Words of advice from Alex Johnston, CEO of ConnCAN

I was reading an interview with Alex Johnston, Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) which I thought was particularly interesting and wanted to share.

ConnCAN is a non-profit organization working to close the achievement gap between rich and poor students in Connecticut by advocating for high quality preschools and charter school funding amongst other initiatives.

In his interview in Flypaper, a blog of the Washington DC-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute an educational think tank, Mr. Johnston discussed the need for education reform and gave his suggestions to newcomers to the world of education. I thought his words good advice for our Board of Education candidates, new and old.

What advice would you give to a person who’s brand-new to your area of the education world?

Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten is that excellence in any human endeavor is the sum of the difficult conversations that we’re willing to have with each other. And as an advocate for kids who are being grossly disadvantaged by adult politics, following this advice means establishing an organizational culture that practices disciplined urgency. Some of the toughest calls you will have to make are about how much heat to apply, and how much to temper this heat with political pragmatism. Because the minute things really start getting hot, you’ll have tons of folks, including some of your own friends and supporters, telling you to cool it—that a direct confrontation with such powerfully entrenched interests as those defending the educational status quo can only be counterproductive. But of course, if you’re not willing to make things uncomfortable for others (and for yourself), you’re not going to be much of a change agent. But neither should you fall for the ideologue’s self-indulgence: satisfying yourself by merely howling in the wilderness against injustice—you have the obligation to engage as a political pragmatist because there are too many kids waiting for you to deliver results for them tomorrow. So keep your hand firmly on the thermostat—and understand that while you are not seeking out conflict for its own sake, your job is not to build consensus among all of the stakeholders, it is to drive systemic change.

Mr. Johnston's entire interview can be read at the Flypaper.