Jharrett Bryantt: Superintendent of Anchorage School District

Dr. Jharrett Bryantt is the superintendent of the Anchorage School District (ASD). He grew up in San Antonio and then went to college on the East Coast. He returned to Texas for his first teaching job at a charter school in Houston where he taught math as part of Teach for America which is a national program that supports college graduates to become teachers in our neediest schools through an alternative teacher certification process. Alaska does not qualify for Teach for America because we do not allow for alternative teacher certification. Two years later Jharrett left the classroom to begin his quick ascension up the administrative ladder of the Houston Independent School District. While working for HISD, he earned his doctoral degree in education policy and leadership from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2019, Dr. Bryantt was named one of Forbes’ magazines 30 under 30 for education based on his work to get more low income students into college. He began as ASD's superintendent in Summer 2022. 

Transcript

Dr. Jharrett Bryantt Interview

Jharrett: [00:00:00] And I push the public to figure out what needs to happen to create world class schools. Of course, from my lens as superintendent, I'll say that flat funding for a number of years just isn't working. Unsustainable and unpredictable funding is just not going to work long term. We need to figure out a way to invest in ourselves and not even just in the schools.

I'm thinking about our neighborhood roads, our infrastructure tackling issues such as poverty and connecting people in rural Alaska to broadband. Really just the basics. How do we create this baseline experience for all Alaskans? So that we can really position ourselves as a great place to be.

 Andrew: Welcome to the east Anchorage book club. I'm your host, Andrew Gray. The purpose of this podcast is to tell the stories of Alaskans of interest and importance today, our guest is Dr. Jarrett Bryant, the superintendent of the anchored school district. Jared grew up in San Antonio and then went to [00:01:00] college on the east coast, but he returned to Texas for his first teaching job at a charter school in Houston, right after graduating from college, Jarrett taught math as part of teach for America, which is a national program that supports college graduates to become teachers and our neediest schools through an alternative teacher certification process. Alaska does not qualify for teach for America because we do not allow for alternative teacher certification. 

This is something that we'll talk about on the show today. After leaving the classroom just two years later, he began his quick Ascension up the administrative ladder of the Houston independent school district. While still working for his. He earned his doctoral degree in education policy and leadership from my Alma mater, the university of Texas at Austin in 2019. 

Bryant was named one of Forbes, magazines, 30 under 30 for education based on his work to get more low income students into college. Dr. Bryant has been superintendent of ASD since summer 2022.

Andrew: Jarrett Bryant, welcome to the [00:02:00] podcast. 

Jharrett: Thank you, Representative Gray. Pleasure to be here.

Andrew: Tell us about where you grew up.

Jharrett: Sure, let's dive right into it. I was born and raised in Texas. I grew up in San Antonio. If I could describe myself, I'd say I was Pretty nerdy introverted person, painfully shy but I got really into things like theater and, learning, going to the library, reading the dictionary, learning all sorts of nerdy stuff.

And I would say the turning point for me was I was exploring school choice. I was a public school kid. And there was this one really cool, very small very interesting school that I really wanted to go to for high school. So I decided that I wanted to apply and attend mostly because I looked at the track records of where their valedictorian would go.

Was it a private school? No, it was a public magnet school. Okay. Yeah. And what really attracted me to it was one, it was small learning environment to a big focus on diplomacy. It was an international school, so kids from all over the world [00:03:00] or who had international ties would attend. And then from there they had great academics, project based learning, all the good stuff, all the good education buzzwords.

But in any case, I really wanted to go, was fortunate enough to get in, and my big aspiration was, I want to be the valedictorian here because I've looked at the data, and the valedictorian at this school gets to go to wherever they want. And I knew I wanted to go to the East Coast, so I was lucky enough to graduate at the top of my class, and I got to go to my top choice school, which was Yale University, all the way in Connecticut.

And that's where I thought I would stay for the long term, on the East Coast, but one thing led to another, and then I ended up back in Texas. 

Andrew: Can you explain what the difference between a public magnet school and a public charter school? 

Jharrett: Sure. So it depends on the state, but in most situations, a public magnet school would be in a traditional school system, like an ASD equivalent.

It's a school of choice though, so an equivalent here would be like a Polaris, right? So it's an ASD school, but it's a school [00:04:00] of choice, you don't have to go there, nobody's zoned there. It's just like semantics 

Andrew: and I'm just learning the words, but I would call That's a 

Jharrett: charter school.

The, when you bring charter into it, now you're talking about governance. An alternative school like a Polaris, they have a principal that reports up to the traditional school board superintendent structure. A charter school in most states means that you operate independently of elected school boards.

Andrew: . So all of those language immersion schools are They 

Jharrett: are ASD schools, except for Rilkeshule, which is a charter school. And So my 

Andrew: Okay, then I have been right. My child goes to a charter school. My child goes to Rilkeshule. 

Jharrett: Correct. But, the difference is that here in Alaska, it's quirky, where it's a hybrid.

Where a charter school They still report up to a board that we call an academic policy committee. So that group, they decide the curriculum. They hire the principal. The principal does not have reporting authority formally to the superintendent. However, here in Alaska, all charter schools must apply and be [00:05:00] sponsored by a school district.

So this state is different than a lot of other states where all Rilke School students are ASD students and they generate funding for the district. But we give the bulk of that funding directly to the school and they can use it as they want. So when school districts have to think about things like, increasing class sizes and cutting programs that may or may not impact a charter school because they're the stewards of their dollars that go into their account.

Andrew: So the charter schools have a little bit more independence and aren't as affected by the school district's budget? Is 

Jharrett: that what I'm hearing? Not necessarily. So I would say the fundamental difference in Alaska specifically between a charter school and an alternative school would be the governance.

So who makes the decisions ultimately. But even a charter school in Alaska is still accountable to the school board here. For example, ASD has to renew and approve charters here, and in very rare extreme situations, a school board could [00:06:00] choose to dissolve a charter to where that school no longer exists.

That's unique to Alaska, but still, there is accountability to an elected school board, but you have that buffer of an academic policy committee. And not to get too in the wheats here, but we have alternative schools that have a But they don't have academic policy. 

Andrew: You know what I'm gonna say, where I think the confusion for me is, and probably for some other parents, is that when my son was in kindergarten, we got ourselves on the wait list for Polaris, for Rilke Shkola, for the Chinese immersion program, for the Russian immersion program.

We applied to a lot of different, I called them all charter schools in my head. But it sounds like some of them were charter, some of them were alternative 

Jharrett: schools within the district. And they all funder the umbrella of schools of choice, where you're not zoned to it. 

Andrew: And I think for me, I, this is a non partisan interview, but I bristle at the word [00:07:00] choice because of the way it's been used as a way of trying to take funding away from the public school system and use it towards private school or religious schools or towards homeschool even, that's what I hear when I hear the word choice.

And maybe again, it's all about language because obviously parents in ASD have an enormous number of choices if you're able to drive your kid to school and pick them up because there isn't a bus service for these schools. That's I think a limiting factor 

Jharrett: for a lot of the parents.

But one thing when you talk about school choice people talk a lot about correspondent schools and I think that we have really great correspondence slash homeschools here in Alaska, but a lot of people don't realize that if you choose to homeschool your student, in most cases you are affiliated with a district.

, a lot of correspondence school students actually attend ASD whether or not they know it. We actually have one of the largest correspondence schools in the state, but that's a whole other topic. That is. 

Andrew: So just to put a button on this one, do you think Alaska's [00:08:00] system, as it is so different than others, is.

Good. I think we have a great system. Would you change it? Would you make it because you know when we're talking about the magnet, this all grew out of the fact that you applied for and went to a magnet school that was able to get you into Yale, and I'm just curious if you think that Texas system is something that we should look at for possible ways to improve our system 

Jharrett: I think that we have all the right tools in our toolbox here in Alaska to have great schools. And I'm glad you brought up the fact that I went to a great public magnet school that resulted in my going and attending successfully Yale University. But actually the bulk of my career was focusing on expanding that opportunity to more students in low income communities and specifically in traditional public schools.

So I have a lot of passion for figuring out how can you ensure that even if you don't go to a charter school or a magnet school, that you still have access to that. And I've successfully proven that in traditional systems, no matter which school you go to highest [00:09:00] performing or lowest performing, if you want to go to a Yale or wherever you want, you can, that's possible.

Andrew: Did you always want to work in education? 

Jharrett: Yeah, that's a good question. I really didn't for a number of different reasons. . I really didn't know what I wanted to study. I met friends that had various interests that somewhat influenced me.

At my college a lot of people wanted to become doctors or investment bankers or consultants. So that's where my head was at when I was in the earlier years of college. And long story short towards the end, I actually envisioned myself going into either research, so I did a lot of chemical and biological engineering research as an undergraduate student, I took a lot of engineering courses a part of me envisioned becoming an MD PhD and figuring out how you translate research into bedside care for patients in hospitals.

 But then the turning point was towards the end of college.

I took one class, and it was called Solving the [00:10:00] American Education Crisis, and that title really struck me because I never really thought about our education system as being in crisis. I was more thinking about crisis through the lens of the healthcare system, all of those inequities that you're probably very familiar with.

But it turns out when I took this class, I learned about traditional public school systems in a different way. I learned about things such as flat funding, and how some school districts are under mayoral control, versus school boards, versus charter schools. Some of the historical changes such as a movement towards accountability, and race to the top, and all those different things that were happening in the late 90s, 2000s.

And I realized Make a long story short, the education, I think, is one of the most complex enterprises and systems in this country. And I was fascinated by it. I didn't know how I wanted to contribute to making it better than it was when I found it. But I knew that I wanted to figure that out. And ironically enough, I wasn't [00:11:00] interested in working in education, partly because Yale doesn't have a college of education.

They really don't produce a lot of teachers. So when I said that I was interested in joining the teaching ranks, at Yale, they're more used to people, ironically enough to go to private schools. You may not realize this, but a lot of Ivy League graduates end up teaching in private high schools, or private boarding schools, because they don't have the same restrictions that we have in a traditional school system.

I know that For most people, they think of an uncertified teacher as not qualified or they don't want them in front of their kid, but believe it or not, some of the most well connected boarding schools are taught by people that don't go to traditional colleges of education. Not all, but there is a premium on people that have gone to Ivy League schools and will presumably teach children what they need to know to be successful in that type of a rigorous environment.

 But all that to say, I wasn't interested in that. I didn't want to teach in a private school. I didn't even really want to teach in a suburban school. I wanted to go to the [00:12:00] places that I learned about in my class. I wanted to teach in an urban school district with a lot of challenges that was very different than the type of school that I went to because I knew that's where the work is.

In fact, I became so fascinated with education that I ended up taking classes in special education and education law. I even took a class at the School of Business where it was taught by the Deputy Chancellor of New York City Schools, and it was about how through senior executive management you can positively impact change.

So through the business lens. So I had all of these great experiences that gave me a unique but not perfect lens into what needs to happen in education. So thankfully enough at the time there was this somewhat of a controversial organization called Teach for America that was very popular at the time.

Andrew: I've, I, I know a lot about Teach for America. I didn't know why they were 

Jharrett: controversial. Here in Alaska, we can't even have Teach for America because we don't have a pathway for [00:13:00] alternative certification. And most other states do. In fact, this is the only state that I know of that doesn't have a path for alternative.

So 

Andrew: I was at emergency certified. teacher at LAUSD in Los Angeles Unified School District. Obviously, I never did a traditional teacher certification program, but I felt that the certification program that LAUSD provided to the emergency certified teachers was really rigorous and ultimately So useful because it was being taught by teachers working in the district and you were going to class after you taught all day.

So you had these very practical questions and you were able to apply what you learned that night the next day in school. Which, although maybe not ideal, I just can't imagine that somebody who was doing it as part of their degree program who'd never taught before would be getting the same things out of it.

The teachers who are actually applying it every single day as they go. I think there's a [00:14:00] There's some definite pluses to that sort of system. 

Jharrett: I think so. I have a whole track record with alternative certification. One, I completed one to become a teacher. And what was neat about Texas is they allowed districts Where did you go to teach after you It was called Yes Prep Public Schools.

So it was a high performing charter school. In? In Houston, Texas. So I did teach for America, and they essentially Choose your state and your school and city for you, based on a number of factors. I guess they realized that I'm from Texas, and for a lot of reasons, I really connect with communities in Texas, so they placed me there, and there was a lot of need.

There was a huge teacher shortage at the time in various types of schools, and I ended up at Yes Prep Public Schools. That's so weird. 

Andrew: I'm just throwing it out. I would think that a Teach for America teacher Would be sent to a school that no one wanted to teach at, but, it sounds like, in my experience, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that it's easier for charter schools to recruit teachers.[00:15:00] 

Jharrett: So there's a lot to that question. So most Teach for America teachers do go to traditional public schools because of course they have high levels of turnover. The interesting thing is that Yes Prep and another well known charter network called KIPP, they were founded by Teach for America alumni and they were designed with that same mindset and vision that we need.

High stakes and accountability and high results for students that need it the most, that was the flavor of education at the time. And for that reason, they have a lot of trust in the Teach for America selection process for better or for worse. And they love hiring Teach for America alumni and core members.

They were happy to accept a lot of teachers into their system. However, They have much greater levels of turnover than even a traditional school system. So the average age at my school in terms of staff is probably in the mid to high twenties. I was one of those, everyone was a new teacher.

Even the principal was 27, 26 years old. And [00:16:00] it was a culture that does not exist in any schools that I've visited here, but they exist elsewhere where it's, high accountability, high and the expectation is that you won't be paid a whole lot, but you're expected to work around the clock, 80, 90 plus hours, and it's a badge of honor to be the last person leaving the parking lot.

And you learn a ton. And you learn a ton, and I was alternatively certified as a teacher, but what that meant was that, first off, school districts can certify their own teachers in Texas, which means, to your point about LA Unified, Yes Prep did the same thing, where they designed their certification program around the rigor and expectations of teaching in that type of school.

So what does that mean? That means I had a certified teacher in my classroom twice, three times a day. Some teachers don't get evaluated. three times in a year or two years, and it was performance pay. Performance was linked to how much you got paid. And, the upside is that a high performing teacher can get paid upwards of a hundred K plus.

But the downside is if you realize what you [00:17:00] have to do to get there, it's a special type of work. It's a lifestyle. And it was one where I learned a lot in a couple of years. But even I needed to figure out, what's my place going to be in education. I love teaching. I love math, but 

Andrew: So you did, in the Teach for America program, you committed to do two years?

You commit 

Jharrett: to do two, and you can teach as long as you want. 

Andrew: Under the Teach America program you could stay with Teach America, or do you at a certain point, do you just become 

Jharrett: a teacher? So in some sense, you are, you're part of the Teach for America network but you no longer have a commitment, right?

You've satisfied your You've satisfied your commitment, Teach for America partners with AmeriCorps, which is a federal program to give some student loan relief and that sort of thing. You've gotten your benefits and a lot of teachers do teach for a third year. In fact, I thought I wanted to teach for several more years.

A part of me envisioned myself becoming one of those really good calculus teachers. And were you like 

Andrew: 22 when you did the first Teach for America 

Jharrett: year? Yeah, I must have been 21 or 22. And so 

Andrew: you did those [00:18:00] two years, and then you're like 23 or 24, and then what happened? 

Jharrett: Yeah, then my whole life changed, really.

So I thought I was going to stay on to be a math teacher, that was my plan. I still didn't know exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. But I did know that that culture in my particular school system was not sustainable. It, I don't think that would be sustainable for a lot of people, but that's their model.

They have high expectations, and most people leave the organization. But they have their recruitment and development strategy down pat. They know how to make a recent college grad a solid teacher. I can guarantee you that. So in any case. For me, I was signing on for a third year of teaching, but then I ended up writing in op ed because of something that happened when I was a teacher.

I was a math teacher, I'd put my kids in rows, and I'd always put the kiddos that I wanted to give a lot of one on one support in the front. And those in the back were those who are more self directed. They liked reading ahead in the textbook, and I could go see them every now and then, but I knew that they were on [00:19:00] grade level, if not above.

But the sad thing is that when you're a teacher, you have kids with a lot of need. My school was a hundred percent free reduced price lunch, and underserved and ethnic minorities. So it was a high need school in a high need neighborhood, and what I found is that I didn't spend a lot of time with those kids in the back of the room.

And, yeah, I taught high school, so I did notice that as those students would graduate even my brightest students would end up in, minimum wage jobs, earning, seven bucks an hour to work at the movie theater. Some would start their families earlier than they planned.

And in my opinion, they weren't living up to their potential because there were so many kids that I taught who were brilliant, like ten times as talented as I'll ever be. And they just never got that opportunity. So I wrote in an op ed Just stating my opinion that we need to not forget about our low income kids that really want to figure out their path in life.

Because just because you have a good brain on your shoulders does not mean you have the social capital or [00:20:00] other skills that you need to navigate. Systems that are dominated by people of privilege or who have the networks to help them advance regardless of their aptitudes. So I saw that missing. I said I didn't like it.

I was really writing it. It really is a call to action to my school district to put more resources to all kids, but it ended up catching the attention of the Houston Independent School District. which is the largest school system in Texas and where I would end up working for about a decade after and the superintendent was very passionate about this topic of helping low income students succeed at top schools because he was one of them and he and his cabinet became aware that I was interested in this type of work, and it was perfect timing because they were starting to develop a program specifically for those kids.

So they recruited me to help build out that program, and I'd be a college counselor. So I was a full time counselor to some of the brightest, low income students in Houston Independent [00:21:00] School District, which is 80 percent economically disadvantaged and one of the most diverse school systems in America.

And over the course of four years, I helped hundreds of them matriculate into Ivy league and top colleges on full rides. And then fast forward five, six years or so into my time in Houston, 164 different top colleges are attended by alumni of this program. About 3, 000 have completed the program so far, if not more.

And, more importantly, most of them don't have any debt because they got full scholarships and financial aid from their college, and they're graduating at over 90 percent for your graduation rates, which is in order of magnitude higher than low income kids in general, and even amongst the high achieving low income students, that's significantly higher.

All that to say, I feel that program was very successful, and that's where I spent the bulk of my career, until I decided to become an administrator. Okay, let's 

Andrew: pause right [00:22:00] there. What did your parents do? 

Jharrett: My parents are interesting. I would say that I don't have a traditional relationship with my family, but what I will say, because they're not public officials, is that they are good people and they instilled upon me the importance of education.

And regardless of how much education that they accrued, it doesn't matter. They instilled upon me that my ticket to doing what I want to do in life. will be to be successful in school. Were they teachers? They were not teachers. They were not involved in education. They weren't They were not involved in education.

In fact, what I will say about them, and I don't want to say much about them, is that they wanted me to find my own path. They did not push me to, be hyper. And they, yeah, so they weren't not discouraging you 

Andrew: or, not saying you should be a doctor or a lawyer? 

Jharrett: Never. They were the type of parents that said, if you want to stay home because you're feeling sick Stay home because you're feeling sick or if you need time to, take a mental health day.

I was never pushed to, do well in school. I was never encouraged to be a straight A [00:23:00] student. I was just given the latitude and trust to do my thing and I was a very independent person. I was an only child too. I think that's a piece of it as well. And are they still in San Antonio? Yeah, my family's in Texas.

Andrew: Okay, so administrator, so you did your counselor thing, ran this program in HISD. And now you're going to into administration. And I think the most important And again, I'm just thinking you're like between 26 and 27 around the administration age? 

Jharrett: It happened about 25 actually. .

 My superintendent and his senior staff, wanted to help me broaden my horizons and consider an opportunity to be a more traditional administrator. So when I was about 25, we were trying to expand that program I spoke about to help kids, and we got about $10 million from local philanthropy to grow the program to serve even more kids in all 50 high schools.

Andrew: As somebody who, I did not go to [00:24:00] Yale or Harvard. As somebody who went to state school, I went to the University of Texas.

Everyone sees everything from their own lens, but I think like the whole that we want to get as many of these lower income kids into the Ivy League, but is there anything wrong with going to the University of Texas or I know that we want to make it more equitable to get into the quote unquote, very best schools, but I also bristle a little bit at the very best schools.

Because I didn't go there, so I can't say that they're 100 times better than the University of Texas, but most of the people who went to the Ivy League can't compare to the University of Texas because they didn't go there either. So I think there's this assumption that the Ivy League is providing people with a level of education that they can't get anywhere else in the world.

And I just feel like that's, it's elitist. 

Jharrett: I'll tell you this. Think about our kids in traditional community college systems. We don't have that here in Alaska. But you also know that our community colleges are subject to the will of our local legislators. And we have great [00:25:00] legislators everywhere, right?

But they're also subject to budget cuts and vulnerability. And what I found in my research is that traditional community colleges community college students are disproportionately low income and students of color. And the graduation rates for the Houston community college system is in the single digits.

Only 8 out of every 100 community college kids ever get any sort of degree. And these are kids who are enrolled full time. And on top of that, they're more likely to take on debt and student loans. So anyway, not to say no, I'm with you. And I went to, 

Andrew: I did some classes at Alvin Community College near Houston.

. So I'm not saying that all Higher level education is equal.

I know it's not but I just You know I just pushed back a little bit on the overemphasis on the Ivy League as being the goal because obviously They can't accommodate 

It's 

Jharrett: controversial, but I'll tell you this is that there [00:26:00] wasn't elitism that was fueling this movement and it's become a national movement.

This nonprofit that I helped start is now in five different school districts in Texas. It's set to launch nationally any year now and it's very successful, but it's not because of elitism. It's because of the metrics, right? So these private universities. They put their money where their mouth is, and they tend to graduate these students with minimal debt.

So at Yale, for example, if your family makes under a hundred K, you essentially go for free. How many schools can say that? And on top of that, the expenditure per student is heads and shoulders above what any state. institution can reasonably provide for their students, because you know how it works.

As a legislator, you're trying to appropriate dollars for all these great things, even beyond K 12 and higher ed. And oftentimes, it's our low income kids that get the short end of the stick. So at least in these private institutions that have a mindset that they want to help serve talented kids, no matter what their income is.

They do it, and [00:27:00] they graduate, and I've just, regardless, because I do agree, they're fantastic institutions, both public and private. They've gone on to do great things. I And, as you said, 

Andrew: some of these kids were ten times, more brilliant than you that there's the movie, Good Will Hunting, and I know it's a movie, the whole idea that you could go to the library and check out these books and do this on your own, you get a piece of paper that says that you completed this degree program, but that piece of paper doesn't necessarily mean that you're the most capable person at this job.

I'll speak about my experience as a teacher doing that emergency certification program. I learned something new every single day that I was teaching. It was a learn on the job program when you're doing an emergency certification. There's, some value to practical life experience that's not reflected in a piece of paper from a university. And I love higher education. I have an advanced degree and I value education [00:28:00] but I also just want to recognize that it's not for everybody and it doesn't mean that.

There's anything lacking there, 

Jharrett: yeah, I agree. I think we're completely on the same page. But for me, it was more of social justice. It was the fact that a lot of students that live in trailer parks don't even think that they can succeed at Yale. They don't know that they're as brilliant as they are.

And in fact, it wasn't until people started doing a national study where I think the college board gave out pamphlets to kids across the nation that said, Hey, if you're poor, you can go to Ivy League schools for free. A lot of kids don't even know that. They don't even apply. And then they end up in places where statistically they aren't likely to graduate.

So for me, it was more of helping students succeed based on where I, I saw the data, and I knew they could, and they are, but there are lots of ways to be successful. But that was my journey, and that was my passion project. But that said, we raised about 10 million dollars from philanthropy. That was an enormous investment to bring this program to all 50 [00:29:00] Houston high schools.

I was excited to do it, and on top of that, the philanthropists asked hey, if we gave you an extra five million dollars, what would you do? And I said that we need more college counselors for all the kids. So for all the kids that aren't considering Ivy League schools, maybe they want to go to community college or trade schools or whatever their path is, They need a counselor in Champion too.

So let's put more counselors in schools. And they said, okay, let's do it. We'll give you the funding to hire hundreds of college access professionals to help improve college access and success for all kids, on top of that program. And I said, great. And then my superintendent said Jarrett, go hire those hundreds of people.

And I did. I recruited them from some of the best charter networks and school systems around the country and within Texas. And then that's when I got the call from his senior staff that said, Hey we'd like to invite you to join the senior staff as an assistant superintendent, and this is when I was 25, [00:30:00] and that's, that was really the turning point for me, because they wanted me to be an assistant superintendent, but to help improve advanced placement scores and success on the SAT and college admissions and college counseling strategy for all of the Houston.

school system, and that's very different work than what I was doing. It was related, but that's a system level administrator job, and that's not exactly where I saw myself. And I was a little taken aback, I was a little surprised but, from my superintendent's perspective and his team's perspective they wanted to make this vision happen.

And they trusted me to do it. And even though I said no at first, eventually they said, no, we believe in you, I know it's unconventional become an assistant superintendent and scale this for all kids. And I said that I would. I was a little nervous. Again, I was 25 and I knew that Houston was a giant bureaucracy, 26, 000 employees, almost 300 schools, over 200, [00:31:00] 000 kids at the time.

It's a highly complex system. But I said, okay, I'm gonna give this a try. And then my superintendent said, but you have to go to grad school, and I already know where you need to apply. And he encouraged me to go to the University of Texas at Austin, which is the top three nationally ranked program for preparing school superintendents.

And he said, this is where you need to go. And he was a very assertive guy, so I listened to his advice and I applied and I became traditionally trained as a school system administrator. So that's when I made the transition, but what my superintendent did not communicate to me was that he was planning on retiring in the next few months.

So I start this grad school program, I'm excited to join his senior leadership team. And then he retires, and I would go on to work under five other superintendents, which is a very scary thing when you're on the senior team, because there's a [00:32:00] very good chance you might be booted or reassigned or what have you, but I'm blessed in that I got to work under a lot of different people and every single one of them.

kept me on their senior leadership teams, and on top of that, they exposed me to different parts of the organization. So I did college stuff for a while, and that will always play a special place in my heart. But under other superintendents, I got to focus on marketing strategy to help get students back into traditional school systems from the charter schools.

I got to, help write speeches and op eds and all sorts of other things, thinking about board governance and then all sorts of other things. international baccalaureate schools, growing our portfolio by 20 additional schools. And then most recently with my superintendent from a couple years ago, he asked me to lead HR on his transition team.

 I worked under incredible leaders who all trusted me in different ways, and it really gave me a different appreciation for the work. And I stayed because I [00:33:00] realized that perhaps this is My new passion is figuring out how to contribute to education as a system leader.

And less so as the person that I talked about at the beginning of the story, which is the guy who was passionate about helping kids get into college. I think really that was one tool. And now, as a superintendent, I realize the fuller breadth of how we need to improve education. 

Andrew: Um, for those of us who weren't following the AST superintendent search super closely what was that process like?

And when did you decide you were going to look to be a superintendent somewhere? And what led to that decision? Why did you leave HISD? I just asked five 

Jharrett: questions. No, it's a great question. First off, I loved Houston. I worked under great leaders.

Under the leadership of the most recent superintendents there, we reduced the number of underachieving schools from 50 down to two. AP scores were up. College [00:34:00] going was up. We were on the up and up in so many ways. And I loved it. I had colleagues there. I grew up there. It felt, it feels like a gajillion years ago, but when I was a college counselor there at age 22 or whatever, and then when I left as one of the senior executives for the system, I grew up there with a lot of people, so there's a lot of emotional attachment.

But, the turning point was the pandemic, which happened when I was in Houston. I was leading curriculum and some other things at the time. COVID results in a lot of different changes for school systems nationwide. And for me, that meant a superintendent change. So we got a new superintendent in 2021.

I didn't know him. He was from Tennessee from a much smaller school district. So I had a lot of anxiety as to where my place was in the organization. But when I got to know him, he was a great guy and he. He said hey what are your thoughts? You're an insider at this point, because believe it or not I was one of the more senior executives in the organization.

There's a lot of turnover there. And he said, what do you think about [00:35:00] certain things? And I told him, hey, we're doing a lot of good stuff. If I were in your shoes, I would focus on HR. I would focus on talent. And I let him know all the reasons why. It said, if we don't do something, we're on track to have a thousand vacant classrooms on the first day of school.

We're about to be able to, not be able to provide bus service. A lot of bad stuff is going to happen. I let him know that teacher pay was 13th in the region in Houston, and teachers were leaving left and right for other opportunities. Charters were taking our kids and teachers left and right. So he said, ah, these are a lot of great points.

Do you want to lead HR for me on my administration? And that was different for me to be on the business side was new for me. But I did have a vision. I was passionate about it. 

And I was like, yeah, I'm going to give you my all. And I did. And then, under his leadership, we instituted performance pay. Teachers had a pathway to make over 100, 000 a year. We started 13th in the region for teacher pay. We went up to top three and I created all sorts [00:36:00] of innovative ways for paraprofessionals to ascend into the teaching realm.

So where'd you get the money to do that? So this was during the pandemic. So this was an opportunity to leverage COVID relief dollars for experimental. So going back to alternative certification, I realized that we weren't producing enough traditionally certified teachers, so we needed to improve our own alternative certification.

And let's make it free! So I invented the idea of free alternative certification. Derek, can we do alternative certification here? We need our legislators, you know any that can come to action? 

Andrew: Let's do the bill. Let's do it. Let's do 

Jharrett: the belt. Alright, you heard it here first, friends. Let's do it. No, 

Andrew: I do this all the time on the podcast but, no, and then we would qualify for Teach for America.

That's like 

Jharrett: one like exactly that's what we can't qualify for today. Not that we're advocating for that But in general alternatively trained teachers to have the option to be hired by a district We're not forced to hire an alternatively certified teacher if they're not qualified. 

Andrew: So back to the question. 

Jharrett: Back to the question. So the ASD search. All of those things I got to [00:37:00] achieve in less than 12 months under my last superintendent and, it was in the middle of COVID, a lot of superintendents were really exhausted of the top 70 largest school systems, which includes ASD more than half of the superintendents left and there was a need.

for people with different types of interests to step up. And I got tapped on the shoulder, and I wasn't expecting to get tapped on the shoulder. There were some people that tapped me to don't enter yet. But finally, after I did what I needed to do as the HR leader for a 26, 000 employee school system, they said, it's your time.

You need to exit the nest, and you're ready. 

Andrew: thAt's so interesting. Because, I feel like there's very few other professions or jobs where if someone's doing a good job, they get tapped on the shoulder and say it's time for you to Move on 

Jharrett: for doing well, and these were all of my you know previous superintendents and mentors and confidants They said, it's gonna be [00:38:00] tough for you because you're non Conventional in a lot of ways.

How old are you? Uh, 33, . 33, So yeah, that's one of the pieces, but that's not the only non traditional thing about me. But in any case, they were like, it's your time, throw your hat in the ring here's our advice to you. And this is how ASD comes into the picture. I'm a very stubborn person, and if I don't feel something in my heart, I have a hard time doing it.

And I knew in my heart of hearts that I wanted to work in a school system that reminded me of Houston. I didn't want to work anywhere radically different. But the interesting thing is that a lot of my mentors and confidants, they were saying, Oh think about a really small district, maybe like a one high school system.

Like a starter. And they would use that term, and I don't like that term because I don't, I think that when you take on this seat, you need to be willing to live this life and to give everything to it. I couldn't imagine being in a school district for the sole purpose of building a resume. Personally, that [00:39:00] doesn't make sense, but that's where they were pushing me.

And, they would think about my, pedigree. They would think about, oh you went to Yale. So let's go find districts where board members all went to Ivy League schools and those sort of things. And I didn't agree with it. And, I did throw my hat in the ring for some, suburban or wealthy affluent schools.

Some even recommended. some private institutions. I didn't apply to any private institutions. I had good experiences meeting board members and other folks in those environments, but I could never be authentic when I'm authentic. It's because I can tell you that for 10 years in Houston, I got to make decisions that help some of the highest need communities in America.

And I want to keep on doing that. I didn't tell my mentors this, but in my head I'm thinking I want to go off the script a little bit, and I only want to apply to a large urban school system because that's where I want to make a difference. But the problem is that those are the systems where there's a lot of barriers to entry, including the fact that sitting superintendents will compete against you for the [00:40:00] gig.

But I was like, that's fine. I'm going to put my best foot forward, and if you don't get it, you don't get it. But here's why I ended up in ASD. It's because of the similarities to all the things I'm passionate about. Houston was the largest school system in the state of Texas. ASD is the largest school system in the state of Alaska.

We have very diverse populations in both districts. Hundreds of languages are spoken in both. We have charter schools, alternative, correspondence schools. All of those different complex portfolios of school choice options were there. And a lot of the same challenges, of course. And, politically speaking, Anchorage and Houston have very interesting political dynamics compared to their state legislatures.

So I still recall all the ways in which it was an uphill battle to advocate for certain policies as Houston. 

Andrew: Texas has a very unique structure for funding schools that I wish we had.

I wish we had something similar in Alaska. 

Jharrett: Yeah, there are a lot of actually really great policy achievements [00:41:00] in Texas that I think are something to be proud of. Not all of them, but some things. But in any case, there were enough similarities on the surface and within the systems. It really attracted me to ASD.

It was really at the top of the list. For me personally, unlike a lot of superintendent applicants, there's no specific state or geography that I needed to be in. I could go anywhere. I just needed to be in a place where I could make a difference that I wanted to be at. And most importantly, a place that I could be in for a long time.

If the community wanted me to be there, a superintendent, you don't get to choose how long you're in the seat, but I wanted to at least be in a place that I could 

Andrew: Um, I've started new jobs and there's like usually another employee there who does a similar job who, walks you through, shows you what to do, how to do it, but you are the superintendent.

There, there isn't, and I don't know if they, if the previous superintendent overlapped with you at all, or do you just show up and, You just have to figure it out or [00:42:00] how do you learn how to do the job in Alaska when you arrive? 

Jharrett: Yeah, I mean in some ways it depends. Everybody has a different journey, you know For example, if you're a new governor, most new governors have never been a governor in a different state, right?

So there's a lot of learning on the job So when you're a CEO for the first time of any organization, there will be a lot of learning of your organization But a lot of times 

Andrew: those people have worked their way up the ranks through that company or you know the governor has served in elected office in the state before.

So there's some familiarity of the people involved and the folks involved. I just feel like starting as a superintendent being from, thousands of miles away and then showing up, it's like you're showing up as the boss of a large group of people that you're meeting for the first time.

It's an unusual life experience that I don't think is directly. There's a direct analogy to a lot, to 

Jharrett: many others. And I found that out the hard way, is being the guy from the outside that became the superintendent here. There was resistance [00:43:00] there. That's one thing I'll say was different from where I worked at and ASD.

In Houston, there's almost an expectation that you'll do a national search, and I can't remember the last time. Houston selected someone internally or even from Houston to become the superintendent. Typically they come from other places. They're usually a superintendent of another big school district that comes to be in the top 7.

Houston's a top 7. ASD's like a top 70. And a lot of superintendents go up the rankings.

Andrew: and that would be a lesser candidate in some 

Jharrett: way? Every board is different and I can't speak for my school board but I will say that boards have to make an important decision. They can choose somebody from the district or from the community that really understands the ins and outs and can hit the ground running on day one.

I actually did my dissertation on this topic and there are other boards that need to decide if they have a specific achievement that they want done academically for kids or whatever that is. And only someone that understands a different system or different context can come in [00:44:00] and bring in fresh ideas or sometimes even new teams from out of the state.

Here in Alaska there seems to be a culture of, developing people from within. I think a part of it is it's difficult. To develop national pipelines because of geography, it's not impossible. But it's more challenging, and you should put a lot of emphasis on building a bench. To your question, for me, there were a lot of naysayers, a lot of hesitation when I was selected and when I arrived because they just assumed that I wasn't Alaskan, and I wasn't from Anchorage at all whatsoever.

And I was from a different place, and who knows, right? I've worked under superintendents from other states, and you just never know. You never know who they'll bring in or what have you, but in any case, to your point about orientation similarly to, like you said, a governor. They may have been a policymaker and became a governor.

For me, I was an administrator. As much as people want to complain about my background or whatever, I am an experienced school system administrator. The bulk of my career has [00:45:00] been as an assistant superintendent or HR chief or senior executive for the seventh largest school system in the country.

That's what I know, and I know different parts of the organization. I would say what makes me different than other candidates is that a lot of traditional superintendents, they work up the ranks. They go from teacher to Principal boss and then maybe superintendent whereas for me I went all across the organization because it's important for the public to know that being a CEO Means that you run more than just your product line.

So when you're a superintendent your product are educational outcomes for kids But you still will be on the front page of the paper if your school buses aren't running because of a transportation crisis. It's like a 

Andrew: general in the military. The word general is gen er al. You need to understand how all the different specialties work.

You need to understand what the different departments are doing. You need to be able to lead a variety of departments. You have to be a 

Jharrett: generalist. And, looking back, and I can't speak for my, former [00:46:00] mentors and superintendents, but I think that's exactly what they wanted to help me do. I didn't realize it, I was like, okay, I'll do this new assignment, I'll help you.

But they helped me understand all the different aspects of the organization, and it wasn't until I was in the seat that I realized oh, it's all coming together. What do you do on a day to day basis? It depends on the day. For example, today I was in meetings from 8 until I walked in the door about everything from, school finance to, internal decision making.

Right now we're in the budget development process, but, yesterday, for example, we had a school board meeting, so I was trying to prepare for that. Or actually, that was Tuesday. It's been a non conventional week, so I'm all messed up. But, recently I had a school board meeting on Tuesday, so preparation for that.

Other days it'll be, for example, tomorrow, where I was going to have a meeting with our assembly, and then after that we're going to have a luncheon with our legislators and let them know about our priorities, and then from there, talk to the media [00:47:00] about some of the budgetary challenges that we'll have.

I'll even be working on Saturday where the board and I will come together and we'll talk about all the different levers that we have to pass a balanced budget by February. So all that to say, going back to orientation, there's no one path to it. I was very lucky. I will say this I worked with the board to start a smooth transition plan.

Unlike most superintendents, I am the exception to the norm. I had a nice, healthy, six week overlap with the outgoing superintendent. So I was here. Dina Bishop. Dina Bishop. She was a class act in her capacity as superintendent. Before I even came here, she proactively moved out of her office, and she allowed me to She wanted me to come in and settle, even though I was not the superintendent.

She wanted me to be in her office and for her staff to start getting used to this idea of a transition. And she did a lot of introductions. So 

Andrew: her staff became your staff. That's a continuity with people who know how this system works. [00:48:00] 

Jharrett: And that was my own decision as a superintendent, right? So just as school boards have to decide internal versus external, a superintendent, this is my dissertation topic that I did, was I need to figure out, do I want to bring in a lot of folks from all over the country?

Or do I want to really invest in the team that we have here. And it turns out number one, as an outsider, there's so much to be gained from having a team that understands the context and nuances of Alaska in ASD. And then number two, I got to even go deeper into the bench than we ever have. And I got to, put a really great high school principal onto my senior team and to, help him make a unique mark on the system in a new capacity.

So even though I have kept a lot of ASD senior staff members, they're in different positions based on their potential. Okay, 

Andrew: so we have four minutes left and I have a million things to talk about, but I guess what I would ask you is if you're speaking to a legislator. What as the superintendent of a [00:49:00] SD, what would you say are the things that I need to hear from you right now?

Jharrett: Sure. So for ASD, we have a lot of challenges. In Alaska, we have a lot of challenges. If I wanted to, be cliche, I would say, Oh, political polarization is the blithe of public education. We're so much less 

Andrew: polarized than Texas, with all due respect. 

Jharrett: Yeah. And that's, I'm not going to say that for that reason.

I actually think our issue that we need to think about is what do we value as Alaskans? I think this is a great state, but I think we're also a state that hasn't met its full potential. I really envision that Alaska can be a destination state for all of us to enjoy and explore, but we can't enjoy and explore and live and thrive in this state until we can say, affirmatively, that we have fantastic neighborhoods and world class schools.

And I push the public to figure out what needs to happen to create world class schools. Of course, from my lens as superintendent, I'll say that flat [00:50:00] funding for a number of years just isn't working. Unsustainable and unpredictable funding is just not going to work long term. We need to figure out a way to invest in ourselves and not even just in the schools.

I'm thinking about our neighborhood roads, our infrastructure tackling issues such as poverty and connecting people in rural Alaska to broadband. Really just the basics. How do we create this baseline experience for all Alaskans? So that we can really position ourselves as a great place to be.

So when it comes to ASD I would encourage us to invest in ourselves, I would encourage us to think about how do we make this a place that people want to live in for the long haul because remember, I think you've heard the statistic, but for those of us who haven't heard it, one in three young people are leaving the state.

And we need to figure out how to retain more of our young people here. They're the folks that are the future of our workforce. Here at ASD, I would tell people about some great initiatives we have coming down, such as our Academies of [00:51:00] Anchorage, which is part of our workforce development strategy.

The vision is our high school students will be exposed to college credit, apprenticeships, and other things that will make a seamless transition. between high school and entering the workforce here in Alaska, if that's what they want to do. But I really want to create that reliable talent pipeline, so that way if I'm a large oil company and I want to make a new office somewhere, why not here in Alaska?

Because I want them, 10 years from now to say, Hey, we should probably make an office. Somewhere in Alaska because their school system has a reliable pipeline of thousands of kids that have exactly the right soft skills and Credentials that they need to be successful in my business. Let's go here 

Andrew: So as somebody who went to a magnet public school as somebody who worked at a charter school in Houston I just this was I had some crowdsourcing for some questions people wanted to hear your thoughts on Anchorage's alternative schools and charter schools to know that even with this move towards an [00:52:00] academy model, that it's not going to take away from King Tech high school.

We have these great models in Anchorage of some wonderful opportunities for public school students to have. Can you make a comment? Can you reassure people that we're not looking to eliminate some of our options? 

Jharrett: It wouldn't be because of the academies. Now, for example, King Tech is entirely aligned to the vision of the academies, right?

Workforce development, credentials, college credit, vocational skills. That needs to exist, and that fulfills the board's vision, which was to create an ambitious goal to ensure that all students can graduate from ASD college, career, and life ready. That's the direction that we're headed. But we have other great programs, too.

We have Some of the best immersion programs in the country, I would say. We have a lot As a parent of a 

Andrew: child. An immersion program, 

Jharrett: I agree. Yeah, and we have a lot of great opportunities. International Baccalaureate program, Stream Academy, a lot of great options. And I can't say that those won't go [00:53:00] away, but not because of the Academies of Anchorage.

Why would they go away? Because we are not adequately invested. in our students in Alaska. We need to really look at ourselves and understand what is my role going to be in investing in Alaska's future. And right now, if you're a parent, a young person who's Googling schools in Alaska, you're going to see a lot of articles around Potential school closures and flat funding and a lack of will from people in positions of power to invest in teachers.

You have to remember that we're the only state in the union that doesn't even give educators the option of a defined benefit. So what we're going to do is we're going to be training teachers for five years. They'll get a lot of great experiences through our alternative certification program that you and I will start.

But then they're going to go to Portland or Washington or wherever, where they get a defined benefit and a pay raise. And we can do better than that as Alaskans. That's my vision. I want to protect all these programs. The board wants to protect as many of [00:54:00] these programs as possible. But when you flat fund a school system for almost a decade, that's a cut to funding for almost a decade, right?

We've had enormous 

Andrew: inflation. It's flat 

Jharrett: funding is cut funding, it's 18 plus percent. I want to protect our teachers and our students in our classrooms. But a lot of these programs are supplements to that. And the more and more that we cut funding to public education the more and more that those programs will have to be looked at to be sunset.

Andrew: Can you recommend a book for our listeners? Sure, one 

Jharrett: of my favorite books that I read as a younger person that I think about a lot today is called Physics for Future Presidents, which is out of left field. But basically it's a book that teaches you about All sorts of things related to foreign policy and domestic policy, but from the perspective of a United States president.

So why is that book interesting to me? It's because it helps you to understand how to be succinct in your language, to not use [00:55:00] jargon and to help. provide a generalist with the information that they need to make important decisions. So I like to model some of the things that I learned from that book in my everyday practice as a superintendent.

I try not to use jargon, I try to meet people where they're at, and I also make sure that I'm surrounded by really strong content experts. that can provide me knowledge in a way that's digestible for me to take action. And then I do that for board members, and then board members do that for their constituents, and our whole system becomes very accessible to the public.

It's a great book. 

Andrew: Thank you so much. Thank you for being on the show today. Superintendent 

Jharrett: Bryant. My pleasure. Thank you very much.

Andrew: The book that Dr. Bryantt just mentioned is Physics for Future Presidents by Richard Muller. Thank you for listening. If you like what you heard, please subscribe, rate, and review us to contact me. Email eastAnchoragebookclub@gmail.com.