What a pleasure it was to catch up with Ana Riley, Superintendent of Bristol Warren Regional School District. Ana lights up when she talks about her district's vision and action steps toward "learning environments where students are actively involved in the teaching and learning process."

"A key focus over the past three and a half years has been cultivating trust and establishing a collaborative Professional Learning Committee. We’ve worked hard to engage staff in a crucial conversation around student engagement and ownership of learning, exploring what it truly looks like and whose responsibility it is to foster it. We’re actively shifting away from a mindset of simply assigning tasks to students.

To gain a deeper understanding of current practice, we've implemented a walkthrough process, collecting both student and adult perspectives. Instructional rounds, facilitated by our partnerships with Center for Leadership and Educational Equity and Throughline Learning, have become a core routine in this work. External perspectives help us move beyond the limitations of being a 'prophet in our own land.' Our primary goal has been to shift the focus from perceived student deficits (i.e., "our kids don't...") to empowering adult action – what can *we* do to enhance engagement?

Across preK-12, we observe a high degree of student compliance – students are often quietly completing tasks to the level asked. We’re striving to distinguish this from genuine engagement to create learning environments where students are actively involved in the teaching and learning process. We’re identifying pockets of exemplary engagement, but there's some hesitation among some teachers to host colleagues on visits to their classrooms. This requires building a culture where observing and learning from each other is normalized.

My vision is to have a dedicated coach in each building to further support this crucial work and we’ve had early success integrating grant-funded positions into the general fund. However, without additional funding, further expansion of coaching roles will remain a significant challenge. Coaches play a vital role, running grade-level PLCs and mentoring new teachers and those on support plans. Department heads at the high school, who participated in the Throughline partnership, are leading the way in driving the engagement work. Our hope is that expanded access to coaching will have a more direct impact at the elementary and middle school levels.

We've conducted introductory large-group training on AI for our staff. Our library media specialists have been instrumental in this exploration. We've established an AI task force to help us develop district-wide guidelines. Next year, with increased staff comfort levels, we anticipate a broader rollout that eventually includes student engagement with AI."