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Helping Leadership Teams and Professional Learning Communities Create

the Trust and Structures Needed to Address the Racial Achievement Gap1

2Racial, ethnic, and cultural differences among staff, students, and parents affect student achievement and parent involvement at this school.

3Some staff members do not have the awareness and skills necessary to teach and develop relationships with African American and Latino students.

4I am personally able to engage all students regardless of race, ethnicity, and culture.

5The Leadership Team has the trust necessary to discuss racial and ethnic barriers to student achievement and parent involvement.

6I have the skills, strategies, and confidence to lead my team in conversations about race, ethnicity, and culture.

7The Leadership Team has the skills, strategies, and confidence to address teachers at the school who struggle to effectively teach African American and Latino students.

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What can you say about the ILT and this school based on the questions?9Race impacts student achievement and parent involvement.Schools teachers do not know how to build relationships and/or teach African American and Latino students.Many staff and school leaders do not have the skills, strategies and confidence on how to talk about race with their staff.Leadership doesnt have the trust necessary to have conversations on the impact of race, ethnicity, and culture at the school. Leadership teams do not collectively have the skills, strategies, and confidence to support teachers who have demonstrated the need for help teaching African American and Latino students.

10To create a Professional Learning Community that will have the trust, skills, and confidence to address the persistent racial achievement gap that adversely impacts Latino and African American students academically at Parkland Middle School.

11Long-term GoalStudy Circles provide a structure to help leadership teams:Develop the trust, skills, and confidence needed to have an honest dialogue about race.Challenge each other through on-going conversations and exploration.Create a shared understanding of the problem.

SoHow can Study Circles address these challenges?12The process is divided into three steps:Develop trust and begin to understand each others experience.Step 1Learn how to talk about race with colleaguesExplore different racial experiences and viewpoints

Step 2Practice analyzing a problem through a racial lensStep 3Step ONE helped the group develop the trust. Step TWO gave the participants the confidence to discuss different racial perspectives and experiences.

Participants are now ready to look at different real-life examples from the school or district and practice analyzing them from a racial perspective. 13Develop trust and begin to understand each others experience.Step 1The goal of Step One is to begin building the trust. Participants go through a series of activities that help them develop a foundation for honest and productive dialogue on racial barriers to achievement.

Many teams make the mistake of skipping this step, or will simply do a brief activity at the beginning of a meeting. Step ONE, however, takes time and is vital to the rest of the work.

1415Here is what Leadership Team members have said after Stage OneOpenness to tell our stories and show our vulnerability and empathyIts about moving the entire school forward and we cant do that unless we bond, compromise and learn about each other. Learned peoples perceptions, beliefs, what defines who you are, where they are coming from. This activity opened up a windowI understand how slowly you have to go with this because you have to be able to trust each other at another level to be able to talk about raceFeel like a wall was knocked downNot feeling judged by others feeling more connected and safeWe need to know each other to trust each otherIt was important to work on our relationships and trust before having the hard conversations15Develop trust and begin to understand each others experience.Step 1Learn how to talk about race with colleaguesExplore different racial experiences and viewpoints

Step 2Step TWO builds on the trust to help participants practice having an honest and productive dialogue on racial barriers to achievement.

Participants are taken through activities that slowly get deeper. Little by little, participants see that they can have honest and respectful conversations about their different experiences with stereotypes, skin color, and racism.

16Even though some is hard to hear, its good to know we are getting somewherefinally. I feel that we have been able to have an open and honest dialogue about race and how it affects our work Not done, unfinished business, painful, honest, courageous, tenseEveryones stories and coming from different backgrounds and walks of life and how that impacts our lifeSense of commitment and opennessA shared vocabulary, open hearts and minds, vulnerabilityThere is much that I dont know and would like to knowHopeful. We came together to discuss a difficult issue and we were productiveI am feeling excited about the trust we showed by speaking about our experiences. I feel like being part of the solution!Here is what Leadership Team members have said after Stage Two17Develop trust and begin to understand each others experience.Step 1Learn how to talk about race with colleaguesExplore different racial experiences and viewpoints

Step 2Practice analyzing a problem through a racial lensStep 3Step ONE helped the group develop the trust. Step TWO gave the participants the confidence to discuss different racial perspectives and experiences.

Participants are now ready to look at different real-life examples from the school or district and practice analyzing them from a racial perspective. 18Begun to develop mutual trust and respectHeard and discussed different perspectives and experiencesBeen given the opportunity to challenge perceptions Started to create a shared understanding of the problemCreated mutual accountability

By the end of the 3 steps, Leadership Teams will have:19Outcomes from Leadership Study CirclesThe school moved the staffing positions to create an ESOL Support Teacher to support ESOL students in the classroom.All staff and team meetings start and end with the question, How do our decisions impact African American and Latino students?The Staff Development Teacher created a professional development plan for the staff on how middle school students develop their racial identity and academic identify. Perceptual data from stakeholder study circles are included in the school improvement plan.The Leadership Team is speaking in one voice on the need to address teacher beliefs and practices.Leadership teams now use SMART-R goals (R is for Race Conscious)2021Bringing in different viewpoints

21I feel equipped to look at situations from a lens of race and equity and feel compelled to ask myself the questions, "Am I walking against the moving sidewalk in the decisions that I make as a leader?" I feel more comfortable having conversations about race with my staff due to the work we have done as a team facilitated by study circles.

- Ms. Monifa McKnight, Principal Ridgeview Middle SchoolProviding us with the framework needed to keep the importance of equity at the forefront of our decision-making will offer each of the ILT members a tool to use when having those same discussions or making the same decisions with others in the building.

- Ms. Sheila Harrison, Assistant Principal Kingsview Middle SchoolIt has helped me to be honest about my feelings about race to the ILT and the influence it has on academic achievement.

- Ms. Traci Townsend, Principal Earle B. Wood Middle SchoolWhat Principals Say22

WWW.MONTGOMERYSCHOOLSMD.ORG/DEPARTMENTS/STUDYCIRCLES301-444-8630For More Information23