Student-Led Rounds: Democracy in Action
Joanne Buckheit is a nationally recognized leader, coach, and speaker with The Core Collaborative Learning Network, where she helps schools activate student voice as a driver of continuous improvement and equity.
As the longtime principal of the Michael J. Petrides PreK–12 School in New York City, Joanne built a culture of coherence, belonging, and excellence that sustained a near-perfect graduation rate for two decades, earning national recognition from U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek.
Joanne pioneered Student-Led Instructional Rounds, a process featured in School Administrator magazine that reimagines continuous improvement as a democratic, student-driven inquiry. Through her Student-Led Rounds Labs, schools engage in immersive one-day or three-day experiences built around a clear improvement cycle—Baseline → Set Actions → Check-In → Post for Impact—to elevate student agency, feedback loops, and instructional coherence.
Her forthcoming book, with co-author Dr. Paul J. Bloomberg, Student-Led Rounds: Democracy in Action (Mimi & Todd Press, 2026), brings this groundbreaking process to the national stage with national pilots from Hawaii to Washington to New York—showing what’s possible when democracy meets data and voice leads to action and impact.
