Designing at the Margins: How Senior School District Leaders of Color Learn to Enact Equitable Policies and Practices

• In Event: Improving Leader of Color Retention: How Lessons on Principal Turnover Are Influencing New District Practices

Abstract

While a growing body of research explores how teachers disrupt anti-Black practices, we know less about how district leaders learn to dismantle anti-Black racist policies and practices. This 20-month study examines how superintendents of color and members of their leadership team learn how, through an affinity group, to identify anti-Black policies and practices in their districts. In this study we answer the following question - how do school district leaders of color participating in an affinity group learn to design and implement equitable policies and practices aimed at closing persistent opportunity gaps?

To answer our research question, we drew on data collected from three sources: observations, interviews, and surveys. We observed three 2-day in-person convening and 19 virtual sessions, which amounted to 70 hours of observational data. We administered three surveys over the course of the affinity group: one pre-survey in January 2019, a mid-point survey in January 2020, and a post-survey in July 2020. Finally, we conducted 1:1 interviews (n = 27) with each member of the affinity group as well as the facilitator. In total, data collection took place over the course of 20 months, January 2019-August 2020.

The affinity group was comprised of five district leaders of color from five school districts in the Midwest and East Coast, all of whom served predominantly students of color who also qualified for free or reduced lunch and was facilitated by a former administrator. Participants included members from three traditional school districts and two charter school networks. In addition to the most senior leaders, each district team included members of the senior leader’s cabinet as well as one school building leader. It is also important to note that most affinity group members self-identified as a person of color. Finally, as part of the affinity group, each district identified one dilemma of practice.

After analyzing the data, we found that affinity group members learned to design and implement equitable policies and practices aimed at closing opportunity gaps through the use of (a) skillful facilitation, (b) learning about the past to design for the future, and (c) core characteristics of the affinity group. Below, we provide a more in-depth analysis and discussion of how members of the affinity group learned to design and implement equitable policies and practices.

First, we found that the skillful equity-centered facilitation of Caroline Hill, ExD facilitator, provided the enabling conditions for affinity group members to learn policies and practices that have the potential to close persistent opportunity gaps.

The second way affinity group members said they learned how to design equitable policies and practices was learning about the past to design for the future. The required pre-reading activity from the ExD facilitator, Caroline, focused on the legacy of racism in each of the five districts in which the affinity group teams were located.

Finally, we observed that three core characteristics of the affinity group supported participants’ capacity to design equitable policies and practices: (a) a designated affinity space for critical engagement, (b) emboldened to lead for equity, and (c) an expectation to put equity into action.

Author

• Travis J. Bristol, University of California - Berkeley