7 Activities:

1 Making Connections

The contact is made between a leadership team or group in the school and the external consultant to discuss the needs and strengths of the school and the particular goals which are to be the object of the consultation and the change process. The leadership team can consist of a variety of leaders in the school community. Leaders here are considered to be both formal and informal and are those who because of their institutional roles and their spheres of influence in the organization are able to promote change in the school. This group might include faculty, administrators, parent representatives, staff and student representatives. In some cases, the leadership team consists of the principal and a teacher. This change process has a much greater opportunity for success if the principal shows public commitment to the initiative. The second purpose of the contact is to integrate the equity focus into the overall vision and strategic direction of the school. It is important that this not be regarded as an additional project but one which is directly related to the direction of the school.

2 Gathering Data

Finding out what is working and what is not is an ongoing process but also an initial stock-taking in a number of areas is essential. Those areas should minimally include the following:

1. Academic performance of students along racial, linguistic, gender, and class lines.

2. Drop-out and suspension rates among students along racial, linguistic, gender, and class lines.

3. Students' feelings about and assessments of their experiences at the school.

4. Faculty's and staff's assessment of strengths and needs of the school and their explanations of the source of problems and successes.

5. Parents' assessment of the way in which the school is serving their children and the nature of the relationship between themselves and the school.

6. The quality of the teaching.

7. The anti-racist nature of the formal curriculum.

8. The overall climate of the school.

9. The accountability system in the school.

10. The resources of time, personnel, finances, and organizational culture available to support such an initiative.All of these features may not be examined fully in the initial stock-taking but a partial sense of each of theses would be useful as the journey begins. There are a variety of ways of taking stock. Some of these include classroom observations, focus groups with constituencies, and analysis of documents.

3 Expanding The Dialogue

Fairly early on in the process the whole faculty, staff and parent representatives must be engaged in an information session or full day workshopdealing with the plans and the principles of equity work. The purpose here is to establish the relevance of the professional development andorganizational change to the work and responsibilities of each person in the school community. In addition, this meeting provides an opportunityto reveal more information about the communities' concerns and strengths.

4 Focusing The Project

In order to engage the in-depth work of change, it is important to identify or have individuals self-identify to apply the principles of equity in their classrooms on issues that they consider important. This group might be all teachers at the same grade level or at several levels or it may be one department or all the individuals in the school with similar functions. This group, along with the leadership team, will be the change agents in the school and will help to sustain the effort after the external consultant leaves the project. A similar process of selection takes place in the second and third year to participate in the project in order that all members of the faculty will have engaged in this process by the end of three years. Equally important in this process is the designation of one individual who has the responsibility of managing the project, particularly facilitating communication among in-school participants and the school community and the outside consultant.

5 Doing The Work

At this phase, the professional development sessions, one-on-one coaching and conferencing with the individuals or the group as a whole will begin. Goals and timelines are set by the group or the individuals within the group. These are linked to the goals established buy the leadership team. The activities of teaching, reflecting in writing and in dialogue with colleagues and the integrating of reflections are essential activities for teachers in the group at this phase. The consultant observes, debriefs, models teaching, conducts workshops, provides readings, videotapes teachers teaching, analyses the videos with the teachers reads teachers' journals, responds to e-mail correspondence and with the teachers measure students growth, teacher development and climate change in the classroom and school. Maintaining the dialogue among members of the group, the person managing the project, and the external consultant is crucial for the success of the project. The project cannot be understood as an activity that is connected only with the visit of the consultant but rather it is a process which continues throughout the year by a variety of means.

6 Sharing Our Learning

With The School CommunityAt least three times during the year the group which is intensively involved in the process will engage the full faculty, staff, and parent representatives with activities through which they can explore the concepts, develop some of the skills and knowledge which the smaller group is acquiring in the intensive process. On a regular basis, members of this small group will share their learning with other teachers with whom they work at the same grade level or at a team meeting or in some professional development context. The leadership team will also be kept up to-date on the process and the progress of the initiative.

7 Measuring The Change

Several times during the year the goals are reviewed and formative evaluation take place. In addition, towards the end of the first year of the project, the goals established by the team engaged in intensive work and by the leadership team will be reviewed and measured through classroom observations, the examination of student work, and assessments of their work, focus groups with the relevant constituencies, teacher journals and an analysis of other documents and artifacts which reflect the culture of the school.