MONTAGUE — The Gill-Montague Regional School District was chosen by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to participate in the Culturally Responsive Practices Leadership (CRPL) Academy, a three-year initiative through 2025 that looks to make the district more equitable.
Announced at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting, the program “aims to support district leadership in building internal local capacity to weave culturally responsive practices and an equity lens throughout their policies, structures and systems,” according to a statement from the district. To achieve this goal, the district will “learn the foundational content of equity and create strategic goals and implementation plans,” the statement continues. The School Committee will be tasked with forming a team of eight to 10 stakeholders who will attend professional development sessions and district meetings throughout the three-year period.
According to a study conducted by Vanderbilt University researcher Jason Grissom and commissioned by The Wallace Foundation, “the adoption of an equity lens inspires school leaders to reconsider their leadership behaviors … and create opportunities for historically underserved groups.” The study found that over the past two decades, the average experience level of principals has fallen in schools serving low-income students of color. At the same time, the racial and ethnic diversity of school leaders has barely changed, while student bodies have diversified dramatically.
“We have a school leadership corps that is nearly 80% white and a student body that is only 53% white,” Constance Lindsay, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in association with the study. “The context of school leadership has changed significantly, and to address these patterns, schools and districts should reconsider their human resources policies and practices.”
The Gill-Montague Regional School District’s student body is just 25% composed of students of color, according to data from the 2021-2022 school year. Meanwhile, the state average for public schools is roughly 45%, according to Superintendent Brian Beck, whereas the national average is 55%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. District Director of Teaching and Learning Jeanne Powers said enrollment in the academy will allow Gill-Montague representatives to “really do a reflection on curriculum policies and procedures.”
“I’m really excited and I think this is really going to help our district as a whole … reach equity for our students and our staff,” she said.
The School Committee often included “addressing issues of equity” as a meeting agenda topic throughout the previous school year, although discussion of the topic was less frequent and often brief. Beck said participation in the academy will prompt the district to continue such conversations more consistently.
“Given the work that the district has done over the past couple of years to get our staff better prepared and have a better understanding of how individual students and staff members are impacted culturally in schools … this gave us an opportunity to get together with an organization that would be able to identify things like hard data that we should be looking at,” Beck explained.
Participating districts will have team members attend four professional development sessions, four individual district meetings and an opening session in the first year; four professional development sessions, three individual district meetings and an opening session in the second year; and three individual district meetings, as well as provide support in the planning and execution of site visits, in the third year. Each meeting and session will last around 2.5 hours.
“Participants should anticipate a few hours of ‘homework’ between strategy sessions to help build and implement district goals,” an outline of the team’s responsibilities notes. “This will involve activities such as brainstorming, gathering data, engaging stakeholders and building out goals.”
While the team’s roster has yet to be filled out, confirmed members include Powers, Beck and Dianne Ellis, director of student services. Additional members will include three school-based administrators, three faculty or staff members and an optional School Committee member. Powers said the district will look to appoint a School Committee member to this position. While team members will not be financially compensated, participating faculty, staff and administrators will receive 20 professional development points per year for their efforts, which may be put toward license renewal.
The district’s participation in the Culturally Responsive Practices Leadership Academy is a partnership with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and BlackPrint Education Consulting. BlackPrint Education Consulting “supports districts, schools and partner organizations to develop and execute the competencies, policies, practices and structures necessary to produce educational equity and excellence for historically marginalized student populations,” according to its website.
Reach Julian Mendoza
at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.