Speaker 1:

Welcome advocates to another episode of The Leading Equity Podcast, a podcast that focuses on supporting educators with the tools and resources necessary to ensure equity at their schools.

               Today, I got a special guest, a good friend of mine, buddy of mine. It's a long time coming, should have been on the show long time ago. So I'm glad to introduce to everyone out there, Dr. Randall Sampson. Randall, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Hey, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate being here. You run a great show and it's so diverse. So all of the different people that you bring in. But I'm just humble and excited to be here, now that you brought me in. It's been a long time, but I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the pleasure is mine. I'm glad we can make this happen. I know you who are, but for those who are listening out there, could you share a little bit about yourself and what you currently do?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. My name is Randall Sampson. I'm on Twitter at Randall Sampson, and you'll see all that stuff in the bio. So I work with schools across the country, 50 states. And the ability to work with schools on closing achievement gaps.

               And the thing that's happening now is I'm getting a lot more requests, because kids have been home and parents are noticing that their kids have some gaps that are there. And they're working with the schools to kind of figure out how do we address this when my kid goes back to school? It's not like the gaps weren't there prior to the pandemic. It just wasn't as evident for the parents to see. Because they don't see their kids in the learning environment all day long. So now they're seeing their kids in the learning environment and the pressure is now on, in a good way, on the schools.

               And that's just not schools that have an F or D on a state report card. That's every school, even if you have an A on a state report card, kids still have various gaps that teachers are trying to fill and get better with. That's what we do. We help schools close the achievement gap, in a nutshell. And that's K through 12.

               And there's a track record behind it. So anywhere from 600% increase of AP students in AP courses for African-American students in AP courses. Increase in kids scores from threes to fours. And then also having high schools ranked on The US News and World Report as top 20% in the country. Urban elementary schools getting recognized as hall of fame schools who were once blight F on the state report cards. Now they have As. So it's a lot of hard work. But the hard work is because of the good people and a culture that they build.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So if folks ... because you initially, you mentioned that you worked ... you had parents reaching out to you. Do you work primarily with parents or schools directly? What's kind of your process there?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah, so I work directly with schools. So I work with the principals. I do the job [inaudible 00:02:55] with teachers, work with the district level to take a look at their data, just to make sure that we're all on the same page and aligned.

               And what's happened was parents are on Twitter, they're on Facebook, they're on LinkedIn, just like everybody else. And where they would typically just scroll past my stuff, all of a sudden their kids are home and they're noticing stuff. So they're stopping on my stuff and they're DM-ing me directly like, "Hey, I got a question. Hey, can you do this? And my kid is ... " I'm like, "I don't work with the individual kids via Twitter, but I do go into school systems and work with the teachers and groups of kids and so forth." It's a little bit more formalized than just a one-off thing with the parent. Right?

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Okay. And are you ... One more question about it. Are you virtual? Are you locally in Ohio's ... Where do you primarily work?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah, so it's a 50 state strategy. I'm in Columbus, Ohio, in that region. That's my home base. That's where I live. I work with Columbus City Schools, which is local. But the way Columbus is located you're a four hour flight from anywhere in the United States. I do travel to school districts. And because of the pandemic, it's really opened everybody's eyes to the possibilities. And this is what I've been training schools on for the past 12 years, on how to get an LMS, how to set up a Google classroom, how to use Schoology, how to use these different digital tools to maximize the learning.

               And I have this process called Reduce and Prescribe. How do we take all of this noise with all of these digital tools and really focus in on specific things that will move the needle for that building for that kid? And so the pandemic just kind of forced everybody into that boat. And now people are sailing in that boat. Like this isn't too bad. I like it. We're getting a lot done. And there are still some schools out there that are taking on water in their boat. And they're like, "Hey, we know you've been talking about this. I think we're finally open to accepting it. So let's start up the next fall school year of 2021 not looking like 2019."

               And that's the ... And then the biggest part that schools are asking me to do is how can we get kids to fall back in love with school and how can us as adults continue to champion those kids?

Speaker 1:

Let's get into today's topic. Because I want to start with discussing from an equity lens, maybe three components of how you approach education when it comes to maybe addressing some of the gaps that you do when you're working with schools.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah, for me, I really look at it from three lenses when we talk about equity. Because equity helps you move the needle for everything. Once you have that mindset, you move the needle for everything. I really look at it from three sides. The content is one component of equity in the school. What specific content are we ordering, purchasing, buying? And then how are we delivering that content? Right? So the content is a big part of it.

               And then the next part is policy. What kind of policies do we have in our school, in our classroom, in our community, and in our school district? Policy is the next one. And then the third one that I often look at as the most critical one is culture. What kind of culture are we setting up to make these things happen? Because the other ones, the other two components, the content and the policy, they're all on paper, they're tangible, you can see them.

               The culture is our behaviors, our values, and our belief systems. What do we really believe about our kids and the kids that we serve and the adults in the building? What do we really value here? What's our true value when we show up? What's the value proposition? What do we do in our school as far as behaviors? How do we behave with each other, with the kids, towards the kids, towards families. So those components are the culture pieces. And that's where we create these dynamic champions. And that's kind of where we go from there. And that's what a lot of schools are asking about.

Speaker 1:

Okay. All right. You said out of the three components, culture is the biggest piece. The policy, content can be measurable as far as how that's delivered and you can kind of look at data. But as far as the culture, now do you believe that you cannot measure culture at all?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. So culture can be a measurable and that's what schools are asking for, right? Because they all know every school out there says we have a culture. And then my question is, "Well, how do you measure these, these components for culture?" And so I introduced this whole acronym that I have. It's called CHAMP, because we all want to champion our kids. Right? So through the equity lens, how are we championing our kids? And we have this thing called CHAMP. I'm going to run through three to five pieces of CHAMP.

Speaker 1:

Let's start with the C first. And then we'll go through each one so that we can break it down a little bit more. So what does C stand for?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah, in CHAMP, the C stands for connect. And then typically we ask schools, "How are we formally connecting with kids? And that can't just be, we have Google classroom. So how are we formally connecting with kids, finding that authentic connection with kids? What program services and behaviors are we for kids to create that authentic connection? But most importantly, how are kids connecting with each other, too? Because as the adults, we often feel like we just have to connect, connect, connect with the kids. It's about creating a system where the kids are connecting with each other, as well.

Speaker 1:

Is it kind of like how we address relationships with our students as far as connecting? Because you said it's not just a digital connection or talking to students, but being able to have a rapport.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. The connection piece is always critical beyond just the relationship. It's having that formal system for connecting.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Because every teacher says, "Well, I have a great relationship with my kids." Well, what does that look like? And so now we unpack it with the connection piece to figure out what does that relationship look like? And we put it into the connect and teachers have very specific things that they start to say that they do in the community. And every school looks different. Every grade level looks different. And then inside of that grade level, every class looks different.

Speaker 1:

Okay. Okay. Let's move to the H. What does that stand for in CHAMP?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. In CHAMP, H stands for honor. We really start to dig down into how are we honoring our kids? Let's take a look, specifically, at the high school and middle school level. During the fall, we often have pep assemblies. And cheerleaders, football players come out and maybe even fall sports come out. And they honor those kids, whether it's football, soccer in the fall, volleyball in the fall. So every sport, right? And then in the winter, same thing, and then not so much in the spring.

               Those environments have a heavy focus on sports. And your honor just a small segment of your student population. And everybody else is sitting in the bleachers watching, like, "What is this?" We have to formally figure out how are we going to honor our kids? Not just quarterly, not just because it's a season, not just monthly with student of the month, but how do we do it weekly and it's coming from each teacher towards each kid?

               And then you start to follow this daily routine. And then once you get into the daily routine of honoring kids, it becomes every period, every class. Because there has to be at least one ... I tell teachers all the time, there has to be at least one kid for that 45-minute class that is doing something so spectacular that you have to honor them.

               A key example of even at the elementary level. We have this wrestling belt, like the authentic WWF wrestling belt, right? And so we honor the kids and let them wear the belt around the school to be the champ for the day. And on a Friday, we gave it to a kid and the kid is supposed to give a back to the teacher at the end of the day. But the kid got on the bus with it and went home. And everyone was like, "Where's the belt?" Like, "Aw, he got on the bus with it, took it home," this, that, and the other.

               And we're like ... I told him, I said, "Don't worry. He'll come back on Monday. He'll bring the belt." Because he just wants to show it off to his friends, family, whoever. Which is pretty cool. And come back Monday, the kid gets off the bus. We ask him, "Hey, do you have the belt?" Kid says, "No, I don't have the belt." It was like, "Oh no. The belt's gone." And he said, "No, the belt's not gone. My dad has it. He took it to work with him."

               Here's the dad at work, probably, right? Standing around the water cooler, talking about, "Look what my kid won. My kid's the champ." Right. And so the dad's proud that his kid got honored. And I don't know if dads were at work doing big time wrestling moves coming off the top of one of their coworkers.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

But it kind of falls into that spirit of honoring each other. And people recognize it. And it's a good thing.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad that you said it's not just one-offs every report card, perfect attendance, honor, Dean's list all those kind of things. But we're honoring kids on a weekly and a daily basis. Give me some more examples. You said the belt. Are there some other ways that we can honor our kids? Let's say I'm at school and I don't have the belt. I don't have that opportunity. What are some other, maybe some little stuff, that we can do to honor our kids?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. One of the things that we also do is we use Flipgrid. It's a technology tool where you can go in and it's almost ... it looks like the Brady Bunch. We have to get adults accustomed to honoring each other, as well, before we just say, "Go honor kids."

               We have it set up to where faculty, once a week, we call it Flipgrid Friday. And we maybe add a motivational YouTube video in there. And then they reflect on that video and talk about the process of the video. And then also talk about how they interact with each other based on the theme of the video. The video, I think last week's video was self motivation. Because we're getting close to the end of the school year. How do you stay self motivated? And how do you motivate your scholars?

               Teachers watch the video, then they talk about it. And now they're honoring each other's voices and growing that way. And then they transfer it to the classroom where teachers who are understanding of that content, which is a big part of this. You got content that you're trying to provide all day long. At the end of your lesson, they have Flipgrids set up where a kid has the option to honor another kid. We have Flipgrid in the class. Now you get that peer to peer honoring and the kids see it, because they're all in the same Flipgrid together.

Speaker 1:

That's a great example. And I know a lot of schools use Flipgrid. Thank you for providing that option. Let's move to the A. So we got connect for C, honor for H. What does the A stand for in CHAMP?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. Moving off of the Flipgrid component, the A in CHAMP stands for amplify. How do we amplify, strategically amplify, the voice of those who feel like they don't have a voice? You got that kid sitting in the stands, watching the pep assembly, and feel like they don't have a voice. How do we provide an amplified platform for that kid?

               Once again, we use an example like a Flipgrid. Now those kids feel like they can talk about different issues and express themselves and amplify their voice. Right?

               One of the other components is, like I said, it's the teachers. We often just think it's the kids, but teachers also want to feel amplified, as well. So we have Cares Act coming out. That's designed to help stimulate school districts. And it's federal funding, designed to help stimulate school districts.

               Now schools can use Flipgrid to ask teachers, "Hey, we have X amount in our budget and we have these 10 possible focus areas. Prioritize the 10 and tell us why one through 10, those are more important to you."

               So in the department, we might all think we're on the same page, but somebody else has other priorities. And now we can hear it. And then that leads to a richer discussion. And now we can set the budget based off of what everybody has said. We've amplified that, versus just the blanket survey. And you don't know where it's going after that. And trying to pull everybody together into the same staff meeting to have this kind of a rich discussion, it's not going to happen. Because people have other things to do after school, they're running six million miles an hour trying to take care of their family lives. This is just another example of how do we amplify each other's voices and make them more efficient?

               And then here's another example. We had a 600% increase of African-American kids in AP classes. And that came through change in the culture.

Speaker 1:

Was that enrollment or academics?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

That is enrollment into AP classes.

Speaker 1:

Oh.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yep. We enrolled them into AP classes and then test scores for every kid went up 35% from threes to fours on the test. All boats rose on that, right?

               But once we started talking to the kids, to the older kids, the 11th and 12th graders about AP and why they're not enrolled in how to get enrolled. And that they have great minds and they can do it, this, that, and the other. We gave them an opportunity to amplify their voices.

               And I didn't realize that ... I was a system principal at the time. And I didn't realize that I'm walking through the hallway. And I see a kid that's a sophomore up against the lockers with his back against the lockers. And there's a group of other African-American boys that were 11th graders surrounding him, about four guys surrounding him. And had him dumping out his backpack and classic bullying situation. Right?

               And so I walk up and I asked him, I said, "Well, what's going on here?" They said, "Hey, you told us to amplify our voices. And we're making sure that this young brother right here is signed up for AP classes next year. So we told him empty out this book bag. Because we want to see his registration." And I was like, "Oh, okay. All right, gentlemen, carry on."

Speaker 1:

Carry on.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. Yeah. Now the culture has really changed to where the kids are finding ways to amplify the importance of their academics. Amplify the importance of being in these higher performing classes. Now it becomes a cool thing to do. And I have the authority vested through the vice principal that said it's okay for me to tell these young sophomores to get signed up for AP classes. Now the principal doesn't have to run around and do it anymore.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. I'm glad you didn't assume the worst when you saw those boys over there and you asked-

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. You asked the question and not just run over there thinking it's going down. So good job on that.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

That's right. That's right. That's right.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So connect, honor, amplify. What does the M stand for in CHAMP?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

In CHAMP, the M stands for motivate. How do we get up every day motivated to come into school and do this job? As adults, we all get tired. We're human beings. We have to find that motivating factor that's going to drive us to do this work. How do you motivate yourself? But most importantly, how do you motivate the kids and your colleagues that show up?

               And motivation doesn't always fall on coming in with your hair on fire. You have to figure out what that motivating factor is. What motivates you to put your best foot forward for that day?

               And what I do with the staff is we identify all of the motivating factors that we believe kids need that will get them motivated. And then we chart it all out, put it all out there. And then we bring the kids in. And we ask the kids, "Hey, what motivates you?" And then based on what the kids say, we try to see what matches up from what the teachers say. And then we figure out where the medium is there or what's similar.

               And then we just use those components. And then we figure out, okay, systemically, how are we going to use these things? But it doesn't need to be pasted up all over the place. Systemically, how do we use these things to create practices of motivation that comes from within, rather than an external tool that forces you to be motivated?

Speaker 1:

All right, well, what did the kids say? What were some of the things that motivated them?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Look, it depends on K through 12, right? The little ones, they're motivated with the turtle that's in the classroom, right? The teacher's giving great content, but the kid is there to watch the turtle. And so the teacher had no clue that's what it was. Now all of a sudden, the teacher is saying, "Okay, in my lesson, I'm going to try to integrate the turtle that's in our class, our classroom pet. Try to integrate the turtle and then have the kids interact with the turtle and the content at the same time."

               And with that motivation, more kids showed up for school. More kids were attentive in class. The kids didn't want to go to recess or lunch or ... because they were so engaged, because we found their motivating factor.

               And for the high school kids, the motivation was totally different. The motivation was totally different. Their motivation was more social. We love all of these social activities. Being with our friends, doing all these different things. Now we created more collaborative pods versus college lecture halls. We created more project-based learning opportunities versus these singleton, study by yourself, lecture, and listen to me speak as a teacher.

               And so it really changed the dynamic. And because the kids said it and we acted on it. Now the kids really bought into it and then went into an ownership model rather than forcing kids to buy into something that we believed in.

Speaker 1:

Got it. Okay. Okay, good. I'm glad you broke it down and shared that it's not the same for elementary versus our high schoolers. And that makes sense as kids develop and things like that and our interests start to increase. So let's go with the P in CHAMP.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. The P is the big one, man. This is it for me. P is the big one. P is the one that you look at. I call it the four for 40. If you go to college for four years to become a teacher, what are the next 40 years of your career going to look like? And you're going to be measured by just that.

               And so P is all about purpose.

Speaker 1:

Purpose.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Purpose. How are you living your purpose driven life? How are you living your purpose driven career? What is your purpose in showing up every single day? Now there's a small faction, I mean, very, very, very, very small faction of educators out there, just like any other industry. That will say, "The purpose is to pay my light bill and keep the water running and pay for my kids to go to college and have a good middle-class life."

               But the vast, vast, vast majority of folks out there will tell you that they have a calling for this job. It's their calling. This is what they want to do. And they find their purpose, whatever that driver is, whatever that purpose is. Right? So we work with people on uncovering their purpose.

               And everybody's is different. Everybody's is different. Everybody has a clearly different purpose and driver. And what I've noticed is the purpose seems to be very big and very strong. Because you have all of these retired teachers who come back to be substitute teachers.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Because this is their purpose. They just had to retire because that's the process. That's how it works out. But they all come back, because they feel like they can't feed their purpose unless they are in a school, working with kids, and doing what they believe they were born to do.

Speaker 1:

Nice.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Figuring out what that purpose is that drives you every single day and making that happen. Because this purpose is a four for 40 purpose. You go to college for four years in your undergrad. And like me, maybe five.

               But I call it the four for 40. What's going to happen over the next 40 years of your career? It's going to have to be purpose-driven, it's not paycheck driven. It's not driven because you want to be a football coach or basketball coach or because you want to be a lecturer. You have to find that deep-rooted purpose about this work and what sets you on fire every single day.

               When you're like, "Oh, gosh," all stuffed up, like, "No, I think I can go to work. I think I can go to ... " That's the purpose that's driving you. When you're up working late until 1:00 in the morning, and then you scrap that lesson plan, because you thought you went too deep or too wide or whatever it is, and you start it all over again. And then come eight o'clock that morning, you are ready to go. You're tired as all get out, but you're ready to go for the kids. Because you found that purpose. That's what drives you. Instead of just showing up that day and saying, I don't know what we're going to teach, because I don't have a lesson plan. We'll just figure something out.

               Those folks that come prepared every single day, working real hard like that. It's not because they're anal retentive or anything like that. They have a clear purpose about what they want to do, where their heart is. And that's the thing that can't be put on a policy sheet and mandated.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

That's the thing that you can't purchase from a McGraw-Hill or a textbook company. That's the heart that teachers bring to the table. And if you don't have that clear purpose, I won't tell you to get out of teaching, but you have time to reevaluate who you are and what your practices and behaviors and values are. And that will bring out the purpose. When we first start this work on culture, we always talk about culture being your values, your beliefs, and your behaviors.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr. Randall Sampson:

When you really look at those three things, that will help you keep that purpose going and keep you driving. Those are the five components of CHAMP. And I look at CHAMP through that equity lens of culture.

Speaker 1:

If some folks want to get their hands ... Is there a digital version or a book or something that they can pick up that has the CHAMP framework? Or is that something that's coming out soon?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah. So the CHAMP framework's coming out in a book soon, that very finite version of CHAMP is coming out in the book soon.

               But the broader component, I have these six pillars of growth, which is part of the culture, which is part of CHAMP. I have these six pillars of growth in my book called, Welcome to the Grind. So Welcome to the Grind, How Educators Produce Exponential Results, that can be found on Amazon. You can just go to Amazon, put in Randall Sampson, Welcome to the Grind, you'll see the book there.

               And I was surprised when I had to search it to pull out a quote. Because I don't just carry my book around. I had to search it online to pull out a quote. And then I noticed in the Google thing it said, one of the ... I think it was like listed as number 21 on the top 100 education books in the world.

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

I was like what? I was like ... My purpose wasn't to write a book to be this elite author.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

My purpose was to share the work and inspire others and let it grow from there. But then all of a sudden. And I don't make profit off the book. So it's not like ... I just thought I want to put down some ideas on paper, get it out there for other folks to take a look at, use, and get better in their craft.

               Now I'm going to come out with CHAMP coming soon in the next year or so. That kind of details out and really tell some of these nice stories that are happening inside of schools with that. And I'm thinking that some folks are going to see you in it as well, being a CHAMP.

Speaker 1:

Well, I appreciate that. And I will definitely leave a link for the book, Welcome to the Grind, in the show notes, so folks can get their hands on that, as well.

               Randall, I definitely consider you as providing a voice in leading equity. What is one final word of advice that you can provide to our listeners?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

Yeah, the best thing we can do at this juncture, ditch the state report card and really have kids fall back in love with learning. That's the key focus for the next 10 to 15 years. Have kids fall back in love with the love of learning. And you'll notice all of a sudden the achievement gap disappears.

Speaker 1:

Nice.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

But when we go back to pre-2019 and think it's all about the state report card, that's where we go wrong. And I'll be the first to show you all the A's that we get on state report cards, The US News and World Reports. But the way we did it was we got kids to fall in love with learning. And then everything else took care of itself.

Speaker 1:

Nice. If we got some folks that want to connect with you, shoot, go ahead and tell us your socials one more time. What's the best way to reach you online?

Dr. Randall Sampson:

The best way to reach me online for all my handles is at Randall Sampson, at R-A-N-D-A-L-L, Sam, P-S-O-N. So you can hit me up on Twitter, DM me in LinkedIn, Insta. Just at Randall Samson. LibertyLD.com is my website, Liberty, LD is leadership development, dot com is my site.

Speaker 1:

All right, well, Randall, it has truly been a pleasure. I'm glad we were able to make this happen. Thank you again for joining us.

Dr. Randall Sampson:

I appreciate it. You're doing a good job. One of the things that I really love about what you're doing is you can really help school districts provide solutions. And the solutions are right in front of them, which are the kids. You really do a great job engaging the kids in the community and teachers around this framework of equity.

               Because it's hard to talk about, but you have a really great framework that I've noticed schools across the country are jumping on. Districts are really embracing. I would encourage more districts to be in contact with you, as well, to continue this great work around equity. Which isn't going away. This is a commitment in our purpose in education. So this is part of the four 40. So I think any school district that's serious will definitely use your services as well.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. Thank you very much.

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