As a very young girl, new ASCD President Linda Mariotti chose the path her career would take. "By the time I was in 1st grade, I was teaching neighborhood children," laughs Mariotti. "I have always loved teaching and always said I would be a teacher."
The daughter of a doctor, Mariotti says she briefly considered a career in medicine but she always knew she was a "born teacher." Mariotti began her teaching career in California and also taught in Utah. She is now the assistant superintendent over Instructional Services in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah.
For Mariotti, leaving the classroom for an administrative position required a great deal of soul searching. Mariotti says she was encouraged to make the switch by colleagues who suggested she could have the same positive effect that she had with her students, but on a grander scale. "Moving into administration let me see a bigger picture, and I could see how I could impact systems—maybe faster—for the good of kids by doing it at the administrative level. I could make more systemic change," says Mariotti.
But her passion for teaching is still strong regardless of her job role. "I still think I do my best work as my teacher self," she says. "You're just teaching adults, teaching colleagues, community members, policymakers. I think information, education, is power, and the more you can teach about why you do things, or should do things, or should change things, the more successful you are."
Collaborating for 21st Century Success
As an educator, Mariotti has grown accustomed to meeting tough challenges. The Granite School District, which includes 68,000 students, has a very diverse population, with a large number of immigrant and refugee students. Some schools are filled with children speaking up to 50 different languages. The district includes both academically successful and affluent students and ones who are highly at-risk.
Mariotti wants her district's students to achieve more than basic proficiency; she also wants to ensure they are prepared to be successful in their careers and lives after they leave the education system. Her experience with ASCD has helped Mariotti imagine a brighter future for her students. "ASCD has given me an opportunity to get a feel for what education is like worldwide. I'm trying to guarantee that everybody who leaves schools in my district has doors opened for them, rather than slammed in their faces because of things we have done or not done," she says.
To succeed in giving students the best education possible, Mariotti fosters communication and encourages informal and formal collaboration within the district. "I think we have to learn from one another about what works and what doesn't," she says. "We all need to say, 'We're all in this together.'"
Mariotti also values opportunities where she can work with educators in other districts. "Outside of the district I collaborate with educators, people who have similar responsibilities as mine, to say, 'What are you discovering? How are you solving these kinds of problems? Do you have the same kind of problems that we do? Let's brainstorm.'" Working collaboratively helps educators to create better solutions, Mariotti explains.
A New Day for Education
In thinking about some of the major issues facing today's educators, Mariotti notes how the public education landscape has changed over the years. Now, so many more stakeholders—from businesses to community organizations to government agencies—want to have a say in how public education is run, Mariotti says. To make important improvements to the system that will benefit kids, disparate voices need to learn how to communicate and collaborate, says Mariotti. Also, to meet 21st century demands and to keep up with the changing education landscape, Mariotti says, teaching needs to look very different than it did in the past. "Good teaching shouldn't look like it looked in the '50s, '60s, and '70s," she says.
Mariotti explains there are many questions for 21st century educators to consider. "Do we have our priorities right? Are we really focusing on what we value or not?" asks Mariotti. "How do we, in these environments of accountability, punitive consequences, and budget cuts, educate the whole child?" Mariotti notes that these challenges really present exciting opportunities for educators.
Taking the Reins
A longtime ASCD member, Mariotti joined the association years ago as a classroom teacher because she needed help and support. "Every day my kids needed different things. I needed to be fresh; I needed to learn how other people were doing this thing that we do. ASCD had those resources that I needed," she says.
Mariotti joined the Utah affiliate and served as the Utah ASCD president, chair of the Utah Teaching and Learning Coalition, and state conference chair. She joined ASCD's Board of Directors in 2003 as an elected representative from the Leadership Council and served for two of her four years on both the Finance and Legislative committees. She has also cochaired the ASCD Position Action Team and served on the Board Nominations Committee.
Mariotti looks forward to her new position as ASCD President, and she is excited about the opportunity to set policy and to help craft the vision for the association. She anticipates expanding ASCD's international reach.
Being a worldwide organization is a necessity, she notes. Why? "Because we live in the world," says Mariotti. "The world is small. I travel a lot. I've lived abroad. I have always enjoyed the richness of other cultures," she says. "I do not believe that best practice is nation-specific. Given the way the world interacts, integrates, why would we not be a worldwide association and build on the strengths of more and more members and experiences, points of view, and research. It's a no-brainer!"
