Embedded Files
INTRODUCTION
The leadership project that I would like to accomplish in the coming academic year that involves a group at my site experiencing marginalization is spearheading Mastery Learning and Grading. I want to be the lead person to roll out, coordinate, and provide support for this initiative school wide. I want to take on this project because the traditional way of learning and grading marginalize students across the board from student-centered, research-based methods. Mastery Learning and Grading (MLG) empowers students to take their learning into their own hands, and allow students to see their progress toward the goals. In other words, MLG makes visible the learning goal posts for students. In addition, it takes away teachers' bias, whether intentional or unintentional, from the grading process. The advent of MLG in education shed light into the arbitrary and subjective nature of the traditional way of grading which has been passed down from previous generations.
DATA & EVIDENCE
The quantitative data is a school-generated data shell called “2019-2020_Robert Louis Stevenson College & Career Prep_Incoming Kinder to College” (Table 1). It includes information for all students including names, IDs, grade level, EL designation, GPA, state test scores, etc. This data shell shows, among other things, the disaggregated data of the state test result in ELA. It also shows the correlation between the student’s ELA state test score from the Dashboard and the grade point average (GPA) student received. This data is relevant to understanding equity issues at my school for student groups because it reveals a disparity in outcome between state ELA test score and student’s GPA. For example, a student in row 3 has 3.167 GPA and scored “standard met” on the ELA achievement level. On the other hand, a student in row 18 has a .917 GPA who also reached “standard met” achievement level. There are more examples of this disparity with students in rows 7 and 13. As such, this quantitative data shows a particular student group within the Hispanic student group that is not receiving the GPA that reflects their academic performance level.
After seeing this equity issue, I decided to further investigate this equity issue by obtaining more quantitative data. The next quantitative data is another school-generated data shell called “Grades Comparison Stevenson_Kinder to College EOY1819” (Table 2). This data shell shows, among other metrics, the SBAC ELA performance levels for the two previous academic years prior to the pandemic (2017-2018 and 2018-2019), the course and letter grades students received, etc. This data is relevant to understanding equity issues at my school for student groups because it shows the disparity in outcome between academic performance in ELA on the state test and the grade received in the ELA class. For example, student De La O in row 44 scored a “Not Met” in the Performance Level ELA 1819 column and received a letter grade B in the English course. On the other hand, students Flores and Flores-Martinez from rows 53 and 54 respectively scored “Met” and also received letter grade B in the English course. In addition, student Gallegos in row 56 scored the highest Performance level called “Exceeded” but received a C the English course. This disparity in outcome repeats for students in rows 59 and 60. Consequently, this data shows a pattern of inequity for a student group within the Hispanic group in the grades students received in their English course in comparison to the academic performance they demonstrated in the ELA state test.
WHAT I LEARNED
What I have learned about equity-driven leadership is that its goal is to disrupt conditions that perpetuate the inequity. I learned this about equity-driven leadership because at the end of the process, I noticed that --if my proposed strategies are successful--my school would be in a much more equitable place for all students, especially the identified student group within the Hispanic group. This means that all students at my school now have a chance to have letter grades that truly measure their academic performance level and instill in them a growth mindset for learning. What I also learned about equity-driven leadership is that to make improvement in a school is to address the different contributing factors that created the status quo. In doing the equity gap analysis, I realized the causes behind the inequity is the combination of structural, institutional, and social factors. As such, I made my proposed strategies targeting these causes in hope for the desired outcome. For example, when I saw that teachers were giving grades that did not reflect all students’ academic performance, I proposed giving teachers training in a new grading method that is more equitable. I did not demand teachers to give equitable grades because the teachers were not the main driver--the traditional grading system was. Coincidentally, this strategy also helps to build capacity in the teachers for the eventual school-wide implementation of the mastery grading system. The volunteer teachers who attend the professional development during winter break will become a part of the wide support system the school provides when the whole school switches to using mastery grading.
Student survey on grading
Understanding the structural and institutional factors as well as other contexts that may be contributing to the equity gap was important for me in providing equity-driven leadership. It is important because these factors and contexts can be the root causes of the equity issue and understanding them gives equity-driven leadership the leverage to uproot the issue at the source. In other words, equity-driven leadership is about disrupting the conditions (institutional and/or structural) and changing the systems that produced the inequity for the student group. Through my Leadership work, I came to understand that the root causes of the disparity in outcome for the student group within the Hispanic group are both institutional and structural. These are the long-held beliefs and practices in education as well as the organizational structure of the school that produced the marginalization of this student group. For that reason, my proposed strategies targeted these factors to disrupt its continuing harm to the student group identified. For instance, by understanding that the practice of penalizing students for late work harms this student group, I proposed the strategy of replacing it with another grading system whose late work policy is inconsequential.
self-reflection
One of the strengths in addressing equity needs for a group of students at my school is the collection and analysis of data. In this process, I used multiple types of quantitative and qualitative data to analyze the equity issue. At first, I did not see the equity issue using just the data from the California state indicator and dashboard. The data seems to indicate that the Hispanic student population performs as well as the whole school. However, when I used additional quantitative data (Table 1) to look at the disaggregated data of the same student group, I began to see a pattern of disparity in outcome. Even then, the data did not give me the whole picture of the disparity. Consequently I found another quantitative data (Table 2) to validate the inequity I earlier suspected. Furthermore, collecting qualitative data in the forms of observation, survey and focus group crystallized the equity issue found in the quantitative data. In collecting these qualitative data, I wanted to get the perspective of a diverse group of stakeholders to broaden the scope of my view on the issue. That is why I selected to observe teachers and collected surveys and focus data from students.
Another area of strength of mine is the use of research to support all the steps in the Leadership project. I wanted to make sure that everything I do is grounded and guided by evidence-based research. I did so to enhance the validity of my approach whether in analyzing the equity issue or in implementing the proposed strategies. As such, I found multiple research sources that spoke about the different contributing factors that I associated with the equity problem. In addition, I cited scholarly work to support my work in identifying areas of educational needs. I want to be confident that my determination is aligned with the expert’s opinion. Lastly, in articulating the problem statement, I connected it with an empirical research study that featured a school that also faced similar equity problems. I wanted to draw on their success as the model for my own school practice.
CAPES
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