Equity in North Carolina’s Public Schools – Past, Present and Future

With lessons learned from the past and others from schools today, the State Board of Education continued to keep the issue of equity at the forefront of North Carolina’s public schools agenda this month during its annual fall planning and work session.

The three-day session, held remotely, built on the board’s adoption in September of an ambitious resolution and action plan aimed at overcoming entrenched inequities and providing greater opportunities for success for all students.

Board Chairman Eric Davis said this month’s meeting agenda had been designed to highlight the work already in progress across the state to achieve those goals.

“It’s important that we take this time to hear from our front-line educators on how we can translate our policies into action,” Davis said.

James Ford, co-chairman of the board’s Strategic Planning Committee, said the theme of the planning and work session – Bridging the Past and Present to Guide Our Way Forward – underscored the state’s long struggle to overcome formidable challenges.

“2020 has presented us with many unique obstacles,” Ford said, “but they’re also not unprecedented. They’re challenges we’ve seen before.”

A history of inequity

For historical context about the state’s past challenges, the board heard from Ann McColl, an attorney and expert in education law in North Carolina and president of The Innovation Project, which works with superintendents across the state on projects to strengthen public education with an awareness of issues of access, including removing structural, systemic barriers for students and their communities related to race, ethnicity, immigrant status and economic resources.

McColl led the board through a history of North Carolina’s segregated and unequal education system starting after the Civil War and leading through the state’s efforts after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision to effectively nullify the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated schools.

With this year’s national reckoning with dramatic episodes of racial injustice, McColl said in response to a question about their lasting impact that the state is at a critical crossroads.

“We have a choice ahead of us right now,” McColl said. “We can think of this as Reconstruction 2020. There is so much disruption to the education system brought about by COVID. The murder of George Floyd brings a deeper awareness for every one of the racial injustices that persist.

“It’s just an extraordinary time, and I’m confident that historians [in the future] will look back to 2020 and see how people chose to act. And certainly, you as a state board have been taking steps to position yourself in a way to act with great strength on issues of equity and learner-centered [policies].”

McColl also emphasized the importance of intentional decisions state political and education leaders made that determined outcomes in the past. She said that deliberate steps were taken during the early 20^thcentury to severely limit educational opportunities for black students.

“It didn’t just happen,” McColl said. “If we want to do the opposite – we want to seek equity – we have to do it with the same level of intention.” She said entire systems and structures must be addressed, rather than just individual programs, to achieve the broader goal of equity.

“When we see those [past] efforts at inequity, it was done in lots of different ways. Some of it was legal, putting laws on the books, some of it was social and economic,” she said. “The whole giving less money to schools for blacks was a very intentional economic choice to try and maintain a patriarchal structure.”

Leadership and Progress from the Field

The board also heard from district and school leaders, teachers and students about current efforts to achieve greater equity in the state’s schools.

From the Winston-Salem/Forsyth school district, Effie McMillian, executive director of equity, access and acceleration, walked the board through the steps her district has taken within the last year to develop an intentional focus on better meeting the needs of all students.

“We know that equity work is heavy lifting, and it is something that is ongoing,” McMillian said. “We had to ask ourselves as a district – Do you really want equity? Do you really want all students to succeed? Do you have the will? Are willing to be disturbed and challenged to improve the outcomes for all students?”

As the district’s equity officer, she said that she helps ensure that the focus permeates all of the district’s various departments.

“Leaders have to be equity minded,” McMillian said. “They have to ask themselves, ‘Is that equitable? Does it align with the district’s mission and vision? … Equity is a collective effort,” McMillian said. “It has to be the work of everyone. There has to be cross-departmental collaboration.”

As an example, she cited the district’s work with the University of Virginia, which is helping support eight high-priority, low-performing schools in the district, and that a focus on equity is woven through the entire effort. For those same schools, she said, the district has ensured that they are staffed with strong teachers and administrators.

“We have principals and teachers in those schools who are top notch,” McMillian said. “They are high quality leaders, experienced in school turnaround, and all staff are working hard for all students.”

The need to ensure equity for all students has also been at the heart of the district’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, she said.

“Even as we move towards Plan B, equity and access is at the forefront of our minds,” she said, noting that the district has created a guidebook for families that emphasizes the district’s commitment to ensuring equitable service to all students and to making sure that the district is leveraging all available resources. “There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution,” she said.

McMillian said Winston-Salem/Forsyth schools are responding to student needs on multiple fronts, including providing for basic necessities, supporting academic learning and ensuring the well-being of each student.

“With academic learning, we were making sure that we were providing quality instruction that was going to be designed and delivered through our learning management system, Canvas, in an effort that would not expand the achievement gap – and that was why professional development was so important and necessary for everyone across the district,” she said.

She said the district has deployed 20 school buses, equipped with hotspots and tutors, to communities lacking internet access. In addition, the district has teamed up with community partners across the county to operate 40 remote learning centers in various locations and to develop a CARES team for wrap-around support to students and families in real time.

McMillian told the board that district leaders feel confident that they’re taking the right steps to support all students, now and in the future, in achieving success.  

“By adopting an equity policy and setting forth bold goals and objectives and actions in the district’s strategic plan, the district has proven its commitment and dedication to disrupting systemic inequities that have historically marginalized students, ensuring equitable distribution of services and resources,” she said. “If we apply this theory of action or change, we believe that the district can build a culture of equity and improve the life chances of all our students.

A Principal’s Perspective

At the school level, Shuford Elementary School in the Newton-Conover district has transformed its culture with a focus on personalized learning and support and strong relationships between teachers and students.

That was the message to the state board from the school’s principal Kisha Clemons, recently named the state’s Wells Fargo Principal of the Year for 2020.

“In the past, the school was focused on what we were teaching and not necessarily what students were learning,” Clemons told the board. “Our conversations focused more on what students could not do rather than focusing on their strengths and talents. Students were asked to talk less and listen more.

“Our new focus is on equity and excellence,” she said. “We’ve shifted our mindset: Learning is personal.”

Now, she said, the school operates from these premises:

• Every child is gifted
• Our focus is on developing meaningful relationships
• No longer are students adapting to what we are doing, but we are adapting our practices to think about each student and family need.

Clemons outlined the various approaches the school takes to foster healthy and happy children. Among them:

• Focus on social emotional learning
• Frequently checking in with students
• Providing extra support from teachers
• Using other strategies as music and movement
• Teaching students skills in communication and collaboration
• Leveraging partnerships with mental health professionals

“These strategies were particularly important as we’ve had to navigate remote learning,” she said.

As a foundation for the school’s transformation, Clemons said, it started with a shift in culture to focus on equity, inclusion, learning and collaborative leadership.

“We are all learners and leaders,” she said. “We want to make sure that every kid is succeeding every day.”

The View from the Classroom

A panel discussion during the board’s planning and work session gave members a perspective from students, teachers and building-level administrators from Edgecombe and Vance counties, both rural districts challenged by poverty.

The students, from predominantly black Tarboro High school, spoke to the importance of both the curriculum and the faculty reflecting who they are.

“Maybe black students don’t see themselves reflected in their teachers,” said Elijah Sellers, who attended Tarboro High before transferring to the N.C. School of Science and Math in Durham.

“Representation is key.”

“I want students of color to know that no goal that they set is too high. They don’t have to settle based on the expectations of different-minded people – people who don’t see you succeeding. I don’t think there’s a system that does that. No person is without biases or judgments. But continuing to have conversations will be the best way to encourage students to step outside themselves and into positions and places that they didn’t see for themselves.”

LeshaunJenkins, an assistant principal at Tarboro High School, called for a more honest recognition of data as a starting point to innovate and achieve positive change.

“We should just let the data tell the story,” Jenkins said. He noted that while working with a teacher during the past year, they wanted to address the fact that black male freshmen were starting high school with low performance in Math 1.

“The data said that,” Jenkins said. “I didn’t say that. The teacher didn’t say that. But we said that if that’s what the data is saying, let’s create some diagnostics to fix the problem if there’s a problem of practice. I worked with the teacher, and we did a lot of innovative things and the next semester, the data told a very different story. The subgroup that had been at the very bottom was now at the very top.

“As we begin to move forward, sometimes we have to just read the writing on the wall and stop ignoring the writing on the wall. Whatever the narrative is saying, own it, deal with it and build from it. …. We can’t defeat what we’re not willing to confront. If we begin to confront all those issues that we know have been paralyzing and crippling our students for centuries, then at least we’re on the right track.”

Ms. Kedecia Stewart from Vance County schools told the board that what districts such as hers need is a level playing field to ensure equitable opportunities for students.

“When you want equity, you have to remove every single barrier that stands in the way to a child achieving their highest potential,” she said.

State Board Approves Amended Health Guidance from DHHS for Reopening Schools

The State Board of Education at its meeting earlier this month approved the requirements outlined in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit (K-12) as amended on Sept. 17, with additional revisions added when it was presented to the board on Oct. 8.

The Sept. 17 changes included these:

• As of Oct. 5, elementary schools (K – 5th grade) can operate under Plan A.
• At this time, middle and high schools (6th – 12th grade) may operate under Plan B or Plan C, only.
• It is strongly recommended schools operate transportation under Plan B health and safety requirements to ensure reduced density in a more confined space.
• It is strongly encouraged that if schools implement plan A, they also implement and emphasize recommended strategies in the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit for social distancing and minimizing exposure like choosing to cohort students and teachers.
• Clarified that symptom screenings should take place daily.

Additional revisions presented Oct. 8 and approved by the board are these:

• Clarified what is required for schools to report to local health departments: suspected or confirmed cases.
• Added language about excluding siblings/household members if one individual is symptomatic or exposed, which reflects the screening form.
• Added links to quarantine example calendars.
• Clarified language regarding Plan B bus restrictions following request from NC State Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction.
• Added links to quarantine example calendars.
• Clarified screening flow chart language regarding antigen vs. PCR testing.