{"id":1721,"date":"2023-12-20T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carnegie25live.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=1721"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:10:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:10:50","slug":"carnegie-learning-leadership-network-experiences-community-partnerships-in-action-in-guilford-county-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/carnegie-learning-leadership-network-experiences-community-partnerships-in-action-in-guilford-county-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnegie Learning Leadership Network Experiences Community Partnerships in Action in Guilford County Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In mid-October, Guilford County Schools (GCS) hosted participants of the Carnegie Learning Leadership Network (Carnegie LLN)<\/a> to explore career and community partnerships within the district. The focus of this network of district leadership teams, which is part of the Foundation\u2019s larger Future of Learning <\/a>portfolio, is to support, showcase, and study school districts that are creating engaging and effective learning experiences for their secondary students. Guilford County Schools was selected as the host for this fall\u2019s site visit because of the innovative community-supported models housed in their Signature Career Academies and elementary school telehealth clinics\u2014including Bessemer Elementary<\/a>, Penn-Griffin School for the Arts<\/a>, Western High Academy of Transportation<\/a>, Distribution, and Logistics<\/a>, Southeast High School SparkLab Pathways<\/a>, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GUILFORD COUNTY SITE VISIT ACTIVITIES<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the visit, Carnegie LLN district teams engaged in myriad learning activities, including an intimate conversation with two stand out principal leaders,  Marcus Gause (Dudley High School) and Erik Naglee (Page High School), site visits to explore the district\u2019s elementary school-based telehealth clinic program and Signature Career Academies, a panel discussion with local business and community leaders, engaging roundtable discussions with Superintendent Dr. Whitney Oakley and members of the GCS leadership team, and a deep dive discussion on the district\u2019s stakeholder engagement efforts in the development of Guilford County School\u2019s Better Together strategic direction<\/a>. The event culminated with opportunities for network members to share reflections, offer feedback, and apply what they learned to their own system transformation work. Visiting districts learned from Guilford\u2019s extensive community engagement efforts, and the Guilford team received valuable feedback and perspective on their own priority of ensuring all students have access to specialized opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n

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LESSONS LEARNED<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One notable learning is the impact an executive leader can make through modeling dispositions and behaviors that cultivate a culture of improvement. The leadership style that Dr. Oakley displayed during the site visit mirrors many of the enabling leadership practices described in Getting better at getting better: Improvement dispositions in education<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(Biag, M., & Sherer, D., 2021). For instance, the distributed leadership model characterized by trust, openness, and teamwork that Dr. Oakley has established promotes a sense of shared responsibility and a safe environment in which team members can respectfully offer different perspectives to push their systems transformation work forward. Further, Dr. Oakley and her team publicly and transparently share successes and failures throughout community conversations. In addition, the voices of community stakeholders were invited, represented, and validated throughout the development of the district\u2019s new strategic direction. Lastly, Dr. Oakley\u2019s investment in her team\u2019s engagement in the Carnegie LLN, and her decision to host a site visit is representative of how she prioritizes opportunities for learning with and from peers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are a few additional key learnings from the Carnegie LLN site visit to Guilford:<\/p>\n\n\n\n