CCE Authors

Diana Lebeaux

Diana Lebeaux is the Director of District and School Design at CCE, where she works directly with teachers, leaders, schools and districts around student-centered, equity-focused policies, programs, and leadership. Previously, Diana worked as a classroom teacher, school administrator, and director of educational programs and curricula in the non-profit sectors.

Dawn Shearer-Coren

Dawn Shearer-Coren, a Senior Associate at CCE, is a skilled facilitator dedicated to advancing racial equity awareness and disrupting deficit narratives. Dawn’s recent work has focused on positive self-perceptions for students of color in schools and classrooms. She believes developing authentic relationships linked to student achievement as key to increased student achievement.

Laura Tota

Laura Tota is a Senior Associate for District and School Design at CCE. After transformative experiences in the Worcester Public Schools, Laura pursued studies in education policy and management with a focus on family engagement and educational equity. Her passions include family-school-community partnerships, professional learning communities, and personalized learning practices.

Acknowledgements

Other Contributors and Editors: Karla Vigil, Ramona Trevino, Irene Logan, Gary Chapin, Rita Harvey, Jessica Famularo, Emily Sienkiewicz, Oscar Santos, Peter Piazza, Carisa Corrow, Suzanne Edwards-Acton, Heather White, Ruth Ellis, Arthur Mitchell

Design: Libby Ventura, Emily Sienkiewicz

Copy Editing: CambridgeEditors

This guide was a huge undertaking and a labor of love over the last few years. It would not be possible without the dedicated equity lens, critical reading, and creative contributions from those listed above as well as many others.

Many thanks to the Barr Foundation for generously funding the development of this guide. We’d also like to thank the Equity Institute for their contributions to this framework and tools, our Student Voices blog and vlog contributors, and the educators and leaders from Holmes Innovation Elementary School, the Boston Collaboratory School, Chelsea Opportunity Academy, Hampton Elementary School, and Loreto Elementary School for providing interviews and data for
our case studies. Feedback from workshop participants at the New England Secondary School Consortium, the National Summit for Educational Equity, and the Aurora Institute also contributed greatly to the ongoing development of this guide.

An approach to teaching and learning that is flexible and adaptable, adjusting the system to the individual students and what they need to be successful in today's diverse, global world.
Students exercise voice and choice in their learning, embracing their individual strengths, needs, interests, and cultural backgrounds.
The ability to use the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of culturally and linguistically diverse learners as conduits for teaching them more effectively. (Geneva Gay, 2002)
Developed in a way that ensures a barrier-free environment for all students, ensuring that every student, particularly those within historically underserved groups, has what they need to be successful. To be truly equitable, schools must not only have equity of opportunity, but of outcomes.
The process of envisioning, designing, and implementing a school model, either from scratch as a way of redesigning and disrupting the existing educational system, or as part of the transformation of an existing school.