At ACSA, we believe every child deserves access and opportunity to quality teaching and learning every day, regardless of his or her ZIP code or family income. Socioeconomic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/gender expression, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, religion, and ability should not be barriers for educational attainment.

We focus on providing equity leadership training and support for ACSA leaders and members that focuses on building capacity in cultural proficiency as well as all areas of equity and diversity. We believe that school leaders must be intentional and deliberate in disrupting inequities that continue to perpetuate the disparities among student groups. Our mission statement is fundamental to our approach in being the driving force for an equitable, world-class education system, and the development of educational leaders to achieving equity.

ASCA has many professional learning opportunities that assist education leaders in identifying and addressing equity challenges. We are proud of the courageous and equity-minded leadership demonstrated as a result of our members' participation in these experiences.

Theory of Action

If ACSA partners with educational leaders to create an equity-driven culture that supports the building of conditions and capacity for equity and excellence, we will dramatically improve educational outcomes for all students, especially those marginalized, disenfranchised, and disengaged. This will lead to positive outcomes for students related to the following commitments of equity:

1. Decrease Chronic Absenteeism
2. Reduce Disproportionate Suspension and Expulsion Rates
3. Increase Early Postsecondary Opportunities
4. Recruit and Retain a Diverse Teaching Force
5. Embed Cultural Competence in School Practices
6. Partner with Parents and Community Leaders

Ensuring equitable outcomes for all students requires courageous leadership for equity across the system:

• ACSA Resource Hub
• California Equity Leadership Alliance (CELA)
• African American Leaders on Facebook
• LGBTQ Leaders on Facebook
• Asian Pacific Islander Leaders on Facebook
• Latina Leaders on Facebook
• Connect on Twitter
• Education Equity in California

Educational Equity Videos

Trauma Informed Practices Presentation

Equity Partner Webinars

Why attend a webinar? The next best thing to an on-site workshop, ACSA has partnered with Corwin to provide webinars for your opportunity to interact directly with the field’s most influential thought leaders on a range of critical issues. What’s more, they’re free. Invite your entire team for a start-to-finish professional learning experience. Or download the slides post-webinar and share with your colleagues.

BE HER RESOURCE: A Toolkit about School Resource Officers and Girls of Color

A joint project of the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and The National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI).

LGBTQ Tools, Networking and Resources

For tools and resources to help administrators better serve their LGBTQ students and staff. Our goal is to connect LGBTQ educational leaders and allies and provide information and resources for the success of LGBTQ educators and the students they serve.

Summary of Discipline Data for Girls in U.S. Public Schools

Prepared by the National Black Women’s Justice Institute; Misha N. Inniss-Thompson; September 2017.

Equity Position Paper

Together our efforts must focus on closing the achievement gap in our schools and districts and on ensuring that all students meet standards.

Equity and Access Survey

Highlights from ACSA's 2015 Equity and Access Survey include many suggestions for championing educational equity throughout California.

Educational Equity Roundtable

Hosted by ACSA Diversity and Equal Access Executive Nicole Anderson, the roundtables are an opportunity for educational leaders to discuss the challenges educators face in addressing critical gaps in supports and mindsets in order to provide equitable schooling.

Membership

Increase diversity in ACSA membership and leadership through intentional recruitment, retention, and outreach efforts.

Communication

Increase all members’ awareness of equity and diversity issues that impact historically underserved leaders and students.

Professional Learning

Provide relevant equity leadership training and support for ACSA leaders and members that focuses on building capacity in cultural proficiency as well as all areas of equity and diversity.

The ACSA iLead Equity Team Lab* is designed to create a strong network of individuals trained and ready to lead their communities toward more equitable outcomes. We believe that creativity, innovation, and learning by doing, hallmarks of any laboratory, will allow us to experiment with new ideas and strategies. We will tackle the complex systems, leadership, policies and academic strategies needed to break through to equitable practices in schools.

The academy is designed for school site teams responsible for leading and coordinating reform efforts focused on addressing achievement gaps. Practical tools and tips are incorporated in every session.

Specific Themes Include:

• Build Cultural Proficiency to Advance Educational Equity
• Using the LCAP and SPSA plans to Leading & Design for Equity
• Using Data as an Equity Engine to Address the Needs of Student Groups
• Developing a strategic plan and vision for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
• Design a Continuum of Services and Support aligning local, state and federal priorities
• Understanding LCFF and Leveraging resources for all Student Groups
• Engaging Family and Community Partners for Equity and Excellence

*Lab activities (TBD)

Our training is designed to give participants an opportunity to explore their unconscious or implicit bias through a facilitated dialogue and activities. The goal is to give each participant a unique experience. It is up to each participant to make connections from the training to their work assignment and to decide how to apply the learnings to their job/assignment. Learning about unconscious or implicit bias is just one part of becoming a culturally responsive educator. Our perceptions, assumptions, and expectations play a large role in student academic outcomes.

Specific Themes Include:

• Understand implicit bias and “how the brain works
• Learn how stereotypes “show up” in the school community – micro-aggressions
• Examine the historical context about the politics of identity and the dynamics of power and privilege

The ACSA Equity Administrators Academy is designed to build leadership capacity and oversight to the development and advancement of systemic strategies. The Academy will focus on policies and academic strategies that close the achievement gap in efforts to implement promising and proven strategies in the district. Participants will learn how to conducts internal review and evaluation of existing resources and programs established to support underserved students.

The academy is designed for administrators or individuals responsible for leading and coordinating reform efforts focused on addressing achievement gaps.

Specific themes Include:

• Build Cultural Proficiency to Advance Educational Equity
• Using the LCAP and SPSA plans to Leading & Design for Equity
• Using Data as an Equity Engine to Address the Needs of Student Groups
• Developing a strategic plan and vision for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
• Design a Continuum of Services and Support aligning local, state and federal priorities
• Understanding LCFF and Leveraging resources for all Student Groups
• Engaging Family and Community Partners for Equity and Excellence

Learn More

ACSA, in conjunction with its equity partners, is proud to bring you a unique new professional development experience designed to build your cultural proficiency capacity in order to lead for equity. We have designed a rich program for district teams and individual leaders from all educational levels to assist in the development of deep belief systems and understanding of cultural proficiency that empowers you to be proactive and responsive to the diverse needs of the communities you serve.

CPSEL #5 Focus: Ethics and Integrity

• Reflective Practice
• Ethical Decision Making
• Ethical Action

Major Themes:

• Equity, culture, and community
• Cultural Proficiency
• Disrupting patterns of inequity

Empowering Change. Empowering Leaders

This course is designed to introduce the students to the foundations of a cultural proficiency framework using Randall Lindsey's work. This is an entry-level course for undergraduate and graduate students. The purpose of this class is to examine a cultural proficiency framework that will shift the culture of a school, district, or individual. At the end of the course, the ability of educators will be expanded to have more culturally proficient interactions with others who are different from themselves.

In 21st Century classrooms, educators face diverse environments where change is the norm, where school communities, staff and student demographics are increasingly diverse in race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and ability. This course will address the mindset of educators to move from seeing cultural differences as a problem to learning how to authentically interact with others. Educators will compare and contrast the historical timeline of education in the past with our current educational system.

Topics covered include:

• Cultural Proficient Leadership
• Cultural Proficiency
• The History of Public Education
• Leading from Inside-Out
• Overcoming Barriers to Cultural Proficiency
• Discovering Self and others: Guiding Principles to Cultural Proficiency
• Seeing and Responding to Differences: Macro- and Micro-aggressions

This program will provide each participant with the tools required to develop an Equity and Social Justice Plan to implement in their setting, whether that is the classroom, the school or the school district. Each plan is based on the principles inherent in social justice and the plan will only be the starting point for each participant’s work. Following the development of their plan, participants will be assigned a job-alike mentor who will work with the participant in implementing their plan. At six months and again at one year, participants will meet to review and discuss their work in implementing the plan.

Course Expectations:

• Participants will be expected to complete pre-class assignments prior to each session
• Participants will be expected to attend each session and participate in every class discussion
• Participants will be expected to complete and implement their Equity and Social Justice plan

ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS & CALIFORNIA COLLABORATIVE FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NETWORK FACT SHEET 2019

Goal/objective:

The ACSA iLead Equity Team Lab PLN is designed to create a strong network of school teams, trained and ready to lead their communities toward identifying the root causes of inequities experienced by the most vulnerable students in California K-12 schools.

Theories of the ACSA/CCEE PLN:

Carnegie Foundation’s Six Core Principles of Improvement

The six core principles of improvement are an important part of our PLN design. The principles are (1) make the work problem-specific and user centered; (2) variation in performance is the core problem to address; (3) see the system that produces the current outcomes; (4) we cannot improve at scale what we cannot measure; (5) anchor practice in disciplined inquiry; and (6) accelerate improvements through networked communities. Each of these aspects are critical to our work in the PLN as the goal is for participants to build their capacity to lead this work.

Peter Senge’s The 5 Learning Disciplines

Peter Senge’s The 5 Learning Disciplines are - Shared Vision, Mental Models, Personal mastery, Team Learning, and Systems Thinking are each made up of a set of tools and practices for building and sustaining learning leadership capability in organizations. The 5 Learning Disciplines are an important part of our PLN design. According to Senge, leaders in learning organizations learn to thrive on change and constantly innovate by methodically cultivating these 5 Disciplines. He admits that they may never be fully mastered, but learning-centered leaders, teams and organizations practice them continuously. Each Discipline consists of:

• Principles, propositions or concepts (Senge calls these ‘guiding ideas’).
• Tools or techniques that, once learned and practiced, assist in making the Disciplines come to life.
• Practices or precepts to follow in your own leadership behavior and approaches.

To implement these principles, the ACSA/CCEE PLN (1) supports all LEAs to identify a problem of practice, (2) use the data dashboard and collect additional supporting data to identify variation in the outcomes as related to the problem of practice, (3) participants discuss and work together to leverage the equity content to consider the systems that produce the inequitable outcomes, (4) all LEAs must collect data (dashboard and additional data) as part of their improvement cycles. They are encouraged to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, are taught about data types and ways to collect data from multiple sources to triangulate the data, (5) participants engage in disciplined inquiry through the inquiry cycles, (6) the PLN is the network to support and accelerate their success. For example, in each in-person meeting, participants meet in their district group to compare and discuss results and to determine next steps. They are then broken out into jigsaw groups which consist of participants outside of their district for further advice and to learn from the work of others.

Cultural Proficiency

The cultural proficiency framework comes from the work of Lindsey, Robins and Terrell (2009) and provides an “inside-out” approach to culturally proficient school leadership. This framework provides a lens through which all of the improvement work is viewed. The guiding principles of cultural proficiency are as follows:

• Culture is a predominant force in society.
• People are served in varying degrees by the dominant culture.
• People have individual and group identities.
• Diversity within cultures is vast and significant.
• Each cultural group has unique cultural needs.
• The best of both worlds enhances the capacity of all.
• The family, as defined by culture, is the primary system of support in the education of children.
• School systems must recognize that marginalized populations have to be at least bicultural and that this status create a distinct set of issues to which the system must be equipped to respond.
• Inherent in cross-cultural interactions are dynamics that must be acknowledged, adjusted, and accepted.
• Participating in site equity instructional walkthroughs
• Observing Instructional Coaching for equity Dyads
• Examining of multiple sources of data including LCAP and SPSA plans
• Implementing improvement science
• Conducting a mini equity audit to identify the team’s problem of practice

We develop and implement this part of our plan through the content experts who present and provide information on various equity-related topics. We also continue to share resources through Collaboration in Common and have discussions about equity in all aspects of this work.

Key Areas Include:

• Equity-minded Leadership
• Structural Change: Implicit Bias & Belief Systems
• System of Accountability & Transformation
• Culturally Responsive Environment
• External and Internal Politics of Equity

PLN Purpose and Connection: Theory of Action

We believe that if ACSA supports district and site leaders to create a strong network of school teams trained that are ready to lead their communities toward more equitable practices, we will noticeably improve administrator leadership capacity and increase equity efforts related to instructional coaching for equity in classrooms, instructional walkthroughs with an equity lens, and increase of awareness of unconscious biases among staff.

We will tackle the complex systems, leadership, policies, mindsets, and academic strategies needed to break through to equitable practices in schools grounded in The Carnegie Foundation work on improvement science. Inquiry analysis will be grounded in multiple sources of data including, but not limited to California State Dashboard data indicators, California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress results, California Healthy Kids Survey, School Plan for Student Achievement, and Local Control and Accountability Plan.

PLN Meetings:

There are eight all-day, in-person meetings and four short (approx. 2 hours) virtual sessions. All in-person meetings to be held at ACSA's Ontario Office unless professional experiences require meeting in another location.

Continuous Improvement:

A systems-change approach will be utilized to address the inequities by designing and fostering solutions through improvement science by setting goals, identifying ways to improve, and evaluating the results. The PLN will evaluate, examine, and identify policies, systems, and practices that impeded positive outcomes for California's neediest students.

Measurement of impact:

Participants will collect and analyze multiple sources of data including, but not limited to formative and summative academic assessments, suspension data, graduation data, data from equity walks, etc. For new programs, participants will use data from multiple sources to set measurable goals and monitor effectiveness of implementation and progress toward achieving equitable outcomes. The work performed in this PLN seeks to address the issues of educational inequities as it relates to increasing leadership capacity, academic performance, suspensions rates, graduation rates, and culturally responsive environments

PLN Membership

Intended Participants: District administrator, principal and site leadership team (consisting of counselor, department chairs, teacher leaders, assistant principal).

Participant’s Role Connection to PLN Purpose

The role of the principal and site equity team is vital to advancing the work of equity in their schools. Research supports the theory that teacher leaders are held in high regard from their peers around implementing new initiatives from the bottom up approach. Most reform efforts show little momentum when it is mandated for the top. Therefore, this team approach will be most effective in site implementation of equity efforts. Research also shows that leveraging teacher leadership is the fundamental pillar in the context of continuous improvement outcomes. The District administrator’s role places a strong emphasis in communicating and supporting the district’s equity related vision and commitment to excellence. Through the work of a PLN, principals will receive district support in implementing the interventions that show evidence of effectiveness for the neediest student groups in their school.

During face-to-face meetings, the PLN will intentionally provide various ways to examine the site teams’ problem of practice. PLN activities will consist, but are not limited to:

Through cooperation with school site teams, data analysis, and assessment of processes within the participants’ districts the following key areas will guide the PLN’s work of exploring and designing solutions that address the inequities of the most vulnerable student groups in California:

• English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils, foster youth, homeless youth, students with disabilities, racial/ethnic groups.

Deadline to apply for ACSA PLN will be no later than July 22, 2019. Applicants will be notified on a rolling basis, but no later than July 25, 2019.

Dates are being finalized. The first meeting will take place late August. Meetings will be held on monthly basis.

More about CCEE PLNs: https://ccee-ca.org/professional-learning-networks.asp