Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in education has taken on a particularly partisan tone in recent years as issues like critical race theory occupy the headlines. What’s often overlooked in these shouting matches are the needs of students excluded from access to an excellent, high-quality education. What’s also overlooked are the organizations doing innovative and entrepreneurial work to address longstanding learning gaps and other inequities that hold the country back.
In Inclusive Innovation, Jessica Slaton, Priyanka Patel, and I explore eight districts’ journey to address specific equity challenges within their schools in partnership with global nonprofit Digital Promise’s Equitable School Systems Transformation (ESST) Initiative. Kicking off in the 2021-2022 school year, these eight districts got to work researching, analyzing, and beta-testing a problem of practice impeding progress for groups of students — ranging from increasing high school graduation to equipping adults in the school building with culturally proficient skills.
What made the ESST Initiative different from other approaches to DEI in schools? Digital Promise’s Inclusive Innovation approach, an equity-centered research and development process that engages educators, students, parents, and community members in co-researching and co-designing solutions such as new programs, policies, and practices. Inclusive Innovation turns the process of education innovation on its head by incorporating the lived experience and cultural wealth of the intended end-users — parents, students, and other community members — in the DEI research and development process.
The Inclusive Innovation process of the ESST Initiative in its inaugural year was steady, deliberate, engaging, and transformative for participants. District leaders began by building relationships among a cohort, then moving quickly to a deep exploration into their respective problems of practice and eventual solutions. Along the way, districts were coached by experts who provided guidance and kept them focused on addressing the systemic or root causes of the identified problem.
“This [Inclusive Innovation] experience was different from others because it felt very authentic. You went through a process and really explored solutions. It was very intentional from the beginning of what we were trying to accomplish. This was the first time in my 20 years of experience that DEI, design thinking, and system transformation were presented in a connected manner. In the past, it’s always been a canned experience.” —Participating District Leader
Emergent solutions incubated in the inaugural year of ESST included developing an accountability system that centers students’ voices and democratizing power in a school district through shared leadership and decision-making. As ESST continues in upcoming school years, Inclusive Innovation will be successful if districts include multiple voices from district leadership and the community to co-design solutions; invest substantial time (ideally with expert coaching) to uncover implicit biases and begin to shift district mindsets (what the ESST Initiative termed “mental models”); and be open to work as part of a cohort of districts to share ideas and strategies.
Though each district in the ESST Initiative cohort has different student populations, communities, and equity issues, Inclusive Innovation harnesses the power of local voices to unlock new ways of tackling some of education’s most pernicious challenges. It’s a promising path to see more headlines about education innovation in the future and fewer partisan squabbles.
