Episode Details

Ari Gerzon-Kessler is author of On The Same Team: Bringing Educators & Underrepresented Families Together, which won the Independent Publishers Book Awards 2024 IPPY Gold Medal for outstanding education book. He is a speaker, trainer, and coach working with schools and districts committed to forging stronger school-family partnerships. Ari also leads the Family Partnerships department for the Boulder Valley School District (CO).

Ari has been an educator since 2000, having served as a principal and bilingual teacher. His leadership efforts to strengthen partnerships with underrepresented families and dismantle unjust practices was featured in Education Week in 2015. Ari regularly presents at national and international conferences on Families and Educators Together (FET) teams and other innovative family partnership best practices. He received his bachelor's in African American Studies from Wesleyan University and a master's in instruction and curriculum from the University of Colorado.

Show Highlights

• Shifts that translate into higher learning with family access opportunities.

• Centering family voices in educational decision-making to improve student learning.

• 3 minute activities to skip challenges due to time constraints on initiatives.

• Challenge the status quo in the ways that we engage with families.

• Same Team Bringing Educators and Underrepresented Families together, to redesign education.

• Small pockets of time that expose staff to best practices that increase choice.

• Supportive spaces that increase value because leaders don't provide guidance.

"And the heart of the FET( Family and Educators Together) teams is creating the kind of space where everyone feels like their voice is deeply valued and that we're co-creating transformational change so that we're designing a school for everyone, not just based on what's worked in the past. It's composed of educators and the school leader. And that's a pivotal piece."

-Ari Gerzon-Kessler

Get the episode transcript here!!

• The Families and Educators Together Project — Mediators Foundation

• Ari's School-Family Partnerships Resources to Support Your Next Steps

• Linkedin

• Facebook

• Solution Tree link for book and free reproducibles: On the Same Team |

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