Social justice educational leadership

Social justice educational leadership emphasizes the belief that all students can and will reach proficiency, without exceptions or excuses, and that schools ought to be organized to advance the equitable learning of all students. Rather than focusing on one group of students who traditionally struggle, or who traditionally succeed, social justice leaders address the learning needs of all students. Social justice educational leadership specifically addresses how differences in race, income, language, ability, gender, and sexual orientation influence the design and effectiveness of learning environments. Social justice leadership draws from inclusive education practices from disability education, but extends the concepts further to support students from diverse groups with a wide range of needs. Through restructuring staff allocation and assessing student progress through disaggregated data, school leaders strive to create schools with equal access and equitable support for all students.

Goals

Social justice educational leaders recognize the role race, ethnicity, family income, ability, gender, and sexual orientation play in predicting student success in school. They commit to creating schools that address societal inequalities by striving to help all students reach academic proficiency. As described by Scheurich and Skrla, "In striving for both equity and excellence... we are aiming for schools in which there are no persistent patterns of differences in academic success or treatment among students grouped by race, ethnicity, culture, neighborhood, income of parents, or home language. In other words, we are aiming to foster schools that literally serve each and every student really well." (pg. 2).[1]

In order to assess whether these patterns of difference exist, social justice leaders use data tools, such as equity audits, to uncover structures that create differences in student learning outcomes.[2] Equity audits use data such as standardized test scores, discipline rates, family involvement in schools, advanced course participation, special education labeling, at-risk identification, and intervention placement to create profiles of achievement for different student groups in the school. Equity audits reveal achievement gap trends in these areas, in which traditionally marginalized students frequently perform at lower levels than their more privileged peers.[3] Many schools find demographically similar groups of students struggling in academics, language, discipline, graduation rates, and other markers of student success. Once these patterns are identified, social justice leaders equip staff and students with the skills necessary to address discrepancies in student learning needs.[4]

Student services

Social justice leadership builds on concepts of inclusive education, in which services are brought to students in the general classroom environment, rather than pulling students out to a resource room. However, social justice leadership diverges somewhat from inclusive education in that full inclusion at all times is not required.[4] Social justice leaders focus on providing services in classrooms and other flexible spaces that can be accessed by all students, rather than removing students to receive special support in separate classrooms.[5] Social justice leadership also emphasizes assigning students to classrooms and groups using proportional representation. This means that the proportion of students in any classroom or group should match the natural proportion of students from all demographic groups in the school.[2] For example, if 15% of the student body is Latino, then 15% of every classroom should be Latino, only 15% of students who qualify for special education should be Latino and only 15% of students receiving discipline should be Latino.

This method of bringing services to students in general education environments with proportional representation also differs from pull-out models like response to intervention (RtI). Many pull-out models identify students struggling in the classroom and assign them to interventions led by educator specialists outside the general education classroom, rather than by their classroom teachers. For students with more significant needs, pull-out interventions may be from several staff, such as from the Title I teacher, reading interventionist, speech therapist, and social worker, introducing multiple adults and environments to students who would most benefit from consistency. This practice locates the responsibility for educating students with additional needs with the interventionist, rather than the classroom teacher, reducing their efficacy.[4]

Staff allocation

Both inclusive and pull-out models seek to reduce the student to teacher ratio, but inclusive models do so by bringing services and staff expertise to students. Thus, social justice leaders need to strategically plan how to effectively allocate their limited staff resources.[3] Rather than having several specialists who work with students with specific needs, leaders structure collaborative teams of classroom teachers, cross-categorical special education teachers, and bilingual resource teachers to support classrooms of students.[5]

Critiques

Social justice educational leadership has been critiqued in several ways. Some feel social justice leadership reinforces the categorization of students, even though the approach emphasizes reducing unnecessary student labeling.[1] The data equity audits focus mostly on identifying inequitable learning outcomes,[2] but few solutions and strategies are suggested for improving these outcomes. By identifying the classroom teacher as responsible for ensuring all students reach proficiency, many teachers feel unsupported in the work and struggle to adequately differentiate lessons for their students. Finally, social justice educational leadership emphasizes proficiency as measured by standardized test scores,[3] which limits the space for innovation and teaching that builds higher-order thinking, which is difficult to measure on standardized tests.

Notes

  1. 1 2 Glickman, James Joseph Scheurich, Linda Skrla ; foreword by Carl D. (2003). Leadership for equity and excellence creating high-achievement classrooms, schools, and districts. Thousand Oaks (Calif.): Corwin Press. ISBN 978-0761945864.
  2. 1 2 3 Salle, Ruth S. Johnson, Robin Avelar La (2010). Data strategies to uncover and eliminate hidden inequities : the wallpaper effect. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin. ISBN 978-1412914932.
  3. 1 2 3 Capper, Elise M. Frattura, Colleen A. (2007). Leading for social justice : transforming schools for all learners. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. ISBN 978-0761931782.
  4. 1 2 3 Frattura, Colleen A. Capper, Elise M. (2009). Meeting the needs of students of all abilities : how leaders go beyond inclusion (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press. ISBN 978-1412966955.
  5. 1 2 Theoharis, George (2009). The school leaders our children deserve : seven keys to equity, social justice, and school reform. New York: Teachers College Press. ISBN 978-0807749517.

General references

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