Looking for Patterns, Not Just Problems: What My Equity Audit at an ECE-8 School in Denver Taught Me About Leadership

During my principal preparation program at Fort Lewis College, I completed an equity audit of my current ECE-8 school in Denver to examine schoolwide patterns in student achievement, teacher support, literacy instruction, and access to intervention. The school served 597 students in grades ECE through 8, with 91.7% of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. The student population was 82% Hispanic or Latino, while the teaching staff included 43 teachers, 95% of whom were licensed.

This project helped me see equity more clearly as a leadership responsibility, not just a value statement.

An equity audit is not about labeling people or assigning blame. It is about identifying patterns that reveal where students may not be receiving what they need and where systems may not be functioning equitably. It asks school leaders to look closely at access, instruction, outcomes, and adult capacity, then respond with action rather than assumptions.

Why I chose this work

I have long believed that leadership must be grounded in both equity and systems thinking. Schools often talk about gaps in achievement, but equity-focused leadership requires more than noticing those gaps.

It requires leaders to ask harder questions:

• Who is being served well?

• Who is being underserved?

• What patterns keep repeating?

• What adult practices, systems, or structures may be contributing to those outcomes?

This equity audit gave me an opportunity to study those questions in a more structured way and connect data analysis directly to leadership action.

What the audit revealed

6th Grade Literacy

One of the clearest findings came from 6th grade literacy. Beginning-of-year iReady data showed that 59% of all 6th grade students were in the “Not Meeting” band, while 83% of 6th grade students receiving ELD/MLL services were in that band. That meant students receiving multilingual supports were overrepresented in the lowest performance band by 24 percentage points. The audit identified several likely contributors, including limited grade-level training in foundational reading skills, insufficient time for remediation within the middle school schedule, and inadequate intervention staffing and supports through MTSS.

That matters because equity is not only about overall performance. It is also about whether groups of students have consistent access to the instructional conditions they need to succeed.

2nd Grade Literacy

The audit also highlighted concerns in 2nd grade reading, where beginning-of-year DIBELS data showed that 17 of 24 students, or 71%, scored “Well Below” benchmark, while only 2 of 24 students, or 8%, met benchmark. The audit connected those outcomes to a root cause related to insufficient foundational literacy knowledge and instructional capacity in the previous classroom setting.

A second 2nd grade analysis focused on specific literacy skills showed that 80% of students scored “Well Below Benchmark” on letter sounds and 68% scored “Well Below Benchmark” on decoding. The audit connected those patterns to the lack of adequate, research-based Science of Reading instruction combined with weak use of formative skill data to guide teaching.

EL Student Data

The audit also included individual student equity concerns. For one multilingual learner in 4th grade, the analysis found a lack of growth in ACCESS literacy, speaking, and writing, along with a drop of 10 percentile points in oral reading fluency accuracy on DIBELS from fall to winter. The audit noted the complexity of learning to read in both English and Spanish and pointed to inconsistent instruction focused on applying phonics skills in connected text.

Special Education Student Data

For a 4th grade student receiving special education services, the audit identified relative areas of need in orthographic processing and oral reading fluency, with scores at the 12th and 13th percentiles respectively. The analysis connected those needs to the educational impact of autism, ADHD, and speech-language needs on reading, writing, attention, processing, and social understanding.

What I learned as a leader

This project reinforced for me that equity work is inseparable from instructional leadership.

It is easy to talk about equity in broad terms. It is harder, and more important, to analyze where instructional systems are breaking down. In this audit, the patterns were not random. They pointed toward very specific leadership questions about staffing, scheduling, teacher knowledge, intervention systems, and instructional coherence.

The audit also pushed me to think beyond individual students and isolated classrooms. It required me to look at the school as an interconnected system. In the reflection section of the project, I noted that my leadership lens had evolved toward seeing schools as interconnected systems, including relationship systems, and toward a stronger understanding of how leadership style must shift based on context.

That matters because equity problems rarely live in just one place. They often show up across systems:

• curriculum and Tier 1 instruction

• intervention access and MTSS supports

• teacher training and coaching

• student scheduling

• progress monitoring

• decision-making structures

An effective leader has to see the pattern, not just the symptom.

From data to action

One of the strongest parts of this equity audit was that it did not stop at identifying concerns. It moved directly into SMART goals, intervention planning, and leadership action.

For 6th grade literacy, the goal was to increase the percentage of students above the “Not Meeting” band from 41% to 60% by spring 2025. Planned actions included deeper iReady data analysis, embedding literacy strategies into lesson plans, collaboratively building an MTSS system for struggling readers, increasing intervention supports, and establishing daily small-group literacy structures.

For the 2nd grade teacher support case, the plan included structured literacy training, stronger Tier 1 curriculum fidelity, DIBELS data analysis, alignment of small groups, PLC focus on Tier 1 strategies, and targeted professional learning during DDI.

For the K-3 reading teacher case, the intervention plan included observations, coaching, use of specialists as models, DIBELS skill analysis, high-impact small-group techniques, and progress monitoring to drive instructional decisions.

For the multilingual learner, the plan included daily small-group reading intervention, individualized phonics and spelling instruction, daily sight word work, digital phonics and fluency practice, and regular progress monitoring.

For the student receiving special education services, the audit outlined fluency-focused IEP group adjustments, repeated reading interventions, audio-supported modeling, and stronger home-school communication around practice and incentives.

That action orientation is important to me. Equity audits should not end as reports. They should help leaders prioritize, plan, and build better systems.

How this shaped my leadership

This project deepened my belief that equitable leadership must be both analytical and practical.

You have to be willing to examine hard data honestly. You also have to be willing to respond with coaching, systems design, professional learning, intervention planning, and ongoing monitoring. The final section of the project captured that clearly: I identified next steps that included assessing systemic equity, analyzing student and teacher progress data, and creating a professional learning plan aligned to equity priorities across special education, multilingual education, PBIS, and MTSS.

That is the kind of leadership I want to practice.

I want to lead schools that do not wait for patterns to become crises. I want to help build systems that identify need early, strengthen instruction, increase adult capacity, and respond to inequities with clarity and urgency. I want schools to be places where data is used not to label students, but to improve the conditions in which they learn.

	Schoolwide and subgroup data revealed inequitable patterns in literacy performance, intervention access, and instructional capacity, especially in middle school literacy, primary reading instruction, multilingual learner outcomes, and support for students with disabilities.
	I conducted a comprehensive equity audit that analyzed demographics, achievement data, root causes, and intervention planning, then connected those findings to leadership actions in professional learning, MTSS, literacy instruction, coaching, and student support systems.
	This work strengthened my leadership lens and gave me a clearer framework for using data to identify patterns, plan responsive action, and lead school improvement rooted in equity and accountability.