Leadership Project Analysis & Narrative

As a Community Schools Coordinator and African American educational leader, my leadership goals for this project centered on creating inclusive, culturally responsive spaces that uplift and support underserved, marginalized, and vulnerable students, specifically the Hispanic student population at Baldwin Hills Elementary. Early data analysis revealed a significant equity issue: 63% of Hispanic students were identified as chronically absent compared to a 34% school-wide rate 

While this number provided a quantitative snapshot, the deeper story emerged through participatory inquiry with staff and families. Rooted in my lived experiences and guided by the diverse positionalities of my leadership team, including Hispanic parents, a Black Student Achievement Program (BSAP) parent representative, and veteran school staff, we identified overlapping factors: cultural stigma around mental health, lack of trust between families and schools, language barriers, and logistical challenges like transportation.

Using the Improvement Science framework, we engaged in co-constructed actions aimed at increasing trust and engagement. These included empathy interviews with families and staff, formation of the Hispanic Parent Alliance, outreach to culturally affirming community mental health partners, and the launch of "Coffee with the Principal" sessions to create informal, parent-centered dialogue spaces. We anticipated that, in the short term, these strategies would increase family engagement and insight into root causes. Long-term, our goal was to reduce chronic absenteeism through trust-building, culturally responsive programming, and family-centered design. I played a key leadership role in coordinating cross-stakeholder dialogue, facilitating reflective spaces, and advocating for relational practices over top-down mandates.

Our leadership team collected both quantitative and qualitative data to explore the chronic absenteeism gap. The initial data from EdData and LAUSD metrics highlighted a widening disparity between Hispanic students and their peers. However, it was through student, parent, and teacher interviews that we unearthed the systemic and cultural factors fueling absenteeism. One parent candidly shared, “If my child says they don’t feel good, I let them stay home. That’s how I was raised, and I don’t want the school in my business.” Another student remarked, "If we got something for coming to school, like a prize or points, maybe we’d come more. But there’s nothing, so it doesn’t matter."

Through our team analysis, we discovered that what we initially thought were student-centered causes, like peer belonging and incentives, were secondary. The true barrier was a lack of belonging and trust among parents, particularly Hispanic families. Teachers shared frustration around unclear roles: “I thought someone else was calling home,” one explained, while others noted, “I try, but I don’t speak Spanish, and it’s hard to have meaningful conversations through Google Translate.” The themes that emerged  validated the need for a cultural and structural shift in how schools communicate and build trust.

Our equity actions evolved during implementation. We began with student-focused strategies but shifted to address cultural silence, parent mistrust, and underutilization of services. Practical barriers, like limited coverage for teacher participation, inconsistent parent turnout due to work constraints, and political tension among staff, required us to adjust our pace and scale. Instead of large-scale programming, we leaned into consistent, smaller relationship-driven engagements like “Coffee With the Prinicpal,” which proved more sustainable and impactful.

My identity as a Black woman and Community Schools Coach deeply influenced this work. I understood the generational hesitation to engage with institutions and the emotional labor of navigating education systems while carrying the weight of cultural stigma. My leadership was shaped by transformational coaching, centering listening for understanding, and co-creating with humility rather than directing with authority. The identities of my leadership team further informed our direction. Ms. Murdock, as a former parent turned Parent Center Director, brought institutional memory and community trust. Ms. Patti, a parent of a chronically absent student, offered lived experience and vulnerability that grounded our decisions in compassion.

This project reaffirmed my core leadership values, empathy, shared ownership, and culturally responsive inquiry. I utilized tools such as the PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle and the Fishbone Diagram to help the team move from blame to root cause identification. These methods, along with participatory sense-making, helped eliminate assumptions and surface structural gaps without centering individuals as the problem. My approach was grounded in sociocultural theory, which views learning as shaped by social context and identity. Looking forward, I will lead equity and justice work by staying committed to community-based change. In a time of political tension and systemic inequity, I believe that deep listening, relational trust, and culturally affirming leadership are our most powerful tools. I will continue to center marginalized voices in the design of solutions, use Improvement Science to remain adaptive, and lean into discomfort as a space for transformation. While I don’t have all the answers, I am committed to asking the right questions with those most impacted, and to co-creating systems where students and families can thrive with dignity.

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Supporting Documents