Overcoming Barriers: Leadership, Culture, and the Bridge Between Policy and Practice

In my 50th year working as an educator, I have seen and experienced a lot.

In my current role working with school superintendents in New York and doctoral students at my university, I am attuned to the many challenges that today’s leaders face. These are perhaps some of the most challenging ever faced by America’s school leaders and there have been some significant ones!

Aside from local, state, and federal political pressures, schools today are navigating an era of ambitious reform in such areas as deeper learning, restorative discipline, leadership and teacher pipelines, and a need to stay true to evidence-based practice. Yet the distance between aspiration and implementation remains one of education's most persistent challenges.

The summer 2026 issue includes studies that illuminate a consistent truth: structural change fails without the cultural, relational, and developmental foundations to support it.