Your Community Has the Answers: Meaningfully Shifting the Power Dynamic in Our Schools
Rhonda Broussard, CEO and Founder of Beloved Community, speaking on a panel at “Lifting Up Black Voices: Inspiring Bold Solutions,” hosted by the Walton Family Foundation.
By: Beloved Community
The blog post below summarizes statements made by our CEO & Founder, Rhonda J. Broussard, during her panel at “Lifting Up Black Voices: Inspiring Bold Solutions.” The event, hosted by the Walton Family Foundation, brought together non-profit and community leaders to explore relevant topics in their collective work.
When it comes to protecting our most vulnerable students, we have reached a crisis point across the United States. Since 2020, more than 800 anti-CRT bills have been proposed. In the past six months alone, more than 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have surfaced. We only have 50 states, so many of these proposals are taking place at the school district, board of education, and state levels.
As an organization that works to lift up students, parents, teachers, and education leaders, how can Beloved Community ensure that our partners center student voices when addressing their unique needs?
We are clear that policy protects practice. Our teachers need political cover to do their best and boldest work.
We work with leadership teams to create (or refine) structures and systems for the entire school, Charter Management Organization (CMO), or district that will protect the good practices our teachers are already implementing. We know that teachers are creating cultures of belonging in their classrooms, but we must rely on something other than the individual superstar teacher to do all of the heavy lifting.
As is usually the case when working to create change, a top-down approach does not work. Your community has the answers. Period. And that community should absolutely include young people. Using the YPAR (Youth Participatory Action Research) model, Beloved Community trains and compensates young people to establish their research agenda and look into questions about their community.
Too often, research and data collection are surveillance measures, so our first lessons are about how young people can leverage these tools for their needs. Training young people and community members in research practices also shifts the power dynamics. When we train young people to collect mixed-methods data, co-analyze the results, co-author the findings, and lead on dissemination, the learnings stay in the community. Their research agendas and questions rival any think tank or funder brief. In our big vision, they can then take their findings to the policy and/or advocacy space and impact policy faster than any of our adult policy directors can.
Thinking about young people elevating their research reminds me of my time as a student at a predominantly white institution (PWI). During my first year, the senior students shared an insight that I still practice today. They said that wherever decisions were being made on campus, we needed to be in the room, and with fewer than 30 Black students in our 1,200-student class, that meant that sometimes we would be in the room by ourselves. The important thing to remember, the seniors reminded us, is that we’re never actually alone. Others in our community are here in times of celebration, conflict, and concern. The same holds true for professionals in education. We may be the only BlPOC in our workplaces, so we need to identify networks and communities where we can turn for support and resources.
A key way to build up this community, particularly among historically marginalized students, is to ensure the presence of caring adults. Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) strengthens educator and system leader capacity to break down barriers in order to increase access, belonging, and success in rigorous college and career-prep secondary school courses for underserved and underrepresented students so that they may thrive in their postsecondary pursuits and life goals. EOS offers a model that helps schools identify who those adults are for students. In their model, they are trying to improve the number of Black, Brown, and marginalized students in AP, IB, and dual-enrollment programs. They ask the students who their trusted adult is. If Danielle says that Maia is her trusted adult, then they ask Maia to encourage Danielle to sign up for AP English. They’ve learned that, for Black and Brown students, that trusted adult isn’t always a faculty member — it might be the guidance counselor, coach, band director, maintenance worker, or cafeteria worker. Based on this, all schools should continue to invite non-academic staff into care-team conversations and strategies for student support.
How do we achieve all of this? There are many factors to consider, but one key way is to work with system leaders via the community engagement continuum. Most schools are focused on improving their unidirectional communication — informing students, parents, and even teachers about what the school is doing. The community engagement continuum shows them how they could progress from informing . . . to seeking input . . . to collaborating . . . to co-leading and empowering. Not every school is ready for empowerment, but once they learn about the impact that community engagement has on student belonging, retention, and success, they can start to identify their own next steps along the spectrum. Each step taken, whether large or small, is a vital part of the trajectory. Everyone in the education community can play a role in empowering students and amplifying voices. “The Power to Make Change” is not only the title of our latest report; it is also a declaration of the confidence we have in our young people and our community.
"The Power to Make Change: Expanding Equity in American Schools" is a report by Beloved Community that provides insight into how to build equity and inclusion in schools. The report is based on data from over 1,100 teachers and administrators in more than 140 schools, districts, and charter management organizations across 28 states. The report's findings are intended to help policymakers, administrators, and funders create sustainable practices that improve student education outcomes.