Luthern Williams—New Roads School

[00:01] Justin Baeder:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, director of the Principal Center and champion of high performance instructional leadership, Justin Baeder. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.

[00:15] Luthern Williams:

I'm your host, Justin Baeder, and I'm honored to be joined today by Lutheran Williams. Lutheran is head of school at New Road School in Santa Monica. He has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University and over 20 years of visionary leadership experience in education. And we're here today to talk about his school's rather unique approach to fostering diversity in a private school setting.

[00:45] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:47] Luthern Williams:

So Lutheran, welcome to Principal Center Radio. Well, thank you.

[00:50] Luthern Williams:

Thank you for having me.

[00:51] Luthern Williams:

So you've worked at a number of country day schools, a number of kind of top schools around the country. And I think the perception of the private school world, the country day school world, is that they are basically for and filled with kind of rich white kids. And I was very intrigued to see what your school is doing that is different, that is noteworthy, and excited to talk with you today to talk about some of the reasons for that and how that works at the New Roads School in Santa Monica. So take us into a little bit of your approach there and what's unique about that.

[01:25] Luthern Williams:

Well, you know, I've been really privileged to work in some amazing schools throughout the country. And most of those schools did serve one-tenth of the top 1%. And that was not something that I wanted to continue to do, although I think that those schools have very worthy missions. And I think the issue is that a lot of these independent schools were not created to solve a societal problem. And New Roads was created from its inception to solve a societal problem. Our founders saw that there wasn't a socioeconomically, racially, and culturally integrated school, despite the fact that we had had Brown versus the Board of Education.

[02:13]

So they decided that they would create a school, New Roads, that would be socioeconomically, racially, and culturally diverse because their idea was that that was the richest possible community socially and academically for students to be prepared for the world. And that if they couldn't live and learn together, how could they possibly go out into the world and work collaboratively and find common ground to solve the problems of their generation? And the other piece is that parents who were members of the community would be transformed by the experience as well. So the school saw itself from its inception as being an agent of social change and social justice by offering access to a high quality education to all children and assuming that all children matter.

[03:10] Luthern Williams:

You know, that being part of the mission, you know, really the mission to, as you said, solve a societal level problem, I think really frames things differently from what I would say is a more typical private school setup where deliberately choices are made to, you know, to serve the needs of the families that enroll without, you know, around. So I think the vision there is such a key part. Let's get into a little bit about how that works. You know, what does your student population look like? What does the enrollment process look like? Because what does that process look like to build a student population intentionally, you know, to bring students together?

[03:57] Luthern Williams:

Well, we have students from 109 different zip codes and in the admissions process, We look beyond just test scores. For us, if we're looking at their IC scores, which is the instrument used by most independent schools, 6 through 12, or K through 12, but that's the instrument that you use, 6 through 12, because we see that IC as a reflection of socioeconomic privilege. So when we're looking at candidates, their IC score does not get them in or rule them out. It's only another piece of data of a whole story. and taking into context students' experiences, what they've had access to, you know, the kind of person they are, the kind of sensitivities they have for other people. So our admissions process really is not simply about numbers.

[04:49]

It's about people. It's about families. It's about bringing together a community of diversity. And our diversity now spans way beyond the visible forms of diversity of race and culture and class. We have a spectrum program with, you know, kids who have neurotypical diversity. They are incredibly academically able, but they need more social and emotional support to be a part of the mainstream classroom.

[05:20]

And our diversity also extends to gender, to sexual orientation. And this school has become, as a result, I think, an ever-expanding inclusive environment in which all students, whether their diversity is visible or invisible, they have the invitation to be authentically who they are. And so I think that the school creates a unique learning community that can only happen if you invest in that diversity. So the school has done that over time, but it goes beyond just having the diversity or what one person who I really respect talks about the Noah's Ark form of diversity, where you have two of each kind. It's more about how do we leverage those voices, those perspectives, those different ways of problem solving so that they encounter each other and it becomes a generative environment in the classroom where

[06:22]

possibilities of new ideas can emerge as a result of the synergies that people coming together can have.

[06:31] Luthern Williams:

Beautifully said, and that very much echoes my experience growing up in Houston, just seeing people come together from all over the world and really the thinking that comes together and the opportunities that are created certainly can have amazing results educationally. But let's unpack that idea of kind of a Noah's Ark approach to diversity. And I think in any kind of setting where we're talking about intentionality and talking about bringing students together purposefully, there's a little bit of a concern perhaps about tokenism or about quotas or about approaches to recruiting students and having students in a school that maybe makes it less about them and more about what they represent in a way that wouldn't feel quite right to us. And it sounds like the admissions process has to be an in-depth process much as it is, you know, in many colleges where there's a process for getting to know the student beyond the test scores, beyond the essay.

[07:24]

What does that look like in terms of, is there an interview or how do you get to know your prospective students in that process?

[07:30] Luthern Williams:

We are a school that has a very high intensity and very labor intensive admissions process that is probably not the most cost effective kind of process. we have many different touch points through the process to get to know families. Whether that's through open houses, that's through coffees, it's through tours, it's through shadow days, it's through inviting them to different events that go on throughout the year. Because our process is one where we want them to get to know our community and we want to get to know them in as many different ways as possible. So yes, there's the formal admissions process, which requires the teacher recommendations. They have to write, the parents and the students write essays.

[08:17]

There are test scores. There's an interview of the family, interview of the student, at least from third through 12. The K through twos do a play date, you know, so it's a very different kind of experience. Just like with everything else at New Roads, it's very personalized. And we offer many points of contact with the school and opportunities for us to get to know more about the family and all of their nuances, as well as them to get to know the community and to become a part of our community. So when parents finally, you know, if they're admitted, the families are finally admitted, they already feel like they're part of the community.

[08:58]

And we have a head start in really helping them bridge to the school because that process began in the admissions process.

[09:08] Luthern Williams:

We tend to love data as educators, right? As educational leaders, we're trained to love data, to love statistics and all of that. But my personal bias is certainly toward qualitative rather than quantitative data. And it sounds like that mix of having the test scores, but also looking at how do kids interact with one another? And I love for the early childhood, for the younger grades, putting kids together in a play date is a great way to gain that qualitative sense of who kids are. Very much appreciate that.

[09:40] Luthern Williams:

I am a big advocate for the generation we're calling now Generation Z. I think it's a generation that is very politically conscious and there's a desire to build a new world. And I think they need the tools and the guidance to be able to do that. At New Roads, we're very conscious in terms of providing them the social, intellectual, moral tools to be able to participate fully as citizens in the society and to be agents of change. We do that in a number of different ways. We have a workshop program at both the middle school and the high school level that is based on issues of diversity, social justice, and environmental stewardship.

[10:26]

So the kids take a class, but that class is related to service opportunities to be able to impact the community In terms of these particular issues, the eighth graders, their course is called, their humanities course is called Call to Action. And they are learning how to use their writing. They're learning how to use data analysis to look at issues in their communities that they want to have impact on. They did that in terms of gun control. where they boycotted Big Five. They actually wrote to the board of Big Five and tried to persuade them why they needed to limit the kinds of weapons that are utilized there.

[11:17]

They also used their persuasive writing to write to their local congressmen and to write to the Congress on the federal level. And one of our students, his name is Ben Indeglia, And Ben is this amazing kid who was the captain of our robotics team known as the humans. And Ben in his interactions with his teacher, Danny, who was a first generation college student who grew up in Compton, you know, Ben learned that in Compton, they didn't have robotics. So Ben decided that they would have robotics. And it was really interesting in the way the teenager can just decide, you know, they will have robotics. And so Ben decided that he would create, you know, a robotics club in the Compton School District.

[12:08]

So he proceeded to raise the funds through GoFundMe to get the equipment. He put together a curriculum and he started teaching robotics with his teacher Danny in Compton and created this club. But Ben's found that that wasn't enough. So he decided to design an independent study course so he could create a manual for the Compton School District to teach robotics. He did that. It's now serving 200 kids and the program continues with other New Road students.

[12:40]

And so I think that one of the things that I see as a vision is that we have to develop more people like Ben, you know, whereas, you know, Ben, when I asked him, Ben, why was this something that you wanted to do? And he said, well, because I take for granted the opportunity to have robotics. And he said, all these kids need is the exposure and the opportunity. And he goes, I'm just glad they have it now. And I think that we need to develop young people who have an understanding of the common good and sharing resources. New Roads, unlike what I think has been traditionally the case with a number of places, was built with the idea of being a shared resource.

[13:36]

and breaking down the walls between public and private school. Because to me, I think these young people, they need to be able to come together and to appreciate each other's gifts and find common ground so that they can begin to work on the enormous problems and seize the opportunities that they will inherit. And so part of my goal or my vision is really to create opportunities for Generation Z, particularly within the city of Los Angeles, to come together, to connect with each other, to appreciate each other's humanity, and to start figuring out how to find common ground to solve some of the problems that they're going to inherit.

[14:23] Luthern Williams:

It's amazing to see how young people will not be bound by what we might perceive as limitations on their ability. We might suggest that a student volunteer in something that's run by adults to help out with it a little bit, but your student Ben not only decided that there needed to be a robotics program in Compton and not only started it himself, but also thought through to sustainability and thinking about how there could be a program that could serve more students than he could personally serve. And I think we don't give young people enough credit for being able to think at that level and exercise leadership at that level. But that is, I mean, if you're looking for evidence that your vision is coming true and that you're having the impact you want, boy, That is the kind of thing that, again, might not show up in a spreadsheet. You might not have a ton of data quantitatively about that.

[15:16]

But just hearing the impact, hearing the story of Ben's impact on the students that that program is serving, boy, that is reinforcing and validating in so many ways.

[15:25] Luthern Williams:

Well, and Ben, it's interesting because Ben is a brilliant student. He's a freshman now at the University of Chicago. And what's interesting to me is that a number of parents seem to believe that you have to sacrifice the soul and character and well-being of a child for them to go to a good college or to have a good life. And my experience here at New Roads tells me that that's all wrong. That essentially you can have good people who can still have a great life. and great opportunities.

[16:02]

They're not mutually exclusive. And somehow I think people come away with that faulty understanding and the dichotomy that you either educate the mind or the heart. God forbid we educate only the mind. They're a danger to society. Because educating the heart means they can think with their heart, which is the source of wisdom. And I've always said that I think human beings have the ingenuity and intellect to create whatever they can imagine, but they often show that they lack the moral maturity to govern it.

[16:40] Luthern Williams:

Well, Lutheran, it seems like there's this perception in our society, you know, maybe from TV shows, from movies, that students at the more elite level, whether it's in private schools or elite universities, that they're only in it for themselves. They're only in it to maximize their future career prospects. And there's I think a lot of cultural fodder, again, in TV and movies about the kind of intensely competitive backstabbing environments that students might find themselves working in. But you're describing something that is completely different and different intentionally because, you know, your school is created with a mission. Your students are enlisting themselves in that mission and having an impact that is, you know, certainly going to serve them just fine in life, but is not primarily self-serving. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about how that shows up on a day-to-day basis.

[17:34] Luthern Williams:

I think on a day-to-day basis, for instance, we developed this discussion around all-gendered bathrooms. And that discussion came from our students who were connected with other students who were transgendered. It wasn't, in fact, the transgendered students who were advocating for themselves. And that's one of the things I found interesting. It was their peers who had relationships with them, who cared about them, who came to me and they said, Lutheran, we've got to do better by our transgender students. And they guided me and the school toward creating a more inclusive environment for our transgender students that really did respect their dignity.

[18:20]

And I think that can only come from being in an environment where you are connecting with others who are different from yourselves because you have a real relationship. So the advocacy comes not from political correctness, but it comes from the fact that these are my friends. These are people that I care about. And I want to see them treated fairly. And I understand their story. and I have compassion and empathy for them because it comes through a relationship.

[18:51]

It's not an object of study. It's not an abstraction. This is my friend.

[18:57] Luthern Williams:

Well, I think that's something critical for us to notice as adults because it's easy to think that whatever issue a teenager is upset about at the moment or fired up about at the moment or passionate about at the moment is just something they read online. I think there's this perception that students get behind ideas that they find online and that it's just kind of a... an imaginary world in a lot of ways, but it's a very real world. What you're saying is these are not abstract arguments.

[19:22]

These are not YouTube videos that are inspiring students to take action. These are people they know in real life. These are their friends. And that's where that impressively powerful empathy is coming from, is a concern for their fellow students. And I think we've got to, I think, stand up and pay attention to that.

[19:38] Luthern Williams:

To me, I think this generation, in so many ways, the adults have failed them. And I think they've seen their peers murdered at schools, and adults not make any changes to try to make sure they have safety in their schools, which is, to me, a basic requirement. And so I think they have a sense of urgency that they have to do it themselves. That's what I see with this generation. I see them saying, You know what? We can't depend on them.

[20:10]

If this is going to change, we're going to have to do it ourselves. And we're going to have to build a society that is equitable, that is based on the common good, that is inclusive. And that's what really gives me hope. And I see that happen here each day that they're teaching us. I think at New Roads, we're just wise enough to know they have something to teach.

[20:31] Luthern Williams:

Well, Lutheran, I think these are really important issues for us to have talked about. And I want to thank you for your time and willingness to engage in this conversation. And if there are other educational leaders out there who want to have a similar conversation and reach out to you and learn more about the work that you're doing, what's the best place for them to go to get in touch with you?

[20:54] Luthern Williams:

Well, you know what I can do is don our director of communication. If people have questions or they want to talk to me, they can reach me through dfairchild at newroads.org.

[21:08] Luthern Williams:

And if people want to learn more about your school, could you give us the website so people can check that out? It's www.newroads.org. Well, Lutheran, thanks so much for joining me on Principal Center Radio. Thank you.

[21:20] Announcer:

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