The Complexities of Systems Change in Creating Equity for Students With Disabilities in Urban Schools

Abstract

This article was recognized by the American Education Research Association, Special Interest Group, Systems Change: Best scholar-practitioner article on systemic change. Also designated by Sage Publications as an Urban Education Editor’s Choice Publication.

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The original publication is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042085909337595.

This article explores the complexities of urban school improvement and systems change through the lens of educational equity policy initiatives. The authors situate urban schools within a critical context where contested identity politics, sociopolitical agendas, and economic stratification marginalize culturally and linguistically diverse students. The study uses the elements of a framework for systemic change and examines urban schools. Analyzing local educational change, the authors examine the interaction between structural reform, collective, community narratives about children, and their impacts on the urban schools. Along with lessons learned from school improvement and technical assistance activities, these perspectives look at how local-activity arenas respond to reform and how understanding the complexities of local practice could inform the next-generation policy initiatives. Without deep and shared understanding, the strategies employed to achieve short-term improvements will circumvent work on the changes required to shift students from the margins while simultaneously changing the mainstream conditions.