Michael Conner: [00:00:00] Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and welcome to another episode of Voices for Excellence. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Conner, CEO, and founder of the Agile Evolutionary Group, and of course, the proud host of VFE. And thank you for tuning into our episode within the Black Excellence Series. Of course

Michael Conner: happy Black History Month and we are highlighting black excellence across the country during this month of February, celebrating black excellence within education. And today's guest, yes, he, he, he, he exemplifies black excellence all the way around. I have known Brian Roberson for about four years now.

Michael Conner: Right. Dating back when we first met at TABSE. And of course, I love him not only as, just as an educator, as a person, he is a part of the oldest, the coldest, the greatest fraternity in the world. Alpha Phi Alpha [00:01:00] Fraternity Incorporated. Yes. My, my, my bro, as we always say, you know, not only, you know, is he just a great alpha man.

Michael Conner: He's leading that, the leadership of what he's doing in the state of Texas with Alpha Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. He's the state historian at the regional level. He's the chairman of the time and place committee and he's also the chapter president as well. But we're gonna talk a little bit about that.

Michael Conner: His work within the fraternity, specifically how he's really, really changing the face of education in the state of Texas. Brian Roberson, he is the executive director and consultant for the Educational Leader Shift, not Ship Leader shift Advisors, and also leadership coach at the instructional empowerment company.

Michael Conner: And then also he serves on the board for Alvin ISD. So all the way around, whether it be the work within the fraternity, his work as a board member, ensuring that governance is generating student outcomes, [00:02:00] and then also really impacting the leadership's landscape. So without further ado, we wanna welcome Brian Roberson, Brian K.

Michael Conner: Roberson, the second. Love that man, you know, from the great state of Texas. What's going on? R, how are you

Brian Roberson: all this? Well, all is well. We made it over to 2026, so I'm excited.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. Glad to, glad to have you on. Glad to see you, man. I saw you at NABSE this past year. It was just excellent. Just every time I see you, I know that I'm going to see Brian Roberson two times a year.

Michael Conner: I gotta see him. I gotta see him more. I always see him at the NABSE conference. Always see him at the TABSE conference. But I gotta see my fraternity brother, my brother in education a little bit more. But we are happy to have you on Voices for Excellence. We've been talking about this for a few years now.

Brian Roberson: Now I'm here

Michael Conner: now. Now, now you're here. So let, let's listen. Let I want everybody to see your expertise. I want everybody to unpack, or [00:03:00] everybody to really understand your intellectual property, your domain expertise, when it comes to leadership. When it comes to governance. But moreover, when it comes to impact and black and brown students specifically, we're gonna focus on black students for this month with black history.

Michael Conner: So let's get this started. But. Brian, everybody knows who you are. Ev everyone. When I was at taf, when I was at NABSE, man, I was standing next to you and it was like we couldn't walk without 10 steps without somebody coming up to you, speaking to you. But you know, your work is, and that really just exemplifies your work, how you've impacted education in the state of Texas, and of course nationally within NABSE, which for my audience is the National Alliance of Black School Educators.

Michael Conner: But for those that do not know the educational governance work, uh, Brian K. Roberson ii, what song describes your leadership signature impact in influence in the education ecosystem?

Brian Roberson: Me and songs and music is, it might be interesting, [00:04:00] I think in 2026, I'd say the song is, I'm Still Standing by Elton John.

Brian Roberson: And it's, I'm still standing better than I ever did, looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid. I think when we look at the work that we do, there's so much that's pressing against us. It's so many factors that are working against many of our institutions. You need strong governance. You need strong leaders to stand in the gap and let folks know, I'm still standing, not just for myself, but I'm still standing for you.

Brian Roberson: I'm still standing up for the entities that I was appointed or elected or hired to serve. I'm still standing by you. I'm still standing for you. And so when I think about that, and I'm a big Elton John fan, I would definitely say I'm still standing. Is that song I could go down the River of Dreams with Billy Joel, or sometimes you're the Piano Man is the Saturday is nine o'clock and you're just sitting there, uh, playing tunes.

Brian Roberson: But I, I would definitely say, uh, I'm still [00:05:00] standing is the theme and has been the theme for me for the last few years as we've gone through. Uh, a multitude of challenges.

Michael Conner: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and Brian, when that, it resonates with me because, you know, I know that song very, very intimately. I'm still standing and you talked about these factors, right?

Michael Conner: And when I look at these factors and these drivers in education that are, that's really shifting the paradigm within the model. We we're, we're in this paradox, right? This, this flux of what does education look like specifically when we think about it from a governance standpoint, when we think about it.

Michael Conner: From a, a leadership standpoint, when we think about classroom instruction, pedagogy, all of the shifts that we have to be intentional about and including, I always like to say the, the organizational and community noise that impact the focus around. The key drivers and the key [00:06:00] forces that really have to penetrate forward for us to really create this envir, this learning environment, this operating model that's in alignment with generation, alpha, generation, beta.

Michael Conner: We haven't even, Brian, when we think about it, you know, from a leadership standpoint, we need to talk more about who our students are, who are most important customers, and they have radically shift. They are the antithesis. Of anything from our generation or even before. So yes, we have to continue to stand with all these multitude, these compounding factors that you had alluded to that's around this conglomerate that has complexity and novelty embedded in it.

Michael Conner: And that's why your work is so important, Brian. And right now you're serving as the executive director and consultant for educational leader shift advisors. I want to, you know, emphasize leader shift, because we're gonna unpack that and I wanna, you know, really hear those isolated nodes around what leadership, what leadership looks like.

Michael Conner: And additionally, [00:07:00] you serve as a leadership coach at instructional empowerment. Now the, the threads, right? I always like to say the impact threads of these entities. Transformation of instructional systems. Leadership capacity and lamenting pedagogical efficacy that is underpinned with these evidence-based methodologies.

Michael Conner: Wow. Brian, your work is, is loaded, is absolutely loaded. But for our audience, what I want you to do, Brian, is segment leadership and leadership. I, I, I mean when, when, when I saw that, I was like, is that interface, is it siloed? Can it be interdependent in certain dynamics? But again, I want you to really segment leadership and leadership in the context of black and brown learners to be AC 2035 ready in the AC stage of education, which is after COVID

Brian Roberson: when I look at the two, so my work with [00:08:00] instructional empowerment, luckily, and I'd say luckily, uh, I've been able to shift more from instructional empowerment more to educational leader shift because.

Brian Roberson: I started it a few years ago. I think I was my second or third year as a principal, and I said I wanted to do more. I wanted to do impactful work. I saw that I was, I'm always at a conference, and then I, I went from just being an attendee at a conference to a presenter at a conference, and we have an organization called the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals here in Texas, and it represents all the secondary administrators.

Brian Roberson: Well, I used to be the region four coordinator, which represented probably 23% of all of the educators or administrators in the state. Region four was the largest region in the state of Texas. And so I would be at the conference and I would put in to present. Well, I've been to the conference for years and I would always see [00:09:00] these smaller rooms, and I was like, I, I hope I can pack out the little small room.

Brian Roberson: Well, one of my administrators that I took with me, he said, Roberson. You don't have one of the small rooms, I think they put you at one of the bigger rooms, which the smaller room's, probably 30 seats. The larger room is 200. And I said I, they're trying to embarrass me. 'cause at the same conference and at the same time, principal Kale was presented and I wanted to skip my own training to go to his, uh, luckily I've seen him enough to where I, okay, I can miss this one.

Brian Roberson: I'll catch you on the next one. And I was just nervous. I was nervous about going into this room and presenting. And what I was presenting on was the first time I brought up the term educational leader shift and it talked about the challenges of being a leader and how do we prepare. And so when I think about my role in education, I started clearly as a student, but I was a special education student.

Brian Roberson: I had an [00:10:00] IEP for eight or nine years until, uh, my ninth grade teacher said, you don't need this. You can be successful. I said, I've been trying to tell them this for years, but they never really asked for my input in the arts. Um, but we got to that point, I went from a sped student to a, a general ed student, to a college student to back to public schools, and I started as a substitute, then a special education paraprofessional, then as a special education teacher, a speech and debate coach, a football and track coach, an assistant associate, and then two time principal.

Brian Roberson: And the, the National Alliance of Black School Educator, a 2022 principal of the year. And this journey was all in about a 14, 15 year span. But in it, as we moved up that ladder of leadership, there was challenges, there were setbacks. I went from this district and I learned things and I took it to this district and I learned things and, and that promotion you thought you were gonna get coming here, actually came there [00:11:00] in that leadership journey.

Brian Roberson: There were many shifts. What I saw as an African American male educator and what I saw as an advocate for our black and brown students in our school systems, not many people are prepared for the shifts that happen for them or to us. And so I said we, we have to be more clear and speak out more about how to prepare leaders for the shift, not just the ship.

Brian Roberson: See, we're all on the ship and the ship gets rocky, but when there is a shift, how do you respond? How do you do what is best for our kids? When we look at the annual, um, uh, data, uh, data, or hopefully you're not just looking at it annually, but when you're looking at that data throughout the year, when we see that certain demographics are not performing or they're underperforming, how are we going to shift our plan?

Brian Roberson: How are we gonna shift our thinking? How are we gonna do [00:12:00] something different and provide, uh, for those. Scholars what they need to be successful. And so the work I was able to do with instructional empowerment, I was in the Midwest and it, it took me out of Texas to see education through a different lens.

Brian Roberson: And when you go state to state, you see some things. I'm like, that's a different challenge. Or I have the skillset I could help turn this school around. Because the challenges for them are successes back home. But if that's all, you know, if you're a high school in South Bend, and these are your challenges, and these are y'all's challenges, this is, this is light work back home.

Brian Roberson: Let me give you some strategies. And those strategies help take a school from, I believe it was a 66% graduation rate to 86% in one year. Sometimes it's just building systems and, and building procedures in, in identifying who needs to be at the table and progress [00:13:00] monitoring that. And so. If I think about leadership, we all are leaders.

Brian Roberson: We're all leaders in some capacity. But are we a leader that can respond to the shift? There's economic shifts, there's demographic shifts, there's academic shifts, there's, oh, there's a world of political shifts. There's funding shifts, there's staffing shifts, there's attitude shifts, there's parental guidance shifts.

Brian Roberson: There's policy and safety shifts. What are you gonna do to respond? And in many cases, we say, I don't know what to do because I didn't have a transformational leader training me on how to respond. And so when I think about that, we've seen so many shifts coming into the school from above, but there's a lot of shifts that have come through the front door, and that's our young people.

Brian Roberson: The education SEC sector has changed. What is required for them to be successful has. [00:14:00] Change. We have kids that are more dependent on things that 20 years ago we didn't have, I didn't have to have a cell phone until my senior year. It was a, I think it was a car phone. And the only thing you can do on it was Play snake.

Brian Roberson: Now at the fingertip this morning, my 10-year-old dad, can I have my phone? You don't need it. Go and focus on the first day of, of this spring semester. Go, go be Dad. Can I have my laptop? No, it's sitting on my desk. You'll get it when you get back home. Our kids have gotten so dependent on these tools, tools that can help transform the educational, uh, environment.

Brian Roberson: But they need training on how to use the tools. I was a communication major as an undergrad and there was this one quote, uh, I think the guy was Marshall McKellen or something, but it says, we shape our tools and in turn our tools shape us. And back then I didn't get it, but I liked it. The last 20 years I've seen it and I've lived it.

Brian Roberson: We've made these devices, we've, we, we [00:15:00] purchased these devices. There's, there's programmers who have designed these devices, but now these devices are designing our way of life and how much time we spend on, on task and off task. And so it, it very much has impacted us. Do we know how to respond? And that's the work that I wanna lead.

Brian Roberson: And so it's in, in some parts it is advocacy work. In many parts it's advocacy work and advocacy looks different for some, as I'm writing the, the final pages of this dissertation, my title shifted. And I think when I started, I wanted to talk about discipline, but that was typical for African American man to talk about discipline in schools.

Brian Roberson: But it was a success story. I took over a school and discipline dropped by 47% in one year alone. So the school that was the gang I confession, they had the weapons and no one wanted to go there. People were fighting to come and work there because we built culture and we told kids, your ex, [00:16:00] uh, your, your behaviors will change before my expectations for you, you, you'll change before my expectations.

Brian Roberson: And the kids met us where we needed them to meet us, and we took them to where they needed to go. And so I started on that, but then I shifted because I saw the shift that were going on in education for particular groups. One particular group was one that I'm a part of African American male principles.

Brian Roberson: And so being a part of NABSE and being a part of TABSE when we do our Men on a Mission or the Men of Iron Series, and we bring all of these black and brown men into the room and talk about issues facing us and how we navigate those challenges. Because many times folks will say, why do you need organizations like that?

Brian Roberson: Or these, because you have a black or a Brown or Hispanic or any demographic in the title. It's a racist organization. No, because. I'll tell you, when I went to the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals, there wasn't as many principals that looked [00:17:00] like me. There wasn't intentionality behind it.

Brian Roberson: And so when I sat in the room and I talked about my challenges, there were people that looked at me like, well, that's your lot. We're fine over here. But when I go to the conference conferences that were uniquely designed, intentionally designed to bring thought partners and leaders together that have the similar challenges in how we can build each other up, we're empowering each other.

Brian Roberson: And I'm sitting there and I'm like, I want to continue to advocate because I'm in lots of rooms, but I know it's not too many people that look like me or speak like me or think like me in these rooms. So how do we open that door? And so the shift, as you may have heard at nabs e, we always talk about, the research says that African American male educators are two.

Brian Roberson: Well, the research updated would say it's now 1.7%. It's dwindling. But when we [00:18:00] take that group picture at NABSE or at TABSE EI say, y'all, we need to show them that we are more than 2%. Our impact is more than 2%. And so I updated my dissertation to more than 2% the lived experiences of African American male principals and the hiring practices that affect career development.

Brian Roberson: Because as you go into the research and, and all, all, when you look at all the dissertations, it always goes back to brown versus board. And what happened to our school systems after brown versus board. Many folks will say, well, separate but equal. I have this view and I have this view. Well, in some communities, predominantly African American schools led by predominantly African American educators, predominantly African American principals and superintendent.

Brian Roberson: They were thriving in their own community. They were thriving, but they just did not have a fair shot at the facilities and the infrastructure and the resources. But they were [00:19:00] loved and they were cared for. We just didn't have the same environment in the facilities. And so now that we saw, let's combine, well, I'm gonna take the students, but I don't have to take all of the educators.

Brian Roberson: And so we'll take the students and we'll combine. But that principal, I'll make you the football coach and that black superintendent, we, we, we might put you in operations or you'll be an assistant principal. And so you saw back in 1954 and the decline has continued. The, the black excellence within our school systems have dropped 'cause we didn't continue to build systems to build it back up and to foster that growth and to foster that career development.

Brian Roberson: And so you, you, you, you, you further get into the research and you see where we are now. It, it speaks to our minority students. Are at an advantage when they have persons of color in the school, whether leading or in the classroom. [00:20:00] But the research also says all students perform better when you have a diverse staff.

Brian Roberson: And so it is not to isolate, well, if I get a black man in the school in some capacity by black boys, you're going to do good. They'll do well. Black girls, Hispanic girls, black boys, white, white. All students improve because of the diversity and, and the experiences in the worldview that they're being exposed to.

Brian Roberson: And I think in many cases we are going backwards. And you have young people growing up in a world soon facing challenges that they're not well equipped to face 'cause they were sheltered or cut off from the experiences or the worldview that they'll need in just a couple years. And I think we are, we're, we're hurting them.

Brian Roberson: That's on the social side, but we're hurting them on the academic side because they're not learning. They're not learning the things they need about the people they need to know and know [00:21:00] about to make an impact. Um, it was, it was one district, I think that was a part of, and we said we were preparing students to be global citizens.

Brian Roberson: Well, that, that sounds different now. Do they know how to be a global citizen? Because the globe is becoming isolated. And so you're not learning about the world views, you're not learning about the other, uh, geopolitics and, and unless you just watch the news, but it, it's so slanted to where our young people don't know how to form their opinion.

Brian Roberson: Let me give you a set of information and let you sit with it. I want you to form an opinion. Now, folks are getting agenda points and talking points, and. It's, it's vastly slanting what goes on in our schools all the way to the elementary level, the election. Some schools, they have mock elections at the, at, at, at the, uh, the base level.

Brian Roberson: And my kids [00:22:00] at the time was nine and five, and they said who they were gonna vote for. And this candidate isn't good because he says this, that, and the other. And this can, uh, candidate is good because she unites and she's nice and pleasant and, and she, she cares about people. Our kids are seeing this. A 5-year-old told me who he wanted to vote for.

Brian Roberson: I said, I'm gonna actually take your advice. I voted for the same person. So our kids are seeing and developing at a fast rate, but are they developing in the areas and on the topics that we need? I, we, we started this about music. We have kids that will learn a song and the corresponding TikTok dance to go with it in 10 minutes.

Brian Roberson: It concepts in their classrooms that they've been struggling all semester. They may fail short on that Algebra one test, on that English two exam or on US history because it's not clicking. What do we need to do [00:23:00] to respond to the shifts that we've seen in public, private charter school? I don't care which educational system it is.

Brian Roberson: We've seen a shift. How do we respond?

Michael Conner: Well, well, well stated profound and I, I, I took a lot of notes and just extracted some of the themes from your answer. And, and Brian, I think that now we have to be super intentional with how we're shifting the dynamics in education. I, to my audience, Brian gave a really high level answer.

Michael Conner: Where he part and parceled leadership and leader shift nicely. And when I think about it, and as BBriant was unpacking his thoughts, we have to be intentional with the shift with the [00:24:00] various dimensions in education. You know, you, you highlight various themes, but I kept going back to my 22nd century education model.

Michael Conner: Right. And as you were providing your answer, I kept identifying specific indicators that we need to intentionally shift to integrate into the model. And when we think about generation alpha, generation beta, they are the two most generation beta, they're the two most diverse generations of mankind. When we think about generation Alpha right now, 20, I think the, now the, the, the data is saying that 29% of our students.

Michael Conner: Generation alpha are two or more races. So when we think about that, and this is up when, I think it was about 15 years ago, I was looking at it. It was in single digits roughly at 8%. So, and this was Gen Z. So when we think about that, you talk about the diversity, you [00:25:00] talk about the intentionality with hiring practices, you talk about infrastructure and resources, new pedagogical approaches within our classrooms, preparing teachers and leaders for that.

Michael Conner: That is a seismic shift that we have to underscore in education, specifically being intentional with regards to how we're doing the necessary shifts, sharing next in class practices. But more importantly, when I think about shifts, I underscore or I correlate causality. Correlation. We could talk about at high level to my researchers, though, argue it.

Michael Conner: But when I think about this causality, correlation, leader shift. Correlates systemically with transformation, right? And within that leader shift we have to, the, the hardest part around leader shift thing and transformation is the unlearning of the old practices. And Brian, you [00:26:00] contextualized that perfectly.

Michael Conner: And I loved how you talked about culture, right? Being a intentional around the culture. But I think there's an essential question that you present it, that every educator need to ask. Do we know how to respond to the shifts within the education model? That right there could be three or four different episodes.

Michael Conner: Brian, Bo I mean, what the, is and with that appreciate you

Brian Roberson: if, if something you just said unlearning the old practices. And, and this is, this goes into the governance work I serve on the school board. I was elected last year. Where in 100 years, I'm only the third person that have the shade of skin that I have.

Brian Roberson: And the district went 96 years before we elected the first one. So I'm just the third African American to serve on the board and the first African American to serve as the board vice president. So [00:27:00] we're making progress there, but there's been times where we've had conversations and well, that's not the way we do things here.

Brian Roberson: Or that's not the normal process, or that's not governance. That's not governance through your lens. And that's not the way that you've done things here and that's not the focus that you've had. But when we think about the way that we do things often have to advocate and bring into the space for 96 years, 96% of the history of our district.

Brian Roberson: You didn't have to deal with a perspective like mine at this level. You didn't have to deal with conversations, you didn't have to hear it outside of public comments for three minutes and you don't have to respond to them. And so it's different when you have individuals at the at the table forcing. And it is a force.

Brian Roberson: Now, we can't keep going with the old practices 'cause the old practices did not include myself or the kids [00:28:00] that I have. It didn't include it. So now we're gonna be much more intentional about these conversations and I'm gonna provide to you these perspectives that you probably may not have gotten had I not sat here on this board.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. And Brian, if you think about it, and we're gonna touch upon governance and your role and what we're seeing within boards across the country, state of Texas. But you, you hit upon a point that. Resonates with me, and I think that's, it's this confluence that we're seeing now more than ever because of the generational shift of our learners, is that the model designed the model construct construction of education.

Michael Conner: If we think about it from a historical perspective, it wasn't designed for black and brown learners. If you think about it, and that's where now where we see these exacerbations, right, within [00:29:00] achievement, you know, there's tension around culturally responsive practices and culturally responsive pedagogy.

Michael Conner: Because of now what we're seeing, you know, in the political landscape across the United States. I mean, when we think about that, having that be it 90 years, right? And now you're bringing in what I like to say, the voice, the antithesis, right? To be able to challenge the system so that now we can create ambidextrous structures that are in alignment for all.

Michael Conner: Brian, you hit upon some, some great points, but I want to, I wanna stay there where, you know, you are the vice chair for Alvin ISD. Right? We're, we're, great job with that, Brian. Thank you for your work. But we're seeing, right, we're, we're seeing nationally, these tensions with implementation, vitality, processes of governance.

Michael Conner: Mm-hmm. Right? More than ever, specifically when we're talking about [00:30:00] adhering to a, a governance model where it's structured around. Organizational priorities and academic outcomes. This is where now your voice is challenging the current construct because you're bringing in that diverse perspective, that lens that looks at systems differently, which we need, but with your deep understanding of both parallels, right?

Michael Conner: We're gonna get into the parallel. When you were 2022 nsi, super principal of the year, you've seen it from two Dynamics as a board member and then also as an an educator. How do we achieve governance coherence, where the focus is on leveraging strategic priorities, leveraging, let's say, your operating model, ensuring that all students are learning, ensuring that all students are a part of the conversation in partnership with your superintendent of schools, where now.

Michael Conner: The focus is not on what I like to say, organizational or [00:31:00] community noise, but the focus is back to the signals, which is the core priorities within the work.

Brian Roberson: I always say keep the main thing. The main thing. When I campaigned, I say keep the main thing the main thing. And it was effective because when you see, especially now, you have candidates running for school board and they're putting Republican or Democrat on their campaign material, and it's a nonpartisan role.

Brian Roberson: It never mattered your political party up until the last maybe 10 or years, uh, 10 years or so, people would come up and ask, are you a liberal or a conservative? And I said, it is 2025. What do even any one of those even mean anymore? Because what I used to learn, it ain't what I see. But I would ask our constituents when they would vote, what is your issue?

Brian Roberson: And I'll answer your issue. Don't box me in. Tell me your issue. And it was at times about [00:32:00] restrooms and, and who can go in the restroom. I said, well, typically we use restrooms based on what the student information system says your gender is. And they have a marker on the wall and you go to that corresponding Anything out of that falls outside of the student code of conduct.

Brian Roberson: Now, if the laws change, if the policies change, we follow whatever the governing bodies tell us to follow. But it, it is relatively simple. But what do you think about folks in in sports? I said, honestly, I never really cared about it until I was a football coach. I was a head freshman, football coach, and it was a young lady that played nose temple for our opposing team and she was getting after my interior guards at the end of the game, I had to give her a high five.

Brian Roberson: And I said, so that's the first time I ever experienced that and more power to her. But when we want to get that alignment, I think we have to ensure now that I'm on the board. I bring a, I have a perspective, I have a expertise, [00:33:00] I have a background. But what you must match that with is school leaders, instructional leaders that are welcome to that feedback or expertise or that knowledge.

Brian Roberson: And I think what can be a challenge for superintendents is interesting. I come from a background where I know many superintendents, I know many board members. I'm an educator, but I'm not an educator at the age of where I've retired. And I think TRS say, I still got another 20 years before I can get my max, so I'm gonna be around.

Brian Roberson: And so you have in a practitioner that is now on the board, engaged in the work, going to the conferences, having the network. It can be a challenge for superintendents because it can be, but it also can be an opportunity for superintendents. When we were at NABSE was talking about some of the challenges and what we need to do in our schools and how we need to respond and how we need to [00:34:00] prepare our instructional leaders and how we need to support our shared leaders and how we can better support our teachers so that our kids are being taken care of.

Brian Roberson: And the superintendent, when we were in Chicago, she shared, Brian, I would love to have you on my school board because I could go to you and I know that you could break it down and unpack it and provide the one pagers for your fellow boards the time I don't have to walk you through. You got it. And you could break it down and, and you have a perspective to let them know, guys, we need to support this, or No, I don't think this is in the best interest of our, our campus when I say campus adults and students on a campus, but you have to be a leader who wants that.

Brian Roberson: And, and there's times I could tell you, I've had suggestions and I'll look into it. Okay, we'll get to it later. And I'm still waiting to get to it. And it's that challenge. It is also the ideology when you have been a part of the [00:35:00] system or systems. I mean, we look at it globally across the nation. You know what you know and you don't know what you don't know.

Brian Roberson: But when we see leaders of different generations and year in, I got 10 years left, I got two years left. They used to tell me as a kid, you don't teach a old dog a new trick, or That dog just ain't willing. We have to come to this shared space and keep the main thing, the main thing. And that is our kids and the educators that serve them.

Brian Roberson: Many times our, our boardroom say, I'm here for the kids. I'm here for the kids and the educators that served them because I was an educator that served the kids. I was also a kid. And I know the impact that they need. I know the resources that they need so that we can take care of our kids. So when we look at curriculum, is our curriculum relevant?

Brian Roberson: Is, is our curriculum relevant for all learners? When I say all, I actually mean each and every learner. So when you say all, it's easy for us to lump everyone into [00:36:00] this room. I came back to convocation as a principal and I said I wanted it to be like a TED Talk. I came from behind the curtain and I just started talking and I talked for seven to eight minutes.

Brian Roberson: I'm good at that. So I came out and I told the staff, I said, I miss all of y'all this whole summer. I've just missed all of y'all. And I said, I'm sorry. No, I don't. And their face dropped. I said, I don't miss all of y'all. I miss each and every one of you. Their head turns like, what's the difference? I said, see if I missed all of you.

Brian Roberson: I just miss the staff being in the building. But if I miss each and every one of you, I miss Mr. Toos saying in the hallway on a Thursday, it's Friday even. We're gonna have FUN. Fun, fun, fun. And I miss Ms. Williams going in every day at fourth period, she was burning the popcorn. Mr. Clark coming in and I don't drink a lot of coffee, but I knew he was at work because the coffee maker was on.

Brian Roberson: It's those small [00:37:00] things because I see you as you as an individual and not just my staff, and we have to see our kids that way. And so after I did that opening, by the end, they got it. I said, I don't want us to do what's best for all kids. I need us to do what's best for each and every kid. Because if I do it by each and every, I'm intentional.

Brian Roberson: I'm gonna make sure that Michael got what he needed and Brian is getting the supports. And I'm not just gonna say, all of y'all work on this and turn it in. No. Intentionality. So we need to be intentional for what we're providing our schools. It's not always cookie cutter, one school on one side of town, one school in one borough.

Brian Roberson: They're gonna need different levels of support. We can't go with a model of, I'm gonna give you the same amount of staff as I give you. How many staff members do they need to achieve the goal that we want them to achieve? It's hard to set a goal for someone to say, I want you to meet this and I'm not gonna provide you with the rule, uh, uh, the resources and tools to get there.

Brian Roberson: And that's the high level. But when we get back [00:38:00] into the classroom, is the curriculum relevant for our learners? Is it something that they can grasp onto? Are we using math equations or are math? You know, I always said I was getting math until they started adding literature into it. They started putting Fs and Xs and equal signs, and I was like, I was good with just the twos and the fours, but they added literature and, and, and, and, and punctuation.

Brian Roberson: I said, this is, they're mixing it up on me. We have kids that are reading problems. This is in math, this is in science, this is in history, and they don't connect because the name doesn't connect with any name that they've ever heard or that that circumstance. They've never went to a store like that and they never had that much money and lost $4 and had to try to figure out what was the, it's not relevant for them, so how do we bring it in?

Brian Roberson: Intentional lies get intentional about what we're doing and it, it comes from our educators being able to [00:39:00] internalize those lessons prior to them giving it out. Our instructions need to have a certain level of control over what they provided. I was great at recruiting teachers because when they would ask me, well, can you tell me about my campus?

Brian Roberson: I say, can you tell me about you? 'cause you are my campus. You are the one that's gonna make the difference. I look for quality educators. I don't look for cookie cutters. See, you got into this profession because you had a love for teaching. I wanna find those folks, and I'm not gonna tell you how to teach.

Brian Roberson: I'm just gonna say, I know these things need to be taught, but you came into this profession with a love and a passion. I don't wanna take your love and passion by saying, you have to follow this. Can you ensure our kids know this? And can you ensure that they can meet these benchmarks by this time? Now you might have to modify and internalize this lesson a little bit different than the teacher down the hallway.

Brian Roberson: Can y'all get to this place at the same time using your individual style? [00:40:00] And overwhelmingly, my teacher said I can do that, but if I just read this script. This isn't my script. And so I, I, I have to go back over it because I, I have to. When a kid asks a question and he has a misconception, I have to look at it, okay, it was asked this way, how do I respond?

Brian Roberson: I want you to be you. And once you be yourself, I want you to be the best version of yourself because if you can be the best version of yourself every now and again, we're all blessed as a consequence of that. And so that's the alignment, that's the intentional focus, that from the governance piece, what are we doing to ensuring that our kids are getting quality instruction?

Brian Roberson: What are we doing to ensure that our, uh, our, our students have quality curriculum and our teachers provide, and if they say they need additional supports, additional manipulatives, additional instructional materials, what do we need to do to provide that for them? We got money in the bank. I don't care what Shorty Bank, we have money [00:41:00] in the bank.

Brian Roberson: Let's make sure that it gets down to the. Campus level so that they can do what they need. But it's also the development piece. Um, in some districts they believe in, let's bring in thought partners and bring in pd or let's send our folks to the best and we're gonna pay to send them. But make sure you bring it back home and share out in other districts.

Brian Roberson: Well, the things I've heard, our taxpayers don't like to see us at conferences. If your taxpayers don't like to see you at a conference, it's probably 'cause you went to it and you didn't bring anything back. They didn't see anything of value. So if you went somewhere and you got all the fun, and you got all the learning, and you got all the materials to enrich your learning, but you didn't bring it back and provide it, yeah, you need to sit right there and, and, oh.

Brian Roberson: We don't need to shut it off for everybody [00:42:00] else. Give that next person that, that, that at bat, that shot to go out and learn. At the conferences that I attend, I learned so much. And now being in a different role, I learned from fellow board members. I learned from fellow superintendents in your district on the north side of Texas or on the East Texas or in Mississippi, how are you handling this?

Brian Roberson: Or when this agenda item comes, how are you responding? We have to have those thought partners and so we have to get outside of our box because I think the pressures and policies have boxed us in, but you have to think outside of your box, and that's a part of the leader shift

Brian Roberson: model as

Brian Roberson: well.

Michael Conner: Brian, excellent answer.

Michael Conner: And I I, I'll say this right, Al and ISD is very lucky to have you and my, and again, that's objective and subjective and the objectivity within the answer is you're bringing a practitioner lens to the board. Where now you're [00:43:00] truly ensuring that your governance model, governance by definition, has a strategic differentiated impact on your students, on your schools, on your leaders.

Michael Conner: Where now you're changing a mindset that I think that's a universal mindset where we don't like our superintendent, we don't like our leaders going to conferences. However, you're shifting the narrative where, no, what's the value add that comes back into the learning organization that's going to impact instructional leadership, that's going to impact and leader shift in the context of relevancy within curriculum, relevancy within systems, ensuring that interventions and preventions are in alignment to.

Michael Conner: The attributes, the characteristics of our students, and to prepare our leaders to ensure relevancy from instruction all the way up to curriculum is important. [00:44:00] Uh, you, you use one word, you use one word that resonates with me. Alignment. And when we talk about board governance alignment, now we're talking about improving the quality.

Michael Conner: That's a loose word, abstract the extraction within quality by definition on an individual context, improving the effectiveness of the board, creating that level of coherence with regards to this level of efficacy within your governance model. Brian, I I want to second that from a, a subjective lens that, that with the superintendent said, I, I wish I had a practitioner like you, because guess what you're doing implicitly and explicitly, you're bringing that level of leadership rigor from the superintendent.

Michael Conner: Then the reciprocity of that rigor from a governance model is a, i I, I like to say it's that intersectionality with that, Brian. Great, great, great answer. First I wanna say, I, I, I, I've said this to you over, but [00:45:00] I wanna say this publicly now. Congratulations. 2022 National Superintendent of the Year from NABSE.

Michael Conner: Wow. And then this past nse at the 53rd Annual Conference, you moderated the Men of Iron Leadership and mentoring event. Right. You, your, your accomplishments are, are just, I mean, it, it, it, it speaks for itself, but I wanna merge both from the context of you being the national superintendent, uh, principal of the year for nsi and then moderating this.

Michael Conner: Uh, this was one of the heavy, heavy, heavy hitting events. You know, the, the Men of Iron Leadership and mentoring event. Taking the nodes of you, the dynamics of instructional leadership, culture, shift, intentionality, making sure each teacher, I love that. You know, I don't miss ya. I miss each and every one of you mentoring black and brown leaders, this mentor of iron leadership and mentoring event.[00:46:00]

Michael Conner: What are you seeing in the dynamics of leadership within the educational space? What were the emergent themes? And I want you to bring in your lived leadership experience as well. What were the emergent themes that you were hearing with regards to the leaders that were in that room? And what is the necessary mentoring mechanisms for this leader shift that's needed at the AC stage of education?

Brian Roberson: So, so this year's theme, uh, the, the overarching theme was it's somewhere ex elevating our schools through governance and education and. The governance piece because I, I'm on the school board, but we also had the board president from Chicago Public Schools there where we were, um, being hosted. And then the rest of the group were dynamic educators, many serving as superintendents.

Brian Roberson: And the, the, the intentionality of it is heavy because you have these powerful men coming together, pouring back [00:47:00] into fellow practitioners of varying levels in our school systems. And so since I've been able to lead that event the last couple years, I've been very intentional. 'cause going back to when I was principal of the year, I always said one of the most disheartening things I ever see as educators and, and, and many times men of color, but really anybody, you made it to the top, you got this big award and you weren't patient enough, or you didn't take the time to pour into fellow educators and tell 'em how you got there.

Brian Roberson: One year at TABSE shared. When you ask other folks that have been successful retiring superintendents, and can you tell me about your journey? Can you tell me how you got there? And there was one guy that said, man, you just just keep saying good morning. And, and another senior educator said, well, you just put one pants leg on at a time.

Brian Roberson: And I, I snapped. I said, I've been getting dressed like that my whole doggone [00:48:00] life, but I'm still in this situation. I still haven't done this and I still haven't. And it was, it was crazy. But I said, we have to put each other in the room and we have to, uh, talk and we have to share what does it look like.

Brian Roberson: And so I've been intentional about who gets a seat on that panel because I've seen educators that got the big awards and they'll come and it's all about them. In our, our field, you have some folks, they're the, the, the main folks. We keep highlighting and we keep putting 'em up there and we keep giving 'em another plaque.

Brian Roberson: They're receiving the plaque, but they're not giving the people anything, anything of value that they can take back and say, yeah, I met this great person. I, I took a picture with 'em, but they didn't say anything about their journey. It's like, it's just reading the bio. Keep it real because times are real for us.

Brian Roberson: And so on that panel, you have these superintendents and the questions we ask, we, [00:49:00] we had superintendents from Texas, from Arkansas, from Wisconsin, from Ohio, from, I know I said Arkansas, but also Denver. So you have this, this, this diverse group that have different challenges, different challenges with instruction, different challenges with.

Brian Roberson: Immigration, different challenges with funding. And so what I wanted the, the, the people to hear was how are they navigating those challenges from their seat through their lens, with their perspective after they've had their journey? How can we learn from that model? How can we pour into each other? How do you sustain that success?

Brian Roberson: How do you navigate that success? How do you find that success, especially being a person of color. But then the mentoring part, I stopped asking questions at a certain point. I had my, my stuff scripted. And normally I don't [00:50:00] script my questions 'cause I've done enough research on the panel to where I just sit there and I start leading into a question and the person they know, wait, hold on.

Brian Roberson: That happened in my town last month. It's coming to me. And so it's, it's been, it's been organic. Many times they'll ask, can you send me the questions ahead of time? We're still working on it. No, we're not. I wanna have a real conversation because if, if I over study my answer, it's gonna be scripted. I want, I wanna, I want it to be real because our folks that are sitting in the audience, they need it real.

Brian Roberson: And so this is where the mentor piece come. I stop asking my question guys. It's folks in this attendance. You come to these conferences, you pay this money, you, you're getting this pd. But did you get to ask your question? So the time that we have allotted, what's your question from your lens? And one of the questions came in talking about discipline and, and juvenile [00:51:00] systems and others talked about how do you prepare for this role?

Brian Roberson: And if you're a athletic coach, how do you prepare to be an administrator? That's where the mentoring pieces come in because now you're getting this real advice. And I asked this question that many times, we don't ask superintendents, what was your teaching position? We went one by one and one superintendent said, I was an elementary school teacher, and, and one superintendent said I was a PE coach.

Brian Roberson: And I said, that's why you talk so loud all the time. It it like, because we have fun up there. But you, I was a sped teacher. I, I worked at and see many times you get folks to that level that no one ever asked them, what were you when you were in the classroom? Because I need to humanize you so that these folks know that the position that you're currently in, they were there, but now we're gonna talk about the steps to how to elevate you and get you to where you need to be.

Brian Roberson: And so we, we've, we've changed the, the board. I I, sometimes I have the same person come back two years in a row, but I've [00:52:00] been intentional about who we put in front of. Our educators, because I want somebody that can really bring something that can pour into them, that can mentor. And many times when we finish and we take that big picture, the folks from the audience, they go to the select superintendents that what they said resonated with them.

Brian Roberson: Do you mind if I get your contact? Gimme your phone. And they're, they're, they're plugging it in. That's what it's about. So we're making this, this global system a little bit smaller and we're bringing people together and they're finding a mentor. I'm, I'm starting this program. Well, one of the superintendents, he is a, a professor as well, and he's a dissertation chair.

Brian Roberson: He said, Hey, add me to your committee. I said, okay. He said, add admin to your committee. And if you can't add me, just send me your dissertation. I'd love to look over it and give you some feedback. That's what it's about. How can we get in the room and we find folks that are passionate about pouring into each other no matter what they're getting.

Brian Roberson: It's not about [00:53:00] I'm gonna get a, another plaque on my wall and something to hang up at this point. It's what can I do for others? And that is what we are seeing, and that is the impactful work that is really transforming, um, our, our, our conferences, our systems, our school districts, really transforming our, our networks and relationships.

Michael Conner: Brian, I, I'll, I'll tell you this, right? And this is why I love talking to you, brother. You can always make me think. So a, I'm gonna answer your question. I'm, I was a fourth grade teacher, so now you can humanize me of why I think about systems the way I am. Because coming from that, coming from that lens, and then also too, Brian, I wanna say this here I am a dissertation chair.

Michael Conner: I am leading a committee and I would've loved to be on your committee, but you got a second person that say, gimme a dissertation. I would love to be able to, to review it and to be able to help you on the, on the back end of that as well, because you are [00:54:00] absolutely right. Right. It's about, it's about the journey.

Michael Conner: And I think that, you know, what I love about your approach was that there was real conversations, and when you have real conversations, you humanize who that leader is. You know, the like as an example would be, you know, Brian K. Roberson ii, what we see National Principle of the Year, you know, a part on the Alvin ISD board really focusing on leadership development across the country in the state of Texas.

Michael Conner: But what I love about it is that. Who is Brian Roberson? What are the experiences and what is that trajectory for coming from this? I like to say this reverse context, right, of how we're looking at where was the start and how you're getting there through that, through that lineage. But absolutely, Brian, I mean, and I saw who was on that man so powerful and how you were moderating that and that I could just only, I could just only [00:55:00] imagine what the participants, the, the people in the audit, the educators, right?

Michael Conner: Going out and seeking those individuals and saying, Hey, is there a way you can be able to support me on my journey as well? But yeah. Brian, I wanna read your dissertation, brother. I wanna help you out, man. I'm, it it, it'll be an email.

Brian Roberson: It'll be an email Very soon. I got bless. I'll forward you when I sent my charity just the other day.

Michael Conner: Hey, but listen, man, my, my, my candidate, I, I think she's about done with me because I'm always giving the, the feedback, the fee. And you know, it, Brian, the feedback is real, and my feedback is very extensive, but I always told her feedback is a gift. Listen, I, I, I say this to, I say this to my candidate all the time as a scholar, as somebody reviewing your work, the first thing, I'm not going to chapter one, I'm going to the lit review so I can be able to write down some new literature that I can be able to take.

Michael Conner: But I want your chapter three methodology to be so [00:56:00] airtight that no scholar, no researcher can be able to poke any holes within your methods of you collecting the data and the analysis of that. But Brian, there's just a great job moderating that with that. There was some pretty big to my audience, some pretty big heavy hitters that was on there, but.

Michael Conner: The actual mentoring and the, the themes, the, the, the, the knowledge, the collective theory that was disseminated to the audience. That was a treat for Nsy. But I wanna get into this AI focus, right? Really quick. We wrap up because you know, there's a lot of discussion around ai. I always say that, you know, we have to be able to ensure that the platforms and the solutions that we put in front of our students, you know, is not the nice, bright, shiny thing.

Michael Conner: But what is the mo? What is the alignment for impact for students? I always reference the two Sigma problem from Benjamin Bloom, that, you know, back in 1985, within his research, he always talked about the two Sigma problem and the two sigma problems. [00:57:00] Is that if we're able to get to that one-to-one level of, he always used the word tutoring, that one-to-one level of tutoring student achievement would increase by two standard deviations.

Michael Conner: Now in 2026, we shouldn't have any problems with that because we're at this level of the two Sigma prosperity, where now that one-to-one can be achieved with ai. But looking at this from the context of. AI within black and brown communities. Now, Brian, I've been having many conversations that have been focusing on whether it be data privacy, whether it be algorithmic bias that lives within the actual model and itself.

Michael Conner: That's kind of the testing and training and the tuning within the model and the self, where now the outputs, where we're seeing these biases, these deep fakes on the front end. And then also, you know, when we think about, you know, basic levels of access for ai. Now these meta trends that I've just been, you know, highlighting and compiled, right, it's [00:58:00] this duality that we have to be able to face.

Michael Conner: How are we eliminating inequities, but also moreover, how are we expanding AI because we know that it's a part of our economic factors and trends that we live with. But from this lens of an educator and a trustee, right. What are the adoption processes that you recommend to alleviate. This or to mitigate these inequities or these AI risk factors that we see within black and brown communities.

Michael Conner: And second, Brian, how should school boards address these concerns? As we look at from, as we look at with regards to safeguards, policy structure, and even within the governance model, how do we, how do we address this? Because we're gonna start seeing, or we're gonna start hearing more of these conversations where access and opportunity gaps in the context of AI implementation and integration within our districts.

Brian Roberson: I think [00:59:00] really both of those questions are almost merged together. We need to put the right people in the room. And many of those right people aren't in the room. Many of those right people are people that are in the classroom. And so, and I had a conversation, my own sister, she works in the district and she was a dynamic, uh, reading teacher, fourth grade reading teacher.

Brian Roberson: And now she does. She's an instructional coach, but she does a lot with the instructional technology. And I remember we had a conversation because there is a platform, it's an AI platform, and I can't remember if it was Google or if it was something else, but when she would go in and she would train teachers, they were able to, it assisted with the internalization of their lessons or the building of the lesson plans.

Brian Roberson: All these, it was, it was great. But then the district put a firewall up and know, you can't use this one, you gotta use that one. But that one isn't as good as this one and it doesn't speak through the systems and what we need our kids to do, [01:00:00] and we want the kids to be able to utilize it in an appropriate way.

Brian Roberson: We can't because you did the, so we need to have the, the, the experiences, the lived experiences, and the narratives of our educators who see it daily and can give us some best practices and tips of what is it that you need for our kids to be able to do.

Brian Roberson: What is it that you need and how are you trying to use these platforms and leverage it to get through the curriculum? How are you trying to use it? How will our kids use it and how you need them to use it. Let's have that conversation. And now let's bring in our district instructional technology experts.

Brian Roberson: Let's bring in some, some administrators in to talk about, well, our educators need this and this is the functionality that we need to see at the student level. How can we provide this, which platforms we'll provide it, and what are the safeguards? What can we turn on and what can we turn off to make sure that our [01:01:00] kids are safe and that that security and the privacy is meeting the level that we need.

Brian Roberson: We don't want, uh, we, we don't want the, the academic dishonesty that some of these programs bring, but I'm an adjunct and I teach a course called Learning Frameworks, and it's teaching young people. How to be good students. And in this course, one of the modules is actually two of them are utilizing ai.

Brian Roberson: And so we ask the students to create your weekly schedule using ai. Jot down everything you need to do, how many classes you need, how long does it take you to get to school? What time are you going to eat your snacks, your breaks? Are you going to the gym? Are you walking all of your day? How much rest do you need?

Brian Roberson: Jot that down and then use this feature to build your calendar. I don't have to go to to the nearest hobby lobby and get the big calendar and write down all these things, and then take a picture of it and then type it up. We have [01:02:00] systems that can help us do many of the things that we need. And when we look at this question, we talked about instructional time or lessons, how much time do we have?

Brian Roberson: How many minutes do we have in an instructional day? Or over the year, how many instructional days do we have and how much time are we wasting doing tasks that we could use this aid to assist us? Now I can ask you some questions that I, I, I do need to hear your voice, but there are specific tasks that I don't mind you getting assistance on.

Brian Roberson: I need to hear your, your thoughts. I need to, the critical thinking. I need students to be able to provide that. I need you to respond to each other using words. But there are specific tasks. We talk about time on tasks, but sometimes that time on task is wasted space. 'cause teachers are monitoring kids time on tasks.

Brian Roberson: They're just quiet looking at their desks. We don't know if they're learning. We don't know if they're processing. We don't know what they're doing. Let's [01:03:00] eliminate the wasted time and these systems will provide that. And so when you get to the governance aspect, what is it that our stakeholders asked for?

Brian Roberson: Our teachers, our students. What are the community partners that can help provide these platforms? What is the cost? How does it integrate into our systems that we currently have? Is it something that we need to go out and buy, or is it something that we already have been provided and we haven't tapped into it?

Brian Roberson: What does it look like? And this is governance, but also administration and being a practitioner. Sometimes I have to remember, let me stay over here because this gets into what the superintendent says is her job, but I can give you a recommendation of what I think might work since I've sat in those roles and they're afraid to tell you that principal is afraid to tell you what he needs.

Brian Roberson: This semi-retired principal isn't, they need help in this area. They need support in that area, and that's how you can leverage that, that practitioner on the [01:04:00] board. But when you look at all of those different factors and then you bring them together, what do we need to approve? Can you give us a recommendation?

Brian Roberson: The recommendation, I'm gonna ask who did you bring into the room? Who was your committee whose perspectives did, did, did, did you hear from, to bring me this proposal? And if you said you had some kids that offered up some, some, some things that they need and how they think it would work. Teachers that talked about what they need from the instructional aspect, from building the instructional plan also to the implementation in the classroom and what they need their students to be able to know or do or show.

Brian Roberson: And from that administrative aspect, how they're gonna make sure that they're taking care of things on the campus level. I'm, I'm like, you give me those perspectives and they were at the table. I can go with the recommendation. If not, I have questions. Can we ask them first? Because when you're on the campus level, you remember [01:05:00] other people made decisions that come down on you and now you have to implement it.

Brian Roberson: They didn't give you all the steps on how to implement it. They didn't give you the training on how to implement it. They just said, get it done. And so through this lens and my, my experience, how can I make sure that when it gets to our campus from the principal down to the custodian can help? I don't care.

Brian Roberson: The lunch ladies, everyone on that campus has exactly what they need and understand what it is that they're, we have, we have to provide that training for not only the adults, the professional development, but how do we safely integrate these systems into our education? Our kids need to be trained and aware and learn about the safeguards, the risk, the privacy, and the limitations.

Michael Conner: Mm-hmm. Brian, that was to my audience. This is one of those answers that you wanna play back, Brian. We always use Voices for Excellence as an asynchronous [01:06:00] tool for professional learning, where now that self-directed Learn and ie. heterogogy, where they can go back, play specific segments of an episode, expand on specific segments for their internal or independent research base research for their individual practices.

Michael Conner: But Brian, you identified, and I was writing this down roughly about seven different leadership and instructional trends that can be converted into practices for impact. Right? And one of the major themes I heard was around the intentionality and focus of building capacity IE AI literacy in fluency.

Michael Conner: Where the stakeholder's voice is involved within the design process or implementation process. That's human-centric approaches, right, Brian? And one thing that I've learned, you know, from you just now is I always equate it to Moore's law is [01:07:00] that equilibrium between humans and machines. But now when I look at Moore's Law in an educational context, I always, always think practitioner AI equilibrium, but intentionality of how we increase capacity or professional learning around these specific apparatuses that you are highlighting.

Michael Conner: I think that Brian, we need to have more of a focus in education. And exactly what you stated is around elevating the voice or ensuring the voice of our stakeholders are a part of the process so that we have that vertical coherence. I love how you put it, the LEA Governance to schools. Schools to classrooms, classrooms to our students, right?

Michael Conner: And scaling that with intentional vertical alignment With that, Brian, I, I, I tell you, I, I man, I I, your [01:08:00] students right now in your course, you're lucky to have you, brother, because they gave great feedback. They gave great feedback. They, they lucky to have you, man. Ooh, we man. Please invite me to one your class.

Michael Conner: I just wanna be a fly on the wall, but this is gonna be very hard for me to do, and because we're too alpha men, and this is very hard for us to limit our words, but good brother Frat, I'm only gonna limit you to three words on this answer.

Brian Roberson: This the one I should have prepared for,

Michael Conner: right? What three words do you want our audience to leave today's podcast?

Michael Conner: With regards to transforming education to be future ready in the AC stage.

Brian Roberson: Intentional. Mm-hmm. Impactful. Mm-hmm. Preparation.

Michael Conner: Intentional, impactful and preparation. [01:09:00] You can gimme a 32nd overview. 'cause I want you, I want to, I personally want you to expand on those three words.

Brian Roberson: When we say intentional, you have to be intentional about the work that you are, you're doing.

Brian Roberson: And if you're intentional it, it is a little bit of passion that's behind it. We're doing this for a specific purpose. We're working towards this vision or goal to achieve these outcomes and that goes, gets into the impact for, it's easy to just go to work and you show up and we ma write a little policy, send a little bit of email, but what was the impact?

Brian Roberson: What was the impact of the work that we do? What was the impact of that decision? What was the impact of that? Those resources that you provided. So if you can be intentional about the work that you're doing, it's gonna lead to the impact and that impact will give you the results that you need. And lastly, the preparation.

Brian Roberson: You have to continue to prepare, not just for today, not just for the response, but you have to prepare for, prepare for tomorrow. You have to prepare to do the intentional work. You have to prepare for the [01:10:00] feedback. As thoughtful and as critical as it may be, you have to prepare for that feedback and you have to prepare for the shift.

Brian Roberson: It'll always be a shift, a good shift, sometimes a hard drastic shift, but prepare for that shift. And our educators do it every day. 'cause they the best educators, the very best educators, they always prepare for the misconception. They prepare for that question. They prepare for that shift that comes in that lesson when the student gets off task or they're lost.

Brian Roberson: You know what I figured when we got to this? It's three areas. And I highlighted it in my lessons plan that I knew that you guys were gonna have a question. Let's talk about it. Let's dive in, let's, let's make sure it's clear as mud. By the end of this, you prepared for the misconceptions. And as leaders, you have to prepare.

Brian Roberson: 'cause we know, as I prepared it, I knew this was gonna be tricky. I knew that this might go, not go over as well. I knew this was gonna have some questions. I prepared for it, and now I can give you that response. And it's an intentional response. [01:11:00] And it will circle back to the impact. And so the intentionality, the the, the impact, the response or the preparation, you might say preparation comes first.

Brian Roberson: It doesn't have to, because even in the circle, where do you start On the circle? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. At any point it loops back around. I'm gonna start a preparation and I'm gonna prepare to be intentional so that I can have the impact. I'm gonna be impactful. As in that impact, I'm gonna prepare how to do it again.

Brian Roberson: Well, whatever I do, again, I gotta be intentional about. So no matter where you start, you can be effective on that wheel. Just keep it rolling.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. Intentional, impactful, and preparation. Brian K Roberson, the second. Thank you so much for coming on VFE. I know that there's gonna be a lot of people that wanna reach out to you, whether it be from a governance, design model, structuring standpoint, instructional leadership, or just [01:12:00] even having a mentor like you, Brian, how would they be able to contact you?

Brian Roberson: Well, I'm not too hard to find. You find me on that LinkedIn device. I've been having it for about 20 years, and I think it's listed as Brian K. Roberson ii.com. Send me an invite, send me a message. I'd love to tap in or contact me via email. BK Roberson. That's BKROBERSON .edu at gmail.com. I'd love to, to hear and and connect.

Michael Conner: Brian, thank you so much for coming on VFE. Like I said, brother, I love you so much, man. You've been doing so many great things. You have impacted so many lives, whether it be from the community standpoint, stakeholders, practitioners, students, and as you said, each and every one of them, so you have a deep personal connection and relationship that is true leadership.

Michael Conner: So thank you for everything that you're doing.

Brian Roberson: Appreciate too.

Michael Conner: [01:13:00] On that note, onward and upward. Everybody have a great evening.