Latanya Daniels wanted to be an engineer. She never necessarily pictured herself as a teacher, much less second in command of an entire school district. But that’s exactly where she has found herself as assistant superintendent at Richfield Public Schools.
Her first experience teaching came at 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 really was aspiring at that time to be an engineer and this could be a side hustle.”
From there she became a paraprofessional at Hennepin County’s Youth Connection Center, which at 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 one of the University of St. Thomas’ 2021 Outstanding Tommies, receiving that year’s Humanitarian Award. The University’s website describes her as a “rock star in the world of education.”
What started as side hustle has blossomed into a very successful academic resume. Daniels’ dream job was to be a principal of a high school 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 highest graduation rate of any Minneapolis public school at the time. Under her tenure, the school was ranked the third-best high school in Minnesota by “U.S. News & World Report.”
Now at Richfield she is helping the district tackle racial disparities, boost retention, and increase family engagement. She has increased the graduation rate and doubled the number of students of color taking advanced courses.
The decision to leave Minneapolis Public Schools was not easy, though. To help guide her, Daniels called her dad, who asked her, “Have you accomplished what you went to Patrick Henry to accomplish?” After going through a quick mental checklist, she decided she was satisfied with her accomplishments and it was time for the next chapter.
She started her journey in Richfield as principal of the high school. In 2020, her last year as principal, she saw the graduation rate increase 13% to nearly 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 next step in impacting more meaningful change.
“The reason why I switched into a district leadership role is because I want it to have a greater impact on the system,” she said. “And I want to be a key decision maker and impact what happens in the system.”
One of the first 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 school population, nevertheless made up the majority of the advanced classes.
She immediately knew this was something she wanted to tackle. Last year, she said 51% of the senior class took at least one advanced class during their high school career—something that was not happening before.
“Originally the school was segregated, and now you walk into an advanced class and you don’t know the difference between an advanced class and a regular comprehensive class, because they are equally representative of the students that are in our building,” she said.
That is just one example of what Daniels is trying to achieve when it comes to her equity work in the Richfield Public School Systems. When it comes to that work, she said it’s important 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 on its own because we put the time and energy around ensuring that it happens,” she said.
For example, she is focusing on centering the voices of students and parents who have historically been shut out. But the work is not without its challenges.
“We’re still recovering from the pandemic and the impact that the pandemic had on students, both educationally as well as socially and emotionally,” she said. “So, we’ve definitely seen an uptick in mental health challenges.”