The ripple effect of leadership:
Our 2020 Impact ReportRead now

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

The Holdsworth Center

Excellence in Education Leadership

  • About
    • Our Story
    • Our People
    • Campus
    • Careers
    • 2020 Impact
  • Our partnership
    • Future Cohorts
  • Our districts
  • News & stories
    • All
    • News
    • Press releases
    • Insight
    • Inspiration
    • Impact
  • Click here to search this site
  • Login to the Holdsworth Hub
  • Donate Your generosity will help us support insipring leaders who create schools where teachers thrive and students excel
  • Sign up for Holdsworth updates, learning resources and inspiration
News

Courageous leadership needed for change

By Lindsay Whorton, President of The Holdsworth Center|June 3, 2020
Courageous leadership needed for change
Share
Tweet0Facebook0LinkedIn0

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.

Lindsay Whorton, President of The Holdsworth Center|


Want to read more articles like this one?

Sign up to read more articles like this one
Recommended articles
Graphical representation of Impact Report 2020 cover page.
News
2020 Impact Report reveals the ripple effects of leadership

2020 has taught us all many lessons, but especially this: leadership matters. Three years into our work, 2020 has confirmed what we’ve always known to be true — investing in leadership pays off.

Read more
Lindsay Whorton, President of The Holdsworth Center, visits with Arlington ISD administrators.
News
Year 2020 will be momentous for Holdsworth

Scaling fast and building a new campus will present remarkable opportunities.

Read more
On a recent visit to the Durham District School Board in Ontario, Canada, Leaders in Holdsworth’s District Leadership Program witnessed Durham’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion in action.
News
Powerful equity practices in Ontario inspire Leaders

On a recent visit to the Durham District School Board in Ontario, Canada, Leaders in Holdsworth’s District Leadership Program witnessed Durham’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion in action.

Read more

Notice of nondiscrimination policy

The Holdsworth Center does not discriminate on the basis of race, color or national and ethnic origin in the administration of its admission policies or professional development programs.

  • Join our team
  • Contact
  • Media resources
  • Privacy policy
© Copyright  The Holdsworth Center
Sign up for Holdsworth updates, learning resources and inspiration.
Sign up for Holdsworth updates, learning resources and inspiration.