Dr. Lupita Hightower on Strategic Planning: Turning Belief into Transformation

The Ruckus Report

Quick take: Arizona’s Superintendent of the Year drops a masterclass on how strategic planning—when done right—creates school systems where every child is valued as a treasure and success is the expectation, not the exception.

Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker

Dr. Lupita Hightower is Arizona’s Superintendent of the Year for 2023 and has worked in education for over 27 years in various roles, serving as superintendent for the last 12 years. As an immigrant starting school in the U.S. in the 7th grade, she credits her success to the many believers including family and educators.

In this episode, Dr. Hightower challenges traditional education paradigms:

Key Insight #1: Strategic Planning Must Begin With Belief

• What’s broken: Strategic plans that lack a core belief system or are created without authentic community involvement
• The shift: Building a foundational belief system—”Every child is capable of success without exception”—before crafting a community-driven strategic plan
• Impact: A district where expulsions are non-existent (zero in 12 years) and long-term suspensions are extremely rare (only two in 12 years)

Key Insight #2: Parent Engagement Requires Genuine Partnership

• What’s broken: Blaming parents for lack of engagement instead of examining school practices
• The shift: Implementing Academic Parent Teacher Teams where families become true educational partners, sharing transparent data and supporting each other
• Impact: 23% of enrollment comes from out-of-district families, driven entirely by word-of-mouth, despite being in one of the nation’s most competitive school choice environments

Key Insight #3: Diversity Requires Removing Bias From Selection

• What’s broken: Traditional hiring processes that perpetuate unconscious bias
• The shift: Implementing a “blinded process” where applicants’ identities are hidden during initial screening, with evaluation based purely on task performance
• Impact: A district where 60% of staff are people of color, creating powerful representation for a student body that is 95% students of color

Your Do School Different Challenge

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

1. Tomorrow: Audit your language around students—how can you shift from deficit-based descriptions to treasure-focused language?
2. This Month: Identify one way to make parent engagement more data-transparent and collaborative, perhaps through piloting Academic Parent Teacher Teams in one grade level
3. This Semester: Examine your hiring practices for hidden bias—could a “blinded” initial screening process help diversify your staff?

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