Equity Warriors: Creating Schools That Students Deserve

Advance equity by learning to crack the system’s codes

We must act now, using what we already know, to advance equity and raise the achievement of every student. With three decades of leading equity work across the country, George S. Perry Jr. issues a call to action for educational leaders who are willing to fight the fight for equity for all students.

School and district leaders will encounter roadblocks as they enact systemic change, but Equity Warriors introduces practical, realistic, and strategic approaches for navigating those barriers. Equity Warriors equips education leaders with the moves they can make today to achieve the vision that every student becomes a high achiever by

• Providing real school and district examples of systemic equity efforts
• Demonstrating the parallel work that school and district teams must do to achieve and sustain systemic change
• Cracking the codes in the domains of politics, diplomacy, and warfare to achieve the equity agenda.

Equity Warriors is a must read for leaders at all levels of the system who have chosen to be in this fight and are ready to do what it takes to make the system work for all students.

From October 2018-December 2021, George S. Perry served in the New York City Department of Education and the Chancellor’s Office as the Director of School Leadership and Organizational Alignment. In this role, George supported the assessment, alignment, and implementation of citywide equity and values-centered leadership development for teacher, school, and district leaders. 

Before joining the NYC DOE, George was executive director of Perry and Associates, Inc. a national consulting firm, founded in 2001, that acts on its commitment to social justice and equity by assisting district and school leaders improve the academic achievement of all students. 

George brings 40 years of experience in education at the national, state, and local levels. George directed experienced, highly successful consultant teams build instructional leadership capacity at the district and school level.  He and his colleagues assisted school boards, superintendents, and district leaders:

• Transform the Montgomery County (MD) and Stamford (CT) Central Offices to Improve Support to Schools;
• Strengthen instructional leadership capacity in San Diego (CA) through a systemic approach to learning from the classroom to the board room;
• Redesign New York City Department of Education’s (1) System-wide Reform Initiative to Raise Achievement of Students with Disabilities and (2) System-wide Reorganization to Improve Family and Community Engagement;
• Strengthen Principal Leadership in Boston, Corpus Christi (TX), Long Beach (CA) and San Diego;
• Accelerate Middle-Grades and High School Reform in Corpus Christi (TX), Jefferson County (KY), and Long Beach; and
• Use Prototype Curricula in Flint (MI) as a Lever for Change.

George and his colleagues guided over 75 low-performing schools in Corpus Christi, Flint, Long Beach, Los Angeles, and San Diego raise and sustain student achievement by improving instruction, building on strengths and using data and research based strategies.

The district and school partnerships have been successful in raising student achievement, closing achievement gaps, and preparing students for college and careers. Among the past and current districts, three have won the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education, awarded annually for raising student achievement and closing achievement gaps. 

In addition, George served as the senior education advisor during the 2013 campaigns and on the transition teams of Mayor Marty Walsh of Boston and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City.

Beginning in 1994, George as a senior consultant with the Panasonic Foundation working with district-level, systemic improvement and assisting school boards, superintendents and district and association/union leaders “break the links” between race, poverty and achievement for all students:  All means All.  In this role, George assisted district leaders on their journey toward advancing equity as a “critical friend” and coach. With his support, leaders built their capacity to think and plan strategically and systemically, identify barriers to improvement, and address significant challenges through creating conditions for system-wide change and enhancing leadership skills and actions. He directed partnerships in Atlanta, Boston, Hayward (CA), Newark, Norfolk, Portland (OR), Prince George’s County (MD), Providence, San Diego, Santa Fe, and Stamford.  

George holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Illinois at Chicago, an Ed.M. from Harvard University, an M.B.A. from Babson College and a B.S. with honors in Secondary Education from Northeastern University.

Joan Richardson is known as an excellent editor, writer, and researcher with deep expertise about education and for being a creative and strategic thinker who excels at transforming publications and rethinking organizational efforts to deepen impact in schools and influence quality of learning. In addition to spending hundreds of hours visiting U.S. schools, she also has extensive experience visiting and writing about schools abroad ― Canada, China, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Haiti, and the Netherlands.

She was editor-in-chief of Phi Delta Kappan magazine, the flagship publication of PDK International, for 10 years and also director of the PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, the nation’s longest-running public opinion survey about K-12 education.

Before joining PDK in 2008, she served as communications director for the National Staff Development Council (now Learning Forward) for 12 years. In that position, she was executive editor of JSD and also the creator, editor, and writer for the NSDC newsletters ― The Learning Principal, The Learning System, Tools for Schools, and Teachers Teaching Teachers (T3) ― and manager of the organization’s extensive web site. She also directed NSDC’s book publishing operations, web site, and its media outreach efforts.

Prior to her work in the nonprofit sector, she worked for 22 years as a newspaper reporter and editor. In her last newspaper job with the Detroit Free Press, she focused on issues and trends in education, including coverage of the early days of charter schools in Michigan. Her previous newspaper jobs included stints at the Indianapolis Star and the Peoria Journal Star.

She designed and launched All Things PLC, a magazine published by Solution Tree Press. She is the author of From the Inside Out: Learning from the Positive Deviance in Your Organization (NSDC, 2004). She served on the Grosse Pointe (Mich.) Board of Education for six years, including one term as president.

Joan was a Michigan Journalism Fellow (1988-89) studying the economics of globalization on American business and American life. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and history from Indiana University.