Leadership for educational equity for principals in New York State: policy challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT

This paper explores ideas about the role of the school principal embedded in New York State education policy. Many public schools across the state fail to deliver equitable opportunities and outcomes for an increasingly diverse student population and improving school leadership offers the potential for substantial returns. Drawing on concepts of role identity, organisational coherence, and leadership for equity, I use an interpretive approach to examine how conflicting and ambiguous expectations for principal behaviour in New York’s Every Student Succeeds Act Plan, its Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework, and its approach to principal evaluations might endanger realisation of a principal’s moral commitment to educational and social justice. I conclude with recommendations for state policy and future research with the aim of supporting principals to navigate the complexity of their role and lead to organisational coherence around equity.

KEYWORDS:

• Social justice
• principals
• administration
• educational equity
• school leadership
• educational policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Many current definitions of educational equity start with the premise that students come to schools with different needs, requiring additional or different resources to achieve the same level of success (The Aspen Institute 2021). Others emphasize the presence of systemic, structural, and institutional barriers to flourishing (Galloway and Ishimaru 2017). Equity-oriented school leaders seek to provide each student with what they need for success (Radd et al. 2021). Equity is distinct from equality, the latter often conceived as the principle of ‘sameness as fairness’ (Galloway and Ishimaru 2017, 7).

2 As of November 2021, authorized rubrics are aligned with the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) 2008 Educational Leadership Policy Standards. Districts have until September 2022 to align rubrics with the 2015 PSELs; the new rubrics must be used for evaluations beginning in the 2024–2025 school year.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ann LoBue

Ann LoBue is a doctoral student in the Education Policy Programme at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include K-12 school leadership for equity and district governance, especially school boards.