About this episode
It makes sense that when new challenges in schools arise, so would innovative models and solutions. In an earlier Leader Chat with Richard Ingersoll regarding teacher shortages, he mentioned Teacher-Powered Schools. After some research, we invited Amy Junge and Wendy Salcedo-Fierro to talk with us. While we all think of the traditional principal leading and managing the school, there are new ways emerging. We hope you enjoy learning about this model as much as we did.
You don’t have to lead alone. Watch the Leader Chat every Wednesday. Learn about the Leadership Circle to find out how.
Amy Junge is a former California public elementary and middle school teacher and assistant principal. She started working with teacher-powered schools in 2009 and was a contributing author for Trusting Teachers with School Success: What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots. Today, Amy supports educator teams across the country with teacher-powered governance, collaborative leadership, and autonomous school models. She leads Education Evolving’s Teacher-Powered Schools work, oversees communications, advocacy, and professional learning development. Amy has a B.A. from Northwestern University and a M.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She lives in southern California with her family.
Wendy Salcedo-Fierro is a social studies and dual language teacher at UCLA Community School, a teacher-powered school in Los Angeles. As a lead teacher, Wendy helped articulate her school’s K-12 bilingual program and helped develop innovative projects, assessments and initiatives. She also serves as a guiding teacher for UCLA’s Teacher Education Program where she helps prepare aspiring teachers to teach for social justice. Wendy is passionate about creating democratic schools and supporting teachers and students to be agents of change. As Teacher-Powered Specialist, Wendy does direct coaching, facilitation, and resource development for educator teams.