This system was designed to support students who experience urgency around being first, which can impact accuracy, regulation, and independence. It provides explicit instruction and visual supports to shift the goal from finishing first to doing high-quality work and staying calm. Problem Some students, especially those with autism, experience a strong need to be first. This can show up during classwork, transitions, or lining up. When they are not first, it can lead to rushi

One of the biggest mistakes schools make with behavior systems is assuming students understand expectations just because adults have said them. In reality, classroom behavior systems work best when expectations are simple, visible, repeatable, and reinforced consistently by every adult in the room. That matters in any classroom, but it matters even more in high-support settings. In specialized classrooms, students may need explicit teaching, visual reminders, predictable rout

One of the fastest ways a high-support classroom starts to break down is when adults are working hard, but not working with enough clarity. In specialized programs, strong student support depends on strong adult coordination. Teachers, paraeducators, related service providers, and leaders may all be supporting the same students across instruction, behavior, communication, transitions, and daily routines. When roles are unclear, even committed teams can end up duplicating work

One of the most important lessons I have learned in specialized classrooms is this: independence does not happen by accident. It has to be designed. In high-support settings, it is easy for adults to become the system. Adults remind, redirect, organize, repeat directions, move materials, and help students start every task. That may keep the day moving in the short term, but it can also create dependence if the classroom is not built around clear structures that students can l

One of the fastest ways to create frustration in evaluation is to leave people guessing about what counts as evidence. That problem gets even bigger with specialized staff. In many school systems, educators in specialized roles do important work that does not fit neatly into one visible lesson. Their impact may show up through direct services, consultation, progress monitoring, documentation, family communication, collaboration with teams, coaching, or systems problem-solving

One of the clearest lessons I have learned through leadership is that evaluation systems can look strong on paper and still fail the people they are supposed to support. That usually happens when the system becomes too focused on compliance and not focused enough on capacity. Compliance matters. Schools need clear expectations, documentation, timelines, professionalism, and accountability. None of that is optional. But when evaluation becomes little more than checking boxes,

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make with evaluation is assuming that handing people a framework creates clarity. It does not. A rubric, a timeline, or a new evaluation structure may define expectations on paper, but that does not mean staff automatically understand how to apply it to their daily work. This is especially true for specialized staff whose roles are complex, distributed, and often different from traditional classroom teaching. In my own leadership work, I ha

One of the most important leadership shifts I have made is this: evaluation systems work best when they help people grow, not just prove that they did something. That matters in every role, but it matters especially for specialized staff. School systems often do a better job evaluating traditional classroom instruction than they do evaluating the work of specialized educators whose impact happens across settings, through consultation, through problem-solving, through document

One of the biggest leadership traps in schools is mistaking a good idea for real implementation. Schools are full of strong intentions. A new literacy initiative begins. A behavior system is rolled out. A school team adopts a research-based practice. A professional development session sparks excitement. But too often, the work stops there. The plan exists, the training happened, and the expectation is set, yet the actual implementation remains uneven, unclear, or unsustained.

One of the most important leadership lessons in schools is this: hiring matters, but retention tells the deeper story. Schools across the country continue to face staffing challenges, teacher shortages, and growing difficulty filling specialized or high-need positions. But the real leadership question is not only how to bring talented educators into a building. It is how to create the kind of school where strong educators want to stay, grow, and build their careers. That is w

During my principal preparation program at Fort Lewis College, I completed an equity audit of my current ECE-8 school in Denver to examine schoolwide patterns in student achievement, teacher support, literacy instruction, and access to intervention. The school served 597 students in grades ECE through 8, with 91.7% of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. The student population was 82% Hispanic or Latino, while the teaching staff included 43 teachers, 95% of whom we

Leadership, for me, begins with a simple belief: schools should be places where students thrive. My why as a leader is rooted in creating the conditions for students to overcome barriers to access, learning, and success. I believe students and educators should feel empowered to take ownership of their learning, take risks as they grow, and take responsibility for the communities they help shape. At its best, education is transformative. The work we do in schools can influence

One of the most important leadership projects of my early career was building my first fully realized schoolwide MTSS program. I called the system Response to RTI , and it was designed to help the school move from scattered intervention efforts to a more coherent, schoolwide process for identifying student need, planning support, monitoring progress, and adjusting interventions across the year. What began as an intervention framework became something larger: a leadership stru

At a gifted elementary school in Denver, building an effective MTSS system was not about adding one more initiative. It was about creating a coherent schoolwide structure that helped staff know what to do, when to do it, and how to work together in support of students. Beginning in fall 2021, the school adopted a schoolwide MTSS system designed to support students across grades, classrooms, and ability levels. The handbook organized that work into key components including the

At Farrell B. Howell ECE–8, we recognized a common challenge: strong individual efforts across teams, but no fully aligned system connecting them. Academic, behavioral, language, and social-emotional supports were happening, but not always in a way that was cohesive, efficient, or sustainable. As the Senior Team Lead for Special Education, I partnered with school leadership, interventionists, ELD, and general education teams to design and implement a comprehensive Multi-Tiere

Behavior systems exist in almost every school. But too often, they live on paper instead of in practice. Even when districts provide frameworks, schools frequently struggle with: When to act How to respond What consistency actually looks like across classrooms The result is predictable: Inconsistent adult responses Confusion for students Increased reliance on administration Missed opportunities to teach behavior This project focused on designing and implementing a clear, scho

There is a quiet truth in special education that most people working inside the system already know: The biggest barrier is rarely effort. It’s clarity. Across schools, we see hardworking, dedicated professionals doing everything they can for students. And yet, outcomes remain inconsistent. Not because people don’t care. Not because they aren’t skilled. But because the system they are working within is unclear. The Problem In many schools, special education operates in a cons

In many schools, paraeducators are essential to student success. They support instruction, manage behavior, and help students access learning throughout the day. Yet in practice, their role is often unclear. Expectations vary from classroom to classroom. Training is inconsistent. Support systems are reactive instead of proactive. As a result, paraeducators are frequently placed in high-impact roles without the structure needed to be successful. This creates gaps not because o

Introduction I believe schools should be places where students thrive, not just academically, but as confident, capable individuals prepared for the future. My leadership is grounded in a simple but powerful purpose: To remove barriers to learning and create systems that ensure every student has access to success. This work is not abstract. It shows up in how systems are designed, how teams collaborate, and how decisions are made every day. Schools should be places where ever