-Community Empowerment Strand -Open Space Strand
Set G: Tuesday, September 30 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
You can select one session from both Set F and Set G. If you select from Sets F and G, do not select from Set E. Select one session from Set G:
G01 District Equity Leadership Teams: A Guiding Coalition Driving Systemic Equity Transformation--A Roundtable Discussion
Unlock the passion (will), practice (knowledge and skill) and persistence (capacity) of your district's equity/anti-racist leaders, and empower them to create the conditions for district, school, and classroom equity transformation. Learn how equity/anti-racist leaders develop persistence that is strong enough to overwhelm institutional inertia and resistance against change. Engage with a panel of educational leaders who have reclaimed their hope and belief in the possibility of a future devoid of racial injustice.
Cynthia Hays, Director of Leadership, Organizational and Strategic Development, Pacific Educational Group, San Francisco, CA; Alan Elko, Superintendent, West Chester Area School District, West Chester, PA; Daniel Jett, Superintendent, West Metro Education Program, Edina, MN; Barbara Adams, Chief Academic Officer, Boston Public Schools, Boston, MA; Phyllis Young, Principal and Equity Coach (retired), North Sacramento School District, Sacramento, CA.
Strand: Equity Leadership
G02 Reflections On Our Journey to the Starting Line: WCASD's Closing the Gap Strategic Plan
Since voluntarily desegregating in the 1970s, the West Chester Area School District has claimed the diversity of its student body as an asset. Despite that claim, and the efforts of groups of dedicated and passionate educators, the district had failed to address the achievement of its students of color in any systemic manner. Discover how two arduous years of Courageous Conversation has built the district's capacity for equity and a readiness to finally begin closing the gap.
Angela Williams, Monica McHale-Small, and Pat Verbovszky, West Chester Area School District, West Chester, PA
Strand: Equity Leadership
G03 Why Do We Resist Change? Distinguishing Between Technical and Adaptive Change
In this session, we examine one of the basic tenets of Adaptive Leadership™ articulated by Ronald Heifetz: distinguishing between technical and adaptive change. Share challenges you face and get help identifying the technical and adaptive aspects of those challenges. Learn how people do not resist change, but rather feelings of loss, disloyalty, and incompetence. Practice identifying losses in reforms such as block scheduling and anti-racist curriculum changes--and in some of your own equity leadership priorities. Explore work avoidance strategies that groups employ to resist loss and how you can keep them in a productive zone of disequilibrium until they address the adaptive challenges at hand.
Circe Stumbo, President and David Davidson, Consultant, West Wind Educational Policy, Inc., Iowa City, IA.
Strand: Equity Leadership
NO LONGER AVAILABLE
During Open Space Sessions, participants engage in a freeform discussion around the topic, sharing thoughts, ideas, approaches, and asking questions of the other participants. The purpose of Open Space is to allow participants to go deeper in certain subjects, share their own personal work, and provide them a safe place wherein they can ask questions that have not been adequately addressed.
G05 How the Phrase "Closing the Achievement Gap" Reinforces Systemic Racism
NCLB and other accountability policies frame the "problem" of achievement gaps as the failure of students of color to achieve as well as their white peers. This framing reinforces deficit thinking about students of color. It further leads to policies and practices that ignore the significance of race and how the system fails to provide students of color with opportunities and experiences afforded to their white counterparts. We describe how policymakers and educators can relocate the problem and stop trying to "fix the kids" instead of fixing the system.
Deanna Hill, Senior Policy Analyst, West Wind Education Policy, Inc., Iowa City, IA
Strand: Equity Leadership
ONLY AVAILABLE DURING SESSION H11
Attacking racial disparities in schooling takes "Ganas." Learn to apply skills and knowledge to the complex intersections of racial identity development, institutional racism, and language. Use the tenets of Courageous Conversation in a compassionate strategy to explore how districts and schools often focus on serving low performing English Learners, and yet do not eliminate racial disparities. Examine how the study of language acquisition is often used as both a proxy for race and a way to maintain the current oppressive racial hierarchy. Learn ways to challenge racism and how it manifests today in our understanding of language, culture, and pedagogy.
Jamie Almanzan, Director of Learning and Teaching, Pacific Educational Group, Inc., San Francisco, CA.
Strand: Anti-Racist Learning and Teaching
NO LONGER AVAILABLE
'Cultural Democracy' (CD) is a philosophical concept that speaks to an institutional approach for recognizing and respecting the existence of diverse cultural paradigms that are different from those of the dominant culture. Learn about the experiences, challenges, and current efforts to establish and institutionalize this initiative at Sacramento City College. Examine the pedagogical process of creating educational environments that recognize, respect, show sensitivity to, and support the diverse communities from which students come. See how CD works to promote student success and eliminate racial achievement disparities. Share your own experiences and challenges with institutional change, and brainstorm strategies to address those challenges.
Gerri Scott and Lisa Gunderson, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA.
Strand: Anti-Racist Learning and Teaching
California's State Superintendent of Public Instruction has made closing the racial achievement gap the top priority of the California Department of Education. Learn about California's work to bring about Courageous Conversation regarding the impact of race on student achievement. Explore the Superintendent's P-16 Council's Report and its fourteen recommendations on what the state must do to create the conditions necessary to assist counties, districts, and schools in their efforts to help all children succeed academically. Engage in a dynamic discussion of the state's progress, next steps, and lessons learned in stimulating systemic change to eliminate educational inequality.
Gavin Payne, Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction and Rick Miller, Deputy State Superintendent for Policy Development and External Affairs, California Department of Education, Sacramento, CA.
Strand: Equity Leadership
