Posting another conversation this week as a lead up to the AASA #NCE2026 Conference in Nashville. Today, I'm posting conversation #82 with the Superintendent of Medway Public Schools, Armand Pires, Ph.D. As a long-time Superintendent in Medway, it was powerful to hear how Dr. Pires learns from past efforts, adjusting his approach through empathy and conversation to build alignment through common language and purpose.

"Honestly, I have been noticing a loss of optimism in our profession, and in order to combat this we have doubled down on connection in our district. You can see this in our new strategic plan, which not only strengthens teacher practices through skills, but also through motivation and passion.

Stay interviews with our staff have been really valuable. I reach out personally to educators by email with no obligation, just a confidential conversation to understand challenges and opportunities. I have discovered that the same things that frustrate our teachers are often the same things frustrating me as Superintendent. When I can say ‘this matters to me too’, it creates shared understanding and a realistic acknowledgment of where things are on the priority list.

We all carry around assumptions about things. When you have been around for a while you have a hard time forgetting and seeing things and people anew. These conversations give folks an opportunity to make suggestions we might be able to implement quickly. They have led to passion projects for some, leadership pathways for others. We also do coffee cart visits, showing up in classrooms with refreshments for chats that are not about work, just appreciation.

On the teaching and learning side, during COVID we were seeing more students struggling with core and knew we would be adopting high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). These can be cookie-cutter approaches that do not allow for the true art and personalization of teaching. Our four schools took on different focus areas: deeper learning at the middle school, applied learning at the high school, science of reading and SRSD writing at the elementary level. This created a lack of coherence where we couldn’t talk about a singular vision.

So we embarked on creating an instructional framework through engaging thousands of voices. We identified representative educators from different buildings and pulled in folks who love assessment and instruction. We found our most respected teacher leaders and asked: what common elements from our past actually worked? Their responses provide credibility while allowing flexibility as we focus on power standards rooted in evidence. This brought everyone back to the table with a common language.

Now when teachers attend professional learning, they are getting something pragmatic they can use tomorrow, differentiated by what they want to improve, not just their grade level or content area. People want to grow, but they also want to be seen and adequately supported in that growth."