Equity: It All Starts with the Belief that All Really does Mean ALL

All means ALL. Every Student, every period, every day…

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Those were the words that Dr. Juan Baughn, one of my facilitators and mentors, repeated during every day of our National Institute for School Leadership’s (NISL) sessions when I participated in NISL’s executive development program for school leaders in 2015 and 2016.   Dr. Baughn, a former special assistant to the Pennsylvania secretary of education and current superintendent in Philadelphia, knows a thing or two about what’s lacked in America’s public school system over the past half century. As one of the most respected facilitators of growth for our nation’s principals, Dr. Baughn knows all about the research on how people learn. The research detailing the systems built and aligned by the highest performing school systems on the planet. He taught me a lot about strategic thinking and analyzing the benefits and risks associated with every decision I make. But his most powerful lesson? That all means ALL.

 

Fairness in education does not mean giving the same treatment or opportunities to every student. The best educators have a way of guiding every student to successful ends by assessing every individual student’s needs and focusing on giving every student what they in fact need. Our most effective teachers customize and differentiate their instruction to guide EVERY student toward a path leading to successful experiences in college and/or career as well as in life. Above all, we all must believe that EVERY student can learn and succeed given constant encouragement and commit to never giving up on ANY one student. We must work to determine what every student needs so that we can customize their plan to travel a path toward college and/or career. With total compassion and the acceptance that we are here to serve every student, we must give every student a clean slate after every mistake. We have to be the ones who pick them off the floor and dust them off after a bad day. Our belief in every one of our students must be relentless in that we work tirelessly to serve every single one of our students no matter how challenging and always with a positive approach and unyielding confidence. 

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When we approach our students in this way, the result will become equity. That’s when it becomes fair – when we focus on giving single student what he or she needs without exception. Our actions needs to support the premise that every staff member firmly believes that every student can and will succeed while a student at our school. 

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For generations, many of our nation’s schools have tried to make one size fit all while accepting that those students who struggled to fit into the mold would simply fall behind. As students moved through our nation’s school districts, many simply accepted the expectation that struggling student’s learning gaps would naturally widen and in essence we fostered somewhat of a class system to develop across our schools. The haves and the have nots. It is time that we differentiate our approach so that every student has an equitable opportunity to flourish. It starts with a deep conviction to the belief that every student can!

 

All should actually mean ALL. Every student, every period, every day.