Leadership Project:
Equity Gap
Analysis
My vision for leadership is to create a learning community where stakeholders work together to ensure equity by making visible, the unseen, and by allowing the unheard voices of the community, heard. In order to work towards this, I need to constantly look at data and scrutinize it to help identify trends that point to possible inequities and act on it immediately to prevent marginalization.
When looking at my school's data for Ed-411 class, it was immediately apparent that African American students are experiencing greater learning risks than the other subgroups in my school.
African American students make up 3% of Ricardo Lizarraga Elementary School’s population, however, they are experiencing significantly higher rates of chronic absenteeism. Attempts to mitigate this have failed over the past three years. The school’s lack of attention to disaggregated data has led to oblivion towards the structural and institutional factors that deny African Americans the motivation they need to stay in school. With its strong relationship to access to learning opportunities, chronic absenteeism has brought about additional gaps in academic achievement, as evidenced by the consistently lower scores and minimal gains (if any) they obtain in reading and literacy.
This leadership project aimed to scratch the surface and identify barriers that prevent our African American students from fully participating in school. Ultimately, the goal is to find ways to increase attendance beyond previously implemented strategies like Fun Fridays or pizza parties.
Knowing that I could not do this alone, I engaged stakeholders in a collaborative process towards a common vision. By tapping some members of the Black Students Matter Committee and having them as my allies in this project, we were able to plan for further steps address the identified need.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Given the initial quantitative data gathered which showed evidence of the equity gap, the team pursued the understanding of the why. With that goal, I designed an empathy interview protocol that intended to elicit explanations for why students were absent.
Given the initial quantitative data gathered which showed evidence of the equity gap, the team pursued the understanding of the why. With that goal, I designed an empathy interview protocol that intended to elicit explanations for why students were absent.
The other data source is the interviews with the school staff. Collecting these varied data is responsive to the inequity gap among the African Americans’ absenteeism because it provides the opportunity for diverse viewpoints as well as meaningful inquiry into occurrences that may not come to light by just relying on quantitative data.
Collecting these varied data is responsive to the inequity gap among the African Americans’ absenteeism because it provides the opportunity for diverse viewpoints as well as meaningful inquiry into occurrences that may not come to light by just relying on quantitative data.
The Team also reviewed Misis contact logs to to review school practices in curbing absences. In dialoguing about our findings, we saw that there is an inconsistent approach to reaching out to parents of students who are absent. By using the fishbone to conduct our analysis, we determined the presence of certain micro-aggressions and biases that cause them to not want to come to school.
Because of these findings, the Team determined to focus on re-establishing the trust and cooperation between the families of the identified chronically absent students. This, we did by practicing a culture of care. This was especially significant at this time of the pandemic. Some of the implemented strategies to achieve build this culture of care were: planning monthly dialogues with parents, conducting home-visits to identified families, highlighting and involving African American students and families during assemblies and planning for the Black History month.
When investigating outcomes of the interventions, quantitative data from the attendance dashboard showed a positive trajectory on attendance from December to early March. Based on teacher's feedback, there were shifts in relationships and parent behaviors immediately after the Black History month celebration in that they began to acknowledge teachers on zoom (Saying hi or being more open to asking questions about their child or classwork). These were indicators that the strategy of reaching out to the families had a positive impact on the relationship between school and home. Whether it has a long-term impact is another question. As we moved on to late March and approached Spring break, attendance started to go the other direction. These is also a question on the sustainability and effectiveness of the interventions on truly changing the root causes of the problem of non-belongingness.
Month by month attendance trend for the year 2020-2021 is different from previous years that showed dips in attendance during January and February.
2016-2020: 4-year data indicates a consistent increase in absences during the months of December and February- both festive months in a school year.
*Note: data in yellow highlights were from the Teacher strike and the pandemic
WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:
Based on the increase of attendance during the duration of the intervention that focused on increasing home-school connections, I could say that we, indeed, identified a significant factor that contributed to the absences. Seeing the change in some parents attitude towards zooming and the openness displayed as they non-hesitatingly reached out to teachers about their child's/children's work are evidence that the building a culture of care increased the relational trust between teachers and parents.
One thing that I will change and work towards is my ability to distribute task and leadership. As someone who aims to lead through a socio-cultural lens, I wish to work on the gradual release of responsibility to further empower stakeholders and build stronger capacity within the school structures.
Implementing sustainable change is a challenge that I see. In reflecting about this leadership project I ask myself the following questions: How can we continue strengthening this culture of care and dispel the unconscious biases and micro-aggressions that affect our relationships with our Black parents and the community? How can we move this along so that we are able to establish coalition and solidarity with Black and other Non-Black parents with chronically absent students as well?
BRINGING MY IDENTITY INTO THE PROJECT:
As a Resource Teacher, I am able to work closely with General Education teachers and students, looking at data and making adjustments to help refine our instruction to help students access the curriculum more effectively. I also used my positionality as a Special Education teacher whose main goal is inclusion. Lastly, as the sole Pacific Islander in my school, I can identify with the African American population in that, our minority status in the school seems to come with it, the feeling of being ignored.
Throughout this leadership project, I utilized my research skills. Equity driven research tools such as the Driver Diagram and the Fishbone were excellent for identifying a root cause of absenteeism. These tools guided us in identifying a problem, in planning for interventions as well as measures that can provide feedback as to the effectiveness of the interventions. Our group appreciated the way the tools centered the student in a system that often doesn’t.
I have learned that equity-driven leadership begins with a variety of data to understand the whole school, including every subgroup no matter how small. This type of leadership also means having the ability to gather and interpret available information and look for buried data (ex. The lack of mention of African Americans in the SPSA). It is about making data-driven decisions that positively impact school culture and academic achievement.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This project may have focused on African Americans. However, its outcomes also reflect validity on the other groups we encounter daily.
I place great importance on positive school climate because I know that it plays a vital role in motivating students to come to school. As teachers and leaders, we have the obligation to provide a safe and welcoming space for our students, because learning will never take place in a threatening or neglecting space.
As a Social Justice Leader, I must be able to establish a Culture of Care: Learn to be in dialogue with families and other stakeholders, collaborate to ensure safe spaces for our families to speak out about problems they have, without fear of backlash or judgement.
As a Social Justice Leader, I must look beyond the surface: examine data carefully and identify patterns that produce inequity,
combat these and prevent marginalization.
CAPES
