Educational theory and practice is dominated by mass formal schooling systems, which routinely and unjustly harm many students. I call this stance "educational pacifism," and in this paper argue that Montessorians ought to be educational pacifists. That is, they ought to recognize, understand, and reject systemic educational harm and…

In "The Enduring Promise of America's Great City Schools," Michael Casserly presents a forthright assessment of the past performance and future potential of large urban PreK-12 school districts in the United States. From a vantage of nearly five decades of work within the Council of the Great City Schools, which now represents…

This article examines the role that Equity Directors play in K-12 schools to understand how these roles are structured in districts, the supports and challenges directors experience, and whether and how they integrate gender and sexual diversity topics into district diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. We conducted semi-structured interviews…

In special education, medication often plays a critical role in meeting the needs of students with disabilities. The use of medications in schools, however, can be a problem when state laws and federal law conflict regarding the use of a medication, in this situation, medical marijuana. This column reports on a ruling by the U.S. District Court in…

To achieve ambitious and equitable mathematics education, districts will likely have to extend their efforts beyond the bounds of classroom teaching and learning, and also address the social and political aspects involved in improving mathematics education. However, the literature has yet to explore the underlying boundaries that determine which…

This article explores how middle-class Asian immigrants disrupted settled geographies and social relations in a high-tech Southern suburb. In a case study of controversies over the redrawing of the Chapel Hill school district attendance boundaries, it asks what middle-class Asian immigrants attempts to navigate the space "between Black and…

Inequity and marginalization exist within educational structures, policies, and practices. As such, practitioners, like district-level leaders need a clearer understanding of the barriers and their role in making meaning and shaping progress to overcome the disconnect between their beliefs, data, and meaningful and sustainable action. This study…

Purpose: This study sought to understand PK-12 district-level equity directors' efforts to improve experiences of students of color and outcomes in US districts. Research Methods: We interviewed 13 practicing equity directors and analyzed artifacts such as meeting minutes, equity policies, equity mission statements, job descriptions, and…

This study involved an intradistrict equity audit of one mid-Atlantic school district using a Critical Resource Theory lens (Owings, Kaplan, & Whitfield, 2022). This study utilized publicly available school-level expenditure data to determine the allocation and distribution of resources to expose any existing disparities. We used Skrla,…

For more than four decades, researchers, policymakers, professional educators, and the philanthropic community in education have wrestled with how to scale up promising pockets of reform. Centering equity in scaling efforts means working with and prioritizing students who have historically lacked access to powerful learning opportunities,…

The current trend in improving student/learning supports involves tinkering in ways that make changes that don't make a dent in reducing the opportunity and achievement gaps. Schools need a unified, comprehensive, and equitable system of student/learning supports that embeds a focus on a full range of mental health and psychosocial and educational…

Operationalizing practices for equity has eluded the educational community for some time. This exploratory, mixed methods study examined the practices, operationalized by 29 competencies, of ten school leadership teams in one urban, US school district engaged in the initial stages of equity systems change (ICS for Equity™). ICS for Equity is a…

For the first time since 1968, local education authorities in Washington, D.C. embarked on a contentious process of engaging communities as part of a comprehensive revision of the city's student assignment and school boundary policies in 2013. Despite the potentially divisive nature of the issue, public deliberation went beyond re-drawing school…

This practitioner brief is one in a series highlighting concrete ways that education leaders can increase educational equity by building supportive learning environments that meet all students' social and emotional needs. The introductory brief to this series suggests that changes at three levels of the education system are needed to promote…

School segregation is one of the most enduring inequities in US public education, reinforcing racial and ethnic gaps in academic and socioeconomic outcomes. School boundaries, whether between districts or between schools within a district, often help perpetuate school segregation in otherwise racially and ethnically diverse cities and…