State Boards Advance Equity Agendas in Challenging Times
Efforts to advance educational equity are challenging in the best of times. Differing attitudes, beliefs, policy agendas, and political viewpoints can make collaboration difficult and, in some cases, seemingly impossible. As a result, equity efforts remain uncoordinated and compartmentalized, often unable to produce meaningful, lasting change. The pandemic and the strife over racial injustice compounded these difficulties in 2020.
As citizen boards who must be nonpartisan to be effective, state boards of education are uniquely placed to help eliminate the political divides that impede decisive action to end inequities in learning. Three state boards of education and education agency staff—in Nebraska, New York, and North Carolina—committed to joining a NASBE-led network, the Leading for Equity and Excellence Program (LEEP) State Policy Network. By partnering with local officials, setting clear equity goals, convening multiple stakeholders, and posing meaningful questions at the board table, these state boards are pressing to change their state systems. …
State Boards Advance Equity Agendas in Challenging Times
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