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After all the content training + shifts to research-backed, Tier 1 curriculum, this small district still wasn’t seeing the results that they wanted to see. Instructional practices and student mastery were not changing at scale.
In order to be able to generate solutions, the Department of Curriculum & Instruction team in this district had to look at this problem differently. This difference required a paradigm shift. And I had to facilitate it. How do I get a team of overextended administrators with a million and one priorities to slow down, and focus on just one thing? How do I get this team to channel their energy + resources towards this one thing? Show them how this one thing connects to all of their other concerns and competing priorities. How do I do this without being condescending or presumptuous? Create a space that allows them to confront this one thing. While centering their knowledge about their own school district? Set up a structure that requires them to choose AND create that one thing. While creating buy-in? Get input from all key stakeholders while vigorously addressing conflicting ideas and any dissent. At Equitable Outcomes, we call this process the “Design It” phase of our work. With space to think deeply and holistically about seemingly intractable, recurring issues, we help leaders identify a root cause that makes many competing priorities seem like busy work. When applied to this district, the curriculum team was able to see that in order to sustainably change instructional practices and systemically create access to grade level content, that instructional leadership and all of its components had to be the center of any and all efforts towards progress. What outcome do you want to see with your principals, instructional coaches, and teachers? What shifts would applying “Design It” require? What aspect of this shift excites you (or makes you a little bit anxious!)? Talk it out with a work bae or drop it in the comments and let me know!
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A few years ago, I was supporting a team of network + district leaders/ Networked Improvement Community tackling the 'issue' of ELLs (English Language Learners). There was a sharp increase in languages spoken by students and their families (one even had over 40 languages represented!). This increase in linguistic diversity coincided with a decline in achievement scores. Not only that, but the belief that English is a prerequisite for learning grade level content was also on the rise. Which translated to a growing students number of students who were only exposed to school work years below their ‘level’ because they were not proficient in English.  But some students did better than others. Some grew faster than others. Which is natural. But....why is it that it was students who spoke Italian + Russian were experiencing more success than students who spoke Spanish + Arabic? What about our professional development, our decision making and our instructional practices was producing this result?  We never found out. Because we didn’t ask. We didn’t ask because it was never a part of the vision or theory of change. By the time I joined the project, the driver diagram (an evidence-based tool for vision setting) had already been developed. I was shocked to see that any mention of race or ethnicity was completely absent from it. How is it that in New York City, one of the most segregated school districts in this country....  race has nothing to do with how much English and grade-level content a child gets to learn?!
District leaders, school leaders, and, by extension, teachers were never required to think about how race impacted what kids learning English had access to in the classroom. And it’s because it was never explicitly included in the shared vision. So when we talk about equity, we really have to get really concrete and envision it all the way. We, teachers, school leaders, and system leaders alike have to dream about what equitable outcomes for Black students would look like in our schools and school systems. Because if we don’t articulate it and name it and dare to dream it, we guarantee that we won't achieve it. It is not possible to be held accountable and make progress on a goal if you haven’t had the courage to envision it first. We can’t create equitable outcomes without talking about race AND the way it shows up in the work that we do and are responsible for. So let’s do it. The first step to creating Innovative Systems in the Equitable Outcomes Framework is “Envision It”. So I want to ask you: What is your vision for your school system? What would it mean to create access to for Black children in your school system? What would stay? What would go? Don’t hold back and dream big! Then share that dream with a work bae, or with me by dropping a comment! |
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