What Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist Work Looks Like in Education: An Elementary School's Story
Anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) work in an education context is foundational for fostering inclusive and culturally responsive schools that acknowledge and address how racial, cultural, class, and power dynamics affect student experiences.
This case study details our partnership with a TK-8 school in South San Jose that focused on embedding ABAR practices throughout their professional development and school operations.
An infographic that shows demographic details about this TK-8 grade school located in San Jose, CA. It includes the school's location, number of staff who participated in the ABAR program (19), and number of students (415).
Partners provided structured support to the school’s leaders, who were eager to deepen ABAR work, by developing professional development (PD) curriculum, creating resources, and coaching them on facilitating PD sessions.
Laying the Groundwork: Focus Areas For Change
Situated in South San Jose, a TK-8 school recognized the need to more deeply embed anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) practices within its curriculum and school culture.
Although the school's district held some equity training in the past, a review of current practices using Partners in School Innovation’s (PSI) School Transformation Rubric (STR) highlighted the need to turn theory and learning into daily practice.
A graphic outlining three focus areas for improvement in anti-bias and anti-racist work at this San Jose school: 1) Leadership commitment to cultural proficiency, 2) Reflective teaching practices, 3) Culturally responsive professional development.
To ensure the school’s initiatives led to systemic change and consistent practices among staff, school leaders and PSI pinpointed the following areas for improvement:
1. Leadership’s Commitment to Cultural Proficiency
They noticed a need for further improving the capacity of school leaders to model cultural proficiency, which includes applying an equity lens to conversations and meetings, analyzing data from a disaggregated lens, engaging in personal reflection on cultural competencies, and demonstrating respect and allyship for staff, families, and students.
2. Reflective Teaching Practices
There was also a need to improve the capacity of teachers to infuse an understanding of race, culture, class, and power into their instructional design. This involves considering the cultural backgrounds of students during lesson planning and critically evaluating their expectations of students and families.
3. Culturally Responsive Professional Development
Lastly, the school noticed a need for more professional development opportunities that focused on equipping educators with tactical knowledge and skills necessary for culturally responsive interactions with students and families.
Partners in School Innovation advised and actively supported the school’s leadership and staff through strategic planning and facilitation of professional development to ensure systemic change and consistent practices across the staff.
Note: Partners in School Innovation’s School Transformation Rubric (STR) is a tool that provides a roadmap for assessing and guiding the work school leaders and teachers undertake. It helps educators identify areas of improvement for their schools and instructional programs, and is grounded in the latest research on effective teaching, family engagement, and leadership practices.
Getting Started With Community-Centered Exploration
School leaders started their anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) work by asking a reflective question to the school’s staff during a professional development session: "What should the student, teacher, and family experience be at our school?"
A photo showing a collective reflection session at this school, where teachers' responses to the question "What should the student, teacher, and family experience be at our school?" are visibly recorded on chart paper.
The collected responses showed a readiness among staff to advance their work beyond superficial equity initiatives and engage in meaningful anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) work.
From this exercise, the school team collectively made it their goal to disrupt the status quo by reassessing their mindsets and instructional practices to create a safer environment for students.
Guided by a Partners in School Innovation (PSI) coach, school leaders initiated an ABAR professional development series. Leveraging research-backed resources and extensive experience at other schools, the PSI coach collaborated with the school’s leaders to develop the curriculum and design the sessions.
They provided tools like feedback surveys to improve the sessions' effectiveness and coached the leaders on best practices for facilitation.
Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist (ABAR) Training, Professional Development, and Book Study
The school’s leadership team introduced the professional development sessions, including a structured book study using "Start Here Start Now: A Guide to Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist Work in Your School Community” by Liz Kleinrock.
The book provided a theoretical framework for the staff and studying it as a team laid the groundwork for transitioning from theory to practice, with plans to integrate the principles they learned into everyday teaching practices.
Image of the book "Start Here Start Now: A Guide to Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist Work in Your School Community” by Liz Kleinrock and the community agreements that school staff agreed to while participating in ABAR professional development.
The book study was just one example of the work this elementary school did throughout the 2022-23 school year. The professional development curriculum for the school year was structured to cover multiple dimensions of ABAR, including:
Understanding the context of anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) work at their school and defining the term “stereotype”
Engaging with school curriculum through an ABAR lens to identify missing cultural perspectives
Examining the historical context of educational policies and how the characteristics of white supremacy culture show up in our school system
Creating spaces for challenging conversations and encouraging open dialogue on difficult topics
Practical applications of anti-bias and anti-racist practices in a school setting
A Year of Foundation and Learning: Shifts in Mindset and Practice
The professional development this elementary school engaged in around anti-bias and anti-racism (ABAR) during the 2022-23 school year marked the beginning of many visible changes in mindsets and instructional practices.
A quote from a teacher who participated in the professional development that reads: “The ABAR professional development has opened my eyes and made me listen more intently to my students.”
For example, teachers started updating their reading lists with books that better reflect their students' backgrounds, like replacing “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee with “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.
A graphic demonstrating the shift in curriculum texts from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee to 'The Hate U Give' by Angie Thomas. Both book covers are shown with text explaining that teachers updated their reading lists with more relevant texts.
There were also noticeable changes in the way staff discussed white supremacist culture. At the start of these discussions, staff reflections mostly focused on external views of white supremacy, with comments like, “Supremacists believe they are the best race; they see other races as not important” being typical.
Over time, professional development sessions helped staff look inward and understand how traits associated with white supremacist culture, such as perfectionism and fear, could manifest within school settings.
A chart paper from a professional development session, written with teachers' reflections on how fear, as a characteristic of white supremacy, can manifest in a school setting, and the 'antidotes' for addressing it.
This led to deeper reflections, with staff making conscious efforts to proactively notice and address their own tendencies towards these characteristics.
For example, a staff member later reflected, “The characteristic that I will be mindful of is perfectionism. I know I tend to be a perfectionist and I may subconsciously want it from my students. The antidote that I will implement is to praise effort and growth.”
Results and Reflections
Following a year of focusing on anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) work, this TK-8 school reassessed their improvement areas using PSI’s School Transformation Rubric (STR) and saw significant improvements.
School Transformation Rubric (STR) Scores
Leadership's Commitment to Equity and ABAR Work
Under the rubric category evaluating school leaders’ commitment to developing staff cultural proficiency and understanding of equitable practices, the school’s scores improved from a 3 to a 5 on a 6-point scale, marking their transition to systemic, consistent change.
Professional Learning Systems
The school's scores on the STR for their professional development systems focused on “collective learning about race, culture, class, and power” improved from 3 to 4 on a 6-point scale. This change reflected an increase in opportunities for educators to develop and apply the knowledge and skills needed to be culturally responsive in interactions with students and families.
Teacher Feedback Survey
A survey conducted among the teaching staff showed overwhelming support for the new initiatives around anti-bias and anti-racist professional learning. Some of the results include:
93% of teachers felt that their colleagues were actively seeking to understand the role of race, culture, class, and power in their work.
88% of teachers reported that the professional development sessions provided them with the opportunities to develop and apply personal and collective cultural proficiency.
Approximately 70% noted that professional development clearly outlined expectations for the application of new learning.
More than 60% of teachers felt enabled to take immediate action based on what they learned.
An infographic showcasing the results of the teacher satisfaction survey, showing strong support for anti-bias and anti-racist professional learning initiatives.
Looking Ahead: Continuous Learning and Inclusion
As the school moved forward, their commitment to anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) work continues to deepen. In the following school year, the school welcomed ten new teachers with an onboarding plan to integrate these new team members into the existing ABAR framework, ensuring they are well-prepared to support and advance the school’s objectives.
Additionally, the school leaders plan to continue supporting and monitoring the progress of these initiatives, and the staff plans to continue adapting their curriculum and texts with an ABAR lens.
Inspired by This School’s Journey?
If you're interested in learning more about how Partners in School Innovation can support your district’s and school's path to transformation or want to explore how our staff can empower your team to achieve exceptional outcomes, contact us today.
