We are building a library of resources that Equity Warriors can use in their work in schools and districts. We also welcome your suggestions of tools and protocols that would be useful for others.
Learning Forward Conference 2023: Leading district-wide change to advance equity
Download conference handouts below
Learn directly from George in this webinar where he describes some of the challenges facing leaders interested in promoting equity.
For Superintendents & School Boards
Defining Equity: Defining an equity agenda for the district and community is an opportunity to understand and assess competing interests, and inform and reach agreements (reaching consensus may be too high a bar). School boards and superintendents are well-served by engaging key partners in a change process that leads to agreements on an equity agenda.
Tool: Define Equity
Equity Reports: School boards often define equity for their district and community in policy. Roanoke City Public Schools Board first did so in June 2009. The policy establishes an Equity Committee that reports to the board annually on the district’s progress on its equity agenda.
Tool: Roanoke’s Equity Report
For District Leaders
Key Results Walk-Throughs: Key Results Walk-Throughs were designed with Long Beach Unified School District (CA) to focus on the adaptive challenge of clarifying role responsibility among the district and high school leaders for student learning. District leaders responsible for curriculum and professional learning joined with high school department heads and administrators in regular visits to determine teachers’ progress in utilizing curriculum and best practices. The visits included next steps for district and school leader support for teachers.
Tool: Key Results Debriefing – HS Science
Equity Visits/Instructional Rounds: Equity visits are a variation on instructional rounds. Using the instructional rounds structure of problem of practice, observations, and decisions/actions, district leader equity visits focus on a specific equity goal as the problem of practice.
For School Leaders
Classroom Walk-Throughs – Four Frames: There are several versions of classroom walk throughs used to support teachers and gather information to guide professional learning. We use an instructionally focused walk-through protocol with school leaders (principals, lead teachers) that has three parts: pre-walk-through, information gathering, and debrief. Information is gathered using the lens of four frames: teacher actions, student actions, classroom environment, and task.
Tool: What Is a Walk-Through
Tool: Walk-through frames
Professional Development Survey: Our work with school leaders often begins with a simple information-gathering tool. We refer to this tool as a professional development survey so we don’t confuse its purpose with an evaluation instrument. The provided data allows school leaders to plan professional learning by strategically matching teachers who may need growth in a particular area with colleagues who have strengths in that area. School leaders can also use the data to group teachers who may have an area of growth in common.
Tool: Professional Development Survey Sample. Equity Warriors, Figure 4.3, p. 167.
By George S. Perry Jr.
Creating Schools That Students Deserve
Advance equity by learning to crack the system’s codes
We must act now, using what we already know, to advance equity and raise the achievement of every student. With three decades of leading equity work across the country, George S. Perry Jr. issues a call to action for educational leaders who are willing to fight the fight for equity for all students.
Equity Warriors is a must read for leaders at all levels of the system who have chosen to be in this fight and are ready to do what it takes to make the system work for all students.