Considerations for improving racial equity in schools: applying a cultural historical framework

Abstract

ABSTRACT Educational agencies with inequities in special education or exclusionary discipline are required to review local policies, practices, and procedures as potential drivers of disproportionality. Indeed, disparities manifest in both locally and through broad, historical narratives; solutions must thus address both local context and histories of power and privilege. However — despite racial and ethnic disparities defining inequities, school-wide approaches enacted for addressing drivers (e.g. multi-tiered systems of support) rarely center culturally sustaining, anti-racist, and anti-ableist lenses that consider the sociohistorical contexts of an educational space. Further, there is little practical guidance regarding how to implement these frameworks through such a lens, leaving school stakeholders with scant guidance for understanding and addressing inequities via school-level, institutional practices. We outline practical implementation ideas that practitioners might use when selecting school-wide programs meant to shift inequitable systems and provide meaningful access to learning for all students.