What does the data tell us about what’s happening in schools today and has been happening across systems for decades? To help facilitate these conversations, we’ve developed this quiz on the race-based disproportionalities hampering schools and students across the U.S.
Just as it is critical to bring together a diverse set of students to enhance learning, it is also imperative to recruit, retain, and properly develop and support a diverse pipeline of effective school and school system leaders.
Read full articleAs someone who has spent years working with schools on South Dakota’s reservations, I believe that this kind of intentional, culturally responsive educational leadership is what we need to disrupt the inequities baked into the Indian education system.
Read full articleWelcome back and congratulations on a new school year! I hope your summer had the right mix of professional learning, planning, and relaxation. While the ...
Read full articleTwo years ago, the Chesterfield County School Board took on the work of developing a new strategic plan, Imagine Tomorrow, which revolved around our district’s core values of equity, ingenuity, integrity, and teamwork.
Read full articleAs educational leaders, we cannot allow our students and their teachers to return to school frightened, or to be too afraid to return at all. Schools, under strong leadership, have a critical role to play in ensuring immigrant children have a safe haven in their schools.
Read full articleYoung people in the juvenile justice system are the most underserved students in the country. When justice jurisdictions design systems, education is rarely top of mind.
Read full articleAs more school districts engage in equity-focused professional learning, we are unsurprisingly seeing some tension and pushback as their teams grapple with this work.
Read full articleEvery day, a student of color experiences micro-aggressions, subtle and not-so-subtle interactions with classmates or teachers that tell them that they are not smart enough ...
Read full articleWe need to love these kids unconditionally and hold them to high expectations because I know they can do it. We just need to give them the tools.
Read full articleWe took a deep look at the role of our principal supervisors. Over two years, we overhauled that role and created a principal coaching and mentoring program that is starting to show results in our schools. Here’s how we did it.
Read full articleGrowing up, I was lucky to go to a high school that in many ways was culturally attuned to my classmates and me. About 80% ...
Read full articleWhile schools in Nairobi face different challenges from schools in Hong Kong or India or the U.S., there is increasing agreement across contexts that to transform schools, you need great school leaders.
Read full articleI recently facilitated a professional learning session for more than a dozen district leaders in the Midwest aimed at pushing them to think about implicit ...
Read full articleWe must continue to push this work forward. Our young people are counting on us. Together, our leadership has the potential to exponentially decrease the number of inequities facing our students.
Read full articleWe take leaders to the point of discomfort so they can ultimately come out more confident, capable, and conscious of their capacity to make change effectively. Discomfort, in service of equity for all students, can be a catalyst for learning and transformation.
Read full articleTalking with a teacher about whom she is -- and is not -- calling on in class. Discussing the fact that some groups of students ...
Read full articleFear is born from ignorance. The string of hateful acts across the country over the last several weeks and months has been overwhelming: Eleven people ...
Read full articleThe answer is in the room. Growing up in East San Jose, CA, it was rare to hear someone say those words in a classroom, ...
Read full articleBy the end of the summer, we graduated several more of our male students. The mere awareness of the graduation gender gap had produced a different sense of urgency in my staff and in myself.
Read full articleLeaders like Irma show other women of color that it is possible, that we can be true to our identities while developing and expanding mission-driven organizations that support our communities.
Read full articleFifteen years ago, many of New York City’s schools were struggling with rapid principal turnover. On top of that, the city was expecting to lose half of its principals to retirement in the next few years, creating a system of potentially “leaderless” schools. The Leadership Academy launched in 2003 to fill this gap…
Read full articleOn June 20, I had the honor of being a keynote speaker at the Hillsborough County Public Schools’ Leadership Learning Tour. I spoke to a room full of principals and district leaders about four questions critical to educational leadership…
Read full article“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” These words are as true today as when poet Robert Burns wrote them hundreds of years ago. In schools, good planning articulates a vision for student success. Throughout my career as an educator, I have engaged in strategic planning.
Read full articleThe fear in the town of Morristown, Tennessee, was palpable. A day after immigration agents raided a meatpacking plant there a few weeks ago, more than 500 young people stayed home from school. For many, they thought they would be safer at home than in school.
Read full articleVeteran principal Rodney Moore had an important decision to make. After hearing that English language learners were feeling marginalized and unwelcome, he wondered if he should dedicate a staff meeting to discussing their experiences; provide cultural proficiency training to the entire staff; or reach out to parents for help.
Read full articleSomething beautiful and inspirational happened yesterday in schools across America. Students were given a voice, and the world listened.
Read full articleBecoming the superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools several years ago put me on a racial equity journey that forever changed who I am as an educational leader.
Read full articleSince the Parkland shooting, threats to schools across the country have increased exponentially. According to the Educators School Safety Network, threats have risen from the typical 10 a day to more than 70 a day.
Read full articleIt’s Black History Month. 28 short days. We also need to celebrate Groundhog’s Day, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day and Ash Wednesday. It’s a set-up. It’s not possible for anyone to learn the long, painful, complicated, beautiful, resilient and magical history of being Black in the United States in 28 days.
Read full articleIntentionality. Without it, you’ll never make sure every child has access to the resources they need to learn and grow. It is what drives my position as Executive Director of Equity and Access for the Newburgh Enlarged City School District in New York State.
Read full articleIt doesn’t matter where your school is in this country, we can guarantee you that inequities exist. Take a look at your data and classroom practices – are there an equitable number of children of color in your honors and AP classes, do they have access to your best teachers? Who has been identified for special education?
Read full articleAt the The Leadership Academy, we continuously seek to improve our work by learning from the experiences and insights of others. #EquityReads 2017 offers a list of some of the books, articles, speeches, and films about racial equity that our staff members found compelling and useful in our work in 2017.
Read full articleOn September 3, 1985, all that I believed about myself as a learner was shattered. It was my first day as a student at Bernard M. Baruch College. ...
Read full articleWe recently shared the work that Principal Doris Lee of Village Academy in Queens has been doing with her staff to improve their relationships with ...
Read full articleMy first year as a principal in Cambridge, MA, I kept a pair of running shoes under my desk. While I was known for the ...
Read full articleIt’s the million-dollar question: What can principals do in their schools to make sure all students, regardless of race, culture, background, are given opportunities to ...
Read full articleI recently had the pleasure to spend a morning at the Bronx Little School, an elementary school in my hometown of the Bronx, where I ...
Read full articleI didn’t know I was supposed to be a failure until I was in college, and at that point it was too late for them ...
Read full articleYou need to find in your heart that small spark of accountability. What is there that I can do to make the world a better ...
Read full article