators with the community and the business community\n\n347\n00:17:06.860 --> 00:17:07.960\nsurrounding their\n\n348\n00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:08.960\nschools.\n\n349\n00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:13.350\nAnd look, I remember having meetings with the nine principals of the nine\n\n350\n00:17:13.350 --> 00:17:14.240\nschools that\n\n351\n00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:18.040\nfor decades had never been anything more than F4D.\n\n352\n00:17:18.040 --> 00:17:20.320\nGraduation rates were low.\n\n353\n00:17:20.320 --> 00:17:24.700\nAnd in conversations with these individuals, they did not inspire in me, nor\n\n354\n00:17:24.700 --> 00:17:25.440\ndid they have\n\n355\n00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:30.080\na repertoire of data that would support them remaining in their positions.\n\n356\n00:17:30.080 --> 00:17:35.080\nSo I fired nine principals within two weeks of being a superintendent.\n\n357\n00:17:35.080 --> 00:17:39.810\nAnd my God, you know, I remember the board chair threatening to fire me because\n\n358\n00:17:39.810 --> 00:17:40.480\nin 90\n\n359\n00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:43.680\nyears, they had not fired nine principals.\n\n360\n00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:44.880\nSo it was tough.\n\n361\n00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:49.240\nI went through fire, survived, came out of the other and a little singed.\n\n362\n00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:53.560\nBut you know, those experiences toughened you up.\n\n363\n00:17:53.560 --> 00:17:56.160\nAnd I kept going.\n\n364\n00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:02.740\nAnd in the next few years, we replaced through promotions, the motions, termin\n\n365\n00:18:02.740 --> 00:18:03.280\nations over\n\n366\n00:18:03.280 --> 00:18:07.240\n80% of Miami-Dade's leadership.\n\n367\n00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:08.240\nWow.\n\n368\n00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:09.240\nYeah.\n\n369\n00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:17.080\nAnd we hired data-driven, strategic, smart individuals who are courageous in\n\n370\n00:18:17.080 --> 00:18:17.840\nembracing\n\n371\n00:18:17.840 --> 00:18:22.920\na tough agenda are great executors, great implementers.\n\n372\n00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:26.500\nBut they're also very honest in terms of their own results, allowing for this\n\n373\n00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:27.160\ncontinuous\n\n374\n00:18:27.160 --> 00:18:32.610\nimprovement approach to the work that forces a recalibration based on\n\n375\n00:18:32.610 --> 00:18:34.000\nperformance.\n\n376\n00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:39.670\nYou know, you've said, and I quote, \"ability is evenly distributed, however,\n\n377\n00:18:39.670 --> 00:18:40.400\naccess and\n\n378\n00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:42.240\nopportunities aren't.\"\n\n379\n00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:46.560\nYou know, how has this mindset affected you and the actions you've taken as a\n\n380\n00:18:46.560 --> 00:18:47.320\nleader?\n\n381\n00:18:47.320 --> 00:18:48.320\nYeah.\n\n382\n00:18:48.320 --> 00:18:51.040\nSo David, I want to explain why that's so fundamentally important to me.\n\n383\n00:18:51.040 --> 00:18:55.040\nAnd by the way, I'm not the original author of that pronouncement.\n\n384\n00:18:55.040 --> 00:18:57.480\nThere are many different variations of that.\n\n385\n00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:03.430\nBut look, we're all genetically, and our children are genetically similar,\n\n386\n00:19:03.430 --> 00:19:04.640\nidentical.\n\n387\n00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:11.300\nSame number of chromosomes, which means that the ability, yeah, it is evenly in\n\n388\n00:19:11.300 --> 00:19:12.080\nbalance\n\n389\n00:19:12.080 --> 00:19:16.400\nin a balanced format distributed across all human beings.\n\n390\n00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:20.130\nWith your early access to opportunities, high quality educational opportunities\n\n391\n00:19:20.130 --> 00:19:20.600\n, a great\n\n392\n00:19:20.600 --> 00:19:25.430\nteacher, a great principal, support networks, literacy at home, literacy at\n\n393\n00:19:25.430 --> 00:19:26.480\nschool, access\n\n394\n00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:31.360\nto the arts and music, that is not guaranteed for every kid at the same level.\n\n395\n00:19:31.360 --> 00:19:34.760\nAnd this is where the issue of equity comes in.\n\n396\n00:19:34.760 --> 00:19:39.050\nIf you want equal results, you need disproportionate inputs that recognize the\n\n397\n00:19:39.050 --> 00:19:39.920\nconditions that\n\n398\n00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:41.680\ndifferent kids face.\n\n399\n00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:46.040\nNow where does my strong belief in this premise come from?\n\n400\n00:19:46.040 --> 00:19:50.360\nMy own growing up, I'm one of six kids who grew up in poverty.\n\n401\n00:19:50.360 --> 00:19:56.480\nMom and Dad had no more than six years of formal education, meaning neither one\n\n402\n00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:56.840\nof them\n\n403\n00:19:56.840 --> 00:19:59.240\ngot past third grade.\n\n404\n00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:03.900\nDad was a custodian, mom was a seamstress, and my five siblings did not\n\n405\n00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:04.960\ngraduate high\n\n406\n00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:05.960\nschool.\n\n407\n00:20:05.960 --> 00:20:10.820\nI was the first to only one to graduate high school until years later, a much\n\n408\n00:20:10.820 --> 00:20:11.360\nyounger\n\n409\n00:20:11.360 --> 00:20:14.880\nbrother who is much like a son to me, was able to do so.\n\n410\n00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:19.660\nAnd today, because he had the opportunity, he had the access enabled for him as\n\n411\n00:20:19.660 --> 00:20:20.360\na medical\n\n412\n00:20:20.360 --> 00:20:21.560\ndoctor.\n\n413\n00:20:21.560 --> 00:20:25.400\nSo what was different between me and my siblings?\n\n414\n00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:30.840\nCertainly was not intelligence, was not height, they're taller than I am.\n\n415\n00:20:30.840 --> 00:20:37.640\nIt was one of access, was one of someone being my intellectual chaperone, my\n\n416\n00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:38.520\nmentor, that\n\n417\n00:20:38.520 --> 00:20:44.640\nallowed me to see a horizon that would stretch beyond my immediate circumstance\n\n418\n00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:46.080\nand condition.\n\n419\n00:20:46.080 --> 00:20:54.480\nAnd so that is exactly what we do in Miami Day for every kid, is the power of\n\n420\n00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:55.680\nrecognizing\n\n421\n00:20:55.680 --> 00:21:00.880\nthe potential beyond your current circumstance must be taught, must be\n\n422\n00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:02.240\ndemonstrated.\n\n423\n00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:05.880\nAnd that influences so much of everything we do in Miami.\n\n424\n00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:07.160\nThat's great.\n\n425\n00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:11.800\nYou know, Alberta so much has changed the past couple of years.\n\n426\n00:21:11.800 --> 00:21:16.360\nAnd what did you learn about your own personal leadership as you managed\n\n427\n00:21:16.360 --> 00:21:17.480\nthrough COVID and\n\n428\n00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:20.520\ncontinue to do so?\n\n429\n00:21:20.520 --> 00:21:27.000\nSo you know, I have a facilitative leadership sort of approach with my team.\n\n430\n00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:34.650\nI believe immensely in Abe Lincoln's team of rivals approach, surround yourself\n\n431\n00:21:34.650 --> 00:21:35.480\nwhether\n\n432\n00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:40.550\nthey were faux or friend with the most remarkable minds who are the best at\n\n433\n00:21:40.550 --> 00:21:41.640\nwhat they do and\n\n434\n00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:46.360\nhave them embrace a vision and subscribe to it.\n\n435\n00:21:46.360 --> 00:21:51.850\nThey don't have to subscribe to a king, but subscribe to a vision that is\n\n436\n00:21:51.850 --> 00:21:53.040\npowerful.\n\n437\n00:21:53.040 --> 00:21:56.320\nAnd that's what we've done over the past 14 years.\n\n438\n00:21:56.320 --> 00:22:03.720\nCOVID did change things because the protocols, the reality, the systems that we\n\n439\n00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:04.920\nhad in place\n\n440\n00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:09.360\nwere not adaptable to the conditions that we were facing.\n\n441\n00:22:09.360 --> 00:22:13.720\nSo all of a sudden time and space became irrelevant, right?\n\n442\n00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:16.840\nSo space schools, we could not go into them.\n\n443\n00:22:16.840 --> 00:22:21.310\nTime all of a sudden, if kids are not in school in a physical space that's\n\n444\n00:22:21.310 --> 00:22:22.600\ndriven by\n\n445\n00:22:22.600 --> 00:22:26.900\ntransportation systems that need to get them to school at a certain time, they\n\n446\n00:22:26.900 --> 00:22:27.640\n're not driven\n\n447\n00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:33.360\nby the factory model of education whistle to whistle, right?\n\n448\n00:22:33.360 --> 00:22:37.440\nInterrupted by annoying as hell, bells every hour.\n\n449\n00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:41.470\nIf you take those pressures away, then time becomes much more flexible,\n\n450\n00:22:41.470 --> 00:22:42.440\nparticularly as\n\n451\n00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:49.370\nyou're relying on digital content and people doing work from sites\n\n452\n00:22:49.370 --> 00:22:52.200\nindependently of schools.\n\n453\n00:22:52.200 --> 00:22:58.090\nAnd that became a stress point at the beginning as we all pivoted to distance\n\n454\n00:22:58.090 --> 00:22:58.960\nlearning and\n\n455\n00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:04.680\nvirtual learning, forces to embrace new approaches to food distribution,\n\n456\n00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:06.480\nconsidering the reliance\n\n457\n00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:12.520\nof kids on the food at school, forces to be much more nimble in terms of\n\n458\n00:23:12.520 --> 00:23:14.760\nproviding connectivity\n\n459\n00:23:14.760 --> 00:23:20.240\nand device empowerment so that kids could connect with their teachers.\n\n460\n00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:25.260\nMade as much more nimble in terms of developing systems of engaging parents and\n\n461\n00:23:25.260 --> 00:23:26.280\nin the process\n\n462\n00:23:26.280 --> 00:23:30.920\nhelping parents navigate their own children's education.\n\n463\n00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:32.720\nBut I'll tell you one thing.\n\n464\n00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:37.930\nOne month, a few months, teachers became students all over again to learn the\n\n465\n00:23:37.930 --> 00:23:38.880\nnew modalities\n\n466\n00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:41.040\nand the new approach to work.\n\n467\n00:23:41.040 --> 00:23:44.400\nThree months after that, they are experts today.\n\n468\n00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:50.290\nAnd if we had simply provided professional development incentives and\n\n469\n00:23:50.290 --> 00:23:51.960\nconference attending,\n\n470\n00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:57.440\nit would have taken years to get them to the skill set that they are at today.\n\n471\n00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:05.490\nSo sometimes, as I said, a massive, chaotic, tectonic disruption forces people,\n\n472\n00:24:05.490 --> 00:24:06.240\nif they\n\n473\n00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:12.510\nare led by science, by fact, by determined leadership that is at the same time\n\n474\n00:24:12.510 --> 00:24:14.200\ncompassionate,\n\n475\n00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:18.040\nforces people to gravitate to a better state of mind.\n\n476\n00:24:18.040 --> 00:24:21.800\nAnd I think we saw that in Miami-Dade certainly and other districts.\n\n477\n00:24:21.800 --> 00:24:29.200\nSo yeah, COVID-19 really challenged our leadership, our systems, and I think we\n\n478\n00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:30.080\n're better for\n\n479\n00:24:30.080 --> 00:24:31.080\nit.\n\n480\n00:24:31.080 --> 00:24:34.840\nNow, you're better for it now, but it was rough going for sure.\n\n481\n00:24:34.840 --> 00:24:39.460\nAnd a lot of people, particularly in schools, districts that aren't like yours,\n\n482\n00:24:39.460 --> 00:24:40.160\nthink this\n\n483\n00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:43.880\nhas been a lot a last year of education.\n\n484\n00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:45.880\nWhat do you think?\n\n485\n00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:47.320\nSo there are two sides to that coin.\n\n486\n00:24:47.320 --> 00:24:51.980\nOn one hand, we have to recognize the powerful, debilitating, unfinished\n\n487\n00:24:51.980 --> 00:24:53.560\nlearning, the academic\n\n488\n00:24:53.560 --> 00:24:57.160\nregression that preceded last summer.\n\n489\n00:24:57.160 --> 00:25:00.640\nBut then with the summer where we always experienced, when we always\n\n490\n00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:01.920\nexperienced some degree of\n\n491\n00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:06.290\nacademic regression, that turning to a compound effect where particularly\n\n492\n00:25:06.290 --> 00:25:07.560\nfragile communities\n\n493\n00:25:07.560 --> 00:25:10.720\ndisproportionately were more impact.\n\n494\n00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:14.840\nSo poor kids, students with disabilities, English language learners.\n\n495\n00:25:14.840 --> 00:25:22.000\nWe have seen across the country and in Miami-Dade a tremendous academic loss.\n\n496\n00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.480\nBut I am very confident.\n\n497\n00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:31.170\nSo in as much as we saw that academic loss, we saw an increase of skill sets,\n\n498\n00:25:31.170 --> 00:25:31.880\naccumulation,\n\n499\n00:25:31.880 --> 00:25:38.400\nparticularly around the management of technology, virtual tools, remote work,\n\n500\n00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:40.760\nutilization of\n\n501\n00:25:40.760 --> 00:25:47.890\nthe technology to accelerate and simultaneously to remediate a student learning\n\n502\n00:25:47.890 --> 00:25:47.960\n.\n\n503\n00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:54.520\nIt is now empowered with those new skill sets that I believe the incline of\n\n504\n00:25:54.520 --> 00:25:55.960\nacceleration\n\n505\n00:25:55.960 --> 00:25:59.680\nof each student towards their full potential will be seen.\n\n506\n00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:07.680\nI guarantee you, most of the country will experience either a U or a K post-CO\n\n507\n00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:08.960\nVID academic\n\n508\n00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:09.960\nrecovery.\n\n509\n00:26:09.960 --> 00:26:15.960\nK, meaning everybody fell hard during the COVID pandemic.\n\n510\n00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:20.630\nKids who are empowered will move up very quickly and kids who are not empowered\n\n511\n00:26:20.630 --> 00:26:21.000\nwill\n\n512\n00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:23.600\ncontinue to fall.\n\n513\n00:26:23.600 --> 00:26:29.630\nK, it was a progressive slow descent, but now there will be a progressive incl\n\n514\n00:26:29.630 --> 00:26:31.680\nine of performance.\n\n515\n00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:34.000\nWe're going to be a V-Did district.\n\n516\n00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:38.980\nWe fell hard, but we have the potential, the tools, the know-how to recover\n\n517\n00:26:38.980 --> 00:26:39.840\nvery, very\n\n518\n00:26:39.840 --> 00:26:41.840\nfast.\n\n519\n00:26:41.840 --> 00:26:47.540\nI think that yes, we need to recognize the academic regression that we've seen,\n\n520\n00:26:47.540 --> 00:26:47.720\nbut we\n\n521\n00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:54.120\nalso need to recognize that the recovery should not be predicted as being slow.\n\n522\n00:26:54.120 --> 00:26:56.640\nThe recovery can be in fact fast.\n\n523\n00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:02.570\nSecond rule, David, my leadership style is one that we -- is actually based on\n\n524\n00:27:02.570 --> 00:27:03.240\na Toyota\n\n525\n00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:04.240\nway.\n\n526\n00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:09.320\nYou plan meticulously for as long as you need.\n\n527\n00:27:09.320 --> 00:27:12.080\nYou develop an implementation schedule.\n\n528\n00:27:12.080 --> 00:27:20.510\nBut then you swiftly declare the rationale and swiftly deploy resources and\n\n529\n00:27:20.510 --> 00:27:21.520\nconquer the\n\n530\n00:27:21.520 --> 00:27:22.520\nterritory.\n\n531\n00:27:22.520 --> 00:27:25.720\nYou know, I've never gotten on an airplane where the pilot says, \"Folks are\n\n532\n00:27:25.720 --> 00:27:26.240\ngoing to try\n\n533\n00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:27.240\nsomething new today.\n\n534\n00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:28.800\nWe're going to take off slowly.\"\n\n535\n00:27:28.800 --> 00:27:29.800\nNo.\n\n536\n00:27:29.800 --> 00:27:32.880\nYou know, you have good engineering, you have good training, you have a good\n\n537\n00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:33.360\npilot, you\n\n538\n00:27:33.360 --> 00:27:35.920\ntake to the runway, take off fast.\n\n539\n00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:40.160\nLast, you'd be impacted by the gravitational pull of the status quo.\n\n540\n00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:43.440\nAnd that's something that cannot happen here.\n\n541\n00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:46.920\nYou are an absolute bureaucracy, Buster, it sounds like.\n\n542\n00:27:46.920 --> 00:27:50.470\nHow do you make that happen and how do you cascade that in your organization\n\n543\n00:27:50.470 --> 00:27:51.200\nwhere people\n\n544\n00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:55.760\naren't going to look out for waste and, you know, inactivity?\n\n545\n00:27:55.760 --> 00:28:00.020\nYou know, every year we go through a process where we analyze the outcomes of\n\n546\n00:28:00.020 --> 00:28:00.760\neverything\n\n547\n00:28:00.760 --> 00:28:02.200\nwe do.\n\n548\n00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:07.550\nAnd that means self-driven initiatives, but as well as private sector\n\n549\n00:28:07.550 --> 00:28:08.800\npartnerships and\n\n550\n00:28:08.800 --> 00:28:10.100\ncontracts.\n\n551\n00:28:10.100 --> 00:28:14.200\nWe actually develop coefficients of efficiency.\n\n552\n00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:21.330\nSo what's the efficacy of the implementation of any one program, any one system\n\n553\n00:28:21.330 --> 00:28:22.480\nor input?\n\n554\n00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:26.950\nAnd one thing that I think we're courageous about is actually allowing this per\n\n555\n00:28:26.950 --> 00:28:27.520\ncolation\n\n556\n00:28:27.520 --> 00:28:32.970\nand downward flow of the methodology that we expect will be followed by\n\n557\n00:28:32.970 --> 00:28:35.120\nmanagers, supervisors,\n\n558\n00:28:35.120 --> 00:28:40.230\nand the workforce at all levels, which is to recognize that, look, regardless\n\n559\n00:28:40.230 --> 00:28:40.680\nof the\n\n560\n00:28:40.680 --> 00:28:45.930\nbest of intention behind an investment, if the outcome is not there, two things\n\n561\n00:28:45.930 --> 00:28:46.240\nwill\n\n562\n00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:53.920\nhappen, either you cease that investment or you modify the implementation.\n\n563\n00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:57.910\nAnd I think that we've spent quite a bit of time training middle level\n\n564\n00:28:57.910 --> 00:28:58.880\nmanagement and\n\n565\n00:28:58.880 --> 00:29:02.000\nhigh level management on that practice.\n\n566\n00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:06.990\nAnd then it's a matter of, you know, training the teacher, training the\n\n567\n00:29:06.990 --> 00:29:08.200\nworkforce on how\n\n568\n00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:12.240\nto implement that philosophy and that leadership approach.\n\n569\n00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:19.810\nSecondly is, I think it's reserved at my level to really slay the high level\n\n570\n00:29:19.810 --> 00:29:21.200\nopposition to\n\n571\n00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:23.520\ngood management, good leadership.\n\n572\n00:29:23.520 --> 00:29:26.360\nAnd I try to do that for my team.\n\n573\n00:29:26.360 --> 00:29:34.020\nThird is create conditions that in a very honest way, reward those who embrace\n\n574\n00:29:34.020 --> 00:29:35.280\nthis vision,\n\n575\n00:29:35.280 --> 00:29:40.740\ndriven, results driven approach, while simultaneously in a compassionate but\n\n576\n00:29:40.740 --> 00:29:42.000\ndetermined way.\n\n577\n00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:48.030\nIdentify those who don't and put them on a track that leads to two different\n\n578\n00:29:48.030 --> 00:29:49.640\ndestinations.\n\n579\n00:29:49.640 --> 00:29:55.500\nOne is professional development to remediate the lack or termination or\n\n580\n00:29:55.500 --> 00:29:57.600\nprogressive discipline.\n\n581\n00:29:57.600 --> 00:30:04.120\nAnd it really boggles the mind why, in my opinion, there aren't more people who\n\n582\n00:30:04.120 --> 00:30:05.040\ndo that.\n\n583\n00:30:05.040 --> 00:30:07.680\nYou know, I've surveyed speaking about leadership.\n\n584\n00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:12.480\nYou know, how many principals lose their jobs across the country any given year\n\n585\n00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:12.760\n?\n\n586\n00:30:12.760 --> 00:30:15.800\nAnd it seems like everybody's excellent.\n\n587\n00:30:15.800 --> 00:30:18.200\nAnd we know not everybody's excellent.\n\n588\n00:30:18.200 --> 00:30:22.700\nSo we ought to be respectful of a professional's humanity, but not at the\n\n589\n00:30:22.700 --> 00:30:24.040\nexpense of the children\n\n590\n00:30:24.040 --> 00:30:25.040\nthey serve.\n\n591\n00:30:25.040 --> 00:30:29.670\nAnd that to me is the main leading factor that audience, quite frankly, the\n\n592\n00:30:29.670 --> 00:30:30.600\ncourage we need\n\n593\n00:30:30.600 --> 00:30:36.880\nto have to leave.\n\n594\n00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:42.080\nIn addition to being tough minded, you're a true innovator.\n\n595\n00:30:42.080 --> 00:30:47.960\nAnd I understand you've brought the idea of franchise schools to Miami-Dade.\n\n596\n00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:52.160\nNow being a former restaurant executive where we had all kinds of franchisees\n\n597\n00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:53.120\nand franchise,\n\n598\n00:30:53.120 --> 00:30:57.120\nI'd love to know how you've done that in the school business.\n\n599\n00:30:57.120 --> 00:31:01.320\nFor many decades, we have some degree of choice in Miami-Dade.\n\n600\n00:31:01.320 --> 00:31:07.310\nSo right now we have a number of schools on the U.S. schools and World Report\n\n601\n00:31:07.310 --> 00:31:07.800\nbest schools\n\n602\n00:31:07.800 --> 00:31:09.400\nin America.\n\n603\n00:31:09.400 --> 00:31:11.200\nBut we always had a couple.\n\n604\n00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:16.080\nThe problem was that there were only a couple of schools in some of the most\n\n605\n00:31:16.080 --> 00:31:17.120\ninaccessible\n\n606\n00:31:17.120 --> 00:31:19.120\nareas of Miami-Dade.\n\n607\n00:31:19.120 --> 00:31:23.200\nSo the issue of access, equitable access, was made very difficult.\n\n608\n00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:25.400\nJust on a basis of distance.\n\n609\n00:31:25.400 --> 00:31:34.240\nOur county, our district is 70 miles long, north-south, 35 miles wide, east-\n\n610\n00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:35.160\nwest.\n\n611\n00:31:35.160 --> 00:31:39.000\nSo unless you want to put kids on buses to go to some of these premier schools\n\n612\n00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:39.480\nfor two\n\n613\n00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:42.080\nhours a day, they're never going to go.\n\n614\n00:31:42.080 --> 00:31:43.640\nSo I'll give you one example.\n\n615\n00:31:43.640 --> 00:31:49.250\nWe have this maritime academy of science and technology, Mass Academy, on Key B\n\n616\n00:31:49.250 --> 00:31:50.160\niscayne,\n\n617\n00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:52.600\nprobably the best view any school has of America.\n\n618\n00:31:52.600 --> 00:31:57.920\nIt has Biscayne Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side.\n\n619\n00:31:57.920 --> 00:31:59.720\nYou see the beach palm trees.\n\n620\n00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:05.880\nI mean, terrific school, great curriculum and choice program, high quality,\n\n621\n00:32:05.880 --> 00:32:06.920\nnearly 100\n\n622\n00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:09.560\npercent graduation year after year.\n\n623\n00:32:09.560 --> 00:32:12.820\nThe question is, shouldn't every kid have the opportunity to go to a school\n\n624\n00:32:12.820 --> 00:32:13.400\nlike that?\n\n625\n00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:15.640\nThe problem is access to the school.\n\n626\n00:32:15.640 --> 00:32:18.640\nSo that was the very first school we franchised.\n\n627\n00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:25.780\nSo we took over a hospital that had been abandoned, acquired it at a very good\n\n628\n00:32:25.780 --> 00:32:26.440\nprice, acquired\n\n629\n00:32:26.440 --> 00:32:31.280\na building that used to be an office building, and we went through an extreme\n\n630\n00:32:31.280 --> 00:32:32.440\nmakeover, partnered\n\n631\n00:32:32.440 --> 00:32:36.360\nwith a local public university.\n\n632\n00:32:36.360 --> 00:32:42.790\nFor them to loan a space, utilized a school that had lost membership as a\n\n633\n00:32:42.790 --> 00:32:45.080\nresult of performance,\n\n634\n00:32:45.080 --> 00:32:49.600\nand we created five different replicas of Mass.\n\n635\n00:32:49.600 --> 00:32:55.030\nWith dedicated principals who shadowed, the principal at Mass understood the\n\n636\n00:32:55.030 --> 00:32:56.240\nprogram.\n\n637\n00:32:56.240 --> 00:33:02.360\nAnd overnight, we created five Masses throughout the community, with the same\n\n638\n00:33:02.360 --> 00:33:04.040\nbrand recognition,\n\n639\n00:33:04.040 --> 00:33:09.330\nwith the same promise of performance, with the same philosophy, with slight\n\n640\n00:33:09.330 --> 00:33:10.280\ndifferences\n\n641\n00:33:10.280 --> 00:33:17.280\nin terms of the curricular choice, some specialized in engineering, robotics,\n\n642\n00:33:17.280 --> 00:33:19.120\nhardcore math, physics,\n\n643\n00:33:19.120 --> 00:33:23.600\nscience, astronomy, and maritime or health sciences.\n\n644\n00:33:23.600 --> 00:33:28.120\nAnd I'll tell you, just within a couple of years, these schools actually began\n\n645\n00:33:28.120 --> 00:33:29.040\nto outperform\n\n646\n00:33:29.040 --> 00:33:35.810\nthe original Masses, and a competition between the Masses franchises that began\n\n647\n00:33:35.810 --> 00:33:37.960\nto take place.\n\n648\n00:33:37.960 --> 00:33:43.200\nAnd I have to tell you that this past year, Masses Academy at Hialeah, which is\n\n649\n00:33:43.200 --> 00:33:44.720\na very\n\n650\n00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:48.860\nsocioeconomically depressed area with a high percentage of English language\n\n651\n00:33:48.860 --> 00:33:49.600\nlearners, was\n\n652\n00:33:49.600 --> 00:33:53.640\nthe highest performing Masses in the history of Masses.\n\n653\n00:33:53.640 --> 00:33:58.360\nSo yes, franchising, great concepts, great products, great approaches has\n\n654\n00:33:58.360 --> 00:33:59.000\nworked in a\n\n655\n00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:00.920\nprivate sector for a long time.\n\n656\n00:34:00.920 --> 00:34:04.200\nI never seen any reason why I couldn't work in a public sector.\n\n657\n00:34:04.200 --> 00:34:07.280\nWe have proved an evidence of that.\n\n658\n00:34:07.280 --> 00:34:09.520\nThat sounds steady, I love it.\n\n659\n00:34:09.520 --> 00:34:12.900\nI understand that in addition to being a superintendent, you're also the\n\n660\n00:34:12.900 --> 00:34:14.320\nprincipal of what is called\n\n661\n00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:16.000\nI-PREP Academy.\n\n662\n00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:19.150\nCan you tell us a little bit about the Academy and what makes it special, and\n\n663\n00:34:19.150 --> 00:34:19.640\nwhat made\n\n664\n00:34:19.640 --> 00:34:21.440\nyou create this school?\n\n665\n00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:25.880\nSo I-PREP Academy, number one, I feel that you are a lead from the front.\n\n666\n00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:28.400\nI don't lead from the rear.\n\n667\n00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:33.520\nThere's no bunker mentality where the general sits and looks at maps all day.\n\n668\n00:34:33.520 --> 00:34:38.400\nI like to empower it with today's tools lead from the front.\n\n669\n00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:42.680\nTo the extent possible, I like to demonstrate that what I'm asking people to do\n\n670\n00:34:42.680 --> 00:34:43.320\n, I myself\n\n671\n00:34:43.320 --> 00:34:46.280\nam willing to do alongside them.\n\n672\n00:34:46.280 --> 00:34:53.920\nSo I still teach physics, and I am the principal and founder of I-PREP Academy,\n\n673\n00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:54.880\nwhich was\n\n674\n00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:57.800\ndesigned on the basis of an iPhone.\n\n675\n00:34:57.800 --> 00:35:04.440\nSo my daughter, when I first got an iPhone years ago, she was mesmerized by it.\n\n676\n00:35:04.440 --> 00:35:10.770\nShe said that I just love how I can walk, literally, figuratively, the iPhone\n\n677\n00:35:10.770 --> 00:35:11.520\nthrough\n\n678\n00:35:11.520 --> 00:35:13.280\nall of my needs.\n\n679\n00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:17.560\nSo simply by clicking on applications.\n\n680\n00:35:17.560 --> 00:35:19.560\nAnd this is the coolest thing in the world.\n\n681\n00:35:19.560 --> 00:35:23.920\nInspired by my daughter, we did not like bells.\n\n682\n00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:29.730\nWe did not like traditional government style school furniture or the food that\n\n683\n00:35:29.730 --> 00:35:31.120\nwe served.\n\n684\n00:35:31.120 --> 00:35:34.720\nDid not like to ask permission to go to the restroom.\n\n685\n00:35:34.720 --> 00:35:38.610\nAnd certainly did not like to ask permission to eat something or drink\n\n686\n00:35:38.610 --> 00:35:39.480\nsomething.\n\n687\n00:35:39.480 --> 00:35:41.600\nThat's how I-PREP was envisioned.\n\n688\n00:35:41.600 --> 00:35:46.910\nA school that actually would be focused on the student, the student's needs,\n\n689\n00:35:46.910 --> 00:35:47.560\nhow they\n\n690\n00:35:47.560 --> 00:35:51.200\nlive, learn, entertain themselves.\n\n691\n00:35:51.200 --> 00:35:56.010\nSocial empowering teachers, taken from the front of the classroom to the middle\n\n692\n00:35:56.010 --> 00:35:56.440\nof the\n\n693\n00:35:56.440 --> 00:36:03.250\nenvironment and rather than rote learning, allow them to be knowledge facilit\n\n694\n00:36:03.250 --> 00:36:03.920\nators and\n\n695\n00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:05.360\nenablers.\n\n696\n00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:11.580\nAnd then create all of this in a loud, colorful student-designed environment\n\n697\n00:36:11.580 --> 00:36:12.600\nwhere the technology\n\n698\n00:36:12.600 --> 00:36:20.480\nis so, so important, but it does not seem that it is indispensable, even though\n\n699\n00:36:20.480 --> 00:36:21.160\nit is.\n\n700\n00:36:21.160 --> 00:36:25.440\nSo every student gets a device.\n\n701\n00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:30.520\nThere are powerful algorithms behind the curtain that we see, but the student\n\n702\n00:36:30.520 --> 00:36:31.000\ndoesn't\n\n703\n00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:32.000\nsee.\n\n704\n00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:36.940\nAnd the process is one that meets children, students where they are, and takes\n\n705\n00:36:36.940 --> 00:36:37.440\nthem to\n\n706\n00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:41.560\nwhere they need to be in a very individualized, personalized way.\n\n707\n00:36:41.560 --> 00:36:47.720\nIt's a school with no bells where students can sit on a bean bag if they want.\n\n708\n00:36:47.720 --> 00:36:53.350\nThey can run a mile on a treadmill or on a stationary bike as they have their\n\n709\n00:36:53.350 --> 00:36:54.080\ndevices\n\n710\n00:36:54.080 --> 00:36:59.760\nplugged in and they are doing simultaneously algebra or reading Shakespeare,\n\n711\n00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:00.520\nwhere IKEA\n\n712\n00:37:00.520 --> 00:37:05.220\ncomfortable furniture has replaced much more expensive, uncomfortable\n\n713\n00:37:05.220 --> 00:37:06.920\nindustrial furniture.\n\n714\n00:37:06.920 --> 00:37:15.900\nSo that exchange of student responsibility for increased autonomy while\n\n715\n00:37:15.900 --> 00:37:17.280\nempowering teachers\n\n716\n00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:22.640\nto do what they do best has really revolutionized the school.\n\n717\n00:37:22.640 --> 00:37:28.320\nAnd why not throw in some sushi and vegan meals for the kids who need it?\n\n718\n00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:30.520\nYou know, it doesn't cost anymore.\n\n719\n00:37:30.520 --> 00:37:32.520\nSo that's my prep.\n\n720\n00:37:32.520 --> 00:37:34.120\nI love it.\n\n721\n00:37:34.120 --> 00:37:35.840\nAnd that's a great example of choice.\n\n722\n00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:39.160\nYou've just given us two, you know, that your franchise model and this.\n\n723\n00:37:39.160 --> 00:37:45.180\nAnd you know, would you mind telling our listeners exactly what a charter\n\n724\n00:37:45.180 --> 00:37:46.760\nschool is and what\n\n725\n00:37:46.760 --> 00:37:49.880\nthe role of charter schools plays in your district?\n\n726\n00:37:49.880 --> 00:37:53.640\nBecause a lot of districts, it's sort of an either or, there isn't the magic of\n\n727\n00:37:53.640 --> 00:37:53.960\nthe\n\n728\n00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:54.960\nend.\n\n729\n00:37:54.960 --> 00:37:56.400\nWell, we've created innovation there too.\n\n730\n00:37:56.400 --> 00:38:00.100\nSo charter schools are basically schools that are publicly funded, but they are\n\n731\n00:38:00.100 --> 00:38:00.680\nprivately\n\n732\n00:38:00.680 --> 00:38:05.740\nmanaged by entities that may be for profit or not for profit as management\n\n733\n00:38:05.740 --> 00:38:06.840\ncompanies.\n\n734\n00:38:06.840 --> 00:38:08.880\nSo they receive state funds.\n\n735\n00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:13.770\nThey have usually a lottery process by which they take into the membership and\n\n736\n00:38:13.770 --> 00:38:14.720\nthey relegate\n\n737\n00:38:14.720 --> 00:38:20.680\nthe management rather than the elected school board to a management entity that\n\n738\n00:38:20.680 --> 00:38:21.200\nmay be\n\n739\n00:38:21.200 --> 00:38:23.360\nfor profit or not.\n\n740\n00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:26.600\nIn the state of Florida, the students follow the same standards, the same\n\n741\n00:38:26.600 --> 00:38:27.360\ncurriculum.\n\n742\n00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:30.240\nA teacher still needs to be certified.\n\n743\n00:38:30.240 --> 00:38:34.080\nAside from that, the management is very, very different.\n\n744\n00:38:34.080 --> 00:38:38.460\nAnd charter schools, the vast majority of teachers are not unionized as opposed\n\n745\n00:38:38.460 --> 00:38:39.040\nto about\n\n746\n00:38:39.040 --> 00:38:43.020\n40 to 50 percent of teachers in the public school systems, not only in Miami-D\n\n747\n00:38:43.020 --> 00:38:43.400\nade, but\n\n748\n00:38:43.400 --> 00:38:45.240\nthe cross-state being unionized.\n\n749\n00:38:45.240 --> 00:38:48.440\nThat basically is the difference.\n\n750\n00:38:48.440 --> 00:38:53.770\nAcademic performance wise, there isn't in Miami-Dade a great deal of difference\n\n751\n00:38:53.770 --> 00:38:54.440\nbetween\n\n752\n00:38:54.440 --> 00:38:56.200\ncharters and non-charters.\n\n753\n00:38:56.200 --> 00:39:00.760\nAnd that's a testament to the competitive nature that the charter movement has\n\n754\n00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:01.320\ninspired\n\n755\n00:39:01.320 --> 00:39:02.920\nand instilled in our school system.\n\n756\n00:39:02.920 --> 00:39:05.160\nAs I said, we did not bemoan.\n\n757\n00:39:05.160 --> 00:39:10.200\nWe did not going to the corner and just cry over the fact that charter schools\n\n758\n00:39:10.200 --> 00:39:10.960\nwere coming\n\n759\n00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:12.960\nbecause we knew they would come.\n\n760\n00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:15.760\nWhat we did do is that we put choice on steroids.\n\n761\n00:39:15.760 --> 00:39:20.550\nAnd if choice is what parents want, we're going to reinvent ourselves into the\n\n762\n00:39:20.550 --> 00:39:20.940\nbest\n\n763\n00:39:20.940 --> 00:39:26.210\nproviders of choice period with a greater repertoire of choice, with better\n\n764\n00:39:26.210 --> 00:39:27.200\nquality,\n\n765\n00:39:27.200 --> 00:39:28.720\nand better results.\n\n766\n00:39:28.720 --> 00:39:33.250\nBut David, we also did the unthinkable that put the national teachers union and\n\n767\n00:39:33.250 --> 00:39:34.040\nthe charter\n\n768\n00:39:34.040 --> 00:39:39.330\nmovement folks against me simultaneously, which was if everybody is opening\n\n769\n00:39:39.330 --> 00:39:40.560\ncharter schools,\n\n770\n00:39:40.560 --> 00:39:42.000\nguess what?\n\n771\n00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:46.970\nWe're going to open district managed charter schools as a hybrid model of\n\n772\n00:39:46.970 --> 00:39:48.120\neducation that\n\n773\n00:39:48.120 --> 00:39:51.080\nhas a foothold on both sides.\n\n774\n00:39:51.080 --> 00:39:58.520\nAnd typically, teachers unions do not agree with charter management entities.\n\n775\n00:39:58.520 --> 00:40:04.650\nOn this one, these highly polarized different ends of the spectrum were in\n\n776\n00:40:04.650 --> 00:40:06.320\nagreement, which\n\n777\n00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:11.200\ntold me that I was doing absolutely the right thing.\n\n778\n00:40:11.200 --> 00:40:14.680\nSo charters have provided competition.\n\n779\n00:40:14.680 --> 00:40:18.040\nThey have dramatically expanded choice.\n\n780\n00:40:18.040 --> 00:40:22.880\nAnd I have not seen Miami-Dade suffer in performance as a result of that.\n\n781\n00:40:22.880 --> 00:40:28.040\nWith that said, we do fight for equal accountability requirements, which\n\n782\n00:40:28.040 --> 00:40:29.840\nsometimes is unequal.\n\n783\n00:40:29.840 --> 00:40:33.310\nBut I'm not going to allow that to dominate the conversation as it has\n\n784\n00:40:33.310 --> 00:40:35.160\ndominated the conversation\n\n785\n00:40:35.160 --> 00:40:36.760\nin other parts of the country.\n\n786\n00:40:36.760 --> 00:40:42.570\nYou have a great relationship as I understand it with the teachers union in\n\n787\n00:40:42.570 --> 00:40:43.880\nMiami-Dade.\n\n788\n00:40:43.880 --> 00:40:45.840\nWhat makes that relationship work?\n\n789\n00:40:45.840 --> 00:40:50.000\nWhat advice do you give to people in terms of working with unions?\n\n790\n00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:53.940\nSo obviously, number one, we do, not just with the teachers union, but with the\n\n791\n00:40:53.940 --> 00:40:54.360\nseven\n\n792\n00:40:54.360 --> 00:40:57.760\nunions that represent the workforce.\n\n793\n00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:03.390\nAnd right now, we are probably the only system in a country that will begin the\n\n794\n00:41:03.390 --> 00:41:04.240\nschool year\n\n795\n00:41:04.240 --> 00:41:08.000\nwith every employee under contract yet again.\n\n796\n00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:09.640\nAnd that's a function of two things.\n\n797\n00:41:09.640 --> 00:41:12.840\nNumber one, respectful, reasonable interactions.\n\n798\n00:41:12.840 --> 00:41:15.040\nNo surprises ever.\n\n799\n00:41:15.040 --> 00:41:17.520\nIntense ongoing conversations.\n\n800\n00:41:17.520 --> 00:41:23.730\nA full embracing of strategic goals, a vision, a mission, and specific metrics\n\n801\n00:41:23.730 --> 00:41:24.480\nthat must\n\n802\n00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:27.440\nbe owned by our workforce alongside us.\n\n803\n00:41:27.440 --> 00:41:30.340\nAnd because it is owned by the workforce, it must be owned also by the\n\n804\n00:41:30.340 --> 00:41:31.040\nleadership of\n\n805\n00:41:31.040 --> 00:41:32.840\nthe workforce.\n\n806\n00:41:32.840 --> 00:41:40.080\nWhat equally important is the fact that we value certain elements for our\n\n807\n00:41:40.080 --> 00:41:41.520\nworkforce,\n\n808\n00:41:41.520 --> 00:41:43.600\nincluding healthcare.\n\n809\n00:41:43.600 --> 00:41:50.940\nSo we have divested ourselves of for-profit interference with the healthcare\n\n810\n00:41:50.940 --> 00:41:51.800\nneeds of\n\n811\n00:41:51.800 --> 00:41:53.480\nour employees.\n\n812\n00:41:53.480 --> 00:41:55.240\nWe are our own insurance company.\n\n813\n00:41:55.240 --> 00:42:00.410\nWe manage a self-insured platform, but the claims are administered by private\n\n814\n00:42:00.410 --> 00:42:02.120\nsector entity,\n\n815\n00:42:02.120 --> 00:42:05.000\nwhich means we know the health of our employees.\n\n816\n00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:06.920\nWe manage the claims.\n\n817\n00:42:06.920 --> 00:42:10.710\nThat puts us in a position of controlling costs while still offering a\n\n818\n00:42:10.710 --> 00:42:12.240\nhealthcare, a free healthcare\n\n819\n00:42:12.240 --> 00:42:14.240\nprogram for our employees.\n\n820\n00:42:14.240 --> 00:42:19.600\nIn addition to that, as I said earlier, the fact that we have had best-in-class\n\n821\n00:42:19.600 --> 00:42:20.240\nresults\n\n822\n00:42:20.240 --> 00:42:23.570\nhave allowed us to go back to our community and ask for additional support,\n\n823\n00:42:23.570 --> 00:42:24.080\nwhether it\n\n824\n00:42:24.080 --> 00:42:29.280\nis for technology, for safety and security, for teacher salaries, or school\n\n825\n00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:30.560\nconstruction.\n\n826\n00:42:30.560 --> 00:42:33.400\nThe teacher salary issue has gone a long way.\n\n827\n00:42:33.400 --> 00:42:39.120\nI mean, we passed a billion-dollar referendum that allowed us to reinvent the\n\n828\n00:42:39.120 --> 00:42:40.000\ncontract with\n\n829\n00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:45.180\nthe teachers and really put compensation models in place that value\n\n830\n00:42:45.180 --> 00:42:47.160\nproductivity results,\n\n831\n00:42:47.160 --> 00:42:49.800\nbut also acknowledge the commitment.\n\n832\n00:42:49.800 --> 00:42:54.550\nAnd that put us in a position with unionized labor that is very unlike anything\n\n833\n00:42:54.550 --> 00:42:55.160\nelse that\n\n834\n00:42:55.160 --> 00:42:57.040\nI've seen in the country.\n\n835\n00:42:57.040 --> 00:43:00.080\nSo I don't surprise the presidents of the unions.\n\n836\n00:43:00.080 --> 00:43:01.400\nThey don't surprise me.\n\n837\n00:43:01.400 --> 00:43:07.270\nWe engage in thoughtful conversations that always begin and end with student\n\n838\n00:43:07.270 --> 00:43:08.600\nachievement.\n\n839\n00:43:08.600 --> 00:43:15.480\nAnd if you do that, it is easy to rally support around those imperatives.\n\n840\n00:43:15.480 --> 00:43:20.600\nAnd having the community support it as well is not a bad thing.\n\n841\n00:43:20.600 --> 00:43:24.480\nWe're in a different place than most districts in the country.\n\n842\n00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:25.480\nNo question.\n\n843\n00:43:25.480 --> 00:43:29.710\nI'd love to get into how people make decisions, how leaders like yourself think\n\n844\n00:43:29.710 --> 00:43:31.000\nthings through.\n\n845\n00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:35.600\nAnd I've seen you on television a lot, Alberto Latelyg.\n\n846\n00:43:35.600 --> 00:43:40.560\nAnd I know given the Delta variant, wearing masks has been an especially hot\n\n847\n00:43:40.560 --> 00:43:41.200\nissue in\n\n848\n00:43:41.200 --> 00:43:46.920\nthe United States in terms of wearing masks in schools and in particular in\n\n849\n00:43:46.920 --> 00:43:47.800\nFlorida.\n\n850\n00:43:47.800 --> 00:43:50.040\nWhere did you end up and why?\n\n851\n00:43:50.040 --> 00:43:56.920\nWell, on the issue of masks in schools, obviously, and I think again, it's a\n\n852\n00:43:56.920 --> 00:43:57.880\nstrong facet, the\n\n853\n00:43:57.880 --> 00:44:00.320\nleadership be data informed.\n\n854\n00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:08.200\nUse your analytical power that is fueled by strong data inputs that originate\n\n855\n00:44:08.200 --> 00:44:10.560\nfrom really\n\n856\n00:44:10.560 --> 00:44:12.480\nreal experts in field.\n\n857\n00:44:12.480 --> 00:44:16.350\nSo we created about a year ago a task force of public health and medical\n\n858\n00:44:16.350 --> 00:44:18.120\nexperts inclusive\n\n859\n00:44:18.120 --> 00:44:24.240\nof not only immunologist, epidemiologists, but also pediatricians and the\n\n860\n00:44:24.240 --> 00:44:25.280\nformer under\n\n861\n00:44:25.280 --> 00:44:29.170\nPresident Obama and current U.S. Surgeon General of the United States of\n\n862\n00:44:29.170 --> 00:44:29.720\nAmerica, Dr.\n\n863\n00:44:29.720 --> 00:44:34.120\nVivek Murthy, who is a graduate of our public school system.\n\n864\n00:44:34.120 --> 00:44:39.590\nAnd we posted them all of the situations, conditions, protocols, hypothetical\n\n865\n00:44:39.590 --> 00:44:40.400\nscenarios\n\n866\n00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:42.080\nthat we could face.\n\n867\n00:44:42.080 --> 00:44:50.010\nAnd what we accumulated in response to our questions was, quite frankly, a host\n\n868\n00:44:50.010 --> 00:44:50.960\nof responses\n\n869\n00:44:50.960 --> 00:44:57.480\nto possible scenarios, most of which we have seen unfold before us.\n\n870\n00:44:57.480 --> 00:45:01.700\nSo on the issue of masks, it is, number one, sad that this issue has been so\n\n871\n00:45:01.700 --> 00:45:02.800\npoliticized,\n\n872\n00:45:02.800 --> 00:45:09.060\nso radicalized and so weaponized for nothing more than political, personal gain\n\n873\n00:45:09.060 --> 00:45:09.320\n.\n\n874\n00:45:09.320 --> 00:45:14.280\nWe have remained steady under the advice of our experts.\n\n875\n00:45:14.280 --> 00:45:18.930\nAnd for me, it wasn't an easy decision to make, despite the incredible\n\n876\n00:45:18.930 --> 00:45:20.320\npolitical pressure\n\n877\n00:45:20.320 --> 00:45:22.120\nand threat of consequence.\n\n878\n00:45:22.120 --> 00:45:25.820\nOur decision is, anyone in our school system that goes into an indoor\n\n879\n00:45:25.820 --> 00:45:26.920\nenvironment has to\n\n880\n00:45:26.920 --> 00:45:31.640\nwear a mask with appropriate accommodations based on medical endorsement and\n\n881\n00:45:31.640 --> 00:45:32.160\ncertainly\n\n882\n00:45:32.160 --> 00:45:36.350\ninclusive of the challenges that students with disabilities, students who have\n\n883\n00:45:36.350 --> 00:45:37.080\nan individual\n\n884\n00:45:37.080 --> 00:45:42.360\neducational plan or an ADA accommodation, as well as adults, there have to be\n\n885\n00:45:42.360 --> 00:45:43.520\naccommodations\n\n886\n00:45:43.520 --> 00:45:45.080\nmade for those.\n\n887\n00:45:45.080 --> 00:45:51.590\nAnd I took this issue to my board, got a 7-1 nod to move forward, and we feel\n\n888\n00:45:51.590 --> 00:45:52.840\nvery comfortable.\n\n889\n00:45:52.840 --> 00:45:55.280\nBut look, I did not venture into this alone.\n\n890\n00:45:55.280 --> 00:46:00.040\nI had experts, I had data behind me, I had a community that had been sensitized\n\n891\n00:46:00.040 --> 00:46:00.800\nto rational\n\n892\n00:46:00.800 --> 00:46:05.380\npronouncements that became a cause of support for what I believe was an\n\n893\n00:46:05.380 --> 00:46:07.040\ninevitable conclusion\n\n894\n00:46:07.040 --> 00:46:08.840\nand protocols moving forward.\n\n895\n00:46:08.840 --> 00:46:12.500\nWell that certainly makes sense to me and it's proof positive that leaders have\n\n896\n00:46:12.500 --> 00:46:13.000\nto have\n\n897\n00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:15.160\nthe courage to make tough decisions.\n\n898\n00:46:15.160 --> 00:46:19.060\nYou know, Alberto, I want to thank you for your support of our lead for change\n\n899\n00:46:19.060 --> 00:46:19.680\nleadership\n\n900\n00:46:19.680 --> 00:46:23.000\nprogram in middle schools and high schools in your district.\n\n901\n00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:28.280\nWe're teaching people, taking people with you skills and community service.\n\n902\n00:46:28.280 --> 00:46:32.200\nWhat's your perspective on specifically teaching leadership in schools today?\n\n903\n00:46:32.200 --> 00:46:35.160\nYou know, if we don't teach them while they're young, quite frankly, the\n\n904\n00:46:35.160 --> 00:46:36.560\nopportunity to really\n\n905\n00:46:36.560 --> 00:46:42.390\ninculcate upon them leadership skills, really teaching them how to recognize\n\n906\n00:46:42.390 --> 00:46:43.880\nthe opportunities\n\n907\n00:46:43.880 --> 00:46:48.520\nthat are sometimes hidden within the challenges before us.\n\n908\n00:46:48.520 --> 00:46:54.350\nRecognizing strategy, you know, refining execution skills, and really having\n\n909\n00:46:54.350 --> 00:46:56.240\nthe honesty to recalibrate\n\n910\n00:46:56.240 --> 00:46:57.760\nbased on results.\n\n911\n00:46:57.760 --> 00:47:01.810\nIf you do not teach that from the time kids are in school, quite frankly, later\n\n912\n00:47:01.810 --> 00:47:02.280\nin life\n\n913\n00:47:02.280 --> 00:47:04.320\nit will be much more difficult.\n\n914\n00:47:04.320 --> 00:47:09.530\nAnd I think we've seen a couple of generations where that has happened, where,\n\n915\n00:47:09.530 --> 00:47:10.480\nyeah, they're\n\n916\n00:47:10.480 --> 00:47:15.050\ngood workers but they're not necessarily demonstrating or exemplifying great\n\n917\n00:47:15.050 --> 00:47:17.040\nleadership skills.\n\n918\n00:47:17.040 --> 00:47:22.920\nSo this is about expanding the ceiling of opportunity by teaching the\n\n919\n00:47:22.920 --> 00:47:24.320\nrecognition of\n\n920\n00:47:24.320 --> 00:47:28.600\nopportunities for the full manifestation of strong leadership.\n\n921\n00:47:28.600 --> 00:47:32.800\nAnd I think that starts early on in a kid's school career.\n\n922\n00:47:32.800 --> 00:47:36.880\nWell, Alberto, what you say is so, so true.\n\n923\n00:47:36.880 --> 00:47:40.880\nAnd I know you're really busy, so we need to wrap this up.\n\n924\n00:47:40.880 --> 00:47:45.440\nI can keep going on because I've got so many more questions I'd like to ask you\n\n925\n00:47:45.440 --> 00:47:45.600\n, but we\n\n926\n00:47:45.600 --> 00:47:47.920\ndo have to bring this to an end.\n\n927\n00:47:47.920 --> 00:47:52.740\nAnd I'd like to ask you, what three bits of advice would you give aspiring\n\n928\n00:47:52.740 --> 00:47:53.600\nleaders?\n\n929\n00:47:53.600 --> 00:47:58.980\nKnow who you are, know what excites you, find the place in an organization in\n\n930\n00:47:58.980 --> 00:47:59.920\nthe field\n\n931\n00:47:59.920 --> 00:48:05.200\nwhere you can marry, who you are, your skillset, and the excitement about it.\n\n932\n00:48:05.200 --> 00:48:11.260\nI've never met anyone who was terrifically successful at something they did not\n\n933\n00:48:11.260 --> 00:48:11.760\nexcel\n\n934\n00:48:11.760 --> 00:48:14.640\nat and that they did not love.\n\n935\n00:48:14.640 --> 00:48:17.840\nThat's why you were successful and that's why you're successful, David.\n\n936\n00:48:17.840 --> 00:48:21.120\nYou're an expert to what you do, but you have passion for it.\n\n937\n00:48:21.120 --> 00:48:24.080\nAnd expertise and passion are unbeatable.\n\n938\n00:48:24.080 --> 00:48:30.360\nYou know, you have a 24/7 job. Any advice on how to balance competing\n\n939\n00:48:30.360 --> 00:48:31.440\npriorities?\n\n940\n00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:35.520\nYes, look, there's always enough money and time to do that which is important\n\n941\n00:48:35.520 --> 00:48:35.800\nto the\n\n942\n00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:41.600\nextent you prioritize it, to the extent you assign value to it, right?\n\n943\n00:48:41.600 --> 00:48:44.800\nAnd not all things are equally valuable.\n\n944\n00:48:44.800 --> 00:48:49.720\nSo professionally speaking, I know exactly what the priorities are.\n\n945\n00:48:49.720 --> 00:48:52.600\nThey all begin with students and end with students.\n\n946\n00:48:52.600 --> 00:48:55.400\nAnd everything needs to conform to that.\n\n947\n00:48:55.400 --> 00:48:58.720\nAt a personal level, you know what?\n\n948\n00:48:58.720 --> 00:49:03.320\nGetting good sleep, good rest, having good supportive friends and family,\n\n949\n00:49:03.320 --> 00:49:03.760\nmaking time\n\n950\n00:49:03.760 --> 00:49:11.250\nfor them, exercising, eating well, cannot be abandoned for the sake of your\n\n951\n00:49:11.250 --> 00:49:12.000\nprofessional\n\n952\n00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:14.320\nlife.\n\n953\n00:49:14.320 --> 00:49:17.880\nAnd I think having that balance is important, critically important.\n\n954\n00:49:17.880 --> 00:49:21.940\nI have to ask you, when did the light bulb go off for you that you said, \"I'm\n\n955\n00:49:21.940 --> 00:49:22.160\ngoing\n\n956\n00:49:22.160 --> 00:49:23.160\nto be an educator?\"\n\n957\n00:49:23.160 --> 00:49:27.460\nWas there a magic time when that just happened and it just hit you straight and\n\n958\n00:49:27.460 --> 00:49:28.080\nyou said,\n\n959\n00:49:28.080 --> 00:49:29.080\n\"I got to do this?\"\n\n960\n00:49:29.080 --> 00:49:30.080\nYeah.\n\n961\n00:49:30.080 --> 00:49:34.040\nSo, you know, I'm not in that a trained educator through my college years.\n\n962\n00:49:34.040 --> 00:49:37.600\nI have a degree in biological and biomedical sciences.\n\n963\n00:49:37.600 --> 00:49:42.760\nI was going to be a medical doctor, maybe a PhD MD.\n\n964\n00:49:42.760 --> 00:49:47.400\nBut gross anatomy was more gross than anything else.\n\n965\n00:49:47.400 --> 00:49:52.120\nSo until I decided what I would do, I said, \"You know, I'm going to teach you.\n\n966\n00:49:52.120 --> 00:49:59.840\nSo I started teaching college physics, chemistry, calculus, statistics.\n\n967\n00:49:59.840 --> 00:50:03.120\nAnd I said, \"I'll do this maybe for a year or two.\"\n\n968\n00:50:03.120 --> 00:50:04.120\nAnd I got hooked.\n\n969\n00:50:04.120 --> 00:50:05.120\nI got hooked at two levels.\n\n970\n00:50:05.120 --> 00:50:06.640\nI loved the kids.\n\n971\n00:50:06.640 --> 00:50:12.310\nAnd I was absolutely disturbed by some of the conditions and inflexibility\n\n972\n00:50:12.310 --> 00:50:13.080\nassociated\n\n973\n00:50:13.080 --> 00:50:15.080\nwith systems.\n\n974\n00:50:15.080 --> 00:50:19.710\nAnd within my first second year of teaching, I said, \"I'm going to be\n\n975\n00:50:19.710 --> 00:50:21.360\nsuperintendent because\n\n976\n00:50:21.360 --> 00:50:24.840\nI know how to change my classroom environment.\"\n\n977\n00:50:24.840 --> 00:50:28.260\nAnd that has inspired me to change everyone's classroom environment for the\n\n978\n00:50:28.260 --> 00:50:28.960\nbenefit of the\n\n979\n00:50:28.960 --> 00:50:29.960\nkids.\n\n980\n00:50:29.960 --> 00:50:34.200\nYou know, and Alberto, I understand that you're obviously highly recruited.\n\n981\n00:50:34.200 --> 00:50:36.600\nThe New York school district came after you.\n\n982\n00:50:36.600 --> 00:50:40.080\nAnd you turned them down and you've decided to stay at Miami-Dade.\n\n983\n00:50:40.080 --> 00:50:41.080\nWhy is that?\n\n984\n00:50:41.080 --> 00:50:44.840\nYou know, I announced that not that long ago that I've been superintendent at\n\n985\n00:50:44.840 --> 00:50:45.560\nMiami-Dade\n\n986\n00:50:45.560 --> 00:50:47.760\nfor 14 years.\n\n987\n00:50:47.760 --> 00:50:51.200\nAnd this is the one and only sufficiency that I will have.\n\n988\n00:50:51.200 --> 00:50:55.610\nYes, I accepted for a brief period of time the Chancellor's position in New\n\n989\n00:50:55.610 --> 00:50:56.200\nYork City\n\n990\n00:50:56.200 --> 00:50:58.840\nuntil this community really taught me a lesson.\n\n991\n00:50:58.840 --> 00:51:00.480\nThis community did something I didn't expect.\n\n992\n00:51:00.480 --> 00:51:06.560\nThey revolted against my acceptance of the Chancellor's position in New York.\n\n993\n00:51:06.560 --> 00:51:08.600\nI've never felt anything like that.\n\n994\n00:51:08.600 --> 00:51:10.560\nThe community is saying, \"Please don't leave us.\n\n995\n00:51:10.560 --> 00:51:11.560\nWe want you here.\n\n996\n00:51:11.560 --> 00:51:13.040\nWe need you here.\n\n997\n00:51:13.040 --> 00:51:15.960\nYou are breaking your promise to us.\"\n\n998\n00:51:15.960 --> 00:51:19.280\nAnd that weighed heavily on me.\n\n999\n00:51:19.280 --> 00:51:25.300\nAnd I'm glad I stayed because, my God, I would not have seen this district\n\n1000\n00:51:25.300 --> 00:51:26.880\neliminating all\n\n1001\n00:51:26.880 --> 00:51:27.880\nF schools.\n\n1002\n00:51:27.880 --> 00:51:32.800\nI would not have seen this district being rated A for multiple years in a row.\n\n1003\n00:51:32.800 --> 00:51:36.550\nI would not have seen this pass a second referendum to honor teachers through\n\n1004\n00:51:36.550 --> 00:51:38.520\nadequate compensation.\n\n1005\n00:51:38.520 --> 00:51:43.640\nI would not have seen myself as a natural urban superintendent of the year.\n\n1006\n00:51:43.640 --> 00:51:46.600\nSo at all levels was the right decision.\n\n1007\n00:51:46.600 --> 00:51:51.890\nBut I have to tell you, it was a very emotional tug on the basis of a community\n\n1008\n00:51:51.890 --> 00:51:53.080\nsaying, \"You're\n\n1009\n00:51:53.080 --> 00:51:54.360\ndivorcing us.\n\n1010\n00:51:54.360 --> 00:51:56.760\nAnd what do we do with the kids?\"\n\n1011\n00:51:56.760 --> 00:52:01.010\nYou know, Alberta, I was looking forward to doing this podcast and having this\n\n1012\n00:52:01.010 --> 00:52:01.880\nconversation\n\n1013\n00:52:01.880 --> 00:52:02.880\nwith you.\n\n1014\n00:52:02.880 --> 00:52:07.910\nAnd I just can't wait for people to hear this because I think you give us all\n\n1015\n00:52:07.910 --> 00:52:08.800\nhope of what's\n\n1016\n00:52:08.800 --> 00:52:12.760\npossible in our country and what we can do with public education.\n\n1017\n00:52:12.760 --> 00:52:16.000\nAnd I'm sure Miami-Dade is very happy you stayed.\n\n1018\n00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:19.970\nI just wish we could bottle you up and put you at every city in our country\n\n1019\n00:52:19.970 --> 00:52:20.880\nbecause we'd\n\n1020\n00:52:20.880 --> 00:52:22.840\nend up with something better.\n\n1021\n00:52:22.840 --> 00:52:25.320\nAnd I do hope you run for political office someday.\n\n1022\n00:52:25.320 --> 00:52:26.600\nWhen you do, let me know.\n\n1023\n00:52:26.600 --> 00:52:28.080\nI want to be your campaign manager.\n\n1024\n00:52:28.080 --> 00:52:29.080\nThank you, David.\n\n1025\n00:52:29.080 --> 00:52:30.400\nIt's always a pleasure chatting with you.\n\n1026\n00:52:30.400 --> 00:52:35.150\nThank you for the for the vision leadership empowerment that you bring to all\n\n1027\n00:52:35.150 --> 00:52:35.760\nof us.\n\n1028\n00:52:35.760 --> 00:52:47.680\nWow, that was such an inspiring conversation.\n\n1029\n00:52:47.680 --> 00:52:52.720\nAlberto was proof positive that you can't fix what you don't understand.\n\n1030\n00:52:52.720 --> 00:52:54.200\nThat's where you have to start.\n\n1031\n00:52:54.200 --> 00:52:56.800\nYou have to understand what's really going on.\n\n1032\n00:52:56.800 --> 00:53:01.120\nAnd in Alberto's case, the picture was definitely not pretty.\n\n1033\n00:53:01.120 --> 00:53:03.760\nBut he needed that clear picture of reality.\n\n1034\n00:53:03.760 --> 00:53:08.260\nIt was the foundation for all the data and processes and tough decisions he's\n\n1035\n00:53:08.260 --> 00:53:09.120\nimplemented\n\n1036\n00:53:09.120 --> 00:53:13.480\nthat ultimately led their school districts' incredible turnaround.\n\n1037\n00:53:13.480 --> 00:53:17.310\nThis week, as part of your weekly personal development plan, I want you to look\n\n1038\n00:53:17.310 --> 00:53:17.760\naround\n\n1039\n00:53:17.760 --> 00:53:22.960\nyour world as a leader and ask yourself, \"What is the reality in my business?\n\n1040\n00:53:22.960 --> 00:53:25.520\nWhat problems do you need to understand more fully?\n\n1041\n00:53:25.520 --> 00:53:28.720\nWhat area of your business do you need to measure differently?\n\n1042\n00:53:28.720 --> 00:53:31.840\nWhat specific insights do you need from your customers?\"\n\n1043\n00:53:31.840 --> 00:53:38.040\nWell, it all sounds simple enough, but defining reality takes time, energy, and\n\n1044\n00:53:38.040 --> 00:53:38.920\ncourage to\n\n1045\n00:53:38.920 --> 00:53:40.880\nface the real facts.\n\n1046\n00:53:40.880 --> 00:53:44.720\nYou have to be willing to look at your organization, warts and all, because\n\n1047\n00:53:44.720 --> 00:53:46.200\nthat's the only way\n\n1048\n00:53:46.200 --> 00:53:48.640\ntrue transformation can happen.\n\n1049\n00:53:48.640 --> 00:53:50.680\nSo do you want to know how leaders lead?\n\n1050\n00:53:50.680 --> 00:53:54.200\nWhat we learned today is the great leaders define reality.\n\n1051\n00:53:54.200 --> 00:53:57.980\nThanks again for tuning in to another episode of How Leaders Lead, where every\n\n1052\n00:53:57.980 --> 00:53:58.720\nThursday you\n\n1053\n00:53:58.720 --> 00:54:02.840\nget to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world.\n\n1054\n00:54:02.840 --> 00:54:06.880\nI make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can\n\n1055\n00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:07.680\napply to your\n\n1056\n00:54:07.680 --> 00:54:11.760\nbusiness so that you will become the best leader you can be.\n\n1057\n00:54:11.760 --> 00:54:12.760\nThank you.\n\n1058\n00:54:12.760 --> 00:54:13.760\n[end of transcript]\n\n1059\n00:54:13.760 --> 00:54:15.760\n.\n\n1060\n00:54:15.760 --> 00:54:16.760\n.\n\n1061\n00:54:16.760 --> 00:54:17.760\n.\n\n1062\n00:54:17.760 --> 00:54:18.760\n.\n\n1063\n00:54:18.760 --> 00:54:19.760\n.\n\n1064\n00:54:19.760 --> 00:54:20.760\n.\n\n1065\n00:54:20.760 --> 00:54:21.760\n.\n\n1066\n00:54:21.760 --> 00:54:31.760\n[BLANK_AUDIO]","

David Novak 0:04

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. You know, I always say one of the most important jobs as a leader is to define reality. You have to figure out what is really happening in your organization and in your business, if you want to make it better. And today's guest is a leader who can show you how to do just that. The superintendent of the Miami Dade County Public Schools, Alberto Carvalho, he leads the fourth largest school district in the nation. And believe me, it is one success story. But it sure wasn't. When Alberto took charge, schools were failing, the finances were an absolute mess. And there was a real lack of conviction in leadership positions. Alberto defined a tough reality at Miami Dade. But once he understood what wasn't working, he used it as the foundation for their turnaround. And you'll hear exactly how he's done it. I just know that this conversation is going to give you the inspiration and courage you need to tackle whatever tough reality you may be facing right now. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Alberto Carvalho.

Oh, Alberto, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to have this conversation. Thanks, David. Really appreciate the opportunity. Let's get started. Okay, well, you have huge challenge in Miami Dade. I mean, it's it's a very unique school district. Give us a snapshot on what makes it so unique. Well, number one, let's start with the fact that we are the fourth soon to be third largest school system in America with over 350,000 students coming from over 160 nations speaking in excess of 70 languages and dialects. Wow. Yeah, 74% of them are poor. Sick 60,000 of them are English language learners, as recent immigrants or they grew up in with families that did not speak English at proficiency level 11% of them with one or more disabilities. So you put all that together. And most would say there's no way that this system could punch above its weight, there's no way that this system could exceed expectations. And the data at all levels, academic performance data, graduation data, post secondary success data show otherwise. So it is possible, even when you're in the face of impossible circumstances. And I think the key ingredient there is leadership and and great teams that are actually are composed of leaders themselves. No question. And speaking of that, the rest of the country, you know, many people think that public education is one of the biggest, if not the biggest problem in in our country. And, you know, what's your perspective on that? I don't think so. You know, David actually feel that public education is the basic foundation of enabling Democracy in America. 90% of kids in America today, are educated in public schools. 90% of kids 100 years ago in America were educated in public schools. And then people see that demise. They don't they don't believe that. They see things going the other way. Right? Right. You are not no. And there's good reason for that. I mean, they look at America standing in terms of reading proficiency, math proficiency, science proficiency see internationally, they see the stagnation of the nape performance, which is the gold standard of American assessment, I happen to be a sitting board member of nape. And you see that for the better part of 30 years, America as a whole has not moved. But that same data shows that actually, the poorest districts, most urban districts in the country, have actually moved towards suburban America faster than suburban America has moved towards alignment with their international counterparts. So is there a need for reform? Absolutely. And for that to happen? I'll tell you one thing, it's not just a matter of trimming around the edges, we really need to look at the insanity of funding education on the basis of mandated seat time, we need to look at education beyond schools, we need to look at empowering tools that expand learning opportunity utilizing best in class technology, connectivity, digital content, we need to emphasize more parental choice and student choice as a means of adding relevance rigor and relationship. We need to emphasize the soft skills that today's economy requires Do we need to emphasize the need for bilingualism as a means of better training our kids, but to the extent that all we talk about is school governance and funding, we'll never get there. And that's the problem with American public education today. A lot of conversation about policy, a lot of conversation about governor's charter versus traditional, a lot of conversation about funding, but very little conversation about the elements that are direct inputs to children's academic outcomes. Well, Alberta, you really fired me up there. And, you know, usually I saved my lightning round q&a for the end. But I'm going to shift things up a little bit here because I want to get have people get to know you on a personal level. So let's let's get ready for a lightning round of q&a. You said, What three words best describe you? Tough, compassionate, smart. If you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be and why? Wow. That's a tough one. You know, for one day, I'd love to be a Virtuoso Musician. President, you know, I'd love to play an instrument at a high level of proficiency because that's something I don't do. I don't know how to do and in those people amaze me. So a great musician for one day, you know, let me let me be Drake for one day. Let me be Beethoven for one day that that would suit me just fine. Your biggest pet peeve. My biggest pet peeve is stupidity is is associated with people knowing better and more than what they do with their words or their actions is also reflective of lack of courage, apathetic demeanor, to life, how many languages are you fluent in? I'm fluent in five languages. I'm trying really hard to learn the sixth one. And that's Latin. Because I really do want to learn to read some of the classics in the native language, but five languages tell us something about you that few people would know. I'm a very good paddleboarders so I take to the waves in the water on a on a surfboard with paddle or no paddle. And I'll give you another one. I was once homeless blocks away from the office where today I sit a superintendent Phil awesome. Do you have any hidden talents? Aside from playing doorbells in the radio very well? Yeah, you know, I I'm, I think I'm a good poet. I'm not a good musician. But I have my own hidden poetry that I read, that I write, and I've been writing for many years. And I think I'm a pretty good athlete. You know, I was a wrestler and a star in my home country. And but today, more water sports than anything else. What's your most prized recognition you've received? You know, I was gonna say, national and urban Superintendent of the Year back to back up, but the most prized recognition, I think, was being knighted by my home country of Portugal. Yeah, that to me was was very meaningful, particularly considering my early existence in that country as a poor kid never saw an opportunity and to, to be knighted. Was was very special. Very, very special. Do your students have a nickname for? Yes, yeah, I'm the weatherman. Really, the little kids when I go into schools, because they see me on TV quite often, they think I'm the weatherman, because I dress like the weatherman. Evans, fantastic. I want to now get into how you really turn this system around, because you've certainly done that you took over as superintendent in 2008. And, and you made the decision that you were going to reinvent the school system. What did reinvention mean to you? Well, when I became superintendent, we were facing three levels of bankruptcy. Number one, a financial bankruptcy made worse by the Great Recession of 2008 910. Florida was the last state in and the last state out of that recession. And lacking a stable industry other than hospitality and farming, we were really hit hard. So our system, or shortly after I became so concerned, about $2 billion of revenue. That To make matters worse, as a result of some technical management deficiencies. That's a very polite way of saying people really screwed up. There was an overestimation of revenues and an under recognition of liabilities, particularly around the health care program, which was overspending by as much as $73 million. And that just added more to the finance She'll bankruptcy level that we were facing. Secondly, we were facing an academic bankruptcy defined by a graduation rate that was as low as 53%. But some high schools with a graduation rate as low as 36%.

nine schools under a threat of shutdown by the state of Florida, the performance for proficiency reading levels in mathematics were a 10 or less a percent, and dozens of F rated schools and D rated schools. The third level of bankruptcy is what I call moral and ethical management, bankruptcy, which is when your core function is compromised side by side with the finances that fuel your core function, then the leadership is bankrupt and the governance system is bankrupt. And, for me, incredible challenge, but quite frankly, was a diamond have an opportunity because things were so bad, anything we would do, we could blame it on the economy economy, we could blame it on circumstances around us outside of our control. So never allow a crisis to go to waste. Look for the opportunities that actually leverages. And we certainly took advantage of that. And we decided to ride this tsunami of economic conditions as an opportunity to number one slay the sacred cows to to divest ourselves of poor performers, as far as the workforce is concerned, renegotiate contracts, emphasizing on productivity, on results on outcomes, not just inputs driven by time spent at work, and reinvent the school system on the basis of choice parental choice. So we went from a school system that basically offer a one size fits all to one that prizes, one size fits none with 1000 parental choices. So it's some in the country. We were complaining about charter schools and vouchers, we said that tsunami of choice is upon us, you cannot out swim it out runny cannot dive under it. The only way to the only way to deal with it is by writing the top surfeit. And that we did. And and today, David, look, graduation rates are at 93.1%. We have over 1000 choice programs, three years in a row, that we are an A rated school zero F rated schools, zero d rated schools, a best system in the country in advanced placement, College Board coursework, best system in the country, as far as choice through Magnet Schools of America, and award after award for financial management and to referendum the past right here in Miami bringing in excess of $2 billion for teacher salaries, construction and technology because of the results that we were able to amass, we turn them into political, political opportunities with voters in our community. That is absolutely fantastic. And in such good news for America, I would expect with those kinds of results and that kind of turnaround, you'd have a lot of other superintendents coming and visiting you and figuring out what's going on. Is that the case? That is the case, and not just superintendents, school board members, ministers and secretaries of education from from other nations, as well as commissioners of education from different states. You know, everybody wants to know what the secret sauce is? Yeah. Where do you where do you go yourself? Now as you think about taking your district to the next level? Where is your source of inspiration and learning? It's a it's it's a very good and difficult question to answer. Because some of the best practices now that we look at are actually at the international level. So and we've become very good at actually looking at our challenges still where the gaps continue to exist and persist. And we become very surgical in our identification of possible solutions. So we're very intrigued, for example, with the the German, you know, career and technical programming, we're very intrigued. We're very intrigued. Now, we know the why and the how, how Finland has remarkable student achievement results in an environment that is 100% 100% unionized, and a very liberal approach to education. We're interested in Singapore's math results. Were interested in Shanghai's nap results. Were very interested in Portugal's and Portugal, graduation improvements over time. So we look certainly a best in class performers in this country that are defining expectations. And Chicago has taught us some things. There are some best practices emanating out of Boston, we're also looking at the international landscape for very specific solutions to enduring challenges in mind. You know, Alberta, that's, that's fantastic. And you know, all leaders need to really be looking at specifically where you can go find the best practices on specific things, not just general. And, you know, I want to get back to one of the things you mentioned earlier, you know, when you were turning around the system, you had to make some tough calls, as I understand that you took out nine principles from underperforming schools. You know, that's kind of seems like most people think that can't happen in education. And it's you just got to put up with the status quo. How did you go about doing that? And how do you hold people accountable today? Well, so we needed to be bold in what we would do to quite frankly, obtain results that were truly extraordinary, very early on, when the window of opportunity was wide open. And, and that window of opportunity speaks to how recent I recently I had been appointed the superintendent, but also the economic conditions around us, which gave us you know, powerful opportunities. And you know, leadership matters. Leadership matters. They're only about five things that really are important in education. And you know, whether little Tyrone Maria Richards are able to read and compute is no longer a skill set deficiency, we know exactly what it takes. It's a will set conundrum. Do people have the political courage, the professional courage to do that? Which is right, for the skills? Or are you just going to go with the flow with the current because you do not want the blowback? So early on, we recognize that principals are the captains of our industry. And they hire teachers, they set the tone, they implement curriculum, they are the negotiators with the community and the business community surrounding their schools. And look, I remember having meetings with the nine principles of the nine schools that for decades and never been anything more than F four D graduation rates were low. And in conversations with these individuals, they did not inspire in Maine, nor did they have a repertoire of data that would support them remaining in their position. So I fired nine principals within two weeks of being a superintendent. And my God, you know, I remember the board chair threatening to fire me because in 90 years, they had not fired nine principles. So it was tough. I went through fire survive came out of the other end a little singed, but you know, those those experiences toughen you up. And I kept going, and in the next few years, we replaced for promotions, demotions, terminations over 80% of Miami Dade leadership. Wow. Yeah. And we hired data driven strategic, smart individuals who are courageous in embracing a tough agenda are great executors great implementers. But they're also very honest in terms of their own results, allowing for this continuous improvement approach to the work that forces a recalibration based on performance. You know, you've you've said, and I quote, ability is evenly distributed, however, access and opportunities aren't, you know, how has this mindset affected you and the actions you've taken as a leader?

Yeah. So David, I want to explain why that's so fundamentally important to me. And by the way, I'm not the, the original author of that pronounce from there are many different variations of that. But look, we're all genetically and our children are genetically similar, identical, same number of chromosomes, which means that the ability Yeah, it is evenly imbalanced in a balanced format, distributed across all human beings. But you're early access to opportunities, high quality educational opportunities, a great teacher, a great principals support networks, literacy at home, literacy at school, access to the arts and music that is not guaranteed for every kid at the same level. And this is where the issue of equity comes in. If you want equal results, you need disproportionate inputs that recognize the conditions that different kids face. Now, where does my strong belief in this premise come from? My own growing up? I'm one of six kids who grew up in poverty. Mom and Dad have no more than six years of formal education meaning neither one of them got past third grade. That was a a custodian mom was a seamstress. And my five siblings did not graduate high school. I was the first and only one to graduate high school until years later, much younger brother who's much like a son to me, was able to do so. And today because he had the opportunity, he had the access enabled for him. He's a medical doctor. So, you know, what was different between me and my siblings certainly was not intelligence was not height, they're taller than I am. It was one of access was one of someone being my intellectual chaperone, my mentor, that allowed me to see a horizon that would stretch beyond my immediate circumstances and condition. So that is exactly what we do in Miami Dade for every kid is the power of recognizing the potential beyond your current circumstance must be taught must be demonstrated. And that influences so much of everything we do in Miami. That's, that's great. You know, Alberta, so much has changed the past couple of years. And what did you learn about your your own personal leadership as you manage through COVID and continue to do so. So you know, I have a facilitative leadership sort of approach with my team, I believe immensely in in Abe Lincoln's Team of Rivals approach. Surround yourself, whether they were foe or friend with the most remarkable minds who are the best at what they do, and have them embrace a vision and subscribe to it, they don't have to subscribe to a kink. But subscribe to a vision that is powerful. And that's what we've done over the past 14 years. COVID did change things. Because the protocols the reality, the systems that we had in place, were not adaptable to the conditions that we were facing. So all of a sudden time and space became irrelevant, right? So space schools, we could not go into them. Time, all of a sudden, if kids are not in school, in a physical space that's driven by transportation systems, the need to get them to school at a certain time. They're not driven by the factory model of education, whistle to whistle right, interrupted by annoying as hell bells every hour. If you take those pressures away, then time becomes much more flexible, particularly as you're relying on digital content, and people doing work from sites independently of schools. And that became a stress point at the beginning. As we all pivoted to distance learning and virtual learning, forced us to embrace new approaches to food distribution, considering the reliance of kids on the food at school forced us to be much more nimble in terms of providing connectivity, and device empowerment so that kids could connect with our teachers made us much more nimble in terms of developing systems of engaging parents, and in the process, helping parents navigate their own children's education. But I'll tell you one thing, within months, a few months, Teachers became students all over again to learn that new modalities and the new approach to work. Three months after that, they are experts today. And if we had simply provided professional development incentives and conference attending, it would have taken years to get them to the skill set that they are at today. So sometimes, as I said, a massive chaotic Tectonic Disruption, forces people if they are led by science, by fact, by determined leadership that is, at the same time compassionate forces people to gravitate to a better state of mind. And I think we saw that in Miami Dade, certainly, and other districts. So yeah, it COVID-19 really challenged our leadership, our systems, and I think we're better for it. Now where you're better for it now. But it was rough going for sure. And you know, a lot of people, particularly in schools, districts that aren't like yours, think this has been a lot a last year of education. What do you think? So there are two sides of that coin. On one hand, we have to recognize the powerful, debilitating, unfinished learning the academic regression that preceded last summer, but then with a summer where we always had As parents, we always experience some degree of academic regression that turning to a compound effect, where particularly fragile communities, disproportionately were more impact. So poor kids, students with disabilities, English language learners, we have seen across the country and in Miami Dade, a tremendous academic loss. But I am very confident. So in as much as we saw that academic loss, we saw an increase of skill set, accumulation, particularly around the management of technology, virtual tools, remote work, utilization of the technology to accelerate and simultaneously to remediate a student learning. It is now empowered with those those new skill sets that I believe the incline of acceleration of each student towards their full potential we'll be seeing, I guarantee you, most of the country will experience either a you or a K, post COVID academic recovery, K, meaning everybody fell hard during the the, the COVID pandemic, kids who are empowered will move up very quickly. And kids who are not empowered will continue to fall. Okay. You it was a progressive, slow descent. But now there will be a progressive incline of performance. We're going to be a Wii, that district, you know, we fell hard. But we have the potential the tools that know how to recover very, very fast. And, and I think that, yes, we need to recognize the academic regression that we've seen. But we also need to recognize that the recovery should not be predicted as being slow that recovery can be in fact fast. After all, David, my leadership style was one that we is actually based on the Toyota way, you plan meticulously, for as long as you need, you develop an implementation schedule, but then you swiftly declare the rationale, and swiftly deploy resources and conquer the territory. You know, I've never gotten on an airplane where the pilot says, folks, we're going to try something new today, we're going to take off slowly. Now, you know, you have good engineering, you have good training, have a good pilot, you take to the runway, take off fast, last few be impacted by the gravitational pull of the status quo. And that's something that cannot happen here. You are an absolute bureaucracy Buster, it sounds like, how do you make that happen? And how do you cascade that in your organization where people are on the lookout for waste and, you know, inactivity,

you know, every year we go through a process where we analyze the outcomes of everything we do. And that means self driven initiatives, but as well as private sector partnerships and contracts, we actually develop coefficients of efficiency. So what's the efficacy of the implementation of any one program, any one system or input, and one thing that I think we're courageous about is actually allowing this percolation downward flow of the methodology that we expect will be followed by managers or supervisors in the workforce at all levels, which is to recognize that look, regardless of the best of intention behind an investment, if the outcome is not there, two things will happen. Either you cease that investment, or you modify the implementation. And I think that we've spent quite a bit of time training, middle level management and high level management on that practice. And then it's a matter of, you know, training the teacher training the workforce on how to implement that philosophy and that leadership approach. Secondly, is I think it's reserved at my level, to really slay the high level opposition to good management, good leadership. And I tried to do that for for my team. Third, is create conditions that in a very honest way, reward those who embrace this, this vision driven, results driven approach, while simultaneously in a compassionate but determined way, identify those who don't, and put them on a track that leads to two different destinations. One is professional development to remediate the lack or termination or progressive discipline. And it really boggles the mind why, in my opinion, there are more people who do that, you know, I've surveyed speaking about leadership, you know how many principals lose their jobs across the country any given year? And it seems like everybody is excellent. And we know not everybody is excellent. So we ought to be respectful of a professionals humanity, but not at the expense of the children they serve. And that, to me is the main leading factor that orients quite frankly, the courage we need to have to leave.

In addition to being tough minded, you're a true innovator. And I understand you've brought the idea of franchise schools to Miami Dade. Now being a former restaurant executive where we had all kinds of franchisees and franchisors I'd love to know how you've done that in the school business. For many decades, we have some degree of choice in Miami Dade. So we had right now we have a number of schools on US News and World Report the best schools in America. But we always had a couple. The problem was that there were only a couple of schools in some of the most inaccessible areas in Miami Dade. So the issue of access equitable access was made very difficult. Just on the basis of distance. You know, our county, our district is 70 miles long, north south, 35 miles wide, east west. So unless you want to put kids on buses to go to some of these premier schools for two hours a day, they're never gonna go. So I'll give you one example we have this Maritime Academy of Science and Technology master academy, on Key Biscayne, probably the best view any school has of America. It has Biscayne Bay on one side, and the Atlantic Ocean. On the other side, you see the beach palm trees make terrific school, great curriculum and Choice Program, high quality, nearly 100% graduation year after year. The question is shouldn't every kid have the opportunity to go to a school like that the problem is access to the school. So that was the very first school we franchised. So we took over a hospital that had been abandoned, acquire that at a very good price, acquired a building that used to be an office building. And we went through an extreme makeover partnered with a local public university. For them to loan a space utilized a school that had lost membership as a result of performance. And we created five different replicas of mast with dedicated principals who shadowed the principal at mast understood the program. And overnight, we created five masts throughout the community, with the same brand recognition with the same promise of performance with the same philosophy with slight differences in terms of the curricular choice. Some specialize in engineering, robotics, hardcore math, physics, science, astronomy, and a maritime or health sciences. And I'll tell you just within a couple of years, these schools actually began to outperform the original mast, and a competition between the mast franchises that began to take place. And I have to tell you that this past year, master academy at Hialeah, which is a very social economically depressed area, with a high percentage of English language learners was the highest performing masks in the history of masks. So yes, franchising great concepts, great products, great approaches, has worked in a private sector for long time. I never seen any reason why it couldn't work in the public sector. We have proof and evidence of that. That sounds dated I love it. You know, I understand that in addition to being a superintendent year also the principle of what is called I Prep Academy. Can you tell us a little bit about the academy and what makes it special and, and what made you create this school? So I Prep Academy number one, I feel that you want to lead from the front, I don't lead from the rear. There's no bunker mentality where the generals sits and looks at maps all day. I'd like to empowered with today's tools lead from the front. To the extent possible, I like to demonstrate that what I'm asking people to do I myself am willing to do alongside them. So I still teach physics. And I am the principal and and founder of I Prep Academy, which was designed on the basis of an iPhone. So my daughter when I first got an iPhone years ago, she was mesmerized by it. And she said that I just love how I can walk, literally figuratively the iPhone through all of my needs. So simply by, you know, clicking on applications. And this is the coolest thing in the world inspired by my daughter. We did not like bells. We did not like traditional government style school furniture or the food that we served, did not like to ask permission to go to the restroom, and certainly did not like to ask permission to eat something or drink something. That's how I prep was envisioned a school that action would be focused on the student, the students needs, how they live, learn, entertain themselves, also empowering teachers take him from the front of the classroom, to the middle of the environment. And rather than rote learning, allow them to be knowledge facilitators, and enablers, and then create all this in the loud, colorful, student designed environment where the technology is so so important, but it does not seem that it is indispensable even though it is. So every student gets a device. There are powerful algorithms behind the curtain that we see, but the student doesn't see. And the process is one that meets children, students where they are, and takes them to where they need to be in a very individualized, personalized way. It's a school with no bells, where students can sit on a beanbag if they want, they can run a mile on a treadmill or on a stationary bike, as they have their devices plugged in. And they're doing simultaneously algebra or reading Shakespeare, where IKEA, comfortable furniture has replaced much more expensive, uncomfortable industrial furniture. So that exchange of student responsibility for increased autonomy, while empowering teachers to do what they do best, has really revolutionized the school. And why not throw in some sushi and vegan meals for the kids who need it, you know, it doesn't cost any more. So that's my prep. I love it. And that's a great example of choice you just given as to, you know, your franchise model and this and, you know, would you mind telling our listeners exactly what a charter school is and, and what the role of charter schools plays in your district, because a lot a lot of districts it's sort of an either or there isn't the magic of the end? Well, we've created innovation, and there are two. So charter schools are basically schools that are publicly funded, but they are privately managed by entities that may be for profit or not for profit as management companies. So they receive state funds, they have usually a lottery process by which they take hands to the membership. And they relegate the management, rather than the elected school boards to a management entity that may be for profits. We're not in a state of Florida that the students follow the same standards, the same curriculum at teachers still need to be certified. Aside from that, the management is very, very different. And charter schools, the vast majority of teachers are not unionized, as opposed to about 40 to 50% of teachers in the public school systems, not only in Miami Dade, but across the state being unionized. That basically, is the difference. Academic Performance wise, there isn't in Miami Dade a great deal of difference between charters and non charters. And that's a testament to the competitive nature that the charter movement has inspired and instilled in our school system. As I said, we did not be mown we did not go into the corner and just cry over the fact that charter schools were coming because we knew they would come. What we did do is that we put choice on steroids. And if you said if choice is what parents want, we're going to reinvent ourselves into the best providers of choice period with a greater repertoire of choice with better quality and better results. But David, we also did the unthinkable that put the national teachers union and the charter moving folks against me simultaneously, which was if everybody's opening charter schools, guess what? We're going to open district managed charter schools as a hybrid model of education that has a foothold on both sides. And everybody, you know, typically teachers unions do not agree with charter management entities on this one, these high Really polarized, you know, different ends of the spectrum. We're in agreement, which told me that I was doing absolutely the right thing. So, so charters have provided competition, they have dramatically expanded choice. And I have not seen Miami Dade suffer in performance as a result of that. With that said, we do fight for equal accountability requirements, which sometimes is an equal, but I'm not going to allow that to dominate the conversation as it has dominated the conversation in other parts of the country.

You know, you have a great relationship, as I understand it with the teachers union and Miami Dade. You know, what makes that relationship work? What advice do you give to people in terms of working with unions? So obviously, number one, we do not just with the teachers union, but with the seven unions that represent the workforce. And right now, we are probably the only system in the country that will begin the school year with every employee under contract yet again. And that's a function of two things. Number one, respectful reasonable interactions, no surprises ever, intense, ongoing conversations, of fully embracing of strategic goals, a vision, a mission, and specific metrics that must be owned by our workforce alongside us. And because it is owned by the workforce, it must be owned also by the leadership of the workforce. But equally important, is the fact that we value certain elements for our workforce, including healthcare. So we have the vested ourselves of for profit, in interference with the health care needs of our employees. We are our own insurance company, we manage a self insured platform, that the claims are administered by private sector entity, which means we know the health of our employees, we manage the claims, that puts us in a position of controlling costs while still offering a health care, a free health care program for our employees. In addition to that, as I said earlier, the fact that we have had best in class results have allowed us to go back to our community and ask for additional support, whether it's for technology, for safety and security, for teacher salaries for school construction, the teacher salary issue has gone a long way. I mean, we passed the billion dollar referendum that allowed us to reinvent the contract with the teachers and really put compensation models in place the value of productivity results, but also acknowledge the commitment. And that put us in a position with a unionized labor that is very unlike anything else that I've seen in the country. So I don't surprise the presidents of the unions, they don't surprise me, we engage in thoughtful conversations that always begin and end with student achievement. And if you do that it is easy to rally support around those imperatives, and having the community support it as well, you know, is not a bad thing. We're in a different place than most districts in the country. No question. You know, I love to get into how people make decisions, how leaders like yourself, think things through. And I've seen you on television a lot, though, Alberto lately. You know, and, and I know, given the Delta variant, you know, wearing masks has been an especially hot issue in the United States in terms of wearing masks in schools, and in particular, in Florida. Where did you end up and why? Well, on the issue of masks, in schools, obviously, and I think again, it's a it's a strong facet, the leadership be data informed at use your analytical power that is fueled by strong data inputs that originate from really real experts in field. So we created about a year ago a taskforce of public health and medical experts, inclusive of not only immunologist, epidemiologists, but also pediatricians and the former under President Obama and current US Surgeon General, the United States of America, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who is a graduate of our public school system. And we posted them all of the situations, conditions, protocols, hypothetical scenarios that we could face. And what we accumulated in in response to our questions was, quite frankly, a host of responses to possible scenarios, most of which we have seen unfold before us. So on the issue of masks, it is no One saw that this issue has been so politicized, so radicalized and so weaponized for nothing more than political personal gain, we have remained steady under the advice of our experts. And for me, it was an easy decision to make, despite the incredible political pressure and threat of consequence, our decision is, anyone in our school system that goes into an indoor environment has to wear a mask with appropriate accommodations based on medical endorsement. And certainly inclusive of the challenges that students with disabilities, students who have an individual educational plan or an ADA accommodation, as well as adults, there have to be accommodations made for those. And, you know, I took this issue to my board got a seven, one nod to move forward. And we feel very comfortable. But look, I did not venture into this alone. I had experts, I have data behind me, I had a community that had been sensitized to rational pronouncements that became a cause of support for what I believe was an inevitable conclusion and protocols moving forward. Well, that certainly makes sense to me. And it's proof positive that leaders have to have the courage to make tough decisions. You know, Alberto, I want to thank you for your support of our lead for Change Leadership Program and middle schools and high schools in your district. We're teaching people taking people with new skills, and community service. What's your perspective on specifically teaching leadership in schools today, you know, if we don't teach them while they're young, quite frankly, the opportunity to really inculcate upon them leadership skills, really teaching them how to recognize the opportunities that are sometimes hidden within the challenges before us. Recognizing strategy, you know, refining execution skills, and really having the honesty to recalibrate based on results. If you do not teach that from the time kids are in school, quite frankly, later in life, it will be much more difficult. And I think we've seen a couple of generations where that has happened, where yeah, they're good workers, but they're not necessarily demonstrating or exemplifying great leadership skills. So this is about expanding the ceiling of opportunity by teaching, the recognition of opportunities for the full manifestation of strong leadership. And I think that starts early on in a kid's school career. Well, Alberto, what you say is so so true. And I know you're really busy. So we need to wrap this up. And I can keep going on because I've got so many more questions I'd like to ask you, but we do have to bring this to an end. And I'd like to ask you, what three bits of advice would you give aspiring leaders know who you are, know what excites you find the place in an organization in the field where you can marry who you are your skill set, and the excitement about it. I've never met anyone who was terrifically successful at something they did not excel at, and that they did not love. That's why you are successful. And that's why you're successful. David, you're an expert at what you do, but you have passion for it. And expertise and passion are unbeatable. You know, you have a 24/7 job. Any advice on how to balance competing priorities? Yes, look, there's always enough money and time to do that, which is important to the extent you prioritize it to the extent you assign value to it, right? And not all things are equally valuable. So professionally speaking, I know exactly what the priorities are, they all begin with students and end with students. And everything needs to conform to that. At a personal level, you know what, getting good sleep, good rest, having good supportive friends and family, making time for them exercising, eating well cannot be abandoned, for the sake of your professional life. And, and I think having that balance is important, critically important. I have to ask you, when did the light bulb go off? For you that you said I'm going to be an educator? When was there a magic time when that just happened? And it just hit you straight? You said I gotta do this. Yeah. So you know, I'm not in that a train educated by you know, through my college years. I have a degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences. I was going to be a medical doctor may be a PhD, MD. But gross anatomy was more gross than anything else. So until I decided what I would do, I said, you know, I'm going to teach, so I started teaching, college physics, chemistry, calculus, statistics, and I started with this maybe for a year or two. And I got hooked. I got hooked to two levels I love to kids. And I was absolutely disturbed by some of the conditions and, and flexibility associated with systems. And within my first second year of teaching, I said, I'm going to be superintendent, because I know how to change my classroom environment. And that has inspired me to change everyone's classroom environment for the benefit of kids.

You know, and Alberto, I understand that, you know, you're obviously highly recruited, the New York school district came after you. And you turned it down, and you've decided to stay at Miami Dade. Why is that? You know, I announced not that long ago that I've been superintendent Miami Dade for 14 years. And this is the one and only superintendency that I will have? Yes, I accept that for a brief period of time at the Chancellor's position in New York City. Until this community really taught me a lesson. This community that's something I didn't expect they revolted against my acceptance of the Chancellor's position New York, I've never felt anything like that. The community saying please don't leave us we want you here. We need you here. You are breaking your promise to us. And that weighed heavily on me. And I'm glad I stayed. Because my god, I would not have seen this districts district eliminating all F schools, I would not have seen this district being rated A for multiple years in a row. I would not have seen us pass a second referendum to honor teachers through adequate compensation. I would not have seen myself as National Urban Superintendent of the Year. So at all levels was the right decision. But I have to tell you, it was a very emotional tug on the basis of a community saying you're divorcing us and what do we do with the kids? You know, Albert, I, I was looking forward to doing this podcast and having this conversation with you. And I just can't wait for people to hear this. Because I think you you give us all hope of what's possible in our country and what we can do with public education. And I'm sure Miami Dade is very happy you stayed. And I just wish we could bottle you up and put you in every every city in our country because we'd end up with something better. And I do hope you run for political office someday when you do. Let me know I want to be your campaign manager. Thank you, Dave. It's always a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you for the for the vision and leadership empowerment that you bring to all of us.

Wow, that was such an inspiring conversation. Alberto is proof positive that you can't fix what you don't understand. That's where you have to start. You have to understand what's really going on. And in Alberto's case, the picture was definitely not pretty. But he needed that clear picture of reality. It was the foundation for all the data and processes and tough decisions he's implemented that ultimately led their school districts incredible turnaround. This week as part of your weekly personal development plan. I want you to look around your world as a leader and ask yourself, what is the reality in my business? What problems do you need to understand more fully? What area of your business? Do you need to measure differently? What specific insights do you need from your customers? Well, it all sounds simple enough. But defining reality takes time, energy and courage to face the real facts. You have to be willing to look at your organization warts and all, because that's the only way true transformation can happen. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders define reality. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be

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