What did you most enjoy about working at ELP?
What I enjoyed most was the inspiration and hope that comes from working alongside people dedicated to changing not just the experience students have with assessment, but the role that assessment plays in adults’ understanding of what school is for. Working at ELP over the past 5 years showed me what humanizing this change process can look like, sound like, and feel like.
I have been especially inspired by how ELP moves in partnership with schools and districts:
- A remarkable capacity to stay focused on the big picture of systemic change and attend to the details that matter — and the voices that matter — in the process of collaboratively building toward that big picture.
- Always asking:
- Who is at the table right now?
- Who could be at this table?
- What will have to change in the system in order to make this change meaningful for students?
- Are we asking the adults in the system to do the same things that we are asking students to do?
- The joy in the asking, the joy in the challenge, the joy in being together.
What are your plans now?
I have joined ConnectED as the Director of Instructional Impact in Mathematics, where I will continue working in partnership with San Diego Unified, Colton Joint Unified, West Contra Costa Unified, and Oakland Unified. In my new role, I also look forward to future collaborations with my incredible colleagues (and friends for life) at ELP.
My new email address is: vdaro@connectednational.org.
