Applying the Equity Lens

What is perhaps most challenging and most necessary is that leading and engaging for equity requires all of us to recognize the ways in which we need to shift our own perspectives and practices to support more equitable outcomes for students. Doing this requires self-reflection and a recognition of how existing systems and beliefs maintain opportunity disparities. We must give ourselves the space and time to reflect, listen, learn, innovate, and develop so that we can do the same for our students. Leading for equity also requires us to grapple with complicated and complex challenges, and to be persistent and flexible in developing promising practices to address these challenges.

Understanding the Equity Lens

An essential component of collective leadership for equity is the equity lens. We must apply an equity lens that enables us to see and understand the existing structures and conditions that create inequities, as well as the changes that are necessary to create more equitable learning environments. This is a shift from a historical education lens that upholds structural racism to an equity lens that creates fair access and opportunities for all. Doing so requires using a shared lens when re-imagining what our district could look like and accomplish. An equity lens has four dimensions:

1. (Use) Liberatory Thinking;
2. (Catalyze) Inclusive Partnerships;
3. (Direct) Resource Equity; and
4. (Design) Fair Policies and Systems.

We can think of these dimensions as similar to what happens when an artist mixes colors on a pallet to create just the right shade. Individually, the colors are simple and straightforward, but when they are mixed together, the resulting shade has depth and nuance that the individual colors do not possess on their own.

We would never have seen the nuances and the depth if the colors had not been mixed together. Similarly, the dimensions of the equity lens work together to allow us to “see” the system differently. We cannot see the nuances if we are only using one dimension of the equity lens. All the dimensions must be engaged in order for equity work to succeed. If we developed and implemented a promising practice after only engaging the liberatory thinking dimension, the practice would likely not be as successful as it would had we engaged all of the dimensions of the equity lens simultaneously. In this way, the equity lens provides a descriptive, conceptual understanding of what equity work requires so individuals and groups can think and act in service of our students, especially those most impacted by inequities. Using an equity lens is critical for this work. When we use an equity lens, we create the conditions within ourselves and among our colleagues that lay the foundation for more equitable learning environments.

Applying the Equity Lens

Without an equity lens, we will maintain the opportunity gaps we are working to mitigate. We must apply the equity lens to every equity challenge we seek to solve. The interaction between the four dimensions of the equity lens is what creates disruption in the status quo and opens the door for change. When using the four dimensions of the equity lens, we begin by understanding and re-imagining our own assumptions and beliefs (Liberatory Thinking). Second, we consider how we can create inclusive partnerships that recognize differences as assets and prioritize the voices of those most affected by a proposed change (Inclusive Partnerships). Third, we prioritize and allocate people, time, and money to align with level of opportunity (Resource Equity) in order to create opportunities that meet the diverse needs of all students. Finally, we design policies and systems that promote equitable opportunities to reach equal outcomes for all student and stakeholder groups, with an emphasis on those who are most affected by structural inequality and inequity (Fair Policies and Systems).

The equity lens is applicable to any context—classroom, school, or district. To create the real, transformational change that will support all students, we must use an equity lens to engage with our colleagues on complicated and complex problems of equity. Everyone is accountable for having an equity lens and is expected to continuously improve their lens; this is how we transform our district to advance equity for students.

An equity challenge is a clear concise statement that articulates who is most negatively impacted in a given situation or system and what inequitable outcomes or experience need to be disrupted or interrupted (e.g. African American males do not have equitable access to advanced placement courses.).