Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

I recently heard an apt analogy* for diversity, equity, and inclusion work: that it’s akin to good dental hygiene. To take care of your teeth, you brush and floss daily, and go to the dentist regularly. Similarly, for diversity, equity, and inclusion work to be successful and meaningful, it must be an ongoing and daily practice. In the leadership development training our EP Fellows receive, we talk a lot about diversity, equity, and inclusion. In the spirit of helping more people get started, I want to share some of the resources we’ve used in our curriculum.

Education is a tough business. Teachers, principals, and schools are tasked with preparing our children to thrive for the rest of their lives, wherever their paths may take them. No small or easy task, that’s for sure. To help prepare our kids to be great citizens and the global leaders of tomorrow, diverse classrooms and schools can help us get there.

After four years in the classroom, William Jackson walked away from teaching. He sought a way to teach kids what our schools aren’t: about their value as people of color – and specifically as Black people – and what race means for them both in and far beyond school.

In the past seven months since EP published our report, From Intention to Action: Building Diverse, Inclusive Teams in Education to Deepen Impact , I’ve talked to Alumni, partners, and others in Greater Boston about their desire to put good intentions to work and build more racially diverse and inclusive teams.

In the history of our country, there have been far too many tragic deaths like Freddie Gray’s. And Eric Garner’s. And Michael Brown’s. And Trayvon Martin’s. And Walter Scott’s. And Oscar Grant’s. It is heart wrenching to see the terrible toll of systemic injustice that continues to plague our nation and decimate low-income communities of color.

Diverse leadership teams bring tremendous value across organizations and industries. However, there is much work to be done when it comes to education organizations’ abilities to attract, develop, and retain leaders of color. Koya Leadership Partners and Education Pioneers developed From Intention to Action: Building Diverse, Inclusive Teams in Education to Deepen Impact to help translate these well-intentioned beliefs about the importance of diversity into actionable practices. Download the Full Report >> Download the Organizational Audit Checklist >> Download the Infographic...

If you visit one of our country's public school districts, you're far more likely to find a student of color sitting in a classroom than to find a leader of color running that classroom, school, or district. Nationwide, 40% of American students are students of color – a percentage that grows when focusing on large, urban school districts. Yet across the nation, people of color represent only 17% of teachers and principals. A mere 11% of school board members are people of color. And at the highest level of leadership in school districts, just 6% of superintendents are black or Latino.