'I intend to be an advocate for students'

Amy Cashwell grew up in Virginia Beach, attended public school there and then spent her entire professional career working in that same school system. But at 41, she decided it was time for a new challenge in a new place – Henrico County. The Henrico School Board named Cashwell its new superintendent of schools June 5, and she’s spent a whirlwind three months since getting acclimated to her new surroundings.

Cashwell, praised by peers in Virginia Beach as a thorough thinker, a tireless worker and a conscientious leader, brings a results-oriented approach to the county’s school system. She sat down with Citizen Publisher Tom Lappas for a wide-ranging, hour-long interview last month to discuss her experience, philosophies and goals. An extended portion of the conversation appears here.

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Have you thought about what kind of superintendent you intend to be?Well I intend to be an advocate for students, for kids, in all that I do. And I've endeavored in that role since I started as a teacher, so I don't think probably that will ever change. That's the reason I got into education. I hope that's the hallmark of my superintendency, that when there are tough decisions – and there will be – that it's clear that I am very student-centered and that I've got the best interests of our students in mind.

What do you remember about the first day you walked into a classroom as a teacher?
I remember it vividly. I had really been interested actually in teaching middle school English and had really hoped to land a job doing that . . . but wound up in a long-term sub position in a second grade classroom [at Glenwood Elementary School]. There was a medical situation, and the teacher didn't return. It was a unique situation in that [the students] were missing the person who mattered the most to them, and I was coming in midstream. It turned out that I remained in that classroom the rest of the year with the second-graders. We had a great year, we finished strong. Every student brought their own story to the table. We became a community pretty fast. It was wonderful. I remember that class very fondly. I can almost name most of the students in that class to this day, and every once in awhile I've been lucky enough to run into a few of the students from that original class.

If someone had told you on your first day as a teacher in 1999 that 19 years later you’d be a superintendent, what would you have thought?
I probably would be surprised that I wouldn't still be in a classroom, because I don't think I imagined the other possibilities in education administration at the time. Until I was in the field and working as a teacher and getting to know the workings of a school division, I probably never could have imagined. I couldn't have thought beyond the classroom.

What opened your eyes to administrative and leadership possibilities?
I had some great assistant principal and principal mentors, and they probably are the ones who opened my eyes to it. At one point I decided that I should gets master's degree. I wanted to have some type of specialty that I could offer as a professional in education to hone my skills, and so I asked one of my principals at the time, ‘What do you think? What would really help me hone my skills?’

And he said, 'You know what, administration is something you really ought to think of. I see you as a natural leader. I see you exploring a leadership track.' And I thought, 'Huh, they have that? What does that look like? That doesn’t sound like fun.'

I pondered it for awhile, I gave it a try and really enjoyed it, enjoyed the coursework. So much that I just continued rolling through my doctoral degree in that area. I served as an administrative intern and assistant principal in various schools and really saw how building leaders can have an impact on a larger number of students than those you can serve in the classroom. So while I missed some of the one on one relationships I had when I had my own classroom, I started to see . . . a lot of the bigger connections. There's the classroom community, then there's the grade level community, then there's the school community. I began to have my eyes opened to how that central office support then wraps around and makes it a school division community. Each experience opened my eyes I think to the various layers and ways to support the work and connect in different ways

At what point did you decide that being a superintendent was something that you wanted?
I don't know that I wanted to be a superintendent just anywhere. I knew that if the right superintendency came open, that's some thing I would be very interested in. I did see this position come open, and it did pique my interest because I knew the area, knew the school division. I have enjoyed working in a large school system. I know the challenges it brings. I've enjoyed watching how large organizations function and thrive. I enjoyed engaging with the educators here. I've interacted with folks at the leadership level on down to the teacher level on and off for years and years. I knew it would be a great place to work, a great place to live – a community that cares about its students, a community where education is valued. That was appealing to me, and so that's why I applied.

Has it been difficult as you've moved up the ranks to feel that connection to the mindset of teachers or students?
I hope I've been able to keep it. One way is to be out in schools. Last year I shadowed a high school student all day long. I packed a lunch, had a backpack, the teachers treated me like any other student, I was really nervous in chemistry because nothing looked familiar to me. But it was fun. But I thought, gosh, I know what it feels like to have hardly any time to change classes. There was a minute to eat lunch. Kids quickly forget that you're not one of them when you're with them, high-schoolers.They were so free to bring me into their world. It was fabulous. I got to hear about from their middle school experiences, anything from how they landed in the high school program they were in to anything about what made certain classes great, what made them awful, to what it's like to not be able to go to the bathroom three classes in a row. Those are ways you can stay connected and have an understanding.

What's your sense of how teachers here view technology?
I'm very interested in that. That's one of the big questions I have – knowing how early they came on board with [one-to-one computer technology] – is to see how over time that's evolved. Do classroom structures look differently as a result? Have learning outcomes been drastically changed, and if not, how can we help make that happen? I'm sure there's a lot of great lessons to be learned here, and I'm excited to see what's been done.

Measurable outcomes are important to you, and you were part of a comprehensive program in Virginia Beach – the Integrated Performance Task – that examined the development of students’ “soft” skills. What did you learn in that process?
Several years ago, the buzz in education was all around 21st century skills – communications, problem-solving. Businesses were saying ‘Workers can’t do this,’ colleges were telling us,‘Your graduates can’t do this, you’re missing the mark somewhere along the line.’ We all said, ‘Well great, we’re going to create all these wonderful lessons that allow kids to do it.’ I wondered what many people wondered: How will we know? We can’t wait until they get there to find out we’ve missed the mark. How do we know we’re moving kids along some sort of continuum in critical thinking, communicating, problem solving, writing for those purposes, not just to convey technical information? I very much was interested – as were many key folks in the division – about ‘How can we measure that?’

We were really looking to have a standard measurement across the division schools in various grade levels, mirrored after College Work and Readiness Assessment. . . which is a measurement for high school juniors or seniors that looks at their ability to take authentic documents, to think, create – it’s not just a multiple choice thing. It was eye-opening because we found, by and large,‘Our kids really can’t do that.’

We began working with teachers and teams of curriculum developers to identify what our best practices for teaching those explicitly and for helping kids understand where they are on the continuum. So having rubrics that said,‘What does it look like to communicate well when you’re in first grade or second grade or third grade? What do critical thinkers do? What’s actionable behavior? Things that are measurable, things that help serve as a frame of reference so that you can at least know what your outcome is.

Is that the kind of thing you’d think about implementing here?
Absolutely, especially because there’s a new learner profile launched here in Henrico, which is phenomenal. That learner profile which really gets up to 6 Cs – creativity, critical thinking, citizenship, all those things – they’ve already done a lot of that work here. I’ll be interested in talking about how we will measure how well we’re doing.That’ll be great conversation to have at my en- trance point here with the leadership team at the division level, with teachers, with administrators, with students – to say ‘How will we know we’ve been successful at creating learners who match this learner pro- file? And more importantly. . . what is our mechanism of support when students don’t meet those benchmarks?

I can’t say that there’s one easy answer for when kids aren’t having success with those soft skills . . . but I think at least having some benchmark points, it elevates it to a different level of importance. If all we focus on is standardized test scores, then it sort of seems like we’re sending out a duplicative message:‘This is our learner profile, this is what we want for all stu- dents, but all we’re focused on is who’s making accreditation.’

Did you come to Henrico with any other particular goals or programs that you thought you’d like to implement?
I certainly came in knowing that there are a number of schools unaccredited, and . . . I know that’s tough work to do. There’s not a one-size-fits-all way to accomplish [accreditation]. I want to understand what the barriers have been to reaching full accreditation.Are there divi- sion-wide barriers? What are the barriers at each individual school? I know coming to the community . . . there are issues around equity. I certainly have that on my radar.What I can tell is there was an awful lot of focused effort centrally to begin to tackle some of those issues across the division. [I want to] work with the Central Office team to develop a long-term [equity] plan that’s very actionable with some measurable outcomes. A tremendous amount has been done even before my coming here.

When did you become comfortable in your own skin as a leader?
I was thrown into the deep end. I was given one of the most challenging assistant principal assignments there was in the [Virginia Beach] division at that time [New- town Road Elementary School]. It was the only school that had not been state accredited; they had just found out. It was the only school that had significant over-crowding.There was an entire village of portables [mobile classrooms], major community issues. I remember reporting on the first day like,‘Where do I begin?’ But there was a whole team of us assigned there, and we learned how to work as a team, how to lead and rally folks in a time of difficulty and change.When there’s urgency like that around the work, you don’t have time to figure it out. I think it did come naturally to me. I loved it there.

How did you facilitate that type of effort?

Appealing to what we all did have in common, which was working in the best interests of kids. I was always very approachable. I wasn’t afraid to help develop lesson or go teach a lesson or get back in the classroom or drive to a parent’s house to do whatever needed to be done. I’m very much a hands-on individual.That helps me to understand the challenges. I don’t feel I can effectively support a teacher or others in the building if I don’t know what their challenges are. Individuals knew I genuinely tried to understand, and even if the solutions we arrived at may not have been what they were pushing for in the beginning, they believe that I genuinely had an interest in making things right.

How tough was it to leave Virginia Beach, the place that has been your home basically your entire life?
It wasn’t easy. After I got the job, it was truly bittersweet, because I was so thrilled and honored for the opportunity but I really felt almost true heartbreak. I was very sad to be leaving that network of the people – so many mentors, amazing people. I could go almost to any school in the 80-some schools and I would know a teacher, someone who was one of my students who now became a teacher, someone whose child I taught. It was really wonderful to be a part of that community. But . . . it was the right time for me [to leave], and I’m thrilled that this opportunity opened.

There are 67 schools in Henrico County – how many can you name?
I could not name all 67 [laughter], but I could name quite a few now. Once I have physically been present in a school, it’s sticking more in my mind. I think I have better luck naming them than finding them with- out a GPS. [I’ve visited] at least a dozen now.

What differences are you finding in each school, what unique elements?
I think every school is its own microcosm and has its own culture. I've had a lot of opportunity to interact with the administrative teams and some of the leadership teams. It's great to see the way they have their own sort of spin on marketing their schools, school spirit. I can follow them on social media and sort of get an idea of what each school's proud of.

What would you say to parents whose children are starting school as kindergartners or entering Henrico schools for the first time this year?
I would hopefully say to allay their fears, it’s going to be great, it’s going to be wonderful. [Kindergartners] run the gamut.There’s any- thing from separation anxiety to the kindergartner who won’t look back and runs the other way – and it usually leaves the parent equally broken-hearted. What I would en- courage of all parents ... is not to be afraid to be involved and ask questions of teachers – and to keep very open communication. That alleviates fears on everyone’s minds, and it helps teachers to get to know what it is that’s unique about your child or that you’re concerned about. I know they appreciate having that dialogue and communication – they’re not detectives.

You are the first woman to hold this position. Does that mean something to you?
I do think it’s important. My view of it is that I want to make sure that always students – my own children and other people’s children – see people in leadership roles that represent the diversity of the population, in all ways. Gender diversity is important among others.When you look at the number of female superintendents in larger divisions, it’s just not a large number. So it does mean something to me in that way, that I hope that helps pave the way for others. But beyond that, I hope that I’m the most qualified person for the job and that that’s why I’m here. I hope to be known for making a difference for kids, regardless of my gender.