Training School Leaders Who Will Promote Educational Justice: What, Why, and How?.

Abstract: This article examines social justice as a vehicle for equity for all children. It focuses on the training of school leaders who can promote democratic schools and address inequality in K-12 schools. It outlines the needs assessment, consensus building, curriculum, and faculty voice in establishing a doctorate in educational justice. Closing the achievement gap between White, middle class students and minority students who have a lower socio-economic status classification is a common outcry in education circles today. Indeed, recent studies document the assertion that students in urban public schools face many educational challenges and failures associated with race, ethnicity, poverty, and social inequality (Johnson, Finn, & Lewis, 2005; Kozol, 2005; Kincheloe, 2004; Rothstein, 2004; Rumberger & Gandara, 2004). Rothstein (2004) explained that social class is a strong predictor of academic achievement in standardized measures and that school reforms alone such as higher standards, better teachers, more accountability, better discipline, and other educational best practices are not enough to narrow the academic gap between White, middle class students and their minority and lower-class counterparts. Noguera (2005) characterized problems in education as a manifestation of social inequality rather than lack of technical capacity. He asserted that while we have the knowledge and resources to educate young people, the real question is "whether or not we care enough to provide all students, regardless of race and class, with a good education. So far the answer is no" (pp. 11-13). In "Divided We Fail: Issues of Equity in American Schools," England (2005) discussed, with telling examples, the inequities plaguing the spectrum of issues that are essential to serving the needs of all students in our schools: inequity within diversity, inequity within assessment, inequity within standards, and inequity in curriculum. However, she also explained that "our situation is far from hopeless . There is time to act, a will to act, and a means to act. We have the resources to enact best practices, the technology to make our country more cohesive instead of more divisive, and the intelligence to engage in revolt, reform, and resolution" (p. 128). With the intent to find solutions in addressing social inequality in K-12 schools, we report in this article the action we are taking in our university to facilitate the training of school leaders including teachers, counselors, and administrators who can promote socially-just and democratic schools. Specifically, we describe here the challenges we encountered including the specific issues and procedures raised by the faculty, support staff, university administrators and trustees, and local superintendents and principals and the processes we undertook in creating a doctorate program that emphasizes topics related to diversity, equity, and social justice. We also share how we established the needs for this type of training program and clearly outline and explain the steps we took in building consensus to establish a doctorate program with an emphasis in educational justice. During the final phase of creating this Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) program, we considered the scathing report by Arthur Levine, president of Columbia University's Teachers College, on the inadequacy of Ed.D. in preparing K-12 school administrators and where he called for its elimination. In this four-year study of more than 1,200 education schools and departments in the United States, Levine (2005) found that too many educational leadership programs did not have a coherent curriculum, suffered from low admission standards and weak faculties, produced watered-down dissertations, and served as "cash cows" for other higher-priority programs on their campuses. Levine's report provides us with reminders of what we should be striving for in conceptualizing and implementing an effective Ed. …