Equity Non-Negotiables: Articulating Your Pathway to “Success for All” 

by Joe Schroeder, PhD, Associate Executive Director, AWSA

AWSA Update Poll In this week's article, Joe Schroeder talks about articulating equity non-negotiables in order to create a local pathway for advancing "success for all." With this concept in mind, which of the following best describes the current state of your school/district? (Click button on left to see poll)

Aspirations are important means to a fuller life. For example, I aspire to lead a family that is stable, loving, and supportive—a goal which hopefully spurs me on to specific actions that will bring this to fruition. But if I don’t ever articulate what actions I need to take that will align my daily living to this goal, I run the risk of this high-minded aspiration ultimately serving as little more than some form of wishful thinking. The same is true for schools and school systems. A typical mission / vision statement such as “success for all” is highly aspirational. Yet the gap between the future aspiration and the current reality is often deep and wide. So the important question to hold alongside such a mission/vision statement is this: What are we collectively committing to do differently to make this aspiration a living and breathing reality for the young people and community we serve? In an increasing number of schools, the answer to such a question is found in their equity non-negotiables, which are the focus of this article, second in a three-part series regarding AWSA’s Leading for Equity Academy (LEA).

You may recall that in the first article of this series in October, we focused on cognitive dissonance.  Specifically, we focused upon key findings from nearly fifty years of research gathered by LEA co-facilitators, Drs. Colleen Capper (UW-Madison) and Elise Frattura (UW-Milwaukee), which highlighted a key design feature for promoting the success of all students:  heterogeneous classrooms. When educators reflect upon (A) the common practices in schools today (such as grouping students by academic level, pull-out and push-in programs, etc.) in light of (B) decades of research speaking to the benefits of heterogeneous classrooms that question such common practices, cognitive dissonance naturally arises. And while cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable, it can be harnessed by leaders as an incredibly powerful and necessary resource to jumpstart a school and fuel the movement to a better design that will promote the success of each and every student under their care. 

Thus, in article one, we discussed how leaders can use decades of equity research findings to “unfreeze” a system so that it can be in a position to begin moving to a more productive reality for every student, i.e., so that its stated aspiration can, over time, become its lived reality! Given this initial impetus for movement provided through cognitive dissonance, we discuss in this second article then how equity non-negotiables can provide a pathway for guiding that effort forward within the local setting.

In their work across multiple sessions to promote schools of excellence and equity for all, Drs. Capper and Frattura have participating teams in the LEA progress through four cornerstones of their comprehensive, systemic approach. Essentially, they help educators better see how (1) individual and collective mindsets limiting potential, (2) common grouping and segregation practices, (3) reactive, “teaching to the middle” instructional practices, and (4) policies reinforcing the status quo contribute to a system of schooling that prevents major movement toward the high-minded aims that most schools and school systems espouse about success for all students. But the good news:  where schools and school systems work through the process of articulating and committing to advance a list of equity non-negotiables over time, a pathway for real progress can be forged.

And as a leadership team creates a first attempt at the non-negotiables that make sense for their own unique context, they are then enabled to help an expanding circle of educators back home work through the process as well and ultimately gain voice and input into a deepening sense of the daily actions that the school/system will need to make progress on overtime to ultimately create a school where “success for all” is not only an ambitious goal but an achievable reality.

It is essential for every school/district to work through its own process of creating an equitable system and the conditions that will do so within their community setting. But that said, seeing an example can certainly be helpful. To this end, I share this illustration from the Monona-Grove School District, one of several Wisconsin communities to date that has developed a set of equity non-negotiables to guide their transformation and continuous improvement work: 

1. Monona Grove District employees share responsibility for the prevention of student failure.
2. Principles of natural proportions will be used to support the mirrored demographics of students in all educational environments.
3. All learners will participate in high quality core instruction within heterogeneous groups (i.e., without grouping by ability).
4. A continuum of instruction is differentiated for all learners in each classroom/course using a framework of engagement, representation, and expression.
5. Educators with a range of expertise are intentionally aligned to create teams that increase each other’s capacity through a co-planning and co-serving model in support of all learners.
6. Personalized profiles are used for all learners to assist educators in determining appropriate instructional practices and documenting progress and goals.
7. All district policies and procedures support high quality differentiated instruction for all learners and use legislation and funding to leverage such work forward.

To be clear, creation of a set of equity non-negotiables (such as those listed above) does not immediately “solve” the reality of “success for some/many” in a given school system. But non-negotiables like these can provide clear and succinct verbiage that builds a common language and understanding across the system to the disparity between the school system’s aspirations and its realities while also identifying key attributes of the school/system visible when “success for all” is ultimately achieved. Imagine then how equity non-negotiables such as these can help focus a system, serve as guideposts for ongoing decisions, and illuminate a pathway forward—step by step over time—to a better reality for every student served. 

The Leading for Equity Academy is designed to help support leaders and their teams through the complex but incredibly important journey of transforming systems for the benefit of all learners. And given how important such efforts are to all of us realizing our deepest moral purpose, I am convinced that we couldn’t be pursuing a more important pathway or legacy. Thank you for your review of our learning to date in the LEA through these two articles. You can expect the last article of this three-part series in the spring, once our March LEA sessions are completed—an article where we will discuss how, with the impetus for change established and equity non-negotiables in place to guide the journey, a school/system might make wise decisions about initial actions to take within a long-term effort. So stay tuned—and blessings to you and yours this holiday season!

References

Capper, C.A., & Frattura, E. (2015). Integrated Comprehensive Systems Series.

Integrated Comprehensive Systems, Series. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Education Products and Services.

Capper, C.A., & Frattura, E., & Keyes, M.W. (2000). Meeting the needs of students of all

abilities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.