Part of being an effective school leader is helping staff and students deal with situations related to inequity and race—helping the fire of emotion that accompanies such issues energize your school rather than becoming a wildfire. Danique Dolly faced this challenge as principal of Baltimore's City Neighbors High School during the time riots erupted in response to Freddie Gray, Jr.'s death in police custody. Dolly and City describe actions a leader can take to build his or her capacity to lead for equity and to launch productive discussion or action around race and equity issues.

Tending the Fire

Elizabeth A. City

Tending the Fire thumbnail

0517_38-41_-0080_DL

School climate and culture

Urban Schools

Race

Principals

Admin

Diverse classrooms and schools

Principal effectiveness and evaluation

Leadership

Equity

Why should teachers bother with student-driven discussions? Elizabeth A. City offers three reasons: (1) talking and thinking reinforce each other; (2) dialogue is a necessary skill of democracy, so schools should teach thinking, speaking, and listening as "practices of freedom"; and (3) student-driven talk is fun. Yet student-driven discussion is rare in schools, partly because other priorities get in the way and partly because both teachers and students often feel more comfortable in traditional roles. City offers ideas for making classroom discussions more student-driven by balancing safety, challenge, authentic participation, and ownership. For example, she recommends having learners pair up to talk with a partner before whole-class sharing; using tests to provide common ground for the discussion; and reflecting on process to help students improve their discussion skills.

Talking to Learn

Talking to Learn- thumbnail

Friends Working Discussion Meeting Sharing Ideas Concept; Shutterstock ID 435796108

shutterstock_435796108

Communication

Student engagement and motivation

ASCD Guest Bloggers

Alexis Wiggins

Erik Palmer

In spite of tough financial times, resourceful school leaders devise ways to overcome challenges and improve education. To do this, they make strategic use of the resources they have. And they also cultivate learning communities.In this article, Elizabeth A. City describes how school leaders can make more strategic use of three essential resources: people, time, and money. For example, investments in professional development have more potential to improve teacher performance than investments in increased teacher evaluation–if that professional development is of high quality and is aimed at enhancing teachers' higher-order learning. Effective use of money requires aligning resources to a clear strategy and goals and making tough tradeoffs.But no matter how intentionally and thoughtfully school leaders use resources, real school improvement may not occur, writes City, without changing practices and beliefs. This kind of change requires investing in five crucial areas: vision, hope, trust, ideas, and energy. City describes in detail the importance of hope, and tells about two schools in which large investments of time and money were ineffective until small changes created hope

Elizabeth A. City

About

Primary Topics

Articles by Elizabeth A.

Tending the Fire

Talking to Learn

ASCD Guest Bloggers

Leadership in Challenging Times

Write for ASCD

To process a transaction with a Purchase Order please send to member@ascd.org