Inroads to Equity: Seattle's Reflective Journey to Systemic Change

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Fourteen
  In Roundtable Session: Transforming Organizations and Systems for Educational Improvement (Table 4)

Abstract

Seattle Public Schools continues to make systematic progress and inroads to creating accessible and equitable services to meet the advanced learning needs of all their students. Incorporating elements of Systems Thinking and Relational Coordination Theory (Gittel, 2011), practitioner working groups (PWG) co-designed a 6-year timeline to implement equitable services for identified, unidentified, and underserved, gifted students. This paper highlights the initial process of transformation that includes three critical attributes of relational coordination: shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect. Collectively, authors offer reflections and insights from their engagement in this process to encourage, inspire, and foster impetus for others to embark on disrupting inequitable and racist structures that persist in gifted and talented programs throughout the country.

Authors

• Nancy B. Hertzog, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Kristina Henry Collins, Texas State University
  Presenting Author

• Claudine Deenie Berry, Seattle Public Schools
  Presenting Author