Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marcella Franczkowski. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Marcella, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
As early as elementary school, I played teacher in the basement of my family’s Baltimore home. I set up tables and chairs and my little chalkboard and created a classroom and taught my dolls. This was the earliest sign of a passion that would drive my purpose. My family was very active in our community church, and from middle school on, I began to assist with Sunday school teaching. I became the lead teacher by high school and remained such through college, traveling back home each weekend to happily fulfill my duties. It was never an obligation—it was in my blood as I come from a family of educators and strong believers in the power of the profession. My mom was an assistant teacher at our elementary school. My sister is a teacher. This trend continued with the next generation as three of our sons married educators.
Since I knew very early in my life that I wanted to be a teacher, I went to the University of Maryland College Park in pursuit of an elementary education degree. During my freshman year, a mentor through the honors program recommended I enroll in a newly created dual program in special education and elementary education. Later, a professor tasked me to look at the impact of the newly enacted “P.L. 94-142”—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act—on public education. I was intrigued by how policy could shape educational practice, an interest that would guide my entire career. In my student teaching, I saw firsthand how poverty could impact families. I witnessed how caregivers, even without resources, were the key differentiator in the lives of their child when they were involved, but how the ravages of poverty often prevented that. This would shape a lifelong belief in families as children’s first teachers, an idea that I’ve championed in every position I’ve held.
When I substitute taught in Baltimore, I was struck by how the educators lacked the resources they needed and I came to understand the power of advocacy for necessary change. I began to volunteer with Johns Hopkins Hospital while in college and saw children isolated due to severe health and developmental conditions, and I thought there had to be opportunities for a continuum of learning that included these children with their typically developing peers. A key part of my journey is that my first instructional role, under Dr. Nancy Grasmick when she was a principal in Baltimore County, was as a diagnostic prescriptive specialist, functioning within an interdisciplinary services team. This was tremendously influential as it shaped my continued belief in an integrated, multidisciplinary approach.
Five years later, growing my experience with my own classroom, I refined my understanding in the power of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. It is this perspective that informed me when I eventually became the Assistant State Superintendent of Maryland’s early intervention and special education services. I espoused an equal focus on implementation through specialized instruction and intervention while changing the paradigm to use maintaining compliance as a vehicle for promoting outcomes for children and families. Ultimately all of these experiences, combined with my natural strength in communicating and a belief that the power of the teacher makes the difference in accelerating outcomes for children, led me on a path to increasing leadership opportunities. From school to district to ultimately the state, I found my purpose was in defining a common vision and uniting stakeholders around this to create transformative change with measurable progress.
This same passion drove me to pursue my next professional challenge in joining Kennedy Krieger as an advocate for early childhood policy and practice. My career before has seen me responsible for the entire educational lifespan of students from birth to age 22, but I recognized that one of our greatest opportunities to change the trajectory for that individual was through strong and effective early intervention, delivered through a continuum of early care and education settings. I joined Kennedy Krieger to extend their existing service model to an inclusive and integrated educational childcare and pre-K approach for children from 6 weeks to kindergarten entry that could be a demonstration model for the state. I see this as a culmination of my lifetime commitment to public service, skills in translating research to practice, effective communication, building collaborative partnerships, and establishing a bold futuristic vision. It’s the opportunity to champion policies, practices, and innovative ideas that make a lifelong impact for children and families and strengthens society.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I serve as the assistant vice president for Early Childhood Education Strategy at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. I come to this work after a decades-long tenure as the state’s Assistant State Superintendent for Special Education and Early Intervention. I bring a reputation for visionary leadership and transformative policy to this new role—with a goal of helping the institute to be at the forefront of shaping high-impact early care and education for all children. Kennedy Krieger has long been known for its groundbreaking clinical work for children with significant medical needs and developmental and learning challenges. The need exists across the field for integrated models that blend this clinical and medical expertise with an equal emphasis on early care and education that produces outcomes that encompass the whole child and whole family—starting with social-emotional health as the foundation for everything else. We know how critical families are to a child’s overall growth and learning, which is why family education has always been a hallmark of my strategic vision for effective early childhood systems.
The research is clear that if we want to change the trajectory for the lifetime of a child, we need to start as early as possible, and we need to maximize inclusive opportunities between children with and without development differences, with and without socio-economic differences, and coming from different backgrounds and experiences. I’ve always championed inclusion as part of the continuum of a service delivery model throughout my tenure as a leader in special education; and I’m excited to continue to contribute this vision to the Institute’s work. In doing so, we are defining early childhood models for the rest of the State and ultimately the nation, to adopt.
The time is now to be focused on our youngest learners – ensuring they and their families are given the strongest start possible that launches them with the wind at their backs into this world. I am grateful to be a part of this integrative, innovative, and inclusive work.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the three most important elements were self-confidence, relationships, and communication skills.
As a woman leader, there were times I faced audiences who were quick to dismiss me. I have learned to have trust and believe in myself. I have earned my seat at the table. I worked hard, learned from mistakes, and I continue to do so, but I have also come to recognize that I have worth; I have expertise; and I have contributions to make. It is a hard skill to cultivate, especially when you are early in your career, so my advice is to be a learner, a hard worker, a listener, and to be true to yourself. When you are those things, no one can take those away from you, you can look yourself honestly in the mirror at the end of the day and trust that you have a contribution to make.
I learned early in my career relationships are the building blocks to make a difference. Never burn a bridge. Always treat others as you wish to be treated and help the next one up as it’s our responsibility to mentor the next generation of leaders. I always say that’s what I want my legacy to be, that I have supported the next generation of leaders.
Lastly, strong communication skills are essential to telling a story and providing the context for a message. It is often the ability to effectively communicate that is the difference of rallying a consensus to your vision or seeing a failure to adopt the change you are trying to effect. It is not enough to have an idea, or a vision, if you cannot clearly convey it and motivate others around it. That is something I have honed over my thirty some years in public education, and it is a skillset that serves me well. My best advice here is to learn how to tell a story. That’s the key to public speaking.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins made a lasting impression on me. It’s not typical “educator” fare; it’s something more often seen in the board room than the principal’s office, but my husband had recommended it. He was a corporate accountant, and we often shared stories about our professional experiences. Joe saw the similarities between schools, programs, and systems that existed in my world, and businesses in his, and he encouraged me to read Collins’ book and apply the lessons accordingly. He wasn’t wrong. While we do not deal in stocks in education, we are equally focused on a return on investment, or at least we should be. That was one of my biggest takeaways and how my thinking transformed. School is not just about an institutional experience; great schools are about generating lifelong benefits for that student, family, and society. So, the difference between good schools and great schools comes down to which ones can accelerate student growth and learning, both to close gaps that exist between students, and then to propel every child forward to maximal capability.
I took away several key lessons that have translated to my work in education at all levels ever since. First, Collins’ description of what makes great leaders. His notion that it is a blending of humility and determination that prioritizes the organization over one’s personal ambition has been a personal guide. It’s why I have always invested all of my time outside of family into whichever organization I was a part of. Equally important to me was the concept of the hedgehog prioritizing competence over a breadth of surface knowledge. I personally feel we have shifted as a profession to the latter with our teacher preparation models, prioritizing a broad-based skill development that touches on a number of areas but doesn’t cultivate deep knowledge in any one focus. This has correlated with an increase in a loss of autonomy by teachers; they are given the curriculum and it’s scripted and told to follow it. I think that has hurt our profession. We are now seeing the pendulum swing the other direction, with a focus on competency, and I think that’s a good thing. I’ve long said “what gets measured gets done.” Accountability is a key element of what Collins identifies in great organizations, blended with a culture of innovation. I have tried to encourage and cultivate that across education in each of my roles.
Ultimately, what the book reinforced for me is we need to think about education from different perspectives—not just our discipline—but through the lenses of other sectors if we truly want to create transformative impact.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kennedykrieger.org
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcella-franczkowski-074210289/
Image Credits
Kennedy Krieger Institute
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