In this episode of In the Lead with UCEA, Executive Director Dr. Mónica Byrne-Jiménez talks with Dr. Shawn Bird, Deputy Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership for the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD).  

Mónica and Shawn talk about Shawn’s extensive experience in public education and he details SAISD's initiatives to develop a sustainable leadership pipeline through their collaboration with the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and participation in the Wallace Foundation's Equity Centered Pipeline Initiative (ECPI). 

Their discussion covers SAISD's strategic focus on recruiting and nurturing high-quality leaders, the evolution and contributions of this partnership, and the impactful systemic changes aimed at enhancing student achievement and equity. Shawn highlights the importance of structured support for new principals and the innovative, organic growth of programs arising from ECPI. 

In the Lead with UCEA is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

Tackling recruitment challenges in urban school districts

[07:06 ] The district's gone through a lot of change, but one thing that we were struggling with, particularly after COVID, is our workforce preparation and just getting our workforce to just recruit people to come here and work because in urban settings, it is more challenging.

SHORT VIDEO: Preparing future leaders beyond the traditional preparation program

[09:38 ] In addition to those preparation academies, once you get the job, we have academies to support you in your first three years of the job, which include coaching and those kinds of things, which we're going to sustain even after the Wallace grant is gone. And that's part of what you do with Wallace is you have to have the sustainability plan, as you know. But that really speaks to the power of this collaboration. I mean, we're starting to see results already in terms of retention and also who is getting into these programs and the quality of candidates attracting. You know, we have a pretty rigorous selection process, and I've worked in urban education my whole career. And, you know, it does take a special personality to work in an urban core because you're dealing with really high poverty, and you're dealing with, a lot of times, students [who] have interrupted education or there's several grade levels behind. We have high mobility. There's lots of issues that you need to have skills to address when you work in the urban school district. And so we know we have to prepare people differently than just the traditional preparation program that they might go through in college.

On strengthening the ECPI Initiative through external partnerships

[13:32 ] UTSA is the main partner, but we also have worked with the University of Texas at Austin. They've done some stuff with our central office leadership because this has touched the central office as well. So, you know, because you can't just talk about equity without touching every part of the organization to make sure that it's operationalized and it's coming true.

SHORT VIDEO: Shawn shares what he’s most proud of in his work with San Antonio

[20:31 ] The thing about UTSA is they have really worked with us to modify their curriculum and their program to really meet the needs of… they're really preparing people to enter our schools. It's very much tailored. So I'm teaching a class right now, [and] the principalship and the project that we're having them do is look at their survey data, their climate and culture survey data where they currently work, and then develop a problem of practice. So if you were the principal tomorrow and you're just going into that job, this is what it is. What are you going to do to impact the culture? I mean, that project didn't exist before we made the partnership. And so, it's really just that collaboration with UTSA was really willing to open up their doors to us and say, What do you need? And, you know, not to offend our higher education partners, but, you know, they're usually pretty slow to change, and so UTSA has really been nimble, and they have demonstrated that they have a desire to really give us what we need in terms of the workforce.

Show Links:

• Shawn Bird | LinkedIn Profile
• SAISD | Homepage
• ECPI | Wallace Foundation