Equity Visits
A New Approach to Supporting Equity-Focused School and District Leadership
- Rachel Roegman - University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA
- David Allen - Texas Christian University, US & University of Warwick, UK
- Larry Leverett - Panasonic Foundation, Inc.
- Scott Thompson - Panasonic Foundation, Inc.
- Thomas Hatch - Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University and Director, National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, & Teaching (NCREST)
Foreword by Edward Fergus, A Joint Publication with Phi Delta Kappa
Because equity and instruction are inextricably bound
Why are equity visits such a critical first step to increasing opportunity and access for our under-served students? Because they take instructional rounds to a new level, providing a powerful lens for investigating the intersections of equity and instruction. After all, how can we possibly deliver equitable learning experiences, opportunities, and outcomes for our students, without first pinpointing problems of practice?
That’s where Equity Visits will prove absolutely indispensable to district and school administrators. It details how to combine a strong focus on instruction with explicit, intentional efforts to address systemic inequities. Inside you’ll find
- A range of data collection activities and tools to target central issues of equity in your school
- Clear guidelines on how to investigate the ways instructional practices, structures, and beliefs lead to inequitable educational experiences—and how these are often masked in the day-to-day life of schools and districts
- A frank discussion of how to make race and racism an explicit part of investigating and addressing educational inequities
- Voices of school and district leaders who have taken crucial first steps to become “equity warriors”
- Recommendations on how to develop policies, initiatives, and practices to confront those inequities
Few dispute that instructional improvement must be a central focus of educational leadership, but for too long achieving educational equity has been absent from the conversation. Here is your opportunity to ensure equity occupy a central spot in data collection and analysis, and be explicitly discussed at all levels of your school or district organization. In short, essential reading and doing for all administrators!
“Equity Visits provides practitioners with yet-another important tool that weaves together the elements of school structures that still require systematic dismantling as well as advancing the mental models of equity leadership vitally important for sustaining this work.”
"Educational leaders will benefit from a deep dive into equitable systems with a focus on instructional practice explored in this book. The authors provide a wealth of practical strategies and step-by-step processes to implement Equity Visits."
"Real equity work is about identifying, responding and transforming structures, policies, procedures, behaviors, and biases that denied access and opportunities to underserved students. The authors of Equity Visits provide a step in that direction. Having put 11 years of research and extensive fieldwork behind this project, the book provides a framework that spells out the specific steps in the process. It also provides protocols, samples, templates, and many other tools to facilitate its implementation."
"The framework laid out in Equity Visits provides an extension to learning walks and instructional rounds that will deepen outcomes for participants and their schools. The tools and ideas presented in this manuscript are practical and provide guidance that facilitators and district teams can utilize."
"Equity Visits is a long overdue addition to the literature regarding equity and inclusion. It tackles complex issues that underlie the persistent underachievement of marginalized students and provides a leadership framework that supports system improvements."
"Schools need tools to take a deep look at equity issues and take concrete actions. Leaders need guidance as well. Equity Visits takes a strong equity-anti-racist focus and provides concrete strategies at the system level as well as instructional strategies, courageous leadership, and a process for gathering and analyzing important data."
"Equity Visits provides an innovative practice to support district and school leaders as they address inequities in the schools and in the classrooms. The inclusion of practical tools and resources that can be adapted by readers as they embark on and carry out their own work on the topic are especially useful for practitioners out in the field."
"Whether we like to admit it or not, student achievement, college entrance rates, etc. are unequal among subgroups of students. Our society in general is not giving our students, or us as educators, good models of how to talk about and address the issues. Equity Visits offers is a structure to realize the inequities that happen, a protocol to start collaborating in finding solutions, and a method for starting to accept and discuss the issue to find solutions using a team approach."
"Building on the concept of Instructional Rounds and the work of Courageous Conversations, Equity Visits is the perfect resource for schools and districts that are looking for ways to go deeper into race and equity in learning and keen to make an impact in their classrooms and schools."
"The work shared in Equity Visits will help educators to be more purposeful in their work around providing equitable experiences for all students. The authors' approachable and informative writing style, their extensive research, and the inclusion of stories from fellow leaders make this work a more collaborative and reflective process. Doing Equity Visits will result in more positive outcomes in school improvements."
