Small steps won’t close widening gaps

Q: “It seems like we have been working on ‘equity’ for years, yet when I visit school sites, I see a vast difference between schools based on demographics and leadership! Students who attend schools in less affluent areas often lack access to basic needs like food, shelter, transportation, and healthcare. ‘Maslow before Bloom’s’ has been a persistent message in education, yet the evidence shows that students from disadvantaged families continue to struggle. Why?”

A: I understand your concern and frustration here. I have worked in high-needs schools and districts for most of my career, and this gap has always been evident and seems to be ever-widening. I grew up in an affluent area a few miles from my first school. I was confused about how poorly resourced my school was. We spent much time getting professional learning, applying strategies to address learning disparities while acknowledging the issues that most students endured. The school saw meager increases regardless of how many programs we employed or strategies we taught. A few of us may have been able to make gains for individual students, but not nearly as much as we had hoped. This isn’t different from what I see now working with schools nationwide.

I recently visited schools within the same district and witnessed something familiar and heartbreaking: the same stark disparities I’ve been documenting for over a decade. In one building, students had access to cutting-edge technology, mental health support, and after-school programs. Just 20 minutes away, children struggled with outdated textbooks, overcrowded classrooms, and food insecurity that made focusing on quadratic equations seem like a luxury.

This systemic failure demands immediate attention and radical rethinking.

The Myth of Incremental Progress

Despite the message of “Maslow before Bloom,” we still treat basic needs as secondary concerns. The evidence is clear: When students lack stable housing, reliable transportation, or consistent nutrition, their cognitive capacity diminishes significantly. Neuroscience confirms that chronic stress from insecurity literally rewires developing brains, making higher order thinking nearly impossible.

Yet we apply the same approaches: piecemeal programs, temporary grants, and well-intentioned but under-resourced initiatives. The result? Disadvantaged students continue to struggle while we pat ourselves on the back for “working on equity.” What do we do if our efforts fail to make an impact? How do we support the children who need the most help so that they can achieve as much as children from affluent backgrounds?

Leadership Disparities: The Unspoken Barrier

The schools showing the most progress in closing the opportunity gap share one critical characteristic: leadership that reflects the community it serves. Research consistently shows that diverse leadership teams make better decisions about resource allocation, discipline policies, and community engagement. Yet in many districts, leadership remains overwhelmingly homogeneous, disconnected from the lived experiences of the students they serve.

Ways to make changes include implement mandatory leadership pipeline programs that identify and cultivate talent from within underrepresented communities. Partner with local universities to create accelerated certification programs with paid internships for paraprofessionals, classroom aides, and community members with trust and credibility. We work hard to do this with educators in the classroom and around the school buildings, but we aren’t doing it enough in leadership.

Beyond Food Pantries: Systemic Basic Needs Support

Food banks and clothing drives are Band-Aids on bullet wounds. While necessary, they don’t address the root causes. We need integrated support systems that operate during school hours and connect families to sustainable resources.

Create “Basic Needs Navigators” positions in every school—trained professionals who help families access SNAP benefits, housing assistance, healthcare enrollment, and transportation solutions. These navigators coordinate with local agencies and track outcomes systematically. In New York City, we had a parent coordinator role in our schools that helped with outreach in the community to address families’ needs and was a point person for necessary support. In another New York school, we had a clinic on campus and a daycare to ensure that our students had their medical, mental, and childcare needs met, and they got the services needed to ensure they were successful during the day. More districts need to make this a priority.

Transportation Equity: The Overlooked Barrier

I’ve seen brilliant students unable to enroll in Advanced Placement courses because their district’s transportation system couldn’t get them to the specialized school across town. This isn’t an accident; it’s a policy choice.

Audit transportation policies through an equity lens. Implement “mobility justice” initiatives that include:

• Late bus routes for extracurricular activities.
• Partnerships with ride-sharing services for students in transportation deserts.
• Satellite programs that bring advanced courses to neighborhood schools.

Data Transparency and Accountability

We can’t fix what we don’t measure accurately. Most districts collect demographic data, but few disaggregate it meaningfully or act on the patterns it reveals. This was my experience with most of the systems I worked in.

Create public equity dashboards that track:

• Resource allocation per student demographic.
• Access to advanced coursework by ZIP code.
• Discipline data broken down by race, gender, and disability status.
• Basic needs metrics (food security, healthcare access, stable housing).

Community-Driven Solutions

The most successful equity initiatives I’ve seen share one common feature: They’re designed with the community, not for the community. Parents, students, and local organizations know their communities’ needs better than outside consultants.

Establish permanent community advisory boards with decision-making power over resource allocation. These boards should include students, parents, local business owners, and social service providers who meet regularly and have authority to influence budgeting and programming decisions.

From Conversation to Conversion

It’s time to stop talking about equity and start converting our conversations into concrete action. Obviously, this will take much more effort and the right people in the room to support the shifts. Smaller districts may have an advantage here because systems in smaller places are easier to shift. My coauthors and I talk about these kinds of changes in our recent book, Solving School Challenges, in several of the chapters. Some steps districts can take are:

• Courageous budgeting that reallocates resources from well-resourced schools to those with the greatest need.
• Policy audacity that challenges the status quo of zip code-based education.
• Radical transparency about where disparities exist and what we’re doing about them.

The children in those under-resourced schools don’t need our sympathy; they need our action. They need us to move beyond the comfort of “working on it” and into the discomfort of doing it differently.

After a decade of incremental progress, it’s clear: small steps won’t close cavernous gaps. We need bold, systemic change that matches the scale of the problem. Our students can’t wait another decade for us to get this right.

What moves have successful schools made to narrow the gap truly? Please share.

If you have an issue that you want me to address, please email me at ssackstein@educatorsrising.org or fill out this form. Your identity will be kept anonymous.