With the calendar turning, we quietly begin the pivot into the 2025–2026 school year. Summer still holds space for rest, but across districts, the posture is shifting from reflection to readiness, from learning to leading, from stillness to motion.
But not just any motion. In governance, as in leadership, movement without balance does not create progress; it creates circles.
Imagine trying to walk using only your left foot. You’d move, certainly, but in a continuous arc, never advancing.
Now imagine using only your right. The result is the same: activity without direction. This is the challenge we face when we prioritize advancement without alignment, or alignment without advancement.
Advancement feels energizing. It’s the launch, the new initiative, the visible momentum that moves systems forward.
Alignment, by contrast, is quieter and more internal. It’s the discipline of asking: Does this align with our vision? Are our strategies coherent? Are people, processes, and resources truly pointed in the same direction?
Both are essential. Neither is sufficient on its own.
Are we moving with purpose?
In my district, our recent entry into the System of Great Schools framework illustrates this duality. The decision to join was a clear step forward–bold, ambitious, and necessary. But its real power lies not in the launch, but in the follow-through. Only when we align leadership, operations and mindset will we see transformation take hold.
Our strategic plan presents a similar lesson. Setting priorities is advancement. But embedding those priorities into our culture, instructional models and daily decision-making, that is the work of alignment.
Even with artificial intelligence (perhaps the fastest-moving frontier in education today), the pattern holds. The rush to adopt AI tools and celebrate innovation is understandable. But absent alignment to our instructional vision, ethical commitments and community values, we risk accelerating in the wrong direction.
This dance between advancement and alignment is playing out everywhere–in districts, in boardrooms, in classrooms. The question is not “Are we moving?” The question is, “Are we moving with purpose?”
That’s why vision must always come before action. Not because we are hesitant to act, but because we are committed to acting wisely.
As we rise into a new school year, I hope that we hold this balance together: bold enough to take the next step and disciplined enough to ensure that step moves us forward.
Left foot. Right foot. Advance. Align. That is how we make real progress.
