Build Equity, Join Justice: A Paradigm for School Belonging

A playbook for designing schools where no student is marginalized.

Educators all over the country are waking to a collective realization: The hope and compassion they have for their students is not enough to counteract the inequitable policies and practices of the school system. Students and communities who have been historically disenfranchised along lines of race and disability continue to face predictable barriers to opportunity and independence.

In Build Equity, Join Justice, the authors present a new path forward that leads away from deficit-focused policies and toward strengths-based practices. The authors’ ten equity-advancing principles, based on the groundbreaking work of the SWIFT Education Center in multiple school districts, are designed to address the learning needs and social concerns of all students without requiring them or their advocates to “ask permission” to be included. Complete with practical tools and reflective activities throughout, this book empowers educators at every level to transform their schools into equity-advancing, justice-centered institutions.

20 black-and-white illustrations

Amy McCart is a research professor with Life Span Institute, SWIFT Education Center, and adjunct faculty with the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas (KU). Dr. McCart is the codirector of KU’s SWIFT Education Center, a national pre-K–12 research and technical assistance center designed to improve outcomes for all students, with an emphasis on students of color and those with the most extensive need for support. She is the principal investigator for many Center research projects focused on enhancing student outcomes at the intersection of equity, inclusion, and MTSS by developing high quality, effective instructional leaders. Her partnership networks with SEAs, LEAs, and schools have promoted effective, integrated MTSS implementation from coast-to-coast. Dr. McCart continues to contribute to the field through presentations, consulting, coaching, books, and peer-reviewed journals on school transformation, MTSS, equity, and issues of social justice, to ultimately improve the lives of children.

Wade Kelly is the assistant director of content development for the Life Span Institute, SWIFT Education Center. Before taking his position with SWIFT, he wore many professional hats, including graphic designer, small business owner, lecturer, equity consultant, writer, and community organizer/collaborator. He believes deeply in the transformative and healing power of building solidarity across marginalized communities and their multitude of identity intersections, and he centers that belief in his work. His personal and professional praxis is steeped in the teachings of Black, queer, and Indigenous feminist writers from the 1960s to the present. He is a 2006 graduate of The University of Kansas.

Wayne Sailor is a clinical psychologist, professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas, and codirector of SWIFT Education.