Daria is an education reform consultant for the Ohio Education Association
Describe your role/involvement with the Ohio Deans Compact.
I have been serving as the Ohio Education Association’s (OEA) representative to the Ohio Deans Compact since 2015. During that time, I have served on the Dissemination, Policy, and Toward a Representative Educator Workforce (TREW) Committees. As a representative of OEA, I seek to bring a PreK–12 perspective to the work of the Compact, with an emphasis on how policies and practices are implemented in Ohio’s classrooms, and the effects of that implementation on students and educators.
How does your involvement with the Compact benefit you and/or your organization?
It is invaluable to listen to and learn from our partners in higher education, state government, and education associations. Those insights highlight our similarities and differences of thought and perspective and provide me with a more complete understanding of the work of education across Ohio. Most importantly, I know that everyone serving on the Deans Compact is focused on ensuring Ohio’s students have the opportunities and access to equitable educational practices and well-trained educators to implement those practices.
Why is the work of the Compact important?
The Deans Compact brings teacher associations, administrator associations, professors and administrators from institutions of higher education, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce leaders, and international experts who have devoted their lives to studying educational practices and outcomes together to learn from each other. From those learnings, new practices are implemented in Ohio’s classrooms, and the outcomes of those practices are reviewed critically for areas of celebration and opportunities for improvement in such a supportive environment. All of this collaboration is focused on the educational attainment of Ohio’s students. It is unusual to have space allocated for educators to work so thoughtfully and purposefully together, and it is a pleasure to be a part of this community.
What excites you most about working with the Compact and its members?
The Deans Compact provides me with the opportunity to learn from educators and policy makers from across Ohio, and from educational experts working across the world, and to reflect upon, share, and implement those perspectives when working with my colleagues. Every time we gather, I learn something new, I am challenged to change my thinking, and I can share what a practice looks like when implemented in a classroom. It is such an important educational space to occupy, and I am grateful to be a member.