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Street Data
By: Shane Safir, Jamila Dugan
with Carrie Wilson
Foreword by Christopher Emdin
A Joint Publication with Learning Forward
Street data reminds us that what is measurable is not the same as what is valuable and that data can be humanizing, liberatory and healing. By breaking down street data fundamentals: what it is, how to gather it, and how it can complement other forms of data to guide a school or district’s equity journey, Safir and Dugan offer an actionable framework for school transformation.
- Grade Level: PreK-12
- ISBN: 9781071812716
- Published By: Corwin
- Year: 2021
- Page Count: 280
- Publication date: March 09, 2021
Review Copies
Review copies may be requested by individuals planning to purchase 10 or more copies for a team or considering a book for adoption in a higher ed course. To request a review copy, contact sales@corwin.com.
Description
Radically reimagine our ways of being, learning, and doing
Education can be transformed if we eradicate our fixation on big data like standardized test scores as the supreme measure of equity and learning. Instead of the focus being on “fixing” and “filling” academic gaps, we must envision and rebuild the system from the student up—with classrooms, schools and systems built around students’ brilliance, cultural wealth, and intellectual potential. Street data reminds us that what is measurable is not the same as what is valuable and that data can be humanizing, liberatory and healing.
By breaking down street data fundamentals: what it is, how to gather it, and how it can complement other forms of data to guide a school or district’s equity journey, Safir and Dugan offer an actionable framework for school transformation. Written for educators and policymakers, this book
- Offers fresh ideas and innovative tools to apply immediately
- Provides an asset-based model to help educators look for what’s right in our students and communities instead of seeking what’s wrong
- Explores a different application of data, from its capacity to help us diagnose root causes of inequity, to its potential to transform learning, and its power to reshape adult culture
Now is the time to take an antiracist stance, interrogate our assumptions about knowledge, measurement, and what really matters when it comes to educating young people.
Author(s)
Shane Safir
Shane Safir has worked at every level of the education system for the past 25 years, with an unwavering commitment to racial justice and deep learning. After teaching in San Francisco and Oakland, California and engaging in community organizing to launch a new public high school, Shane became the founding principal of June Jordan School for Equity (JJSE), an innovative national model identified by scholar and policy leader Linda Darling-Hammond as having “beaten the odds in supporting the success of low-income students of color.” For over a decade, Shane has provided equity-centered leadership coaching, systems transformation support, and professional learning for schools, districts, and organizations across the U.S. and Canada. She writes for Edutopia, Ed Week, Educational Leadership magazine and is the author of The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation (Jossey-Bass: 2017). Shane is thrilled to co-author this book with Dr. Jamila Dugan, a long-time collaborator who conducted foundational research for The Listening Leader and facilitates equity workshops with Shane, as well as Carrie Wilson, a colleague whose groundbreaking program for teacher-driven inquiry centers street data in the pursuit of equity.
Jamila Dugan
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Prologue: Data in a Time of Pandemic
PART I: WHY STREET DATA, WHY NOW?
Chapter 1: Leading for Equity: Another World Is Possible
Guiding Principle: Reimagine our ways of knowing and learning.
Core Stance: Holism
Chapter 2: No Shortcut: Avoiding Equity Traps and Tropes, by Dr. Jamila Dugan
Guiding Principle: See the barriers; imagine what is possible.
Core Stance: Awareness
PART II: CHOOSE THE MARGINS
Chapter 3: Flip the Dashboard: Street Data Drives Equity
Guiding Principle: Center voices from the margins.
Core Stance: Antiracism
Chapter 4: Pound the Pavement: Digging Into the Levels of Data
Guiding Principle: Seek root causes over quick fixes.
Core Stance: Deep Listening
PART III: DEEPEN THE LEARNING
Chapter 5: Redefine “Success”: Street Data and the Pedagogy of Voice
Guiding Principle: Equity work is first and foremost pedagogical.
Core Stance: Agency
Chapter 6: Build Coherence: Focus, Holism, and Well-Being
Guiding Principle: Less is more; focus is everything.
Core Stance: Coherence
Chapter 7: Make Learning Public: Valuing Teacher Voices, by Carrie Wilson
Guiding Principle: Mobilize a pedagogy of voice for educators.
Core Stance: Symmetry
PART IV: TRANSFORM THE CULTURE
Chapter 8: Embrace Vulnerability: Moving Through Street Data Cycles
Guiding Principle: Break the cycle of shame.
Core Stance: Vulnerability
Chapter 9: Calling Folks In and Up to Equity: Street-Level Conversations
Guiding Principle: Every moment is an equity moment.
Core Stance: Warm Demander
Epilogue: The Journey Toward Liberation
Appendices
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Reviews
"Street Data calls upon readers to 'flip the dashboard' from a focus on big data to a focus on the voices at the margins – those learners and their families who have been most affected by deep-rooted systemic inequities. When we listen closely to these voices with curiosity, courage, and humility, we gain a greater understanding of the meaning and root causes of these inequities, as well as how they can be addressed in ways that transform and heal. Policymakers and educators at every level of the system need this book to forge a path to genuine equity."Linda Darling-Hammond
Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and President of the Learning Policy Institute
"For far too long, education leaders have implemented reform strategies without engaging and centering those most impacted – the students. Shane Safir provides an energizing, anti-racist, actionable framework that centers the voices of the most marginalized students as the experts and co-conspirators that we need to create an education system worthy of their brilliance. Read this, share it, and be a part of ushering in this 'new normal' of street-level data to unlock racial justice in our schools."Taryn Ishida, Youth Organizer and Executive Director
Californians for Justice
"With Street Data, Shane and Jamila have built a conversation more than a framework, wherein students, their communities, teachers, leaders and systems are interconnected parts of a family unit. As a Professor and Psychologist, I found myself drawn to the work’s human and family centered focus. Throughout the work, these are linked to an emphasis on building approaches to the art of teaching grounded in listening, making and holding room for all members of the learning family, and setting goals and evolving approaches that begin with the student as their core. Shane and Jamila are engaging us all in a critically important conversation, where the data we gather and share around learning spaces is shaped and centered on the voices and beings of students. It is family systems centered teaching and learning. It is holistic, and it is necessary."Napoleon Wells , Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Social Sciences, Claflin University, SC
"Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan have given us a vivid and immensely readable account of what public education could and should be. Rather than quick fixes, the book is rich with real-life examples and immediately actionable equity practices that educators and leaders can use to tackle root causes. The authors have also issued an unspoken but clear challenge to all of us who care about children's learning and development: 'What if policy decisions were anchored in the lived experiences of students, their families, and their educators?' Their call to action is clear and urgent: we must reverse-engineer and radically reimagine our resources, policies, and practices to support the broad conditions in which students can authentically thrive, and most particularly students who are the most marginalized by the current system. The vision of educational justice laid out in the book will not be more widely practiced if we simply rely on individual teachers and principals to push forward alone into the headwinds. It must be supported at systems and state levels, so that it becomes the rule and not the exception."Sophie Fanelli, President
Stuart Foundation
"Safir and Dugan call on us to free ourselves from old constructs about data for improvement that are rooted in Whiteness as normative and, instead, model ways to integrate concepts of wholeness, justice, deep culture, personal mastery, and agency into our school transformation efforts. This book is an important contribution to all of us who are working to create a world that works for all of us."
"Street Data issues an urgent, timely provocation to listen to, honor, and be informed by the experiences, wisdom, fears, and aspirations of children and families who have been forced to the margins by our schools and institutions. Rich with stories that affirm our shared humanity and connectedness, Safir and Dugan offer a humanistic approach and practical guidance for embedding love, equity, curiosity, and courage in our efforts to manifest learning spaces where every young person learns, develops, and thrives.LaShawn Routé Chatmon, Executive Director
"Safir and Dugan call on us to free ourselves from old constructs about data for improvement that are rooted in Whiteness as normative and, instead, model ways to integrate concepts of wholeness, justice, deep culture, personal mastery, and agency into our school transformation efforts. This book is an important contribution to all of us who are working to create a world that works for all of us."
National Equity Project
"In this absolutely path-breaking book, Shane Safir uses the concept of 'street data' as an entry point to a fundamentally different paradigm for schooling. Foregrounding listening, understanding, and loving over counting, measuring, and classifying, Street Data illustrates what it would truly mean to develop a humanizing and liberating approach to school transformation. Startlingly fresh in its prose, clear in its convictions, and moving effortlessly between theory and practice, we can only hope Street Data will mark the beginning of a new and different era for American education. A spectacular book!"Jal Mehta, Professor of Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
"Old systems are crumbling before our eyes as new ones are being built. Street Data offers key insights about how to transform data and explore indigenous knowledge creation for a new world. Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan give us new ways to analyze, diagnosis, and assess everything from student learning to district improvement to policy. This book is a must read for researchers and practitioners searching for a fresh and deeply authentic model for school transformation."Shawn Ginwright
Professor of Education & Africana Studies, San Francisco State University and Chief Executive Officer, Flourish Agenda, Oakland. CA
"Street Data gives us a vibrant picture of what it means to do school when we authentically center our students. Shane and Jamila provide inspiration and clear examples of how we can humanize our classrooms and create a more just education system. Critically for change agents, we also find practical advice for supporting adults across the system as they begin to shift their approach to a new normal that builds with and for students. There is no doubt that we need a new way forward and Street Data is a trusted map for charting a course for maximum impact."
Shanna Peeples"Street Data gives us a vibrant picture of what it means to do school when we authentically center our students. Shane and Jamila provide inspiration and clear examples of how we can humanize our classrooms and create a more just education system. Critically for change agents, we also find practical advice for supporting adults across the system as they begin to shift their approach to a new normal that builds with and for students. There is no doubt that we need a new way forward and Street Data is a trusted map for charting a course for maximum impact."
Teacher of the Year (2015) and Author of "Think Like Socrates"
Review Copies
Review copies may be requested by individuals planning to purchase 10 or more copies for a team or considering a book for adoption in a higher ed course. To request a review copy, contact sales@corwin.com.
Related Professional Learning
Related WebinarsRelated Resources
- Educators in British Columbia Are Closing Opportunity Gaps for Indigenous Learners [Other]
- Empathy Interview Transcript With Teacher Think-Aloud [Lessons and Strategies]
- Four Criteria for High Quality Performance Assessment [Lessons and Strategies]
- Leading for Equity: Another World is Possible [Book Excerpt]
- Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan on the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast [Podcast]
- Six Simple Rules to Shift to a Pedagogy of Voice [Lessons and Strategies]
- Street Data Documentary Series [Video]
- Student Reflection Questions for Student-Led Conferences [Checklists and Assessments]