What Multilingual Learners Taught Me About School Improvement

"Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets." — W. Edwards Deming

The Real Challenge Isn't the Program

When multilingual learners struggle, our first instinct is usually to improve the multilingual learner program.

It seems like the obvious place to start. We invest in professional learning, adopt new instructional strategies, strengthen assessments, or expand student support services.

Those efforts matter—but they're only part of the picture.

Over time, I realized something that completely changed how I think about school improvement.

Multilingual learners don't just reveal the quality of a language program.

They reveal the quality of an entire educational system.

Good leaders improve programs.

Great leaders improve the systems those programs live inside.

Once I understood that distinction, I stopped asking, "How do we build a better multilingual learner program?" Instead, I began asking a much bigger question:

"How do we design a school where every system works together to help every student succeed?"

That shift transformed not only my work with multilingual learners, but also the way I think about leadership itself.

Looking Beyond Individual Programs

In my last post, I wrote about one of the most important responsibilities of school leaders: creating the conditions that make improvement possible. Instead of asking teachers to simply work harder or implement one more initiative, we explored how thoughtful leaders design systems that naturally support the behaviors and outcomes they want to see.

That conversation leads to an important follow-up question: How do we know whether the systems we've built are actually working?

For me, the answer came from an unexpected place—my work with multilingual learners.

What began as an effort to improve a program eventually became one of my greatest lessons in systems thinking. The deeper I became involved in supporting multilingual learners, the more I realized I wasn't just learning about language acquisition.

I was learning how schools actually function.

Students Don't Experience Programs. They Experience Schools.

One realization, in particular, reshaped my thinking. Most multilingual learners spend the vast majority of their day in general education classrooms—not in ESL. If we truly wanted to improve outcomes, I couldn't focus only on the ESL program. Every classroom teacher needed the knowledge, confidence, and support to help multilingual learners succeed.

So my work expanded.

I become an instructional coach and began providing professional learning for general education teachers, coaching around language-rich instruction, and helping professional learning communities think differently about supporting multilingual learners throughout the school day.

Those efforts made a difference, but they also exposed another challenge.

Even exceptional teachers struggled when the larger system wasn't designed to support them.

For example:

• School leaders sometimes lacked the background knowledge needed to prioritize and sustain the work.

• Scheduling decisions unintentionally limited access to high-quality instruction.

• MTSS processes didn't always reflect what we know about second-language acquisition.

• Assessment teams occasionally confused language proficiency with learning difficulties.

• Family engagement efforts weren't always designed to reach multilingual communities.

• Different initiatives often competed with one another instead of reinforcing one another.

None of these barriers existed because people didn't care.

Most were created by systems that had evolved over time without considering how they affected multilingual learners.

That realization fundamentally changed how I think about leadership, because the greatest barriers weren't inside the multilingual learner program at all.

They were woven throughout the organization.

Every Student Experiences Every System

One of the biggest lessons multilingual learners taught me is that students never experience just one department or one initiative. They experience the entire school. Every day, multilingual learners interact with:

• Tier 1 instruction

• Intervention systems

• Assessment practices

• Scheduling decisions

• Grading policies

• Special education processes

• Gifted identification

• Family communication

• Teacher collaboration

• Instructional coaching

• Leadership priorities

Each of these systems influences whether students have the opportunity to thrive. When those systems work against one another, even talented educators struggle to create lasting improvement. When they reinforce one another, progress accelerates.

Students don't experience isolated programs. They experience the combined impact of every decision adults make.

That simple truth has shaped the way I approach every improvement effort, not just those involving multilingual learners.

It has reminded me that leadership is rarely about fixing one program.

It's about creating coherence across an entire system.

Programs Don't Produce Results. Systems Do.

Over the years, I've worked with schools that invested significant time, energy, and resources into improving individual programs. Teachers attended high-quality professional learning. New instructional resources were purchased. Additional intervention staff were hired. Leadership teams developed thoughtful implementation plans.

Yet, months later, the student outcomes often looked remarkably similar.

At first, that was frustrating.

Eventually, it became one of the most important leadership lessons I've learned.

The problem usually wasn't the program. It was everything surrounding it. A strong initiative can only be as successful as the system it operates within.

• If classroom instruction doesn't consistently support language development...

• If intervention pulls students away from the very instruction they need...

• If PLCs never discuss the language demands embedded within lessons...

• If assessment teams mistake language proficiency for learning difficulties...

Even an exceptional multilingual learner program will struggle to produce lasting results.

Programs don't produce results.

Systems do.

That realization extends far beyond multilingual learners and it applies to nearly every school improvement effort.

When Systems Work Together, Improvement Accelerates

Organizational researcher Peter Senge reminds us that organizations are collections of interconnected systems rather than isolated parts. In schools, that matters because every decision influences something else. Improving one area without considering the rest often creates unintended consequences somewhere else.

Schools rarely struggle because educators lack good ideas. In fact, schools are full of good ideas. The challenge is that those ideas are often implemented independently rather than intentionally connected.

I've seen schools say that language development is everyone's responsibility. Yet only multilingual learner specialists receive meaningful professional learning.

I've seen schools expect teachers to differentiate instruction. Yet collaborative planning time is so limited that meaningful collaboration becomes nearly impossible.

I've seen schools genuinely want stronger partnerships with multilingual families. Yet every newsletter, meeting invitation, and school event is communicated only in English.

None of these decisions are made with bad intentions.

Most happen because different parts of the organization evolve independently over time.

The result is a collection of well-intentioned systems that unintentionally compete with one another.

When that happens, improvement slows—not because people aren't working hard, but because the organization isn't pulling in the same direction.

Alignment creates momentum.

Misalignment creates friction.

The Questions Great Leaders Learn to Ask

This shift in thinking also changes the questions leaders ask.

When we focus only on programs, our questions tend to stay narrow.

"Did the training work?"

"Did teachers implement the strategy?"

"Are students using the new resource?"

Those questions have value, but they rarely uncover the deeper issues.

Systems thinkers ask different questions.

Instead of focusing on the initiative itself, they examine the environment surrounding it.

They ask:

• How does this initiative connect to everything else teachers are being asked to do?

• Which existing structures reinforce this work?

• Which structures unintentionally compete with it?

• What knowledge do teachers and leaders need to sustain the work over time?

• Where is our system creating unnecessary barriers for students or staff?

• What assumptions are built into our current processes?

Those questions often reveal opportunities that would otherwise remain invisible. I've found that some of the most significant improvements don't come from launching something new. They come from removing obstacles that never should have existed in the first place.

Sometimes the greatest act of leadership isn't adding another initiative.

It's creating greater coherence.

Looking Ahead: MTSS Through a Systems Lens

Over the next two articles, we'll use a systems lens for exploring one of the most complex—and often misunderstood—systems schools build: Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS).

Too often, MTSS is viewed as another initiative to implement or another framework to manage.

But MTSS was never intended to function as a separate program.

At its best, MTSS creates coherence across instruction, assessment, intervention, collaboration, and continuous improvement. It helps schools organize their work around meeting the needs of every learner instead of adding another layer of work for teachers.

When that coherence exists, MTSS becomes a powerful engine for improvement.

When it doesn't, MTSS can unintentionally become one more disconnected initiative competing for educators' time and attention.

The difference isn't found in the framework itself. It's found in the systems surrounding it.

Leadership Is About Designing Coherence

When I first began working with multilingual learners, I thought I was learning how to improve one program.

Looking back, I realize I was learning something much bigger.

I was learning how schools work.

Multilingual learners taught me that students experience schools as integrated systems, not as separate departments or isolated initiatives. They don't distinguish between Tier 1 instruction, intervention, assessment, scheduling, or family engagement. They experience the combined impact of every decision adults make on their behalf.

That realization changed the questions I ask as a leader.

Instead of wondering which initiative needs more attention, I find myself asking where our systems are creating unnecessary complexity. Instead of looking for the next best strategy, I look for opportunities to create greater alignment. Instead of expecting people to overcome organizational barriers through sheer effort, I ask how we can remove those barriers altogether.

Those shifts may seem subtle.

In practice, they're transformational.

Educational researcher Michael Fullan has long argued that sustainable improvement happens when schools build coherence—not by piling on more initiatives, but by helping people understand how their work connects to a shared purpose. Schools don't improve because they become excellent at managing isolated programs. They improve because the entire organization begins moving in the same direction.

That's what multilingual learners taught me.

They revealed that every initiative is really a systems challenge and every improvement effort depends on dozens of interconnected decisions working together rather than against one another.

Reflection Question

Think about one initiative your school has implemented over the past year. Looking back, what part of your system made success harder than it needed to be—and what might change if you redesigned that system instead of adding another solution?