The Path to Systemic Change: Equity-Focused School Leadership

The Path to Systemic Change: Equity-Focused School Leadership

The need for systemic change has never been more evident than in this past year. But a clear path on how to get there has been much more elusive.

A group of education professors from various universities are tackling this problem from the ground up – in K-12 schools. The professors have written a comprehensive guide for school leaders who want to engage their school communities in transformative systemic change, and they provide five “meta-practices” that build on one another to cultivate equity-focused schools and districts.

The book, “Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership,” was released Feb. 8. The authors – George Theoharis from Syracuse University, Gretchen Givens Generett from Duquesne University, Mark Anthony Gooden from Columbia University, and Sharon Radd from St. Catherine University – will participate in a virtual book launch at 7:30 p.m. ET Monday, March 8. Register here to receive the Zoom link for the launch and learn more about their “meta-practices.”

“The five practices are essential for every school and district – big districts and small districts, and urban, rural and suburban schools,” said Theoharis, a Syracuse University School of Education professor. “The book is designed as a guide to support school or district teams to engage in equity-focused work.”

Here is what Theoharis says about the need for systemic change and how the five practices will help schools achieve it:

“Schools in the US provide many great experiences but are still grossly inequitable. K-12 education is full of opportunity and promise, but also full of systemic racism, classism, ableism, etc. Our school communities need transformative systemic change, and ‘Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership’ offers essential practices aimed at increasing educational equity and eliminating marginalization based on race, disability, socioeconomics, language, gender, sexual identity and religion. The five practices provide:

• Clear explanations of foundational terms and concepts, such as equity, systemic inequity, paradigms and cognitive dissonance, and privilege.
• Specific recommendations for how to build support and sustainability by engaging colleagues and other stakeholders in constructive dialogues with multiple perspectives.
• Detailed descriptions of routines and roles for building effective equity-leadership teams.
• Guidelines and tools for performing an equity audit, including environmental scans.
• A change framework to skillfully transform your system.
• Reflection activities for self-discovery, understanding, and personal and professional growth.

“A call to action that is both passionate and practical, ‘Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership’ is an indispensable roadmap for creating schools grounded in systemic equity.”