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Educational leaders who have the knowledge, skills and courage to guide their schools toward greater equity in academic outcomes and in the treatment of students are rare, largely because equity is not a goal that has been pursued or treated as a priority in public education. Instead, schools in the United States have historically operated like sorting machines, practicing a form of educational triage not unlike hospital emergency rooms during times of war. Such practices have ensured that the most privileged students receive the best public education has to offer, while relegating the most needy and disadvantaged students to an inferior education.
Similar tendencies are present even in schools that have an impressive track record for producing academic excellence. A close look at the distribution of academic rewards and resources typically reveals glaring disparities in grades, test scores, drop-out and suspension rates that correlate in disturbing ways with the race and class backgrounds of students. Like hospitals that only succeed at serving healthy patients, such schools often display a remarkable inability to serve the needs of the students that need the most help, especially if they are poor or children of color.
There is a tremendous need for school leaders who are willing to risk making equity a priority, and the risks of such a course of action are real. Those who dare to reduce the degree and extent of tracking, or to open access to honors and advanced placement courses, or to distribute more challenging courses evenly among teachers run the risk of inciting politically powerful parents. Such parents, who believe that their children benefit from inequity, often pose in a formidable challenge to change. In many schools, it is far easier to maintain the unequal status quo and to continue allowing those who have the most to get the most than it is to work for social justice in education.
In addition to powerful parents, the practices used to assign teachers to courses can also serve as a significant obstacle to equity. In many schools it is common to assign the "best" teachers to teach the "best" students, while the weaker teachers or the newer ones are assigned to teach the students with the greatest needs. Such practices make it much more difficult to raise student achievement and also contribute to the inability of many schools to retain new teachers.
Educational leaders who understand the importance of ensuring that all students have the opportunity to learn and who genuinely desire to advance equity must be able to do at least three things. First, they must be able to articulate a vision that makes it clear that academic excellence and equity need not be regarded as conflicting or competing goals. Second, they must work with teachers, parents and students to plan and devise strategies that allow these goals to be combined in ways that do not undermine the quality of education provided to students. Finally, they must be willing to support and encourage the development of a constituency that is willing work for greater equity, that will monitor the school's progress, and that will hold the school accountable to these goals.
Admittedly, this is a tall order. To have the credibility and wherewithal to lead for equity, one must have a strong sense of conviction and a genuine commitment to the values that underlie its pursuit. Yet these are the leaders we must have if schools are to become the just and caring places that our society needs for them to be.
Pedro Noguera is currently the Judith K. Dimon Professor of Communities and Schools at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on the ways in which schools respond to social and economic forces within the urban environment.