What Goes Unspoken: How School Leaders Address DEI Beyond Race

Practical ways and tools for school leaders to operationalize diversity, equity, and inclusion

What Goes Unspoken is a must-have guide for any school or educational systems leader looking to comprehend and put into play an effective, equity-centered plan that champions students, teachers, and staff. Moving beyond the abundant resources that focus on DEI theories, author Krystal Hardy Allen shows leaders and administrators how to concretely center DEI within both practices and policies, as well as how to do the interpersonal work of becoming a self-aware and equity-focused leader. With these resources, you'll learn how to ensure that DEI is embedded in your strategic planning to create schools and education organizations that are transformative, inclusive, and equitable for both children and adults.

Focusing on ten specific domains of school leadership and district operations—including school board governance, finance, community engagement, instruction, school culture, and more—this book shows you exactly how to shift from theory to action. Instead of investing thousands of dollars in trainings and initiatives that are often piecemeal, abstract, or at times ineffective, it's essential that that leaders learn practical steps to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at the district, school, and classroom levels. Drawing on her own school leadership and international educational consultant experience, Allen teaches you to:

• Better understand your role as a leader within your school or district's DEI work and how the intrapersonal work you do influences your decisions
• Prioritize an equity-informed view, policies, and practices within different areas of teacher development, school operations and finance, parent engagement, student culture, school board governance, marketing and branding, and more
• Clarify the relationship between DEI and your schools' or district's mission, vision, values, and goals
• Build an effective strategic plan at the school or district level that provides both guidance and accountability to your school or district's DEI journey

In the current cultural and sociopolitical climate, What Goes Unspoken is a must-read for leaders and administrators of public and private schools, as well as district personnel and educational leadership training programs.

About the Author

Krystal Hardy Allen is founder and CEO of K. Allen Consulting, an international education and management consulting firm. She is also an education advocate, an award-winning former teacher and school principal, and a well-respected thought leader. Operating within nine countries, her firm’s education clients have included systems such as New Orleans Public Schools, The KIPP Foundation, and Chicago Public Schools as well as major corporate brands like Amazon and Apple. Krystal’s work centers around DEI, social justice, adult learning, and organizational development. A first-generation college graduate, Krystal is a native of historic Selma, Alabama, and earned her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, M.Ed. from NLU-Chicago, and completed doctoral coursework at Teachers College, Columbia University.