Transforming the Education System

Growing up in a small rural town of fewer than 500 people, Penny Reinart, Deputy Executive Director, ASCD always defined success as achieving being the best – the best at basketball, the best at debate, the best at grades – and she earned in each of those areas by being first or recognized publicly. “But, in my college life and professional life, I began to shift my definition of success to the accomplishment of personal goals related to how my work impacted others,” says Penny.

In her professional life, Penny’s passion has been helping youth and adults learn and grow. That has taken shape in several forms, from a County Extension Agent working with youth and adult learning programs to private and public-school classrooms to schools and districts across the globe through for-profit and non-profit organizations. That career trajectory has spanned 42 years, and success has been defined differently in each endeavor. “The accomplishment of these goals doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time – sometimes weeks, months, or years, but the constant striving to achieve certain goals that impact the lives of others is what enables me to achieve success,”said Penny. “The insight I would offer, based on my journey revolves around four things – passion, authenticity, trust, and hard work. If you are passionate about what you are doing, then you have a “north star” to how you do that work – you’re energized, engaged, and motivated to reach your goals. No one reaches success without others; others who are mentors, others who are colleagues, others who are team members.”

In her role as Deputy Executive Director of ASCD, Penny believes the success the organization has realized over the last two and a- half years is because of the cohesive and A+ team she has built, the publications released, the professional development tools, specifically Witsby™, a next-generation professional development and credentialing platform and content for K-12 educators, and resources developed and delivered to schools and districts. “In my role as Deputy Executive Director of ASCD, I have had the opportunity to impact thousands of lives of educators across the world and millions of children. To be able to go from impacting the lives of 20-25 children in my classroom each year to impacting millions every year – is what I call success,” adds Penny.

Sharing her story, Penny explains, “Years ago, a superintendent friend taught me a very valuable lesson. While working with his district, he shared that his job as a leader was to ensure that his people did the “best” work of their careers. I’ve taken that “north star” to heart as I have progressed up the leadership ladder and it has been a major contributor to my success.” She shared that her leadership style is centered on empowerment and she actively challenges her leadership team to try new things, take risks and fail fast, and to problem-solve and grow as leaders themselves. Penny attributes the transformation and success that ASCD has experienced over the past couple of years directly related to assembling and empowering the right leadership team and creating a culture founded in open lines of communications, transparency, promoting a spirit of innovation, and ensuring each person contributes to strategy.

The mission of ASCD is to empower educators to achieve excellence in learning, teaching, and leading so that every child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Penny and her team believe that to ensure the educational success of every child, all educators must feel prepared and confident to meet the numerous diverse challenges they face daily. Educators have a job more significant than life and more meaningful than money, recognition, and status – they have a mission to change the world one child at a time. ASCD’s mission has been and continues to be focused on enabling them to accomplish that job successfully. “Our world and the world of educators is swiftly changing. From the pandemic to ChatGPT, to the new controversies around curriculum, educators are asked to do more with less and continue to maintain their own well-being,” she elucidates.

ASCD has risen to the challenge of assisting schools and districts in adapting to these changes and implementing sustainable, transformative system-wide changes. We have created and delivered to educators in both the United States and the globe book publications, blogs, newsletters, Education Leadership (EL) publications, digital and facilitator-delivered professional development, on-site and virtual coaching. Most recently – and notably – is the organization’s next-generation professional learning platform that features bite-size professional learning, on-demand PD and AI-generated . “Our new content and platform, Witsby™ is designed to assist educators in addressing and conquering some of the most pressing challenges in education today. Our new innovative products and services address such challenges as the growing teacher shortage (over 7 million across the globe); the “burnout” educators are facing due to the shortages; classroom management/behavior issues; equity; and more,” states Penny. “We not only provide the tools and resources that the leading experts and authors drive in all areas of the education field, but we “listen” to the educators and create a customized plan and approach to help them address their specific challenges within their specific culture. ASCD has worked with educators for decades to help them keep pace with trends and to provide ongoing professional development opportunities. Creating experiences to give teachers more voice and choice in their continued growth 24/7 is something they have requested and we’re working with them to provide it.”

For the road ahead, Penny states there is still a lot to do to prepare educators of today and tomorrow. “This is vital work and I want to do more work globally as well as in the United States. I look forward to opportunities to serve on other boards with missions around the future of education, educators, and students in order to further the impact I can have on future generations,” she asserts.