What Equity Officers See as Their Challenges

Type: Article
Topics: Access & Opportunity, District & School Operations, School Administrator Magazine

November 01, 2021

Mary Rice-Boothe
Mary Rice-Boothe (left), access and equity officer with The Leadership Academy in New York City, N.Y., surveyed 26 chief
equity officers in K-12 education to flag the role鈥檚 biggest challenges. PHOTO COURTESY OF VISIONARIES, INC.

As a school system leader during the last decade, Lisa Williams has realized that one impediment to making real change in schools is a lack of time for leaders to reflect on their work and how it affects students and educators.

As the chief equity officer for Virginia鈥檚 Fairfax County Public Schools for the past year, Williams lists her major goal as 鈥渂uilding collective consciousness because you can鈥檛 change what you can鈥檛 see. And when you have to do 1,001 things 鈥 you can鈥檛 be creative enough to do something different. We need to recognize that the pace at which we work is part of the problem.鈥

Williams is part of a growing group of equity officers hired by school districts across the country to help identify disparities within and across their schools. Their charge is profound: Dismantle systems of oppression and create new processes in K-12 education that center the needs and experiences of minoritized students.

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Author

Mary Rice-Boothe

Access and equity officer

The Leadership Academy in New York City, N.Y.

About the Author

She is author of a forthcoming book I鈥檓 My Ancestors鈥 Wildest Dreams: Leading Within and Dismantling White Spaces (ASCD).

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