Description

Kris welcomes Stephanie Parra, Executive Director of All In Education, a non-profit advocacy group for underserved communities and families, particularly the Latino communities. Stephanie talks about All In’s mission to focus on closing the performance gap of Latino students and the Latino community and how we can help parents be more confident partners in the education process alongside teachers. She and Kris talk about developing value-based leaders, why being a daring leader is important to shake up the status quo, and how early education leaders are the foundation of closing that gap for our children. Stephanie talks about some of the challenges she has overcome while building her team from scratch, and she shares some statistics about why the next generation of Latino students is so crucial to the success of Arizona and beyond.

Key Takeaways:

[8:59] Education advocacy organization, All In Education, is proudly serving communities across the state of Arizona. Stephanie talks about how she got involved, and how All In was created to focus on closing the opportunity gaps that exist for Latino students in the state.

[10:28] If we are going to close the opportunity gaps for students, we have to really focus on closing the representation gaps. What does that truly mean?

[12:00] Stephanie talks about her background as a first-generation American, coming from a Mexican immigrant family, with her father working in farm labor. Her education is in higher education, and while studying college students, she saw herself in the research.

[23:05] Stephanie talks about the Parent Educator Academy, and how this foundational leadership program builds bridges between the school and home.

[24:44] How does the Academy get such high engagement and get parents to understand the education system and support their kids?

[33:28] Stephanie talks about a recent article she wrote on developing values-based and daring education leaders. How can educators be better leaders?

[35:42] Daring leadership matters. The more we are willing to be bold, courageous, and daring, the more we can be fully connected to our community and get better outcomes for our kids.

[39:19] What can early education leaders do to help support the underserved gap?

[43:59] Early education is the foundation of helping the underserved communities thrive and gain equal footing.

Quotes:

• “We have to be the ones that create a better and more vibrant community for the generations that are coming up behind us.” — Stephanie
• “We can run from our challenges, or we can decide to be leaders and changemakers that our communities need.” — Stephanie
• “We’re willing to be bold and courageous and daring, and truly stay connected to our community in a way where we can be unapologetically independent.” — Stephanie
• “Daring leadership matters.” — Stephanie
• “For me, it’s about building a coalition of leaders who are willing to be bold, daring, and willing to try new things. We have both a moral and economic imperative.” — Stephanie
• “Be the change you want to see in the world.” — Gandhi
• “I know that educators probably feel this across the country, we tend to get caught up in being a political football and get tied into the push and pull of politics.” — Stephanie

Mentioned in This Episode:

Kris Murray

The Child Care Success Company

The Child Care Success Academy

The Child Care Success Summit

All In Education 

Developing Values-Based Daring Education Leaders 

Teach for America 

The New Teacher Project