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INTRODUCTION
Achieving racial equity in K-12 education requires that school leaders focus their time, attention, and
fiscal resources on:
Improving the performance of ALL students;
Narrowing the access, opportunity, and instruction gaps; while
Eliminating the racial predictability and disproportionality of which student groups occupy the
lowest and highest achievement categories.
While multiple dimensions of the entire school system must undergo radical transformation in order to
achieve racial equity, certainly some aspects serve as strategic leverage points for setting systemic
change in motion. Much of the current research still points to the principal as the key change agent in
schools, and the relationship between the teacher and student, as well as the quality of instruction, are
among the most critical areas for fostering increased student engagement and achievement.
The Equity Walk ultimately engages the principal as the Instructional Leader in ongoing
interaction with classroom teachers as a method for identifying and institutionalizing successful
conditions for equitable learning. By being visible in the classroom, and able to identify and
document promising equity teaching practices, principals can truly support and develop school-wide
teacher leadership for racial equity.
OBJECTIVES
An Equity Walk enables principals to:
Efficiently spend time in classrooms engaging in focused observation.
Discover and discern instructional practices that support improved student achievement,
especially among underserved student populations.
Develop and practice non-evaluative, supportive techniques for coaching teachers.
Develop will, skill, knowledge, and capacity to serve as instructional leader.
An Equity Walk enables teachers to:
Develop greater comfort in opening their classroom doors to outside observation.
Develop and practice techniques for examining and improving their teaching.
Enhance will, skill, knowledge, and capacity to collaborate with other teachers in the design
and implementation of culturally responsive curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices.
Focus their professional development around habits and ideas that truly impact student
learning and achievement.
An Equity Walk Overview
A TOOL FOR ACHIEVING RACIAL EQUITY IN THE CLASSROOM

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AN EQUITY WALK CYCLE
The multi-stage Equity Walk cycle includes a Planning, Walking, Questioning, and Sharing
phase, each of which is described below.
Planning:
In preparation for the Equity Walk, a leadership team (comprised of site and central office leaders)
will:
Disaggregate site-level achievement data to determine which student groups are experiencing
low performance.
Identify these low-performing student groups as Focus Student Groups.
Determine in which classrooms these students can be found and prepare a visitation schedule
that allows for no more than ten-minute visits to each classroom. (Initially, the Equity Walk
team may wish to inform teachers of their planned visit. Eventually, this advance notice will
not be necessary because teachers will expect and welcome regular visits as part of a school
culture of instructional support and transparency that is the key to continuous
classroom/school improvement.)
Select a research-based equity theory and/or framework (e.g., motivation, resilience, anti-
racism, cultural proficiency, etc.) to use as an observation tool/instrument. The principal may
need to convert the theory into a rubric in order to bring specificity to the classroom
observations. From this research base, school leaders will also be able to formulate a list of
must sees and cant continues which serve as the foundation for instructional
improvement.
Develop a plan for working with the School Equity Team (E-Team), following the Equity
Walk, to examine the Equity Walk data, understand the theory/framework/instrument,
share learning with staff, and create the appropriate design and delivery of equity-focused,
school-wide professional learning.
Walking:
During the Equity Walk, the team will:
Visit classrooms in pairs, trios, or larger. (Avoid groupings that are too large, as they may be
distracting to students and teachers; however, it is critical for multiple sets of eyes to observe
and describe the same learning environment/situation.)
Locate the team inconspicuously in the classroom in order to minimize disruption and
distraction for the teacher and students, during the visit.
Focus on finding what is present in the classroom, rather than what is not. Identify what is
present as a must see or a cant continue, based on accepted educational equity research.
Avoid being distracted by classroom activity that does not relate to the equity observation
instrument.
Discretely observe how focus students are engaging in the classroom experience, with
respect to the observation instrument.

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While it is useful to strategically check-in with students and have them define their learning
task, do not interrupt or interfere with teacher instruction. In the case of entering a classroom
where testing is occurring, quickly exit the room.
Record what is present in the learning environment in accordance with what the theory
suggests.
Questioning:
Following the Equity Walk, the team will:
Meet immediately to compare notes and discuss observations about what was present in each
classroom in terms of must sees and cant continues.
Carefully craft questions for individual teachers, or for the entire faculty, that will lead them
toward expanding their thinking about the classroom experiences of focus students as
related to the identified equity learning theory. The questions should not presume that
teachers instructional practices are deficient; in fact, the questions should invite teachers to
share how they accomplish the goals of the identified equity theory.

Example:
The team observed a classroom in which the teacher was reading excerpts from a story and
asking students questions as a way of judging/guiding their understanding. The team noticed
that the teacher never directed a question to a focus student, nor did the students participate
voluntarily. Rather than assume from this brief encounter that the focus students were
disconnected from the learning process, or that the teacher did not realize or care about their
engagement, the team might develop the following question to learn more from the teacher:

When you notice that your African American (focus) students are not participating in the
directed questioning format, what alternative instructional methods do you usually use to
more effectively engage them?

Avoid writing questions that tell teachers what they should do, or even ask why a teacher
chooses to do/not do something in a certain way. These types of questions are unfair, given
the short duration of the visit, but they also may cause teachers to adopt a defensive posture.
The purpose of the questioning is to help teachers engage in focused reflection and inquiry
about their own practices. The crafting and posing of good questions also encourages the
observation team to better understand equity theories and to practice effective coaching.
Sharing:
Upon completing a series of classroom observations:
The team will synthesize the data (observation notes, questions) and look for patterns of
strengths (must sees) and areas for growth (cant continues). The team will use this data
to determine the topics for teacher development.
When possible, the principal, or teachers who are known to be especially effective with focus
students, might present a demonstration lesson as a way of modeling effective practices with
respect to the equity theories.
Eventually, the principal might encourage teachers to visit each others classrooms so they can
witness promising practices in action.

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The sharing part of the process encourages the principal to act as the instructional leader. Sharing also
helps build an authentic professional learning community among the teachers.
AN EQUITY WALK AS A STRATEGY FOR IMPROVED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED
ACCOUNTABILITY
Initially, the Equity Walk helps redefine the role of the principal from the business of site
management to the pedagogy of instructional leader. The process also helps teachers effectively
develop professional learning communities in which it is safe and beneficial to examine, share, and
institutionalize effective curricular, instructional, and assessment practices. Once the multi-stage
Equity Walk cycle becomes commonplace, the principal and leadership team members can begin
providing immediate feedback and support to individual teachers outside of the training/in-service
format. When this type of individual, ongoing support is possible that is, when the school culture
shifts toward seeing the principal and teacher leaders as knowledgeable support providers, rather than
as disconnected evaluators school leaders can then set goals for implementation/results with the
teacher. Ultimately, principals can base evaluation on teachers observed progress toward creating
racially equitable learning environments in which all students truly master the standards.