Transformational Learning Principle
Nurture—Ensure Equity: Educators are responsive to students’ cultural and developmental contexts. They celebrate and build on students’ identities, strengths, and voices. They reduce barriers to meaningful learning for all students, especially those from marginalized backgrounds.
Let’s keep it real: Equity isn’t just a word we throw around to sound progressive. It’s the work. It’s a commitment we make to young people to see them fully; to honor their brilliance, cultures, and lived experiences; and to create spaces where they can thrive. The ISTE+ASCD Transformational Learning Principle “Ensure Equity” challenges us to do more than just talk about justice—it asks us to actively dismantle the barriers that hold students back. If you know me, you know this work is personal.
As an educator who has mostly worked with diverse student populations, I’ve spent my career advocating for young people to be at the center of their learning—to be seen, heard, and valued in systems that weren’t built with them in mind. I’ve watched students’ faces light up when they see themselves reflected in the curriculum, when they have agency over their learning, and when their experiences are seen not as obstacles, but as assets. That’s what equity in action looks like—when young people feel not just included but affirmed.
Beyond Access: The Deep Work of Equity
Ensuring equity isn’t about sprinkling in diverse texts or celebrating Black history or Hispanic heritage one month of the year. It’s about fundamentally rethinking how we educate, who gets a seat at the table, and whose voices are centered in shaping the learning experience. When I think about the barriers our students face—biased curricula, exclusionary discipline policies, tracking systems, and outdated assessments—I don’t just see statistics. I see students I’ve met—the young person labeled “at-risk” when they’re actually full of potential, the family who feels disconnected from their child’s education because they don’t see their culture honored, the community whose history is misunderstood or erased.
Equity work is a commitment we make to young people to see them fully; to honor their brilliance, cultures, and lived experiences; and to create spaces where they can thrive.
Creating truly equitable and responsive learning spaces means having the courage to confront these truths and to commit to deep, often uncomfortable, work. We have to be willing to examine the very foundations of our practices and ask: Who is this serving, and who is it leaving out?
This deep work of equity demands that we:
- Embrace culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy. This isn’t just about including students’ cultures—it’s about centering them. When we design lessons that draw from students’ lived experiences, incorporate literature that reflects their realities, and facilitate discussions that allow them to explore their identities, we show that their stories matter. Imagine a history lesson that doesn’t just revisit colonial narratives but also celebrates the resistance and resilience of Indigenous communities. Imagine a math class that connects financial literacy to the economic realities students see in their neighborhoods. This approach doesn’t just honor diversity—it leverages it as a powerful catalyst for deeper learning and engagement.
- Reimagine power and agency. Learning should be co-designed with young people, so they can shape their educational journeys, connect with mentors, and tackle real-world problems. If students don’t see their interests and voices shaping what and how they learn, we’re not honoring their full humanity. This could look like student-led research teams identifying campus issues, developing action plans, and presenting policy recommendations directly to administrators for implementation.
- Blow up the one-size-fits-all assessment model. Standardized tests don’t capture a student’s creativity, resilience, or intelligence. We need assessments that reflect what students truly know and can do—portfolios that showcase their best work, exhibitions where they defend their learning, and real-world projects that connect to their communities.
- Dismantle systemic barriers. This is the hard work: advocating for policies that end discriminatory discipline practices, fighting for equitable funding, and ensuring that students of color, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners have the same opportunities as their peers.
Equity in Practice
If we’re serious about equity, we have to start by looking inward. If we want to reach young people, we must see them first, and to do that, we must truly see ourselves. Here are a few ways to make equity work real in your practice.
Start with Self-Reflection
Equity work starts with looking inward. What biases do you bring into the classroom? How do your own experiences shape your expectations for students?
At a recent school leadership convening I helped facilitate, we opened with identity maps and storytelling circles, inviting educators to unpack how race, class, and lived experiences shape their perspectives on students. One leader shared how this process illuminated unconscious patterns of lowered expectations—and committed to checking those assumptions at the door every morning.
See Students Through an Asset-Based Lens
Flip the narrative. Instead of viewing students as “at-risk,” recognize that they are “at-promise.” Every student has unique strengths and lived experiences. These are not deficits to “fix” but assets to leverage.
In student-centered schools like those in the Big Picture Learning network, where I serve as co-executive director, teacher-advisors co-create learning plans that honor students’ family roles, bilingualism, and entrepreneurial hustle—not as distractions, but as key competencies. One student who had been labeled as “behind” in their academic record at a previous school became their new school’s most sought-after peer tech coach, simply because a teacher chose to see brilliance where others saw barriers.
Build Real Relationships
You can’t teach students you don’t know. Take the time to understand their histories, their communities, their dreams. Listen to them. Honor their stories. That connection is where real learning begins.
That’s what equity in action looks like—when young people feel not just included but affirmed.
I’ll never forget a student who told me, “You’re the first adult who’s ever asked about my art.” That simple act—seeing what lit her up—transformed her engagement in school. Relationship-building isn’t an add-on; it’s the foundation for everything else we hope to teach.
Create Inclusive Learning Spaces
Representation matters. When students see themselves in the literature they read, the history they study, and the leaders they learn about, they know they belong. Be intentional about diversifying your materials and rethinking the narratives you share.
In a high school I worked with, a teacher redesigned a unit on American literature by anchoring it in texts by Indigenous, Black, and Latinx authors and pairing readings with interviews conducted with elders and leaders from students’ own neighborhoods. Students who previously felt disconnected became visibly engaged with pride and curiosity, recognizing their voices and histories as central to the curriculum, not peripheral.
Center Student Voice
Don’t just invite students to the conversation—hand them the mic. Let them influence policies, shape the curriculum, and offer feedback on your teaching. Their voices should be driving the work, not just included as an afterthought.
At a youth convening organized by our Big Picture Learning team, students drafted policy recommendations around school safety and belonging—then presented them to district leaders. Not only were their ideas adopted, but the process itself reminded us that young people aren’t future leaders; they’re leading right now, if we’re willing to follow.
Advocate for Systemic Change
Education doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If we’re serious about equity, we have to challenge inequitable policies, funding disparities, and the systemic racism that permeates our schools. This is about more than what happens in one classroom—it’s about reshaping the entire system. It’s about making education a space of liberation rather than limitation.
When one school I worked with noticed a gap in AP enrollment by race and income, they didn’t just rework recruitment—they overhauled prerequisite policies and retrained staff on implicit bias. Equity can’t be cosmetic; it requires institutional courage and a willingness to reimagine the architecture of opportunity itself.
Leading with Love, Care, and Vulnerability
In my work with educators, I’ve found that true leadership has to be rooted in love, care, and vulnerability. That’s just as true for equity work. It’s not about performative gestures; it’s about having the courage to challenge unjust systems, the humility to listen and learn, and the commitment to keep pushing—no matter how hard or uncomfortable it gets.
The ISTE+ASCD “Ensure Equity” principle isn’t just a nice idea—it’s a mandate. It’s a call to action to create classrooms where all students feel seen, valued, and heard. It’s a call for all educators to be ambassadors of love and to work toward an education system that truly serves every young person.
Our students are watching. They’re paying attention to whether we’re just talking about equity or actually living it. Let’s show up for them in the ways they deserve.
Reflect & Discuss
➛ In what ways can you center students’ lived experiences and cultural knowledge as assets rather than deficits in your curriculum and teaching practices?
➛ How might you create more opportunities for students to shape policies, curriculum, and learning environments in your school? What barriers need to be addressed to make this possible?
Finding Your Leadership Soul
In this transformative narrative, Carlos R. Moreno explores what it means to develop Leadership Soul by approaching educational leadership with love, care, and vulnerability.
