Excellence Through Equity

Five Principles of Courageous Leadership to Guide Achievement for Every Student

Alan M. Blankstein, Pedro Noguera, Lorena Kelly

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781416622505
• eBook ISBN: 9781416622574
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Excellence Through Equity is an inspiring look at how real-world educators are creating schools where all students are able to thrive. In these schools, educators understand that equity is not about treating all children the same. They are deeply committed to ensuring that each student receives what he or she individually needs to develop their full potential and succeed.

To help educators with what can at times be a difficult and challenging journey, Blankstein and Noguera frame the book with five guiding principles of Courageous Leadership:

• Getting to your core
• Making organizational meaning
• Ensuring constancy and consistency of purpose
• Facing the facts and your fears
• Building sustainable relationships.

They further emphasize that the practices are grounded in three important areas of research that are too often disregarded: (1) child development, (2) neuroscience, and (3) environmental influences on child development and learning.

You'll hear from Carol Corbett Burris, Michael Fullan, Marcus J. Newsome, Paul Reville, Susan Szachowicz, and other bold practitioners and visionary thinkers who share compelling and actionable ideas, strategies, and experiences for closing the achievement gap in your classrooms and school.

Ensuring that all students receive an education that cultivates their talents and potential is in all our common interest. As Andy Hargreaves writes in the coda: "The opportunity for all Americans is to articulate and believe in an inspiring vision of educational change that is about what the next generation of America and Americans should become, not about a target or ranking that the nation should attain."

From the Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "Letting go of a system of winners and losers in favor of what is proposed in this book is a courageous leap forward that we all must take together. Let this bold, practical book be a guide; and may you travel into this new exciting vista, in which every child can succeed."

Part I

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For Every Student

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
—Lao-tzu

. . . . .

Powerful leaders are those who have the courage to take the step and embark on the journey. Courage is derived from the French word coeur, meaning heart. In many early Native American societies, having "heart" was considered one of the greatest virtues. The primary attributes of this virtue were to strengthen oneself by serving others and to face fears. Educators often make sacrifices and face their fears in service to the success of children. Courageous leadership is necessary to foster change in our educational system.

In the opening section of this book, the authors announce their call to action. A new paradigm is described: one addressing among the most charged issues of our time, enhancing success for all students through equity. Each author highlighted in this book demonstrates one or more of the core principles of Courageous Leadership (Blankstein, 2004, 2010, 2013). Alan M. Blankstein and Pedro Noguera challenge the notion of zero-sum thinking (the "haves" versus the "have nots") and explain the new paradigm grounded in child development, neuroscience, and environmental influences.

In the opening chapter, we outline the makings of a new paradigm and a vision of reaching Excellence Through Equity for every student. We also provide a framework of Courageous Leadership as the engine to get us to this vision. Each of the five principles of courage (Blankstein, 2004, 2010, 2013) are exemplified in subsequent chapters by an array of extraordinary contributors to this book. As you will see, these principles are interactive, and more than one of them is present in each of these chapters. These principles serve as a frame of reference rather than as a discrete set of activities. Thus, when we describe "getting to your core" as a leader, we recognize that there will be overlap with what it takes for "making organizational meaning" for the entire learning community.

We begin this section from two contributing authors whose chapters demonstrate at the school and system levels, respectively, the interaction of the five principles of courage. Susan Szachowicz, principal of Brockton High School, shows how these core principles have guided the largest high school in Massachusetts from being named one of the lowest performing schools in the state, to being cited as among the top high schools in the country by U.S. News and World Report. The fact that progress continues to be made at the school even after Szachowicz’s retirement is further illustration of her effective leadership.

In Brockton High School, the leadership displayed the "Cycle of Courage" described in this chapter in which the leadership was faced with a crisis brought on by compelling facts, chose to face their fears and the facts of the situation, got to their core, and created organizational meaning and sustained relationships around the purpose and plan to which they held tightly. The plan, developed to serve all students at Brockton High School, also illustrates how the three principles of the new paradigm, a focus on the malleability of the brain, the developmental needs of students (adolescents in this case), and the contextual obstacles they face, were integral to their action plan.

Michael Fullan’s chapter focuses on the big picture by providing the whole-system approach to achieving greater equity. He provides principles that not only increase the chances of achieving greater equity, but he elaborates on how to foster conditions that sustain continuing improvements.

This section lays the foundation upon which the remainder of the book is built. Each section will highlight principles of Courageous Leadership and examples from various perspectives that will help other leaders take the first step for their journey.

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REFERENCE

Blankstein, A. (2004, 2010, 2013). Failure is not an option. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Introduction

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Achieving Excellence Through Equity for Every Student

Alan M. Blankstein and Pedro Noguera

. . . . .

In education circles, the word equity is often controversial and confusing. When it is brought up to an economically diverse audience, those with affluence and privilege often become squeamish and start looking for the exits, while those in financial need often become more engaged, hoping that a focus on equity will bring relief and attention to what they lack. Such responses tend to occur because when the term equity is raised, it often evokes a zero-sum scenario; a perception that if we do more for those who are disadvantaged it will mean there will be less for the advantaged. When this occurs and the pursuit of equity—which we define as a commitment to ensure that every student receives what he or she needs to succeed—is subverted by the assumption that there must be winners and losers, rarely is any progress achieved. Invariably, conversations about equity either degenerate into acrimonious debate over how to serve the needs of both privileged and disadvantaged children, objectives that are typically perceived as irreconcilable, or we lapse hopelessly into a state of paralysis.

This book offers a way to move beyond zero-sum thinking and compelling reasons to do so. In the following chapters we provide practical, detailed accounts of what schools, districts, classrooms, and community-based organizations are doing to promote excellence through equity. We also show through these cases that overcoming the impasse between the pursuit of excellence and equity is essential if we are to avoid remaining trapped on a path that is not only generating greater inequality in academic outcomes but also contributing to deeper inequality within our society generally.

U.S. Educators Are Swimming Against a Wave of Poor Policy

The persistence of disparities in learning opportunities and academic outcomes has contributed to America’s decline in educational performance in comparison with other nations. Results from the Program in International Student Assessment (PISA) reveal that American students have made little progress, and in some cases declined, relative to children in several other wealthy nations (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2012). Closer examination of the results shows that growing inequality is a central factor contributing to America’s educational decline. Recent results from scores on the ACT show that only 39% of those students who recently took the exam were deemed college ready. Of these, only 11% of African Americans and 18% of Latinos passed with scores that met the college-ready threshold, while 49% of Whites and 57% of Asians met the mark (Resmovitz, 2014). Given that the majority of children in our nation’s schools are presently students of color (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013), and people of color are projected to make up the majority of the U.S. population by the year 2041 (Frey, 2013), these trends are especially troubling.

Furthermore, our nation has higher levels of child poverty than most other wealthy nations, with 23%, or almost one in four children, coming from households in poverty. In the nation’s largest urban school districts the number of children from impoverished families is considerably higher. Unlike many nations that outperform us, we tolerate gross inequities in school funding, in access to quality preschool, and in health care (Sahlberg, 2011). Despite compelling evidence that growing poverty and inequality are at least partially responsible for our decline in educational performance (Barton & Coley, 2010), policy makers have largely ignored the issue. Instead, they have fixated on the idea that slippage in academic performance can be reversed simply by raising academic standards and increasing accountability on educators despite consistent evidence that the strategy has not worked (Fullan & Boyle, 2014).

There is compelling evidence based on comparisons with nations that have outperformed ours that the policy direction we have pursued has contributed to our decline relative to other nations (Darling-Hammond, 2011). Despite this evidence, policy makers from both major parties have been unwilling to consider a new set of strategies or to change course. A recent report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education called for greater focus on equity in funding and educational opportunities (Equity and Excellence Commission, 2013). Despite the report, the federal government has not called for a change in policy, and we continue to focus narrowly on accountability and standards. Instead of building the capacity of schools and providing them with additional support to meet the complex needs of students, we continue to rely on pressure and humiliation as a means of prodding schools to improve. The strategy hasn’t worked, and it is increasingly clear that it never will. Ignoring equity, not merely in education but in wages, housing, health, and quality of life, has contributed to widening levels of inequality and is undermining our well-being and our future as a nation.

An Equity Tide Lifts All Boats

There is an alternative to growing inequality (in education at least) or remaining trapped indefinitely in a zero-sum quagmire. The alternative is to recognize that equity and excellence are not at odds, and that the highest level of excellence will actually be obtained through the pursuit of equity. To many, excellence through equity may seem like an implausible or even a radical concept. In some ways it is, given the policy direction we have pursued in recent years, but closer examination reveals that it has been a central part of the human experience for centuries. It was inherent in the message and the ethos that Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to push through the New Deal, that made it possible for a president from Texas (LBJ) to overcome powerful opposition in Congress to obtain approval of the Civil Rights Act, and that compelled the U.S. government to cooperate with Martin Luther King Jr. as he and others marched and organized for a peaceful end to American apartheid. In all three examples it is clear that by advancing equity the greater good of society would be furthered, or as Eleanor Roosevelt put it: "We do well when we all do well."

Similarly, a commitment to excellence and equity has been central to many of our nation’s advances in education. The idea that we could achieve excellence through equity made it possible for President Lyndon Johnson to overcome opposition from southern legislators and enact Title I, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as a key provision of the effort to expand civil rights and launch the war on poverty. Later, the principle of excellence through equity served as an essential premise for advancing the educational rights of women (Title IX), linguistic minorities (Lau v. Nichols, 1974), and the disabled (National Center...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Acknowledgments
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors
• PART I. FOR EVERY STUDENT
• Introduction: Achieving Excellence Through Equity for Every Student
• 1. Brockton High School, Brockton, Massachusetts
• 2. The Path to Equity: Whole System Change
• PART II. GETTING TO YOUR CORE
• 3. Building a School of Opportunity Begins With Detracking
• 4. The Voices and Hearts of Youth: Transformative Power of Equity in Action
• 5. Empowering Students and Teachers Through Performance-Based Assessment
• PART III. MAKING ORGANIZATIONAL MEANING
• 6. Human Capital as a Lever for Districtwide Change
• 7. Personalized Learning
• 8. Who Wants a Standardized Child Anyway? Treat Everyone the Same—Differently
• 9. Equitable Ways to Teach Science to Emergent Bilinguals and Immigrant Youth
• PART IV. ENSURING CONSTANCY AND CONSISTENCY OF PURPOSE
• 10. The Journey Toward Equity and Excellence: The Massachusetts Experience
• PART V. FACING THE FACTS AND YOUR FEARS
• 11. Focusing on Equity Propelled Us From Good to Great: Abington School District’s Opportunity to Learn Initiative
• 12. Equity and Achievement in the Elementary School: How We Redesigned Our Math Instruction to Increase Achievement for Every Child
• PART VI. BUILDING SUSTAINABLE RELATIONSHIPS
• 13. A Journey Toward Equity and Excellence for All Students in Chesterfield
• 14. Equity Through Expanded Learning Time
• PART VII. CODA
• 15. The Iniquity of Inequity: And Some International Clues About Ways to Address It
• Related Resources
• Copyright