My View
Contributing My Rural Voice From the Field
BY MELISSA A. SADORF/School Administrator, September 2021

LAST OCTOBER, standing alone in my superintendent office with the phone to my ear, I raised my right hand and virtually took the oath of office as the first superintendent to be selected as a U.S. Department of Education School Ambassador Fellow.

I’ll soon complete my yearlong virtual fellowship, a unique challenge to contribute to my chosen field. I took advantage of a wide variety of opportunities, collaborated regularly with seven other successful educators from around the country serving as fellows and interacted with a fellow alumni group of 130 that continues to connect with the Department of Education on various educational topics.

Realistic Solutions

As a rural superintendent, I am committed to being a voice for rural issues at all levels. I was introduced to the School Ambassador Fellowship at a conference where a lead fellow spoke with enthusiasm about the department bringing in educators to inform federal initiatives, planning and projects. The fellowship enabled me to take rural concerns to a national platform and engage with Department of Education personnel for developing realistic solutions.

Fellows are responsible for proposing and completing a yearlong capstone project, based on the secretary of education’s priori-ties, to provide a remedy to a problem of practice. My capstone began with a national focus on rural teacher recruitment and retention, but I quickly discovered that the teacher shortage was being aggressively addressed at all levels. Little attention, though, seemed to be directed to the looming principal shortage. This led to a shift in my focus to the rural principal pipeline and ways to both recruit and retain leaders over the long term through quality training and mentoring.

I collaborated with five Western states and their rural associations to create and facilitate a Rural Leaders Network. The network has two areas of focus: (1) providing principal professional development that prioritizes strategic instructional leadership and (2) creating space for leaders from across the country to interact in periodic roundtables around issues de jour. Joseph Masgai, a fellow ambassador, and I converged our capstone projects because of our shared focus on the principal pipeline.

Masgai, an elementary school principal in Yardley, Pa., and I were invited to present our findings at this year’s virtual Teach to Lead Summit and we hosted the inaugural Time to Lead session intended specifically for school administrators on supporting the planning work of teacher teams. Additionally, we created a National Principal’s Community of Practice Summit hosted by the fellowship pro-gram for school leaders nationwide.

Ongoing communication with practicing educators is at the foundation of the fellowship and a top priority of Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education. I hope these aligned efforts will be ongoing after my fellowship ends this month.

Impactful Projects

Being in a virtual setting has limited some of the typical engagement, such as travel to Washington, D.C., for in-person meetings with department officials. However, I have been able to participate in several impactful projects. I conducted listening sessions with superintendents on the effects of the pandemic in their school communities. A summary of my insights was shared with the department, which used them in federal recommendations on learning in virtual and hybrid settings and in creating flexibility in the use of federal grant dollars.

I also was asked to provide anecdotal information to the Centers for Disease Control that subsequently was included in the agency’s recommendations for reopening schools. I interacted with the field through several professional Twitter chats on various topics and helped to launch the annual Education Department Tech Expo with the Muppets.

I would recommend the School Ambassador Fellowship to other superintendents without hesitation. If you want to lend your perspective and provide practical guidance to the federal agency, this is your opportunity. My year has been professionally fulfilling, and I know I have made a difference. The internal motto for the program is “Once a Fellow, always a Fellow,” and I plan to continue to engage with the Department of Education on rural school issues.

MELISSA SADORF is superintendent of the Stanfield Elementary School District in Stanfield, Ariz. Twitter: @Dr_Sadorf

Further Information

Details about applying for the School Ambassador Fellowship Program run by the U.S. Department of Education are available at bit.ly/school-ambassador-fellowship-program.