How Do You Unite 22 Schools Without Taking Away Teacher Autonomy?

22 schools. Multiple ELA programs. Multiple math programs. Kids transferring between buildings and landing in totally different language, totally different lessons.

That was Waukegan Public Schools when Eduardo Cesario arrived eight years ago.

On Beyond the Box, Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Eduardo, now Deputy Superintendent of Academic Programs and Supports, to walk through how the district built coherence without steamrolling teachers:

• A districtwide curriculum audit that started with qualitative data - teachers and principals, not just usage numbers

• Science of Reading adoption designed around stakeholder engagement, with board members embedded in the process

• Quarterly reviews with the union - who flagged "too many assessments" and got heard

• Why "screens = 21st century skills" is the wrong equation, and what student-to-student discourse actually looks like

• ILTs and GLTs rebuilt from logistics meetings into data-driven instructional teams

Eduardo's line on the autonomy vs. consistency tension: "It's like jazz. You can go into a different direction and then you know how to bring it back." A master teacher can improvise. A novice needs the safety net.

That's coherence done well.

🎧 Video and audio links in the first comment.

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