Blog

Discussing Equity

School leaders across Virginia came together to ask the questions:

• How do you facilitate discussions with colleagues about Black Lives Matter?
• Who should do “the work?”
• How does one encourage allies in leadership?

Though the answers varied, many noted that the journey can be both rewarding and difficult. In one case, a principal worked closely with a staff member who did not understand what was wrong with the phrase All Lives Matter. The principal decided to listen first, then respond. She waited as the staff person shared and “told their truth.” Next, the principal asked some questions and told the person that they were "going to really have to work at opening [their] eyes or [their] lens, and see things through a totally different lens." This helped the individual understand that “his experiences are not the experiences that everybody has had.” The staff person and the principal agreed to have frequent, almost daily conversations to check-in and discuss the Black Lives Matter movement. Multiple principals agreed that by allowing everyone to share their experiences and explain how they come to their opinions can be helpful in opening constructive dialogue and finding common ground.

Another principal spoke about the difficulty of engaging her audience when talking about equity in education. She said “but the balance beam we can fall off of is either going too far into storytelling or too far into data. And we tend to default one way or the other and going too far into either loses our audience. So if you show up with data and chart after chart, after chart, after chart, at the federal and state level, we get charts every day. You're not going to show me any gap that I haven't seen. You're not going to show me anything with a pretty line graph that I haven't already thought about. You've got all this great data, but you're presenting it in such a way that I'm tuned out. The flip side is you come in with these really compelling stories that are very specific to people and they are about individuals and they're very detailed. And the response is ‘Yes. But What's the data for this school.’ And that's why I say that it's a balance beam. So if you go too far either way you can fall off. And so before you go in to do this advocacy work, really think about not only what do you want on the other side of the conversation, but who is the person that you're talking to and what moves them.”

One resource that was brought up multiple times, was Dr. Anneliese A. Singh’s The Racial Healing Handbook.

Lead by Example

Advice is easy to give, but sometimes hard to follow. School administrators across Virginia have found it difficult to get staff and students to commit to certain actions through advice alone. One administrator has noticed that just encouraging staff to practice breathing exercises was not enough to motivate and engage the staff. She said, “you don't just tell your staff to breathe. You've got to model that breathing because you've got to take care of you, too. If we don't model it, we are not demonstrating what we are expecting of our staff.”  Another principal used a similar method with their students. At a back to school event during a COVID school year, the principal noticed students were not excited and seemed down. This principal knew they could not just approach the students and tell them to be happy. So they decided to bring the energy that was missing by dancing to the welcome song, playing some of the games, and participating in school chants. This led to an improvement in morale and increased engagement from the students.

Some principals looked to their staff to find individuals who could lead by example. When making the transition from virtual to hybrid and in-person instruction, one middle school principal turned to her teachers for help leading professional development. She asked teachers who had already transitioned to face-to-face and a Zoom classroom hybrid to allow virtual teachers to sit in on lessons. The virtual teachers were asked to observe the various classroom styles and jot down some takeaways in a Google doc. Then at a faculty meeting, some of the in-person teachers sat on a panel and answered the virtual teachers questions. This helped virtual teachers see it was possible to transition to in-person or hybrid and gave them the confidence to do so.

Connecting with the Community

Families face many pressures that sometimes make it challenging to fully engage with their children’s school communities. Even as schools try to host meetings, set up fun events, and schedule days for parents to pick up school supplies, difficult work schedules, commitment to extracurricular activities, family life, and lack of transportation are some of the many reasons parents are not able to participate. Administrators across Virginia have found some creative solutions to draw parents in and to bring the programming to the parents.

When a principal was not able to attract a crowd to her weekly Zoom meetings, she hit the streets offering free books and popsicles. Families would come to her for conversation and to ask questions about the school year. She also found success in making connections through social media. By keeping families informed on the platforms they were already using, she was able to alleviate some stress and saw a positive response.

Another principal made the effort to contact every family in her school. This principal and a team of staff members reached out to every family over the phone, as opposed to asking them to complete a form. This opportunity helped the staff better understand each family’s situation, allowed the families to ask questions, and helped strengthen the trust between families and school administrators.

A third principal looked for a way to improve her school’s Chromebook pickup. First she made sure there were multiple pickup options for parents who were unable to leave work or find transportation. Then, she included goodies and a raffle ticket with each Chromebook, encouraging families to attend a Zoom meeting to win prizes. The principal worked with local businesses to collect big ticket donations for the raffle prizes. She found that a larger number of people attended her Zoom meeting and engaged with staff.

Motivating Teachers

The COVID-19 pandemic and concurrent reckoning about race in the US have created challenges and stressors for teachers that can impede their ability to support teaching and learning. Administrators shared, through focus groups and interviews, mechanisms they use to support teachers, even in small ways. One way to show appreciation for a person's hard work is through rewards. Administrators across Virginia have seen the positive impact offering fun, yet simple rewards can have on their teachers and staff. One school brought in food trucks for Wednesday lunches for a mid-week thank you. Another school allowed teachers to wear sweats or active wear on hybrid days when certain metrics were met. Other schools set up a break hour where teachers were offered a rotation of activities from yoga lessons to coloring book time.

Not every school can afford to offer rewards like the ones listed above. Some administrators got creative with teacher of the month awards where one teacher is featured on a school bulletin board, recognized in various meetings and assemblies, and given framed compliments and words of affirmation from their peers. Alternately, administrators looked outside their schools for help. Some administrators talked to local businesses and churches about sponsoring a teacher lunch or donating supplies.

Never forget the power of words. Many principals have noticed when they say “thank you” or "we can't run school without you," their staff feel seen and appreciated. This can have a positive impact on their work, their mental health, and staff morale.