The Role of Districts in Supporting Equity-Oriented Leadership Practice Within Educational Markets
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UCEA 2021 Presentation
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The Role of Districts in Supporting Equity-Oriented Leadership Practice Within Educational Markets
- 1. Presentation Title Goes Here Subtitle of Presentation The Role of Districts in Supporting Equity-Oriented Leadership Practice within Educational Market Contexts
- 2. Background
- 4. Educational Markets • School districts are increasingly utilizing educational market systems (aka school choice) in which schools compete for students • Markets are meant to improve educational offerings and opportunities within a district through competition • These systems may be oppositional to equity and social justice in schools and communities • Segregation, winners and losers, etc.
- 5. Equity-Oriented Leadership Practice within Markets • School leaders face immense pressure to promote student enrollment • Leader responses may include substantive change, mimicking competitors, filling a niche, advertising, selecting students, and more • Some of these responses are inequitable, such as selecting students • Other practices may not be inequitable but may divert school resources from students, such as advertising
- 6. The Study
- 7. Purpose and Research Questions Markets seem to be here to stay so we need to understand how to support equity-oriented leadership in these challenging contexts. 1. How do district policies enable or constrain equity-oriented leadership practice in market environments? 2. Within districts, how do leaders working in different school contexts experience these policies differently?
- 8. Method • Seven school districts across the U.S. using various market designs • Sequential exploratory design • Interviews with 26 school leaders in winter 2020/2021 • Survey data were collected but are not used for this particular paper • Still finalizing data analysis and writing (my dissertation!)
- 9. Findings
- 10. Districts Policies Can Facilitate Equity-Oriented Practice • Equitable funding and resources • Parent and community liaisons • Coaching and mentoring related to equity work
- 11. Districts Can Mandate Emancipatory Practice • Partnerships with community organizations • Restorative justice
- 12. Desegregation Orders • While research has shown that markets can lead to segregation, including through leader actions, desegregation orders seemingly stop this from happening • Desegregation orders stop leaders from selecting the student body
- 13. School Context Matters Sometimes • School context seems to make the most difference in districts without equity supports • In a district without supports/mandated equity work • Leader at majority-white school claimed anti-racist and other equity work not needed • Leaders with high-needs populations struggled to find resources to serve students equitably • In a district with supports/mandated equity work • No differences stood out between interviewees
- 14. Conclusions
- 15. Implications • Previous research has shown that market policies can put pressure and stress on school leaders • And may make leading equitably more challenging • Districts can put structures in place that support leaders despite the challenging market policies • These structures would likely be beneficial to leaders in non- market districts as well
- 16. Future Research • When districts mandate practices like restorative justice, do we know whether those practices are truly equitable? • Equitable practices can be mandated, but will they be authentic? • And does authenticity matter? • What are more examples of policies districts can implement to support equitable leadership regardless of marketized environment? • Are there individuals at the district level who have particular promise for supporting equity-oriented leadership?
- 17. Thank You Meagan Richard, mricha44@uic.edu College of Education | Policy Studies in Urban Education
Editor's Notes
- Other terms include… Examples from each bucket
- Funding: Supports leaders in accessing resources to ensure all students are well-served Does not create pressure to attract students/market Funding can be tied to student count but if this is not the case then leaders may not feel that pressure Leaders in one district in Colorado tended to talk about the importance of equitable funding and resources for making things fair. While markets tend to drain some schools of resources and make it challenging for them to serve students (especially considering how high-needs students tend to concentrate in certain schools), when a district provides equitable resources this doesn’t matter. Socially-just work often requires funding to ensure all students are well-served. Equitable funding facilitates this process. Parent and community liaisons Some districts had liaisons at the central level to manage these relationships. Others created positions at each school to manage these relationships. Either way, this gave leaders more resources and support to forge relationships with community and parent, a key part of equity-oriented leadership. And additionally, this takes these tasks off leaders’ plates.
- One district mandated school partnerships with the community For this example, For restorative justice, I noticed a number of interviewees across districts would say that the district had mandated restorative practices. This is one piece of equity-oriented leadership and it being mandated essentially means that a
- It makes sense that school context matters regardless of marketized environment