Attaining educational equity begins by acknowledging that achievement gaps, disparities in services, and limited access to advanced curriculum and instruction do exist. Awareness is simply not enough. Acknowledgement takes it a step further and involves maintaining awareness by reviewing data on a regular basis and acting upon the data to improve learning outcomes for every student. Acting on data is a professional and ethical commitment that often requires the educational leader, whether superintendent, principal, or teacher, to be courageous and communicative.
Educational equity is a vital curricular component in each program offered by the HCDE’s Educator Certification and Advancement (ECA) division, a state-accredited educator preparation program, that prepares and certifies aspiring teachers, principals, and superintendents. Therefore, we support and model rigorous, data-driven, evidence-based, culturally responsive practices to prepare our candidates that they can replicate with executive leadership teams, professional learning communities, and students.
Texas continues to experience rapid growth in the number of students who are impoverished, English language learners, and students of color. In fact, schools are becoming more diverse than ever with more than 75 percent of students now representing minority populations.
The mission of ECA is to establish transformational talent pipelines of school and district leaders who positively impact student achievement and champion practices that bridge the equity gap. By doing so, we ensure a workforce of diverse district level leaders who are willing and able to address persistent inequalities instead of maintaining the status quo.
Link: To learn more about ECA’s educator preparation programs, please call 713.696.1348 or visit our website:https://hcde-texas.org/teach-and-lead/