Designing Inclusive Practices Through Systems Thinking

Ken Burdette • Cahn Fellow 2023

Educators are all too familiar with the achievement gaps within the public school system. Far too often we see significant gaps between white students and students of color, between free-and-reduced lunch (FRL) and non-FRL students, and between students with disabilities (SWD) and students without disabilities (non-SwD). At Park Hill Elementary in Denver, Colorado, we recognize and celebrate the strides we have made in closing these gaps, in particular with our students of color. However, we are painfully aware that we still have significant work to do to create an equal and inclusive educational experience for our students with disabilities, one in which academic growth and achievement are equivalent across all spectrums.

When looking at Park Hill’s year-over-year assessment results, students with disabilities continue to significantly lag compared to students without disabilities. The data highlights the implication of moral and ethical responsibility to ensure a fair and equitable educational opportunity for all students. With this in mind, we decided our Cahn Fellowship project would be aimed to redesign our inclusive practices through systemic thinking and planning with students with disabilities in the forefront. We had to ask ourselves if we were seeing an effective process for support both academically and socially-emotionally for our students with special education needs. The data would indicate we are falling short of the mark, specifically in academics, thus a renewed commitment and approach to our current systems.