Infusing Equity in Continuous Improvement: Supporting Equity-focused Leadership Development in Columbus City Schools 

Daniella Molle^1,2*Mickie Sebenoler³James C. Eslinger³Diane Agnes³Richard Halverson⁴

• ¹University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States
• ²Wisconsin Center for Education Research, School of Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States
• ³Columbus City Schools, Columbus, Ohio, United States
• ⁴Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

This paper is a case study of equity-centered continuous improvement that informed school leader professional learning. The work is a collaboration between researchers and district leaders in Columbus City Schools, USA. The continuous improvement process took place in the context of a multi-year, grant-funded initiative aimed at expanding school leaders’ capacity to advance equity in their buildings. Based on the analysis of qualitative data, we highlight three social conditions that made the improvement work possible: a district-wide focus on equity, culture of learning, and partnerships with external organizations. We explore in detail two examples of continuous improvement in the district, both related to school leader professional learning. We shed light on factors that hindered the district-wide use of continuous improvement in the district, including the absence of guidance on continuous improvement and the emerging nature of the collaboration among principal supervisors and coaches across the district. This work contributes to the field’s understanding of what equity-focused continuous improvement can look like. Our findings suggest that equity-centered continuous improvement encompasses equity-focused goals that aim to address disparities in students’ school experiences, and equity-focused processes that cultivate trust with school leaders and position them as capable learners and agents of change.