Dr. Deborah M. Luckett Of ASSET On 5 Things You Need To Know To Be A Highly Effective Educator or Teacher
An Interview With Jake Frankel
Be people-centered. Be an expert communicator and collaborator who is critically conscious, respectful, and caring. An educator is given the privilege of collaborating with other people to shepherd them along the pathways of knowledge and understanding.
As a part of our interview series about “5 Things You Need To Know To Be A Highly Effective Educator”, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Deborah Luckett.
Dr. Deborah Luckett, Associate Executive Director of ASSET, Inc., has spent her career working with educators and students alike to empower meaningful growth, inclusiveness, and resiliency. Dr. Luckett has been in a leadership role at ASSET Inc. since 2007. She is a former classroom teacher whose honors include Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, Milken Family Foundation National Educator, and the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) National Honor Roll Teacher. Dr. Luckett is a graduate of Westminster College (B.A.) and The Citadel (M.Ed. in Interdisciplinary STEM). Her doctoral work at Duquesne University focused on advocating for marginalized learners.
Her dissertation title is “Hidden Amongst People: Experiences of Black White Biracial Individuals with Microaggressions, Horizontal Hostilities and Identity Denial in Educational Settings.” Dr. Luckett has experience teaching in K-12 urban and rural educational settings of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Educational Leadership for Social Justice program at Duquesne University. Her contributions to ASSET include the Coaching and Resources for Educators (CaRES) and Partnerships for Advancing Learning in STEM (PALS) programs as well as professional learning for pre-service and in-service educators.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share the “backstory” behind what brought you to this particular career path?
I’ve been an educator for more than 40 years. I earned my undergraduate degree and then started my career teaching in two metropolitan school districts in Philadelphia and then in Camden City, New Jersey.
After that, I taught with a rural school district in eastern PA, where I was intentionally recruited to integrate the district. Sometimes a difficult challenge turns into the best thing you’ve ever done, and that was the case with this experience. The 27 years I spent teaching in urban, suburban, and rural classrooms across three states were filled with a wild variety of experiences that gave me perspective and opportunity to explore who I wanted to be as an educator.
I discovered that I’m a continuous learner and teaching is a craft that needs to be honed and refined. I continued my own learning with my master’s and doctoral degrees in education. My mentors have encouraged me to always go beyond what was required. I had the same mentors take time to talk to me at the end of each day, helping me to reflect, learn and evolve. Their sage guidance helped me understand that there is a pathway in growth from a teacher to an educator, and that I love helping teachers develop along this pathway.
That’s what led me to ASSET, as educators have a professional responsibility to continue growing and to give back. Educators have “aha” moments just like children, and to be a part of that moment keeps me going!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your teaching career? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
There are a lot of hilarious and unexpected things that happen in classrooms. A few highlights from me include addressing an elementary-aged boy half-naked dancing like a Chippendale in the bathroom, to having my classroom set on fire, to having an eyeball thrown at me.
As I reflect on my classroom teaching career and all the wild moments, my key takeaways are: We all make mistakes; own them and take accountability. Speak your truth. Be honest. Build trusting relationships with people.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
The Partnerships for Advancing Learning in STEM (PALS) Coaches on Call program is a way to support innovation and collaborative design thinking. A key component of learning and changing is the chance to reflect on performance and receive feedback promptly. Coaches on Call leverages technology to provide educators more access to someone who can support them.
My ultimate dream is to develop a model that would use robotic observation systems and Bluetooth technologies to provide immediate coaching and feedback to educators who are trying out new strategies or curricula, that just need a bit of collaboration in the moment. Current robotic observation systems are not optimal yet, but I can dream!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. From your point of view, how would you rate the results of the US education system?
When I hear, “education system” I ask, “What system? K-12? Higher education?” There are a lot of subsystems that make up the big picture. We need to explore how we make our educational systems more relevant than the current industrial model we’ve been using for the past 150 years. The world has changed and will continue to evolve; the education system needs to follow suit.
We are one of the few systems in the world that takes on the responsibility to educate its entire populace. Poverty, gender, and other social/political constructs frequently marginalize and even remove access for learners elsewhere. From the standpoint of access to education, we are doing an adequate job. We have a lot to improve on in our K-12 systems; ensuring that educational experiences are significant, sustainable and accepting of our unique identities is an ongoing process, but I believe we will get there.
Can you identify 5 areas of the US education system that are going really great?
- Continuous improvement as a mindset. I hear from increasingly more educators and administrators striving to improve and finding ways to improve. Education must consistently sit in a fluid state of metamorphosis and not rest on its laurels.
- Educators who are willing to step away from traditional professional learning models to explore job-embedded strategies and coaching. By embracing experiences that permit educators to think about what is happening in their classroom, there are more efficient uses of time and brainpower to course correct and implement meaningful strategies.
- Conversations regarding legislation to address educator pay, equitable resource distribution, teacher preparation programs, and the educator pipeline. These proposed legislative bills can help make teaching more attractive and sustainable as a career and can help legislators take a closer look at school funding issues to make resource distribution more equitable. For example, Pennsylvania’s system of school funding was declared unconstitutional last year. The state is working to remedy the situation. Other states including West Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri, and New Mexico are looking at how they can adjust teacher pay so people can make a living wage.
- Putting learners at the center of their learning experiences. This swing towards student-centered learning is much needed, long overdue, and so meaningful. An example of this is a focus on social/emotional learning and student mental health. We still have a way to go in terms of consistent, equitable access to creating opportunities for ALL students, but we are at a commendable beginning!
- The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) document. This is an opportunity to implement science learning that is driven by curiosity and supported by student-focused inquiry and literacy. It is grounded in students learning science so that it is relevant and applicable to their lives, cultures, and communities.
Can you identify the 5 key areas of the US education system that should be prioritized for improvement? Can you explain why those are so critical?
- The mental well-being of our educators — At a time when teachers are leaving the profession and the pipeline of new teachers is dwindling, we need proactive solutions to provide our educators with safe spaces to feel heard and supported.
- A need for more conscious discourse around the word “diversity.” — I hear the word used as a code for race alone, but diversity is anyone who is not you. Many negative connotations are beginning to be associated with the ideas of differences. At a fundamental level, I think we can all agree that we want students to feel seen, included and accepted.
- Reducing the politicization of education — Of course, there are politics involved when you are talking about taxpayer money, but, when you have people in non-educational spaces weaponizing instructional practices and materials, things are going to deteriorate quickly. There is so much misinformation, so taking the time to critically investigate or learn about what is really going on is a skill. Learning to do it is essential.
- Creating deep, trusted relationships — Learning is a social endeavor. When you are in this space of a trusted relationship with an educator, your ability and desire to learn is enhanced. This is so important in the world of social media where there are very tenuous connections to people that aren’t very deep.
- Finding a balance between measures of success and true learning that instills relevance, joy, and connects to the community — When we focus so strictly on test scores and value-added measures of success for students, we lose sight of the fact that there are people, and not subjects under our microscopes. There are opportunities to examine our accountability practices to find some type of equilibrium between “skill and drill for a test” and meaningful learning projects. Educators want to do student-centered, project-based learning, but if kids are not assessed in the same way they are taught, there is a disconnect.
Super. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share your “5 Things You Need To Know To Be A Highly Effective Educator?” Please share a story or example for each.
- Be people-centered. Be an expert communicator and collaborator who is critically conscious, respectful, and caring. An educator is given the privilege of collaborating with other people to shepherd them along the pathways of knowledge and understanding.
- Be critically attentive. This means you are observant, curious and always questioning things. These skills are especially essential to teach and model for children.
- Be reflective and reflexive. Reflection is only one part of the work of growing and changing. Without action (reflexivity), we remain in a state of thinking and never make a move to do something.
- Be knowledgeable about interpersonal and intrapersonal effectiveness skills. Resiliency, persistence, self-awareness, and humor are great intrapersonal dispositions to hone. The ability to be encouraging to those at-risk, empathetic, and embracing of all diversities/identities are interpersonal skills that build community.
- Be lovers of the processes of learning, knowing, and wonderment. This field is one that requires the professional in the room to engage, inspire, and motivate.
As you know, teachers play such a huge role in shaping young lives. What would you suggest needs to be done to attract top talent to the education field?
We need to elevate the profession. So often I hear colleagues in the classroom say, “I’m just a teacher.” Adding a professional pronouncement to dedicate oneself to the learning of others could hold the same motivational attraction that it does for others in serving professions. Pay educators like rock stars. Recruit them like the NBA draft. Don’t let young educators fade into the background once they enter the building. Being a new teacher is incredibly hard and overwhelming, as most new teachers have had limited classroom practice prior to becoming responsible for a classroom of 25–30 elementary students. This can quickly lead to frustration and burnout and contributes to why half of all new teachers leave the profession in the first five years of their careers. Quality induction experiences and job-embedded learning that provides new educators with ongoing support are critical to systemic success.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”- Marcus Aurelius
This quote holds a great deal of meaning for me when I think about how I interact with people, projects, and even simple tasks.
We are blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’m a fan of the writer, Malcom Gladwell. His book David and Goliath really struck home for me, as I have family members as well as students who’ve managed dyslexia. He takes the topic of dyslexia, which is often seen as a deficit, and flips the script so that it can be viewed as a strength. I also really connect with his take on mastery and expertise in Outliers. Our systems for teaching and learning do not consider the time and effort it takes to achieve required mastery or desired expertise and excellence. Finally, his musings about racial taxonomies and categorizations are like my own, so I would love to have a live conversation with him.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdeborahmluckett/
Thank you so much for these insights! This was so inspiring!
Dr. Deborah M Luckett Of ASSET On 5 Things You Need To Know To Be A Highly Effective Educator or Te was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.