Being a step (or two or three) removed from policy makes it easy to forget that humans with particular values craft the guidelines that shape practices in any arena and at any level — local, state, provincial, or federal. Particularly during election season, I’m tempted to let my inner, rather noisy, cynic run wild and attribute any number of negative traits to any number of policy makers, and I know I’m not alone. As I take a step or two closer to policies that matter to me, however, I see the human aspirations, beliefs, and values that drive policy making. For a very local example, at Learning Forward we believe in the power of staff agreements that serve as guidelines for how we’ll work together. Our staff agreements