Driving Toward Equity Through School Improvement Community of Practice
In the Driving Equity Through School Improvement Community of Practice (Equity and School Improvement Community), state and district leaders will learn with and from each other about the use of equity indicators to address disparities in outcomes and opportunities to learn.
Timely Resource
Re-Imagine, Re-Tool, Re-Commit
This animated video offers advice for the school improvement process that was suggested by members of the Equity and School Improvement Community of Practice. State education agency and district leaders from seven states participated in a year-long initiative supported by the National and Regional Comprehensive Centers. The Community of Practice was based on the National Academy of Sciences Monitoring Educational Equity report and focused on the use of equity indicators for systemic change. The advice is provided in five areas of the school improvement process: designation of low performing schools; crafting messages; setting planning requirements; supporting changes; and sustaining improvements.
Community Co-Leads
Chris Dwyer
Carol Keirstead
Donna Elam
Year 2: Support State Teams by Addressing Current Challenges
Objectives: Support state teams by addressing current challenges
- State teams are able to share specific challenges they are having with their strategic priorities, school improvement processes, selection of equity indicators/measures
- Participants share their experiences, expertise, practical strategies with their colleagues
Driving Questions:
- What types of challenges are teams facing in making progress on strategic priorities?
- What types of challenges are teams facing related to identifying equity indicators and measures?
- What types of challenges are teams facing related to bringing equity into school improvement processes?
- What is the nature of suggestions offered by peers?
Access the session summary here
CCNetwork Resources
Taking Initial Steps on Strategic Plans
Identifying and addressing inequities can be daunting—and, as a result, descriptions of state strategic priorities are complex and multi-dimensional. To move toward meaningful action, it will be important to craft specific questions and/or identify smaller steps that can be accomplished in a 5–6-month period that will move your team toward addressing larger questions.
Year 2: Teacher Workforce Data and Equitable Opportunities for Students
Objectives: Leverage teacher data to advance equity
- Learn about the status of teacher workforce data
- Hear about state models for using teacher data for equity purposes
- Identify existing data about teachers as well as gaps within states
- Learn about strategies for measuring cultural responsiveness
Driving Questions:
- What types of data about the teacher workforce are generally available, and what may be missing?
- What types of data are useful for tracking equity indicators related to teaching at different levels of the system?
- How are states leveraging data about teachers to understand equitable opportunities?
- What are options for measuring teachers’ cultural responsiveness?
Year 2: Strategic Priorities and Resource Equity
Objectives: Welcome to Year 2
- Learn about planned strategic priorities from seven state teams
- Share feedback on strategic priorities
- Receive information about resource equity requirements, tools, resources
- Interact with team members from other states
Driving Questions:
- What are state teams’ strategic priorities? Which state teams have similar priorities?
- What are common themes in state team concerns and contexts?
- What are the requirements related to resource equity in Title I?
- How can the Student Spending and Outcomes Snapshot be used to spark conversations about equity?
- How did Alabama use an equity lens in changing its resource allocation formula for low performing schools and districts?
- How could the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford be used to inform equity planning?
Recordings
Breakout Session Recordings
Year 2: State Strategic Priorities
State strategic priorities:
Updates from existing teams and introducing new teams
Objectives: Welcome to Year 2
- Introduce Year 2 teams.
- Provide updates related to the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Monitoring Educational Equity report.
- Introduce the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University.
- Review big ideas emerging from states in Year 1.
Driving Questions:
- Who is participating in Year 2? What roles are represented on teams?
- What’s happening around the country with equity indicators?
- What cross-cutting themes emerged from teams participating in Year 1?
- What’s expected for strategic priorities in Year 2?
Here are the slides that were shared during this session.
Recordings
CCNetwork Resources
NAS Equity Indicator Glossary
The National Comprehensive Center compiled this glossary from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Monitoring Educational Equity report.
Re-Imagine, Re-Tool, Re-Commit: Advice for the School Improvement Journey
This animated video offers advice for the school improvement process that was suggested by members of the Equity and School Improvement Community of Practice. State educational agency and district leaders from seven states participated in a year-long initiative supported by the National and Regional Comprehensive Centers. The Community of Practice was based on the National Academy of Sciences Monitoring Educational Equity report and focused on the use of equity indicators for systemic change.
Year 1: Framing the Conversation: Equity Indicators in School Improvement
Driving Questions:
- What was the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Monitoring Educational Equity trying to do and why?
- Why should, and how can, SEAs and LEAs use the framework of indicators?
- What is its value of equity indicators in solving challenges in low-performing schools?
- What should we know about the intersection of race and poverty?
CCNetwork Resources
Shifting the Frame: Presentation from Equity Community of Practice
In this portion from our Equity Community of Practice kick-off, on February 4, 2022, Dr. Sean Reardon describes the framing of educational equity that the National Academy of Sciences Commission came to embrace. The reframing of educational equity is grounded in four mindset shifts including moving from a focus on failing schools to addressing the educational system.
Major Concepts: Presented at the Equity Community of Practice
Christopher Edley describes why the Commission focused on disparities in opportunities, including the context in which students live, and the role of adults inside and outside school systems in mitigating educational disadvantages. Sean Reardon offers an example of how a low performing district might think about analyzing gaps over the trajectory of students’ education.
Digging into the Indicators: Presentation at the Equity Community of Practice
A succinct review of the Commission’s proposed outcome and opportunity-to-learn indicators, identifying which have an adequate research basis and which need additional work. Christopher Edley explains the choice of constructs associated with indicators for measurement purposes. Edley and Reardon discuss the importance of the indicator about access to effective teaching and its dimensions.
External Resources
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Monitoring Educational Equity
Monitoring Educational Equity proposes a system of indicators of educational equity and presents recommendations for implementation.
Year 1: Focus on Student Outcomes and Examining Disparities
Driving Questions:
- Which student outcomes (and constructs) are not typically measured and reported in your state or district? Which might be of interest for illuminating disparities?
- Where are the greatest disparities in outcomes among student groups in your state or district?
- Which aspects of current school identification and improvement processes illuminate disparities in outcomes?
- What are effective methods and tools to support districts and schools in understanding disparities in student outcomes?
CCNetwork Resources
Using Risk Ratios to Identify Disparities in Student Outcomes
Dr. Tom Munk from the IDEA Data Center explains how to display data about outcomes and opportunity-to-learn indicators as risk ratios. He discusses why risk ratios are useful in discussions about disparities and provides guidance for calculating, organizing and interpreting risk ratios. Included are directions for customizing Excel spreadsheets at the district and state levels.
External Resources
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Success Gaps Toolkit
The Success Gaps Toolkit: Addressing Equity, Inclusion, and Opportunity includes materials and resources for facilitating a team to address success gaps in a district or school by identifying root causes and developing a subsequent improvement plan for reducing success gaps.
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Building Educational Equity Indicator Systems: A Guidebook for States and School Districts
This resource provides information to help state and school district leaders develop ways of tracking educational equity within their pre-K – 12 systems.
Year 1: Opportunity-to-Learn Indicators
Driving Questions:
- Which opportunity-to-learn indicators (and constructs) are most important to consider in your state or district?
- Where are the greatest disparities in opportunities among student groups in low performing schools?
- What data about opportunities are required to move forward with your state’s strategic priority?
- How might you apply the information from Session 2 about risk ratios to opportunity-to-learn indicators?
CCNetwork Resources
Expanding the Definition of Equitable School and Student Success Part 1: Probing Course Levels
Dr. Andrew Rice from Education Analytics discusses course pathways as predictive of important student outcomes. He describes methods and challenges of evaluating course difficulty level and shows results of following course pathways through students’ secondary careers, uncovering sometimes “hidden” tracking. He shares an approach to probing course difficulty by using prior year standardized test scores to categorize courses.
Expanding the Definition of Equitable School and Student Success Part 2: Social-Emotional Learning and School Culture and Climate
Dr. Libby Pier from Education Analytics discusses the results of a number of studies based on student surveys of social-emotional well-being (self-management, social awareness, growth mindset, and self-efficacy) and culture and climate (sense of belonging, sense of safety, climate of support for academic learning, and knowledge and fairness of discipline, rules, and norms). Results include patterns of grade level and subgroup differences as well as the relative contributions of individual, classroom and school factors.
External Resources
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Success Gaps Toolkit
The Success Gaps Toolkit: Addressing Equity, Inclusion, and Opportunity includes materials and resources for facilitating a team to address success gaps in a district or school by identifying root causes and developing a subsequent improvement plan for reducing success gaps.
Year 1: Equity Indicators in the Classroom: Highly Effective Teachers and Teaching
Driving Questions
- What are the implications of the evidence (e.g., Monitoring Educational Equity Chapter 5) about highly effective and teaching for:
- teacher preparation?
- teacher recruitment?
- teacher assignment in low performing schools?
- staffing roles, structures, and supports, including professional development?
- state expectations for low performing schools?
CCNetwork Resources
Teachers as Creators of Classroom Culture: Videos from the Driving Toward Equity Through School Improvement CoP Session
As part of Equity Indicators in the Classroom: Highly Effective Teachers and Teaching, Dr. Mary Murphy, Indiana University and Stanford’s Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences, discusses the necessity of creating a growth mindset culture in classrooms.
Year 1: Focus on Students in Poverty: High Impact Learning Strategies
Driving Questions:
- What should teachers know about working with students in poverty?
- What does the evidence reveal about instructional strategies that are most helpful in supporting student learning for students in poverty?
- How can principals and district personnel support teachers of high poverty students to employ effective strategies?
- How do the recommended strategies support accelerated learning?
- What are the implications for SEA guidance and support for low performing schools?
CCNetwork Resources
Presentation on Supporting Students in Poverty: High-Impact Instructional Strategies Toolkit
Dr. Kim Benton provides an overview of the Supporting Students in Poverty with High-Impact Instructional Strategies Toolkit. She gives an orientation to evidence-based, high-impact strategies and supportive actions at teacher, principal, and district and state agency levels.
Learning Forward's Professional Learning Standards: Centered on Equity
Dr. Amy Colton provides an introduction to Learning Forward’s new equity-based standards for professional learning and the numerous resources designed to support implementation of the standards.
Supporting Students in Poverty with High-Impact Instructional Strategies Toolkit
The Supporting Students in Poverty with High-Impact Instructional Strategies Toolkit provides teachers, principals, district staff, and state agencies with evidence-based, high-impact strategies and supportive actions that have the potential to decrease the negative impacts of poverty on student achievement. The toolkit identifies five high-impact instructional strategies that teachers can implement with the support of their principals.