EQUITY IN ACTION: A GLIMPSE INSIDE ONE TEACHER’S CLASSROOM
REBECCA HORNBERGER, PhD Department Chair, SAIL for Education
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t’s a familiar scene that plays out in classrooms throughout our schools on a daily basis. A teacher is working with a small group of students, and a line starts to build to her side. A little girl, Katie, notices that her classmate, Jacob, is standing in the line with a writing piece that he has painstakingly completed. However, this is not a typical classroom, and the leader of this classroom is anything but average. Because Katie is part of this unique learning environment, she knows exactly why her classmate is standing in line, and she knows what he needs to move forward in his work. She turns toward Jacob and comments, “I see you worked very hard on your writing, Jacob. This is good work—I’m very proud of you.” He nods in agreement and returns to his seat to continue with his independent work.
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impact on student learning. Our recognition is the only way to move beyond merely providing equal opportunity and instead pushing toward assuring that barriers are systematically removed so that every student’s full potential is realized. We must understand what equity looks like in practice so that we hold ourselves, our teachers, and our entire school community accountable in assuring equity across all facets of our educational systems.
EQUITY
in today’s schools The Center for Public Education is about assuring that (2016) “set forth the areas in an equity agenda that research shows students have received all will have the greatest impact on student outcomes.” Those areas include teachers, curriculum, discithe tools needed in order pline policies, and funding. This is essential because educational equity is to ensure their success “more than a guarantee that the school doors will be open to every child.” Equity in the future. in today’s schools is about assuring that stu-
You might be asking—what does Mrs. Johann’s teaching and professional practices have to do with educational equity? The answer is simple: within my school building, the teacher who best exemplified equitable practices in everything she did was Mrs. Johann. And I firmly believe that, as principals, we must be able to recognize the types of equitable practices that will have the greatest
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I had the privilege of witnessing this interaction in a classroom run by Mrs. Marybeth Johann, a seasoned educator who taught first grade in the school where I served as principal. This is just one of the many examples of the extraordinary learning environment that Mrs. Johann created within her classroom on a daily basis.
dents have received all the tools needed in order to ensure their success in the future.
Within the areas of teaching and curriculum, clarity is essential in identifying the key teacher qualities and curricular practices that will have a positive impact on student outcomes. Darling-Hammond (2013) explained that teacher quality is the personal characteristic that an educator brings to the teaching profession. Research has shown that the following teacher qualities have a positive impact on teacher effectiveness: a strong content knowledge of the subject area to be taught, as well as a knowledge of how to teach the content to others; an understanding of how to support diverse learners in their academic growth; the ability to make
