Broad Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Iton Udosenata (TBF 2022-23)

What are you most excited about in your work right now?

I started in Tigard-Tualatin this past July, and six months in, I’m very focused on learning deeply about the community. I spent the first 100 days meeting with community members, students, families, principals, teachers, and local elected officials.

It’s important for me to understand the story of the district and what people’s aspirations are. For the most part, those aspirations are the same as any district: We want kids to have a good education. We want kids to be treated fairly. People want kids to be able to realize their dreams. Those are the big ones. So, I’m excited about the culture-building work in listening and learning. We want to help each school building find their own identity, and to elevate the voice of students.

I am thrilled that we got a collective bargaining agreement done rapidly and with positive feelings. Getting that settled allows us to look at both our resources and our ambitions, and sets us up to go for a bond that will allow us to invest in 21st century facilities for students. It’s a lot of work, but we are ready to roll up our sleeves – knock on doors, talk to people, and show up at community events about why this is the right thing for our district and how it prepares us well for the future.

It’s a $421 million bond, which is large for a district of our size. It sounds like an astronomical amount of money, but it’s really what you need in 2025 to keep things moving. The bond would provide for a new middle school, and significant upgrades to four existing elementary schools.

We know it makes a difference when students come into a beautiful facility that looks like it has been cared for and they have new and accessible playgrounds, classrooms, and lab spaces. I’ve seen it in previous districts, including one where a new school building was part of a 16 percentage point increase in our graduation rate.

It shows students “We care about you. We are invested in you.” That can catapult a student into progressing – they want to come to school, and they want to stay there. I’m excited to bring that to the students in my district.

How has your experience as a Broad alum influenced your leadership?

My biggest takeaway from the Fellowship for Public Education Leadership is the idea of connection. Connecting with others creates unforeseen opportunities, and it also keeps you going when the work gets tough. You can take that idea of connection – for example, with other Broad alumni at an event like the Forum – and apply it to your leadership to build connection within your organization. From your role and position, you can invest in people and play the part as a convener or connector.

Something additional that resonated as a part of the Fellowship is what happens when that connection piece meets innovation. And when I say innovation, I don’t mean creating the next smartphone. Instead, it’s like how Formula 1 racers were able to study the rulebook, and find spaces to innovate and therefore create the optimal driving machine, something that disrupted Formula 1 racing. So, how does this apply to education?

The politics and the economy of the city are both associated with resources; schools are one place where the rubber meets the road in terms of city politics. As school leaders, we have an opportunity to influence those dynamics creatively, for the better of students.

I try to take this idea of innovation internally to drive better outcomes for students, while I’m still mindful of the politics of the exterior. It really matters that elected officials understand the story of our kids and our district, because they represent them – and they are in a position to be able to better leverage the resources we have available to help our schools.

How is your district working to increase equity for students?

First, we are continuing to elevate student voices. That’s a critical way to understand some of the school community factors we need to invest in. What policy decisions and curriculum decisions do we need to make?

In TTSD, we are also doing interesting work in response to any hate-based and bias-related incidents. An incident can be anything from a teacher showing an inappropriate video in class, to something happened at a football game, to questions about representation in our curriculum. Our approach is called EASH: education, accountability, solutions, and healing. When there is an incident, we are able to follow a protocol. We are also able to keep better track of incidents when they happen, which contributes to a more accountable and honest appraisal for how we are serving students and where they are still finding barriers.

A few times a year, we conduct a systems health check related to equity – a systematized check, for example, about how we are serving students of color, or students receiving English learner supports. We look at a variety of outcomes – reading, attendance, graduation, and so forth. We share the results with school leaders, which leads to specificity and intentionality in school improvement plans.

What do you think school leaders should be thinking about right now?

Every school leader I know cares deeply about equity. Equity work had a lot of momentum between 2014 and 2017, but the discussions about what the work is and should be haven’t changed much in the past seven years. But the needs of students have changed.

I remember being a kid, and having elders come to my classroom in the mid-1990s and talking about their experience in the Civil Rights movement. I had respect for them, but also knew that in 1995 I needed something different, so there was that little bit of disconnection, too.

I worry that if we don’t really elevate the voice of students about what equity and anti-racism work means in this day and age, we will be missing the mark. We need to think about what students need between now and 2035, and we need to incorporate student voice and community voice. So, my advice to school leaders would be to stay connected to your community, as well as to education leaders across the country. It’s great to be part of Broad and to be able to draw on that network.