Shifting adult mindsets, challenging assumptions, and elevating equitable practices
The Equity Leader Labs (ELLabs) convene our partner districts’ and schools’ Equity Team members to develop and adopt the policies, practices and mindsets to sustain equity in support of historically marginalized student success.
EOS assumes that all ELLabs participants have successfully implemented the EOS program and continue to utilize EOS’ data tools at their school.
WHAT IS ELLabs
ELLabs convene educators to experiment with new ideas and strategies. Through group learning experiences, facilitated workshops, data analytics and developmental activities, Lab participants develop the skills, habits and mindsets needed to engage as equity leaders in their building.
WHAT IS ELLabs
The ELLabs is an important component in developing extraordinary leaders and is a portion of the Action For Equity (A4E): Extend Equity phase.
The Equity Leader Labs:
- Focus on policies, practices and mindsets that facilitate equity.
- Lead by doing the hard work of asking “why not?”.
- Share learnings from across our national portfolio.
Together, we will tackle the complex systems, leadership, and work needed to break through to equitable college readiness.
WHO IS ELLabs FOR
The Equity Leader Lab is for district and school leaders, across all disciplines and functions, who are committed to equity in advanced level college prep courses.
WHO IS ELLabs FOR
The ELLabs is for districts and schools who are committed to equity, and have partnered with EOS for at least two (2) years. Participants are prepared to implement policies and practices to sustain their work towards equity.
Each participating school team consists of at least one (1) and up to three (3) of each of these roles:
- District Lead
- Principal
- Assistant Principal
- School Equity Champion(s)
- Counselor(s)
- AP/IB Teacher(s)
For additional details on role descriptions.
WHY JOIN AN ELLabs
You no longer want to do what you did yesterday, but want to be bold and creative about what is possible for tomorrow.
WHY JOIN AN ELLabs
- You want to change and improve the way you serve low-income students and students of color.
- You want to lead in progressive and stimulating methods that inspire change.
- You believe equitable learning opportunities are an urgent and pressing need.
- Innovation comes from experimentation and experimentation requires a laboratory. Join us to parse through the noise and to find, experiment and adopt new ways of working on behalf of students of color and low-income students.
HOW DOES IT WORK
The ELLabs are full-day workshops that convene four (4) times a year and includes homework in-between sessions. The sessions will consist of team breakout work-sessions, full-group developmental activities, and open floor conversations.
HOW DOES IT WORK
The sessions will generally consist of pre-assigned work in preparation, a speaker or facilitator to set the foundation for the day, team breakout work-sessions, full-group developmental activities, and open floor conversations.
GUIDING QUESTIONS
As we designed Equity Leader Labs, we kept the following guiding questions in mind:
- What supports are needed to empower educators with the confidence and skills to establish culturally responsive, rigorous, and engaging classrooms that meet the academic and social-emotional needs of students of color and low-income students?
- What are the conditions and experiences needed to equip educators with the ability to mitigate implicit bias, dismantle policies that reproduce inequity, and instead design policies and practices that lead to greater equity?
- What essential experiences, knowledge, and skills do District and school leaders need to transform their mindsets, and to be bold and innovative in designing more equitable and inclusive approaches to education?
As a result, each session has been designed to cover an area of importance in the journey towards a sustainable equity program.
Collectively, these workshops will develop adaptive leaders who will take research-based, practitioner-vetted equity strategies to their schools to develop policies, practices, and mindsets that supports experiences of belonging for students of color and low-income students.
WHAT IS COVERED
Each session has been designed to touch on a specific and identified topic, based off of thousands of past partnership visits and communications. The sessions each represent an area of importance in the journey towards a sustainable equity program.
WHAT IS COVERED
ELLabs’ sessions have a designated topic to be covered, leading to collaboration in the form of job-alike work groups, expert-led discussions, and open forums. Each cohort will have the autonomy to structure the session to best meet the needs of the participants. The sessions will generally consist of preassigned work, a speaker or facilitator to set the foundation for the day, team breakout work-sessions, full-group developmental activities, and open floor conversations.
Session #1: Exploring Implicit Bias: Building a Foundation For Change
Reflect on your EOS journey and create an action plan.
- Define core equity terms and concepts
- Engage in equity-focused developmental activities
Session #2: Belonging and Student Experience: New Perspective and Understandings
Observe and reflect on the experiences of low-income students and students of color
- Develop expertise to create a belonging-rich learning environment for low-income students and students of color
- Use EOS data to develop and anchor learnings
- Engage in equity-focused developmental activities
Session #3: Equity Tests of Change: Continuous Improvement through Cycles of Inquiry
Examine continuous improvement methods for growth and development.
- Introduce and engage with core principles of continuous improvement
- Gain awareness of barriers to implementing change
- Engage in equity-focused developmental activities
Session #4: Extend and Sustain Equity: Establishing the New Normal
Develop your action plan for next year.
- Synthesize learnings from all labs
- Plan next year’s school activities to sustain equity
Equity Leader Lab Brochure.
WHERE IS ELLabs
The Equity Leader Labs will be located regionally, across the US. As additional partner schools graduate to this service level, new ELL cohorts will start-up each Fall.
WHERE IS ELLabs OFFERED
These regions currently are or have been host regions for the ELLabs. Specific dates and locations are finalized each year, in conjunction with the participating districts and schools eligible for the Extend Equity phase.
- Calvert County, MD
- Chicago Public Schools/Madison
- Chicagoland, IL
- Montgomery County, MD
- Pasco, FL
- Pickerington/Westerville, OH
- San Juan/Placer Union, CA
- Utica/Berkeley/Farmington, MI
- Virginia Beach City, VA
If your district would like to be considered for participating in or hosting an ELLabs cohort, please contact us. If your district is signed up for an ELLabs, you can use this form to identify potential participants from your district and schools.
If interested in joining us to build the premier learning network of school and district leaders, who boldly serve historically marginalized students at the highest levels, then contact us to learn if your school is eligible to join and ELLabs this year.
Recruit District Partners Download ELLabs brochure Back to Extend Equity
What ELLab participant are saying
Responses from 2018-19 ELLabs participants
“The workgroups and discussion were powerful and informative. The presentation content was very helpful as there were always thought provoking activities that can be taken back to all or part of the staff to help further the school’s goals.” -Montgomery County Lab Participant
““I love how we got time to work as a team for our building specifically -to study, plan and even do! I am excited about how we have started the work on connecting our teams and the timeline to help us move forward.” -Sun Prairie Lab Participant
“One of the special parts of bringing together districts and schools who have partnered with EOS for multiple years is seeing the commitment of the schools towards equity work. Each school has experienced successes and challenges, and the ELLabs have created a space for leaders to be vulnerable about their personal and professional journey in equity work, as well as to share their expertise and experience with colleagues.” -Ryan Mosser, EOS Facilitator
ADDITIONAL PARTICIPANT COMMENTS
PARTICIPANT COMMENTS
Responses from ELLabs participants
“Looking at data from a student perspective isn’t something we are typically doing. Sometimes we think something is working or going well and students feel differently. That was a huge eye-opener to understand what’s working.” – Pilot ELLabs Member
“Try to cultivate a spirit of AP humility. Previously I would have 1 or 2 students of color, and most of my students had similar life experiences to me. Now I have one student who isn’t a student of color now I approach this class, I’m ignorant of the expertise that students bring to the class. How can we use the context of the text to help learn from each other. Conversations with fellow teachers and the data has helped.” – Pilot ELLabs Member
“Tried to be very reflective during this process. Figure out what’s working and what’s not. For AP next year what am I going to do differently? Made me see things in a different way. Strategies I’ve never thought about. I was reflective and flexible. Trying something new/different.” – Pilot ELabs Member
When asked what was most beneficial about the ELLabs experience
Getting an understanding of how different students in my class feel about the class and my teaching/level of care. – Pilot ELLabs Member
The opportunity to engage in a meaningful examination of my delivery of instruction. Also, an opportunity to introduce strategies to improve the academic success of my students. – Pilot ELLabs Member
