Ty Harris knows an edict could come down at any time, mandating that any effort labeled âdiversity, equity, and inclusionâ must end. As the DEI director of Virginia Beachâs public schools, that worries him. But he has spent the past few years building a case for the work that he leadsâone he hopes is compelling to his community both inside and outside the school district.
Harris, 47, is operating amid a strong political and cultural backlash to DEI, with a wave of state-level laws that have rolled back or restricted such efforts and the start of Donald Trumpâs second presidential term in which he has pledged to crack down on DEI efforts. In Virginia, with a Republican governor , and a sometimes contentious and divided local school board, Harris navigated those choppy waters in 2022 to propose an equity plan for the school district. The ambitious planâwhich covers three years and addresses discipline, staff hiring, access to rigorous coursework, and creating a public-facing equity data dashboard for the districtâpassed the school board unanimously.
Colleagues credit Harrisâs willingness to engage across the ideological divide for success. Harris knows his approach works well; he also knows data doesnât hurt. Now the districtâwhich boasts 64,000 students in 86 schoolsâposts its data for the public to see: which student groups are represented in rigorous classes, which face high rates of discipline, and if students feel a sense of belonging in their schools.
To directly address what he called a âdismalâ rating on belonging, Harris asked the principals of the districtâs 12 high schools to identify students who are representative of their schoolâs demographics and who arenât already established student leaders. Those students would become the leaders of school-based coalitions to address issues that impact inclusivity and belonging.
These coalitions, which are student-led groups supported by educators or staff, meet at least once a month, and brainstorm ways to change school culture. That manifests differently depending on the school: a mural in one, positivity notes, a diversity week, and a community club to make sure no one spends lunch alone.
âI think what weâve done here in Virginia Beach, and the way that weâve done it, has set us up for even if the governor says, over the weekend, âI donât want DEI at all,â people will say, âOK, well, we might have to rename the office, but I still want to continue all this stuff that guyâs doing,ââ Harris said. âAt the end of the day, thatâs how you know that you know the work is moving forward.â
Harris, a 2025 EdWeek Leaders To Learn From honoree, spoke to Education Week about how he addresses DEI work broadly, and through the student-led coalition. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How has your background as a classroom teacher, principal, and in the U.S. Department of Education impacted your leadership style?
I have often been, for lack of a better word, an anomaly. There are very few minority male teachers, when I taught high school social studies, both in South Carolina and in Northern Virginia. I can say that experience really stuck with meânot only the remainder of my teaching career, but as an administrator and at the department. For a lot of students, education is the only ticket to an improved lifestyle. I didnât grow up with a lot of money. Single mom. Had it not been for sports, I donât know if I would have gone to college. ... I didnât really aspire to go to school for academic reasons. So looking at the work through that lens, like when I became a principal, when I worked at the Department of Education, I remembered my experiences and how there are a lot of kids that are like me who need education as their goal to get out of a sticky situation or a situation thatâs less than ideal. ⌠I always volunteered for everything that I could, even as a teacher. And I think having those experiences...gave me more tools in my toolbox to be able to handle situations later in life, especially in this role now.
In a polarized climate, how can districts do DEI work like you do? Why is it important that they do?
They need to have a clear picture of their intended outcome; like they need to know what theyâre working towards and how theyâre going to measure success, and know whether or not what theyâre doing is working. They also need to be able to leverage partnerships. You canât do the work alone, and by bringing in varying perspectives, youâre going to get a clearer picture and get a much wider look at whatâs happening and kind of what needs to be done to get to that goal that youâve set for yourself. And then aligning [your work and goals] to something that already exists. Like, for example, our work is aligned to our strategic framework. And so, you know, when Iâm talking about the equity work in Virginia Beach, youâre going to hear references to things that weâre already doing.
If a district wants to develop an equity plan or a strategic framework, where should they start? And what should that work kind of look like?
Start with what you know. Start with your data: your academic, behavioral, [and,] if youâve captured social-emotional data. And then do a needs assessment, like what do you need in order to get to where you want to be? And it sounds so simple, but itâs a step that divisions often skip because they think they already know the answer. And so once youâve done that needs assessment, then, I would say, find a framework that will allow you to implement the things that need to be implemented. ... Youâre going to have people who arenât going to understand what youâre doing or why youâre doing it, and you have to be comfortable with that. Youâve got to be willing to bring them along. And so if you have a framework, you have something that paints a clear picture of how weâre going to do this work, even if they donât understand the why, if they can see the how, a lot of times Iâll bring them around to the why, once they dive into the work.
How integral are students to the work that your office does? And why is the TIDEâTogetherness through Inclusion, Diversity, and EquityâCoalition so important?
69´ŤĂ˝ actually drive the work more than anything. ⌠And we know that too many times we are doing things to students, rather than with students. ⌠Recognizing that school is not the same today as it was when we were in school--I mean, itâs not the same even as it was five years ago, like before COVID, itâs changed since then. So we have to be willing to listen to the students. They have some really good ideas. Sometimes they donât know how best to organize that, and thatâs where the adult support can come in. Thatâs why TIDE is such a powerful initiative, because it is focused on students, but we have brought school-based staff, we have administrators, we have central office staff who are also part of that conversation, and as students are talking about the things that matter to them, you have the adults in the room that are able to look at, OK, from a system standpoint, this is what we need to do to make that outcome a reality.
