An Intentional Response in the Bluegrass State
School Administrator, November 2021
Kentucky’s complex racial past, whose simmering tensions keep surfacing, offers some insight into why an equity officer serves an especially vital role in K-12 school systems now.
In a state that has grappled with its complicated racial history, as well as current conflicts over the continued presence of public monuments and schools honoring Confederate leaders, education leaders have been especially intentional in combating systemic racism in the public schools.
Lu Young, who spent nine years as superintendent in Jessamine County, Ky., and now chairs the Kentucky Board of Education, identifies the multiplicity of factors fueling her state’s moves into equity leadership. She points to “the murder of George Floyd and death of Breonna Taylor, with the twin pandemics of illness and racial unrest and reckoning,” but she believes attention to access and equal opportunity already was underway in places. “It’s a broad understanding of equity, focusing on the whole child.”
Notably, the Jefferson County Public Schools, which encompasses Louisville and serves 100,000 students, has had a department of diversity, equity and poverty since the late 1990s, Young points out.
A Key Appointment
In 2020, Kentucky’s board of education issued a statement explicitly affirming its commitment to racial equity and specifically standing against “all acts of racism and violence.”
Last November, the state education agency hired its first chief equity officer, Thomas Woods-Tucker, with a specific mandate to make sure local districts can support the education of every child regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
Woods-Tucker, who was recognized as the 2016 National Superintendent of the Year during one of his three superintendencies in Ohio and Colorado, oversees professional training for teachers to deliver high-quality instruction to marginalized students. He’s currently conducting an equity and inclusion scan that asks school district leaders statewide to assess their equitable practices and ensure they have equity strategic plans and equity inclusion plans. He wants to determine how many Kentucky districts employ someone at the district level responsible for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“There’s intentionality about building equity muscles across the state,” Young says. “We’re building an equity toolkit with guidance for schools on social-emotional learning, trauma and informed care. It’s thinking about how [the state education agency] could support districts.”
Like other places, Kentucky has seen its share of public criticism around critical race theory.
“We have experienced some inquiries around the department’s DEI initiatives due to widespread misconceptions about critical race theory and confusion on who determines the curriculum in our schools,” Meredith Brewer, director of education policy with the Kentucky Department of Education, shared in an e-mail interview.
Continuing Needs
The needs are apparent.
In Paducah County, a photo of the superintendent in blackface had surfaced online in late 2020.
Shonda Hollowell-Burrus, a graduate of the district who was appointed as the first chief equity officer in July, says a key aspect of her role in Paducah County is “building healing in the community and listening to students.” She expects to include “professional development for unconscious bias,” restorative practices for student discipline and trauma practice, particularly resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This position will hopefully allow us to address inequities more systematically,” says Will Black, Paducah’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
The district expects to look more deeply into achievement gaps among student subgroups. He sees the chief equity officer serving as a resource “in the spirit of supporting teachers and improving education for students. I firmly believe the position will accelerate the process to meet the needs of each and every student.”
— MERRI ROSENBERG