John Clements and Mary Anne Moran
Nipmuc Regional High School
Upton, Massachusetts
We have no idea how many public high schools have co-principals but we knew when we first met John Clements and Mary Anne Moran (no relationship to Pam Moran) their work together as co-principals was unique, offering others a new way of thinking about flattening structural hierarchies in schools. Their story isn’t just about the way that they lead as a team but about a philosophy of inclusivity that extends to teens and staff whom they serve. When John and Mary Anne talk, their words flow together, articulating ideas, questions, and reflections as one. That doesn’t mean they don’t bring individuality to their work. They do. But they also model a shared ethos of empathy, trust, and respect. They know teens, staff, and parents. More than anything else that we could illuminate, we found their unified capacity to listen, ask thoughtful questions, and engage the community to take action to make learning more equitable, deep, and joyful that differentiates their leadership. Because they are better together, the community is better together as well.
It might have been easy for us to see Nipmuc Regional High School as simply another high performing school on the fringe of the Boston/Providence metropolitan areas. 63% of students take at least one Advanced Placement course, the Free and Reduced Lunch rate is under 15% despite encompassing significant rural areas. When you walk into the school, the buzz is immediate. Hallway signage is pretty typical of high schools everywhere. Staff move through the halls and into the office to ask the questions that faculty everywhere ask. We visited on a professional development day and it became obvious as we engaged in conversations with Nipmuc staff that they value themselves as a learning community, not simply as a faculty.
Two things immediately signaled us that there were important lessons to be learned here. First, the Principal, John Clements, had two years before, invited his Assistant Principal, Mary Anne Moran, to become his administrative equal. They are co-Principals now, and the symbol of that were reversible business cards that included both. The second thing became clear in the cafeteria. Outside the doors the students were in the process of attempting to build a hockey rink for lunch hour and after school pick-up games.
Openness to change, and willing acceptance of risk, are requisites for transformation. Failure often is also a part of the process. This project brings all of that into one reality. When we checked in recently, John and Mary Anne shared that the students’ project has had some false starts, both weather- and Pandemic-related. But that hasn’t stopped their efforts. They indicate that the students are ready for another try this coming winter when, hopefully, the health crisis has subsided.
Walking the Walk of Transformation
“In two years we've seen about 400 of our 651 students,” John Clements says, speaking about an essential protocol, Food for Thought Lunches, at Nipmuc Regional High School. That protocol brings groups of students, cross-demographic groups of students together with Clements and Co-Principal, Mary Anne Moran to talk about what’s going on in the school and what they want to change. The plan is that every student will get at least one, and hopefully more, opportunities to have an impact through this process in their four years.
This isn’t just about listening though. “It's great to hear the student feedback but I think our job is to act,” he says, and discusses the changes in homework policy that were built by a homework committee with equal input of diverse students, diverse parents, and a range of teachers.
The “new homework policy is really responsive to a lot of the students’ [concerns],” he notes. It isn’t just students who regularly have the ear of the building administration. “If we're gonna think about innovation we need to think about challenging some of the assumptions,” Mary Anne Moran says, describing constant work with the faculty on innovation. To “really push toward thinking outside that box,” she continues, noting that it is easy to get stuck in worry about ‘what might happen,’ and sometimes in protocols. “We use with our faculty, quite frequently, what “we call the what-if game.” She brings up what might be a non-starter in many high schools, “What if students didn’t have grades?” “When you put that in “what if” terms people start seeing all kinds of answers and now we have teachers with gradeless classrooms and others with changed forms of grading.”
Trying to solve the “yeah, but…”
The combination of these two paths leads to initiatives, from policy changes to new courses, that arise from how teachers and learners see issues as opportunities. A potent reminder of the power of innovative thought occurs during the school’s Inspired Learning Days. These events are built from school-wide brainstorming sessions where students are asked what they want to learn rather than what teachers want to teach. Inspired Learning Day sessions - whether constructing a protein in a college lab, exploring nature with a park ranger, or cooking an authentic Italian meal alongside a professional chef - provide powerful moments of learning that break away from traditional curriculum. Clements says, “I think...[what] teenagers want is for [school] to be relevant, to have an actual purpose,” he adds. “Like all of us, they don't want to be doing busy work. They want to be doing things that are a little more customized to their passions, their interests, their curiosity. Our kids are willing to work. [But that] only makes sense if we're going to ask them to do something that's really important.
To be able to really realize the goals that we have for our young people
Mary Anne describes the core beliefs they want their teachers to hold on to. She and John ask teachers to use their own passions “to be able to really realize some of the goals that we have for helping our young people all be successful. We actually tap into the teachers [interests and observations] to see which of these ‘what ifs’ they want to explore, what are their top priorities.” And then, she says, it is our job to “help to help them make it actionable.”
Some schools find themselves forced into transformations as society moves far beyond the old structures, but at Nipmuc the changes come from knowing their children, and are powered by an administrative team that embodies a willingness to change, and a trust in everyone in the building.