Designing for Change: Leading Whole School Learning for Equity at a Neighborhood High School

Tonya Hammaker • Cahn Fellow 2020

Our Cahn project seeks to provide whole school equity learning to our staff in hopes that staff, in turn, feel better prepared to support our students of color in meeting their goals and achieving success. Our school data shows that our Black students are not achieving at the same rate as our Latinx students in the areas of grades/GPA, college enrollment, and participation and success in rigorous academic pathways. We also have anecdotal data from student empathy interviews that show our black students do not have a strong sense of belonging in the school community compared to our Latinx students. Partnering with Project Restore Initiative and utilizing the CPS Equity Framework, we created a year-long Equity PLC to collaboratively learn about how we show up for our students, our inherent biases, and how we can become anti-racist educators. To develop my leadership skills, this project focuses on two questions: What leadership skills do I need to support our black students, address staff mindsets, reflect on inequitable structures in our school and improve student unity between my black and brown students? How do we address racial inequities to create a sense of belonging for all students?