Celebrating “Change Agents” in Philadelphia
With generous support from the William Penn Foundation, Partners recently convened education leaders from Philadelphia and beyond to discuss what it means to be a change agent in America today.
Mallory Berger, managing improvement partner for Partners in School Innovation, served as hostess for the evening
Mallory welcomed the guests and thanked our major partners represented at the event:
The Free Library of Philadelphia for hosting the event
The Neubauer Family Foundation for supplying copies of Change Agents: Transforming Schools from the Ground Up to attendees
The School District of Philadelphia for being such stalwart partners in the fight for educational equity
The William Penn Foundation for the generous financial support that has enabled Partners to help educators in Philadelphia develop as equity-focused change agents
Partners CEO Derek Mitchell lauded educators and described the importance of stories in moving people to act
Derek celebrated educators for the role they play in bettering society. “We have high hopes for our children,” he began.
“We want them to be smarter than we are, more moral, more just, better able to navigate across different backgrounds, and better able to discern fact from nonsense they find online than we are. We need them to solve the problems we are bequeathing to them — racism, climate change, violence, poverty, the need to preserve democracy. We have all these hopes for our young people, and teachers and leaders are our best chance of preparing them to achieve these ends.”
Dr. Mitchell also set the table for the personal reflections that would follow during the panel discussion, stating that stories “have the power to open minds, induce change, and strengthen relationships.”
Ebony English served as the panel’s moderator
Ebony’s experience in the education, nonprofit, and philanthropy sectors were evident in the thought-provoking questions she posed to the panelists.
Panelists shared their wisdom and spoke from the heart
The panel was comprised these seasoned educators:
Sakia Beard, principal of Richard R. Wright Elementary
Jamina Clay, assistant superintendent in the School District of Philadelphia
Justin Cohen, author of Change Agents: Transforming Schools from the Ground Up
Megan Kizer, supervising improvement partner at Partners in School Innovation
They began by discussing what it takes to be a change agent. With all of the panelists naming an equity mindset as an important component, they were then asked what their personal equity mindset is and how it manifests in their work.
They went on to discuss a range of topics — continuous improvement, instructional leadership, and how they managed change during the pandemic.
The final portion of the panel focused on the key role of relationships in transforming schools and bringing about better schooling experiences for Black and Brown students. The discussion ended on the importance of leading with love, with attendees being shown this powerful line from Justin Cohen’s Change Agents: “Every great school is built on love. Love for learning, love for children and families, love for our communities.”
