Culturally Responsive Leadership with Dr. Jill Baker

Students can give us the best data about what goes on in the classrooms in our schools. ~ Jill Baker?

Dr. Baker's Bio

Dr. Jill A. Baker is the superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District, which is California’s fourth largest school system with about 69,000 students.

With 30 years of experience in LBUSD, Dr. Baker has been a teacher, principal and central office administrator before her appointment as superintendent.?

Her leadership contributed to increased student achievement, the development of multiple districtwide initiatives and systems and a culture of continuous improvement.

She has worked closely with community groups such as Californians for Justice and the California Conference for Equality and Justice to include student voices in the development of programs and policies that focus on excellence, equity and inclusion.

She helped to author several nationally published, scholarly articles on LBUSD’s work, particularly on the topic of leadership development.

She earned her doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Southern California, master’s degree in school administration at California State University, Long Beach, and her bachelor’s degree in sociology at University of California, Irvine.

Dr. Baker has earned numerous awards and accolades, including the Education Champion Award from the Mayor’s Fund and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, and the Secondary Education Award from the Long Beach Branch NAACP, which also recognized her with an Outstanding Women Award. The Teachers Association of Long Beach presented her with a Golden Apple Award for Administrators, and Soroptimists International named her a Woman of Distinction.

The AASA Conference Daily Podcast Show Notes with Dr. Jill Baker

Jill started by stating that she’s looking forward to the conference (this is one of two pre-conference podcasts), and she invites equity-centered leaders to her session, which we talked about at length.?

Dr. Baker was way out in front of the conversation about cultural responsiveness. Her district has been doing this work for more than a decade. Takeaways from this section of the show are numerous: principals have to be at the center of the work, every initiative has to involve DEI, student voice is critical, classroom instruction (including materials) have to be reviewed, and more.?

Joe asks Jill to talk about her focus on the principalship and building the capacity of the school leaders. The most important person in the life of a student is the teacher, the second most important person is the principal.?

Jill talks about the imperative behind serving students, specifically students from marginalized backgrounds.?

Don’t miss what she says about systems of oppression and breaking down the barriers that hold people of color back. She’s very candid.?

Superintendents and system leaders will really appreciate what Jill describes as the support in place for growing principals.?

Jill talked about two experiences that started her on the journey toward a focus on the principalship as well as a focus on equity. First, she was troubled by the amount of time principals spend on management, and, second, she shadowed an 8th grader at one point as well as a second-language learner, which gave her insight into what students need from their leaders.?

Dr. Baker has a student advisory group. Every leader needs to elevate student voice into their own understanding of the system they lead.?

Don’t miss what she says about LBUSD Vision 2035. The “portrait” work alone is impressive. And, what Jill says they learned about community engagement through the work is critical for all superintendents to hear.?

Jill mentions “togetherness” as an outcome of parent engagement, even when a community group might be against something that the district is doing.?

We asked Jill to say more about “frameworking,” and she says it’s about bringing what can often be invisible into the light.?

We asked Jill about what she wants from a conference like AASA, and she talked about the space to reflect and grow. She also pays particular attention to find sessions about the things that other districts around the country are doing.?

Jill ended with a great call-to-action for all of us to get inspired at the conference, meet new people, and learn something to take home to the people we serve.?

Listen to the podcast here .

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