Episode 31: Aligning Your District’s Initiatives: How to Achieve Coherence and Impact with Dr. Rebekah Kim

By loading this video, you agree to the privacy policy of Youtube.

Episode Summary:

Dr. Rebekah Kim, Associate Superintendent of Teaching and Learning in Kent School District, discusses her journey as an educator and leader committed to advancing equitable practices in education. She shares how her background as a second-generation immigrant from South Korea shaped her understanding of equity and informed her dedication to learner-centered, inclusive practices.

Rebekah reflects on her experiences as a classroom teacher in a diverse school district and her time as an elementary principal, which reinforced her belief in the importance of seeing students’ strengths beyond traditional academic measures. As a district leader and parent, she strives to ensure schools focus on the whole child, valuing socioeconomic, gender, and linguistic diversity as assets in learning.

Key topics covered include:

🌍 Co-constructing a shared definition of global citizenship with district stakeholders
💬 Emphasizing the importance of student voice in shaping educational experiences
🤝 The role of collaboration and distributed leadership in developing equitable student profiles
🧠 Shifting from deficit-focused education to strength-based, equity-driven approaches
🔍 The need for systems that measure success beyond GPA, incorporating social-emotional, leadership, and extracurricular skills

Related Resources:

  • Blog: 4 Practical Tips for Creating Coherence Within Your District
    Coherence throughout the system—namely, the individual internalization of the district’s vision, mission, and values—is essential to achieving transformational change. Read more about coherence from Devin Vodicka.
  • Course: Cultivate a Sense of Belonging
    This course dives into creating a sense of belonging for all learners, ensuring their cultures, identities, and experiences are represented and honored.
  • Tool: Enabling Conditions and Culture Self-Study
    This comprehensive resource is designed to help educational systems assess and improve their foundational elements for success. This self-paced assessment covers six crucial areas: Coherence, Communication, Aligned Systems, Growth & Development, Partnerships, and Culture.

How About Another?

It’s Your Journey

Explore More Topics

Blog
The Learning Experience Design Cycle: A Compass for Designing Deeper Learning
As an English teacher co-leading an interdisciplinary project with a science teacher, I had the privilege of working alongside high school seniors as they explored what it truly means to survive. We called it the Science of Survival. Over the course of the project, learners read stories of survival in fiction and nonfiction, interviewed…
Blog
Reading, Writing, and Rising: Centering Literacy in Learner-Centered Education
By Stephanie Buelow and Charlotte Frambaugh Kritzer, Professors of Literacy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Literacy is the cornerstone of a learner-centered education—it unlocks the ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and engage meaningfully in a rapidly changing world. Few leaders embody this understanding as powerfully as Dr. Lori Gonzalez. A visionary…
Blog
Debunking the Math Myth: How Learner-Centered Classrooms Deepen Understanding
In a learner-centered classroom, math is about more than numbers and formulas—it’s about curiosity, exploration, and making sense of the world.  Picture this: It’s 10:00am in Ms. Kim’s 3rd grade classroom and students are gathered on the rug around a chart. Two students have just finished sharing their strategies with the whole class on…