A Q&A with Danielle Jordan, CSLX’s new Research & Policy Associate

In June of 2024, Danielle Jordan took on the role of Research & Policy Associate at the Community Schools Learning Exchange (CSLX), playing a crucial role in advancing the organization’s statewide policy efforts, mapping stakeholder landscapes, refining integrated support methodologies, and more. As part of "Meet the Team," CSLX's new Q&A series with members of CSLX staff, we sat down with Danielle to ask her about her journey to the organization, the values that drive her work, and how she believes her work contributes to CSLX’s broader goals and vision– among other things! Have questions for Danielle? Email her at danielle@cslx.org.

Danielle, congratulations on your new role! Tell us about it. What do you do?

I do a lot of listening! One of our streams of work at CSLX is creating, curating, and co-constructing community schools knowledge. We do this by centering the voices and experiences of youth, families, and practitioners. As Research and Policy Associate, I use qualitative methods of research to answer questions that the larger Research team and CSLX leadership have as part of our work. This means interviewing practitioners across the state as they implement community schools, analyzing the data collected, and sharing my learnings with both our CSLX team and the public to support community school implementation. As we learn from the experiences of practitioners, our hope is to engage policy makers, decision makers and interest holders to advocate for state policy that reflects and respects practitioner experience.

You’ve described your work as equity-centered. What does that mean for you? Why is it important?

YES! I have a conviction to partner with others to move our communities towards justice and liberation. On that journey it is important to first understand, then address the systemic inequities. We want to ensure that those deeply affected by injustice have the appropriate resources and supports that address these felt inequities. It is important to me because I believe this is how our society should operate. It’s very personal–I want to see and help build a world that doesn’t rely on the oppression of any group of people for it to function well.

I understand that your research has centered on supporting social and organizational change leading to liberatory experiences for marginalized and underrepresented students, schools, families and communities. Can you tell us about this work and why it’s so important to you?

My brother called me recently. He heard the news about Sonya Massey, and just wanted to check on me. It made me remember the amount of times I thought about him when I heard or read news of Black men being killed at the hands of police officers.

When I think about my brother I also think about the fact that when we first got to the States, our elementary school tried to place him in special education classes. My mom had to fight tooth and nail, not because she refused to accept a learning disability for my brother, but because she realized the school system wouldn’t take responsibility for their shortcomings and instead leaned on biases to make life-changing decisions for their students.

I remember being fearful about how much I could share about where I was born throughout my entire K-12 experience. If I wanted to visit the land I was born in, I couldn’t because I wouldn’t be able to come back to the States. I longed to feel like I belonged, but always knew I didn’t, really. I lied about why I didn’t have a driver's license in high school. I feared for what my future options could be.

It’s because of these experiences, that I have always wanted to understand the how and why of things. My experiences in the various systems I’ve had to interact with, has led me to ask a lot of questions and see quite a few problems. I try to work towards finding those answers and solutions. It’s personal to me. My family. My friends.

My research interests are about supporting social and organizational change because everyone deserves to have an opportunity to thrive. To be limited by structures outside of our control is unjust. And I want to join as many people as possible to change what many of us have experienced. Education has been the avenue through which I am able to do that so far.

What aspects of CSLX's mission resonate most with you personally and professionally?

I am sold on effective implementation of the community schools strategy as a way to transform our education system. It resonates with me that CSLX works at the district, agency, county and state levels to engage in systems-level development of the community schools strategy. As a former high school teacher and coach, I have seen the need for policies, practices and environment to be changed to allow for the great work of practitioners to flourish.

What accomplishments are you most proud of across your career, and how do you hope to leverage those experiences at CSLX?

While at PACE, I researched and evaluated two organizations that work with districts on continuous improvement efforts around 9th grade on track outcomes. One of these organizations began to really think deeply about how they could measure the impact of implementing change packages with students. Through this work, we defined indicators and a rubric to describe stages of growth and development.

I did a similar project as a coach with a non-profit in South Florida. We worked on defining what it meant for AmeriCorps Members working in schools to support academic and socio-emotional development of students to be anti-racist equity practitioners. With the current laws in place in Florida, that may limit some of that work, I’m very proud that we were able to start something to support school partners to think about how they engage students and their school community to see meaningful growth. The skills and insights I gained from those projects directly connect to my work with CSLX. I get to collaborate with the research team and coaches to define and evaluate what is means to develop and implement community school strategies.

How do you see your position contributing to the broader goals and vision of CSLX, particularly to advance community schools and educational equity?

Through the Community School (CS) Journeys, for one. These publications are meant to be an opportunity to share what we are learning about community schools implementation to practitioners, the field, and policymakers. What we share can help inform how others are moving community schools work forward in their respective contexts. It’s exciting thinking about contributing to how others are rethinking the way we “do school.”

What’s your superpower or “walrus”–or something funny, disarming, interesting, or unexpected about you?

I believe myself to be pretty great at finding good food on trips. I fall heavy into the camp of planning trips around food. Attractions are wonderful and beautiful, but food is the number one thing I factor into the day. I love good food surprises. I also fully believe that I have a super gut because I came to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago after my microbiome figured itself out.

My beige flag is I basically never follow a recipe as is even for the first time making it, both for cooking AND baking.

I obviously love food!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

by Neda Habibi

Neda is the Communications Director for the Community Schools Learning Exchange (CSLX). With nearly fifteen years of experience in digital marketing, copywriting, and communications, Neda specializes in cultivating engaged and action-oriented online communities for organizations spanning from direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands to nonprofits and philanthropies. She is passionate about leveraging digital-first storytelling, brand, and engagement strategies to influence people, inspire action, and drive social change, particularly in the areas of justice, equity, and opportunity for marginalized communities. Get in touch with Neda at neda@cslx.org.