Bringing legitimate inclusion in an equity-focused school is a lot of work, but it’s necessary to ending the school-to-prison pipeline.

A recent Education Dive brief authored by Amelia Hamper entitled

Multiple support strategies necessary to close school-to-prison pipeline

argues that there must be multiple approaches to end the systemic ways that disenfranchised youth are treated in our school systems and beyond.

FLI takes this one step further to say that educational leadership development, particularly when designed through an equity-focused framework that empowers leaders of color, is a key lever to making sustainable and equitable change, starting in early childhood.  We agree that much of this work must begin with Social-Emotional Learning strategies, explained this way by Hamper:

By finding ways to connect with students and their families, teaching them alternative strategies for dealing with anger and aggression, and offering them stronger support systems to engage them in learning and preparing for the future, these support specialists can make bigger impacts in students’ lives.

Each day FLI works on initiatives to address inequities in urban public schools. Join us!!