5 in 5: Sonja Robertson, Mississippi Department of Education’s Executive Director of the Office of School Improvement

Results for America Fellowship Alumni give five answers in five minutes. This month, we caught up with Sonja Robertson, Executive Director of the Office of School Improvement for the Mississippi Department of Education.

1. Summarize what you do and how you do it.
   As Executive Director of School Improvement for the Mississippi Department of Education, I am responsible for the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirements for schools identified as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), and Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) as well as a component of the state’s school improvement requirements described in Mississippi Succeeds, our approved state plan.
2. Share something exciting that you’re working on.
   We are working with the Office of Research and Development at the Mississippi Department of Education to evaluate the impact of school improvement coaching support in some of our schools. This partnership allows us to learn even more than we could alone about school improvement practices and their impact. We hope this partnership will lead to many others in the future that help us improve low-performing schools in our state.
3. Tell us one thing you learned from someone else during your RFA Fellowship.
   The Peer Consultancy process — where one person brings a challenge to the group to problem-solve — created the space for me to learn from my peers in other state education agencies about something that was immediately relevant to me. The process was tremendously humbling because it forced me to “stop, hear, and provide clarity”, as opposed to simply defending my thinking and work. I truly believe my project, when finalized, will be stronger because I was able to engage in this process during its early stage.
4. If you could wave a magic wand and have any data or evidence, what would it be?
   Three things: 1) data that could accurately project the anticipated learning deficit facing students when they return to school in the fall, 2) data on the effect of the COVID-related school closures on student achievement, school culture and climate, teacher retention, and subsequently student attendance in our lowest-performing schools after the first quarter of the fall semester, and 3) data that address the impact of the different types of virtual learning experiences for all schools, but specifically for the lowest performing schools, on minimizing loss of learning.
5. What’s the [pick-your-adjective] job you’ve ever had?
   The briefest job I ever had was during my college days in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I was hired to stock a new shoe store that was part of a national chain of shoe stores with the understanding that some of the stock crew would be retained part-time to work in the store once it opened. I’m sure you can see where this is going…after what I thought was really good and hard work (I had no evidence to support that my work was good or that I worked hard other than the rows and rows of shoes unpacked and racked), I was not selected as one of the retained staff. So, after 5 days of “good and hard” work, I received my one check and was let go. Fortunately, I was able to bounce back and almost 30 years later, I can honestly say things seem to have worked out.

Extra Question: What is one way the Mississippi Department of Education is using data and evidence in its work to respond to COVID-19?
The Mississippi Department of Education has been gathering feedback on the different approaches to distance learning that school districts have taken since schools closed in March. The agency has also heard extensive comments from the State Superintendent’s teacher advisory council about current challenges and supports that teachers need. In addition, our Office of Technology and Strategic Services released a survey to districts to ascertain their respective degree of connectivity and to assess the specific device and learning management system needs of school districts in preparation for the 2020–21 school year.

Sonja Robertson participated in Results for America’s State Education Fellowship.