The Impact of Black Women Educational Leaders on Student Achievement

Abstract

What is the relationship between educational leadership, student achievement, and what we know about Black women? For one, while educational leadership is closely associated with student achievement, school leaders were found to have little, if any, direct effect on student achievement. Black women, on the other hand, are rarely mentioned in regard to student achievement, yet their efficacy is unparalleled. Black women should be listed alongside often-cited theorists, including John Dewey, James MacGregor Burns, Nel Noddings, and the Brazilian educationalist Paulo Freire, as they have made significant contributions to the field of educational leadership. These trailblazers include Frances (Fanny) Jackson Coppin, Sarah J. Smith Tompkins Garnet, Mary Jane Patterson, and Anna Julia Cooper. As Black women and professors of educational leadership, we have an obligation to ourselves, our communities, and the next generation of school leaders to reframe and extend the narratives surrounding educational leadership, student achievement, and Black women. Most research focused on educational leadership and student achievement includes neither the perspectives nor contributions of Black women educational leaders. Extant educational leadership literatures largely chronicle the perspectives of White men and rely on theories established by other White men. Moreover, student achievement is most often attributed to teachers, roles primarily occupied by White women. These correlations negate and further marginalize Black women educational leaders, who, despite the fact they have successfully led schools and are effective instructional leaders, remain untapped resources. Black Feminist Theory provides a framework to explore the lived experiences and contributions of groundbreaking Black women educational leaders. The knowledge gleaned from these “firsts” will proffer invaluable lessons to the field of educational leadership.

Centering “Grace”: Challenging Anti-Blackness in Schooling Through Motherwork

“…Hence, our agency as mothers and othermothers must include the schoolhouse. Watson and McClellan (2020) detail the groundbreaking contributions of Frances (Fanny) Jackson Coppin, Sarah J. Smith Tompkins Garnet, Mary Jane Patterson, and Anna Julia Cooper. These Black women were “firsts” in the field of education.…”

Culturally Responsive Instructional Supervision: Challenging Privilege in U.S. Education Systems

“…To accomplish this, culturally responsive instructional supervision tends to critique traditional supervision frameworks that historically have embodied whiteness and promoted color-blind ideologies that fail to acknowledge the inequitable and racialized lived experiences in U.S. society (Baker et al, in press;Cotman et al, 2023). Instead, culturally responsive instructional supervision leverages the knowledge held in Indigenous frameworks (Mackey, 2017), Black feminism (Watson & McClellan, 2020), guerrilla pedagogies (Álvarez, 2023;Lavin, 2004), and Community Learning Exchange principles (Militello et al, 2017). Through these frameworks, culturally responsive instructional supervision problematizes hegemonic epistemologies that have historically influenced instructional supervision paradigms, all with an attempt to empower instructional leaders with reimagined feedback structures that value democratic outcomes and equity-oriented approaches to instructional practices.…”