Name: Andrew Schwab

Title: Superintendent

Organisation: Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified School District

Dr. Andrew Schwab is a forward thinking educator who believes teachers and technology have the power to fundamentally change education for the better. As a change agent, he has moved districts into the future with Google Apps for Education, 1:1 student devices, and world-class professional development programs focused on building teacher and administrator leadership capacity.

As a former Google Certified Teacher, YouTube Star Teacher, and Certified Chief Technology Officer, Andrew has dedicated his career to fusing technology and instruction to transform learning outcomes for all students. In an effort to be more creative, he switched from a PC to a Mac in 2009 and hasn’t looked back. You can find Andrew blogging occasionally at http://anotherschwab.com.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Educational Leadership!

I hope Andrew's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as an Educational Leader?

That is a really big question. The challenges have really shifted over the years. If you'd asked me pre-COVID, I would have said it was the increases in behavior support needs we were seeing in kids coming into the system. During Covid, well that was just tough all around. Now I would say it is adapting to the post-COVID reality that the education system we have was really designed for a different era and different inputs. We've been nibbling around the edges with change and expecting different results for so long, granted with some isolated success cases, but without much in the way of results.

Ultimately I think we need to revisit the fact that we're fundamentally trying to educate an information age generation in an industrial age factory model of education. I once thought the internet and 1:1 connected devices would move that discussion along much farther than it actually has. Now I believe Artificial Intelligence is going to be the great disrupter in education that the internet almost was and that adapting to AI is going to challenge all of us as education leaders moving forward.

2. How did you become an Educational Leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Well, it was more a happy accident than anything else. After the Army and college, I worked in Tech in Silicon Valley until the 2000 dot-com bubble burst and eventually found myself working as a computer tech in a school district. From there, I was recruited to become a teacher, and the rest is history. School was never my favorite place and I never thought I would work anywhere near education, but looking back, I am very grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in people's lives through public service.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I usually start the morning off by checking emails over coffee and reviewing my schedule for the day. I catch up on podcasts on my commute to work. I am a big fan of MBWA - managing by walking around and try very hard to get out to school sites and not to get stuck behind my computer monitor or in meetings all the time. I recently turned off email notifications and now have more control over when I respond to email throughout the day.

I finish my day in the office with a review of what got done and what's coming up the next day. I tend to use my commute home time to schedule phone calls or decompress with music. Evenings are for family dinner time, exercise, and reviewing the latest education trends, which right now are all about AI. I would like to incorporate more regular exercise and a full 8 hours of sleep into my routine, but that is still a work in progress.

4. What's a recent lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of as an Educational Leader?

I think as educational leaders, we are often pulled in so many different directions that it is easy to lose focus on the reason we do what we do in the first place, and that is to prepare children and young adults to be successful in their future endeavors. I think the most important thing an educational leader can do is constantly remind everyone on a school campus or in a school system of how important their role is in supporting every single student, each and every single day, on that path to individual success.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your journey as an Educational Leader so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted you?

I have two non-traditional picks, the first one is Team of Teams - New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal and the second is Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. In education, we are often working with highly educated, tenured professional educators, and Drive really spoke to me about the importance of motivation, particularly when facing complex tasks.

I believe teaching is more craft and art than science, and Drive unlocked for me how to think about unlocking the power of autonomy, mastery, and purpose with teachers. Team of Teams totally changed my thinking on how decisions in a system should be made at the point closest to the impact. Again, thinking about education, that means empowering teachers and site administrators to make decisions in the best interests of their students.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young educator who aspires to be an Educational Leader, what would you say to them?

Anyone can be a leader. Look for opportunities to make a difference on your campus. Get involved in solving problems, be an active learner, take on leadership roles with grade-level teams, curriculum committees and stay up to date on current educational trends. Go to professional development opportunities, get outside your own classroom, school site, and district, and talk to educators from outside your comfort zone.

It is unfortunate that we really don't have a formal master teacher leadership pathway baked into our systems, and oftentimes the only route to leadership is to move over to the "dark side" of Administration. However, leadership is not always a title, it is also a state of mind.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as an Educational Leader, so far?

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with a group of parents who were participating in one of our parent education programs. Listening to their challenges and struggles, I was reminded of my own experience growing up with my siblings and our single mom, and the challenges of just keeping a roof over our heads and food on the table.

Education gave me a way out, and hearing how invested our parents were in their children's success, it really reinforced for me the critically important role schools play in our society and the incredible importance of the work we do everyday for our families.