More than Money: The Time & Intention Behind Building a Learning Culture

Okay, I’m sitting down to write this article and I’m realizing that I’m more than a little biased. My background is in nonprofit finance, and specifically federal, state, and local grants that benefit the K-12 and early childhood sectors. So, pretty predictably, my first instinct in any problem of practice is to go straight to the money.

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Not just the hard expenses, but the how and why we spend our time resources - as a school, as a nonprofit, as an early childhood education center - our people's time is our most valuable resource.

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And we all know time is money. Especially in environments in which resources are limited and often restricted for specific purposes. Money also represents power dynamics - who decides how time and money resources are spent?

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At Embracing Equity, we start with the acknowledgement that budgeting is not just about money. It’s about how we bring our organizational values to bear in achieving our mission. How we breathe life into our priorities by appropriately resourcing them.

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In many organizations, there is a sort of ‘default’ approach to valuing certain named and unnamed priorities over others - causing the status quo to prevail and old power dynamics to stay intact. In schools and early childhood organizations in particular, there is such pressure to follow a predetermined agenda for how to spend money to ‘improve student outcomes', ‘decrease racial disparities’ and other important, but bureaucratized goals. Oftentimes, educators and families are left completely out of the decision-making process - a missed opportunity to gain insight on how to actually create real value for all involved.

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First, the Facts

According to a recent study from the Learning Policy Institute, the number one reason educators leave the profession might surprise you.

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#1: Lack of administrator support.

Yes, the number one reason is not compensation. Well, to be fair, low pay came in third. Second on the list? Inadequate pre-service teacher preparation. More on that later.

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Desiree Carver-Thomas shared that, “[Administrator support] is one of the biggest predictors of teacher turnover, when a teacher doesn't find their administrator supportive or encouraging.”

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Moreover, “Teachers talk about wanting to be taken seriously and be seen as professionals - wanting to have a voice in how their school is run. But they also want help - they want their principal to have their back with parents or when discipline issues arise. And to support their professional development.“

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Now, Let’s Get Building!

When considering how to build a culture of learning - and even more importantly a culture of belonging to counteract educator turnover and disparate student outcomes - here are a few strategies to build momentum.

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Make Time.

There is never enough time to do everything. Prioritize the things that matter and ensure your whole team is able to do so as well. Professional development (PD) is one of those things that matters and deserves time.

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Listen.

There are so many hot trends, controversies, and plain old administrative drudgeries. It can be hard to practice active listening with the people impacted most: your team and your organization’s community. Take care to invite the voices of all affected, particularly those across lines of differences.

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Look Within Your Organization.

Provide monthly opportunities for team members to lead learning sessions - folks can partner up or lead the learning sessions solo, providing opportunities for the team to lead, be heard, and build shared knowledge. Integrate these sessions into your organization’s calendar. And, if folks are really interested in a topic, reach out to an external trainer for information on group rates or train the trainer options.

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Design Effective Onboarding & Ongoing Learning.

Spend the time to design your own onboarding process and ongoing learning initiatives to focus on what matters to your organization. Invest time, energy, and money resources into your whole team’s onboarding process so that you are building a culture of learning in alignment with your organization’s core values from the start.

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Invest in Leadership Development.

If the number one reason why educators are leaving the field is a lack of administrator support, how might the whole organization benefit from intentionally leveraging leadership development and coaching? Yes, this is often more expensive and more time intensive, but the payoff is major potential for positive change. Want to up your game as an anti-racist leader, leading the way on innovative and inclusive practices? Join Embracing Equity’s Leadership Residency.

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Build Up Your Budget.

We’ve come full circle to my personal happy place - the budget! Yes, building a culture of learning is more than just the money input, and if you want to transform your organization’s culture and climate, you need to strategically build up your budget to name and adequately resource your priorities. Here’s some practical tips:

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Bring a Critical Lens. Being an anti-racist practitioner requires us to bring a critical lens to all aspects of our lives and budgeting is no different. Look at where time and money resources are being allocated. Whose growth and development is being prioritized? What initiatives are being funded and whom does that impact? Who is thriving in the organization and who isn’t? Not sure where to begin, or interested in refining your own critical lens? Check out our cohort-based learning experiences.

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Leverage Systemic Funding. Braid several sources of funding (e.g., federal, state, and local) to sustain PD initiatives for the long-haul. There are so many ways to do this while building trust and belonging. For example, consult your team for ideas, consider providing stipends to educators taking on additional workload related to a PD initiative, or offer a ‘grow your own’ internal career pathways initiative.

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Design a Responsive PD Allocation. This can be done by designing a formula that balances structure and choice within your organization’s context. For example you could:

• Take your total employee count multiplied by an amount, let’s say about $1k/employee/year, as the basis for your total PD budget.
• Whatever you come up with, round up. Give yourself the freedom of choice and the ability to adapt to whatever the year throws at you.
• Determine an equitable methodology to invest that PD budget in advancing your organization’s priorities. Consider the total PD budget within the context of everything that is going on in your organization - Is staff attrition high? Has your leadership team recently changed? Are circumstances challenging due to external forces? How might those factors impact how you budget for team learning?
• Align your budget and make your priorities clear.

Be Creative. Think creatively about how you can transform restricted funding sources into sources of funds for your priorities. There is almost always a way to align big picture priorities with legislative and funding mandates.

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We’re in this together.

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Get in touch to learn how Embracing Equity can partner with you to make great things happen.

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For Reference:

• Learning Policy Institute
• "Who Wants to be a Teacher?" series by The Educate Podcast

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About the Author

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Sharon Keiser (she/her) is Embracing Equity’s COO and has over fifteen years of nonprofit finance, human resources, and capacity building experience. Prior to joining Embracing Equity, Sharon provided financial leadership coaching and technical support to school leaders starting their own dream schools under The Wildflower Foundation.

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As chief operating officer, Sharon brings her wealth of experience to Embracing Equity’s finance, people operations, and tech.