Becoming An Antiracist School Leader

Eradicating systemic racism in our schools requires a systemic response. This book describes an adaptive framework that includes ten tenets for developing structural and curricular antiracist leadership. In three parts, school leaders are asked to: Know Themselves through self-reflection and racial autobiography; Distinguish Knowledge From Foolishness through critical race ethnography and an exploration of racial identity development; and Build for Eternity by using a model for student-centered antiracist leadership development. Providing a combination of scholarly and practical examples, readers will learn how to foster academic success, cultural proficiency, and critical consciousness in all learners. The text features a comprehensive, three-year critical ethnographic study of a Midwestern high school and its ups and downs with antiracist leadership. This resource offers both a vision and everyday guidance to any educator committed to an antiracist democracy, educational love, student empowerment, leadership development, liberatory teaching and learning, and racial equity. Book Features: Introduces a ten-point model for antiracist leadership development with practical applications for the leaders of systems, schools, and student groups.Describes an adaptive framework for approaching antiracist school leadership through reflective racial autobiography, critical ethnographic research, and student-centered leadership development.Examines a high school attempting to enact antiracist leadership, including analysis of the environment through a critical race theory lens and a breakdown of interviews with 30 leaders through the lens of their racial identity development.Contains ten personal narratives from a diverse group of antiracist leaders who detail a rich tapestry of a high-functioning school district in St. Louis Park, MN.

The #1 New York Times bestseller that sparked international dialogue is now a book for young adults! Based on the adult bestseller by Ibram X. Kendi, and co-authored by bestselling author Nic Stone, How to be a (Young) Antiracist will serve as a guide for teens seeking a way forward in acknowledging, identifying, and dismantling racism and injustice. The New York Times bestseller How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi is shaping the way a generation thinks about race and racism. How to be a (Young) Antiracist is a dynamic reframing of the concepts shared in the adult book, with young adulthood front and center. Aimed at readers 12 and up, and co-authored by award-winning children's book author Nic Stone, How to be a (Young) Antiracist empowers teen readers to help create a more just society. Antiracism is a journey--and now young adults will have a map to carve their own path. Kendi and Stone have revised this work to provide anecdotes and data that speaks directly to the experiences and concerns of younger readers, encouraging them to think critically and build a more equitable world in doing so.

Since the passing of Brown versus Board of Education to the election of the first Black president of the United States, there has been much discussion on how far we have come as a nation on issues of race. Some continue to assert that Barack Obama's election ushered in a new era-making the US a post-racial society. But this argument is either a political contrivance, borne of ignorance or a bold-faced lie. There is no recent data on school inequities, or inequity in society for that matter, that suggests we have arrived at Dr. King's dream that his "four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Children today are instead still judged by the color of their skin, and this inequitable practice is manifest in today's schools for students of color in the form of: disproportionate student discipline referrals, achievement and opportunity gaps, pushout rates, overrepresentation in special education and underrepresentation in advanced coursework, among other indicators (Brooks, 2012). Though issues of race in the public education system may take an overt or covert form; racial injustice in public schools is still pervasive, complex and cumulative. For example, many students of color, year after year, do not have access to "good" teachers, experience low staff expectations, and are subject to "new and improved" forms of tracking (Brooks, Arnold & Brooks, in press). The authors in this book explore various ways that racism are manifest in the American school system. Through a plurality of perspectives, they deconstruct, challenge and reconstruct an educational leadership committed to equity and excellence for marginalized students and educators.

Eradicating systemic racism in our schools requires a systemic response. This book describes an adaptive framework that includes ten tenets for developing structural and curricular antiracist leadership. In three parts, school leaders are asked to: Know Themselves through self-reflection and racial autobiography; Distinguish Knowledge From Foolishness through critical race ethnography and an exploration of racial identity development; and Build for Eternity by using a model for student-centered antiracist leadership development. Providing a combination of scholarly and practical examples, readers will learn how to foster academic success, cultural proficiency, and critical consciousness in all learners. The text features a comprehensive, three-year critical ethnographic study of a Midwestern high school and its ups and downs with antiracist leadership. This resource offers both a vision and everyday guidance to any educator committed to an antiracist democracy, educational love, student empowerment, leadership development, liberatory teaching and learning, and racial equity. Book Features: Introduces a ten-point model for antiracist leadership development with practical applications for the leaders of systems, schools, and student groups. Describes an adaptive framework for approaching antiracist school leadership through reflective racial autobiography, critical ethnographic research, and student-centered leadership development. Examines a high school attempting to enact antiracist leadership, including analysis of the environment through a critical race theory lens and a breakdown of interviews with 30 leaders through the lens of their racial identity development. Contains ten personal narratives from a diverse group of antiracist leaders who detail a rich tapestry of a high-functioning school district in St. Louis Park, MN.

Anti-Racist Educational Leadership and Policy helps educational leaders better comprehend the racial implications and challenges of the current educational policy landscape. Each chapter unpacks a policy issue such as school choice, school closures, standardized testing, discipline, and school funding, and analyzes it through the racialized and market-driven lenses of the current leadership context. Full of real examples, this book equips aspiring school leaders with the skills to question how a policy addresses or fails to address racism, action-oriented strategies to develop anti-racist solutions, and the tools to encourage their school community to promote racial equity. This important book demystifies a complex policy context and prepares current and future teacher leaders, principals, and superintendents to lead their schools towards more equitable practice. 2021 Winner of the AESA Critics’ Choice Book Award.

"In The Antiracist School Leader: What to Know, Say, and Do, education leaders will learn how to plan, test, and execute a comprehensive antiracist vision to transform the culture, curriculum, and conscience of their school administration"--

In Unconscious Bias in Schools, two seasoned educators describe the phenomenon of unconscious racial bias and how it negatively affects the work of educators and students in schools. “Regardless of the amount of effort, time, and resources education leaders put into improving the academic achievement of students of color,” the authors write, “if unconscious racial bias is overlooked, improvement efforts may never achieve their highest potential.” In order to address this bias, the authors argue, educators must first be aware of the racialized context in which we live. Through personal anecdotes and real-life scenarios, Unconscious Bias in Schools provides education leaders with an essential roadmap for addressing these issues directly. The authors draw on the literature on change management, leadership, critical race theory, and racial identity development, as well as the growing research on unconscious bias in a variety of fields, to provide guidance for creating the conditions necessary to do this work—awareness, trust, and a “learner’s stance.” Benson and Fiarman also outline specific steps toward normalizing conversations about race; reducing the influence of bias on decision-making; building empathic relationships; and developing a system of accountability. All too often, conversations about race become mired in questions of attitude or intention–“But I’m not a racist!” This book shows how information about unconscious bias can help shift conversations among educators to a more productive, collegial approach that has the potential to disrupt the patterns of perception that perpetuate racism and institutional injustice. Tracey A. Benson is an assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Sarah E. Fiarman is the director of leadership development for EL Education, and a former public school teacher, principal, and lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

"The book will be useful to anyone trying to create conversations around race, teach about white supremacy, arrange staff and development workshops on racism, and help colleagues explore how to create an antiracist culture or environment"--