For Superintendent Tami Crader, NJNS provided her with the knowledge and skills—as well as the peer support—she needed to leave a homogenous, high-performing district and take on a more diverse district facing greater challenges. When she became superintendent of Neptune Public Schools, she quickly identified organizational structures and beliefs that were negatively influencing college and career opportunities for students in poverty and students of color.

I had learned so much about equity in the network and from superintendents who lead urban districts. I started to look at everything differently. I started to look at student achievement differently, gender issues differently, race differently. I began looking at data through the lens of equity and diversity, and so I decided that my next position would be in a district that was larger, with more student diversity. I was inspired by my new colleagues in the network to do the work.

If you’ve been in the field of educational leadership as long as I have been, you need something that forces you to stretch, and to think, and to share ideas, and to hear others’ ideas. I decided to stretch my wings.

As I began working in Neptune, I realized there are still many ways that I need to develop in terms of my ability to lead. I can identify if a group is overrepresented in a specific program. And now I am working on questions of why those overrepresentations exist and how can we combat them.

–Dr.Tami Crader, Superintendent, Neptune Public Schools

“Stretching My Wings”