Have a Good Life

Robyn Bagley is a former principal of Career Path High. She is now consulting now and working with Heather Staker on a project for Acton Academy. She is also chair of Parents for Choice in Education, located in Utah. You can email her here

• Acton Academy is an amazing model.
• Over 8,000 applications to start their own. How do we replicate that?
• How to approve partners and facilitate the success of their schools.
• How do you help kids not blow everything off?
• In a traditional model, we’ve removed all the opportunities to have kids lead.
• The first thing to think about is how to empower students.
• It kills their love for learning.
• You need to empower students.
• The second thing is to set up processes for accountability.
• It’s ok to fail as long as you are failing forward.
• Every student had a success coach with whom they met every week.
• Accountability: consequences like losing freedom and stopping college courses.
• Support: You must have good support systems in place. Lots of processes in place to help them stay on pace and set their goals.
• Three legs of a stool: Parents, students, school (teachers and administrators)
• We never apologize for bothering you with communication
• Four: give them something to be excited about in their pathway: i.e., have your certification when you finished school.
• The light came back on.
• The success coach was the real piece of accountability each week. Success coach had constant communication with parents, too.
• Give recognition with accountability.
• How to be a transformative principal? Collaborate with your team!
• Changing the culture from top-down directives to a collaborative culture.

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