Kristilynn Turney, Ed.D.Keynote Speaker, Salem Speakers Bureau · TEDx Ensley Ave ED 2026 I Dynamic Speaker & Presenter I Author I Transforming Schools Through Strategic Planning, Leadership Development, and School Improvement I Results-Driven Educational Leader | E

How A Principal Navigates Cultural Shifts

21 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief excerpt, the speaker—who is the first Black principal and only the third female principal at her school—describes the multifaceted change process she is leading. She outlines three intertwined dimensions of change: cultural shifts within the school community, academic shifts driven by state-mandated testing model revisions, and instructional shifts that include new teaching practices, tools, and resources. She emphasizes that the magnitude of the change is amplified by her pioneering identity, which adds personal and systemic complexity to the transformation effort.

Chapters

When I speak about change, I'm talking about changes and shifts in culture, some academic shifts that were coming really from the state where the testing models were changing, some of the instructional practices were changing, and of course the tools and the resources were changing along with them. It was a huge change process, not to mention being the first Black principal and only the third female principal in one of those buildings. That all went into that change process.