Equity in Networked Improvement: For Whom and Under What Conditions?

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Transforming Educational Systems to Support Organizational Learning and Improvement: A Cross-National Comparison of Opportunities and Obstacles (Table 36)

Abstract

Objectives or purposes:
This paper draws from a longitudinal mixed methods study of a policy initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to support the development of over 40 networks for school improvement (NSI) across the United States. Here, we leverage this robust national sample of NSI to explore whether and how networked improvement can support greater equity in education systems and the challenges that may complicate this work.

Theoretical framework:
Networks for school improvement (NSI) seek to accelerate organizational change by connecting educators and expertise across organizational boundaries and responding to local needs (Bryk et al., 2015; Cohen et al., 2014; Duff et al., 2019; Peurach; Russell et al., 2017; Wohlstetter & Lyle, 2019). Given their proximity to local problems; deep engagement with educators, students and other community stakeholders; and emphasis on recognizing systemic factors that produce school-level outcomes (Bryk et al., 2015), some have further argued NSI are ideally-positioned to foster increased equity within education systems (Bocala & Yurkofsky, 2023; Bush-Mecenas, 2022; Jabbar & Childs, 2022; O’Day & Smith, 2019; Valdez et al., 2020). However, there is insufficient evidence about how equity is conceptualized within NSI and the implications for related network strategies, tools, and design. To this end, we combine Gutierrez’s equity framework (2012) and new institutionalism to shed light on how NSI leaders perceive and respond to shifting environmental expectations around the role of equity in continuous improvement and system transformation, as well as the organizational and contextual factors that mediate those responses.

Methods and data sources:
This convergent mixed methods study of over 30 U.S.-based NSI utilized a range of qualitative and quantitative data to support within- and cross-network analysis including: network proposal documents, notes generated in monthly check-ins between network leaders and BMGF program officers, formative evaluation reports, and both closed- and open-ended survey items from an annual survey of network members focused on their perceptions of equity within continuous improvement, an equity-driven culture, and the cultivation of membership to support DEI.

Results:
Interim findings suggest three primary themes. First, we find a considerable evolution in NSI’s commitment to equity, driven in large part by increased attention to equity in local and national contexts, as well as within the initiative. Second, despite increased commitment to equity overall, NSI demonstrated variation in both how they conceptualized equity and the degree to which those conceptualizations were explicitly and authentically integrated into their core work. Finally, NSI’s ability to realize their evolving equity goals in response to equity-related signals within their environment were mediated by technical, relational, and structural factors within their networks. Further analyses will specify the strategies and tools networks leveraged to meet evolving equity goals.

Scholarly significance:
While there is growing consensus among policymakers, practitioners, and researchers that NSI can support more equitable improvement in education systems, our work brings increased clarity to what equity means within improvement networks and how it is operationalized.

Authors

• Megan Duff, UNC Chapel Hill

• Jennifer Zoltners Sherer, University of Pittsburgh

• Jennifer Lin Russell, Vanderbilt University

• Anna Elisabeth Premo, ETH Zürich

• Angel Yee-lam Li, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

• Hanan Perlman, University of Pittsburgh