Chantalle Ashford: Leading For Change

I am a career educator who is ready to be independent of the system, but I do not currently have the financial means to do so. I have given myself to the work: taught in the classroom, lent my talents on contract to nonprofits and state education agencies, and opened a nonprofit grassroots public charter school that is now closing due to state (in)action. I have made a positive impact on hundreds of students, their families, and many of my colleagues and friends. I want to expand that impact, but I am burned out. The work I’ve been doing and the current constraints around it are unsustainable, but I have ideas to make them more sustainable and impactful. Not just for me, but for everyone. 

 

My mission statement: 

I am a passionate and visionary educator committed to developing children and adults into fully realized, positive contributors to society. I am a strengths-based leader who relies on my relationship-building skills to build strong teams. As an educational leader, I aim to facilitate creative, innovative, and transformational change in K-12 and adult education. My mission is to help transform modern education into a model fit for the 21st century.

 

My bona fides

• Bachelor’s Degree from the College of William and Mary in Psychology and a minor in Africana Studies, with the knowledge of an American Studies major
• Master’s Degree from the Relay Graduate School of Education in Teaching with a concentration in English
• All but the dissertation in service of obtaining my educational doctorate from American University’s Education Leadership and Policy program
• 12 years of classroom teaching, the first two as a Teach for America corps member
• 10 years of teacher leadership
• 8 years of nonprofit leadership, including board service and school founding

 

My need

To safely exit the system, i.e., be able to continue to work in and with nonprofits and found my own independent business model, I need:
$60,000 to help take back my life. This amount of money will help me:

• Secure my housing
• Help me pay a few bills that have fallen into the cracks
• Pursue financial therapy and counseling
• Pursue professional coaching
• Pursue support for a suspected diagnosis  
• Re-enroll in my graduate program

 

$3,000 of it is needed urgently—by April 13th. I have an opportunity to work with a coach who is mission-aligned and who I feel called to work with. Having a professional coach is of the utmost priority for me because I have spent the last four years without one, and as you can see above, it has been to my detriment. This 12-month program offers a proven method that will provide me with a sustainable system as I continue the hard work I have been doing for most of my life. 

If you want to support my goal to hire a professional coach, please reach out to me directly.

 

If you want to know more, please read below. 

 

If you want to provide support today, thank you! I am committed to posting progress updates with the support you’re providing, so please follow this page for updates. 

It was nearing the end of my teacher-training intensive with Teach For America (TFA). We lesson planned, graded, and poured our hearts out about our whys. We had all joined the program for different reasons. Some of us just weren’t sure what to do next, but we were excited to give back for a couple of years as we figured it out. Others had always wanted to be teachers, but life had pushed us in different directions, and this was the best pathway to the classroom without having to attain another degree. And for a good portion of us, we knew we were leaders who wanted to make an impact on the United States future. We saw the power of education, and we wanted to be in the rooms where the lessons of what America valued and what she would become were taught.  I counted myself in the last group. 

 

I had dedicated my undergraduate degree to the study of our country and its people. Almost every class I took at the College of William and Mary was cross-listed. I had created my own interdisciplinary course of study without going the extra step of creating my own major. From those courses and my lived experience as a young Black woman and first-generation college graduate, I developed a grand theory about the United States of America. A grand theory that many others had posed before me and that is being posed every day: To build an inclusive and equitable society that focuses on prioritizing the collective while providing for the well-being of the individuals that comprise it, we would have to confront our painful past and change our systems to better serve the many rather than the few. And the best way to begin that process was with America’s school children. 

 

It was that mission that brought me to TFA. And my actions in the service of that mission that summer had shown something to my peers. Our school leader for the summer implemented a Scandal-themed approach in which we selected cohortmates each week who embodied the program's core values and donned the White Hat to match it (if you know, you know). That week, I received the honor of donning the Transformational Change hat. This core value highlighted the need to “act with high standards, urgency, and a long-term view,” to address the inherent educational inequity in the US education system.

Though the organization no longer names this core value on its official website, I have continued to carry that honor and those words in my heart and mind. 12 years later, and my goal is still to serve the students of our country, but the way I want to serve them has expanded. At 22, I thought the best way for me to use my talents would be as a classroom teacher and, eventually, as a school psychologist, helping students one classroom or one school building at a time. My impact would be quiet and steady, and eventually, I would figure out how to grow it. 

 

But, as I entered the system as a professional and continued to grow as a student, earning my master’s in teaching and participating in several professional growth cohorts and state internships, I learned just how complicated and antiquated the United States education system is. And when I tried to speak up about these issues or implement change at the school level, I was thwarted and forced to keep my impact small. Though I have made a positive impact on many of my students’ lives, several of whom I am still in touch with, the system continued to do what it is designed to do: grow opportunity gaps rather than minimize them. 

Me, Donna Brazile, and the BASSE Leadership Team

 

So I quietly made the transformational change I knew was possible without drawing attention to myself or my role in the work. I had learned the lesson that if I was too loud or ruffled too many feathers, I would put a target on my back that would prevent me from entering the rooms I needed to do the work I’ve been called to do. I led the founding board and eventually became the founding school leader of the Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence. I pursued my doctoral degree at American University. However, if you didn’t see me at a college gathering, a family dinner, or catch my few and far between social media posts, you would have no idea. 

 

Everything changed for me on Monday, April 6th. On Monday afternoon, I was told to stop hiding. I was told that I am a beneficiary and that beneficiaries have a responsibility to serve the people they are called to serve, boldly, loudly, and unapologetically. This message had come at exactly the right time.

 

On March 19th, Delaware’s State Board of Education approved the Secretary of Education’s decision to close my school. They claimed that because we struggled with enrollment—a common problem for the early years of a new charter school, we were only in month 18 of operation when they began the closure process—that we had broken the terms of our charter and that there would be no period to make improvements. This decision was deeply painful for our students and community, who wanted the school to continue to grow. And it was deeply painful for me because I had quietly spent the last eight years of my career pouring everything I had into the school. 

 

Though I learned a lot about running a business, developed as a leader, and was able to purchase my first home due to the increase in my salary, I also experienced the worst mental stress of my life. I felt what it was like to be taken advantage of because you are a doer and keeper of the vision, yet you don't have total control over how it's implemented. I’ve seen firsthand how the system blocks you from doing the best thing for your students or staff at almost every turn. But I was also encouraged by the positive words from families, students, and staff members, who cited my leadership and their growth as reasons they believed in the work we are doing as a school and wanted it to continue. 

 

Through this experience, I have been reminded that the mission does not live because the place where we do the work exists, but rather because the people we entrust to do it exist and continue to do it. I am one of the people entrusted with this work, and I must continue to do it, but I need your help. 

 

These last 3 and a half years have been some of the hardest of my life. I had a mental breakdown due to the stress of my work, the lack of support I received professionally, and my inability to take breaks to reset due to the demands of the job. 

 

As some of you know, my role at the school was unfairly and unclearly shuffled midyear last year, which was a big blow to my budget and my mental health. And now that the dust is settling and the paths before me are revealing themselves, I find myself in a place of lack but feeling the calling of abundance. My school is closing. My house is in foreclosure. But my spirit is not diminished. 

 

I have often been provided with what I need in an almost magical way. I so rarely ask for help because I am afraid of the no. I am afraid that someone will call me out as an imposter. But I know I am not one. I know I have helped people, and my mission is to help more. But I can’t keep my mouth closed this time. I have to open it to be fed. So here I am, opening it. 

 

I am asking for $60,000 to help take back my life. This amount of money will help me:

• Stop the foreclosure process
• Help me pay a few bills that have fallen into the cracks 
• Pursue financial therapy and counseling
• Pursue professional coaching
• Pursue a diagnosis for the executive functioning disorders that have revealed themselves under stress 
• Re-enroll in my graduate program

 

$3,000 of it is needed urgently—by April 13th. I have an opportunity to work with a coach who is mission-aligned and who I feel called to work with. Having a professional coach is of the utmost priority for me because I have spent the last four years without one, and as you can see above, it has been to my detriment. This 12-month program offers a proven method that will provide me with a sustainable system as I continue the hard work I have been doing for most of my life. 

 

I am asking this not as a handout but as a hand up. I will find success in this program and deliver ten times the amount I am requesting. I believe so much in my own success and leadership that I’m putting my time where my mouth is. I plan to document how the funds raised here impact my life and the lives of those I serve. I am committing to coming out from behind the curtain. I am no longer hiding. I am a bold, loud, and unapologetic leader for transformational change for all of us.  Each week, I will share how I'm making progress. I invite you to join me in this mission in your own way.

 

If you can't make a financial contribution, please share this with folks who are invested in this work and who could believe in a leader like me. 

 

Thank you for your support!

 

In service,

Chantalle