Even before the pandemic, systemic racial and social inequities meant that Latinx students had less access to high-quality instruction and teaching than white students, were tracked into less rigorous courses, were met with lower expectations, and ultimately experienced opportunity gaps that hindered educational and economic development (U.S.…

Learning how leaders advance equity and justice can inspire, give mental models, and help create road maps. Eight years ago, Nancy Gerzon and the author researched professional learning in high-poverty schools that were narrowing the achievement gap for every demographic, which resulted in the book "Growing Into Equity" (Corwin, 2013).…

When the Chicago Public Schools' Office of Equity was established in September 2018, the goal was to take a systemic approach to building equity so that every student would have access to a high-quality education, regardless of race, ZIP code, ability, or country of origin. It was known that this goal could not be achieved through a series of…

North Carolina's Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools believe that employing a diverse staff is key to reaching all five of the district's overarching goals: student achievement, equity and access, community engagement, human resources development, and climate and safety. Recruiting, retaining, and supporting educators of color is an important…

Curriculum is a critical force through which students receive the tacit message of their value in society. They learn which groups of people are valued and whose stories are worth learning. For too long, some students' and communities' stories have been deemed unworthy. Students need opportunities to see themselves and others portrayed in texts in…

Today, as our country reckons with racial injustice amidst an ongoing pandemic, there are educators at all levels -- in classrooms, principal's offices, and central district offices -- asking questions like: Am I being bold enough? Or am I too cautious? Am I putting my job at risk by doing what I believe is right and necessary? What approach is…

Schools committed to equity are experimenting with creative and powerful ways for teachers to ensure all students receive what they need to learn in the classroom. Many of these efforts focus professional learning on strengthening the instructional core -- teachers' knowledge of and relationships with students, teachers' deep and critical…

Building a culture of equity requires ensuring that leaders and school staff have a shared vision for what educational equity means, what it looks like, and how to get there. It also necessitates a willingness to hold people accountable to the vision and the work needed to make it a reality. This takes a clear road map for achieving the consistent…

Schools and districts that break the correlation between race and poverty on the one hand and academic achievement on the other hold enormous lessons for any educators willing to seek them out and ask: "Your kids are doing better than mine. What are you doing?" It is important to understand that educators who ask that question--whether…

As awareness has grown about the harmful effects of exclusionary discipline, especially on the Black and Brown students who are disproportionately suspended and expelled, so, too, has interest in alternative approaches to discipline. Restorative practices focus on building or repairing relationships to address or preempt conflict. They are based…

Tauheedah Baker-Jones is Atlanta Public Schools' first chief equity and social justice officer. She developed and now oversees the district's Center for Equity and Social Justice and the district's equity framework. In this article, she shares some of her experiences and learnings, as well as reflections on how districts can enable equity officers…

Linda Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute, is a longtime leader in education, an expert on professional learning, and an influential researcher and policy advisor. She has been leading President Joe Biden's education transition team,…

Among the things that will be remembered about the year 2020 are phrases like "You're still on mute" and "Can I share my screen?" They are emblematic of how educators have been challenged to navigate uncharted waters of remote learning and overnight technological adaptation. To quote another phrase that will be remembered as a…

Teaching in K-12 schools is stressful, as educators know and research documents. Although all teachers experience stress, minoritized teachers of color often experience unique stressors. Common examples include being asked to translate for parents who do not speak English or function as the disciplinarian for students experiencing behavioral…

Emotional intelligence is good for business. That is the growing consensus across sectors in recent years. In schools, the focus on people's well-being and interpersonal skills is called social and emotional learning (SEL). The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines SEL as the process through which children and…