Equity In Schools Research Articles

Teaching while Black: Best Practices for Engaging white Pre-service Teachers in Discourse Focused on Individual & Cultural Diversity in Urban Schools

In this article, I reflect on ways to improve my practice as a Black woman teaching in a white-dominated teacher education program through self-study in teacher preparation (S-STEP). I describe strategies that Black professors can use to engage white preservice teachers in discourse about individual and cultural diversity in urban schools. The general underlying principle in this focus is that one must create a safe space for white students, regardless of comfort, to communicate about individual and cultural diversity in urban schools. This is imperative, as research demonstrates many professors of color, specifically Black professors, experience hostile classroom environments. These experiences occur mostly within white-dominated institutions when students experience a shift of power from a white professor to a professor of color. This shift is intensified when the topics of the course focus on equity and social justice in urban schools. Practitioners of color are encouraged to explore ways in which these and others can be incorporated in courses that prepare white teachers to teach diverse populations in urban schools.

Liderazgo Directivo en Escuelas que Superan las Barreras del Contexto

Los directivos escolares son factores clave en el logro de buenas escuelas y esto es especialmente relevante en contextos de desigualdad como América Latina en general y Argentina en particular. El objetivo de investigación es comprender de qué manera el liderazgo directivo escolar opera como factor de equidad y eficacia en escuelas. Se adopta un enfoque cualitativo, de estudio de casos múltiples, centrado en las prácticas de directivos de cuatro escuelas secundarias públicas de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Para la selección de escuelas se toman los resultados del Índice de Equidad y Calidad de la Educación Porteña (IECEP) elaborado por el Ministerio de Educación de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires para sus escuelas secundarias y como indicador de vulnerabilidad educativa se considera el nivel educativo de la madre promedio por escuela, calculado por el mismo organismo. Los resultados aportan concepciones y prácticas del liderazgo directivo, que consisten en sostener una visión crítica y reflexiva sobre los problemas de desigualdad, construir un proyecto compartido con sentido de comunidad, mantener altas expectativas y compromiso pedagógico y promover estrategias equitativas y de inclusión. Los hallazgos son consistentes con la literatura de investigación sobre liderazgo pedagógico, inclusivo y distribuido. Las conclusiones realizan un aporte para las políticas educativas de desarrollo del liderazgo directivo, destinadas al logro de sistemas educativos de mayor calidad y más justos.

Relationships between the assessment of school quality and social justice

ABSTRACT Background: In Portugal, educational policies have been implemented to ensure students’ entitlement to equality of opportunity in terms of school access and school quality. Hence, questions about how school quality is assessed, and the relationship between school evaluation and equity, are of high importance. Purpose: This small-scale study focused on two key Portuguese policy measures in this area, namely the TEIP (Educational Territories of Priority Intervention) programme and Schools’ External Evaluation (SEE). It set out to analyse perceptions of how far these policy measures contribute to social justice and the improvement of school quality, following equity principles. Method: In-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out with personnel in four TEIP school clusters evaluated through the SEE process, and relevant policy-related personnel. The interview data were analysed qualitatively, using content analysis techniques. Findings: Analysis suggested some differences in perceptions between groups of participants, with policy-related personnel associating efficiency and effectiveness discourses with equity and justice principles. Personnel from school clusters that were placed highly in evaluation rankings and classifications tended to perceive TEIP and SEE as largely positive ways of supporting school self-reflection and improvement, whereas personnel from school clusters not highly ranked were in general not so positive about the demands of external evaluation. Some expressed concerns that aspects involving bureaucracy could be counterproductive, leading to a de-emphasis on social justice. Conclusion: The study draws attention to the multi-layered and complex relationship between equity and assessment of school quality. Although social justice is often regarded as a high priority in school evaluation, its association with discourses of efficiency and effectiveness can sometimes weaken equity and distort the concept of social justice in itself. It prompts the broader question of whether and how aspects of the assessment of school quality need to change in order to better support the principles of social justice.

Reskilling Teachers and Reclaiming Our Schools

This paper describes the Educational Equity Partnership Project (EEPP), a multi-week five-module partnership in professional development (PD) involving approximately 50 teacher leaders in 32 Title 1 schools in the sixth largest school district in the United States. The EEPP was designed to support teacher leadership praxis in the quest for equity and social justice in public education. This study highlights the learning outcomes of the first three modules, focusing on culturally relevant pedagogy, multicultural curriculum development, and equity in schools. The analysis of participants’ survey data following each module revealed that critical consciousness emerged along four dimensions, with the key concepts serving as a lens for recognizing inequitable structures and critical self-reflection and enhancing participants’ sense of agency. The results underscore the need for educational professionals to commit to long-term, ongoing PD in critical multiculturalism, where critical consciousness and mindset shift are central to the professional capital developed.

Leading the multicultural school: Some insights from dedicated school leaders

Perturbed by a racially motivated homicide in his homeland and a more recent murder (under investigation at the time of writing) in the United States, the author makes a strong case in favour of Social Justice Educational Leadership. The exploratory investigation examined the following questions: (1) What leadership processes are school leaders adopting to ensure equity and social justice in multicultural schools? (2) What strategies are school leaders providing their staff to continue supporting quality education for all students, irrespective of cultural background? The research sought to extend the debate between educational leadership processes and the ongoing quest towards social justice as embodied in schools in Malta. A qualitative approach emanating from literature review on critical multicultural education was used in the study. Three school leaders known for their stance on issues of race, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, and marginalisation offer their valuable insights on leadership practices inundated with successful processes leading towards more socially just schools. Findings advocate for a wider discussion on the possibilities for effectively addressing the challenges of leading and managing the multicultural school, based on justice and equity principles.

Segregation within integrated schools: Racially disproportionate student-teacher assignments in middle school

Racial segregation has been an ongoing issue in American education and one of the leading contributors to the racial achievement gap. Prior to the Brown v. Board decision of 1954, Black Americans were legally relegated to substandard schools and educational opportunities. Post-Brown, racial segregation continues to manifest as a result of de facto segregation and second-generation segregation. Moreover, the predominantly White teaching force – a negative consequence of desegregation – has been linked to poorer outcomes for Black and Latino students. Our study examines trends in racially disproportionate assignment of Black and Latino students to less experienced teachers than their White counterparts. Specifically, our analysis illustrates statistically significant trends in the assignment of less experienced teachers to Black and Latino students in middle school math over several years. This analysis contributes to the recent research phenomenon of measuring the cumulative pattern of racially disproportionate teacher-student assignments over time as a particularly effective means of understanding the effects of systematic and sustained inequalities on academic achievement. Across several grades and content areas of instruction, we found that the race of students was related to the teaching experience of their teachers. Our findings illustrate the negative impacts of racial segregation on students of color and supports the need for more intervention and administrative intentions regarding teacher-student assignments and racial equity in schools.

Med pravičnostjo, kakovostjo in učnimi dosežki v osnovni šoli

Between equity, quality and learning achievements in primary school One of the features of Slovenian primary school system is the parallelism of two groups of schools – regular ones and those for certain groups of students with special needs. This makes us one of the few countries (EASIE, 2018) to still have completely separated schools for just over 2% of students with special needs. Despite the fact that both types comprise the same educational system, which is, in most aspects, regulated by the same law, some groups of students with special needs do not have the possibility of schooling under the same roof. However, this is only a part of the topic we are going to discuss. The other one tackles the question of equity of schooling in regular schools – besides all other students, this mostly concerns those with special needs, those with mild intellectual abilities, Roma students as well as those with low socio-economic standards (SES). The equity of the Slovenian school system will be discussed in a wider context, not only in the case of gender, SES and nationality comparing learning achievements. The article is based on the assumption that the regular school of today is not adjusted to the developmental needs of most students. For the purpose of discussion, elements which comprise the school system, must be defined: some are either of systemic or curricular, or conceptual or pedagogic nature, such as: curriculum, standards of knowledge, different forms of internal and external assessment, placement of children with special needs etc. Despite all of these elements compromising to make a stable schooling system, they are not all coherent with the needs of today’s modern society and are, even more so, in contrast with the results of the neuro-science in education. Another category of equal opportunities within the question of school equity would, besides the SES, nationality and ethnicity, have to be that of different capabilities of students, regarding the unified (official) standards of knowledge. All of these elements also make it difficult for today’s school to become a school of diversity. A school which will support different students, regardless of their learning achievements, SES and other characteristics. A school where all the students could be successfully educated, those who are already in the regular schools as well as those who are still part of the segregated forms of education. The article will depict why the present school system is no longer suitable for the majority of students and will point to possible solutions. The key solution touches on the changes of curriculums and the concept of assessment, the changes of which also have an impact on all the other elements. The assumptions will be clarified by studying the connection of stated elements and data of the international studies such as the TIMSS and PISA study from 2018 and earlier as well as using other actual Slovenian studies. Key words: equity in education, children with special needs, curriculum, minimum standards of knowledge, assessments, learning achievements, cognitive science

Call for Special Issue on Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity in Rural Schools and Communities

In this special issue of TPRE, we aim to highlight research, teaching, and curriculum that operates as resistance to neoliberal and oppressive educational policy and practice by inquiring into issues of social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in rural education.

When Whiteness Clouds Mindfulness: Using Critical Theories to Examine Mindfulness Trainings for Educators in Urban Schools

ABSTRACT This article describes results from a critical co-ethnography focused on a mindfulness training for educators in an urban school district in the southeastern region of the U.S. Working across racial difference, and utilizing critical race theory and critical whiteness studies as lenses, the co-ethnographers identified individualism that subverted systemic levels of oppression, race neutral ideologies, and ways the curricula and facilitation of this mindfulness training may have missed opportunities for racial equity work. Additionally, ideologies of whiteness were present in the training despite being situated in a larger teacher residency program with a mission centered on the realization of equity and racial justice in schools. Implications for mindfulness programs and urban teacher residency models are explored.

Effects of a Multifaceted Classroom Intervention on Racial Disproportionality

This article reports results from an experimental study of a classroom intervention intended to decrease racial disproportionality in school discipline by focusing on making classroom behavior systems more culturally responsive and changing teacher behaviors (e.g., use of praise and reprimands). The intervention had three main components: (a) an activity to increase the cultural responsiveness of classroom behavior expectations (the personal matrix), (b) a tool to assess individual students’ preferred and nonpreferred ways to receive immediate acknowledgement for desired behaviors (the praise preference assessment), and (c) coaching with visual performance feedback to heighten awareness of racial disparities in use of praise and reprimands and setting goals for racial equity (using a modified version of the Classroom Check-up). The design was a concurrent multiple-baseline single-case design across four general education teachers ranging from kindergarten to seventh grade meeting What Works Clearinghouse standards. Results from the study indicate a functional relation between the intervention and increased rates of praise and decreased rates of reprimands for African American students. Findings from this study suggest that changing teacher use of praise and reprimands may help to increase racial equity in schools.

Faculty promotion evaluation and gender equity in business schools

This article aims to address the fairness of promotion evaluation (appointments to the rank of full professor) process in Canadian business schools as perceived by tenured business female faculty. Our analysis is underscored by two studies with two different data collection methods (survey data analysis, policy content analysis) and driven by procedural justice as the main theoretical lens. The first study addresses the perspective of our survey participants ( N=198) by revealing that they believe the process of promotion evaluations is fair. Intrigued by this result, we undertook a second study to review the language of faculty collective agreements in these schools to explain partially why our participants believe in the fairness of promotion evaluations. The language of these faculty collective agreements suggests that the above result makes sense considering that they regulate promotion evaluations and decisions. However, this does not mean that the process of faculty promotions is free of gender discrimination as these faculty collective agreements have not addressed all the antecedents and predictors of gender inequity per se. The findings of this article are relevant because the issue of the underrepresentation of female faculty as related to promotion in senior academic ranks in Canadian business schools is under-researched. The existing studies on faculty promotion evaluations are too general and have not specifically addressed the fairness of business schools’ faculty promotion evaluation systems from the perspective of tenured business female faculty. Plus, the relevance of the findings of this article lies in the fact that contrary to most general studies on female faculty experience with promotion evaluations at Canadian universities and internationally, these findings suggest that such experience in Canadian business schools is not always associated with gender discrimination and negative perspectives among female faculty.

Why nutritious meals matter in school

The Trump Administration’s rollbacks in nutritional standards for school meals have been the subject of much criticism and the basis for a lawsuit. Research into food insecurity and public school meal quality shows that food security and high nutritional standards are essential to any efforts to improve both school equity and student performance. Eleanor Thompson describes this research and makes recommendations for halting proposed rollbacks and providing more durable protections for the regulations that exist.

Addressing Equity in Rural Schools: Opportunities and Challenges for School Meal Standards Implementation.

Few studies examine why rural public schools have weaker policies and practices related to school nutrition environments compared to their urban counterparts. It is important to understand this disparity because federal school meal standards aim for children to access health-promoting nutrition environments. In this study, we identify challenges and opportunities for the implementation of school meal standards in rural high schools. We interviewed 38 rural school professionals from 22 high schools across 7 states. School professionals included food service directors, principals, school nurses, and teachers. Team coding in Atlas.ti Qualitative Data Analysis software v8 and principles of comparative analysis were employed to generate themes related to challenges and opportunities. Overall, school professionals described improvements with implementation experiences and student acceptance over time. Key challenges included the negative influences of home and community food environments and limited staff size and capacity. Key opportunities involved joining co-ops to enhance purchasing power, leveraging state technical assistance, and forming external partnerships. This study offers insights from a broad range of rural school professionals' implementation experiences. The findings can inform governments and technical assistance agencies working with rural schools and school districts to facilitate implementation and sustainability of initiatives.

Hearts and Minds First: Institutional Logics in Pursuit of Educational Equity

Purpose:Despite an explosion of professional development to help educators discuss issues of race and equity, expectations for addressing racial disparities outstrip current leadership practices, and scant empirical research exists on the organizational changes that emerge from the work of equity teams. This study examined equity teams’ theories of organizational change for equity and how those theories related to their efforts to change school policies and practices. Research Methods/Approach: Drawing on institutional logics from organizational theory, this comparative case study examined transcripts and fieldnotes from 22 meetings and 27 interviews with two school equity teams in diverse contexts in the Pacific Northwest. Findings: Despite differences in the principals, team conversations, and organizational contexts, we found that both teams’ discussions asserted a primary theory of change for shifting schools toward greater equity. According to this “commonsense” notion, efforts to become more equitable as a school first require shifts in individuals’ understandings, beliefs, and attitudes—changes to “hearts and minds”— prior to engaging in other actions to address organizational change. Ultimately, our findings suggest that the dominance of a hearts-and-minds-first theory of change constrained changes to organizational policies, structures and practices. Conclusions: Alternative theories of change to catalyze equity-focused organizational shifts hold promise for fostering educational justice. Future participatory design research with schools may yield knowledge of multiyear organizational change.

Colorblind Policy in a Carceral Geography: Reclaiming Public Education

During the last decade, the federal government, states, and school districts implemented changes in school discipline policy to shift schools’ reliance from punishment and exclusion toward prevention, intervention, and restoration. In order to assess the impact of the last decade of reforms on attempts to decrease punishment and increase equity in schools, we examine nine large metropolitan districts that both revised their Codes of Conduct to limit their reliance on exclusionary discipline and implemented schoolwide behavioral and/or restorative programs. We find that while reforms are associated with decreases in students’ experience of three of four exclusionary discipline outcomes from 2009 to 2015, these benefits tend to accrue to the least vulnerable students – White students without disabilities. One explanation of this finding is that colorblind, risk-based, carceral assumptions of school and state policies undercut efforts to increase equity in school discipline.

Socialization of Gender Stereotypes Related to Attributes and Professions Among Young Spanish School-Aged Children.

Modern societies increasingly show more egalitarian attitudes related to sexism and gender equality. However, there is still an important gender gap in wages and professions as well as in expectations surrounding male and female characteristics. Developmental studies carried out from an ecological perspective confirm that these influences come from the closest environments (mainly family and school) but also from more distant systems such as media or cultural values. As children are socialized in these norms and values, they increasingly internalize those schemes and use them to judge others, to choose friends and playmates, and to construct expectations of them. On this basis, the aim of this study was to examine the degree of gender bias internalization in a group of Spanish children. Two tasks were applied to a group of 149 public school boys and girls (aged 4–9 years). Results showed that, already from an early age, the participants had internalized traditional gender roles, especially when asked to assign masculine attributes. Moreover, group differences were found given that boys seemed to be more aware of expectations surrounding masculinity and girls assigned the attributes associated with femininity to women more often than boys. Furthermore, a developmental pattern similar to one obtained in previous studies was observed. Younger children already apply gender roles as part of their increasing acquisition of knowledge in the social field, but there is a big increase in the strength of this bias as they grow older. Psychological and educational implications of these findings are discussed, especially considering that the male gender role seems to be more rigid and less malleable. In this regard, developmental and environmental studies should be considered when designing early intervention programs to reduce sexism and to promote equity in schools and families. As research has already shown what type of environments affect children’s acquisition of traditional gender roles, society must make an effort to promote more egalitarian environments that will serve as protective factors in their future psychological, social and professional development.

Free Instructional Resources Provision on Equity in Access to Education in Primary Schools in Marakwet Sub County, Kenya

Free primary education (FPE) in Kenya came into being in the year 2003. The introduction of the policy was aimed at realizing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) objectives before the year 2015. FPE was mooted with the idea of promoting equity and access to education by all children despite their economic background, gender, geographical location among other factors but its effect in promoting equity has been the subject for inquiry by many scholars although no study has been undertaken to look at the contribution of FPE on promotion of equity in primary in Marakwet Sub County, Elgeyo–Marakwet County, Kenya. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of free instructional resources provision on Equity in access to education in primary schools in Marakwet Sub County, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya. The study was guided by Rawls Theory of Justice. The study was conducted in primary schools in Marakwet Sub County involving 99 schools. The study used cross-sectional survey research design technique. The target population comprised of head teachers, Sub County Education Officer (DEO), Parents Teachers Representatives (PTA) and teachers of selected schools within the Sub County. The sample size comprised of 30 head teachers, 30 PTA officials, 1 DEO and 197 teachers. Purposive and systematic sampling techniques were used in selecting respondents. Questionnaires, interview schedules and document checklists were instruments for data collection. Instruments were tested for validity and reliability before field data collection. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Multiple linear Regression) with the aid of SPSS (Version 20.0) computer programme. The findings were presented using tables, pie charts and graphs. MLR result showed that 12.3% of the Equity in access to education in primary schools was accounted by availing of instructional resources. The study recommends that there be an increase in vote heads for tuition support, infrastructure and teacher recruitment to ensure equity in education access in primary schools in the study area. The findings of the study will help the Ministry of Education on proper management and implementation of FPE Policy towards promoting equity in primary schools. The children rights to participation in free primary education will also be supported through the study findings.

Practicing youth participatory action research for school equity: A pedagogical model

The application of emancipatory pedagogical methods such as youth participatory action research may serve as a valuable practice for addressing educational inequity. This article presents educational leaders, teachers, researchers, and youth advocates with a description of applicable pedagogical methods that comprised the implementation of a youth participatory action research seminar at the middle school level. The authors describe a seminar that incorporated tenets of critical pedagogy and radical healing to maximize student engagement and enhance the impact of student voice in a project to expand school equity. Also provided is a course outline highlighting topics covered and activities implemented throughout the 12-week seminar. Important considerations and lessons learned are also discussed.

Gender and choice: differentiating options in Swedish upper secondary STEM programmes

ABSTRACT The extensive reforms of Sweden’s education system during the last few decades have resulted in deregulation and individualization of schools. In upper secondary education, a distinct flexible course structure with multiple options was introduced in order to enhance school effectiveness and equity. This study departs in some of the previously outlined tensions in educational research between market interests and a ‘free choice discourse’ in relation to processes of differentiation. The purpose of this article is to investigate the ways gender patterns may be reproduced in relation to the emergence of multiple options and the re-organization of subject matters within Swedish upper secondary science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Our case addresses relations between discourses of choice and gender articulated in policy incentives, and large-scale enrolment patterns. Our results show how multiple options reproduce gender orders by 1) changing the system in accordance with a general market logic emphasizing ‘freedom of choice’, and 2) distinguishing predominantly gendered subject matters. Also, our results point to the importance of studying the STEM domain at a non-aggregated level to further understand the mechanisms behind gender gaps in STEM education.

Educational supply policies: distortions and labor market performance

Is it always worth implementing an open enrollment policy? And implementing policies that pursue equity in school supply? What is the impact of these two policies on the labor market? Do they produce efficient aggregate outcomes in both the labor and educational markets? This paper theoretically provides answers to these questions by studying the link between distortionary school supply policies and labor market performance. We build a two-sector labor market matching model, where the skilled segment of the economy is composed of workers who differ in the quality of the school they attended. We show the impact of government interventions to eliminate educational supply policy distortions within this theory. We demonstrate that both open enrollment and school equity policies have ambiguous effects on the labor market. Whenever their impact on the measure of workers choosing to become better educated is stronger than the additional school quality gains generated by the policy, the effects on the economy are negative. We also study the central planner solution, emphasizing the existing inefficiencies.