Should Needier Students Get More? The Role of Equity in the Local Control and Accountability Plan Process

The word equity is often used in education yet, there is not a widely agreed upon official definition. Equity might be thought of as equality turned into an action or the process of making something equal and fair. Educational stakeholders are tasked with making sense of equity within the context of student need, through the development of academic goals that prioritize the closing the achievement gap, and the allocation of resources. This dissertation examines how a small sampling of school stakeholders made sense of how equity is defined and implemented in the form of actions and services, and through the allocation of resources to students for whom the achievement gaps persist, through the development of the Local Control and Accountability Plan. This case study of a small school district examined how stakeholders defined equity in the context of student and district need as well as how stakeholders made decisions to allocate services and resources to groups of students, how leaders guided stakeholders toward a common conception of equity in the development of the LCAP, and how stakeholder groups perceived the process. Guided by the sensemaking framework and social network theory, this dissertation examined how stakeholders, made sense of equity for students in word and deed, through the actions and resources discussed and dispersed through the LCAP process. Understanding how the meaning of equity is developed and implemented through the LCAP process matters because it questions the state of California’s assertion that local stakeholders know what is best for their unique, local population of students. The findings of this study suggest that leaders must attend to the research-based norms of a data-based decision- making process, to build effective collaboration and trust between groups and within systems of organizations. Understanding how stakeholders effectively collaborate to make sense of student need and convey these institutional values will provide insight into how local school districts create equitable systems for increasing academic achievement. The plan that results from this process needs be grounded in true engagement with all actors. Providing needier students with more requires stakeholders to acknowledge disparities in student achievement, access to rigorous programs, systemic barriers and other beliefs which inhibit achievement.