The word “equity” has become a controversial term in recent months, owing to nationwide political backlash over DEI initiatives. How then can school leaders effectively promote equality and justice among their students without increasing polarization and calling undue attention to themselves?
In a thought-provoking session at Friday’s AASA national conference, superintendent Michelle Caulfield of Corning, N.Y., shared her own journey about creating a more inclusive environment within a politically conservative and majority-white school district.
Joined by members of the Equity Collaborative, Caulfield recounted the difficulties and successes her district has faced throughout the multi-year project, from navigating book challenges to addressing the use of racial slurs in schools. Ultimately, speakers at the session emphasized one crucial component to holding productive conversations: Allow students to have a voice.
The delicate leadership journey began when Caufield’s predecessor was preparing to leave the superintendency seven years ago. He realized his community was facing a predicament. While the Corning-Painted Post School District in New York’s Southern Tier was successful by most metrics, its 5 percent population of Black students were falling behind their counterparts on academic measures.
That’s where Graig Meyer, a leadership coach and partner with the Equity Collaborative, was able to step in. “The first thing that we did was an assessment where we interviewed students, parents and educators in the district to get a picture of the racial experience of kids in school,” Meyer explained during the conference session titled “Students at the Center: Students Leading Equity Work in Conservative Communities.”
The formal assessment revealed that some Black students felt alienated in classrooms, where they reported teachers treating them as less capable. Other students indicated the high school’s hardline policy regarding the use of offensive language had led to further victimization. One high schooler mentioned that when a peer used a racial slur against him, the student's suspension had only escalated the bullying, with other students blaming him for the consequences.
“We found that there has to be a training component also to the use of racial slurs,” Meyer explained. “Not just disciplining the students who are using the language, but how do you support the student who is the victim of that?”
Assessing racial bias in schools demands a comprehensive approach, the speakers emphasized. Sometimes, the first step can be as simple as holding face-to-face conversations — despite the potential for discomfort.
“The reason why I love the listening and learning assessment that we do. It’s not often that you get deep engagement, across a wide spectrum, within a school district,” explained Bettina Umstead, a leadership coach with the Equity Collaborative. “We actually get to sit down and hear people have a conversation versus clicking yes on a survey box.”
Although the terms “diversity, equity and inclusion” have become politically charged, it’s still possible for communities to hold rational and productive conversations about inclusivity.
In Caulfield’s district, that meant setting up a multi-step process for people to challenge books, so that parents were actually forced to read and understand the material they wanted to ban. It also involved allowing students to form their own clubs, from the Queer Straight Alliance to the Jesus Club, to advocate for their own interests.
Sometimes, it simply included finding a synonym. “We avoided some of the politicization by just taking the DEI work and changing the wording to ‘safe and supportive schools.’”
(Emily Topping, a freelance journalist in New Orleans, is a reporter for Conference Daily Online.)
