Uprooting Inequities in Schools

Before schools can break down barriers that block access to opportunity, leaders must first foster a learning environment that ensures that educators believe that all students can achieve at high levels. This often includes challenging people’s mindsets about race and bias and talking bluntly about longstanding practices that have kept students of color and students in poverty from accessing the same learning opportunities as their white and more affluent peers. Chief equity officers from two different school districts talk about the work they are undertaking to expose systemic racism, foster community conversations about equity, and adopt policies and practices that aim to eliminate longstanding gaps in access to high quality educational opportunities for students of color and low-income children.

Many policymakers, researchers, district administrators, and teachers have taken up the cause of bringing “equity” among different groups of students—by race, income level, and disability status. At professional conferences, in school posters, at administrative headquarters, and in school boards’ vision statements, equity is usually defined as the eradication of disparities or achieving "equal" academic outcomes among all student groups. It has also come to mean equal access to gifted programming, high-quality teachers, and high-quality curriculum.
But in the purely fiscal world, the word "equity" has a much muddier, complicated—and legally fraught—definition. And the issue is likely to come under renewed scrutiny with the Every Student Succeeds Act's new requirement for the public release of school-by-school spending data as an element of states' school report cards.
We’ll talk with experts about why fiscal equity is so hard to accomplish and share success stories of states and districts that have made efforts to accomplish fiscal equity in recent years.

Teachers often say they’re lifelong learners. But how much support they receive to seek out opportunities for professional development and continuing education can vary district by district. In this session, we’ll discuss what barriers exist for teachers seeking out professional growth, and how access—or lack thereof—can affect their students’ learning. We’ll also look at systems that have tried a different approach to ensuring equitable instruction for all students—by injecting more structure and less flexibility into teachers’ PD plans.

The widespread closing of schools across the country is putting a bigger focus on the inequitable distribution of resources for students, especially regarding access to WiFi, digital learning devices, and quality online resources. What complicates matters is that some teachers are much more experienced in delivering online learning than others. Ultimately, schools need to find a way to navigate through these big equity concerns under very difficult circumstances. What can schools and districts do at this time? We want to hear your concerns, ideas, and solutions for addressing these challenges.

Content provided by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

As an educator, what do you find produces the best equitable outcomes for students in your schools? In our discussion, we’ll explore the importance of building an educator workforce with lived experiences representative of student historically marginalized by the education system. And we’ll also discuss partnering with students, communities, and families to create school environments responsive and affirming of all cultures.

Content provided by Waterford.org

Students don’t learn in a vacuum. Home, family, school, teacher, peers—all make a difference. While a teacher's influence is key, imagine the impact if teachers, parents, and students were all connected and engaged in the child’s learning! In this discussion, we’ll talk about the powerful change that is possible when teachers connect with parents to extend learning beyond the classroom. We'll explore the results of engaging students in their own learning path. And we’ll address how you can ensure teachers have the largest possible impact with instruction each day in the classroom.

Content provided by Panorama Education

How can district and school leaders set measurable goals around equity and inclusion to create school communities that value and serve all students? In this conversation, we’ll explore how educators track metrics around academic achievement gaps, discipline disproportionality, and gaps in student experience or social-emotional learning to identify priorities and take action.
Join us to discuss topics such as how districts can use student voice data to track progress toward equity goals, support campus teams to examine data and create action plans, and organize staff around specific topics, such as implicit bias and culturally-responsive pedagogy. We’ll also highlight how one district in New Jersey increased ELA scores by 35 percent and 58 percent respectively for Hispanic students and for African American students and gain concrete ideas, strategies, and resources for your community.