Episode 51: Leading with Laser Focus: Dr. James Lane's Educational Leadership Journey

A trumpet, a baton, and a blueprint for real school change. James Lane went from touring musician to teacher, principal, superintendent, state chief, and ultimately a senior leader at the U.S. Department of Education and he never lost sight of the same question: what happens the moment a student struggles? This conversation turns that question into a repeatable system any school can use.

We start with the early days: a tiny band program that grew into half the school, superior ratings, and national trips. That success wasn’t magic it was structure. James shares the seven-step framework behind his book, Leading with Laser Focus: align curriculum to the test blueprint, be maniacal about talent, use common assessments that actually measure what you teach, run tight data cycles, deliver timely intervention, strengthen PLCs, and wrap it all with smart technology and family partnerships. The core test for leaders is simple: can every adult explain exactly what happens when a student falls behind?

From there, we zoom out. As Virginia’s state superintendent, James navigated policy, politics, and the hardest pivot of a generation closing and reopening schools during COVID. He breaks down how a state agency translates laws and executive orders into guidance districts can act on, and why showing up in communities matters more than perfect memos. Then we head to Washington, where James led K-12 at the U.S. Department of Education, accelerated ESSER spending, and focused resources on tutoring, mental health, staffing, and safe operations to get schools open and keep them open.

The throughline is belief and execution. James reframes teacher efficacy as academic optimism: when teachers believe they make the difference—and leaders remove barriers outcomes move. He also shares breaking news on his new CEO role tackling teacher shortages and high-dosage tutoring, turning leadership principles into capacity schools can feel. If you lead a classroom, a building, or a district, you’ll walk away with practical steps and a renewed sense of what’s possible.

Enjoyed the conversation? Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review telling us the one system you’ll strengthen this month. Your reflection might spark someone else’s breakthrough.

Connect with Dr. James Lane:

Email: james.lane@gmail.com

Leading with Laser Focus: The Seven Steps to School Success: (Amazon)

University Instructors:Dr. James Lane

University Instructors Website:

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Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Dr. James Lane
• 4:56 From Touring Musician To Teacher
• 9:28 Lessons That Led To Leadership
• 14:48 Becoming Principal And Rapid Turnaround
• 20:59 Mentors, Mobility, And Opportunity
• 27:55 Expecting The Unexpected In Leadership
• 34:00 State Superintendent: Role And Reality
• 42:33 COVID Closures, Reopening, And Policy
• 49:50 Inside The U.S. Department Of Education

Transcript

Principal JL: 1:58

Today's guest is one of the most accomplished educational leaders you'll meet. His career spans from the classroom to the principalship, to the superintendent's office, state level leadership, and even senior leadership at the U.S. Department of Education. Joining me today is Dr. James Lane. He recently has been named the CEO of University Instructors. He was also the managing director of K-16 at ETS. He has served as CEO of PDK International and Educators Rising. He was named the 2017 Virginia Superintendent of the Year. He has served as the state superintendent of public instruction in Virginia. And later became the acting assistant, secretary, and senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education. He has been a teacher. He has been a principal, an assistant to superintendent, a superintendent. And he's also an author of his new book, Leading with Laser Focus, The Seven Steps to School Success. Oh, and have I mentioned he's also a trumpet player inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame as a member of the Castaways. Without further ado, let's get to the conversation with Dr. James Lane. Welcome back, everybody, with to another exciting episode of the Educational Leadership Podcast. Today I'm excited to bring on Dr. James Lane. James, welcome to the show.

Dr. James Lane: 3:43

Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Super excited to be with you today.

Principal JL: 3:47

All right, James. I'm going to go ahead and ask you the same question I ask everybody on the show. What inspired you to become an educator?

Dr. James Lane: 3:57

Yeah, I think I talk about this a lot, actually. So I actually didn't start out as an educator. I was a full-time musician. I was touring on the road. I was playing with bands that were signed on labels and really, really thought I was going to be a musician. And, you know, met my wife in college. She was also a musician. She also ended up out on the road playing with a ska band while I was doing more like the jazz and you know, cover band and wedding band. And you know, I was in a salsa band. And she came off the road first. And, you know, as it became clear we were going to get married and hoping to have a family, she reminded me that being on the road a couple hundred dates a year wasn't the long-term stretch for us. And so I had gone to school to get a degree in teaching, you know, hoping to teach one day. And I took a band job in Durham, North Carolina that was actually at a year-round school. They had closed the school because so the performance of the school was so low, they replaced all the teachers and they turned it into a year-round magnet school. And so the cool part about it was I was allowed to teach, you know, full time, but then on the intercessions, as we called it, I was still allowed to go on the road and do tours and stuff like that. So loved that. But to answer your question, it became obvious to me day one that education and teaching was where I was supposed to be. The minute I put that baton up in front of my band for the first time, I just absolutely loved it. I took over a band program that only had 25 kids in it. By the time I left to become an assistant principal, you know, several years later, over half of the school was in the band program. We were superior at competition. We were traveling all over the nation. And I'm it just really was an amazing experience. So I eventually gave up playing music, stayed in education, but it was about impact for me. And I saw the impact that I was having on kids' lives, and I realized, hey, I want every classroom in my school to be as impactful as I thought mine was. So I became a principal. And then as a principal, I started thinking, gosh, I've turned this school around. We've got scores from the 50s into the 90s at my school. What if every school in my district could be this impactful? So I became superintendent, and that that focus on impact pat continued. Became state superintendent because I wanted every district to be as impactful as I thought mine would be. And I went to the federal level and I did that work because I wanted every state to have the experiences that I thought that my state had. And for me, from the moment I got out of playing music and the moment I went into the classroom, I knew I was going to change people's lives or try to change people's lives. And that's what drove me and inspired me to become an educator.

Principal JL: 6:33

I love that you talk about impact and how, you know, that is what got you going in education and impact in the young lives of students and how that carried you through. And so you talked a lot about how impact, you know, you like to see throughout your career there. But let's kind of go back to your teaching days. What happened during your teaching time that helped you become an assistant principal? So what was it that you learned as a teacher that said, you know what, I could take this and use it into becoming an assistant principal down the road?

Dr. James Lane: 7:09

Well, I, you know, Jeff, you're a principal, so I'm somewhat joking as I say this, but you know that principal assistant principals spend a lot of their time on discipline, right? And and uh, and so I this wasn't why I wanted to become an assistant principal, but I would joke with people, try putting a hundred kids with noisemakers in their hand and manage their behavior and see if you can be an assistant principal, right? And so the idea was, you know, I I I'm joking as I say that, but the truth is what I learned in my band experience and and working with a hundred kids with noisemakers and and and keeping them strategically and vision the line to what I wanted to do with the band program. What I learned in that is I I wanted to inspire people to be the best that they could be. And I wanted to do a remit, you know, bigger than what I was doing in the band. I wanted it to be, I already said this, I wanted to be about every kid in the school. But I knew I would, I I didn't go into the assistant principalship wanting to be an assistant principal. I went there wanting to be a principal, and you know, I knew that assistant principal was the was the pathway to that. But the reason I wanted to be the principal is, you know, that's actually kind of always been a dream of mine. I mean, obviously I had dreams of being a musician and other things, but when when I was in middle school, you know, they did those superlatives, and I I was named most likely to be JMS principal and most likely to succeed. And they had made me choose, so I chose to you know if you look at the yearbook, it says most likely to succeed. But I also, even my friends in middle school knew that this was a pathway for me, and that that resonated with me later in life. And I thought, you know, when I finally made that decision to get off the road completely and just be a band director, I immediately enrolled in school to become a principal. I wanted my own building, I wanted to show that, you know, with the right structures in place and the right team in place, we could make a difference in kids' lives. And I was in an I was in inner city Durham, and it was, you know, my assistant principalships were some some challenging situations. And I'm I'm glad I I served in those places first because it really taught me that you know, all the different services and wraparounds and and pieces that you have to have in place and teachers and quality that that make a difference. So for me, uh it wasn't just one thing that led me to the principalship. It was really about back to that impact. And and I just I saw I saw what I what was happening in my van program, I saw how we were changing kids' lives, and I just wanted that for every kid in my community.

Principal JL: 9:40

You bet. And I really appreciate you talking about the assistant principal job because that is something that people kind of overlooked, and some people are like, hey, I want to become a building principal, but I think understanding that role and understanding the different layers that go on in a building is really important. So when you're leading that building, you know all the little nuances and things like that. And so, was there a story that you have being an assistant principal or a principal that you could share with us that you know really impacted your leadership ability and maybe got you starting to think about becoming this next step as a superintendent?

Dr. James Lane: 10:23

Yeah. So when I took over my first building as principal, and you know, I I laugh sometimes because I feel like I feel like the when I applied to be principal, that was I feel like that's the last time I really interviewed for a job, you know, because superintendent, you kind of get tapped by the board, and you know, state superintendent was governor, federal, of course, White House and all that. And so like it's the last time where I was really putting myself out there and and you know and interviewing. And I I remember I got to the point where I was interviewing to be the principal in the community where I was an assistant principal, and I was interviewing to be principal in a location that was about an hour and a half away from home. I was gonna have to drive an hour and a half each way to take that job. And I go into the final round with the superintendent in the community where I was currently serving, and I'm talking to him about the job, and you know, I'm feeling really good about being a finalist. And I said, you know, one day I want to be superintendent. And what's your advice for me going into this principal? You know, because I always ask you, where do you want to be in five years? And I was like, Well, you know, one day I want to be superintendent. What's your advice for me? And and that superintendent at the time, we're still friends, actually, was just in his school district last week, and he said, You know, you might have to leave to come back. If you want to be superintendent in this community, they usually only hire people that have been superintendent before. And I was like, Wow, I you know, I can't believe he said that. And you know, here I have this opportunity to be principal, but he's saying that that might be a longer journey for me. And so I went and interviewed in the other district the next day, and the superintendent there said, you know, they wanted me really badly. It was 90 minutes away, they had a hard time recruiting it, you know, outside they're a very rural community. And and he said, Look, if you go with us, we won't be able to pay you as much as where you live now, all of that. And you're gonna have to drive 90 minutes. Yes, all that's true. He said, But I'm gonna guarantee you you'll be the next assistant superintendent here if you come. And I thought, gosh, this is this is a pr a pretty good deal. Now he couldn't really guarantee me that, but interestingly, one year later, the assistant superintendent left and he said, Look, you've only been principal a year. I can't make you assistant superintendent after only one year. But I turned that school around, we had unbelievable scores. And I said, Well, you promised me in the interview, and I said, I'll make you a deal. I know how tight budgets are right now because this was you know back during the recession and everything. And I said, How about I be principal and assistant superintendent at the same time? And he agreed to that. And and and I did both of those jobs for a year and eventually found a new person to be principal, and then we broke it up. But but you know, I saved him a lot of money and got a unique experience about my career. But the reason I share that is one of the big biggest pieces of advice I give to principals and assistant principals is don't be afraid to ask advice from your leaders. I mean, if that superintendent hadn't given me that advice, I might have totally disregarded that school district the next day. That ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. I would not have been an assistant superintendent one year later, just wouldn't have happened. And it was it was by chance and luck. But what I tell people all the time is you know, opportunity is the intersection of skill and luck. You got to be good, but then you just gotta find those right moments. And my willingness to be mobile actually led to, you know, I was one of the youngest superintendents in the history of Virginia, one of the youngest state superintendents in the history of Virginia. And had I stayed in my home community, I don't know if I would be the superintendent, and for what it's worth. I ended up going back and I was superintendent in that district years later. And and so it's just been a really cool journey. But that that that willingness to take on mentorship, and I mentor people now. There's nothing I think is more important to a principal or assistant principal who wants to grow their career than finding people that will give you good advice because not everybody will give you that advice that guy gave me. And and you know, they would have tried to encourage me to stay when he knew my long game was probably better suited leaving and coming back.

Principal JL: 14:44

Yeah, you make a great point there, James. I hear that a lot, where you may have to go somewhere to come back to a place that you may really aspire to be. And that that is true in education. And I know, like when I became a principal, I knew I had to leave to get back to a place to where I'm at today because I knew I wanted to be at a certain certain level of a high school because we have small rural schools here in Nebraska, as well as your metropolitan, you know, bigger, larger districts. And I knew I fit the larger district model the best, but I knew I had to take a job somewhere to get back to a position to where I'm at today. And so that's that's that rings true to a lot of people inspired to take those steps. So I really appreciate you sharing though that information. Is there anything in your leadership journey as a principal, as a superintendent, that you were just like, this is a total surprise. I was not prepared for this, be it in the leadership role.

Dr. James Lane: 15:49

Well, I will say I did three superintendencies and the state superintendency. You come to expect that the unexpected is going to happen all the time. I mean, I don't mean to sound like the show Big Brother or whatever, but the biggest thing I say is expect the unexpected. But there were things all the time. I mean, my that that district I came home to, the big district, right? All those years later, the the day I got there, their early retirement plan had you know major underfunding that I had to solve. And I, you know, I thought I was coming in just to kind of fix the instruction and get things going there. And my first day as superintendent and my second superintendency, we had a a domestic situation happen in the parking lot, and someone that did not work for us attacked somebody that worked for us, and the community didn't even know who I was, and I had to stand in front of the whole community and explain this story that was all over the news and build transparency around it. And then, you know, I think over my 25 years, I think education has become much more interesting in the media and in the political scenes, and and being adept and prepared for how to handle that has been unique. But where I where I tend to think that folks will thrive is there will be all kinds of craziness that happens. I mean, it's my favorite part about being a middle school principal was every day there was something to laugh at and there was something exciting that happened. And you know, you come to expect that in education. But you know, Jeff, you know I wrote this book, and and I'll talk more about that later. But what I what I didn't expect, I think, and and this is another piece of advice I'd offer to principals and and future principals, is I I didn't expect when I got to the broader district vantage that so many schools didn't have the structures in place to actually be successful with kids. And I didn't expect that I would have to you know work with so many principals to build a system of instruction that responded to kids' needs. And you know, again, when we talk about the book, I'll talk about my seven-step process. And anyone that's ever worked for me knows my seven-step process. But what I tell principals all the time is you don't have to follow my process, but you have to have a process and you have to have everyone believing in it. But your process is working if you can answer one question. And that that first school where I was principal, I would, you know, where I was principal and assistant superintendent a year later. There was no assistant principal at that school when I got there. I was running the whole building by myself. You know, it's a small rural school. And I what I learned in that environment that I took to the bigger environments, the bigger district environments, is you actually can set up the system so that everyone in the school community, from the custodian to the principal, to the superintendent to the parents, to even the clergy in your community, everyone should be able to know the answer to one simple question, and that is what happens to a kid at the moment they show failure in our school? And if you don't have a system for that, then you're not really responding to the needs of your kids in a systemic way. And so what I did through my process is I tried to build that out. But that was that was the one piece I wasn't expecting is I, you know, I would hear that schools were good, and then I'd look under the hood and there were issues, and I'd hear that schools were bad, and actually they had really great systems in place. They just, you know, they they had higher percentages of poverty, and you know what that leads to in terms of correlation with student outcomes. And so I have focused my time in the broader leadership and making sure that school improvement was systemic and not by accident or because of just a charismatic principal or a special teacher in the building. And that's that's what I didn't expect when I got into this.

Principal JL: 19:32

Awesome. Well, I really appreciate that because there's a lot of things that they don't quite prepare you for, of stepping into those roles. And like for me, you know, getting into the principalship, one of the things I I talk about, I wasn't expecting like the amount of time that I work with my adult staff as much, you know, and I wasn't prepared for that. I was like, wow, I work with my adults a lot more than I thought. And I thought I would, you know, I'd be helping kids by helping adults, but man, I really focus in on helping my adult, you know, staff be the best they can be so they can translate down to helping the students. And so, yeah, I kind of I kind of learned that lesson the hard way because I was like, well, what did I get myself into? But you know, being a superintendent, I don't have that experience. I'm not aspiring to be that right now. But at the same time, when you're taking over a district like that, and you kind of talked about it, you deal with the politics of that, and you know, you have to deal with state legislation, and that's just a whole nother beast that takes special people to do. And I'm glad that you were able to do that. And so you talked about becoming the state superintendent of Virginia. Talk about how that happened and what was that role like, and what did you do? I mean, I have no clue what that is. So, you know, here in Nebraska, we have a commissioner of the Department of Education that's elected by the board. So kind of tell me how Virginia works in that way and that role and what you learned from that role.

Dr. James Lane: 21:05

Yeah, well, it's it's very similar to the commissioner's role in Nebraska. I mean, in fact, I've known a few of yours in Nebraska really well over my career. I mean, you've had some legends there, Doug Christensen, Matt Blimstead. I mean, just really, really great leaders. And and Matt and I served at the same time. And so, you know, in terms of how it happened, in Virginia, it's appointed by the governor and it's called the Superintendent of Public Instruction, colloquially referred to as the state superintendent. And you know, the in Virginia, another unique thing about us is we only have one-term governor, so it's four years and they're out. So I knew going in, I was gonna do four years with my governor, had no guarantees after that. Luckily, I ended up with a position afterwards in the federal level. But the you know, it it it it politics is interesting, where you know it it started with a phone call of like, have you ever thought about being the state chief? And I was like, nope. I actually my whole dream was to come be Superintendent Chesterfield because I started my career here and I'm kind of coming back, and you know, and I at that point I'd only been there a couple of years, and they were like, Well, you know, the governor would like to know if you'd consider serving. And and you know, you know, I'm deeply rooted in service and the way I've talked, and you know, I feel like if you know the governor's a constitutional officer, and uh, you know, governor calls you, you gotta, you gotta sit down with him, and and and so I did. And you know, he asked me a lot of questions, I asked him a lot of questions, and ultimately, you know, I just felt like it was a good time for me to lead. And and and so, you know, the the governor you know vets you and then they run you through the legislature and all that, and it you know, eventually happens. And I decided to approach the Virginia Department of Ed a lot like I did a school district, you know, that you know, I never felt like I was my principal's boss. I felt like I was their coach and their guide, and you know, I was a steward to them. And I always would tell people like, none of us would be here, not a principal, not a superintendent, if it wasn't for teachers and students, right? It's about the teaching and learning experience. So we're here to serve them. And I just felt like as state chief, I had to do the same thing. Now, the cool part was I think I was well situated to lead because I had been, you know, one of the superintendents. I went to all the superintendent events, they were all my friends, and so you know, when it came time for me to make tough decisions, they at least knew that I knew their perspective and that I appreciated it. And and you know, superintendents' associations are gonna super advocate for superintendents, principal associations for principals, teachers for teachers, and parents for parents. And and you know, I decided that I in my state, I was gonna advocate for kids, and and and so you know, mine might disagree with the superintendents or the principals or the teachers sometimes. And so I decided to approach the role like that. And so, you know, when I was a superintendent, I tried to visit my buildings all the time. When I was a principal, I tried to visit classrooms all the time. I made a commitment on day one of being a state superintendent. I was gonna visit every single school district, school we call them divisions in Virginia. We're I was gonna visit every division in Virginia, and I did that by the end, even in the middle of COVID. Uh, I continued to visit uh school districts trying to get them open when that time came. And I just wanted to be a leader that was there for our educators, our students, and our parents. And and and so that's how I approach it. Now, the job is vastly different than the district superintendent, division superintendent, and vastly different, obviously, than principal and a teacher. The Virginia Department of Education, then much like in Nebraska, is a regulatory body. We have to deal with federal legislation and make sure that our state is compliant with that. We have to deal with state legislation, which is often directed directly at the Department of Education. We had we had the state board, we had governor's executive orders. And so, you know, and there are a million ways that policy is made. And we had to navigate all of that and shape it into something and then communicate it to districts to make sure that they knew what to do. But at the end of the day, the Virginia Department of Education and most state departments of education are regulatory bodies. They're they're passing the regulations of the state that you know are underneath the laws of the state and the constitution of the state and the you know, the constitution of the United States. And and so I, you know, I took that job very seriously. And then sometimes there's policy that's directed directly from the department, sometimes there's investigations, sometimes there's licensure issues. I mean, the the department just does a lot of things, and we are the funding body, right? Most of the state and federal funds flow through the department of education to the states, and so we make sure that those dollars are routed appropriately, spent wisely, and and spent compliantly in districts. What I didn't expect is during my time, we would close every school in America for a short amount of time and reopen them. And Virginia was the second state to close, Kansas was the first, believe it or not. And and we actually put policy in place where schools could open almost as fast as anyone else. And our our rural schools in Virginia were open alongside most of the other communities that opened around the nation. But our our more urban and suburban environments, it took them longer to open. And you know, we had a governor who was a doctor, he was very focused on health. And, you know, I I really kind of hit the road and did everything I could to get our schools open. But, you know, I didn't, I didn't go into the job thinking I was gonna have to, you know, learn the the the science of uh uh of of you know viruses and everything else we had to deal with and COVID. And and so, you know, it it was a it was a unique time, and I'm glad that I was in that role in Virginia because I felt like I worked hard to balance what superintendents needed from what parents needed from what students needed. And you know, I I look back and you know, hindsight is always 2020. There's a million things I would have done the same, there's a million things I would have done different, but but ultimately, you know, it was an honor to serve, and I felt like you know, I was called to be there in that moment and help our our our communities navigate that issue.

Principal JL: 28:31

Yeah, that's great. I it got me thinking back when COVID hit, it was my second year as a building principal. So that was already that was challenging. I was lucky enough to be in a in a small rural school to where, yeah, we closed down, but we were able to actually open up August with all our restrictions and everything like that. Being a smaller district, we had that luxury when I we had a lot of kids in the bigger urban schools that were, you know, home being at home doing virtual learning for a good year or so, and other states a couple of years. So I appreciate your leadership through that time. And you know, I bet you the state of Virginia was thankful for all the things that you did do to help them navigate because those are like once-in-a-lifetime situations that you know they don't just happen. And and when you have to go through it, no one knows what's going on, no one knows what to do. Because I remember it was like, we'll be back in school in a couple of weeks. Nope.

Dr. James Lane: 29:29

So it was just one of those things when it all started. I literally thought it was gonna be two weeks.

Principal JL: 29:35

Yeah, and we're thinking, ah, this is like, and then it was like, what's going on? And so let's talk about you know, working at the federal level. I haven't met a lot of people that have done this job. You know, you're my first person that was a you know, a state superintendent or commissioner of a of a state, and so that's a unique perspective. But now you're talking about your leadership in the department of education. How did that happen? You know, what got you into that and what was your role in that? And kind of like talk about that a little bit.

Dr. James Lane: 30:06

Yeah. So the I served during COVID with a governor who was a Democrat. Now, for what it's worth, I've done a little bit of work on both sides of the aisle. Actually, all of the school boards I worked for were 100% Republicans, at least folks that claim to be Republican at the time. Some of them are flip parties. But never know. But uh, you know, so I so I kind of worked on both sides of the aisle. But once you get appointed on one side of the aisle, you you tend to get pigeonholed into being one thing. And and so, you know, when they go to pick who's gonna work in a president's administration, they're gonna pick people that are aligned to that president's politics, right? I mean, you know, you you see that even in the current administration. And so when President Biden was picking his secretary, he picked Miguel Cardona, who who's now there, and Miguel and I were state superintendents together. He was the one his was also called commissioner. He was commissioner in Connecticut while I was state superintendent in Virginia. And through all of that COVID experience, every state superintendent in the nation slash commissioner, we met every Wednesday at about four o'clock just to kind of navigate, learn what other states were doing together, see if there were ways that we could glean some things from their states to get our states more open. And and I and you know, I tried to attend every week, and Secretary Cardona, or now Secretary Cardona, attended every week as well. But we actually didn't get to know each other that well. But if you look at the state superintendencies around the nation, the at the time, most of them were appointed by either more conservative boards or more conservative governors. And so, as they were looking for folks to run K-12, you know, I think that they probably vetted a lot of the state superintendents who worked in what were known as blue states at the time. Of course, Virginia goes back and forth. We like to think of ourselves as purple. And and I try to not I try to not claim a political persuasion as much as I have policy beliefs that I am staunchly and firmly uh aligned to. And so, anyways, as as that evolved, you know, you know, I I obviously had a deep rooting in what K-12 schools needed. I I knew the policy work. I knew that one of their priorities was getting schools back open because they were not open when President Biden got elected fully. I mean, you know, maybe half the states were fully open and half were not. And so, you know, it became a huge priority to get that going. Shortly after they got elected, they passed the American Rescue Plan, and I knew that this job would run the American Rescue Plan. And so I just, you know, and then, you know, knowing that I had a one-term governor, I didn't know who was going to win the election in Virginia. And so I wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to stay or not. And you know, ultimately they flipped parties, and so I'm I'm actually glad I made the decision I made to go to the the federal level because I think it would have been uncertain whether I would have been able to stay, or probably unlikely even. And and so, you know, I went, it's a fascinating process, you know, like FBI agents vetting you, Secret Service, US Marshals. I I mean it was it was wild. And you know, going through everything in your background, calling people you haven't thought of in years, and interviewing with you know multiple tiers all the way up into the White House. And you know, there are many points along the way you're like, There's no way I'm getting this job. Like I've been through 45 interviews, and you know, and and ultimately I I was chosen. And and and it was it I mean, it's one of my greatest honors to work for a president of the United States and be appointed by a president of the United States. And of course I respected Secretary Cardone a lot because of our our past experience together. And so So when I got the job, I took the leadership as the acting assistant secretary of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Ed. That basically means that I was in charge of all the K-12. So I ran Title I, which is assessment and accountability also. So all those tests that everybody tends to lament and accountability rules. I title two, which is all the professional development dollars, all of the discretionary grant programs. And it was just a really cool experience. But you know, the the part of my job that was again somewhat unexpected is I did run ESSER, which was the president education version of the American Rescue Plan. And when I took over, I remember sitting down, there's a guy kind of a famous DC guy named Gene Spaulding, and he he said Sperling, sorry, and he said to me, James, you know, we're getting all kinds of calls that Esser is only 4% spent, and I want you to fix that. And and you know, you know, there was an expectation that these dollars were needed immediately and that you know to reopen schools. And and they were needed, but you know, we had passed three different COVID relief bills, so the districts were spending the first money first because it expired first and they hadn't gotten to ours yet. But I went on the road and I pushed and let's get these dollars in kids' hands and let's do let's use it, let's get tutoring going, let's get mental health sports going, everything we need to do, let's open schools. And you know, within a within a our first year in the in the Biden administration, we had basically every school open in America, and that American Rescue Plan went spent from four percent to 40 in a year. And so I'm just really proud of what we did there to meet the president's goals and and and you know and support the the secretary. I I really enjoyed that job. It's it's a fascinating world. It is it is not like school leadership at all. The state's in a city was more like school leadership than it is like the federal level. It was fast-paced meeting with members of Congress and and then slow paced at the same time because it takes forever to get things done and through all the rounds of clearance in the White House and everything else. But you know, I just you see how this works on TV, and it's way more like TV than you think. And I just I just really enjoyed going through it. Yeah, awesome.

Principal JL: 35:59

Well, I appreciate you telling us that story and the perspective because I find it very fascinating. You're the first person I've met that's done that role, and we actually just finished using our last set of Esther phones, so we're we're out of Esther phones. So appreciate your help with that.

Dr. James Lane: 36:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They expired and liquidated the just about now, it's all liquidated. So that's that's a that's a good point.

Principal JL: 36:24

Yeah. So when it comes down to it, James, I want to kind of get into the book that you have, Leading with Laser Focus, the seven steps to school success. Tell us about the book. What do you want people to take away from it?

Dr. James Lane: 36:39

Yeah, so I you know, I'll show folks a quick pick of it, but leading with laser focus, I wrote this book honestly more for, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to be on your show, Jeff. I I wrote this book more for principals, to be honest. And I went briefly through my principalship experience, but I I think I shared with you, I had a school that I took over that was on the border line of not being accredited in Virginia in the Commonwealth here. And in one year, we had incredible gains. You know, there were some subjects that went from the 70s into the 90s. We had we had one sixth grade area that went from in the 60s and or 50s into the 90s in terms of pass rates in one year. And we did that by setting up the systems that I talked about. And my system is this like you know, I call it the seven steps to school success. And you know, if if you want to, I can go through each of the seven steps or save it for your readers, or you can probably chat GBT, the seven steps, and get those. But but the quick version is this system that I put in place where everyone in the school community knows what happens at the moment that students show failure. I wanted to tell that story. I didn't write this book expecting to sell a single book, I wrote it so that you know anyone that ever worked with me and you know remembered that stuff we worked on would be able to kind of use it as a guidebook and go back to it. And that, you know, I hoped a few schools would pick it up and run with it. And it's it's just had unbelievable success. It hit number one on the Amazon education leadership bestseller list, which I'm super proud of. And you know, just been able to share this journey now with with you know hundreds and hundreds of school leaders, and and I'm I'm just really proud of that. But at the end of the day, Jeff, I'll tell you that nothing in the book, and you know, and for time's sake, I might not dive deep into all seven, but nothing in the book is something that you haven't heard of. What I explain to people all the time is there are schools that do any one of these things really well. There are very few schools that are not effective that are doing all seven really well. And and what the book tries to say is you have to do all seven really well to be successful. So, you know, at first I talk about, you know, you have to have a curriculum that's aligned to the expectations of the assessments. That is not rocket science, but you cannot believe how many folks just teach what they feel in the moment, or and they may follow the curriculum map for the district, but they're not actually aligning the curriculum map to the blueprint for the state. And so I so like we got to fix that first. Then the second is I mean, let's be honest, I know we're in a teacher shortage and I know how hard it is to fill every position, but you can't, if you have two years of an ineffective teacher, you'll never recover as a student from what you would have been if you just had an average teacher for those two years. And so we have a responsibility as principals to be really serious about who we put in front of our kids. And so there's a quote that anyone's ever worked for me knows it. And I say, You're gonna be maniacal about anything, be maniacal about the people that you put in front of kids. And and so I tell those stories about how I make those decisions, and then you know, I get into data analytics and common assessment and response to intervention and professional learning communities. These are all things you've talked about in your school district, but I talk about how to systematize those things, and then I talk about how you can use technology wrap around that and work with parents. But one of the biggest things that I talk about, without getting into you know, all the seven steps in order, is this this notion that I believe in of academic optimism. And there's a research behind this that not a lot of people in education realize. If you if you look at the research on education, I'm half joking as I say this, almost nothing works, right? You know, like you're you're everybody wants to try cut smaller class sizes, everybody wants to try the the latest curriculum, everybody wants to try the latest new accountability and assessment model. None of those things have really moved the needle. If you look at Hattie's research, he'll say that immediate feedback is the secret, right? You've you've probably seen that research. But what I will tell you is I there's a huge growing research body around what's known as teacher efficacy. And because most people can't tell you what teacher efficacy is, I try to define in the book as academic optimism. And I learned that phrase from one of my colleagues and and and credit to them for that. But academic optimism is this notion that if you are working with a teacher on their very first day of teaching, they have the highest teacher efficacy, general teacher efficacy, individual teacher advocacy they're ever gonna have, which is the or sorry, general teacher efficacy they're ever gonna have, which is this notion that they believe that it's their responsibility to make a difference in kids' lives. And so, for no other reason than perseverance alone, what we see is that people with high general teacher efficacy have great outcomes with students. But what happens is over a 30 and what's now become really a 40-year career, their efficacy dwindles and they start to believe that outside factors other than themselves matter more. Well, Johnny didn't learn because of this thing at home, or you know, he's got his mom's got two jobs and she can't help him, or you know, you know, this other situation that he or she is in. And then we have this notion of individual teacher advocacy, and that is this you know, actual ability to teach kids. And interestingly, even as though general teacher advocacy declines over a 30-year career, individual teacher advocacy is like basically how well you teach. You get better over 30-year career, you get better every day of doing this work. And so what we see is that there's this moment where those two things intersect, and right at the moment that you're actually great enough to make a difference in kids' lives, you start to believe less in yourself. And you believe that other things matter more. So that's where we've tried through the book and through these colleagues that shared this notion with me, try to coin this notion of academic optimism. That actually your job as a principal is not to do all of this professional development that your teachers hate because they're gonna get better at teaching, anyways. Your job is to inspire them that they make a difference more than anyone else, and that if you can get them to believe that, then they're gonna do the extra things that it's gonna take to get the kid to the standard we want to get them to. And so that goes back to this notion of being maniacal about people. And so I tried to always instill academic optimism in my teachers that you have to really believe that you're gonna be optimistic and make a difference in kids' lives. And if you believe that, then the skills are gonna come along your career and we are gonna make a difference with kids.

Principal JL: 43:15

Oh, I love it. I love everything about it because you're right that teachers have to believe that they're impacting and having that impact. Because you know, you're you're right, they they get beat up, right? You have the the parents and the kids and their behaviors and all these things, and they get burnt out. And and so, how can we as leaders motivate and impact our staff to have that teacher efficacy so they can continue to be optimistic about the work that they're doing? So, I I love the premise of the book, and I would encourage people to go out and get it, get yourself a copy. I'll put it in the show notes to make it easy for people to access so they can look at your book and and learn more about what you do. And so, kind of talk about what is Dr. James Lane up to today? What are you doing to help support principals and leaders out there? And if people want to get a hold of you, how can they connect?

Dr. James Lane: 44:17

Yeah, for sure. Well, Jeff, I didn't tell you this in advance, but I'm gonna break news on your podcast today. I actually am starting a new job tomorrow, and uh we've not announced it publicly, so I'll be announcing that tomorrow. But I am going so since I left federal service, I was the CEO at PDK International. Our signature program was Educators Rising, which is a huge in Nebraska, actually. Where we put up, we we we teach high school kids how to become teachers, and then we get them into education programs. And then I left there at after an amazing run there, and I've been at ETS the last while, essentially shaping the future of assessment. ETS is one of the largest assessment companies in the world. They run Praxis, they were in NAPE, they were in the California State Assessment System. So I was leading a lot of those components for them. And I just made the decision to go back into the CEO world, and I'm gonna be CEO of a company called University Instructors. They're one of the nation's largest teacher shortage solution providers. If you can't find a teacher, my new company that you'll hear about uh tomorrow, and we're breaking news today. We we solve those teacher shortages for you. We can help you find a teacher, and then we also do a huge tutoring world there as well. And we make sure that if you need a tutor for a kid's and our data is incredible at this new company, we can get your kid on to the line. And it if you go through my my book, one of the chapters talks about this whole notion of intervention. And so I'll be running a company that does intervention, I'll be running a company that makes sure you have the best people in the classroom. But what's unique about us is we're not just a staffing provider, when we bring you a teacher, we're bringing you a teacher that you will we will get you certified, and then they can stay with you and be your teacher afterwards. And so encourage anyone that's dealing with a teacher shortage, reach out when I start my new job and announce all that tomorrow. But in terms of the book, you can find the book on Amazon. When I go to look for it on Amazon, I search James Lane's School Book and it's the first thing that pops up. But we'll get Jeff a link so it's in the show notes. You can also find it if you go to leading with laserfocus.com. The the that's my personal website. If you want to reach out, and you know, I can do a book talk for your school, for your community, whatever you want. And I talk about all the services that we provide and all of that, but there's a link to buy the book there as well. And you know, you can find me on socials. I'm on LinkedIn, you know, the whole thing backstacks James F. Lane, Twitter, or whatever it's called now, X and Instagram at at Dr. James Lane. But the one thing I'll tell you about me, and I said it from the beginning of the podcast, I'm all about impact. Don't hesitate to reach out to me. I I'm here to to mentor anyone that is interested. Read the book, ask me questions. I I'm here for you. Open open book anytime, and just really look forward to folks checking that out and and and joining this journey of making all our schools great.

Principal JL: 47:08

Awesome. Hey, I love it. I love the vision. I love what you're getting ready to do. Hey, and breaking news on the podcast, first time right here. Here we go. Um, you know, you'll start your job before this episode airs, but it comes down to it. That's kind of cool to be able to break the news like that, James. I really appreciate our time that we had today. Before we go, is there any last words you like to say to educators out there doing the work?

Dr. James Lane: 47:36

Yeah. Well, thanks, Jeff. And I I know a lot of the folks that listen are principals and teachers. I just want to say a thank you. You know, I I've been in this field for you know well over 25 years now. I know how hard the work is on a day-to-day basis, but I also know how much it means to you and it means to your families, and it means to your kids, and it means to the parents in your community. And, you know, just thank you. Thank you for serving. Thank you for making a difference to kids' lives.

Principal JL: 48:04

All right, James, thank you for being on the show today, and thank you for the inspiring message and the work you do. Have a great day.

Dr. James Lane: 48:13

Yeah, thanks, Jeff.

Principal JL: 48:14

What a great conversation with Dr. James Lane. His career is a testament to the power of service and the importance of courageous leadership and the belief that when we invest in people like students, teachers, and communities, we change futures. If today's conversation inspired you, share it with a colleague, a friend, or an inspiring leader who needs to hear Dr. Lane's story. Make sure to subscribe to the Educational Leadership with Principal JL Podcast. Leave a review, and until next time, remember to always be curious and one percent better.