1. Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
Excellence Through Equity: Creating Conditions for Great Teaching and Learning
Pedro A. Noguera, Ph.D.
Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
UCLA

2. I. Making equity central
Equity is:
Giving students what they need to be successful
Academic as well as social, material and emotional support
Recognizing that they learn in different ways and at different paces
Compensating for disadvantages
Pervasive inequality makes pursuit of equity difficult
Monitor outcomes – academic and developmental, and patterns - racial disparities and “positive deviance”

4. An Equity Lens Compels Us to Ask:
How effectively are we serving our most vulnerable students?
Foster care, homeless youth, recent immigrants, special needs, etc.
How have we assigned teachers?
Are all students being challenged, stimulated, supported and inspired to achieve their potential?
Is demography driving outcomes?

5. Equity is not: Lowering standards or expectations
Making excuses about low achievement due to poverty or race
An issue that only schools serving poor or minority children should be concerned about
Choosing which students to serve – disadvantaged or affluent

6. Pursuing excellence through equity requires a framework:
Child Development – A holistic approach to education and differentiated support
Neuroscience – Elasticity of brain makes it necessary to ensure that all students are stimulated and have access to challenging learning opportunities
Commitment – All staff, administration, certificated and non-certificated – must be focused on how to fulfill the district’s mission – serving the needs of ALL students

7. Common Obstacles
Politics – Prioritizing the interests of adults over those of students
Traditions – Practices and procedures that maintain inequity - grading, schedules, punitive discipline practices
Capacity – Many staff lack the skills to meet the needs of students or to further equity goals
Beliefs – Race/class bias in the classroom and workplace, normalization of patterns, complacency, lack of internal accountability 3

8. Districts improve when schools focus on the five essential ingredients
- A coherent instructional guidance system
- Ongoing development of the professional capacity of staff
- Strong parent-community-school ties
- A student-centered learning climate/culture
- Shared leadership to drive change

9. 1. Coherent system to guide instruction
Students are empowered as learners
Class time is work time
Performance is assessed, regular feedback provided
Teachers plan together, set agreements on what students should learn and supports for students who don’t make adequate progress
Site administrators are instructional leaders

10. Students in control of learning at Hollenbeck Middle School, LA

11. Focus on Engagement Behavioral Engagement Cognitive Engagement
Preparation
Persistence
Instrumental Help-seeking
Cognitive Engagement
Deep Processing
Meta-cognition
Emotional Engagement
Interest
Value

12. Teachers focus on evidence of learning
Expectations are clear and standards explicit
Students are shown high-quality work
Diagnostic tools are used to check for understanding – assessment for learning
Students’ interests and culture are used to make lessons culturally relevant
Students are expected to revise and resubmit work
Feedback and questions from students are solicited

13. 2. Building professional capacity
District must ensure that the skills of the staff and resources available to schools support the needs of students

14. Brockton scholarship winners 2016

15. Key Elements of the Brockton Strategy
Shared leadership – all staff support common goals
Concerted effort to obtain buy-in around the strategy
A coherent strategy focused on student needs
Differentiated professional development
Follow through, using data to monitor progress, evaluate impact, sticking with it

16. Key Questions in Brockton
What are we teaching, how are we teaching it, what do we do if they don’t learn it, and how do we know the students are actually learning it?
What do our students need to know and be able to do to be successful on the MCAS, in their classes, and in their lives beyond school?
We are not likely to get any additional staffing or resources, so what resources do we have now that we can use more effectively?
What can we control, and what can’t we control?

17. Turn Around at Brockton High
“Brockton High School has every excuse for failure, serving a city plagued by crime, poverty, housing foreclosures, and homelessness… But Brockton High, by far the state’s largest public high school with 4,200 students, has found a success in recent years that has eluded many of the state’s urban schools: MCAS scores are soaring, earning the school state recognition as a symbol of urban hope.”
James Vaznis, Boston Globe Oct 9, 2009.

18. Central Office Staff: Building Professional Capacity
Instead of critiquing and scrutinizing staff, provide constructive feedback and support
Use data to identify areas of weakness in district, implement interventions, monitor (measure) progress
Provide differentiated professional development to teachers
Content - subject matter coaches
Pedagogy- Time to observe other teachers
Positive relationships with students

19. 3. Parent and community ties
Schools make greater progress when they have strong partnerships with parents and receive from the community.

20. PS 28 obtains highest gains in literacy and math in Brooklyn -2012

21. Key Elements of PS 28 Strategy
Instructional leadership
Parental support
Community partnerships
Ongoing focus on building the capacity of teachers
Individualized support for students

22. Creating Partnerships with Parents
Recognition of shared interests
Parents want the best for their children
Schools want to see students succeed
Need to clarify roles, rights and responsibilities in the partnership
Social closure - Coleman’s research shows that students benefit most when parents and schools work together
Reinforcing the importance of education

23. Develop systems to support youth resilience
Build partnerships with
CBOs, colleges, local business, churches, hospitals, etc. focused on health, education, well being, job training
Take holistic approach to address social and emotional needs
Provide mentoring and internships – social capital
Engage non-certified staff in supporting youth

24. 4. School culture
Create a culture (shared values, practices and rituals) that meets the needs of students and supports their.

25. What do you know about your students. Beyond stereotypes
What do you know about your students? Beyond stereotypes. Key questions:
What are their lives like outside of school?
How do they learn outside of school?
What motivates and interests them?
What challenges do they and their parents face?
What are their unmet needs that may impact learning? .

26. Creating powerful school cultures
Defined: Beliefs, attitudes, norms, expectations and assumptions that guide actions
Ethos - the character, customs, habits that distinguish a school/community
Sarason’s axiom: If you attempt to implement reforms but fail to change the culture of a school, nothing will change
Highly successful schools engage all staff in creating a culture that reinforces core values and promotes student development

27. Signs of a healthy school culture:
Staff takes responsibility for student achievement
Does not blame students and parents for low performance
See teaching and learning connected
School has a coherent strategy for delivering instruction
School is not racially stratified or segregated from within
Staff is willing to collaborate and open to change
Relations with parents are strong, genuine partnership
Based on respect and empathy. Educational goals are reinforced at home
School rules and procedures are aligned with educational goals
Discipline is rooted in values, focus is on changing behavior

28. Normative patterns among students reinforce academic achievement
Students think it’s cool to be smart
Strong relationships between adults and students
Deliberate strategies to counter stereotypes related to race, class, gender and academic achievement- “stereotype threats”addressed
Disruption and defiance from students is rare
Numerous adults with moral authority

29. Culver City High School

30. Agency vs. Grit Hard work, persistence Individual attribute
Ignores contextual barriers
Hard to measure except after outcomes are achieved
Based on critical thinking
Includes help seeking, social capital
Can be individual or collective in form
Recognizes barriers and strategizes to confront
Measureable through observation of actions and attitudes

31. 5. Shared leadership
Leaders must generate a sense of urgency among all staff about addressing the needs of all students and improving outcomes

32. District Challenge: Balancing technical and adaptive work
Technical work - A focus on managing the operations of the system, insuring that procedures are working and that employees are in compliance with policy.
Adaptive work - A focus on the dynamic and complex nature of the work, its substance, meaning and purpose. Work guided by a long term vision, with medium and short term goals. An awareness that we are trying to achieve our goals in a constantly changing environment
Ron Hiefitz - Leadership on the Line

33. Distinguishing between symptoms and causes
It’s…
NOT...
uncovering the system causing the outcomes
trying to develop a theoretical framework
understanding users’ felt needs
trying everyone’s favorite solutions
identifying breakdowns in the system
identifying people as good apples or bad apples
Investigating the existing system
starting with a blank slate
NEED HELP: what do people mistake this part for?

34. Five Principles of Courageous Leadership
Courage to act
Getting to your core values
Making organizational meaning – commitment to mission
Assuring constancy of purpose – working toward common goals
Building sustainable relationships

35. Need for a Paradigm Shift
Old Paradigm
Intelligence is innate
Job of schools is to measure intelligence and sort accordingly
Inequity in resource allocation: give the best resources to highest achievers
Discipline used to weed out the “bad” kids
New Paradigm
Intelligence and ability are influenced by opportunity
It is the job of school to cultivate talent and ability among students
Resources allocated based on student need
Discipline used to reinforce school values and norms

36. Focus on the Right Questions:
How can we use education to reduce inequality and break the cycle of poverty?
How do we prepare our students to be independent learners who are prepared for life?
How will I make what I teach relevant and meaningful so that I can motivate my students?

37. Embrace a vision for pursuing excellence through equity
Teaching and Learning
Extended Learning
Safety, mentors
Community partners-Universities
Family
engagement
Health and Nutrition

38. Excellence Through Equity Obtain ETE Book:
for More Information:
Pedronoguera.com
Excellence Through Equity Obtain ETE Book:
ASCD.com