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SFUSD outlines equity studies rollout, forms task force and internal team
Summary
District staff presented plans to expand an equity-studies framework across grades K–12, pilot culturally responsive curriculum and libraries, and convene an internal equity team plus a community task force to guide implementation and metrics.
San Francisco Unified School District officials on Wednesday laid out a yearlong plan to implement an equity studies framework across the district, emphasizing curriculum pilots, professional learning and community oversight.
At a Board of Education meeting, district presenters described equity studies as an approach informed by ethnic studies and humanizing pedagogy, centered on three principles—knowledge and love of self, solidarity, and self-determination. "Humanization occurs when power is used to offer opportunity to people that have been marginalized, dispossessed, objectified, and or exploited," a district presenter said during the discussion.
Staff said work already under way includes piloting Spanish-language pathway materials in five schools, revising science core curriculum, and launching culturally responsive classroom libraries for sixth and seventh grades. The district also described expanded professional learning that will include equity consciousness sessions for administrators, new-coach networks and lead-for-equity PLCs for teacher teams.
The resolution adopted by the board in September 2019 directed creation of two groups to operationalize the work: an internal equity studies team of SFUSD staff that will meet biweekly, and an equity studies community task force made up primarily of community organizations, CACs and student representatives that will meet quarterly. Staff said the community task force’s first meeting is scheduled for the following day and that the internal team is already convening to draft a working calendar and metrics.
Board members pressed staff on practical concerns: how materials and textbook adoption will be prioritized, timeline and cost estimates, and representation of Pacific Islander voices. In response, staff said curriculum inventory work is in progress and that the district will return with a clearer timeline and cost estimate; they noted two TSAs for history on the team and said broad roll‑out will require additional staffing and phased priorities.
Several commissioners urged the district to surface concrete school-level examples and to highlight existing successful implementations. The district said it will use the task force and internal team to both pilot changes and recommend strategies for scaling and measurement.
The board did not vote on new policy at the meeting; presenters framed the item as an implementation update and next‑step planning. Staff said they expect the work to unfold over much of 2020 and will report back with timeline and budget proposals.
