School discussions about disproportionality and achievement gaps often focus on the good intentions we have and the hard work we’ve expended to serve all students. While commendable, will and effort alone are not enough. This step asks school systems to willingly examine the real effect of “the way we do things here” on our students and families, to juxtapose our student outcomes with our stated mission, vision, and values.

Disaggregating achievement data, calculating risk ratios, using root cause analyses, recognizing disproportionate representation in AP courses or Special Education, or identifying who is and isn’t present at PTO events are all examples of ways schools begin this work. These disproportionality markers are symptoms, revealing underlying cultural mismatches present in the school.

Furthermore, school equity research has shown a tendency for teams to interpret disproportionality data through a dominant racial and cultural lens. To counter this effect, culturally responsive teams seek out and include the perspectives of those most affected by disparities in outcomes in their data-based decision-making (The Equity Project, 2015).

Each of us carries with us a lifetime exposure to societal biases about ability and potential based on gender, race, ethnicity, social class, disability status, and English language proficiency along with other characteristics and labels. These assumptions, unexamined, create barriers to providing historically marginalized students full access to high expectations, authentic connections with educators and the school environment, and rigorous coursework (Zion & Kozleski, 2005). With this step, we own up to our implicit biases and other hidden barriers to success in our classrooms and schools (Promoting Excellence for All, 2015). We recognize when we are vulnerable to acting unconsciously on stereotypes, then make the conscious choice to change our course of action: to “not let our first thought be our last thought” (Hollie, 2012).

Our unqualified school-wide commitment to teach and reach all students shows up in our vision, values, language, and practices. We don’t wait for student groups to reach a minimum cell size to pay attention. We recognize our responsibility to reach and teach each child, even and especially the “few” or “the only.”

We recognize that students and families are not merely products of their culture (Banks, et al, 2001). In this FILL step, we use cultural precepts as frames of reference, not as stereotypes or predictors of what individual students and families know, do, or believe. Each of us is a complex and “dynamic blend” of cultures and roles with vastly individual differences (Zion & Kozleski, 2005; Banks, et al, 2001). As such, we focus on the students and families we serve, learning about and supporting their unique strengths and blend of identities (Van Der Valk, 2016).

This FILL action calls on us to improve our understanding of the behaviors, beliefs, values, and historical experiences of our local community, and to understand how the community perceives school. In particular, we move beyond the view of the community as a monolithic “single story” (Adichie, 2009). We recognize that the historical experiences and interactions of family and community members with school and within the community vary considerably, particularly for those whose race or culture has been historically marginalized by schools. We build knowledge, trust, and respect across the community through active listening, purposeful visits, and authentic partnerships with families and local organizations (Promoting Excellence for All, 2015).

In this FILL step, we also recognize and identify the assets in our community. We draw on the valuable wisdom from the community to positively impact our relationships with students and families; we use our local partnerships to connect students and families to supportive community resources.

WILL and FILL alone will not change long-standing disproportionality in our schools and classrooms; we must act. This SKILL step calls on us to be courageous leaders in this work, assuming personal responsibility for catalyzing equitable conditions and outcomes for students. Equity leaders “…confront, disappoint, and dismantle and at the same time energize, inspire, and empower” (Parks, 2005, p. 210); in other words, they stand up to inequities, while simultaneously inviting others into collective learning (Larson, et al, 2016). Equity leaders also understand that lasting systems change requires directed attention at multiple levels: personal, inter-cultural group, and institutional (Potapchuk, 2004).

Equity leaders learn, do, and become. The model “…integrity, advocacy, conviction, and transparency to redress systemic inequities for diverse students, families, and communities” (Larson, et al, 2016). They skillfully draw from a range of relational, emotional, and analytical approaches to navigate a paradoxical range of demands. They follow through on commitments and have strategies to persist through predictable resistance and challenge to disrupting the status quo (Larson, et al, 2016).

This SKILL step compels us as a school system to recognize that our historical policies and practices have benefitted some of our students at the expense of others (Banks, et al, 2011). We acknowledge our own practices and beliefs as the leverage points for change. We commit to adapting our school to the diversity of our students, not expecting our students or families to abandon who they are in order to be successful. We build the capacity of staff to use cultural knowledge in their day-to-day interactions with students and families and operate by the mantra that each of us is responsible for all students (Lindsey, et. al, 2003; Davis, 2007; Promoting Excellence for All, 2015). Our commitment to equity shows up in a congruence of attitudes, structures, policies, and practices throughout the school and district (Cross et al, 1989; DTAN, 2015).

This SKILL step shows up every day for our students across the school system. Culturally responsive schools purposely image the walls, halls, and curricular materials so that each of our students sees themselves, and their future selves, as positive, belonging and valued. All-day and every day, culturally proficient educators go beyond a Heroes and Holidays approach to cultural differences, drawing from a deep and sophisticated understanding of race and culture (Murrell, N.D.). They confidently use a range of inclusive teaching strategies and ways of assessing learning that go beyond the traditional (Promoting Excellence for All, 2015).

According to Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings (1994), culturally responsive teaching “empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using culture to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (p 17). Thus, staff validates and affirms students’ home culture, drawing on student experience to build and bridge to rigorous educational standards. They help students become critically conscious and knowledgeable about their own cultures (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Teachers and schools build inclusive learning environments where students feel safe to express their identities and learn to relate respectfully to students whose race or culture differs from their own (Hollie, 2012, Great Lakes Equity Center, 2015).