Dive Brief:
- Marcia Reed has been principal of the 186th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles for 13 years and this month, she became a National Distinguished Principal through the National Association of Elementary School Principals for her impact on students.
- In a Q&A with EdSource, Reed said her school theme is peace, and students get constant reminders through art, activities and school discipline procedures that they should be peacemakers, not peace breakers, which school staff members hope they take home to their families in violent neighborhoods.
- The school celebrates its diversity, breaking down barriers between cultures that students come to school with and incorporating culturally relevant and responsive instructional materials into lesson plans, and it also partners with a range of institutions to expand opportunities for its students.
Dive Insight:
Several of Reed’s initiatives at 186th Street Elementary School reflect popular school improvement strategies. Restorative justice models of discipline encourage students to think carefully about their actions, why they did them, how they affected their peers and teachers and how they, as students, can reintegrate into the classroom. This model has been heralded as one way to limit the school-to-prison pipeline, in which discipline policies that suspend students more frequently often reinforce by increasing the chances students will end up in contact with the criminal justice system.
Incorporating culturally responsive teaching materials is becoming seen as an important way to engage students in instruction. While the teaching force is likely to remain out of sync with the diversity of the nation’s student body for decades, highlighting students’ cultures and experiences in relevant lessons can help combat the disconnect.