Entry Point 2: Designing a future improvement plan with equity in mind

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Start here if you are creating or beginning to create your school or district Unified Improvement Plan or similar continuous improvement plan and want to develop a plan with equity in mind.

Designing your next UIP or improvement plan with equity in mind involves considering any overarching goals, strategies and actions steps in a way that takes into account data from and values experiences of a variety of students and families. Below are examples and resources to support you in the following:

Identifying Priority Performance Challenges
Identifying Root Causes
Identifying Major Improvement Strategies, supported by suggested Action Steps
- Assess school climate regarding equity and access for all to define needs.
- Set goals for better serving invested parties, and create an aligned tool for evaluating progress.
- Provide professional development for staff to develop cultural competence through self-reflection and hearing the voices of those with different experiences than their own.
- Select curriculum and design instruction to promote Best, First Instruction for all.
- Engage in a reallocation of resources.

Each example Major Improvement Strategy provided is connected to content in one of the prior sections: Understanding Self, Understanding Others and Understanding Context. In addition, each Major Improvement Strategy is aligned with one of the Four Domains of Rapid School Improvement. (Adapted from: The Center on School Turnaround (2017). Four domains for rapid school improvement: A systems framework [The Center for School Turnaround at WestEd]. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.)

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Priority Performance Challenges

When considering Priority Performance Challenges, ask:

Does the magnitude of the challenge vary by student group? How?
What data have you collected to inform the selection of this Priority Performance Challenge that gives a fuller picture of any test score or assessment data (Datasets)?

Root Causes

When determining Root Causes, consider:

Were family and student voices meaningfully included in this determination? Did the included families reflect the diversity of the school’s or district’s students, families, and staff? Which students or families were not included?
Are there elements of the school climate that contribute to this challenge? How do you know?
Could biases, deficit thinking or teaching that is not culturally responsive be a factor?
Could materials or curriculum that are not culturally affirming be a factor?
How may the root causes for some groups of students differ?
Could cultural or identity differences between staff and students be a factor?
How is the identification process for Tier 2 and 3 in MTSS happening? Is there overrepresentation or underrepresentation? Why?
What sort of data on school climate could be impacting or is related to this Priority Performance Challenge?
Where do you spend your money? Do some students benefit more from this money in the form of accessing enrichment activities, more experienced (and higher-salaried) teachers and smaller class sizes?

Major Improvement Strategies

Examples of equity-centered Major Improvement Strategies that can be tailored to your specific context

Action Steps

Examples of equity-centered Action Steps aligned to Major Improvement Strategies that can be tailored to your specific context

Assess school climate regarding equity and access for all to define needs.

If this is one of your major improvement strategies, please review Understanding Self and Understanding Context.

Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement: Culture & Climate Shift

Leadership, personnel and students engage in a self-assessment to prompt reflection on personal and community perspectives. Challenge invested parties to notice what they have not noticed before about how a cultural majority perspective has substituted for the engagement of all community perspectives in decision-making and educational experiences.
Collect and disaggregate data, noting and sharing trends with invested parties – academic test scores, discipline referrals, suspension/expulsions, students accessing remedial services (e.g., the Elementary and Secondary Education Act [ESEA] programs, special education, etc.) and accelerated learning opportunities (e.g., Gifted and/or Talented Programs, Advanced Placement coursework, dual credit courses,
Postsecondary Enrollment Options [PSEO], etc.).
Invite partners to share perspectives and to hear multiple perspectives around what is effectively or not effectively serving students in the community, and place value on diverse voices in decision-making as an opportunity to better serve all in the community.
Intentionally engage voices from various roles within the system (student, family member, staff, taxpayer) and voices representing diverse identities with a keen awareness to whose voice is missing, understanding that cultural groups are not monoliths and that individuals can be members of multiple cultural/identity-based groups.
Create opportunities to share stories of harm that have been experienced and concerns that have been invisible or silenced, in public and/or private venues. Invest in experiences that allow invested parties to build empathy for each other before designing solutions that are ineffective or incomplete.

Set goals for better serving all community members, and create an aligned tool for evaluating progress.

If this is one of your major improvement strategies, please review Understanding Context.

Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement: Culture & Climate Shift

Create a culture of always asking whose identity is not represented in the learning and whose voice is not represented at the decision-making table.
Authentically engage your community through languages, a variety of modalities (online or in-person, surveys or focus groups) and during a variety of times (morning, evening, etc.)
Through diverse community input, identify priority areas for change needed to value and adapt to diversity so that everyone in the system experiences increased equity in opportunities and outcomes.
Develop and utilize a rubric or checklist that guides reflection and indicates progress experienced within the system based on access, participation, representation and outcomes.
Set short-term and long-term goals with timelines and assigned responsibilities across departments to ensure the work is integrated into all aspects of district work and not siloed or allowed to wane.

Provide professional development staff to develop cultural competence through self-reflection and hearing the voices of those with different experiences than their own.

If this is one of your major improvement strategies, please review Understanding Self and Understanding Others.

Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement: Talent Management

Examine beliefs, norms and values that have been and continue to be present in educational settings, in learning experiences and in expectations which impact an individual's sense of belonging and academic outcomes. In particular, build team awareness to notice and intervene/adjust when “othering” language is used in reference to a person or cultural community.
Provide training specific to the prioritized areas of progress, continuously seeking input and providing clarity of next steps.
Consider these Landscape of Wellbeing and Belonging resources on the topics of relationships and contextual dynamics.

Select curriculum and design instruction to promote Best, First Instruction for all.

If this is one of your major improvement strategies, please review Understanding Others, School Policy Best Practices.

Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement: Instructional Transformation

Selected curricula represent diverse perspectives, are historically accurate and culturally relevant to the learners being served.
Students see themselves represented in the curriculum images and content.
Lesson design promotes student engagement through sharing their knowledge and perspectives, engaging in inquiry and problem-solving, and receiving individualized feedback and support to achieve culturally relevant learning outcomes.
Enhance students’ ability to “learn how to learn” through questioning, listening, analyzing data and making connections across content.
Provide, invite and engage multiple cultural and individual perspectives into the learning process

Review allocation of resources.

If this is one of your major improvement strategies, please review Understanding Context.

Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement: Leadership for Rapid Improvement

Districts can strategically allocate per-student funding to support student outcomes by ensuring spending aligns with each school's socioeconomic profile—providing higher per-pupil amounts to the lowest-performing schools when needed to promote equity.
Districts can promote best practices by using expenditure, academic and socioeconomic data to learn from schools that are doing more with less or improving student outcomes.
Schools can ensure choices around academic offerings, staffing practices, class sizes and investments in extracurriculars are benefiting the student experiencing the largest opportunity gaps.