Deborah McKnight
Deborah McKnight has been centering race and racial equity for over 30 years. She believes in the power of strong and equitable environments to change lives. Upon moving to the US Virgin Islands from her native New York and implementing the first special education model of its kind on the island of St. John she witnessed this firsthand. There she was voted “Best Teacher” by the community and the Virgin Islands Daily News because of her ability to positively impact the lives of her students.
She has carried these ideals as an administrator in San Francisco Unified School District where she served as their Executive Director of Special Education Services for 8 years. As the Executive Director she led the district to be the highest scoring large urban school district in California in both English Language Arts and Math for two consecutive years. San Francisco was the only large urban school district in California to make its AYP proficiency targets for both English Language Arts and Math for students with disabilities in 2007.
She designed and taught a highly praised class at San Francisco State University for teachers entitled “The Child in the Urban Classroom,” centering the instruction on race and teacher expectations in order to present a counter narrative for students of color.
In 2008, Ms. McKnight began working as an independent consultant and has worked with a variety of organizations and sectors to support systemic equity transformation. In 2010, while working with the Pacific Educational Group she developed a leadership domain entitled “Moving from Compliance to Equity and Excellence,” operating on the premise that the dramatic and persistent racial disproportionality in special education is both an indicator and outcome of inequitable practices. The domain was expanded to critically examine and address the unique needs of students with disabilities and English language learners and the impact of race and institutionalized racism on access to culturally relevant, inclusive learning environments for these two student groups.
Her extensive educational and teaching background allows her to provide individualized and customized support to organizations to lead systemic racial equity transformation. She also provides executive coaching for leaders who lead this work.
Thursday, February 24, 2022 | 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM (CT)
MONUMENTS: How do they show up in my school/organization and what is my role in addressing them?
Since the murder of George Floyd we have increasingly seen the toppling of Confederate monuments around the country. While the removal of these statues is long overdue, their removal is really just the beginning of the antiracist work that is necessary. There are the physical monuments and then there are the monuments that have been erected that reside in my beliefs and behaviors, as well as in systems, structures, practices, policies, and ways of being that perpetuate a racial hierarchy. We will examine monuments as a metaphor and how monuments have been erected in our schools and organizations that continue to perpetuate racialized outcomes. We will explore the question: how do monuments show up in me? My organization? What is my role in naming them and addressing them? What is our collective role?
