When he was a teacher, Ty Harris always wanted his classroom to be the safe space, where kids felt comfortable enough to have lunch—even if he didn’t know them.
“I remember not having that for so long in high school,” he said.
Instead of just one classroom and just one period, Harris is now trying to help students of all backgrounds feel that sense of security and connection districtwide, across more than 80 schools and thousands of students, as the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for Virginia Beach City Public Schools.
For two years, he’s mined data and ushered in a student-led coalition in a push to create a culture where every kid—from team captains to the student too nervous to raise their hand in class—can belong in their school community.
Still, Harris knows he has to be intentional with how he approaches his role. He’s operating in a political climate where DEI initiatives have gotten caught in the backlash against critical race theory, with several states legislating against it. In Harris’ own state of Virginia, the Republican governor has taken aim at such programs, even renaming a state office to remove the word “equity.”
Nationally, in the past five years, the concept of “equity” has become a toxic to some. A portion of educators said the word has been “weaponized.”
Harris, 47, has navigated those turbulent waters since he took the DEI director job in this 64,000 student-district on Virginia’s coast a little over two years ago.
He’s relied on data to propose—and successfully pass—an extensive equity plan, which experts say is a rarity. He puts high schoolers at the center of efforts to revamp their school’s culture through a network of student-led groups. He approaches opponents of DEI in the community with a good-natured willingness to meet people where they are, and then bring them along for the ride.
And as a self-described “girl dad” of a twice-exceptional 12-year-old daughter who has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and anxiety, Harris views his work through the lens of her experience, a student who needed the space to fit in and eventually found it.
Leading the district’s two-person DEI office, Harris came in with a “big, bold, audacious goal,” and then pulled in collaborators from different pockets of the school district and community to propel and refine the vision, said Angelyn Nichols, an administrator in the district’s office of professional growth and innovation, who Harris describes as a “partner in crime.”
“I think there are a lot of misconceptions of what equity is,” Harris, a 2025 EdWeek Leaders To Learn From honoree, said. “There are a lot of things that need to happen in order for us, as a community, to arrive at the place that we say we want to be. And it’s that willingness to have those tough conversations and really dig into the work.”
Creating a safe space in schools
Harris began as a high school social studies teacher, then moved to the highest possible level of school governance, working in the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama administration. He helped to lead the “Promise Neighborhoods” initiative, a federal program that seeks to pair academics with wraparound services such as healthcare in order to end the cycle of poverty.
But that work had its own bureaucratic frustrations. And Harris missed the sense of community he got from working in a school.
He returned to the district level, moving into administration first as a school leader. He then joined Virginia Beach’s office of professional growth and innovation before taking his current role.
Harris believes leveraging partnerships is crucial to the work he does. He’s retooled existing clubs, putting a STEM twist on Beach Girls Rock, a club for girls, and expanding the district’s African American Male Summit to include local post-secondary institutions.
He leads an equity council, which meets bi-monthly to discuss action steps for addressing the district’s various equity needs. It includes not only teachers and school administrators, but parents and business leaders, a unique feature among the district’s various taskforces.
Letting students lead the way
Harris considers data to be the biggest driver in his work. It led to one of his most prominent initiatives: the Togetherness through Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Coalition, which are student-led groups at each school. The TIDE Coalition is now represented in the district’s 12 high schools, with a planned push into middle schools next. The goal: To get students to focus on how to better their own school culture.
The coalitions, which meet once a month to brainstorm how to change school culture, were created in response to “dismal” numbers on student belonging on an internal survey, Harris said.
The members of the coalitions aren’t necessarily the same kids who raise their hand for every club or team. Principals identified students who are representative of their school’s demographics, and who aren’t already-established student leaders.
Gary Sapinoso, a senior at Salem High School, said TIDE empowers students to take charge of cultural change.
“The teachers aren’t going to know every single in and out of what the students need, and who knows better what the students need than the students themselves?” he said.
The ways in which students work to reshape culture manifests differently depending on the school. A mural with student silhouettes and hand prints hangs in one to symbolize community. Others have started a practice of writing notes to spread positivity to classmates, launched a diversity week, or created a community club to make sure no one spends lunch alone. The district has a celebration to recognize the completed work at the end of the year, so schools can learn from each other.
Data collected by the district showed that based on responses of more than 28,000 students roughly 47 percent felt a sense of belonging in fall 2023. That increased to 59 percent in spring 2024, according to responses from nearly 27,000 students.
Standing before the mural that her TIDE Coalition at Bayside High School worked with an artist to design, Dhanvi Patel, a junior, said she felt compelled to join the effort when she happened to overhear its first meeting.
“I used to struggle being here, feeling like, ‘Oh is this really the school for me?’” she said. “But then different clubs and activities helped me open up, and now I feel like I belong. I want other people to feel that same way.”
The road isn’t always linear, though. The district was in the news last year for a high school baseball team’s racism against teammates. The district found that racism, hate speech, and harassment had been ongoing on the team for multiple years after a mother reported that her son was called racist slurs.
Harris, who was involved in charting the district’s response, said an investigation into the incidents found that many students who witness racist behavior find it disturbing. But they often won’t speak up to defend their peers.
Harris and his team have tried to take a holistic approach to disrupting that pattern.
For instance, in December, they convened roughly 130 student leaders from the district’s high schools, with the goal of giving the students skills to intervene in instances of bias and shift school culture.
The theory: If student leaders—the team captains, the club presidents, the first chair in band—have the ability to intercede when they see racist behavior, others will follow, ultimately making it clear that racism isn’t tolerated in Virginia Beach.
“Students actually drive the work more than anything,” Harris said. “We know that too many times we are doing things to students, rather than with students.”
Starting with what you know at the district level
At the administrative level, data figured heavily into the district’s equity plan, which closely dovetails with its overall goals in areas like student well-being, workforce diversity, and community partnerships.
The effort started before Harris became DEI director, with an outside group conducting an assessment in early 2021, and publishing a set of recommendations aimed at addressing districtwide inequities.
The plan calls for incorporating multicultural resources and materials into the curriculum and providing help to teachers in facilitating classroom discussions on divisive or controversial charged topics. It also recommends implementing alternatives to suspension and increasing the number and diversity of mentorship opportunities for students.
“I think the people that want to really push back against equity, in their mind they’re thinking, ‘Oh, you want to take something from me to give to them,’” Harris said. “If you root it in research and data, they can push back all they want, but what you’ll find is a lot of times they won’t. They’ll say, ‘You know what, no one’s ever presented it that way. I never really thought of it that way.’”
Speaking before the school board in 2022, Harris said that the equity plan was “seeking to advance all students and staff,” but had areas of identified needs: Black students, particularly boys; students with disabilities; students from low-income families; and English learners.
The plan passed, unanimously, even though the board had rejected previous efforts over partisan disputes.
Donald Robertson, the district’s superintendent, credits Harris’ approach to conflict as a reason for the district’s ultimate success in gaining the board’s sign-off.
Harris, he said, is proactive with his words, diffusing tension. He avoids political and ideological back-and-forths, which Robertson thinks have bogged down similar efforts, both in Virginia Beach and across the country. Tying the plan so closely to already established goals for the district also helped.
“Our definition of equity is focused on access, in giving all of our students, every single one of them … access to opportunities and experiences,” Robertson said.
The data show early signs of success, Robertson said. For instance, the district eliminated course prerequisites for students to enroll in Advanced Placement classes, and had educators push students who showed aptitude in certain subjects to try the college-level courses.
The result: A modest increase in the percentage of students enrolled in AP, both overall and by racial and ethnic subgroups, according to the most recent years for which the district has data. In 2022-23, 66 percent of all students were enrolled in and successfully completed advanced courses. That grew to 68 percent in 2023-24.
Nationally, there aren’t many districts that have such robust plans, or that post their data publicly, said Leandra Parris, the director of diversity and inclusion for the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
The hesitancy comes from concerns about fierce opposition to address systemic inequities, she said. Districts have found themselves embroiled in controversy, with heated school board meetings banning how race is talked about in classes.
“I think that commitment is really commendable, and I really wish I saw that more across all states and all school districts, having the courage to say, ‘I know that there is some narrative that this is a bad word, this is a bad thing, but let me show you what it really is,’” she said.
Harris says he’s learned to go slow to make forward progress.
“When it comes to equity work, if you put your human hat on and don’t worry about the terminology or whatever ... then we’re on to something,” Harris said. “That’s what I’m trying to do. That’s kind of lofty. I don’t care. I’d rather reach for the stars and only get to the stratosphere, than not reach for anything.”
