Practical Measurement to Catalyze Teaching for Every Student

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Criticality, Justice, and Liberation in Improvement Science (Table 1)

Abstract

Diamond & Gomez (2023), in their article critically examining the role of systems in the pernicious marginalization experienced by Black students in U.S. schools, argue that “anti-Black racism and white supremacy are perpetuated through their deep embeddedness in organizational processes,” such as processes of teaching and learning in classrooms, and disciplinary procedures (p.3). These processes can privilege students from dominant backgrounds while denying opportunities and dehumanizing students of color and from other marginalized communities (Lewis & Diamond, 2015). In the context of an equity- and justice-focused school improvement effort, practical measures can serve the purpose of illuminating and focusing attention on the key organizational routines where equity and justice are advanced - or inequity and injustice are produced and perpetuated - in the day-to-day of schooling.
In our presentation, we will explore how practical measures can play the role of illuminating and ultimately supporting the disruption of routines that perpetuate injustice in schools. We will present a framework for considering what it looks like and what it means for a practical measurement process to promote the redesign of educational processes towards equity and justice. We use the concept of “resourcing” (Feldman, 2004), which considers resources within any organization as intertwined with the social routines and actions of that organization, rather than being conceived of as static “things.” It is through the enactment and use by members of an organization that turns tools, technology, or other objects into resources, and in turn, resources shape the actions and routines of the organization. When considering practical measures that can be resources for educational equity and justice, therefore, the question we explore is not about the characteristics of these measures as status objects, but rather the types of organizational routines and actions that they would promote and enable.
We articulate five measurement routines that practical measures ought to enable teams of teachers and instructional leaders to engage in: a) attending to and reflecting on the day-to-day practices and processes that constrain and/or enable equity in classrooms; b) Identifying and generating instructional moves they can test to advance equity; c) positioning students to take ownership over the learning environment; d) engaging in conversations and develop interpretations of how race, gender, and identity more broadly shape the learning environment; and e) surfacing minoritized students’ strengths and generating ideas for how to build on them.
We will explore how these routines are or are not enabled by practical measures that we have encountered in the field of math instructional improvement. We will consider how these measures have or have not promoted the kinds of measurement routines, and the implications for practical measures to play a catalytic role in educational equity and justice work.

Authors

• Sola Takahashi, WestEd

• Jahneille Cunningham, WestEd

• Brent Jackson, WestEd