Public education is operating in a moment of sustained volatility. A variety of political and ideological factors have fundamentally altered the leadership landscape for school systems. In this environment, technical competence alone is insufficient. What is required is courageous leadership paired with thoughtful planning and disciplined execution.
I believe courage is not an abstract virtue reserved for exceptional individuals. It is a practical, repeatable leadership behavior rooted in clarity of values, disciplined action, and sustained engagement. Courageous action is accessible to everyone, but it requires intentionality, preparation, and endurance. For school leaders, courage is no longer optional; it is a core competency.
From Silence to Strategic Action
A persistent and damaging myth in organizations is that neutrality provides protection. In practice, silence often functions as tacit endorsement of the loudest or most extreme voices in the system. Stepping forward often feels like crossing an invisible threshold of risk.
Courageous leadership begins when school leaders abandon the false comfort of disengagement and instead operationalize their beliefs. This requires visible alignment between stated values and daily decisions, budget priorities, staffing models, policy implementation, and external partnerships. When leaders act deliberately and publicly, they influence outcomes and reset behavioral norms across the organization.
Critically, courageous action must be tethered to strategy. Speaking out without follow-through erodes credibility. The work of leadership is to translate moral clarity into organizational movement.
Grounded Leadership in an Era of Extremes
The current governance climate demands leaders who are deeply grounded, intellectually, ethically, and professionally. As my recent book The Call to Courage shows, those who challenge inclusive, student-centered policies often do so through distortion, selective quotation, or manufactured outrage. Leaders who are not prepared will find themselves perpetually on defense.
Courage, therefore, is inseparable from preparation. School leaders must be fluent in their policy positions, conversant in the research base, and disciplined in their messaging. Practicing how to articulate values clearly, consistently, and without escalation is now a leadership necessity.
Equally important is recognizing that resistance will not be resolved in a single meeting, vote, or press cycle. The work is iterative. Values must be restated. Positions must be defended repeatedly. Progress unfolds over months and years, not moments. Treating courageous action as an occasional response erodes credibility, while sustained commitment embeds resilience into the organization.
Courage Beyond the Individual Leader
For school leaders, courageous action must therefore include system-level design choices, such as:
● Embedding values into policy frameworks so they survive leadership transitions.
● Aligning professional learning to reinforce those values at scale.
● Building alliances across stakeholder groups, including families, community organizations, labor partners, and civic leaders.
● Engaging proactively in the civic process at local, state, and national levels to protect the operating environment for public education.
This is not political activity in the partisan sense; it is governance stewardship. Public education does not exist in a vacuum. When leaders abdicate the political arena entirely, they create space for others to fill the void. Courageous leadership recognizes that protecting the educational mission requires engagement with the systems that shape it.
Courage in Practice: Tackling Chronic Absenteeism
Courageous leadership is ultimately validated not by rhetoric, but by outcomes—particularly when addressing persistent, complex challenges. The urgent issue of chronic absenteeism offers a clear example. The data are unambiguous, the root causes are multifactorial, and the consequences for students and systems are severe. Yet many districts struggle to move beyond surface-level interventions.
Addressing chronic absenteeism courageously requires leaders to acknowledge that traditional structures alone are insufficient. It demands a willingness to reimagine delivery models, reallocate resources, and engage external expertise.
Strategic partnerships with organizations such as Concentric Educational Solutions illustrate how courage and execution intersect. Rather than framing absenteeism as a compliance issue, Concentric’s approach centers on relationship-building, student engagement, and integrated support systems. For leaders, entering such partnerships requires courage: reallocating funds, challenging legacy practices, and publicly committing to outcomes that may not show immediate gains.
The investment yields concrete, system-level returns: students return to school, re-engage in learning, and reconnect to opportunity. When districts align internal teams with external partners, establish clear accountability metrics, and communicate the “why” behind the work, absenteeism strategies shift from reactive to systemic. Courage shows up not only in the decision to act, but in sustaining the partnership long enough for results to compound.
Democracy as a Leadership Responsibility
Perhaps the most consequential argument for courage as a leadership imperative today is the fact that democracy itself is not self-sustaining. The nearly 250-year American experiment persists only through active participation and vigilant defense. Public education sits at the center of this responsibility, charged not only with academic outcomes but with preparing informed, engaged citizens.
In this context, school leaders are not merely managers of institutions; they are stewards of democratic infrastructure. When extremist ideologies seek to capture school boards, censor curricula, or marginalize students, the stakes extend far beyond any single district. Passivity is not an option.
Courageous leadership, then, is about more than weathering controversy. It is about affirming the foundational purpose of public education: to serve every student and to strengthen the civic fabric of the nation. This requires leaders willing to endure discomfort, accept professional risk, and remain in the struggle over time.
Sustaining the Work
A critical and often overlooked dimension of courage is endurance. Even successful actions are vulnerable to reversal if vigilance lapses. Courage is not a one-time intervention; it is an ongoing posture. It demands leaders prepared for the long arc of change, including setbacks, fatigue, and personal cost.
Yet the work is not without return on investment. When leaders act with integrity and persistence, they model for students, staff, and communities what principled engagement looks like. They demonstrate that leadership is not defined by positional authority, but by moral clarity and executional follow-through.
The Call Forward
The current moment presents school leaders with a clear choice. They can prioritize short-term stability and personal insulation, or they can embrace courageous leadership as a strategic imperative. The former offers the illusion of control; the latter offers the possibility of lasting impact.
Courage does not require exceptional people. It requires prepared people. Grounded people. People willing to speak, act, partner, and persist. In public education today, courage is not simply admirable, it is essential to the survival and integrity of the system itself.
The direction is clear. The need is urgent. This is a Call to Courage.
About the author
Dr. Luvelle Brown is an experienced educator who has held positions as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, school CIO, and Superintendent of Schools. Currently, Dr. Brown is serving as the Superintendent of the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) in Ithaca, New York.
