Understanding the Equity Lens
What is perhaps most challenging and most necessary is that leading and engaging for equity requires all of us to recognize the ways in which we need to shift our own perspectives and practices to support more equitable outcomes for students.
Doing this requires self-reflection and a recognition of how existing systems and beliefs maintain opportunity disparities. We must give ourselves the space and time to reflect, listen, learn, innovate, and develop so that we can do the same for our students. Leading for equity also requires us to grapple with complicated and complex challenges, and to be persistent and flexible in developing promising practices to address these challenges.
To engage in equity work and to create a shared understanding of what this work requires, we utilize the Equity Lens. This lens enables us to see and understand the existing structures and conditions that create inequities, as well as the changes that are necessary to create more equitable learning environments.
This equity lens has four dimensions:
(Use) Liberatory Thinking
(Catalyze) Inclusive Partnerships
(Direct) Resource Equity
(Design) Fair Policies & SystemsTo create perfect shades and depth for an image on a canvas, a painter will mix and layer different colors together. The mixture and layering creates more nuance than any one color can do on its own. We can think of the four dimensions of the Equity Lens as our “paint” in equity work.
We cannot uncover the nuances within our systems or solutions if we are only using one dimension of the equity lens. All the dimensions must be engaged in order for equity work to succeed. For example, if we developed and implemented a promising practice after only engaging the liberatory thinking dimension, the practice would likely not be as successful as it would had we engaged all of the dimensions of the equity lens simultaneously.
In this way, the equity lens describes the many approaches that equity work requires so that individuals and groups can think and act in service of our students– especially those most impacted by inequities. Using an equity lens is critical for this work.
Applying the Equity Lens
When we do things in the same way, we get the same result. In this sense, unless we actively and thoughtfully approach decision-making differently, we will end up reinforcing the same inequitable systems that have always been in place.
The Equity Lens is our collective roadmap to disrupting these established inequities.
Targeted Universalism
Transforming Policy
Individualized Supports
Inclusive Design and Development
Equity Work in Network 7
When using the four dimensions of the equity lens, we begin by understanding and re-imagining our own assumptions and beliefs (Liberatory Thinking).
Second, we consider how we can create inclusive partnerships that recognize differences as assets and prioritize the voices of those most affected by a proposed change (Inclusive Partnerships).
Third, we prioritize and allocate people, time, and money to align with level of opportunity (Resource Equity) in order to create opportunities that meet the diverse needs of all students.
Finally, we design policies and systems that promote equitable opportunities to reach equal outcomes for all student and stakeholder groups, with an emphasis on those who are most affected by structural inequality and inequity (Fair Policies and Systems).
To affect real change, everyone can, should, and must develop their equity lens and apply it – no matter what role they have in CPS. Whether looking at issues at the classroom level, within individual schools, networks, or the whole district and beyond, we must address equity challenges at all levels.
An equity challenge is a clear concise statement that articulates who is most negatively impacted in a given situation or system, and what inequitable outcomes or experience need to be disrupted or interrupted. For example, “African American males do not have equitable access to advanced placement courses” is an equity challenge we can begin to address at many levels in the system.
Applying an Equity Lens can and should guide us as we move through the entire cycle of advocating for change. Our Equity Lens first helps us see and describe the equity challenge we are facing, then define the universal goal we are working to achieve. Then we can use our Equity Lens to collaboratively develop solutions, and work toward implementing and measuring the change ideas we choose to enact.