that pop into my mind as I process situations
and see people interact.”
In the latter half of the workshop, we
asked participants to share stories of coura-
geous conversations they had initiated or ac-
tions they had taken in their communities
to promote equity. We heard of meetings in
which leaders challenged their teachers to
think differently about their students and
how they relate to their students. Workshop
participants saw changes in themselves and
were uniformly optimistic that they can ef-
fect change in their schools and districts.
Indeed, in following up with participants
more than a year after the institute had
ended, we learned from one district’s assis-
tant superintendent that “equity is now part
of the district’s conversations.” Her district
is using professional learning communities
(PLCs) as the vehicle for the work. In dis-
cussions with PLC members, she and other
district leaders have been stressing that “lack
of rigor in some of our classes is an equity
issue in that some students are not being
given the same opportunities as other stu-
dents, and that instructor collaboration can
help create an equal playing field.”
The institute and our follow-up discus-
sions confirmed that thoughtful collabora-
tion can change the practices of education
leaders and their staffs, showing that real
progress is possible in the effort to disrupt
inequity.
Resources
• DuFour, R. (2004). “What Is a Profes-
sional Learning Community?” Educational
Leadership, 61(8), 6.
• Gay, G. (2000). “Culturally Responsive
Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice.”
New York, New York: Teachers College
Press.
• Hammond, Z. (2015). “Culturally Re-
sponsive Teaching and the Brain.” Thousand
Oaks, California: SAGE.
• Lawrence, K., Anderson, A.A., Susi, G.,
Sutton, S., Kubish, A.C. and Codrington,
R. (2009). “Constructing a Racial Equity
Theory of Change.” Accessible at https://
goo.gl/LxRDf1.
• Lee, E., Menkart, D. and Okazawa-Rey,
M. (1998) “Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A
Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multi-
cultural Education and Staff Development.”
Washington, D.C.: Network of Educators
on the Americas.
• National School Reform Faculty. (2001).
“The Paseo or Circles of Identity.” Retrieved
from www.nsrf harmony.org/system/files/
protocols/paseo.pdf.
• Olneck, M.R. (1995). “Immigrants and
Education.” In J.A. Banks and C.A.M.
Banks (Eds.), “Handbook of Research on
Multicultural Education.” New York: Mac-
millan.
• Project Implicit (n.d.). Implicit Associa-
tion Test. Retrieved from https://implicit.
harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html.
• Thomson, P. (2002). “Schooling the
Rustbelt Kids: Making the Difference in
Changing Times.” New South Wales, Aus-
tralia: Allen & Unwin.
Brian Edwards is a research writer with
Partners in School Innovation.
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