Using “Beating the Odds” Methodology to Help Identify Equity-Focused Urban School Leaders

• In Event: Equity Leadership in Challenging Contexts: Recovery, Reform, & Gender Policy Implementation

Abstract

This paper describes an adaptation of “beating the odds” (BTO) methodologies to identify a diverse pool of schools with effective equity-focused race-conscious leadership practices. The research context is a district-university research-practice partnership (RPP) with an initial focus on predominately African-American schools. The approach utilizes standardized regression residuals to distinguish schools that outperform demographically similar schools on diverse performance measures. Our pilot regression models account for moderate to high percentages of variance in both academic and non-academic outcome variables and reliably distinguish a pool of BTO schools at least .4 standard deviations above the mean for similar schools. Discussion situates these results within a diversified mixed-methods strategy for documenting equity-focused leadership strategies in diverse elementary and secondary school contexts.

Author

• Samuel P. Whalen, University of Illinois at Chicago