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Centering Communities of Color in Statewide School Transformation
Establishing Just Policies and Practices

Manka M. Varghese (Edited by), Margaret L. Plecki (Edited by), Ana M. Elfers (Edited by), Aditi Rajendran (Edited by)

9780807784358

Paperback / softback, published 22 May 2026

208 pages
22.9 x 15.6 x 1.2 cm, 0.332 kg

This pathbreaking book presents a road map for constructing and sustaining a statewide reform for equity in today’s Pre-K–12 schools.

Centering the perspectives of historically underserved educators, students, and communities, this volume describes the systemic barriers to educational justice, along with ways to redress inequities. This examination of a statewide effort to transform schools focuses on the investments, policies, strategies, and practices needed to improve outcomes for all students, including those of Indigenous backgrounds. The fundamental premise underlying all the studies in this volume is the need to change assumptions and beliefs about education and how it is currently practiced and financed.

Chapters demonstrate the importance of providing nondominant and racially minoritized communities with authentic opportunities to describe and influence the types of investments they believe are most needed. This much-needed book shows how to craft a multifaceted and ambitious approach to educational transformation that identifies structural inequities and creates policies and practices to reverse the problems, including guidance for mapping the process and creating targets for change.

Book Features:

  • Explores a collaborative effort in the state of Washington to generate innovative ways to tackle injustices in Pre-K–12 schools.
  • Describes four core principles which were developed by the authors in collaboration with local communities and state-level partners.
  • Shows how the authors engaged with communities of color as key partners, including students and families of color, Indigenous communities, teachers and administrators of color and their networks.
  • Includes a team of researchers with expertise that spans disciplines from history, public policy, finance, sociolinguistics, special education, teacher education, educational leadership, multicultural education, and developmental psychology.

Contents


Series Foreword  vii

Acknowledgments  xi

Introduction  1

1.  Paramount Duty of the State: Washington State’s Distinctive Constitutional Commitments to “Advanced” Principles of Education, Equity, and Equality—and Their Contradiction  10
Nancy Beadie

2.  School Lands, School Funds, and Settler Colonial Systems: Education, State Formation, and Systemic Inequality  23
Nancy Beadie

3.  Examining Inequities in State School Funding Systems: Lessons From Washington State  36
David S. Knight, Margaret L. Plecki, and Pooya Almasi

4.  Understanding Educational Justice Through the Lens of State and District Leaders  52
Ana M. Elfers and Margaret L. Plecki

5.  “We Know What’s Right for Kids”: Educators in Washington State Speak Up and Speak Back About Educational Justice  66
Manka Varghese

6.  Challenges and Possibilities in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Schooling Contexts  81
Eric J. Johnson

7.  Achieving Educational Justice for Washington’s Students of Color  97
Dhani Srinivasan and Aneesa Roidad

8.  Native American Educational Sovereignty as Educational Equity  112
Dana Arviso, Anne Marie Guerrettaz, and Melodi Wynne

9.  Cultivating the Vibes: Community Sanctuary Spaces  132
Jessica I. Ramirez, Kaleb Germinaro, Kayla Mendoza Chui, and Shaneé A. Washington

10.  Rooted in Community, Rising for Justice in Early Childhood: Everyday Routines as Practices of Family Survivance Toward Equitable Futures  146
Soojin Oh Park, Kaixin Li, and Carla Asiedu-Ofei

11.  “I Need More Than Whatever Inclusion Is”: Mothers Resisting and Dreaming Beyond Racial-Ability Hierarchies in Early Childhood  162
Maggie Beneke, Shayla Collins, and Selma Powell

Conclusion  178

Endnotes  181

Index  185

About the Editors and Contributors  191

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