Leadership for Equity and Inclusivity in Schools: The Cultural Work of Inclusive Schools

Abstract

A set of schools located across the United States partnered with a federally funded inclusive schools systems approach to improving outcomes for all students—both general and special education students, including students with extensive support needs stemming from intellectual and developmental disabilities. Two years of data from the schools provided evidence of changes in specific school leadership practices. Schools that received targeted, feature-specific technical assistance in the Administrative Leadership domain improved their administrative leadership performance as measured by the Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation Fidelity of Implementation Tool (SWIFT-FIT). Improvements were noted in the two major aspects of leadership measurement: Strong and Engaged Site Leadership and Strong Educator Support System features. Improvements corresponded with higher achievement scores on English Language Arts and Math as measured by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment. These results show promise for continued focus on improving school administrator leadership in order to install more inclusive systems of support for learning that are associated with higher levels of student achievement.