Equity - A Call to Action

“The answer is in the room.”  The members of our Aspiring Principals Academy cohort heard this expression frequently from the APA faculty when we were growing through (that’s right I said “growing through” instead of “going through”) our three-week summer intensive experience.  We learned quickly that we couldn’t look for the answer in a book, or seek it from a person of authority.  We, as Principal-Residents, had to find the answer through the work, in collaboration with our colleagues, and, most importantly, inside of ourselves.

When I attended the 1^st Annual Equity in Education Conference, organized by the Center for the Education and Equity of African American Students, I thought about this expression – “The answer is in the room” – especially after listening to the keynote address given by Dr. H. Richard Milner. Dr. Milner shared with us points about equity that affect all students of color, especially African-American students.  “Our talk matters,” and “When the music changes, so must the dance,” easily could be clichés; Dr. Milner supported the the points he was making, though, with quantitative data, challenging the attendees to consider what biases and prejudices could be holding educators back from supporting children of color in ways that they need to be supported to learn, to be successful. (I understand that the discipline data that Dr. Milner showed was troubling to some of the people from the districts whose numbers were shared. Frankly, it was my wish that Dr. Milner had created a table with the discipline data from all of the Midlands’ districts, including ours, so that we could all get those cards on the table.) I did not expect to leave that powerful keynote with THE answer, a clear course of action to write the wrongs of inequity. But Dr. Milner achieved his purpose; I was thinking.

Two third-year Social Studies teachers - one white, one black – who teach in a high-poverty, high-minority middle school in downtown Columbia, conducted the first session I attended, entitled, “Critically Conscious and Engaging Social Studies Instruction.”  I could tell that these two young teachers were very nervous, but the content of their session gave me the opportunity to consider what it looks like/sounds like to ask students to be “critically conscious” – not just to accept the stories that traditionally have been told or the histories that have been passed generationally as TRUTH.  The answer I found in that room wasn’t about strategy or terminology in teaching students of color to examine how society defines them.  The answer I found in that room was in how these two amazing teachers viewed their children – as thinkers, as doers, as change-agents, as scholars who could do the research, ask the hard questions, find their own truths and define themselves in their own terms. I left wishing that the children in their classes would only ever feel as valued as they are by those two teachers as they progress through their education, but knowing that, in all likelihood, that would not be the case.

After the conference was over, I found myself reflecting, no, seeking an answer – I couldn’t help myself - for how educators must not only address inequities, but change them so the education, the lives of students of color are valued.  What can I DO? I needed only to look as far as the theme of the conference, “Start Where You Are, but Don’t Stay There.”  The gauntlet was thrown.  The conference itself was the challenge.  The members of the cohort and the faculty of the APA probably left the Equity Conference and have generated through our own work more questions than answers centered on equity, but none of us are content with just having a conversation anymore. Now is time for action; we can’t stand still.  The power is in the room.