This interview was originally recorded on August 2, 2023 as a part of our Expert Highlight Series.
Access our blog post, highlighting some of our favorite parts of this conversation.
Interviewer:
Tell us a little bit about you, your career history, passions, accomplishments, and then where you are today and why you love what to do.
Allan La Grenade-Finch:
My name is Allan La Grenade Finch. I proudly serve as the Mid-Atlantic Executive Director here at Springboard Collaborative. And in my role, I’m responsible for building strong partnerships with our school and district leaders, and also the philanthropic community that supports our work as well. And I’ve been in K-12 education for about a decade. My career is a complete accident. I actually went to undergrad to be an engineer, and after I finished my four year career there, I did a year of service as an AmeriCorps member with City Year. And I was placed in a middle and high school in dc and I fell in love with the work and my students, and I just never left. And so I had many roles with City Year. I managed AmeriCorps members, managed our program and program design, and also managed our partnerships with all of our wonderful school and district leaders.
And then I made my way to Springboard. And the reason I was really attracted to Springboard was that the work really means a lot to me. When I was working with my students in the classroom, I realized that many of my secondary students were struggling with grade level content because they weren’t able to read the content itself. And we all know that in secondary, you’re reading to learn, and you can only do that if the foundational skills for learning to read are also there. And so the work that we do here really is near and dear to my heart because it is incredibly important that we are connecting students early to opportunities so that later on, they’re able to access even more opportunities, even more information that will help set them up for their lives thereafter.
Porter Palmer:
What are the most common problems that districts have when they begin to seek out a partner to boost literacy rates?
Allan La Grenade-Finch:
The three most common problems that I hear from school and district leaders when they’re trying to stand up effective literacy programming, center around the following things. So first, they were looking for programming that’s highly effective, that will move the needle on student growth and student achievement, looking for programs that are based in research and follow best practices that their students are making measurable gains. The second thing that I’ve noticed when I was chat with school leaders about this work is they’re looking for programs that are plug and play, programs that don’t require a ton of oversight, that include all the materials, all the curricular resources, and that are easy for teachers to implement so that they are not feeling so overwhelmed trying to stand up programming. And the final thing I hear from school leaders is that they’re looking for programming that is supported by management. They’re looking for programming that is going to be designed and implemented in close partnership with a partner. They’re looking for additional capacity to stand up programming so that they’re able to launch reading programs at scale.
Porter Palmer:
When districts and schools are seeking a partner to help them boost their literacy rates, what should they look for? What are the most important things or any red flags? Those are your prompts.
Allan La Grenade-Finch:
When schools and districts are looking for partners that will help them boost their literacy rates, I think there are two really important things they should look for in a partner. The first is I think they should be looking for a partner that has a curriculum that’s rooted in the science of reading. We now know that the science of reading is an approach that centers students and reaches the most students and helps them acquire the early literacy skills they need to succeed in a way that is measurable and supportive of their experience. And we need to make sure that all of our early literacy resources, our reading readiness curricula, are rooted in the science of reading. The second thing I recommend that school and districts look for in a partner is partners that are in centering families in the process. Not just to engage them, but to partner with them and give them the opportunities to be deeply involved in the learning cycle itself.
Interviewer:
Why are you so passionate about this?
Allan La Grenade-Finch:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it. So educational equity is deeply personal to me because as a Black man in America and a Black man in education, I know how deeply important it is to center students who are furthest from opportunity in any work we’re going to do to address any of the achievement gaps or opportunity gaps that we seek to address. I went to grade schools as a kid, all of K-12, and I had the privilege of going to those schools, but yet I only had one Black teacher the entire time. And so when I was in the classroom, I could see how critically important it was for students to see more folks like them, engaging with them in the classroom. From their teachers to their coaches to their academic advisors, it made a huge difference in how students felt about themselves and what they thought they could do in the future. And so educational equity is at the center of that, and we have to ensure that we are prioritizing students across the spectrum who are furthest from opportunities that they truly deserve.
That’s why I’m so passionate about the work that we do here at Springboard Collaborative. In my work, I get to work directly with our school and district leaders to ensure that as we’re building programming, that we are designing programming hand in hand with them to ensure that their students who really need access are going to get that access and that the programming is going to reach the right students and the right families. And then during the enrollment process, when we’re trying to get our students into seats, we are working closely with our school and district leader partners to ensure that the students who really, really would benefit from programming are able to access it, they know about it, and they’re able to reduce as many barriers as possible to get them enrolled.
Many studies have shown that students who are the furthest behind grade level expectations actually benefit the most from targeted intervention services like Springboard provides. And we see that in our own results. A great part of my role as I get to share our impact data with our school and district partners, and also with our funder partners as well, and share the good news about the work that we’re doing. I’m really confident that our work is directly contributing to student reading growth across the country, and it’s meeting the needs of the right students who really could use that extra boost of support.
Interviewer:
What can districts and schools do to be the best partner? How can parents be a great partner?
Allan La Grenade-Finch:
Districts can be great partners in this work by really deeply involving partners in their schools and districts, in their long-term planning around strategy to support their students over many years, and in any continuous improvement work that they’re doing as well. We know that schools and districts value partners, and we believe that we can really help them shape their priorities, because often, we are the ones in concert with their frontline staff on the ground with students and families. And we can lift up those priorities and concerns and hopes from our constituents to make sure that they are deeply involved in any plans that are made to support students in the long term.
And then I think families can be great partners to us in this work by being really open about all the wonderful and unique things that we should know about, about your child. You all are the experts in your children, and we are thrilled to get to meet them and get to know them through the course of programming. But what helps us do really great programming and customized programming is when we know so much more about your child, how they learn, what interests them, what activates them, so that we can ensure that they get the most out of any opportunities with us.
Interviewer:
What are some unexpected benefits of implementing a district-wide after-school or summer-school literacy program?
Allan La Grenade-Finch:
Some of the unexpected benefits of implementing an out of school time programming in your school or district is that when you involve teacher leaders and other folks in your buildings in not only planning, but then implementing and managing those programs, you actually end up creating a bench of emerging leaders who can then be on deck for additional roles in leadership among their teaching core, department chairs, being an admin, assistant principals, or eventually, school building principals. And we’ve seen that at many of our district partners over the years. Here in DC one of our former Springboard leaders is now an admin at their school. And we definitely know that there’s many associated skills with being able to manage your teacher peers, analyzing summative data across multiple classrooms, and being able to build a coalition of support within the schoolhouse to launch and manage programming that translates really well to leading school buildings and providing district-wide leadership as well.
Interviewer:
Please tell us your favorite book from childhood. Why? Potentially add in a story to how your grown-ups/you read this book and how it affected you. How did you get the book? How would you recommend it to others today?
Allan La Grenade-Finch:
Okay. This is actually a hilarious question. Okay. My favorite childhood book is actually Arthur’s Tooth by Mark Brown. And you might be asking yourself, why is an aardvark losing his tooth relatable content to an eight year old? But I would say that when I was a kid, losing baby teeth was a very traumatic experience, and it was really helpful knowing that one of my favorite characters, one of my favorite series, went through the same thing. And reading that book taught me to love my body just the way that it is, and to trust the process. And it’s a book that I’ve had the great fortune of being able to read to my nephew as he is learning to read and also is experiencing tooth loss and all of those things. So that is one of my favorite books, and I still read it to this day.
Interviewer:
What’s one of your favorite parts about your work at Springboard Collaborative?
Allan La Grenade-Finch:
One of the best parts about working at Springboard Collaborative is that I get to be part of an amazing group of peers and colleagues who are so passionate about the work that we do and are experts in their fields. And it’s a real treat to get to work alongside such smart, intelligent, passionate people who care deeply about the outcomes we have for students and families. And so I am grateful to be here, and I’m looking forward to many years to come.