Recent events—namely, COVID-19 and its disproportionate impact on people of color and institutional violence and brutality against African Americans—demand that we confront the reality of inequality and systemic racism that continues to shape and define American life.
Our public schools will be a critical arena for courageous leadership and change.
As a nation, we must acknowledge that we have failed to honor and protect Black lives. Without confronting this failure, we will never approach our highest aspiration of becoming a nation where we fulfill our implicit promise that every child will receive what they need to realize their full potential.
We must stand with the Black community and communities of color to confront racism and injustice, in all its forms. We must channel our feelings—of anger, grief, despair, urgency—into action and tangible change. This will be the work of leaders across the nation, who will emerge from tiny towns and big cities, from school districts and city governments, from book circles and community churches.
Our public schools will be a critical arena for courageous leadership and change. As an organization that helps public schools grow and develop leaders, we stand beside our partners as they work to dismantle systemic racism and build schools, in partnership with families and communities, that promote the success of Texas’ 5.4 million children, including nearly 4 million children of color and over 680,000 African American students.
With education leaders who model empathy, humility, hope and courage, we can work to ensure that public education in Texas will emerge stronger, more resilient and more equitable.
At Holdsworth, our work with educators requires leaders to have hard conversations about where and how we are struggling to promote excellence and equity for every child in our schools, and to take bold action. We work with leaders to reflect on their beliefs, biases, and assumptions, to act with cultural competence, to confront and alter institutional biases and, ultimately, to create schools and systems that promote equity with a focus on race.
This does not happen easily or quickly—it is deep and personal work. And it requires each of us to commit to ongoing learning and growth. The importance of this work has never been clearer. And we re-commit to deepening our skill and capacity to support educators on this journey.
We must grow and change in order to fulfill the promises we are making to generations of Texas children. With education leaders who model empathy, humility, hope and courage, we can work to ensure that public education in Texas will emerge stronger, more resilient and more equitable.
