The American Council on Education (ACE) held its annual meeting virtually during the week of March 22. Many executive leaders such as deans and presidents of colleges and universities participated in the ACE meeting. The meeting included a host of speakers covering a wide range of topics on higher education.

One of the topics focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. According to research, “the gap in graduation rates between students from the highest and lowest income quartiles has increased substantially since the 1990s. For low-income and first-generation undergraduates in the United States, the six-year graduation rate is only 21 percent, compared with 66 percent for students who are neither low-income nor first-generation. The current 17 percentage point gap in college degree attainment rates between Black and White students is about the same as it was in 1990, while the gap between Latino and White students has increased, even as the number of Black and Latino matriculants has grown.”

With decades of known failures of programmatic efforts and interventions to address the needs of racially minoritized, low income, and first generation students whose populations are steadily increasing on college campuses, the critical question to be asked is: How can leaders at higher education make transformational changes to create an inclusive environment and equitable outcomes for students of color?

The answer to this question is captured in the publication on “Shared Equity Leadership: Making Equity Everyone’s Work” as presented by the authors of the publication at the ACE meeting. The authors are Adrianna Kezar, director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education; Elizabeth Holcombe, senior postdoctoral research associate of the Pullias Center for Higher Education and Darsella Vigil, research fellow with ACE.

According to the authors, the publication represents findings from eight higher education institutions whose leaders practiced shared leadership on equity issues. It promotes a new approach of leadership through the Shared Equity Leadership (SEL) model. SEL brings leaders across the campus closer to institutional transformation and enlists them to evaluate how this method could sustain their institutions’ work on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The publication reviews the details of SEL, shares examples of what it resembles in practice, explains some emerging outcomes from institutions that participated in the study and provides suggestions for institutions leaders interested in implementing this new approach.

At the heart of the SEL is the notion of a personal journey toward critical consciousness. According to the authors, the leaders strengthen or develop a commitment to equity through their identity, learning and relationships and personal experiences. Their personal journey enables them to develop the values needed to share leadership equity and fulfill the practices that enact this type of leadership. Also, these practices and values are embodied and enacted through the collective efforts of the leaders, the authors reveal.

One noticeable challenge to the model among participants in the study was resistance. Some leaders found it difficult to break the organizational hierarchy. Some worried they might not have the skill-set to implement the new approach. Others were concerned about who will be accountable for the work, the authors note. For additional information about the SEL model, continue to follow The Holmes Education Post.

Dr. Ronald Holmes is the author of 23 books and publisher of “The Holmes Education Post,” an education focused Internet newspaper.  Holmes is a former teacher, school administrator, test developer and district superintendent.