Pass the Baton: Growing New Leaders
Whether you will need to find and train a new leader in a key role in the next year – or you are a new leader in the seat right now – how can you avoid dropping the baton in the handoff? This CoP, led by two seasoned school leaders and trusted advisors, will create space for participants to take a more equitable approach to identifying new leaders or successors, open lines of communication in transition, set leaders up for success with a strong entry plan, create communities of care to affirm wellness as you learn a new role, and most importantly – avoid the glass cliff, where women and leaders of color are placed in roles, but set up to fail.
Leveraging Data for Equity in Collaborative Wraparound Teams
The use of data in education is often utilized in silos and decontextualized within our school community. In our Community of Practice, we aim to bring participants together to assess our personal relation to data and how we leverage data within our communities to achieve equity. In our CoP, we will discuss ways to bring key stakeholders together in ‘collaborative teams’ to hold racial equity-centered results-based accountability’ conversations to drive equitable data practices that lead to action within each school community. Participants will have opportunities to learn structured protocols and identify ways to implement ‘team’ structures at their own school. Through collaboration, we aim to find ways that school leaders can improve equity of student outcomes within their school communities. See more about our work at here.
Governing With Equity for Diverse by Design Schools
All of us in education are working to better understand how to make each school, and public education overall, more equitable. For boards, this work can be even harder. Charter school boards bring together people from different backgrounds, with different perspectives, and varying levels of experience grappling with the hard work of addressing the impact of racism, bias, and precedent in schools.
That’s why we created the Equity Institute. The program brings together a cohort of board members from across different DCSC schools to join together in a safe, intentional learning space to dive deeply into matters of equity in governance. During the program, participants work to build their own self-awareness, work together in deep analysis of equity issues, and share toolkits that help board members take action and hold themselves, their peers, and their schools/networks accountable for governing with equity.
Dialogue as Disruption: Advancing Justice Through Conversation and Collective Action
Kindred Communities facilitates brave spaces to build the mindsets, skills, and energy needed to disrupt systemic oppression and create antiracist and liberated schools. Join this Community of Practice (CofP) to experience and gain skills in facilitating Kindred’s dialogue-to-action approach for diverse school communities. As a participant, you will take part in structured dialogue sessions that support you in reflecting upon your own and learning about others’ multifaceted identities, exploring the history and purpose of schooling in the United States, and examining the ways racism and other forms of injustice show up in your school community. You’ll also build upon your school’s vision of equity and explore ways to support its actualization. In addition, this CofP will also support your growth as an equity leader. Through the training and coaching component of this experience, you will explore Kindred’s theory of change, learn about the key tenets of dialogue, and practice facilitating brave conversations yourself, all in service of advancing your diverse school community’s work to ensure every student, family, and staff member experiences a sense of belonging and can thrive. For this immersive experience, we recommend teams of 2-3 members of differing racial and cultural identities. Teams can consist of staff of differing roles as well as family members and caregivers from each participating school.
Resource Guide: Honor Include, and Serve Multilingual Learners
Almost half of all English learners are in socioeconomically segregated schools. More than four out of every five US public schools serve at least one English learning student, but the majority of English learners are concentrated in a small portion of schools. English learning students are more likely to attend schools with students in the highly concentrated poverty levels. Diverse-by-design public charter schools are part of a movement to disrupt the harmful effects racial and socioeconomic segregation, so it’s imperative that school leaders prioritize equity in allocating resources and fostering academic success. DCSC members gathered this year with facilitator Kathy Jamil to improve the ways in which we support English learners.
Resource Guide: Make Transformative Parental Engagement a Reality
Integrated schools include communities of parents, caregivers, and families across lines of race and class. Deb Hanmer led a Community of Practice of both practitioners and parents of DCSC member school communities with the goal of building bridges and sharing power to better support a diverse student and parent population. This was the first Community of Practice in DCSC history that invited parents from a member’s community to join on their journey to actualize inclusive parent and community engagement in intentionally diverse schools.
