Are Educational Leaders of Color Truly Able to Lead for Equity? Maintaining the Status Quo or Disrupting Unequitable Systems?

Introduction

The current socio-political context of education has highlighted the need for anti-racism, culturally responsive teaching (CRT), and culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL). In response, school districts around the country are reimagining missions and visions for districts to be responsive to the current needs of their respective communities. Discussions about diversity, equity, inclusion, and social–emotional learning have become amplified due to the twin pandemics: COVID-19 and the global uprising in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. The call for the development of anti-racist, culturally responsive teachers requires that they have culturally responsive school leaders (CRSLs) available to support them.

Purpose

This case study explores the complex challenges facing Superintendent Gabriella Ramirez, a 25-year career educator and district leader. As the new superintendent of Metro City Public Schools (MCPSs), Dr. Ramirez was expected to execute the agenda of Mayor Charles Fulbright, who has mayoral control of a large urban public school district. New to the Northeast United States, Dr. Ramirez faces challenges many school district leaders face. In addition, she finds herself experiencing an internal struggle as her core educational beliefs about equity and access conflict with the political realities of her position. This case study design can push aspiring school building and district leaders to think critically about the challenges educational leaders face when they commit to leading as anti-racist and—culturally responsive school/district leaders.

District Demographics and Case Background

MCPS is a large urban system under mayoral control in the northeastern region of the United States. MCPS is the second largest urban public school district in the Northeast. The district has 30 schools and 100,012 students and is a Title I district, with 60% of the students living at or below the poverty line. The district demographics are Latinx/Hispanic students (40%), Black students (36%), Asian/Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)/Native Hawaiian students (14%), and White students (7%). Indigenous Native students and bi- and multi-racial students compose the remaining 3% of the student population. The district recently experienced increases in its special education and multilingual learner populations, with each demographic representing 22% and 41% of MCPS students, respectively.

Mayor Charles Fulbright and his Deputy Mayor of Education, Quinn Johnson, came under fire after a bi-partisan committee they commissioned published a report examining the experiences and outcomes of MCPS students. The scathing report articulated that MCPS’s African American and Southeast Asian students were significantly underrepresented in both the gifted and talented (G&T) programs (PreK-8), and the specialized high school programs. The most alarming findings in the report were some of the testimonies from students and families that attended the town halls and shared their experiences. For example, this is testimony from a hearing.

There needed to be supported in trying to gain access to district resources. My wife reached out to our guidance counselor to ask about the G&T Preparation Academy before the end of the fifth grade, so that, we would be prepared. We were told the program was no longer available, which was devastating. However, we learned that was a lie at a Parent–Teacher Association (PTA) fundraiser the following week. One of the affluent moms told my wife she would “make a call” and get our daughter into the program. My wife followed up by asking what she meant because we were explicitly told that the program had ended. The mom replied,

Yes, that’s what she [the guidance counselor] is supposed to tell families in the school who live in public housing within our zone. But that’s for other families, not families like yours, who are working hard to get out of the projects. Your family deserves support.

There were numerous accounts like this one and other accounts that were worse. Those testimonials exposed blatant discrimination against students and families based on race and class. A student who served as a translator for their family shared one of the most powerful examples of race- and class-based discrimination:

They [the counselor and my teacher] told me to tell my father that the G&T program was not for Southeast Asian families like mine. She said those programs were for students who spoke Mandarin or Cantonese and who had two parents at home. They said it would be too hard for him to make sure that I could stay on top of my work in our neighborhood G&T program.

So, my best friend—whose parents are from China and spoke Mandarin—was able to get a referral for the program and waivers to cover tutoring costs. But we are Vietnamese, and my mom had gone back home to take care of my grandmother, so it was just me and my dad. They told us those programs weren’t for us.

The findings of the committee leaked to the press. The local newspaper, the Metro Times, ran a cover story leading with one of the committee’s recommendations to reimagine G&T programs by increasing resources in PreK-8 grade, creating a rich, rigorous, and robust enrichment program in grades PreK-6, to delaying testing for G&T until the fifth grade and expanding the G&T Prep Academy to a districtwide initiative open to every student in grades 6 and 7. The last recommendation is to prepare all MCPS students and ensure that every student can sit for the exam in the eighth grade. The committee made this recommendation to bolster the number of families, especially Black and Southeast Asian families, that would have access to take the test and the resources to prepare for it. The hope was that consistent access and support from the district would also increase the number of students from historically excluded communities accepted into the G&T and specialized high school programs.

The following week, the Metro Times story also elevated the committee’s report highlighting evidence of anti-Blackness in MCPS and Metro City broadly (Dumas & Ross, 2016). The story highlighted “blatant acts of racism and discrimination directed towards students of color generally, and with African American and Southeast Asian communities receiving the least support.” The following week, the Metro Times reran an article published during Mayor Fulbright’s reelection campaign citing that Black and Southeast Asian students led the bottom third in academic performance according to city data. In addition, the data disaggregation identified the impact. The district noted that African American and Southeast Asian communities were among the most segregated in Metro City and scored the lowest across numerous quality-of-life indicators. These indicators include access to health care, housing, employment, educational experiences, and interactions with the criminal legal system. According to the report, indicators were overlayed on a Metro City map to show that “discrimination was assigned based on zip code.” Mayor Fulbright and Deputy Mayor Johnson needed to find a leader with a track record that demonstrated they could redress the issues facing MCPS. Dr. Gabriella Ramirez’s background and track record signaled she was the type of leader Mayor Fulbright needed to run MCPS.

Case Overview

After being courted, Dr. Gabriella Ramirez was hired and appointed to lead MCPSs by Mayor Fulbright. Her background as a 25-year educator working in large urban and suburban settings and her experience working with both elected and appointed boards was attractive. In addition, her experience leading robust, groundbreaking racial equity initiatives contributed significantly to her hire. Mayor Fulbright needed to identify a superintendent committed to equity and access for all. The mayor’s interest in equity issues stemmed from a report he commissioned during his first term as mayor that examined the disproportional opportunity gaps by race within the district. The report’s finding identified explicit inequities in the schooling experiences of male students of color, particularly African American and Southeast Asian boys in PreK-5 elementary schools in specific zip codes.

As a result of this data-driven insight, the mayor’s reelection campaign focused on closing the divide and providing opportunity and excellence for all students in MCPS. The mayor won his second term with a promise to end “discrimination by zip code” in Metro City. His campaign pledge focused on capping the expansion of charter schools and creating more access to Advanced Placement exams, early college programs, and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Among the more controversial promises was to rethink the admissions practices in the historic, highly coveted, gifted, and talented programs in PreK-8 and specialized high school programs. He also promised to integrate the specialized high schools, as the existing data demonstrated visual and questionable disparities for African American and Southeast Asian students. Dr. Ramirez’s meaningful work in Ambrose City Public Schools, in which she piloted and scaled a literacy initiative targeting Black and Latinx boys, caught Mayor Fulbright’s and his cabinet’s eye. Ambrose City is in the deep south. That district had been under a court ordered consent decree (due to the lack of progression around integrating the district) before Dr. Ramirez’s arrival. However, that initiative resulted in exponential improvements for the target population and bolstered achievement for the district overall.

Although appointed by the mayor, Dr. Ramirez was enthusiasticly welcomed into the role of superintendent by stakeholder groups across Metro City, which had yet to be the case with previous mayoral appointees. However, she had an empirical track record of being able to successfully pilot, implement, and scale equity initiatives in districts across the United States. Her experience and expertise made her a clear front-runner for the position from the perspective of most stakeholders. While there were varying perspectives among the prominent stakeholder groups, they celebrated her appointment. After her appointment, two coalitions, consisting of various individuals and formal advocacy organizations, emerged. One coalition comprised of parents and community members who saw themselves as advocates fighting for racial equity within the district. They saw Dr. Ramirez’s work in Ambrose City Public Schools as promising and hoped she would immediately implement similar initiatives in Metro City. This group was comprised of individuals with varying socio-economic, racial, immigration, and sexual orientation statuses. The demographics of this group were racially diverse, although it primarily consisted of People of the Global Majority (PGM) (Lim, 2020) or People of Color. This stakeholder group ranged from low to high socioeconomic status, held moderate social capital, and had strong political connections. The group had a range of influence across sectors: higher education, non-profit, PreK-12 education, and grass root advocacy organizations.

The other prominent group of parents and community members saw themselves as upholding values and virtues supporting achieving the American dream. The group’s platform centered on hard work, pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, and the White settler colonial single-story narrative. This group was strategically recruiting and heavily focused on attracting “like-minded” stakeholders. The diversity of this groups demographics was fewer in range, predominantly White, Asian American, and recent immigrant families. This group’s socio-economics and social capital tended to correlate with their immigration status. White and Asian American families tended to range from middle class to wealthy, with substantial social capital and some connections to prominent elected politicians. While immigrant families, regardless of race, tended to range from poverty to lower middle class. These families did not have access to much social or political capital; however, the single-story American dream narrative resonated deeply with them. This group liked that Dr. Ramirez had a track record of improving test scores for the districts she led in the past and that graduation rates in those districts increased.

Implementation of the Initiatives

Dr. Ramirez hit the ground running. She immediately scheduled town hall meetings at each of the 30 schools across the district, so that, she could hear from all school communities across the city in their settings. In addition, she toured schools and walked neighborhoods to become familiar with her new community. These town hall meetings proved effective because MCPS began implementing several changes based on feedback from respective school communities and neighborhoods. Dr. Ramirez shared that her background as a certified special educator—with over a decade of experience working with students with disabilities and teaching students with advanced talents—would allow her to provide support based on each school community’s needs. She indicated that this was important to note because it demonstrated her core value in leadership: her policy- and decision-making would be rooted in equity, not equality (Baker, 2018). However, she stressed that her success as a superintendent was due to her commitment to inclusive decision-making processes and welcoming all voices and perspectives.

Dr. Ramirez understood she had to be responsive to addressing opportunity gaps as well as ensure equitable access to G&T and specialized high school programming. Therefore, she hired an independent firm to review district data objectively, and an internal team concurrently reviewed district data. She also brought together prominent members from opposing stakeholder groups to review the independent and internal district reports. Finally, Dr. Ramirez brought district staff (central level and school building), board members, student leaders, and community stakeholders together to form an advisory council to help devise and develop a path forward for MCPS.

The MCPS Advisory Council recommended that MCPS amend and adopt the culturally responsive curriculum Dr. Ramirez successfully implemented in Ambrose City Public Schools. The MCPS Advisory Council developed the Kaleidoscope Curriculum using her previous work as a guide. The council recommended a pilot in five schools that demonstrated the worst performance for African American and Southeast Asian students based on the independent and internal reports commissioned by Dr. Ramirez. Citing the success of her work in Ambrose City Public Schools, the MCPS Advisory Council formally recommended that the board adopt the Kaleidoscope Curriculum and that it be approved to pilot in those five schools.

The recommendation was adopted, and the board voted to approve the Kaleidoscope Curriculum and agreed to the pilot; however, there was resistance from a small group of wealthy parents that were politically connected. They raised concerns about the intentional focus on inclusivity and a more historically accurate approach to teaching global and U.S. history. Although they utilized their personal and professional networks to influence the vote against adopting the curriculum and piloting it in those schools, they were unsuccessful. One should note that these parents had also previously attempted to keep these two specific student demographics out of their schools from neighborhood project houses zoned for this district. They believed those students should not be able to attend the same schools their children attended as homeowners.

Evolving Dilemmas

Nevertheless, the Kaleidoscope Curriculum pilot moved forward. Dr. Ramirez began by focusing deeply, intentionally, and intensely on providing professional development for teachers in the five PreK-5 pilot schools in CRT, restorative justice practices, and developing critical consciousness. She focused on exposing all school community members to the research and the content and invested in materials and training for all teachers, administrators, and staff. She brought in researchers for school building administrators and formed partnerships with universities that explicitly focused on anti-racism praxis and CRSL. Administrators received targeted, specific, content-rich, and praxis-focused professional development throughout the 2-year pilot.

Recognizing that some teachers and leaders did not receive any exposure to CRT or CRSL in their training programs, Dr. Ramirez partnered with the school administrators and teachers’ unions to develop incentives and opportunities for existing teachers and leaders to return to school and earn additional credits, certifications, and or degrees from specific partner institutions. In addition, the district agreed to subsidize the educational expenses for employees who enrolled in these partnership programs. It took several intense meetings, but Dr. Ramirez was able to get the unions, the mayor, the board, and the MCPS Advisory Council (which had become an informal council representing the voices of community stakeholders) on board with investing in the training and professional development needed for MCPS, as a district, to embrace CRT and CRSL.

Simultaneously, while piloting this initiative, Dr. Ramirez and her district team began collecting data, hosting town halls, and convening with advocacy groups, politicians, families, other city officials, and various stakeholders to develop a new set of research-based policy alternatives to redress the narrative of “discrimination by zip code” within MCPS.

Her hard work paid off! Over the next 2 years, the annual yearly progress (AYP) of African American and Southeast Asian students jumped exponentially in the schools selected to pilot the initiative. The AYP for all students in the pilot schools, irrespective of race, showed dramatic improvement. African American and Southeast Asian boys in grades 1 to 5 demonstrated the most significant growth. Gearing up for year 3 of the pilot, those schools’ boasted an average AYP of 1.5 years for students. Grades on internal districtwide formative assessments increased by 67%. Scores on internal summative assessments also increased, with 92% of students in grades 3 to 5 scoring on grade level in the pilot schools, representing an increase of 22% over 2 years (11% each year). As a result of the pilot’s success, the initiative will be scaled districtwide and tailored to meet the unique needs of each of the remaining 25 Metro City schools over the next 4 years. The mayor and the governor lauded Dr. Ramirez’s work, and the pilot’s success aired in news outlets nationwide and locally in the Metro Times.

With the adoption of the Kaleidoscope Curriculum well underway, Dr. Ramirez turned her attention back to the recommendations from the mayoral committee that found inequities based on zip codes. She and the MCPS Advisory Council reintroduced those earlier findings under a new name the, Reimagining Education and Access for All Report (REAA). In addition, she and the MCPS Advisory Council incorporated the summary of the original committee’s report, findings from the independent and internal reviews of district data, and data from the Kaleidoscope Curriculum pilot to develop recommendations for phasing out the PreK-8 G&T and specialized high school programs. They also developed a new blueprint for a new enrichment plan aligned with the REAA report.

Dr. Ramirez began sharing the MCPS Advisory Council’s work with her internal district team around the REAA report at the November board meeting of her third year. Subsequently, she would update the board each month and solicit questions, comments, and feedback from those attending the board meetings. Moreover, additional ad hoc committees, town halls, and special board meeting sessions responded to stakeholder group feedback and concerns. In particular, there were concerns from the prominent PGM stakeholder group about MCPS rebranding the old G&T program. The group was concerned that the program and process would be “rebranded” under the guise of cultural responsiveness without addressing the explicit inequities in access to G&T Prep Academy that African American and Southeast Asian students experienced. Conversely, Dr. Ramirez also heard concerns from the predominantly White and Asian stakeholder group about the Kaleidoscope Curriculum “dumbing down” or making the curriculum less rigorous because of the curriculum’s explicit focus on inclusivity, self-identity, cultural affirmation, and teaching history from a historically accurate lens. Examples included teaching children to think critically and challenge beliefs about the dominant narratives without considering the historical accuracy and the socio-political context of the time.

She responded to both groups by extending more invitations for feedback, collaboration, and partnering grounded in her CRSL perspective. She modeled various types of anti-racist practices in meetings with both groups and asked probing questions that required an immense amount of reflection. She shared her background and training and demonstrated aspects of vulnerability with both groups. She shared that her positionality was an asset and articulated her theories of change and action, which aligned with her educational and leadership philosophies. To Dr. Ramirez, anti-racism was a vital responsibility of a CRSLs. She continued this engagement consistently, and in February, she finally had all groups indicate that they would support the recommendations made by the MCPS Advisory Council.

The Dilemma

The night before the March board meeting, including the vote to approve the REAA recommendations, Mayor Fulbright reached out to Dr. Ramirez and suggested that she amend the recommendation and remove the component about phasing out the specialized high schools from the vote. He shared that he received visits from three prominent politicians with concerned constituents who contacted them. These constituents were affluent and contributed significantly to each of their campaigns. He relayed that the politicians came to advise him that they were prepared to publicly accuse Dr. Ramirez of being anti-Asian and anti-immigrant. Mayor Fulbright explained that although this newfound concern was just an attempt to discredit Dr. Ramirez, it was gaining attention and traction. This accusation originated from several data points in the REAA report that Dr. Ramirez and the MCPS Advisory Council had shared with the public. Some demographic and academic performance data had been misconstrued and misrepresented in a document developed by a small faction of wealthy, White, and Asian American parents who activated their political connections to pressure Mayor Fulbright and Deputy Mayor Johnson to pull their support from the REAA report.

The sticking point for these families was that they were vehemently against ending the administration of the G&T and specialized high school programs because they had bought their homes precisely, so that, their children could access certain schools. While they understood and felt the documented evidence of discrimination and disparities experienced by African American and Southeast Asian communities was terrible, they did not feel that it was fair to their children to “level the playing field at their expense.” They had worked hard, pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, and achieved despite their challenges. As a result, they felt their children needed to reap the benefits of their hard work. Mayor Fulbright shared that the politicians reached out in an attempt to negotiate.

They were willing to, begrudgingly, concede the G&T program, but only if the recommendation to revise specialized high school admissions was pulled from consideration altogether. If Mayor Fulbright had not negotiated this compromise, these politicians would publicly support these families, who were large financial donors to their campaigns. They also acknowledged “off the record” that the information circulated by this faction was inaccurate and misleading; however, they intimated that they would publicly call Dr. Ramirez’s character into question and endorse accusations of her being anti-Asian and anti-immigrant. They assured Mayor Fulbright of scrutiny since she was his hire. They also promised any of his mayoral appointees who voted to pass the recommendation to reimagine the admissions process for specialized high schools scrutiny as well. Mayor Fulbright shared that, as a result, he had spoken with the board president, a mayoral appointee, and said that he and the Deputy Mayor would be pulling their support from that part of the recommendation. The board president agreed to make a motion at the meeting to amend the REAA recommendation by removing recommendations to alter the admissions policies for specialized high schools. He suggested that she amend the agenda and focus on the accomplishment of reimagining the G&T in PreK-8. Dr. Ramirez thanked Mayor Fulbright for his insights and went to sleep concerned about losing support for this work the night before the meeting.

The Vote

Dr. Ramirez sent the finalized agenda to the board president, the mayor’s office, and the press secretary on the morning of the board meeting. It should have included a proposal to amend the REAA report recommendation. However, this formal recommendation had been agreed upon and negotiated for months across stakeholder groups, and so it remained written the same as it was before the mayor’s late-night call. As she approached the meeting location, Dr. Ramirez saw a few major news outlets with camera crews in front of the building interviewing people as they entered the building. She noticed a sizable group of people in front of the building with signs supporting all components of REAA. Just as she prepared to exit the vehicle, a poster and a tee shirt with the same message on both caught her eye, “Ramirez is an anti-Asian race baiter.” Flushed and caught off guard, she took several minutes to gather herself before exiting the car. As she approached the building, she repeatedly stated “no comment” to a barrage of reporters. While sitting on the stage reviewing her opening statement, she reflected internally. The mayor had informally advised her to pull the recommendation on phasing out specialized high schools and suggested she focus on getting the other recommendations passed. He indicated that they could try again next year. However, she knew a partial pass of REAA leaves very little chance that any recommendations pulled from it would ever pass. She was troubled by this because she had shared verified data supporting that this recommendation was integral to the success of the overall vision of REAA—which is in the best interest of all MCPS children.

She thought about the challenges she faced over the years, specifically within the last 2 to 3 years leading MCPS. She recalled her conversation with the mayor and his team before her hire. She was upfront about being an equity-focused, anti-racist, culturally responsive leader, and he said he would support her. Nevertheless, he warned her to veer off course because of politics. Although four board members were prepared to support her, she knew she needed more votes to pass that specific part of the recommendation. She started to reflect on her career and thinking about the work accomplished in the district within such a short amount of time and what she might do once Mayor Fulbright’s term and her appointment was up. How would this decision impact her career? At that moment, she asked herself, “Was I brought here to maintain the status quo or to disrupt for equity? Am I able to truly lead for equity?”

Teaching Notes

In the wake of the twin pandemics, COVID-19, and the uprising protesting against the murder of unarmed Black bodies across the globe, commitments to values, such as equity, anti-racism, and cultural responsiveness, have become popular in the field of education. Aspiring school and district leaders must commit to serve as equity-focused leaders and need models of that type of leadership. CRSLs possess a strong sense of critical self-awareness, provide access to culturally responsive training and professional development for teachers, promote a culturally responsive school context-placing an emphasis on inclusivity, and engage students and parents in a community context (Khalifa et al., 2016).

Developing critical self-awareness in education relies on one’s ability to develop one’s critical consciousness, or the awaking of one’s consciousness, which influences and impacts one’s beliefs and actions as an educational leader (Freire, 2000; King, 1991; Waite, 2021a). Critical self-awareness is one of the key CRSL behaviors highlighted in this case because it is often overlooked and undervalued. As a result, leaders who face pressing deadlines need more time to genuinely commit to a process that allows them to reflect, sit with, and inspect their praxis and areas of growth. This case calls aspiring and current leaders to embrace that reflection and self-assessment are necessary and critical steps they must take before rushing to action. We proffer that leaders who skip this vital step, while well-intentioned, often do more harm than good.

Anti-racism is a core component of CRSL as well. Ensuring that school communities and climates are equitable, anti-oppressive, and socially just are vital aspects of CRSL (Khalifa, 2020; Khalifa et al., 2016). “Promoting inclusive and anti-oppressive teachers and curricula” is one of four core leadership behaviors demonstrated by CRSLs (Khalifa, 2020, p. 13). The term anti-oppressive is often associated with aspects of anti-racist practices. Diem and Welton (2020) posit that “to actively be anti-racist in both their values and practices, educational leaders need to understand the system of racism, its influence on society, and purposefully act to confront issues pertaining to race and racism in their districts and school communities” (p. 2). Often, anti-racist leadership and CRSL are separate concepts. While each has an independent body of research that substantiates both, the authors invite aspiring and current CRSLs to examine the intersectional aspects of both styles of leadership and to see anti-racist leadership as a behavior demonstrated by CRSL (Diem & Welton, 2020; Khalifa et al., 2016; Peters & Nash, 2021).

The research supports the premise that developing critical consciousness in educational leaders is critical to a leader’s ability to become a CRSL (Khalifa, 2020; Khalifa et al., 2016; Waite, 2021b). Developing critical consciousness in schools and districts is vital to successfully implementing district visions, missions, and commitments to reimagining education as an equitable space for all. Examining the scholarship on CRSL behaviors provides examples for CRSLs to gain insights into what being a CRSL can look like in practice. As aspiring and or current educational leaders, one must be able to think critically and examine policies and practices for evidence of equity—however, it is equally essential to be open to accepting the evidence of inequity. A review of MCPS data, district demographics, socio-political context, and historical information about Metro City can provide essential insights for leaders in this district. Understanding the complexity of leadership and the nuances of navigating the competing and often conflicting demands of leading for equity and cultural responsiveness is imperative for aspiring and current leaders in the field of education today.

Discussion

CRSL requires the courage and fortitude to examine both racism and internalized racism. Failure to do so jeopardizes a school leader’s ability to challenge and eradicate macro and micro-oppression in national, state, and local school systems. Moreover, CRSLs must be willing to acknowledge, identify, and sit in the discomfort of their racially biased thoughts and beliefs. Critical self-reflection is the first step toward creating an affirming and nurturing culturally diverse school environment.

CRSLs compete against various Eurocentric school performance metrics designed to reiterate deficit myths about the social, emotional, and academic capacity of children perceived as not meeting the dominant status quo. For example, PreK-12 school leaders design their instructional, cultural, and operational structures with the hope that their formula enables historically excluded children to compete against their White, affluent peers. CRSLs, however, understand that without active critical self-reflection, they are susceptible to replicating and repeating similarly inequitable paths that seldom produce culturally centered, affirming, or nurturing spaces for Black and Brown children.

Active critical self-reflection demands school leaders to participate in a repetitive cycle of reflection and action. They begin by acknowledging that they have racist ideologies and or internalized racism, then take small but meaningful steps toward healing themselves without worsening conditions for their students. School leaders must seek to understand how their beliefs and values impact their worldview and mind-set, thus directly impacting their leadership. Therefore, to become aware of unconscious and implicit bias, CRSLs courageously act upon their ability to process racism and or internalize racism as a part of their identity. Furthermore, school leaders can benefit from cycles of reflection and action that develop self-awareness of biases woven into their mental frames, thus impacting their ability to lead as CRSLs.

CRSLs must resist the tendency to take actions prematurely when attempting to create safe spaces while digesting the depth of their reflection. The following activity adapts from multiple protocols from the National School Reform Faculty (Laidley et al., 2021; Cary, 2000) to provide safe spaces for school leaders to process. Two notable activities used to create this activity, The Paseo and Constructivist Listening Dyads, are designed to guide leaders through reflective introspection that may trigger feelings that could produce guilt, anger, passivity, or denial. Therefore, participants are encouraged to “go slow to go fast” and allow themselves time to digest emotions without damaging relationships with students or colleagues. Finally, we recommend establishing community agreements before group activities begin.

Discussion Prompts to Guide Critical Self-Reflection:

Debrief

Participants can extend their critical self-reflections by sharing reflections with colleagues if appropriate.