Meet Chris Reykdal
Superintendent, Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction
"State Superintendent Chris Reykdal leads from a different place in our education system, where decisions about policy, funding, legislation, and statewide priorities shape what happens in districts and classrooms across Washington.
I asked Chris how a clear sense of purpose influences the way he leads and makes decisions. For him, that purpose is clear: “My clear purpose is empowerment.”
As Chris explained what empowerment means to him, he connected it to something larger, a deeply held belief in public education and the role it plays in our communities.
“I have a deep belief that the most impactful thing we do for young people is support their learning journey with family engagement and meaningful relationships in school buildings.”
That belief provides a throughline for his leadership. Decisions about resources, policy, staffing, advocacy, and even the things his team chooses not to pursue come back to what he describes as “PUBLIC education for the common good.”
That last part, the things we choose not to pursue, may be one of the more interesting ways purpose shows up in leadership.
All of us encounter good ideas. But good and aligned are not necessarily the same thing. Chris talked about the steady stream of programs, tools, partnerships, and proposals that promise to improve education. His purpose helps him evaluate them. “With few exceptions, there is no substitute for driving as much resources as possible into classrooms and into the hands of students and their families.”
There is an important leadership idea here. Alignment is not only visible in what we say yes to. Sometimes our purpose becomes clearest when it gives us the confidence to say no so we can protect what matters most.
Chris also acknowledged that staying aligned does not mean ignoring what is happening around us. Circumstances change. Communities experience real challenges. Leaders have to respond. The challenge is doing so without allowing every new pressure, trend, or crisis to redefine the larger purpose.
For Chris, that larger purpose remains clear. Even amid changing political and social pressures, he described the need to stay “relentlessly focused on the core mission” and to protect “universally accessible PUBLIC education.”
His reflections leave me thinking about purpose less as something we periodically articulate and more as something we use. It helps us choose. It helps us say no. It helps us stay steady as circumstances change.
And it raises a question for each of us: Where is your purpose already helping you make choices, and where might it help you protect the work that matters most?
There is much more in Chris’s responses than we can include here. He reflects on empowerment, the relationship between state and local leadership, competing priorities, saying no to good ideas, and remaining responsive without losing sight of purpose. Read the full conversation with Chris Reykdal about Purpose."
Read the rest here. August 25, 2026