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Explore the Anchors for Equity
Co-Design

CIS 303: The Leadership and Community Service Academy

CIS 303 Educators:

Monica Brady, School Principal

Damen Davis, Teacher Leader

Datona Bradley, 7th Grade ELA Teacher

Dee Dee Dyer, 8th Grade Math Teacher

Sam Orlin, 7th Grade Science Teacher

District Leaders:

Harry Sherman, District 9 Superintendent

Denise Williams, Executive Director, Strategy and Implementation, Office of Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion, NYC Public Schools

Co-design

Co-design systems to sustain equity

For this Profile in Practice, we hear from educators and district leaders at District 9 and CIS 303: The Leadership and Community Service Academy. Located in the South Bronx of New York City, 303 is vibrant public middle school.

As a current NTC partner, this district and school have taken a powerful approach to ensuring the work of sustaining equity is shared amongst all the adults in the education ecosystem, from the district superintendent to classroom teachers. Principal Monica Brady, Teacher Leader Damen Davis, and teachers Datona Bradley, Dee Dee Dyer, and Sam Orlin share how they center students and work collectively to sustain equity work. We also hear from Superintendent Harry Sherman and Denise Williams, Executive Director of Strategy and Implementation at NYC Public Schools’ Office of Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion, about how they balance the needs for mindset shifts with policy shifts and how NTC’s partnership has supported their efforts.

NTC’s partnership with District 9 and CIS 303 was supported by funding from the Booth Ferris Foundation.

“It wasn’t just that our principal did this – our staff felt a responsibility to our students to do the work. A lot of teachers will come into a classroom and close the door, but our teachers open up their practice because they want to get better.”

– Damen Davis, Teacher Leader, CIS 303: The Leadership and Community Service Academy