Latanya Daniels desired to be an engineer. She never necessarily pictured herself as a teacher, much less second accountable for a complete school district. But that’s exactly where she has found herself as assistant superintendent at Richfield Public Schools.

Her first experience teaching got here on the Science Museum of Minnesota, where she was a math teacher in a summer camp for all girls. “I did that, but I didn’t feel like teaching was my thing,” Daniels said. “I actually was aspiring at the moment to be an engineer and this might be a side hustle.” 

From there she became a paraprofessional at Hennepin County’s Youth Connection Center, which on the time she said was a dropout reentry program. While she was there, she graduated from the University of Minnesota.

After graduating Daniels went to St. Thomas, where she received her master’s in education and her doctorate. In 2021, she was named considered one of the University of St. Thomas’ 2021 Outstanding Tommies, receiving that yr’s Humanitarian Award. The University’s website describes her as a “rock star on this planet of education.”

What began as side hustle has blossomed right into a very successful academic resume. Daniels’ dream job was to be a principal of a highschool on the North Side, which led her to Camden’s Patrick Henry High School, where she served as principal from 2010 to 2015.

During her time there, she increased the graduation rate from around 70% to 86%—the best graduation rate of any Minneapolis public school on the time. Under her tenure, the college was ranked the third-best highschool in Minnesota by “U.S. News & World Report.”

Now at Richfield she helps the district tackle racial disparities, boost retention, and increase family engagement. She has increased the graduation rate and doubled the number of scholars of color taking advanced courses.

 The choice to depart Minneapolis Public Schools was hard, though. To assist guide her, Daniels called her dad, who asked her, “Have you ever achieved what you went to Patrick Henry to perform?” After going through a fast mental checklist, she decided she was satisfied along with her accomplishments and it was time for the subsequent chapter.

She began her journey in Richfield as principal of the highschool. In 2020, her last yr as principal, she saw the graduation rate increase 13% to almost 90% and effectively eliminated the gap between students of color and their white counterparts.

After five years as principal she accepted the job as assistant superintendent, which she saw as the subsequent step in impacting more meaningful change. 

“The rationale why I switched right into a district leadership role is because I need it to have a greater impact on the system,” she said. “And I need to be a key decision maker and impact what happens within the system.”

Certainly one of the primary things she noticed when she toured Richfield Schools was the segregation of advanced placement classes, where white students, only accounting for around 30% of the college population, nevertheless made up the vast majority of the advanced classes.

She immediately knew this was something she desired to tackle. Last yr, she said 51% of the senior class took no less than one advanced class during their highschool profession—something that was not happening before.

“Originally the college was segregated, and now you walk into a sophisticated class and also you don’t know the difference between a sophisticated class and an everyday comprehensive class, because they’re equally representative of the scholars which are in our constructing,” she said.

That is only one example of what Daniels is trying to attain on the subject of her equity work within the Richfield Public School Systems. In relation to that work, she said it’s essential for stakeholders to be meaningful and intentional with their work.

“What makes Richfield very unique is that we’re not transactional in how we go about doing equity work. Our equity work can stand by itself because we put the time and energy around ensuring that it happens,” she said.

For instance, she is specializing in centering the voices of scholars and fogeys who’ve historically been shut out. However the work shouldn’t be without its challenges.

“We’re still recovering from the pandemic and the impact that the pandemic had on students, each educationally in addition to socially and emotionally,” she said. “So, we’ve definitely seen an uptick in mental  health challenges.”