Beyond the Initiative: A conversation with Dr. Carpia Naylor
 

What if leadership readiness wasn’t about doing more but about building the conditions for meaningful and sustainable change?

 

This month, we’re sitting down with Dr. Carpia Naylor, author of The Readiness Gap, to explore the powerful message behind her work and why so many educational initiatives struggle to take root even when the intentions are strong.

 

In this conversation, Dr. Carpia shares the inspiration behind her book, the real-world experiences that shaped her thinking, and the urgent need for schools and leaders to close the gap between what they want to implement and what their systems are truly prepared to support.

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👇Scroll through our conversation below…
 

Denola Burton: Dr. Carpia, welcome! Every book has a story behind it. What inspired you to write your first book?

Dr. Carpia Naylor: I wrote The Readiness Gap because I kept seeing deeply committed leaders launch well-intentioned initiatives into systems that were never actually prepared to sustain them. I wanted to give that pattern a name, and I wanted leaders to have a practical framework for addressing it.

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Denola Burton: Why are you the right person to write this book?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: Having served in education for more than two decades, I have lived this work. My work has placed me close to schools, leaders, teachers, students, and implementation teams seeing firsthand what becomes possible when leaders build conditions for change, and what breaks down when they skip that work.

 

Denola Burton: How did your professional experiences influence the content of this book?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: My professional experiences shaped every part of this book. Over the years, I have worked with some dynamic leaders. Many of them were doing all the things they had been told to do. But even still, something was not holding. That taught me to look beneath the visible work of meetings, data, teams, and interventions and ask the deeper question: is the system actually prepared to sustain what it is asking people to do?

 

Denola Burton: Who is the audience for this book, and what do you hope readers take away after reading it?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: This book is for school leaders, district leaders, instructional coaches, leadership teams, and anyone responsible for moving MTSS or other major initiatives from idea to implementation. I hope they walk away empowered with the clarity to stop chasing activity and start building the conditions for sustainable change.

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Denola Burton: What does being an author mean to you?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: Being an author means stewardship. It means taking what I have learned, witnessed, questioned, and carried throughout my career and giving it a written home so it can serve others beyond a single conversation, training, or coaching session. It also means that my voice has taken on a new level of reach, and that is both humbling and powerful.

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Denola Burton: What is “The Readiness Gap,” and why is it such an important issue in education today?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: The Readiness Gap is the space between what schools want to implement and what their systems are actually prepared to support. When this gap occurs, even well-intentioned initiatives can become fragmented by inconsistent implementation, unclear roles, weak follow-through, initiative fatigue, and disappointing outcomes. That is why readiness work matters: it helps leaders build the conditions necessary for initiatives to move beyond activity, urgency, and compliance toward meaningful and sustainable progress.

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Denola Burton: What motivated you to focus specifically on MTSS and educational readiness?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: MTSS is one of the most powerful frameworks schools have for supporting students. But MTSS cannot thrive when it is reduced to a triangle, a meeting, or a compliance process instead of being led as a true system of prevention and support. I focused on readiness because MTSS requires more than good intentions. It requires strong Tier 1 instruction, aligned leadership, effective teams, clear decision rules, meaningful data use, and a culture of shared responsibility. If those conditions are weak or missing, MTSS becomes difficult to sustain.

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Denola Burton:  What problem does this book help educational leaders solve?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: Many leaders know when something is not working, but they may struggle to identify why. And oftentimes the default response is to add more: more meetings, more tools, more programs, more expectations. The Readiness Gap helps leaders step back and examine the system underneath all that. It gives them a way to assess whether their teams, practices, structures, and priorities are aligned before they continue pushing forward.

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Denola Burton: Why was now the right time to publish this message?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: Now was the right time because schools are carrying initiative fatigue, intensified accountability, and exhausted teams, and this book offers a necessary counter-argument: the answer is not always to move faster, but to become more intentional about building a foundation that lasts.

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Denola Burton: What impact do you hope this book has on educators and students?

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Dr. Carpia Naylor: For educators, I hope this book gives them permission to slow down and do the foundational work without guilt, because the pressure to move fast is real, and it takes courage to say, “We’re not ready yet.” When MTSS is implemented with real readiness, educators have the clarity, support, and conditions needed to do their best work. Most importantly, students experience more consistent instruction, stronger supports, and a system designed to respond to their needs in meaningful and timely ways.

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