Education Week - February 22, 2017 - 8

LESSONS FROM
A LEADER

Lead Without
Fear
Tell the truth, even when
it's controversial or people
don't want to hear it.

Have Conviction
Be inclusive, but be fully
prepared to stand alone.

Use the Data
Data tell the story and
present the strongest
argument for changing
policy and practice.

one in the East End with 26, what are you saying to
the kids in the area with only two?"
The linchpin is the district's annual equity scorecard, which Marshall helped create in 2013. The data
dive puts the spotlight on equity issues across the
district in four areas: discipline, college-and-career
readiness, school climate and culture, and literacy.
Some statistics in 2016's scorecard point to an
improvement for the students Marshall focuses on.
For example, the proportion of students in extremepoverty schools-those where at least 81 percent of
students come from low-income families- considered career- and college-ready went from 21 to 50
percent from 2013 to 2016.
But Marshall is unsatisfied with much of what the
recent scorecard revealed. Students in high-poverty
and extreme-poverty schools comprised 77 percent of out-of-school suspensions, compared to 23
percent in low- and medium-high poverty schools.
Low-income black students made up 62 percent
of district suspensions, while low-income white
students made up only 18 percent. And particularly
rankling to Marshall: Black students overall reported
less of a sense of belonging at school than Englishlanguage learners.

A Profound Impact
These data-and the insights they have revealed-have played an important role, both in the
district and in the city of Louisville, says Mary Gwen
Wheeler, the executive director of 55,000 Degrees,
an organization that works to boost education levels
in Louisville. "The scorecard has had a profound
impact on the conversation in the community," she
says.
The numbers often lead Marshall to other issues.
This school year, the district set out to overhaul
its code of conduct, in part after determining that
students of color were disproportionately being suspended and cited for disruptive behavior.
At a public meeting, Marshall told the school board
that the current code of conduct "perpetuates racism and maintains a level of inequality that we must
stop."
Not everyone saw it that way. The efforts to revamp the code prompted concerns from some quarters, including some educators and parents, around
safety and security.
Educators also objected when they initially did not
have a seat at the table during the revision discussions and staged a large protest, says Brent McKim,
president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association.
Over time, Marshall and others continued to
explain the rationale behind the changes, and a
working group that included teachers proposed more
nuanced categories of student disruptions, linked to
varying consequences. In July, the board approved
the new code of conduct.
"Dr. Marshall was very direct," on the issues, says

Education Week Leaders To Learn From 2017

then-board chair David A. Jones Jr. "But he forced
discussion around a painful and difficult issue that
had to be grappled with."
Marshall knows his comments around the topic
were strong and may have rankled some. About that,
he has no regrets.
"I don't mince my words," he says. "If we're going
to change an urban school district like this, there's
going to have to be a whole lot more tenacity and a
lot less glad-handing."
But this approach can be an affront. "His style can
sometimes be abrupt," says Marco Muñoz, who as
the district's director of priority schools oversees
the schools that consistently rank in the bottom 5
percent in state rankings and fail to meet goals. "But
he's impatient. He knows what the situation is for
minority kids. He was one of them."

Commitment to Diversity
On the banks of the Ohio River, Louisville claims
Kentucky bourbon as its drink and the Kentucky
Derby as its official party. It's a city with neighborhoods that some say are still mostly distinct-the
West End made up primarily of poor black families,
while East End residents are overwhelmingly white
and well-off.
Just over half of the Jefferson County district's
students are black and Hispanic, and more than 60

percent are low-income. It's a district with a long
history of grappling with inequities.
In 1975, in a federally-mandated effort to desegregate, the Louisville school system, which had
been primarily African-American, merged with the
majority white Jefferson County system, says Gary
Orfield, a professor of education at the University of
California, Los Angeles, and the co-director of The
Civil Rights Project based at UCLA.
It was an explosive situation early on, but over
time the community came to embrace the idea,
which resulted in a high level of integration.
Since then, efforts have ebbed and flowed. In 2007,
the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the district's
voluntary integration plan, but "both blacks and
whites were strongly in favor of the district remaining integrated," Orfield says.
Today, the district still places a high value on the
concept: its strategic vision is "Excellence with Equity." The district uses a "diversity index" to make

Education Week - February 22, 2017

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