Kira Orange Jones joined Teach Plus as CEO in April 2022. In this special edition of the Teach Plus Newsblast, Kira talks about her personal connection to the Teach Plus mission, her work on developing leadership and changing systems, and what she’s focused on during her first year at the helm of Teach Plus. Anya Grottel-Brown: What initially attracted you to Teach Plus?
Kira Orange Jones: What attracted me to Teach Plus is our mission. We are a national organization driven by equity and deeply committed to teacher leadership. We believe that when we provide teachers with opportunities to build their skills and knowledge and to lead—everywhere from the classroom to the Capitol—that is a lever that can make an enormous difference for students.
Kira with her family, all educators.
Our mission is also incredibly meaningful to me personally. When I was in high school, my mom formed a partnership with excellent teachers who played an outsized role in supporting me and advocating for my goals as a student. This taught me even more about the role of great teachers who also see themselves as advocates for kids.
AGB: You have spent your career at the nexus of leadership development and changing systems. How has your experience prepared you to lead Teach Plus?
KOJ: I have served as a policymaker in Louisiana since 2012 and, in the decade since, I have been privileged to represent my community on a range of issues from expanding high quality early childhood education for families to growing the number of students prepared for post-secondary success. These are among the issues that are top of mind for the teachers in the Teach Plus Network. I know what it’s like to create policies with an equity lens and I have seen firsthand that when policies are made with the input of those most affected by them, our entire community benefits. I have also seen the opposite, when policies are ineffective because they’re created without the input of those who need to be at the table. This is why I believe
it’s so important to elevate the voices of students and teachers when it comes to advocating for policies at the school, district, and state level that truly benefit our students and our educators. As a policymaker, I am often faced with the challenge that we need even more systems to get solutions and feedback from our best teachers. Teach Plus stands out as a solution. And from speaking with so many of our teachers, I know that they see it too.
Kira with students in Louisiana.
Kira at a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade with students and teachers.
AGB: What are you focusing on this year?
KOJ: Our work is guided by our mission and by the Student Opportunity Mandate to ensure that all students have an opportunity to achieve their potential in a system defined by equity. With this in mind, two things are important to me this year. The first is our continuing to amplify teacher voice. This is needed now more than ever in order to pierce through the ideological discourse surrounding education and to bring the public’s attention back to the core issues of student opportunity and educational equity that will alter the trajectory of our nation’s schools. The second is growing the leadership capacity and work in our states so that we can drive progress for students. AGB: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card, released a full report for the first time since 2019. How do you see the recovery moving forward and what role do you see Teach Plus playing in this?
KOJ: Since the start of the pandemic, our teachers have been speaking up about the many challenges their students were experiencing—challenges because family members have fallen ill, learning challenges, mental health challenges. The students’ needs are widespread and there has never been a more consequential moment to focus on building the kinds of systems that substantially improve outcomes, especially for students of color and students in rural and urban underserved communities for whom the decreases were the biggest. As we seek solutions, we should keep in mind the many lessons that have become so evident during the pandemic: that our students need spaces that are racially affirming, inclusive, and safe and that they need culturally
relevant and engaging content that challenges them to grow academically.
Kira with students and educators in New Orleans.
AGB: How can teachers best step into leadership?
KOJ: In our policy and instructional practice programs, we focus on building teachers’ capacity to become leaders. And we know that when they step into leadership, the sky's the limit. As leaders, teachers can move systems that seem unmovable—while continuing to do what they do best: teach. We see these examples of leadership every day. I encourage all the teachers in our network reading this to apply to one of our programs. AGB: We develop teachers to be change-makers in their classrooms and across systems. How do you see systems change as led by teachers?
KOJ: As a policymaker and a systems leader, I know that most change happens in decades, not in days. It’s incredibly important to build teachers’ capabilities to be impactful, evidence-based leaders who can influence change over time. We have a Network of teacher leaders that is thousands-strong. We’re working on ways to support these teachers in their next stage of development so they’re ready to change systems, reinvent the profession, and improve outcomes for kids.
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