Racial Equity Commitments and Assimilationist Goals: The Challenges and Opportunities Present Within Inherently Conflicted Policies

• In Event: School Boards in the Storm: Local Governance and Controversy

Abstract

Districts across the country are adopting equity-driven policies, yet district leaders' implementation remains understudied. In this paper, we examine how a school board and district science team navigated their equity-driven strategic plan while adopting a new science curriculum. Although the strategic plan included explicit racial equity commitments, we argue that those commitments were undermined by their connection to assimilationist goals to decrease testing gaps as opposed to expansive metrics of successful education. While our findings illustrate tight coupling between leadership practices and the assimilationist goals embedded within the strategic plan, we offer a conceptual argument to envision what it would look like for district leaders to instead tightly couple their leadership practices to their racial equity commitments.

Authors

• Sarah Clancey, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Jessica J. Thompson, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author