Equity framing is the discipline and practice of articulating a purpose to the work of educators through an equity lens. School leaders (principals, APs, teacher leaders, counselors, etc.) regularly have the opportunity to frame meetings, weeks, months, assemblies, or any other gathering of people. These opportunities give leaders the chance to motivate and inspire their listeners. Given that the explicit work of many schools in the US is to eliminate predictable patterns of achievement and school experience (by race, socio-economic status, language background, etc.), leaders can tap into their listeners’ social justice values by connecting the daily work of educators to current events that are happening in the wider context. They can also consistently build their school’s or department’s equity acuity by using framing to help educators make sense of current events through an equity lens.

Leaders are supremely busy. The purpose of this blog is to provide data and sample equity frames for use by school leaders to connect educators’ work to current events. The content can serve as inspiration for a leader’s own frame. Leaders can lift the data and use it in their own voice. A leader could use the sample frame verbatim without the need to attribute. The intention is to make it easier for leaders to do powerful, equity-focused framing.

Some notes about framing…

– Equity framing doesn’t normally roll off of anyone’s tongue. Powerful framing usually requires some thinking and practice. If possible, write or say aloud the frame before doing it in front of a group. Ideally, do it with a trusted colleague and solicit feedback.

– These sample frames are generic. The most powerful framing connects the current event with the specific work that educators are about to undertake in the meeting. Customize the frames to appropriately frame the specific goals of the professional development or business meeting.

– If a school’s focus is on equity, it is important to talk about it at every meeting. If a school community is not constantly looking at its work through the lens of equity, it is accepting the status quo of inequitable achievement and/or school experience. Every gathering of educators can be framed through an equity lens (a data analysis meeting, a business meeting about rainy day recess procedures, an SSC meeting about the budget, etc.) If you have an upcoming meeting that you want to frame but are feeling stuck, feel free to email me and I’ll send back some ideas for framing.