Episode Details

A Quick Note to Listeners:

—- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks.

Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —-

Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answer a listener question with a five minute response. 

The question is: How can we build stronger partnerships with community organizations?

Listen in to hear their response and thank you for doing what matters!

T.J. Vari is the Senior Director of Product Strategy at MaiaLearning and a former Deputy Superintendent, Principal, Assistant Principal, and High School English Teacher. He spent 20 years in public education before transitioning to the position he currently holds. His master’s degree is in School Leadership and his doctorate is in Innovation and Leadership. He holds several honors and distinctions, including his past appointment as President of the Delaware Association for School Administrators and the Paul Carlson Administrator of the Year Award. He teaches educational leadership courses at the master’s and doctoral levels. 

T.J’s passion is college and career readiness. He has co-authored 6 books, including his latest two 7 Mindshifts for School Leaders and Invest In Your Best. He is a national presenter on school leadership and college and career readiness,  and he’s the co-founder of TheSchoolHouse302, a leadership development institute.

A Post-Secondary Plan for Every Student:

Dr. Vari strongly believes that it is important to ensure that every student has a post-secondary plan. It is important for educators to recognize that this is an equity problem: privileged kids are talking about their post-secondary plans very young whereas other kids are not. One method that helps students create a post-secondary plan is advisory periods, ensuring that there is space in the student day to do some work making post-secondary plans. T.J. calls educators to think about how they are intentionally introducing these conversations with their students. 

Helping Students Reach Their Best Outcomes:

As a coach and leader of leaders, Dr. Vari says that the answer to helping students reach their best outcomes is through school leadership. He often works with school leaders to build their capacity to change things. This work is important because the education system was never built to do what is best for all students. The education system, as it works currently, was built to dole out privilege. It takes a leader who is willing to challenge the status quo and is willing to make change happen for the system to benefit all students. T.J. coaches leaders to read about change in order to understand management and change models. He emphasizes that change is not going to happen naturally, leaders need to learn how to make change happen if they want everyone of their