Collective Equity: A Movement for Creating Communities Where We All Can Breathe

It's time for a new beginning

As we transition through very uncertain and challenging times, we have a chance to start again--and do better as a Collective. With newfound acknowledgment of the damage done by structural inequities, systemic racism, and implicit bias, we are ready to create communities that value and support everyone.

In education, that means challenging and dismantling systems that have harmed historically marginalized children and families for generations. Here you'll find a powerful model for using relational trust, cultural humility, and appreciation of diverse perspectives to build learning communities that collectively uplift all students and all members of the learning community. Features include

• An original Collective Equity Framework for creating transformative equitable learning environments
• Protocols for enacting cultural humility, vulnerability, and mutuality dispositions leveraged to create culturally sustaining learning communities
• Strategies and tools for organizational analyses to guide conversations that support the implementation of culturally fortifying practices at organizational, curricular, programmatic, and instructional levels
• A behavioral-outcome measurement tool for charting the progress of the members of the Collective towards developing culturally conscious actions and equity focused outcomes.
• Vignettes and case studies from district and school leaders reflecting examples of how the collective members of their organizations work towards creating transformative equitable learning environments

Positive outcomes always take work. When we build relational trust, value and validate the dimensions of identities for all members in the learning community as a Collective, we are able to create Equity Pathways and Equity Pavers to chart a new course where we can ALL Breathe and achieve our shared objective: educational equity for all.

Dr. Sonja Hollins-Alexander is the Senior Director of Professional Learning for Corwin. She has been in the field of education for 28 years with 22 of those being in educational leadership roles in schools, districts, universities and professional learning organizations. During her professional career, she has provided service in the following K-12 positions: school social worker, teacher, teacher on special assignment, assistant principal, principal, coordinator, assistant director and director of professional learning, and chief of staff in Metro Atlanta, GA school districts. Dr. Hollins-Alexander continues to serve in an advocacy capacity through her membership on numbers non-profit boards including Camp Fire Boys and Girls affiliated with United Way non-profit organizations, Learning Forward Georgia and Learning Forward National and most recently, she was selected to serve as an inaugural board member for Leflore Legacy Academy Charter School in the Mississippi Delta (Greenwood, MS).

Through her professional journey, Dr. Hollins-Alexander has had experiences in presenting on numerous educational topics such as; Visible Learning, online professional development, professional learning communities, data analysis and use, common formative assessments, equitable learning structures and Culturally Fortifying Practices. A few notable ways that Dr. Hollins-Alexander has demonstrated her knowledge and skills for educational excellence is her development of district based coaches and execution of a Personalized Learning Coaching Framework; her dedicated service as a Lead Coach for a District Based Coaching Endorsement Program and her engagements as a Dissertation Chair and committee member at the university level. In addition, she has a keen ability to engage in focused strategies that create effective and impactful organizational structures such as: strategic planning, organizational analysis, policy development, curriculum development and implementation, facilitation of adult learning, leadership/executive coaching, and conference facilitation and design. She is fully engaged in the development and use of Online Collaborative/Instructional platforms and Instructional Design of professional learning services. And, she is the author of Online Professional Development through Virtual Learning Communities, Corwin Press (2013). Dr. Hollins-Alexander has a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction and has received numerous awards for her educational pursuits including: State of GA School Greatest Gains in Student Achievement Award, Recognized American School Counseling Association Model Program Award, National Staff Development Council Shirley Hord Award and Georgia Distinguished Principal Award.

As the Senior Director of Professional Learning for Corwin (a global professional learning organization), Sonja is committed to the design and implementation of evidence based professional learning services that positively impact teaching and learning across the world. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia and her most favorite activity is spending time with her family and her beautiful and brilliant daughter, Autumn Eliza Alexander.

Sonja can be reached at Sonja.HollinsAlexander@Corwin.com.

Dr. Nicole Law is a passionate educator who provides professional learning to schools and districts across the country. As a Corwin Professional Learning Consultant, Nicole presents content on Culturally Fortifying Practices, dimensions around equity and creating equitable teaching spaces, teacher clarity, Visible Learning, professional learning communities, organizational analysis, literacy instruction, leadership improvement practices and structures, data analysis models, school improvement practices, metacognitive teaching and learning, strategies for success in cognitively rigorous instruction and effective teaching methods for English Learners. She also partners with school and district leaders by providing executive coaching focused on measuring and monitoring school improvement structures.

Nicole has served as a curriculum coordinator for English language learners, cultural responsivity, AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination), district equity, and mathematics and science instruction in the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township in Indianapolis, Indiana. In this position, Dr. Law created multi-layered and faceted professional development for teachers and administrators covering all aspects of directed programs and curricular areas. She has written curriculum in the areas of science, mathematics, and English language development. Nicole trained and supported administrators, teacher leaders, site coordinators, and school improvement teams in decision making for results, the data teams process, sub-group data dives, and gap reduction practices.

Dr. Law completed her doctorate in educational leadership and policy. She has received various recognitions throughout her career, including the 2008 National Milken Award from the state of Indiana. In addition, she has co-authored two publications: The Reflective Leader: Implementing a Multidimensional Leadership Performance System (2013) and Comprehension (Grades K-12): The Skill, Will and Thrill of Reading (2020).

Nicole resides in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband and family and is a proud mother of her son, Kyle Law.

Nicole can be reached at Nicole.Law@Corwin.com.