Dissertation writing help - raising racial consciousness of educators and the district?
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Achievement of students of color continues to lag behind their White counterparts. As the awesomely White workforce in our schools attempts to address this crisis, few are attempting to address the question of the racial consciousness of White educators. This study adds a review of empirical literature on high achieving districts, as well as organizational and individual racial consciousness. Absent from the literature is research on racial consciousness in a K-12 school district, the effect of racial consciousness on student success, or the outcome of organizational consciousness in a school district. In order to fill this gap in the literature, this study evaluates two high achieving school districts within the context of racial consciousness. This study investigates the subsequent two questions:
(a) In high achieving school districts, to what extent do educators perceive racial consciousness as being associated with achievement?
(b) What factors contributed to raising racial consciousness of educators and the district?
This study uses a conceptual framework that draws on elements of White Racial Consciousness Theory (Rowe, et al., 1994) to conceptualize the individual racial consciousness of staff. It includes The Diversity Scorecard's Model of Institutional Change (Bensimon, 2004) to conceptualize organizational racial consciousness in a K-12 school district. Lastly, Critical Race Theory (Delgado, 1995; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) is used to address the overarching epistemology of the study. This mixed-method, multi-case study focused on two academically high-achieving school districts. The data collected included just about 31 hours of interviews with central office administrators and principals, 278 survey responses from teachers and administrators, 15 hours of archival and observations data. Two major conclusions will be drawn from this research. First, establishing high levels ethnic consciousness within educators working with students of color is a significant part of closing the achievement gap. Second, systems within a school district need not properly address race to accomplish the results of raising the racial consciousness of educators. This research seeks to inform future school reform efforts to close the achievement gap.