# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Abstract

Equity Traps and Tropes

1. "Doing" Equity

2. Siloing Equity

3. The Equity Warrior

4. Spray-and-Pray Equity

5. Navel-Gazing Equity

6. Structural Equity

7. Blanket Equity

8. Tokenizing Equity

9. Superficial Equity

10. Boomerang Equity

Avoiding the Traps

Equity Traps at a Glance

How shortcuts and default practices can get in the way of meaningful school equity efforts.

Abstract

Equity Traps and Tropes

1. "Doing" Equity

2. Siloing Equity

3. The Equity Warrior

4. Spray-and-Pray Equity

5. Navel-Gazing Equity

6. Structural Equity

7. Blanket Equity

8. Tokenizing Equity

9. Superficial Equity

10. Boomerang Equity

Avoiding the Traps

Equity Traps at a Glance

Ensuring high outcomes for all in schools is not a task that can be checked off a list. Equity isn't a destination but an unwavering commitment to a journey. It can be easy to focus on where we hope to land and lose sight of the deliberate daily actions that constitute the process.

There are no shortcuts for true equity, and yet the pressures of the job leave educators constantly trying to find those shortcuts. Day-to-day fires and the weight of the system make it enticing to hold others, and not ourselves, accountable.

Instead, educators need to reorient themselves to working toward equity. This requires us to:

Acknowledge that our systems, practices, and narratives are designed to perpetuate disparities in outcomes for Black and brown students-thus, there is no path to equity without a consistent antiracist approach.

Deliberately identify barriers that predict success or failure and actively disrupt them.

Consistently examine personal identity, bias, and both personal and collective contributions to the creation and/or reproduction of inequitable practices.

(Re)allocate resources (tools, time, money, people, support) to ensure every child gets what they need to thrive socially, emotionally, and intellectually.

Cultivate the unique gifts, talents, and interests that every person possesses. 1

Equity Traps and Tropes

In the journey of working toward equity, educators have to be careful not to be detoured by "easy fixes" or changes that don't get to the root of the problem. It takes a radical shift to propel the kind of instructional transformation needed to get to deep, equitable, and culturally sustaining learning. And there are many traps and tropes that act as land mines to deter educators from this goal. A trap is a mechanism or device designed to catch and retain. It offers a quick entry but does not allow exit. A trope is a recurring theme we've seen happen before, a cliché of sorts. Over our years as educators, we have found ourselves, and have watched others, unintentionally fall victim to the very circumstances we are trying to change-stepping into unsuspected traps and replaying oppressive tropes.

Let's look at 10 common equity traps-and a few tropes we find within them-and deconstruct what it looks and sounds like to fall into these traps.

1. "Doing" Equity

Sometimes educators treat equity as a series of tools, strategies, and compliance tasks versus a whole-person, whole-system change process linked to culture, identity, and healing. We've been taught to find the framework, the new observation checklist, or the new teaching approach and to implement it without deeply understanding what we are doing and how it connects to our overall goals. Working toward equity does not come with a pre-set program or toolkit that simply needs to be implemented. The work requires us to understand the specific ways inequity plays out in our context, to engage in praxis-the integration of constant reflection and action- and to engage in a continuous cycle of learning. "Doing equity" reduces the complexity of the work to a set of straightforward tasks without thinking about the school as a complex ecosystem requiring a holistic approach to change.

2. Siloing Equity

Look at the strategic plans of many organizations and schools working toward equity. You will likely find a policy, a new "equity" vision statement, or a newly formed task force designed to increase equitable outcomes. These task forces may generate good ideas and even strong plans, but they are often disconnected from the overall work of the school or system. For example, if the equity task force sets a priority of increasing staff diversity, but the broader staff cannot articulate those goals, then working toward equity in the task force is likely a siloed effort. If the task force meets as a unit, but never engages with any other body in the system- especially those related to instruction-the work toward equity is likely siloed. Siloing equity leads us to believe that equity is separate from instruction, which is separate from culture, which is separate from every other aspect of student experience and learning.

3. The Equity Warrior

The Equity Warrior is an incredible educator, often treated as a martyr to the work. This person is eager to push their colleagues and school forward and willing to take on significant additional work to bring the team along. Unfortunately, the Equity Warrior can easily become the default holder of the school or system's vision for equity, allowing colleagues to opt out, stay inside their comfort zones, or refuse to invest in their own equity learning, which is critical to the change effort. When "siloing equity" is at play, this person is often asked to be the lone voice. Equity Warriors can be elevated for their contributions or sometimes obliterated for them. In either scenario, the work rests on their shoulders and if they are not present, the work tends to fizzle out.

Not all Equity Warrior experiences are created equal. We find two tropes within this trap, each of which are difficult for the persons involved. The first is the Lone Ranger of Color and can be hard to spot in early stages. A school team is excited to elevate the leadership of a staff member of color and shower him or her with praise for taking on the work. As time goes on and the work gets deeper, the burden on the Lone Ranger of Color begins to increase. The Lone Ranger asks colleagues to demonstrate collective and cross-racial leadership for equity, only to have white colleagues treat these requests as an add-on ("I already have too much on my plate."). Meanwhile, the Lone Rangers are asked to be the resident culture and behavior specialists when white colleagues are unsure what to do. In the worst-case scenario, they are encouraged to bring ideas to the table, but when they step into their power and express a dissenting view, they have the devastating experience of being subtly or overtly reprimanded.

The second trope, the Great White Hope, rests in a savior mentality-the belief that it is this person's responsibility to rescue students of color from an oppressive situation, or even from themselves. This leader has been to anti-racism conferences, read equity literature, and is committed to the cause. The problem arises when we view this leader as an equity "expert" rather than a dedicated, lifelong equity student. We are in dangerous territory when this leader is elevated for her warriorship while silencing the leaders of color around her. This leader may be well-read, but most books, curriculum, and resources that guide her approach come from white authors.

This leader must be vigilant in developing awareness of how unchecked privilege can undermine equity efforts, as she has the potential to undermine this work under the guise of heroism. White leaders must be careful of their approach to leadership and see much of their work as uplifting the voices of others, holding other white people accountable, and taking action in coalition with people of color.

Equity Collection

Featuring 5 of our most popular equity titles.

4. Spray-and-Pray Equity

Many school leaders are convinced that if they just get the right trainer, everything will be "fixed." The staff will become more equity-centered. A common refrain we (as trainers ourselves) hear is, "If we just train our teachers around their implicit biases, then they will treat students better." While such training may benefit staff, training without a commitment to ongoing learning and development will likely result in temporary or no change. Sleeter found that even when teachers receive long-term daily training for a full six weeks, any change in their practice dissipates within three months. 2 Authentic commitment to working toward equity requires a comprehensive approach to capacity-building, including coaching, reflection, and collaborative learning processes, not a spray-and-pray approach.

An example of navel-gazing equity is when staff members complete training around bias, privilege, and identity, but never take that work into any other domain of the school. How do bias and privilege show up in our academic counseling systems, disciplinary procedures, grading, and other areas? Transformation requires investment in personal and interpersonal development, awareness and creation of shared cultural practices, and the redesign of inequitable systems-all at the same time. It is easy to spot navel-gazing equity when a group of staff members participate in bias training and then proceed to engage in instructional and leadership planning in a business-as-usual fashion without applying the personal work aimed to transform the system.

6. Structural Equity

Structural equity is the converse of navel-gazing equity. Many eager educators are so ready to radically change their systems that they make the biggest shift they can to disrupt an inequitable system-for example, exchanging the use of suspensions for restorative justice. There is clear research that suspensions can cause great harm to students, 3 and making systematic shifts to counteract those effects is a courageous move. However, if you make a seismic shift without recognizing the political, social, and cultural impact of the change, then that change is doomed to fail. Ask yourself: Does our staff understand and agree with this new approach? Are we well-grounded in both the theory and the practices? What instructional and leadership practices will we need to change to make this more than a cosmetic shift? How much time will we need to invest in starting and reinforcing the shift? How will we need to engage our families in the change process? People don't accept changes simply because they are executed at a structural level. There must be an equal investment in the interpersonal, cultural, and social dimensions for all of the players involved in the process. We set ourselves up to flounder if we fail to align structural changes with the deep learning our teams must do to actualize them.

7. Blanket Equity

Ever heard the phrase, "There's an app for that"? Well, if you want to achieve equitable outcomes, there is apparently a curriculum for that. Students aren't learning at similar levels? Great, this new curriculum will fix that. Students don't feel safe and valued? Great, there is a program for that. While curriculum can be a helpful tool, schools across the country have made sweeping investments in buying new curriculums, hoping that if educators just follow the material, all students will achieve. This trap can cause leaders to become hyper-focused on accountability and implementation. There is no substitute for planning with your students' interests, needs, and identity development in mind. There is no curriculum for considering the specific antiracist practices you are (or are not) engaging in based on the intersections of your own racial, economic, or gender positionality. Whether you opt to use curriculum as a tool or not, our work requires stitching together a quilt with many different textures and features. A blanket will not do.

8. Tokenizing Equity

When one school leader who I worked with mentioned his mostly white staff had hired a new dean of culture, my racial antennae went up. I was worried that the school had fallen into a trope that can emerge from the mental model of the Great White Hope leader: "I know everything about leadership and instruction, but culture, climate, and the behavior of our students?

We'll leave that to you." The school appoints one of the few people of color on staff, often a Black or brown person, into the "culture" role. This may be the security guard, the parent liaison, or the teacher who is given the "difficult" class. These cultural leadership roles are extremely important positions, but when a school's staff is predominantly white and the few leaders of color have to play these roles, a dangerous, implicit message is sent: "You are responsible for dealing with 'these' students." The roots of racism run deep.

Tokenizing equity can also look like asking a staff member of color to take on the equity initiative because we assume it is personally important to them. "I know how much equity work means to you. You've helped us realize a lot of our missteps, so I am wondering if you'd be willing to lead our equity task force." We've heard this type of refrain too many times, and it does nothing but deplete our colleagues' internal resources, reinforce racism and oppression, create Lone Rangers, and leave educators who have racial privilege with little responsibility to change.

9. Superficial Equity

Superficial equity essentially amounts to grasping any equity-centered practice with little understanding of its origins, its purpose, and how to engage in it with depth and authenticity. One team we worked with, for example, decided to "do" culturally responsive teaching (CRT). CRT isn't something to "do"; you cannot and should not attempt to engage in culturally responsive teaching or any practice without understanding its history, building deep knowledge of its meaning, and practicing the work on your own. In this particular school, CRT was reduced to practices on an observation checklist, which created a superficial attempt to move toward equity. In another school, educators developed a vision for an equitable, community-based school that served 94 percent Black students, but led the school with a 90 percent white staff. It is nearly impossible to demonstrate to families, students, and staff that your pledge is authentic when your behavior is anti-Black and demonstrates a lack of understanding of what you are committing to doing.

10. Boomerang Equity

Boomerang equity may be one of the hardest traps of all to disrupt. It feeds itself back to the econometric, test-driven education frame we seek to dismantle. Many organizations and schools may actually arrive at a deep understanding of why they are facing equity challenges. However, boomerang equity happens when we move from a deep understanding of our challenge (increased suspensions for Latinx students) to immediately brainstorming solutions that mirror everything we've ever tried before. "Our Latinx students are being suspended because they aren't engaged. To help them get engaged, we must increase their confidence in school and the support we offer." And then it boomerangs to: "Let's pull them out for intervention. This way, we can help them read more. We will assess them every six weeks and by the end of the year, we should see less suspensions and higher achievement on the state exam." In this example, we've gone from promising analysis to reactive decisions, leaving the team who did such thoughtful work back where they started. We have leapfrogged from problem to solution without taking time to reimagine our approaches.

Avoiding the Traps

The dominant narrative about what schools are and how they should treat students-especially those of color-has many school leaders stuck in a painful cycle of traps and tropes. Our sense of urgency gets in the way of understanding complexity, and it feels too hard to disrupt the current state of things. We ingest such a constant prescription of how to create equitable change that we sometimes miss the forest for the trees.

But if leaders are aware of the equity traps and tropes, they can see the ways in which the system has set us up for false starts. Our intentions may be spot-on, but if we aren't aware of the moves we are making, we are liable to reinforce the system we seek to dismantle. There are no shortcuts when it comes to leading for equity. If we hope to transform our institutions into vibrant spaces of learning for every student, we must revisit the fundamental purpose of education and commit to a long-term change process.

Equity Traps at a Glance

Beware of Equity Traps and Tropes - table

Traps and Tropes

Description

Doing Equity

Treating equity as series of tools, strategies, and compliance tasks versus a whole-person, whole-system change process linked to culture, identity, and healing.

Siloing Equity

Locating equity work in a separate and siloed policy, team, or body.

The Equity Warrior

Nesting equity with a single champion and holder of the vision.

Spray and Pray Equity

Engaging "equity experts" to drop in for a training with no ongoing plan for learning or capacity building.

Navel-Gazing Equity

Keeping the equity work at the level of self-reflection and failing to penetrate the instructional core and school systems and structures (such as instructional planning, student tracking).

Structural Equity

Redesigning systems and structures (such as master schedule) without investing in the deeper personal, interpersonal, and cultural shifts.

Blanket Equity

Investing in a program or curriculum, rather than building the capacity of your people to address equity challenges as complex and ongoing places of inquiry.

Tokenizing Equity

Asking leaders of color to hold, drive, and symbolically represent equity without providing support and resources, nor engaging the entire staff in the work.

Superficial Equity

Failing to take time to build equity-centered knowledge and fluency, leading to behavioral shifts without understanding deeper meaning or historical context.

Boomerang Equity

Investing time and resources to understand your equity challenges, but reverting back to recycled, status quo solutions.

Note: This article is based on a chapter of Street Data: A Next Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (Corwin, 2021) by Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications, Inc.

Reflect & Discuss

➛ Which equity traps and tropes sound or feel familiar to you?

➛ How can you and your colleagues become more aware of equity traps and tropes?

➛ What might be the converse of the traps or tropes you identified?

End Notes

1 Our definition of equity is adapted and amended from definitions offered by Promise54, National Equity Project, and the work of many researchers in this field.

2 Sleeter, C. E. (1992). Restructuring schools for multicultural education. Journal of Teacher Education, 43(2), 141-148.

3 Losen, D. J., & Gillespie, J. (2012). Opportunities suspended: The disparate impact of disciplinary exclusion from school. Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles.

ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

Let us help you put your vision into action.

ASCD empowers educators to achieve excellence in learning, teaching, and leading so that every child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Beware of Equity Traps and Tropes - ASCD

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ensuring high outcomes for all in schools is not a task that can be checked off a list. Equity isn't a destination but an unwavering commitment to a journey. It can be easy to focus on where we hope to land and lose sight of the deliberate daily actions that constitute the process.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Quick quiz: How many students in a given elementary school walk into their 3rd-grade achievement tests with a history of abuse or neglect? One in 10? One in 5? One in two?

A forthcoming study by University of Michigan researchers Brian Jacob and Joseph Ryan finds nearly 18 percent of students in the Wolverine State have been involved in a child welfare investigation by the time they reach 3rd grade. In high-poverty schools, 30 percent to 60 percent of all students can be affected. And more than a third of those investigations confirmed abuse or neglect. In fact, statewide, the researchers found the rate of child welfare investigations was higher than the rates of childhood asthma and disabilities combined. The results were previewed in a report by the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution.

"In education, we recognize that there are a lot of out-of-school factors that affect student achievement. ... That's always assumed, but it's really not a main focus of schools themselves- they might be focused on making sure the math instruction is well-designed and targeted," said Jacob, a professor of education policy and economics at the University of Michigan. "But when I saw the numbers myself, it made me rethink that. If 50 percent of children in a low-income urban school have likely been subject to abuse or neglect at home, that has to be one of the top priorities of the school, whether they want it to be or not."

Achievement Gaps Associated With Abuse and Neglect

Generally, principals and teachers are not notified of child welfare investigations, even if there is a formal confirmation of abuse or if the child is removed from the home-but the effects do make themselves known.

Jacob and Ryan used linked child welfare and student achievement data to compare more than 742,000 students with a history of mistreatment (from birth through age 9) to matched peers of the same age, race, gender, income level, neighborhood and elementary school. Once those background characteristics were taken into account, the researchers found by the end of 3rd grade, students who had been involved in an investigation of abuse lagged in a variety of academic areas compared to peers who had not-and the gaps were even larger for students whose child welfare investigations confirmed abuse or neglect.

All told, these gaps between students who had alleged or confirmed neglect or abuse and their peers were about as great as the black-white achievement gap. Moreover, while less than 12 percent of students who had no history of abuse were in special education, the special education rate was 19 percent for students who had been involved in a child welfare investigation, and 21 percent for those whose investigation confirmed abuse or neglect.

While the study looked only at Michigan, it is in line with other studies that suggest about 20 percent of children experience this sort of trauma. And as the Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to track the educational progress of vulnerable students like those in foster care, more states may begin to look at the rates of abused children in their own districts.

Elizabeth Dabney, the director of research and policy analysis for the Data Quality Campaign, said that as of 2014-when the group last surveyed-at least half of states had the capability to link data from public education and child welfare agencies to look more closely at how abuse and neglect affect children's academic trajectories.

Ryan, an associate professor of social work and co-director of the University of Michigan's Child and Adolescent Data Lab, said the results may make policymakers and educators rethink the structure of initiatives such as retaining students who cannot read proficiently by the end of grade 3. Falling behind may be a warning sign that these students need counseling or other emotional support, not just academic enrichment.
Image Source: Getty Related:
Want more research news? Get the latest studies and join the conversation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Principals: More of Your Students Might Be Abused or Neglected Than You Think

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Quick quiz: How many students in a given elementary school walk into their 3rd-grade achievement tests with a history of abuse or neglect? One in 10? One in 5? One in two?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is Equity and Why Do Our Children Deserve it? | Rodney Robinson | TEDxCharlottesville

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story | TED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Join NEA and Teaching Tolerance for our second of three school-climate webinars. This time, we will provide guidance on how to have relevant and rigorous conversations with students about race, racism and other important topics. Teaching Tolerance's resource Let's Talk! will serve as a foundation to help build your capacity to safely broach these issues, and you'll walk away with use-tomorrow strategies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Let's Talk! Discussing Race, Racism and Other Difficult Topics With Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Join NEA and Teaching Tolerance for our second of three school-climate webinars. This time, we will provide guidance on how to have relevant and rigorous conversations with students about race, racism and other important topics. Teaching Tolerance's resource Let's Talk!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This program provides financial assistance through SEAs to LEAs and schools with high numbers or high percentages of poor children to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The United States is comprised of over 300 million individuals with unique cultures, identities, and backgrounds, and the population is only becoming more diverse over time. A recent Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, for example, determined that the "post-Millennial generation"-those born from 1997 to 2012-is "the most racially and ethnically diverse generation" in the country's history.

As this and other types of diversity have continued to increase in society today, the need for equity among people of different backgrounds has become equally relevant. Conversations about issues such as LGBTQ discrimination or the "Black Lives Matter" movement, among many others, are making their way into workplaces, schools, and communities more often than ever before.

In educational institutions especially, there is a desire among students, teachers, and administration alike to embrace this diversity and create equity in the classroom. Read on to learn about what equity in the classroom is, why it's relevant, and some of the best practices educators can use to promote it.

Download Our Free Guide to Earning Your EdD

Learn how an EdD can give you the skills to enact organizational change in any industry.

What is Equity in The Classroom?

'Equity' can have a lot of different definitions, depending on the context but, at its core, the concept involves giving everyone in a situation the specific tools that they need to be successful. In the classroom, promoting equity is about educators choosing to embrace rather than shy away from the unique backgrounds, identities, and experiences that their individual students bring to the table.

"Classrooms are works in progress in which we inevitably bring...our different social identities and social locations into the learning process," says Polly Attwood, an associate teaching professor in the education program within Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies. "[To achieve] equity, we must [address] the ways in which those identities and locations are part of how we learn and who we are as we learn, and build on those perspectives as a way to understand each other and make learning relevant."

This means educators must not only be able to recognize the differences in race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other social identities among their students, but also adjust their approach to teaching those students accordingly. "[I try] to make sure that what I teach meets a student where they are, including how those identities and experiences shape how they learn...rather than seeing it as a problem or something I have to manage," Attwood explains.

By developing her approach to teaching in this way, she has found that she is able to create an environment in the classroom that celebrates diversity, and "build[s] a community across those differences."

The Relevance of Equity in the Classroom

With this diverse 'post-Millennial' generation in their prime education years, it is no wonder the need for embracing diversity in the classroom has become so common today. However, Attwood challenges that, among many teachers, this concept is far from new.

"I think these have always been very real issues," she says. "What's changed maybe is that because of the ways in which our society has been broken open...the critical mass, including my students, realize they need to understand and talk about these issues even when it's not directly about them."

Attwood's unique relationship with equity in education is defined by the fact that she not only works to apply these practices within each of the classes she teaches, but also must encourage and guide aspiring teachers to do the same in their future classrooms. For this reason, she has had a unique opportunity to watch her students' desire for the tools to apply these practices grow over the years.

"[Today], more of my students who are becoming teachers realize they have to think about [equity] and understand it...they want to engage these issues and they don't want to pretend we're in a color-blind or class-blind or gender-blind reality," Attwood says. "[They're] saying, 'we are not going to participate in this notion that there's a kind of bland diversity and inclusion. We want to talk about how these issues of equity and power are part of spaces of learning.'"

4 Practices to Promote Equity in the Classroom

Teachers use a multitude of strategies to try to create a learning environment that does fully embrace the differences among their students, yet Attwood makes it clear that promoting equity in the classroom is not a science.

"There are certain guidelines and practices that are more promoted within the discussion [of equity in education], but there's not a magic recipe for how you do this," she says. Instead, she explains that there are some basic approaches to developing a tone of equality in a classroom that teachers should follow in order to get their students in the right mindset to bridge such sensitive topics. These practices-alongside each teacher's own experiences, background, and personal strengths-will create an equitable environment in which students can learn.

1. Promoting the Act of "Calling In"

This method of promoting equity in the classroom is derived from the idea that teachers must always be listening for and identifying moments of bias, oppression, and other subconscious, identity-based assumptions and ideas that students bring up in the classroom. In these instances, Attwood says, it's important that "rather than call people out on what they don't know or where you disagree...[educators should, instead], call in ..." and address the issue head-on so that students can "learn from and through their differences, even when [it's] challenging."

An example of a situation where the act of "calling in" may be utilized, is if a student was to make an insensitive comment about someone's gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. during a group discussion. In this scenario, Attwood believes in stopping the discussion and identifying that the comment was insensitive. She stresses that this does not mean making the commenter feel bad about what he or she has said but, instead, simply involves calling attention to the comment, explaining why it demotes inclusivity, and dissecting, with the rest of the class, what about the commenter's experiences and background may have instilled these biases.

Teachers looking to become better at "calling in" must "learn how to recognize, name, and list out for everyone's examination what just happened" in a given situation, Attwood says. They must also become comfortable exemplifying how singular instances over time create patterns that everyone can learn from. By identifying these patterns, students are given the opportunity to debrief and explore what socialization processes may have led them to think a certain way about the issue at hand, and take a first step toward breaking free of those subconscious ideas. "If we have learned these patterns that means we can unlearn them," Attwood says, "But first we have to identify them."

2. Communicating Classroom Standards

It is an educator's responsibility to set the standards for the way a classroom will run, which must be done both very clearly and very early on in the learning process. In order to promote equity in the classroom, there are a few very specific and significant standards educators should aim to set.

Learning in Discomfort

Attwood explains that in order to practice the act of "calling in," students need to build their capacity to learn in and through discomfort. It is in this state, she says, that students can actually be most open to new ideas, including those that may challenge how they previously looked at a certain aspect of the world.

Respecting Everyone's Voice

It's important that each student in the room feels that they have both the power to speak their mind and that their words will be used productively in conversation. Without this standard in the classroom, it is only natural that the most outspoken voices will try to lead the conversation while quieter voices fall behind, when often it's the quieter voices that most need to be heard in discussions of equity.

Listening

Attwood believes that students who are able to listen and process others' perspectives without feeling the need to jump in and defend their own views can learn the most in an equitable environment.

Setting Personal Teaching Standards

Alongside setting standards for how the students in his or her classroom should act, a teacher must also take the time to address and live out their own personal teaching standards. Educators set these standards by communicating personal traits like openness, fairness, and approachability so that students who do partake in these often difficult equity-related discussions feel comfortable doing so.

Attwood explains that it's important she can "communicate being approachable and willing to listen to some students who are feeling that something's not working in that climate of the classroom." This, she stresses, is a key factor in creating the open dialogue needed to address these delicate issues.

3. Setting the Tone for Learning

Whereas setting classroom standards is about developing how students will react and engage with discussions in the classroom, setting the tone for learning is about starting students off with activities, exercises, readings, and discussion questions that bridge these difficult topics right from the start.

"I often do exercises at the beginning of a class to present an opportunity [for students] to explore for themselves-then share with each other-who they are and the backgrounds that they bring. I share mine [too]," Attwood says. "Then I name that this is going to be in the room with us, this is a part of the strength of who we are. It might also create different perspectives that we have to be willing to engage."

These types of community building exercises-which focus on identity and social location-help to ease students into larger discussions that will be had throughout each course.

Similarly, educators can present tone-specific articles that explore the way in which the class will be conducted. Being able to call upon materials that identify what "calling in" is and the benefits of that approach, or that explore the differences between taking an issue personally as opposed to exploring the general patterns aligned with it, can be incredibly helpful in setting the tone for how the class will be conducted.

One such article that Attwood suggests is " Willing To Be Disturbed " by Margaret J. Wheatley, which encourages students "to ask questions and see confusion and discomfort as a part of learning." She also recommends "Leaning In: A Student's Guide to Engaging Constructively with Social Justice Content," by Robin DiAngleo and Ozlem Sensoy.

4. Analyzing the Unique Makeup of Each Class

While the previous three practices can be applied to any group of students, it's important that educators take the time to consider the backgrounds, identities, and experiences that students in each unique class may bring to the table.

For example, Attwood identifies that some students will come into the classroom already very comfortable with conversations about social identities and locations. These students are often instrumental in facilitating such discussions. Other groups may be made up of students who all find the topic of equity uncomfortable and shy away from "calling in" on raised issues. This group may take more coaxing or a re-analysis of approach from educators trying to promote equity in the classroom, but that comfort can still be achieved just as successfully over time.

The approach to promoting equity should also vary depending on the ages and maturity levels of the class. "You can [bring equity into the classroom] from preschool through doctoral and postdoctoral programs," Attwood says. "Teachers across all age groups [must] figure out age-appropriate ways, and what the conversation needs to be, to promote equity."

It's important to identify what types of diversity are present in every group, as well-which can be accomplished through those community-building exercises-and how that will affect the way these discussions will play out in the classroom. "When you have a class with various sexualities, races, genders, ethnicities, and so on-when that diversity is in the room, you can create a space where people can understand and learn across those differences," Attwood says. "Something very powerful can happen because that diversity is represented and there's an opportunity to learn in the midst of it."

Beyond the Responsibility of Educators

While the above practices are aligned with strategies an educator can use to promote equity in the classroom, Attwood explains that this responsibility falls as much to the students and organizational leaders within a school or university as it does to the teachers.

Students can positively partake in generating an equitable learning environment by simply being open to the process. This includes:

Really listening to and learning from one another

Standing strong in their own perspective, while also recognizing the differing views of others

Differentiating between opinion-which everyone has-and informed knowledge-which comes from sustained experience, study, and practice

Striving for intellectual humility

Reaching for curiosity and new understanding when challenged

Attwood believes that the administration must also take responsibility in this process. "The literature will show you that any organization, be it a school or otherwise, that takes this issue on successfully, [can do so] because the leadership is on board," Attwood says. "The leadership...creates an environment in which everybody can keep learning with and from each other in order to build that community."
Learn more about how educators can promote equity in the classroom-along with the best practices for addressing other real-life problems within organizations in today's evolving society-within Northeastern's Doctor of Education program.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Practices to Promote Equity in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The United States is comprised of over 300 million individuals with unique cultures, identities, and backgrounds, and the population is only becoming more diverse over time. A recent Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, for example, determined that the "post-Millennial generation"-those born from 1997 to 2012-is "the most racially and ethnically diverse generation" in the country's history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equity Should Not Be a Hot Topic; It Should Be a Top Priority

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equity in Education: What We Can Do, What We Can Not

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Rosa Isiah with Pedro Noguera To move toward equity in education we need to be very clear about what educators can control and what we can not. Follow on Twitter: @PedroANoguera @rosaIsiah @bamradionetwork.com #WeLeadEd #edchat

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Anthony Rebora with Jamila Dugan
Join us for a candid discussion about the traps, tropes, and pitfalls we often encounter as we work to support equity and inclusion in our schools. In this episode, we discuss why the successful journey to equity starts with awareness and includes inescapable discomfort.

Follow on Twitter: @ jamiladugan @ ASCD @ a_rebora @ bamradionetwork @ jonHarper70bd #classroomstrategies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Avoiding Equity Traps: If You're Uncomfortable You're Probably on the Right Track

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Anthony Rebora with Jamila Dugan Join us for a candid discussion about the traps, tropes, and pitfalls we often encounter as we work to support equity and inclusion in our schools. In this episode, we discuss why the successful journey to equity starts with awareness and includes inescapable discomfort.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Findings from the State Policy and Research for Early Education (SPREE) Working Group

If a child's education is considered to be a marathon, then it is imperative that each student begins the race at a fair starting line to ensure they have an equal chance to succeed. In the U.S., however, where children start, and their eventual educational success, can often be predicted their by race and socioeconomic status.

Large gaps often exist in reading and math skills for poor students or those of color when they enter kindergarten, and these gaps persist, if not widen, throughout the student's education. This is not the case in other industrialized countries that outperform the U.S. on international comparisons of student achievement, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam.

In 2016, NCSL formed the State Policy and Research for Early Education Working Group (SPREE) with support from the Heising-Simons Foundation to develop a bipartisan framework to guide and assist state policymakers as they work towards the goal of ensuring that every child is ready to learn.

SPREE includes 16 members: a bipartisan composition of eight state legislators, two legislative staff and six early learning researchers. Initial meetings included presentations and working sessions where SPREE members heard from several early learning experts and deliberated top priorities for the framework.

SPREE members concluded that addressing educational equity, the opportunity gap, school readiness and other complex challenges facing children birth to age eight is a critical task facing this country, and state policymakers are in a unique position to help produce impactful outcomes for children and youth. SPREE members deeply explored important questions: How can we ensure that all children begin their education at a fair starting line? Who are the student groups most in need of support? Why is this the most opportune time for action? What tools, evidence and resources do state policymakers and legislative staff need to effectively hold these discussions?

SPREE members have created a framework for policymakers to consider their policy options to improve early learning for all students. The report provides an impetus for bipartisan and impactful policy and intentional leadership that improves access and opportunity for all young learners. The approach highlighted in this report is reinforced by a 2016 NCSL publication, No Time to Lose, resulting from the work of NCSL's International Education Study Group who studied top-performing countries to determine the most critical elements for state policymakers to consider.

Research shows that high-quality early learning programs successfully prepare students for their education marathon. They often reduce retention rates and special education placements and improve graduation rates. The opposite is also true. When low-income students do not have access to high-quality early learning programs, they are more likely to drop out of school, never attend college, be arrested for a violent crime or become a teen parent.

State policymakers can ensure that each student has access to an effective "starting position" through state policies and practices that support high-quality early learning opportunities. In considering the policies that are best for each state, the State Policy and Research for Early Education (SPREE) working group created the SPREE framework that legislator's might use to guide their work which includes policy strategies and examples.
Matt Weyer is a senior policy specialist in NCSL's Education Program.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
national conference of state legislatures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Fair Start: Ensuring All Students Are Ready to Learn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If a child's education is considered to be a marathon, then it is imperative that each student begins the race at a fair starting line to ensure they have an equal chance to succeed. In the U.S., however, where children start, and their eventual educational success, can often be predicted their by race and socioeconomic status.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When families are engaged in their child's education, everyone benefits. Student scores improve, families become empowered, and educators can build healthier school communities. But while

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The importance and principle of equity in early education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A report issued by the SPREE working group provides an in-depth assessment of early education and offers approaches and strategies to improve the early learning experience for children, as well as outlines the SPREE Framework consisting of five key principles. Here we delve into Principle #1, Equity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The quality of education that students receive directly correlates to their quality of life years down the road.[1] Early education in particular has the power to shape a child's future and the more resources available to them, the better. For this reason, it's crucial for educators to address any barriers young students face to succeeding in school. The key is equity. Equity means offering individualized support to students that addresses possible barriers, like poverty or limited transportation. 97% of teachers agree that equity is important, but many don't know how to best work towards it in their classrooms.[2] But once educators have the right strategies to promote equity in schools through understanding the difference between equity vs equality in education, they can make sure each student is prepared to reach their potential.

Want to create inclusive and equitable classrooms at your school? Discover the difference between equity and equality, then learn five strategies for resolving common barriers to equity in education.

Main Differences Between Equity and Equality

When it comes to equity vs equality in education, the terms are often used interchangeably.[3] But understanding the distinction between the two is essential for resolving issues faced by disadvantaged students in the classroom. While working towards equity and equality can both do good, equity should be an educator's end goal. The reason lies in the difference between being fair vs equal.

Equality is more commonly associated with social issues, perhaps because more people know what it means. In a nutshell, its definition is as it sounds-the state of being equal. When a group focuses on equality, everyone has the same rights, opportunities, and resources.[4] Equality is beneficial, but it often doesn't address specific needs. Giving each student a take-home laptop, for example, would not address students who don't have Internet in their houses. Even if a school is equal, some students may still struggle.

Equity, on the other hand, provides people with resources that fit their circumstances. The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of social equity is "the absence of avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people." [5] Schools that prioritize equity versus equality are more in tune to their students' needs and provide resources to overcome their specific challenges.

Equity and Equality Descriptors

In short, equality is:

And equity is:

"The route to achieving equity will not be accomplished through treating everyone equally," says the Race Matters Institute. "It will be achieved by treating everyone equitably, or justly according to their circumstances." [6] Equity is more thoughtful and, while it's harder work, it is better at resolving disadvantages. While equality is an admirable goal, try shifting your school's focus to equity for a more effective outcome.

Challenges Involving Equity and Equality in Schools

Barriers to an inclusive education can affect groups based on race, gender, and many other factors. The issues are not only who is being targeted but also how we try to resolve them. In terms of equity vs equality in the classroom, most schools focus on horizontal equity. The definition of horizontal equity in education is treating people who are already assumed equal in the same way.[7]

Horizontal equity is only useful in homogenous schools, where each person really is given the same opportunities in life. But in most schools, students will come from a variety of backgrounds-some more privileged than others. For this reason, educators should focus on vertical equity, which assumes that students have different needs and provides individual resources based on said needs.[8]

How does poverty impact students?

Another challenge facing equity vs equality in education is poverty. 60% of the most disadvantaged students come from under-resourced homes or communities.[9] Because their families or schools might have very limited budgets, it can be difficult to provide these students with equitable resources. Additionally, these under-resourced communities often have trouble keeping educators who can make a difference: 62% of high-poverty schools report that it is challenging to retain high-quality teachers.[10]

According to the Scholastic Teachers and Principals Report, these are a few additional barriers to equity in American schools:[11]

Family crises

Mental health issues

Lack of healthcare

Coming to school hungry

Homelessness or living in a temporary shelter

Still learning the English language

Recognizing the challenges preventing equity in your classroom is the first step to resolving them. Try to analyze any issues that are keeping your students from succeeding in school. Perhaps you teach in an under-resourced community, or one of your students is an English language learner (ELL). By evaluating the needs of individual students, you're much closer to providing them with the support necessary for academic achievement.

Benefits of Focusing on Equity in Education

Equity in schools is the answer to supporting every student, not just those from disadvantaged backgrounds. When schools provide their students with resources that fit individual circumstances, the entire classroom environment improves.[12] Not only that, but the importance of equity extends to our society as a whole. In equitable communities, everyone has the opportunity to succeed regardless of their original circumstances.

On a surface level, the benefits of inclusive and equitable classrooms extend to academic achievement. Schools with the smallest achievement gaps between demographics have the highest overall test scores.[13] This means that when the most disadvantaged student scores improve, students from more privileged backgrounds improve, too. When schools are mindful of different backgrounds and provide the right resources, all students are prepared to learn and help each other succeed.

Student Development and Community Equity

Equity can also strengthen a student's health and social-emotional development. In a study involving over 4,300 students in Southern California, the children who felt safer, less lonely, and reported less bullying also had higher diversity levels in their classes.[14] Being equipped to promote diversity and provide for students from all backgrounds makes for an environment where students feel comfortable and have better emotional regulation. Additionally, equitable communities are linked to better health and longer average lifespans.[15]

Surrounding communities benefit from equity in schools as well. Equity is linked to stronger social cohesion, meaning that individuals connect with each other better and are more compassionate.[16] It also leads to long-term economic growth.[17] This means that promoting equity in schools can be one of the best and most effective social investments.

To summarize, these are some of the benefits of focusing on equity in education:

Higher test scores

Better health

Stronger social atmosphere

Longer life

Economic growth

5 Tips for Using Equity to Create an Inclusive Classroom

Knowing the difference between equity and equality is the first step to creating a classroom where every child can succeed. From there, educators can take steps to better address the challenges faced by struggling students.

Keep these five tips in mind for promoting equity in your classroom and helping every student succeed:

Remember that every child is different and has unique needs. Evaluate any challenges that students face and, if needed, offer support or resources [18]

Cultivate an environment in your classroom where every student feels heard. Encourage them to speak out against unfairness and let you know if they're facing any hardships at home or in class

Parent engagement is a particularly helpful way to resolve challenges involving equity. Keep open communication with parents and encourage them to volunteer or attend school events to involve them with their child's education [19]

Provide equity training in schools for faculty members so teachers know how to resolve common barriers [20]

Add diversity and inclusion activities as well as lessons against prejudice to your school curriculum so every student feels like they belong [21]

Sources:

OECD Observer Staff. Ten Steps to Equity in Education. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, January 2008, pp. 1-8.[1]

Scholastic Team. Barriers to Equity in Education | Teachers and Principals School Report. Retrieved from scholastic.com: http://www.scholastic.com/teacherprincipalreport/barriers-to-equity.htm.[2]

Winston-Salem State University. Strategic Planning at Winston-Salem State University: Working Toward Equity. Retrieved from wssu.edu: https://www.wssu.edu/strategic-plan/documents/a-summary-of-equity-vs-equality.pdf.[3]

Just Health Action. Part 1: Introduction to Environmental Justice, Equity, and Health. Retrieved from justhealthaction.org: http://justhealthaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/JHA-Lesson-Plan-3-How-are-equity-and-equality-different-final.pdf.[4]

World Health Organization. WHO | Equity. Retrieved from who.int: https://www.who.int/healthsystems/topics/equity/en/.[5]

Race Matters Institute. Racial Equality or Racial Equity? The Difference it Makes. Retrieved from viablefuturescenture.org: https://viablefuturescenter.org/racemattersinstitute/2014/04/02/racial-equality-or-racial-equity-the-difference-it-makes/.[6]

Catapano, J. The Challenges of Equity in Public Education. Retrieved from teachhub.com: https://www.teachhub.com/challenges-equity-public-education.[7,8]

OECD Observer Staff. Ten Steps to Equity in Education. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, January 2008, pp. 1-8.[9,10]

Scholastic Team. Barriers to Equity in Education | Teachers and Principals School Report. Retrieved from scholastic.com: http://www.scholastic.com/teacherprincipalreport/barriers-to-equity.htm.[11]

OECD Observer Staff. Ten Steps to Equity in Education. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, January 2008, pp. 1-8.[12]

Gorard, S., and Smith, E. An international comparison of equity in education systems. School Comparative Education, 2004, 40(1), pp. 15-28.[13]

Atchison, B., Diffey, L., Rafa, A., and Sarubbi, M. Equity in Education: Key Questions to Consider. Education Commission of the States, June, 2017, pp. 1-6.[14]

OECD Observer Staff. Ten Steps to Equity in Education. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, January 2008, pp. 1-8.[15, 16, 17]

Scholastic Team. Barriers to Equity in Education | Teachers and Principals School Report. Retrieved from scholastic.com: http://www.scholastic.com/teacherprincipalreport/barriers-to-equity.htm.[18]

OECD Observer Staff. Ten Steps to Equity in Education. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, January 2008, pp. 1-8.[19]

Atchison, B., Diffey, L., Rafa, A., and Sarubbi, M. Equity in Education: Key Questions to Consider. Education Commission of the States, June, 2017, pp. 1-6.[20]

OECD Observer Staff. Ten Steps to Equity in Education. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, January 2008, pp. 1-8.[21]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equity vs Equality in Education: Building Inclusivity - Waterford.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Discover the difference between equity and equality, then learn five strategies for resolving common barriers to equity in education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Museum Communities and Equity" is the theme of the third annual international conference of the Global Consortium for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (GCPCH), a coalition of universities, museums, and other research institutes.

This year's event, taking place in Washington D.C. on Oct. 21-22, is co-hosted by Yale University and the Smithsonian Institution. Yale and the Smithsonian were among the founders of the GCPCH, the creation of which was proposed at the eighth United Nations Global Colloquium of University Presidents held at Yale in 2016. Scholars attending that gathering outlined the need for the consortium in the New Haven Declaration.

Guided by an international steering committee, this year's conference will focus on a range of issues of interest to university and museum professionals surrounding equity in the preservation of cultural heritage. Participants will explore such topics as: investigating the role of diverse communities in determining how their heritage is identified, protected, and managed; understanding the needs of the museum and cultural sectors in Africa; developing creative engagement between cultural institutions and the communities whose heritage they maintain; and educating the next generation of cultural heritage professionals.

The GCPCH enables the global university, education, and research community to make a transformative contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage, through broad educational programs, major collaborative research initiatives, and effective engagement and advocacy. The consortium serves as a catalyst for cultural preservation by making information available to its members via open databases, and by providing a forum for meetings that facilitate interchange among a diverse group of colleagues who come together across fields of study to discuss projects and explore interdisciplinary and multicultural collaborations.

The first annual GCPCH meeting was held in Milan, Italy in 2017, and in 2018 the conference was held in Mumbai, India. This year's conference is expected to be attended by representatives from over 50 universities, museums, and other institutions, from 21 countries.

More information about joining the consortium and participation at conferences is available on the consortium's website.

Related

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Conference explores issues of equity in preservation of cultural heritage

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Museum Communities and Equity" is the theme of the third annual international conference of the Global Consortium for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (GCPCH), a coalition of universities, museums, and other research institutes. This year's event, taking place in Washington D.C. on Oct. 21-22, is co-hosted by Yale University and the Smithsonian Institution.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gathering possible resources on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Project READY: Reimagining Equity & Access for Diverse Youth – A free online professional development curriculum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This site hosts a series of free, online professional development modules for school and public youth services librarians, library administrators, and others interested in improving their knowledge about race and racism, racial equity, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. The primary focus of the Project READY curriculum is on improving relationships with, services to, and resources for youth of color and Native youth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Think Inclusive | The Official Blog of MCIE

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equity vs. Equality in the Classroom | Think Inclusive | The Official Blog of MCIE

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I have heard this observation or comment in one form or another over the years as I provide supports to students who need a little extra help to level the playing field (e.g. reach the given standard).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
OECD iLibrary | Equity in Education: Breaking Down Barriers to Social Mobility

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
OECD's dissemination platform for all published content - books, serials and statistics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As a teacher, how do you address the diverse needs of all students?

Equity in the classroom, or supporting the outcomes of students of all backgrounds and abilities, is essential to a productive learning environment.

However, promoting equity is complex. When teachers prioritize the needs of white students, boys/men, or the non-disabled, they create barriers for students of color, girls/women, and studies with disabilities. This presents yet another challenge for educators trying to help their students succeed.

So how do you create an equitable classroom where all students can thrive? Consider a Master of Arts in Teaching program, and check out these seven tips:
1. Reflect on your own beliefs
Before you can create a more equitable learning environment in the classroom, consider your own beliefs.

Teachers, like anyone else, may not be aware of the biases that exist in their training and upbringing. Data shows that girls receive less and lower-quality feedback than boys in class. Meanwhile, students of color report that they sometimes feel excluded from classroom interaction.

Even the most well-intentioned educators may have blindspots. White teachers may not understand the challenges of historically marginalized students due to a lack of preparation in their training. It's also possible that they attribute lack of success to deficiencies that they associate with students of color.

Understanding your own positionality, or the circumstances that create your identity in terms of race, gender and ability, can help you become more conscious of issues related to racial equity and gender equity, and help you support students in your class.
2. Reduce race and gender barriers to learning
While it might not be obvious, you may be unintentionally excluding students of color and female students in your classroom. Here's how you can avoid it:
Don't ask students of color to be "experts" on their race
Asking students of color for their point of view is important in class discussions, but don't assume that they are authorities on their race. Race is one part of their social identity. They may also feel pressure to discuss a topic that's perceived to be related to their race, when in fact they don't have an opinion.
Diversify your curriculum
To the extent that you can control your curriculum, expose students to a spectrum of multicultural and female experts, writers and artists. You'll more accurately represent the different contributors to your class' subject, and potentially establish a cultural connection for your students.
Hold every student to high expectations
Students of color report being held to lower expectations than white students. Meanwhile female students hear more comments about their appearance than their academic skills.

By setting a high bar for achievement for all students, you encourage them to engage with your class, and avoid any stereotypes of what they're capable of accomplishing.
Avoid assumptions about students' backgrounds
It may be tempting to assume that your students share similar life experiences. However, this can be problematic since everyone's circumstances are different. In particular, schools with large student populations may represent a greater variety of racial and economic backgrounds, as well as students with undefined gender identities.
3. Establish an inclusive environment early
Clarify early in the term (perhaps in your first class) that you want to create an inclusive space for students. Discussions should represent a variety of views, and students should feel comfortable expressing themselves.

It's also important to let them know that name-calling, personal attacks, and hostile interactions won't be tolerated. If students disagree, they must respond to each other with respect. Indeed, mutual respect yields more open and productive conversations.

By establishing rules early in the course, students should understand their role in creating an inclusive classroom.
4. Be dynamic with classroom space
You can foster inclusion in the classroom through how you engage your students, starting with your use of space.

Class formation can send signals about authority and equitable engagement. Do you always stand in front of the classroom to address rows of students? Consider classroom set-ups that emphasize interaction, such as group seating. Also, consider where you position yourself. Moving among students may de-emphasize the teacher-student hierarchy, and stimulate more discussion.

Similarly, try varying your activities. Whether it's group, paired or individual work, when you arrange students in different formations, you may increase their engagement with each other, and the class material.
5. Accommodate learning styles and disabilities
Learning styles vary from student to student, differ between males and females, and vary for people with disabilities. To create equity in the classroom for everyone, here are a few methods to try:

Variance - Present the same information in different ways for visual, aural and verbal learners

Use a variety of media (e.g., audiobooks, movies)

Include transcripts for multimedia materials

Provide supplemental materials to the lesson plan (e.g., glossaries, illustrations)

Make technology accessible (e.g., give students the ability to increase text size or adjust brightness)

For presentations, use dyslexia-friendly fonts

Read test instructions aloud, even if they appear in print

6. Be mindful of how you use technology
Many teachers use technology as an integral part of the classroom. While it can be a useful way to engage students and appeal to a variety of learning styles, consider its impact on those with physical disabilities.

Screen readers can assist students by opening resources, but other digital tools may actually hinder their ability to perform actions such as clicking, dragging and dropping that are not compliant with accessibility standards.

Review Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to ensure that your technology tools are in compliance, and are accessible to physically disabled students.
7. Be aware of religious holidays
When planning your course, remember to account for religious holidays and observances. Students may need to miss class on certain days and make up assignments, quizzes or exams.

At the beginning of the term, it's a good idea to announce that you have tried to avoid conflicts with major religious holidays when planning the course. However, if students have a conflict, they should let you know as soon as possible.
USC Rossier resources
For more information on improving equity in the classroom, visit our Tools for Inclusive Teaching page.

Ready to elevate your teaching career? Check out our Master of Arts in Teaching program.

If you're a teacher who wants to advance your career in education, see the Leading Instructional Change concentration of our Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EDL) program.

Want to connect with someone about your options?

Connect With Admission Staff
Sources: https://kappanonline.org/andrus-jacobs-kuriloff-gender-equity-classroom/ http://crlt.umich.edu/sites/default/files/resource_files/CRLT_no7.pdf https://equity.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CreatingaPositiveClassroomClimateWeb-2.pdf http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov04/vol62/num03/With-Boys-and-Girls-in-Mind.aspx https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/edblogs.columbia.edu/dist/8/1109/files/2020/02/Guide-for-Inclusive-Teaching-at-Columbia_Accessibility-Revisions_15-January-2020_FINAL.pdf

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Seven effective ways to promote equity in the classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a teacher, how do you address the diverse needs of all students? Equity in the classroom, or supporting the outcomes of students of all backgrounds and abilities, is essential to a productive learning environment. However, promoting equity is complex.

# data[].attributes.headline
“OUT OF SUFFERING HAVE EMERGED THE GREATEST SOULS. THE MASSIVE CHARACTERS ARE SEARED WITH SCARS.” KHALIL GIBRAN

# data[].attributes.subject
“OUT OF SUFFERING HAVE EMERGED THE GREATEST SOULS. THE MASSIVE CHARACTERS ARE SEARED WITH SCARS.” KHALIL GIBRAN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Victor Rios: Help for kids the education system ignores

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Define students by what they contribute, not what they lack -- especially those with difficult upbringings, says educator Victor Rios. Interweaved with his personal tale of perseverance as an inner-city youth, Rios identifies three straightforward strategies to shift attitudes in education and calls for fellow educators to see "at-risk" students as "at-promise" individuals brimming with resilience, character and grit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Teaching and leading schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing and continuing wave of demands for racial justice have cast a spotlight on and raised concerns about equity issues, as related to race, socio-economic status, fairness, and inclusion. Current world events have exacerbated existing equity issues, especially for students affected by racial trauma, those living in poverty and/or those with special needs.

Additionally, some students are experiencing new learning issues that cause them to feel left out and left behind in the remote learning environment where they are without the benefit of seeing you-as one of the most trusted adults in their lives-every day at school.

As you prepare to continue teaching and leading in this "new normal," do you have the resources you need to provide continued support tailored to the specific needs of each of your students?

ASCD is here to help! We have gathered some free useful materials from our archives and recent releases to help you implement best practices on building equity and make the most of instructional time while teaching remotely.

Discover innovative new strategies for developing equitable learning practices, classrooms, and schools that make all students feel included, supported, and engaged.
Jump to: Book Chapters | Quick Reference Guides | Articles | Videos | Webinars
BookChapters

Check out the free resource links for each title. If you enjoy the book, consider becoming a member since all ASCD members save up to 20% off purchases through the ASCD Store using their member discount.

^Return to top.
Focus on Race

For a deep dive into research focused on addressing issues of race, check out these ASCD books. Additional resources are available here.

Cultural Competence Now: 56 Exercises to Help Educators Understand and Challenge Bias, Racism, and Privilege
by Vernita Mayfield
Dismantle the systems of privilege and the institutions that perpetuate them with knowledge, action, and advocacy. Free Resources

Keeping It Real and Relevant: Building Authentic Relationships in Your Diverse Classroom
by Ignacio Lopez
Apply the book's strategies for teaching, assessing, counseling, and designing interventions for all learners. Free Resources
^Return to top.
Focus on Inclusion

Focus on creating inclusive schools and classrooms with these new ASCD books.
^Return to top.
Focus on Socioeconomic Issues

Transform your classroom, school, or district to better serve students living in poverty with these helpful resources.

Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices
by Kathleen M. Budge and William H. Parrett
Get the background information and practical tools needed to help students break free from the cycle of poverty. Free Resources
^Return to top.
QuickReference Guides

ASCD Quick Reference Guides are packed with instructional tips and solutions that you can put into practice right away.
^Return to top.
Meet the Challenges You Face with Support from ASCD

If you find that these resources are helpful, please take a moment to check out our membership options. We would love to have you as a member of our organization and can provide you with other tools to help you with the growing number of challenges that you face every day.

Did you know that ASCD members get access to thousands more resources like these on a variety of different topics in our members-only digital archives, in addition to receiving new tips and recommendations throughout the year? Members also receive discounts on ASCD books and products.

Joining ASCD also provides you with the opportunity to connect with local educators. You can join your local affiliate at the same time you join ASCD.

Articles

Every issue of Educational Leadership® magazine offers a selection of open articles. ASCD members can access all recent magazine issues and articles by logging in. Education Update is our monthly newsletter. ASCD Express is a twice-monthly free e-newsletter.

Separate and Still Unequal: Race in America's Schools

Marking the 65th anniversary of the landmark court decision Brown v. Board of Education, the April 2019 issue of Educational Leadership® examines pressing issues and opportunities surrounding race in America's schools today.
Browse this issue

Disrupting Inequity

The November 2016 issue of Educational Leadership® magazine points out many types of school inequities that unwittingly contribute to marginalizing groups of students, and our authors offer solutions-chief among them is to open our eyes to others' perspectives.
Browse this issue View more articles from Educational Leadership magazine Education Update Membership Newsletter ASCD Express E-Newsletter Browse the newsletters and publications archive to find more free articles ^Return to top.
Videos

The ASCD Streaming video platform allows you to rent and stream videos on a wide range of education topics.

Educating Everbody's Children: Attitudes and Beliefs
Create effective learning opportunities for students with diverse skills and abilities.
Watch video

Meeting the Needs of Students You're Teaching Online
In this short video, Carol Ann Tomlinson, differentiated instruction expert, offers advice for meeting the different interests and needs of students when teachers can't be in the classroom with them every day.
Watch video

Anatomy of a Transformation Video Series
In the Anatomy of a Transformation series, educators in Jennings School District (Mo.) discuss how they transformed teaching and learning in order to better serve students in the high poverty school district.
View videos in this series ^Return to top.
Webinar

ASCD Webinars provide free professional development on the topics that you need most, on-demand to fit your schedule.

Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices with Kathleen M. Budge and William H. Parrett (2018)

In this informative webinar based on their book Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices, the authors discuss the five classroom practices that permeate the culture of successful high-poverty schools: (1) caring relationships and advocacy, (2) high expectations and support, (3) commitment to equity, (4) professional accountability for learning, and (5) the courage and will to act. Watch webinar
Browse all webinars ^Return to top.
Other Free Resource Pages to Support Your Biggest Challenges

Supporting and Mentoring New Teachers

Approximately 30% of new teachers don't make it through their first three years in education. This turnover and loss of consistency directly affects how teachers collaborate year-over-year, causing a long-lasting ripple effect on teachers' ability to be their most effective in the classroom. Visit page

Engaging English Language Learners

English Language Learners (ELLs) is the fastest-growing student population in the United States. By 2025 an estimated 25% of public-school students will be emergent multilingual learners, according to the NEA. Visit page

Supporting Special Education Students

The number of IEPs jumped THREE times the national average in 2017-18 for students who receive special education services as compared to the previous four years. Do you have the resources you need to support the students receiving these IEPs? Visit page

Implementing Social-Emotional Learning

Students need to develop strong social-emotional skills to thrive in school, career, and life. Test scores matter, but do your students have what they need to succeed? Integrating a focus on social-emotional learning into your classroom or school also will help you to better serve young people who have experienced trauma. Visit page
^Return to top.
ASCD Whole Child Network™

As an educator, you have a tough job ahead of you: Promote the long-term development and success of each and every student in your care. That's the ASCD Whole Child approach to education.

Be a part of ASCD's mission of educating the whole child by joining the ASCD Whole Child Network, a global network of schools focused on the same goals; engaged in the same processes; and with whose educators you can discuss issues, share insights, and exchange support.
Learn more about the ASCD Whole Child Network ^Return to top.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Free ASCD Resources to Support Equity in Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teaching and leading schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing and continuing wave of demands for racial justice have cast a spotlight on and raised concerns about equity issues, as related to race, socio-economic status, fairness, and inclusion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ideas include knowing every child, celebrating their potential, recognizing their challenges, acknowledging inequity, and using culture as a resource.

I coached Jane in her third year of teaching ninth-grade English in a high school with many English language learners (ELLs). Her style leaned toward direct instruction, and she did a great job of modeling literacy strategies. One day, I observed Jane leading a mini-lesson on paragraph revision. As I sat beside an ELL named Veronica, I noticed that her "paragraph" was one long run-on sentence. With Veronica's permission, I made a copy of the paragraph for Jane.

"Ugh!" she sighed when she saw it. "What do I do with this?" Veronica had a clear learning gap around punctuation and syntax.

"Well," I said, "you get to teach her. What do you know about her schooling experiences in El Salvador? You set a goal to individualize instruction this year, and this seems like an opportunity to practice. Why not pull Veronica aside tomorrow to offer targeted support?"

"But we have a quiz!" Jane responded, almost forlorn. "There's never enough time."

"Why," I pushed gently, "does she need to take the quiz more than she needs to sit with you and learn how to structure a paragraph?" It was a simple question, but I saw signs of awakening on Jane's face. "You're right," she finally said. "I never considered my ability to make choices like this. Tomorrow, I'll work with Veronica one-on-one."

Equality vs. Equity

This vignette cuts to the heart of equality vs. equity in the classroom. If equality means giving everyone the same resources, equity means giving each student access to the resources they need to learn and thrive. As those of us who are parents know, each child is different. It can be tough to meet their competing needs, but this is pretty much the job description for parenting and, I would argue, for teaching. Jane could have modeled paragraph revision until she was blue in the face, but Veronica lacked the building blocks of a sentence. Instead, Jane provided this learner with a critical resource: the attention of her skillful teacher.

If we're committed to the success of every child, we must acknowledge the uneven playing field that exists for many: ELLs, students with special needs, children experiencing trauma or relentless poverty, and students of color who confront unconscious biases about their capacity. Walking toward equity will help us to create inclusive, 21st-century classrooms.

6 Steps Toward Equity

It's hard to sum up what it means to embrace equity in the classroom. My partner and I are veteran equity-driven educators, and we wrestle with this question. Complexity duly noted, here are six ways to walk toward equity.

1. Know every child: First and foremost, get to know each student as a unique and layered individual. Embrace storientation to learn where they're from, what they love to do outside of school, what their family is like. Don't subscribe to a single story about any child. The more you know, the more you can build trust and differentiate instruction.

2. Become a warm demander: Author Lisa Delpit describes warm demanders as teachers who "expect a great deal of their students, convince them of their own brilliance, and help them to reach their potential in a disciplined and structured environment." An equity stance pushes us to couple high expectations with a commitment to every child's success.

3. Practice lean-in assessment: As you gather a student's human story, start to piece together his or her learning story. How does she approach tasks? What are his strengths as a learner What does she struggle with?

No standardized test will provide you with quality data on these questions. Use proximity and lean-in assessment to diagnose students' learning needs. Carry a clipboard with you while students are working, and take careful notes on what you observe.

4. Flex your routines: Remember that one-size lessons do not fit all. Jane had mastered the art of the mini-lesson, but she was losing learners in the process. Be willing to flex or set aside your well-laid plans to individualize instruction. If pulling a student out of an activity to support him or her makes you uncomfortable, notice your discomfort and try not to let it control your decisions.

5. Make it safe to fail: Teach students that failure is just another form of data. When a child feels shame about his learning gaps, he'll hide behind quiet compliance or bravado and acting out. In an equitable classroom, there's no need to hide because struggle and failure are neutralized, normalized, and even celebrated. Consider this: Once a week, have students meet in groups to share something they struggled with and what they learned in the process.

6. View culture as a resource: Finally, don't be culture-blind. When we ignore students' identities, we efface who they are in the world and lose a rich resource for learning. Understand this simple, powerful truth offered by my friend Zaretta Hammond in her recent book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: "Culture, it turns out, is the way every brain makes sense of the world." Help students activate their cultural schema to access challenging content. Invite them to share where they come from, not just with you but also with each other. Value and affirm all forms of difference.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equity vs. Equality: 6 Steps Toward Equity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ideas include knowing every child, celebrating their potential, recognizing their challenges, acknowledging inequity, and using culture as a resource. I coached Jane in her third year of teaching ninth-grade English in a high school with many English language learners (ELLs). Her style leaned toward direct instruction, and she did a great job of modeling literacy strategies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cultivating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Education Environments

Racial and cultural diversity are hallmarks of our society. To celebrate this diversity, and cultivate harmony and respect for all peoples, educators must nurture equality and inclusion within the classroom. Students enter the classroom carrying an assortment of beliefs. This may include racial and cultural prejudices picked up from their neighborhoods, pop culture, and their families. Educators can help combat prejudice and racial discord by supporting positive behaviors among students, fostering a sense of belonging for all students and their families, and instilling respect for all peoples.

We've gathered a range of resources to help educators create a culturally inclusive classroom, one that celebrates diversity and inclusion in education while encouraging students to spread the values of inclusion and cultural respect in their everyday lives. Providing instruction through a lens of diversity promotes tolerance of people with differing ideals and practice. It fosters cultural respect and understanding of 'the other,' and may even reduce bullying.

Providing equitable access to education and supporting tolerance of those who look different or have special needs creates a positive effect on learning. Classroom management falters when students experience friction with other students. By actively engaging in learning activities that instill respect for diversity, the classroom can become a place where respect is a cornerstone and intolerance becomes abhorrent.

The classroom isn't an island. Its walls, even adorned with posters of diverse figures from history, are porous to ideas. By teaching students about the contributions that all cultures bring to our society, educators can encourage them to spread this respect for diversity beyond school. Integrated and diverse classrooms promote critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. Racial and economic diversity within the classroom results in higher test scores - a quantifiable benefit, of course - but the less tangible reward, a respect for the dignity of every human, is the bedrock of any healthy community.

Teaching Styles

The cultivation of diversity, inclusion, and equity starts in the classroom. How an instructor teaches a class is important and influences how well students absorb these concepts. Should a teacher adopt a one-style-fits-all approach? Or should they personalize their instruction according to the learning environment? These articles introduce educators to different teaching style approaches that help students embrace diversity and inclusion.

Diversity Activities in the Classroom

The following section includes links to resources containing activities designed to help students understand the importance of empathy and respect for other cultures and cultural activities, including language, religious practices, cuisine and other cultural markers. By nurturing an awareness of other cultural beliefs and customs, educators can create a multicultural classroom that cultivates learning via cultural diversity activities. Ultimately, these cultural diversity activity ideas can help students from different backgrounds succeed in the classroom environment.

Inclusive Teaching

This section features inclusive education activities for teachers, helping them find ways to effectively manage an inclusive classroom for the benefit of all students.

Creating an Equitable Learning Environment

"Am I biased?" To support equity in the classroom, each teacher, regardless of race or cultural background, must learn to assess their own biases in order to view every student as an individual. Some of the resources in this section can help educators identify and overcome their own biases and embrace difficult conversations. These conversations within the school environment are crucial for creating fair school policies and for cultivating a willingness among teachers to build positive bonds with their students and their families or guardians. Fair student-teacher relationships can make all the difference in a student's life, while an unfair relationship can sabotage a student's views on education for the rest of their life. Working to create a fair, equitable environment based on values like respect and inclusivity, isn't simply important to promote an improved learning environment, but also to instill life-long values that enrich the human experience.

One comprehensive resource you can explore that's related to inclusive learning environments is this Antiracist Teaching Resource Website that showcases additional tips for creating diversity and inclusiveness in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cultivating Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity: Resources for Educators | Resilient Educator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We've gathered a range of resources to help educators create a culturally inclusive classroom that celebrates diversity and inclusion in education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Erin O.

This is a short blog post for a couple of reasons - 1) I'm working on my netbook and it is really sloooooow , 2) it is spring break - I have to get back to drawing dolphins with the kid (her request), and 3) Heidi wrote a lot last week so if you need more to think about feel free to re-read what she wrote.

Since Heidi promised a part two to her blog post this is part 1.5. Heidi laid out some ideas on how to think about equity and what is more equitable and what is simply giving access to a system not designed by or for people of color. In this part 1.5, I'll give five quick examples of where people try to pass off access as equitable practices. I've been doing my job long enough to have a list of activities people have mentioned as equitable practices but they are more around access and inclusion than equitable in principle and nature.

Translation and Interpretation: This is the number one practice people list as being equitable, it is also one of the most basic practices of racial equity. Providing language access is an important and one of the fundamental ways for many people of color to participate. Translation and interpretation should be high quality, no Google or Bing translate, and it should also be culturally nuanced.

Translation and interpretation fall under access because it is providing people of color (and other non-dominant language speakers) access to an already existing system. It is important access but it isn't equitable since it wasn't designed by the people most impacted.

Going into the Community, Evening Meetings, and Town Halls: Having time and location accessible events is an important part of attracting people of color to participate. An event a few streets away is much more appealing than having to figure out how to get across town, pay for parking, and know I probably won't be in familiar company. Having events in local communities and going to people is important for reaching diversity and inclusion goals. These activities fall under access and inclusion because the process for these meetings is probably not one designed by people of color for their comfort (see last week's post for more details on what this means). Evening meetings and having meetings when people are available is important, but if the meeting is still all about you and your agenda it doesn't matter what time of day it is, I call fakequity.

Scholarships, Fellowships, and Diversity Efforts: These are great for helping people of color and others who are traditionally outside of a system into the door. So many people have found success because of scholarships. In a very roundabout way, because of a philanthropic fellowship and the network and access it provided, I got my present job. Scholarships and the like are great at bringing people of color in to help diversify efforts. Many times these efforts aren't designed for poc comfort and can have a tokenizing impact on pocs, there is also the pressure to assimilate as well. That said often the access is meaningful and important, such as a college scholarship can change the trajectory of a person's life, but we should also recognize access to a system and process not designed for pocs isn't equitable.

Such as think about how many people of color with college scholarships drop out because they feel isolated, have additional barriers (i.e. transportation, needing money to pay for living expenses not covered by the scholarship, housing, family obligations, etc.). A friend who is a Dean of a college told me how she learned of a immigrant student who was in a master's program and doing well, until she wasn't. The staff asked the student what was going on and they learned she had to start driving for Lyft between 11.00 - 2.00 a.m. to make extra money to stay in school and help her family. The college gave her access to their program and some support, but that wasn't enough to remove the most basic barriers to her participation in school. In a more equitable scenario, the student would have received comprehensive support including housing, cash assistance, and been continually consulted to make sure she had what she needed thus changing the system and centering her and other students of color. For a more privileged student a scholarship would have been enough access to complete the program, pocs often have additional hurdles where a scholarship isn't enough.

Task Force Me to Death: Whenever I hear of a younger or less jaded colleague joining a task force I first congratulate them on their appointment to the prestigious task force (all task forces are special otherwise they wouldn't exist), then I tell them to take all of their expectations and reduce it by two-thirds, possibly four-fifths depending on the task force. Task forces are important tools for gaining buy-in, highlighting inequities, and hopefully doing some of the background work needed before taking things to the public. Yet task forces are often working with dominant culture standards, timelines, and practices which aren't designed with the comfort and control of people of color at the center of it.

Public Testimony at Government Meetings: I wrote about this before so I won't go into detail, but let's categorize public testimony and really most of the current ways of policy making under access. Control of the process is still held by a dominant white culture way of operating. Public testimony gives people access to influence the system but the final decisions and entire process isn't determined by those most impacted.

Heidi still owes us part two of her previous blog post. When it is published we can see what examples she has and how she describes access isn't equity. Access is an important step in reaching more equitable results. We need to overhaul our systems and work to change practices to say access and inclusion are important, and they aren't enough. We need to aim for equity and in some cases recognize access and inclusion are tools to help us get there.

Heidi, you're now up for part two where I hope you'll delve into the other categories and how transformational equity with penguins is key to a better life.
If you subscribe to the blog, thank you. Please check fakequity.com for the most up to date version of the post. We often make grammatical and stylistic corrections after the first publishing which shows up in your inbox. If you would like to subscribe there is a sign-up box on the right sidebar.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Erin O. This is a short blog post for a couple of reasons - 1) I'm working on my netbook and it is really sloooooow , 2) it is spring break - I have to get back to drawing dolphins w...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The process for effectively implementing Thinking Maps into your school or school district.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"For a prosperous economic and social future in the United States, all children should have an equitable place at the starting line."
- A Fair Start: Ensuring All Students Are Ready to Learn, SPREE Working Group Report

In our previous post, " Equity in Education: The Principle," we discussed the State Policy and Research for Early Education(SPREE) issued report, A Fair Start: Ensuring All Students Are Ready to Learn, and introduced Principle #1 of the SPREE Framework, Equity, along with a summary of each of the three strategies outlined for the principle. Here we'll dive deeper into each strategy named in Principle #1.

Three Strategies for Achieving Equity in Education

For each of the five principles identified in the SPREE Framework, the SPREE working group also outlined a number of strategies for accomplishing that principle. These strategies represent actionable steps that, if followed, increase the likelihood of moving toward educational equity.

STRATEGY #1: ADDRESS POVERTY AND THE ECOSYSTEM

One of the fundamental positions of the SPREE working group is the belief that in order to achieve success in early childhood education, education leaders and policy makers must understand and address the varied and complex forces that affect how children learn, including poverty, mental and emotional health, hunger and nutrition, social skills, and self-regulation.

The principle of social equity as a critical component to educational equity is not new, but there is a growing recognition of its value and importance. One of the key insights of the most recent PISA results reveals that countries that work to overcome social inequities generally achieve better education outcomes, and in contrast, countries that fail to do so remain stagnant or drop in the rankings.
Many Americans Left Behind by Economic Boom
While it is true that the recent economic boom has brought opportunity to large numbers of Americans, it has nevertheless left many others behind. History teaches us that education paves the way to upward mobility, and as such it is more important now than ever. But it is more than the great leveler; it is also vitally important to the future of our country.

In today's technology-fueled global economy, the need for high-level skills has never been so keen, and our nation's ability to compete in this economy depends on an educated workforce. Of course, the more educated the workforce, the greater the success we will experience both individually and collectively as a society.
Need Education System that Give Underserved Groups a Lift
As the SPREE report notes, it is critical that we work toward an education system that not only supports all students, but gives underserved groups the lift they need to achieve a fair and equitable experience. Any policies created to support early learning must be adaptable enough to address the varied and often difficult environments that children come from including poverty, dual language learners, family context, underserved populations, and more.

The better these challenges are understood and addressed through policy, the more equitable and effective the outcome for those children who need it the most. By creating a more equitable and inclusive educational experience for all students no matter their starting point, we begin to chip away at poverty by creating a more educated workforce that is more productive, earns more, and creates economic growth.

States around the country are finding different ways of attacking poverty through education. Illinois recently passed a state bill that targets chronic absenteeism, which is directly linked to drop out rates. The bill mandates that any school district receiving public funds must track and analyze its chronic absence data and use that analysis to create programs or resources that reengage students and their families. The bill specifically identifies the early education years as the optimal time to establish behaviors that prevent chronic absence issues.

STRATEGY #2: INCREASE ACCESS AND REMOVE BARRIERS

One of the keys to equity is removing barriers and increasing access to early childhood education resources that are crucial to mitigating early learning and development gaps. The challenges are many. Parents are often unaware of the many benefits and advantages that early childhood learning provides. Even if they are, finding and accessing resources can be problematic and affordability can be an issue.

Removing these barriers and creating more access to early learning options can make all the difference in a child's education. High-quality PreK programs provide the opportunity for screening that can shed light on a child's development in key areas such as literacy, language, math, cognition, and motor skills as well as social and emotional development. Insights gained from screening can produce differentiated learning experiences that help each children existing development gaps.

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) specifies a number of actions that can help education leaders and state policy makers identify barriers to early childhood education, improve access to high-quality resources and programs, and improve the jump from PreK to kindergarten and elementary school. For instance, state education agencies are required to assist local Title I-funded schools and districts as they support early learning programs and help children prepare for the transition to elementary school.

Many states around the country are already well underway in offering programs or embracing policy changes that increase access and remove barriers. In Utah, for example, a bill was passed in 2008 that set aside state funds to offer a technology-based, in-home early learning program to help children prepare for kindergarten. Known as Waterford UPSTART (Utah Preparing Students Today for A Rewarding Tomorrow), the program uses Waterford's adaptive software to offer children a personalized reading, math, and science curriculum that is designed to improve school readiness for under-resourced children and families living in rural parts of the state. The Waterford UPSTART program also includes comprehensive parent training and engagement support.
Programs like Waterford UPSTART Increase Access to Education in Homes
Results so far have been impressive, as the program has generated consistent and positive gains as measured through a randomized control trial evaluation. After seven years of implementation, research showed that students who used Waterford UPSTART in the year before entering kindergarten were able to outperform state averages in preliteracy skills and state tests all the way through fourth grade. The results spanned the overall student population and were particularly beneficial for under-resourced groups such as special education, under-resourced families, English language learners, and minorities.

STRATEGY #3: USE DATA AND REPORTING TO TARGET SERVICES AND SHINE A SPOTLIGHT ON EQUITY

The difference between equality in education and equity in education is subtle yet significant. Where equality aims for equal treatment of all students with access to the similar resources, equity strives for giving each student the resources they need to compete on equal footing. Knowing where each child is in their development and what resources they need to close gaps depends on data, and this is why the third strategy outlined in Principle 1 of the SPREE Framework is so important.

ESSA stipulates that states must gather performance data on all their students, and then analyze that data to determine where achievement gaps exist. High-quality early learning programs should provide this type of key data. The Waterford Early Learning program, for example, tracks student progress at the individual, class, school, and district level, making it possible for educators personalize the learning experience to close gaps, or identify students in need of intervention.

Ideally, gathered data would be rich enough to be parsed by other key indicators such as income level, race or ethnicity, language status, family context, and more to gain deeper insights into equity issues and give educators and policy makers a better understanding of challenges that might exist around early learning access, readiness, and development gaps, giving them vital information they can use to adjust or refine their plans.
Data Should Drive Education Plans
Furthermore, ESSA instructs states to issue report cards that track and measure the performance of various segments of the student population. These report cards can be used by educators, parents, state policy makers, business groups, the community, and more to get a clear read on the effectiveness of their education efforts. Because these report cards must provide data on the number and percentage of students enrolled in preschool programs, they provide an ideal opportunity to better understand how early childhood education programs factor into improvement initiatives.

According to the SPREE report, states around the US are expanding their efforts to gather and analyze data around equity issues. Louisiana recently passed a bill that requires the state education leadership to create a report that assesses student access to quality public education in the state. The bill stipulates the kinds of data that the report must contain, including percentages of economically disadvantaged students, racial or ethnic minorities, English language learners, highly effective teachers, and more.
Collected Data Offers Insight to Effectiveness
The Importance of Embracing Equity in Education as a Core Value

Each of the three strategies outlined in Principle 1 provides an actionable guideline for achieving equity and addressing the critical economic, social, and global issues that are invariably connected to equity in early learners. The choice of equity as the foundational principle and the heart of the SPREE Framework is noteworthy. Equity is vital to improving school readiness and creating a fair start for early learners, and only when all participants in the education experience embrace equity as a core value, and use it to shape policy and practice, will we see meaningful progress toward those goals.

In our next blog post, we'll dive into the second principle of the SPREE Framework, "High Quality P-3 Education."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Strategies for implementing the principle of equity in early education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A report issued by the SPREE working group provides an in-depth assessment of early education and offers strategies to improve the early learning experience for children, as well as outlines the SPREE Framework consisting of five key principles. This post delves into strategies associated with Principle #1, Equity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Maria Kampen

All Posts

Every student in my classroom deserves an equal chance.

Agree or disagree?

Responding to the level of diversity in your classroom is more important than ever. But all too often, our education system reinforces the same inequalities it was designed to overcome.

Actively promoting equity in the classroom helps remove barriers so all of your students can succeed. And when every student has the resources they need, the entire classroom thrives!

We put together a list of eight steps you can take today to build an open and equitable classroom for all your students.

But first, let's dive into the what and why of equity in the classroom.

What does equity in the classroom mean?

Equity in the classroom means making sure every student has the resources and support they need to be successful.

In an equitable classroom, individual factors don't hold back students from reaching their full learning potential - factors like:

Race

Culture

Gender

Religion

Ethnicity

Sexual orientation

Immigration status

Individual experiences

Socio-economic status

Equity versus equality

Equity and equality in the classroom aren't the same thing. Equality means every student gets the same resources and support, which sounds good in theory but doesn't always work in practice.

Imagine handing out a math assignment to students. Every student has their assignment, plus a calculator, pencil and paper. Equal, right?
But it's not equitable.
To make the assignment equitable, teachers have to understand their students and provide targeted support. This could include helping ESL students understand instructions in an unfamiliar language, providing text-to-speech technology for visually impaired students or giving students with ADHD a quiet space to complete the assignment.

When you provide these supports for your students, you're making sure physical ability, language skills and other needs don't negatively impact their ability to do well.

As Clayton Carr - 3rd grade teacher and member of Prodigy's Champions Club - puts it:

"I talk to my students and establish what the difference is between equality and equity. Equality is everyone being treated the same, whereas equity is everyone getting what they need to succeed. After addressing that with my students and reinforcing it, I'm able to meet my students' needs for isolated seating, fidget cubes for stress, or standing during testing, intervention and small groups in Zoom."

Why equity in the classroom is important

Students are diverse, but our education system isn't. It often fails to adequately provide for:

Students of color,

Neurodivergent students,

Students living in poverty,

Students with physical and mental disabilities and more.

The 2015-16 school year was the first year in which the majority of public school students in American were minorities. In 2018, 12.6 million children were in families living in poverty. Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted existing socio-economic inequalities in our education system. And in recent years, the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted important conversations about racial justice and equality in schools around the world.

Students and teachers all bring unique perspectives to the classroom, including different:

Biases

Traumas

Identities

Experiences

Assumptions

Backgrounds

There's no such thing as a typical student. And if education doesn't actively work to break down existing barriers, it ends up reinforcing the inequalities that were there all along.

When equity in the classroom is a priority, all students benefit:

"A positive transfer effect of the demand to accommodate students with learning differences may be to disrupt this structural bias and stretch our education systems to support and even foster diversity." - Jutta Treviranus, Director of OCAD University's Inclusive Design Research Centre

Teachers like you need to be aware of these issues, examine what they're bringing to the classroom and find meaningful ways to foster equity in the classroom.

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 outlines three levels that can work to foster equity in education:

1. Institutional - What the district and school administration value, and the policies they put in place.

2. Personal - How teachers engage with the complicated emotional and cognitive processes needed to work towards equity.

3. Instructional - Any books, lesson plans, assignments or teaching strategies you use in the classroom.

Equity often depends on a school's culture and leadership, but there are always ways to promote it at a classroom level.
Let's dive into eight ways you can start creating a more equitable classroom today, whether you teach remotely or in the classroom.

8 meaningful equity in the classroom strategies

1. Start with yourself

It's not just students bringing assumptions, experiences, biases and backgrounds into the classroom.

The first step to building equity in the classroom is to challenge your own beliefs. Of course you're not deliberately excluding students, but there's always work to be done that advances equity.

Examine your assumptions about:

When you're aware of your own biases, influences and cultural background, you're better equipped to thoughtfully engage with your students and build equity in the classroom from the ground up.

2. Model equity for your students

Whether you scaffold your lessons or reinforce classroom rules, modeling is a tried-and-true method of learning.
Modeling equity in the classroom can help students see and understand appropriate words and actions to use.
When you teach, where do you stand in the classroom? Moving around the classroom as you teach can have two major benefits:

1. It helps you tune in to how students are learning and where they might need support

2. It moves the balance of power throughout the whole classroom, instead of just up at the front.

It's a way of making literal space for students to join in the learning process and encourage them to participate.

If you have the space, try going even farther and re-organizing desks so students are sitting in a circle or as part of smaller groups. Use flexible seating and have your classroom model the ideal learning process - collaborative, open and inviting.
Other techniques to help model equity in the classroom:

Hold your students to high expectations - Students will only perform as well as you expect them to. Don't let assumptions based on past grades, attitudes or other external factors color your opinion of students.

In informal and formal conversations, check your assumptions - Instead of asking students how their Christmas was, ask them what they did during their winter break. Keep discussion questions open-ended to accommodate a range of responses and lived experiences.

Don't shy away from hard conversations - Students of all ages are grappling with the effects of COVID-19, questions about racial justice and other pressing issues. Open space in your classroom to have difficult conversations honestly and empathetically.

3. Be flexible with online learning

Remote and hybrid learning have dramatically highlighted existing inequalities among students when it comes to internet access, food security, family situations and more.

You know this already, but it bears repeating: flexibility and compassion can make a world of difference in creating an equitable learning environment.

Working with families to meet individual needs is essential. Lindsay Guthrie, a member of Prodigy's Champions Club and computer lab teacher, says:

"We work with each child and have identified the students that are having difficulty with being online or are having technology issues and are checking in every day to see how we can help. We've even tried handing out hotspots where we can."

Whether students are looking after younger siblings so parents can work, working at a part-time job or unable to access a device, work together to understand the barriers they face and create solutions to overcome them.

Some best practices for remote learning include:

Deliver a mix of in-person activities and pre-recorded lessons.

Give time frames to complete assignments and tests, so students can complete them around their schedule.

Work with students and respect their needs. Connect with them to understand their situations and find solutions.

Provide fun video backgrounds or let students leave cameras off. Not all students will be comfortable letting their class get a glimpse into their home.

Students have their own needs under normal circumstances - and remote learning is not a normal circumstance. Championing your students, getting to know them and encouraging them to succeed regardless is a solid step towards equity.

4. Address inappropriate remarks

Every student comes to the classroom with their own set of biases, assumptions and prejudices. And sometimes they voice them in ways that are inappropriate, leaning on stereotypes and false information.

Open dialogue is important in an equitable classroom. But part of building equity is shutting down insensitive remarks so every student feels comfortable bringing their whole selves to class.

When a student uses language that doesn't follow classroom guidelines, follow these steps:

Pause - Stop the lesson immediately to focus on the problem. If you let it sit, any discussion loses its impact.

Address - Bring attention to the remark without shaming the student. Explain why it doesn't promote equity and identify why the statement is harmful.

Discuss - Have a respectful class discussion around the biases and background knowledge that might have prompted the students to make the comment.

It can be tricky at first, but discussing inappropriate remarks immediately is a powerful tool for promoting equity - much more powerful than calling out the student and passing judgment without a discussion.

5. Create an equitable classroom environment

Small classroom changes can have a big impact on you and your students. Equity isn't just a one-time action, it's an ongoing process that should be baked into your classroom expectations and procedures.

Hanover Research highlighted everyday ways teachers can promote equity in the classroom:

Use random response strategies

Ask challenging questions equitably of all students

Use multiple ways of assessing student understanding

Create classroom rules collaboratively and enforce them fairly

Seek multiple perspectives and different answers to questions

Show students the why behind how things are done when possible

Acknowledge every student's comment or response, even if it's incorrect

Keep all religious holidays in mind when creating your schedule - not just holidays school is closed for

Teach appropriate language around asking questions about other students' cultures. One student isn't a representative of their entire culture, but they can share their specific experiences

At the start of a school year or new unit, it can be useful to run activities that help students articulate their own cultural backgrounds and understand where their classmates are starting from.
Run a fun and informative cultural chest activity to build an equitable classroom from the beginning.

1. Have students bring in three objects that describe them and aspects of their social identity, and put them in a bag or a box. Share your box first, modeling self-awareness and reflection as you talk about your cultural and social identity.

2. Encourage students to decorate the outside of their box or bag with images that describe how they believe others see them. Give each student three to five minutes to present their box to the class.

3. After all the presentations have finished, debrief with a journal writing session or a class discussion. Ask students if they learned anything new about their classmates or themselves, and ask them to reflect on how their cultural identity influences the decision they make, activities they do and things they believe.

6. Accommodate different learning styles

Every classroom has formal ways of accommodating students ( IEPs, educational assistants, assistive technology) and informal ways (moving a student closer to the front to help them hear, providing one-on-one support with tricky concepts).

In order to promote equity in your classroom, it's important to understand your students and how they learn best.

This can be harder when you're teaching remotely, but try sending out a survey, connecting with parents and meeting with students individually to get a feel for the needs and strengths in your classroom.

As Caralena Luthi, a special education teacher and member of Prodigy's Champions Club, puts it:

"I provide accommodations to students with special needs on a daily basis. I have to think about how everything can be accessible for their needs. I have audio recordings, videos to watch, interactive online lessons, editable documents, live lessons and more."

In general, some best practices include:

Make your online teaching materials accessible. Provide captions on your videos, use synchronous and asynchronous teaching methods for students with varied schedules and record lessons so students can reference them later.

Use different materials and ways to connect students to the lesson. Whether you're teaching remotely or in the classroom, use a combination of videos, written materials, worksheets and hands-on activities to introduce students to new concepts.

Use individual, paired and group activities. When students learn together, they understand different learning styles and learn respect for each other. Intentional cooperative learning strategies give every student responsibility and help them learn from each other.

Accessibility looks different in every classroom, and it's always evolving. As the director of OCAD University's Inclusive Design Research Centre noted:

"We assign the label of "disabled" when it is either impossible or extremely difficult to conform to standard expectations. As such these are the students that most feel the effects of educational inflexibility. Conversely, they may also be the greatest impetus for greater systemic adaptability, to the benefit of all students."

Building an equitable and accessible classroom doesn't just benefit students who need extra support - it benefits every student.

7. Examine your teaching materials

Part of building an equitable classroom is examining the voices present in your teaching materials.

What stories get told in your classroom? Especially in the humanities and social sciences, teaching materials can often be limited to Western, white, male and middle-class narratives.

Lesley Pike, another member of Prodigy's Champions Club and elementary teacher, says:

"I always think about what books I'm reading aloud to my class and what message I'm sending. Does every student in my class see themselves in a book that we read? Can they identify with the problem? The character? Am I exposing my students to new learning? Or am I only showing them what they already know and see?"

Incorporate literature from authors of color and work with your students to examine historical narratives for bias and missing voices - for example, a discussion about the civil rights movement can examine how it intersects with gender equality, immigration and the stories of Latino, Hispanic and Native American peoples.

If it's not possible to use new texts or teaching materials, use them as an object lesson and work with students to critique the biases and assumptions they find.

Keep discussion questions open-ended to invite a variety of responses. Write math word problems that incorporate aspects of the different cultures represented in your classroom.

8. Give students a voice

What better way to build equity in the classroom than promoting the voices of your students?

Every student has unique experiences and perspectives - harness them! Students want and need meaningful ways to voice their opinions in the classroom, so involve them in planning classroom events and actively seek their feedback on what's happening in the classroom.

This is especially important when students are learning remotely and you have fewer ways to gauge understanding, engagement and enthusiasm.

To make sure involvement is equitable, try these strategies:

Seek out the perspectives of students who don't share as much, and make sure that outgoing students don't dominate. Unequal opportunities for involvement can do serious harm to equity in your classroom.

Find ways for students to offer input in different ways. Class discussions are a great tool, but not every student feels comfortable sharing with the whole class. Set up an online form or hold office hours for one-on-one discussions with students.

Implement the feedback students give. When students see that you value their input and take it seriously, they understand that their voices and opinions matter. Where possible, take feedback seriously and build it into your classroom and teaching.

When every student has a voice in the classroom, you're well on your way to equality.

Conclusion: Equity in the classroom

Equity in the classroom is a process, not an immediate result. And promoting equity can have a whole host of benefits for every student in your classroom.

In one OECD study on equity in education around the world, researchers noted:

"Achieving greater equity in education is not only a social-justice imperative, it is also a way to use resources more efficiently, and to increase the supply of knowledge and skills that fuel economic growth and promote social cohesion. Not least, how we treat the most vulnerable students shows who we are as a society."

Consider the eight steps above and ask yourself: What can I do today to start building a more equitable classroom?

Prodigy Math Game engages students

Prodigy Math Game is an adaptive, engaging platform that turns math into an exciting adventure. All of Prodigy's educational benefits are free so every student can build math confidence. Join over 100 million teachers, parents and students who love learning math with Prodigy Math Game!

Sign up for my free teacher account today

Agree or disagree?

But it's not equitable.

"I talk to my students and establish what the difference is between equality and equity. Equality is everyone being treated the same, whereas equity is everyone getting what they need to succeed. After addressing that with my students and reinforcing it, I'm able to meet my students' needs for isolated seating, fidget cubes for stress, or standing during testing, intervention and small groups in Zoom."

"A positive transfer effect of the demand to accommodate students with learning differences may be to disrupt this structural bias and stretch our education systems to support and even foster diversity." - Jutta Treviranus, Director of OCAD University's Inclusive Design Research Centre

Examine your assumptions about:

"We work with each child and have identified the students that are having difficulty with being online or are having technology issues and are checking in every day to see how we can help. We've even tried handing out hotspots where we can."

"I provide accommodations to students with special needs on a daily basis. I have to think about how everything can be accessible for their needs. I have audio recordings, videos to watch, interactive online lessons, editable documents, live lessons and more."

"We assign the label of "disabled" when it is either impossible or extremely difficult to conform to standard expectations. As such these are the students that most feel the effects of educational inflexibility. Conversely, they may also be the greatest impetus for greater systemic adaptability, to the benefit of all students."

"I always think about what books I'm reading aloud to my class and what message I'm sending. Does every student in my class see themselves in a book that we read? Can they identify with the problem? The character? Am I exposing my students to new learning? Or am I only showing them what they already know and see?"

"Achieving greater equity in education is not only a social-justice imperative, it is also a way to use resources more efficiently, and to increase the supply of knowledge and skills that fuel economic growth and promote social cohesion. Not least, how we treat the most vulnerable students shows who we are as a society."
Sign up for my free teacher account today

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Powerful Ways to Promote Equity in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Maria Kampen All Posts Every student in my classroom deserves an equal chance. Agree or disagree? Responding to the level of diversity in your classroom is more important than ever. But all too often, our education system reinforces the same inequalities it was designed to overcome.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion | RAILS: Reaching Across Illinois Library System

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What is white privilege, anyway? And do we really need to teach about it? Join Teaching and Learning Specialist Stef Bernal-Martinez and anti-racist educator and scholar Ronda Taylor Bullock for this interactive, research-rich opportunity to explore white privilege and help you create a more racially just classroom and community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Awareness: Learn the history of systemic racism in this country and develop a common understanding of key terms that will leverage the ability to act

Examine: Interrogate internal belief systems and understand and acknowledge internal bias and how biases impact daily actions

Acknowledge: Evaluate and assess the equity of current policies, practices and daily interactions

Action: With current knowledge base, shift policies, practices and interactions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Awareness: Learn the history of systemic racism in this country and develop a common understanding of key terms that will leverage the ability to act Examine: Interrogate internal belief systems and understand and acknowledge internal bias and how biases impact daily actions Acknowledge: Evaluate and assess the equity of current policies, practices and daily interactions Action: With current knowledge base, shift policies, practices and interactions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The radical nature of educational equity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dreama Gentry knows a thing or two about the radical nature of her work leading an organization committed to ensuring the success of all Appalachian children. In her talk, she encourages us all to step into the radical work of today in order to ensure the success of our young folks.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
From Empathy to Equity - The ebb and flow of reciprocal leadership | Ebony Green | TEDxNewburgh

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Q: How do you define equity in public education?

A: The National Center for Teacher Residencies' (NCTR) vision to ensure that all students have access to a high-quality teacher is carried out through our mission to launch and support high-performing residency programs that prepare highly-effective teachers. Equity for all students requires acknowledging and disrupting traditional notions of power and hierarchies and taking a collective responsibility for correcting existing systems and structures. We advocate for leveling the playing field - and even transforming and creating new playing fields - so that all students have the opportunity to learn. NCTR's 10-year investment in improving educator preparation reveals that the residency model is the best strategy for achieving these goals.

In February 2013, the Commission on Equity and Excellence in Education released a report that highlighted the many challenges that teacher preparation programs face, including the problem of program quality from state-to-state, and the misalignment of state systems to recruit, retain, prepare, license, evaluate, develop, and compensate effective teachers. The Commission suggested that states should consider investments in teacher residencies "that create a steady supply of highly effective recruits in high-need communities." In the fall of 2014, the U.S. Department of Education further underscored the need to address equitable access to effective educators with their emphasis on state equity plans, saying that states should ensure that "poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified or out-of-field teachers."

Teacher residency programs are a key strategy to address inequity in school systems and the inequitable distribution of effective teachers in states and districts. The residency model aims to attract teacher candidates from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Focused on high need schools and student populations, NCTR supports the launch and scale of teacher residency programs that prepare new teachers to enter the profession ready to meet learner needs. Over 5 years, one effective elementary teacher may reach 150 students; NCTR partner residencies have prepared more than 3,000 graduates to date.

Q: Based on your experience working with state leaders and policymakers, what has been the most common question or challenge states are grappling with as it relates to ESSA and equity?

A: In April 2017, sixteen states and the District of Columbia submitted their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) implementation plans to the U.S. Department of Education. The vast majority of the plans submitted included commitments from the states to use their federal professional development dollars to support teacher residencies and other key components of high-quality, clinically-based preparation. While states have spent much of the past decade focused on teacher quality, they are just now considering the role that preparation plays in an effective teacher's professional experience.

A common challenge is that states have struggled to identify a statewide strategy for improving the quality, diversity, and experience of new teachers. And, states have not systematically integrated teacher preparation into other K-12 improvement initiatives. This has divided the elementary/secondary and higher education communities, leaving schools focused on teacher quality as a lever to improve student learning, but without a steady pipeline of effective new teachers. As a result, schools with historical inequities of opportunity for students are often left struggling to staff their classrooms with effective educators. Put simply, the states' neediest students don't get access to quality teachers.

Now, states are considering how residencies are a research-based approach for improving new teacher entry into the profession and ensuring they are ready to meet student learning needs on day one. With residencies, states are revising and strengthening preparation to ensure they attract and retain high potential candidates from diverse backgrounds to work in diverse school settings.

The components of the residency model resonate with policymakers, educators, and parents, and states are now positioned to usher in systems-level change in teacher preparation.

Residencies use a multi-pronged approach to improve the quality of teacher preparation through:

research-based, data-driven programming to prepare day-one ready teachers;

partnerships across schools, institutions of higher education, and community organizations that are focused on common impact goals;

strengthened selection and assessment of candidates;

professional growth opportunities for effective, experienced teachers; and,

investments to build capacity in schools.

Q: What policy mechanism(s) relating to ESSA would you identify as having the most potential to create a more equitable education system?

A: States and districts are increasingly turning to teacher residencies as a key strategy in improving student achievement and teacher effectiveness. The flexibility provided under ESSA facilitates and encourages this solution. States and school districts should use the flexibility provided in both Title I and Title II, Part A of the federal education law to address teacher preparation and effectiveness. Title I provides flexibility in developing plans to support the development and implementation of school improvement activities, and state and local districts are strongly encouraged to use Title II, Part A funds to improve equitable access to effective teachers.

NCTR believes states can use their authority under ESSA to support improvements in their teacher preparation systems through teacher residencies and by focusing on four main policy areas:

1. Partnership and Stakeholder Collaboration: States can convene, encourage and define collaboration between stakeholders including, institutions of higher education, school districts, and community-based organizations.

2. Recruitment and Selection: States can create systems to attract and retain high potential teacher candidates.

3. Coaching and Feedback: States can define and support effective mentoring, and require quality mentoring practices in teacher preparation programs.

4. Assessment and Evaluation: States can promote programs that graduate effective teachers.

Q: What work does your organization have coming up (or recently completed) in this area?

A: The National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) released a report in June entitled "Recommendations for State Support for Effective Teacher Residencies" to encourage states and districts to use teacher residencies, and the core components of clinically-based preparation, as a high-impact strategy for school improvement. States and school districts can use the flexibility provided in both Title I and Title II, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to address teacher preparation and effectiveness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An Equity Q&A with Anissa Listak, Founder & CEO at the National Center for Teacher Residencies · The Hunt Institute

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Q: How do you define equity in public education? A: The National Center for Teacher Residencies' (NCTR) vision to ensure that all students have access to a high-quality teacher is carried out through our mission to launch and support high-performing residency programs that prepare highly-effective teachers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An Equity Q&A with Laura Slover, CEO at CenterPoint Education Solutions · The Hunt Institute

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Q: How do you define equity in public education? A: Educational equity means that every student has access to a quality education that prepares them for a meaningful career, postsecondary learning, and engaged citizenship in our country and in the world. This is what every child deserves regardless of his or her race, gender, ethnicity, [...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The consciousness gap in education - an equity imperative | Dorinda Carter Andrews | TEDxLansingED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
America is becoming increasingly more diverse. According to the Census Bureau, by the year 2100, the U.S. minority population will become the majority, with non-Hispanic whites making up about 40% of the U.S. population. And while the school population shifts, the teacher population is projected to remain overwhelmingly white and female. According to Edweek.org, a 2017-2018 survey found that 79.3% of public school teachers are white, 9.3% are Hispanic, 7% are Black and about 2% are Asian.

As the student population changes, so do classrooms. Schools must prioritize efforts to promote diversity and equity within their school culture and within the classroom. It is important to focus on diversity and equity because white teachers have to be able to use classroom instruction to support a diverse student population. Below are 5 ways to promote equity and diversity in your classroom.

5 ways to promote equity and diversity in the classroom

Promoting equity and diversity in your classroom begins with self awareness. Educators must recognize how the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status, and being able-bodied impact us individually. We must understand how our identification within a particular group gives us privilege in certain spaces and we must be open to actively listen to marginalized groups who experience life differently because of their social groupings. We must acknowledge our personal biases and seek to understand people with different experiences.

Kickboard's Equity Training takes educators through four distinct phases of anti-racism work: awareness, examination, acknowledgement and action; allowing teachers to move from awareness to action to promote equity and become anti-racist.

An important part of promoting equity and diversity is setting norms in your classroom that promote inclusion and openness. Be explicit about the way students in your class will be respectful to each other; and share ideas, opinions and values. Teach students how to disagree respectfully. Use Restorative Practices and promote self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Challenge negative stereotypes immediately and openly. Create class norms together with your students to give students ownership over their community. Be flexible and ready to amend and refine norms as needed.

Culturally relevant, or responsive, teaching emphasizes academic excellence, cultural competence, and social and political analysis and activsim. This pedagogy provides a framework for exposing students to diverse cultures in deep, meaningful ways and prioritizes academic excellence for all students. This framework is also unique because of its emphasis on social justice and activism.

In a 2007 study the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality found that 76% of new teachers said they were trained to teach ethnically diverse students however, less than 40% said the training was helpful. If schools do not invest in high quality professional development that emphasizes culturally relevant teaching, teachers may feel underprepared to create a learning environment that promotes equity and diversity and supports all students.

It is important to remember that diversity is not just about race. Culturally relevant teaching prioritizes analysis of academic performance that recognizes the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status, and being able-bodied.

Conversations about diversity and equity can be uncomfortable for students and teachers. An important part of promoting equity and diversity in your classroom is purposeful planning. Planning a lesson is just as important as the execution of the lesson; especially if your class will discuss sensitive topics or ideas.

Before you plan, consider:

Text: Think about the text that you can use to explore topics about multiculturalism. Consider texts that explore alternate opinions or view history from a new perspective that may not be present in mainstream text.

Discourse: When planning consider ways that you can facilitate, rather than lead, a group discussion. As facilitator, your job is to get your students to take the lead; by posing open-ended questions you guide the discussion and challenge ideas but you may not necessarily "take a side". Stepping back and facilitating empowers students to speak to each other. Students benefit from hearing from their peers. Create opportunities for students to participate in discussions where they listen to each other actively and challenge opinions respectfully.

Differentiation: An important part of equity is educational access. When planning, consider how you will differentiate your lessons for various learners and learning styles. This includes having various levels of text, differentiating the way students show mastery, and varying the ways that you present topics. Also consider using collaborative learning groups that allow students to work in groups within their class.

Participation: When planning a discussion or lesson you must also consider equity in participation. Some students are very vocal while others are more quiet. Plan ways to keep all students active and engaged in the learning so all student ideas are shared and represented.

Your students and their families have a wealth of knowledge to share about themselves. Invite parents and family members into your classroom as community experts. Allow them to read a book about a particular issue that relates to their culture or that they are passionate about. Show students various representations of their culture and other cultures. Invite people from the community to your class as guest speakers to talk about a topic your class is learning about. Invite persons with physical or learning disabilities to talk about their experience as a student. Creating respectful ways for students to have diverse experiences adds value to the learning experience for everyone. The more exposure students get to diverse people, experiences and identities the more prepared they will be for life outside of the classroom.

Here at Kickboard, we value culturally responsive teaching and leading. Since our founding, Kickboard has worked to give educators the tools they need to create safe and happy schools where students and staff thrive. Kickboard's Equity & Anti-Racism Professional Development aims to support districts, schools and teachers towards becoming anti-racist. Given that the vast majority of our schools are composed predominantly of students of color, the culture and climate work we do with schools inevitably intersects with issues of race and disproportionality in discipline. Promoting equity is a priority for Kickboard and we are intentional about situating the work we do at the intersection of positive behavioral supports, cultural relevance, restorative practices, and racial equity. Learn more about how we do that, here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Ways to Promote Equity & Diversity in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
America is becoming increasingly more diverse. According to the Census Bureau, by the year 2100, the U.S. minority population will become the majority, with non-Hispanic whites making up about 40% of the U.S. population. And while the school population shifts, the teacher population is projected to remain overwhelmingly white and female.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Department of Education Equity Action Plan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The U.S. Department of Education has released its inaugural equity action plan as part of the Biden-Harris Administration's continued commitment to advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government. This plan aligns with the one of the President's first Executive orders: 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The twin daggers of the coronavirus pandemic and the national protests over race and policing that erupted after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis have made deeply rooted inequities harder to ignore.

As principals face another year leading teachers and, more importantly, students who've lived through both of these traumatic and cataclysmic events, some experts argue it's not enough for school leaders to say they're committed to social justice or to creating equitable schools: To meet the moment, they must be explicitly anti-racist.

No beating around the bushes, they say. No embracing umbrella terms like "achievement gaps" or "inequitable outcomes" that provide comfort to some but impede the difficult and often uncomfortable work of both exploring one's own racial identity and then actively rooting out policies and practices that disproportionately affect Black and brown students.

Anti-racist school leadership is about becoming more racially aware and developing the skills to "dismantle racism and the connected oppressions," said Mark Gooden, a professor of education leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. Importantly, it's about taking action.

Are principals prepared to be anti-racist leaders?

Many may be well-intentioned, but the short answer is no.

One reason is that most university-based preparation programs have not explicitly prioritized anti-racist school leadership. While prep programs may offer a course or two on equity, schools and communities, or culturally responsive leadership, they're often near the end of the program, giving the impression that they're optional or not as important as the rest of the syllabus, said Bradley Carpenter, an associate professor of educational leadership at Baylor University, who has worked on explicitly anti-racist programs at the University of Louisville and the University of Houston.

Whether those courses are even taught in preparation programs is largely dependent on whether university faculty see them as worthy of including in the syllabus, according to Anjalé Welton, a professor in the educational leadership and policy-analysis department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her colleagues.

That haphazard approach is never going to cut it if we expect principals to become anti-racist leaders and create more just, equitable, and fairer learning environments for their Black and brown students.

"What's so frustrating is that racial-equity work is deemed as something that is ad hoc, something I tackle after I have all the other school-improvement-related needs," Welton said of how some school leaders approach the job. "This should be the centerpiece of what you do. This should be what it is about. It should be the driver of what you do."

It's also imperative that principals running schools with small numbers of Black and brown students or no students of color have exposure to this kind of leadership training because those students are going to live and work in a multicultural world, Gooden argued.

Principals, teachers, and district leaders want to do this, according to an exclusive, nationally representative Education Week survey. Preparation, the survey confirms, is scarce: 82 percent of educators in that survey said they had not received anti-racist or abolitionist professional development in their preparation programs. And more than half-59 percent-said they had neither the training nor the resources to support the implementation of an anti-racist curriculum. Only 14 percent said they had both the training and resources to do so.

How do you bridge the gap between will and skill, and what can preparation programs do?

Programs must rebrand to be explicitly anti-racist, Carpenter said.

It starts with how programs recruit candidates: They must proactively seek leaders who are committed to leading anti-racist schools and support those school leaders with coaching, professional development, networking, and other development opportunities after graduation.

University faculty should be hired from diverse backgrounds and include those with expertise in teaching about race, white supremacy, and inequality. Professors should look like the students in the districts they are serving. But like much of K-12, education leadership faculty is still very white. That's not to say that white professors can't effectively do this work. Baylor's Carpenter is white and has been working on anti-racist leadership programs for about eight years.

Districts and university partnerships must also change. Are universities recruiting candidates that also look like the students in the districts they will serve?

Examination of critical race theory (the relationship between racial categories and institutional power), race, and racism should be threaded throughout the curriculum, not relegated to a single course at the tail end of the program. Each course should help educators adopt or adapt anti-racism approaches, Gooden said. For example, a study of school finance should help school leaders explore the inequitable distribution of school resources-from actual dollars to the placement of the most qualified teachers. Data courses should equip school leaders with the skills to uncover and untangle racial inequities in schools, including in Advanced Placement courses, discipline, and mainstreaming of special education students. Policy courses should deepen understanding of the history and legacy of housing segregation, including redlining and exclusionary-zoning practices, that still determine present-day school funding and attendance zones in many communities.

Adding a course or module on facilitating conversations on race, racism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness is also essential. This work requires a specific skill set, and many principals, who will have to lead difficult and uncomfortable conversations with their staff, are not equipped to do it.

Prep programs have a lot of work to do, the UW-Madison's Welton said.

"We need to be upfront about whiteness and white supremacy," she said. "We need to help educators understand how they function and how whiteness and white supremacy are tethered to anti-Blackness and other ways in which we pathologize racially minoritized groups and communities."

As anyone knows, changes in academia can move slowly, but some programs have evolved in recent years to make social justice, equity, and anti-racism more prominent in the curriculum. The key, Carpenter said, is hiring the right people and having the backing from the top-deans and provosts who're committed to training anti-racist leaders and investing time and resources into developing new syllabi and experiences for aspiring school leaders.

Otherwise, well-intentioned professors can feel like they are swimming against the tide and will have limited impact.

Until most education programs double down on creating anti-racist leaders, what can eager principals do?

Know, first of all, it's more than just reading a couple of books, Welton warned.

It takes time and it has to be repeated-over and over. It's uncomfortable-both for the principal, who may be examining their own identity for the first time, and the teachers and staff who're going to be asked to do so. And there will be pushback, especially from those who see the world through race-neutral lenses or are wedded to colorblindness. People may leave. They may think the principal who is asking them to think critically about race is the one being divisive-or even the one being racist, said Gooden of Teachers College.

Said Welton, "It's about everyone being committed and bought into doing the headwork, really doing the important reflective work about their own identity, their attitudes that they bring to the table. But also not just doing that work but constantly reflecting on how systems, structures, norms continue to reproduce racism within schools-who are they serving, who are they not serving-and continuously doing that work and not letting it just be a single moment."

Until anti-racist leadership training becomes more widely available, school leaders can do some things immediately, according to some experts:

* Read widely on what it means to be an anti-racist leader.

* Ask yourself: What does it mean to be a white, Black, or Latino, Asian, or Indigenous person? What privileges do or do not accompany that identity?

* Connect with an expert in anti-racist leadership as well as other principals who are doing this work. Having a like-minded group of leaders for mutual support and problem-solving can be a tremendous asset.

* Review curriculum, building- and district-level data, and school policies with the goal of rooting out inequities. Review textbooks to ensure that they represent the student body-and the country-and not simply default to whiteness as the norm. Examine hiring practices that may intentionally or unintentionally privilege one group of candidates over others.

* Develop skills to speak with staff about race and racism.

* Engage staff. Be vulnerable and share with your staff the steps you're taking to become more racially aware. Facilitate discussions and professional development on race, race neutrality, and colorblindness, and provide materials on anti-racism to staff.

* Be open to discussing racist incidents that occur inside and outside of school with students.

* Don't assume you know what to do. Ask the community-especially parents and students-what they need and how you can improve. Let them be an active part of the process, beyond once-a-year climate surveys.

* Develop a network of support outside your school district. "If you don't have a network, you'll hit an emotional and psychological wall," Carpenter said. "You are going to trend toward burnout and fatigue."

In a profession where much of the workforce is white-78 percent for principals and 79 percent for teachers-the work of creating anti-racist schools cannot be left to Black and other educators of color. For this effort to be truly transformative, white educators must get on board.

"White school leaders really need to be deeply reflective every time they are making a decision," Welton said. "They need to be reflective about how their own white privilege and overall whiteness play into the decision they are making."

This is not a solo journey, nor can it be accomplished in a vacuum, according to the experts. Principals need to know that their superintendents and school boards will have their backs when those who have historically wielded power and privilege feel threatened. They also need committed teacher-leaders, political leaders, and community power brokers on board.

In order to get over that hurdle, school leaders must be "willing not to capitulate to the very vocal privileged faction of the community," Welton said. "They need to be willing to do what's right for those who have been grossly underserved in their community."

How do you evaluate whether you've been successful?

The evidence should be visible in discipline and suspension data, staff hiring, student placement in higher-level courses, and how connected students and communities feel to their school.

But Welton said that commonly used accountability measures will not capture the full scope; principals' long-term commitment to the work is also an important barometer.

"Six months from now, are we still doing this work?" Welton said. "Are we still committed to continuously checking our policies and structures and asking ourselves questions about who we not serving and who we are serving well? That should be your metric."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Principals Need Help Building Anti-Racist Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The twin daggers of the coronavirus pandemic and the national protests over race and policing that erupted after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis have made deeply rooted inequities harder to ignore.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona highlighted the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to reimagine pathways to college and career in a speech at the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, rail, and Transportation (SMART) Workers' 2023 leadership conference. His remarks, as prepared for delivery, are available below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
disabilities; special education; idea; individuals with disabilities education act

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) - Home Page

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is dedicated to improving results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities ages birth through 21 by providing leadership and financial support to assist states and local districts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Program Office: Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII)
CFDA Number: 84.215P (Planning) and 84.215N (Implementation)
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants
Please visit our updated website for information on the Promise Neighborhoods program. Details pertaining to the FY 2017 Promise Neighborhoods competition may be found on the updated website. https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/parental-options/promise-neighborhoods-pn/
Promise Neighborhoods, established under the legislative authority of the Fund for the Improvement of Education Program (FIE), provides funding to support eligible entities, including (1) nonprofit organizations, which may include faith-based nonprofit organizations, (2) institutions of higher education, and (3) Indian tribes.

The vision of the program is that all children and youth growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to great schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and a career. The purpose of Promise Neighborhoods is to significantly improve the educational and developmental outcomes of children and youth in our most distressed communities, and to transform those communities by-

1. Identifying and increasing the capacity of eligible entities that are focused on achieving results for children and youth throughout an entire neighborhood;

2. Building a complete continuum of cradle-to-career solutions of both educational programs and family and community supports, with great schools at the center;

3. Integrating programs and breaking down agency "silos" so that solutions are implemented effectively and efficiently across agencies;

4. Developing the local infrastructure of systems and resources needed to sustain and scale up proven, effective solutions across the broader region beyond the initial neighborhood; and

5. Learning about the overall impact of the Promise Neighborhoods program and about the relationship between particular strategies in Promise Neighborhoods and student outcomes, including through a rigorous evaluation of the program.

In 2010, the Promise Neighborhoods program awarded one-year grants to support the development of a plan to implement a Promise Neighborhood in 21 communities across the country that included the core features described above. At the conclusion of the planning grant period, grantees should have a feasible plan to implement a continuum of solutions that will significantly improve results for children in the community being served.

In 2011, the Department awarded a second round of planning grants and a first round of implementation grants. The five implementation grants and 15 planning grants reached an additional 16 communities throughout the United States in order to help revitalize disadvantaged neighborhoods.

In 2012, a third round of planning grants and a second round of implementation grants were awarded. The 7 implementation grants and 10 planning grants reached an additional 11 news communities throughout the country. Promise Neighborhoods is now in 20 states and the District of Columbia.

In subsequent years, contingent on the availability of funds, the Department intends to conduct competitions for new implementation and planning grants. While all eligible entities will be able to apply for implementation grants, eligible entities that have effectively carried out the planning activities described in the Notice Inviting Applications, whether independently or with a Promise Neighborhoods planning grant, are likely to be well positioned with the plan, commitments, data, and demonstrated organizational leadership and capacity necessary to develop a quality application for an implementation grant.

For more information on the Promise Neighborhoods program and to obtain access to tools and resources please go to Promise Neighborhoods

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
community involvement; discretionary grants; educational improvement; federal programs; community; higher education; nonprofit organizations; schools; technical assistance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Program Office: Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) CFDA Number: 84.215P (Planning) and 84.215N (Implementation) Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants Please visit our updated website for information on the Promise Neighborhoods program. Details pertaining to the FY 2017 Promise Neighborhoods competition may be found on the updated website.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
***OCR CORRESPONDENCE NOTIFICATION***

The majority of OCR staff are working remotely because of the pandemic. Therefore, to ensure receipt of your correspondence, please consider emailing or faxing (202-245-8392) it to our office, where it will receive immediate attention. If neither of these options are available to you, mail your correspondence to the address below, and we will process it as soon as conditions allow. You may also contact us at 800-421-3481 or to confirm receipt of your correspondence.
U.S. Department of Education
Office for Civil Rights
Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Bldg
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202-1100

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
civil rights; disability discrimination; age discrimination; sex discrimination; racial discrimination; special education; national origin; gender discrimination

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Office for Civil Rights | U.S. Department of Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
OCR CORRESPONDENCE NOTIFICATION*** The majority of OCR staff are working remotely because of the pandemic. Therefore, to ensure receipt of your correspondence, please consider emailing or faxing (202-245-8392) it to our office, where it will receive immediate attention.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equity and Excellence Commission | U.S. Department of Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many of the pages on the site moved to new URLs during our recent redesign. If you reached this page by using a bookmark or a link from another site, please search for the updated url using our Bookmark Search below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many of the pages on the site moved to new URLs during our recent redesign. If you reached this page by using a bookmark or a link from another site, please search for the updated url using our Bookmark Search below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona highlighted the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to reimagine pathways to college and career in a speech at the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, rail, and Transportation (SMART) Workers' 2023 leadership conference. His remarks, as prepared for delivery, are available below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We've changed our name to better reflect our mission and our work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LibGuides: SLIB 600 - Fall 2019: Erin, Lisa, Melissa

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cases cited below are sorted by protected class with links to case summaries and important complaints, briefs, settlement agreements, consent decrees, orders, and press releases. The official text of any legal document is the version filed with the clerk of the court.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cases cited below are sorted by protected class with links to case summaries and important complaints, briefs, settlement agreements, consent decrees, orders, and press releases. The official text of any legal document is the version filed with the clerk of the court.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Ways Educators Can Take Action in Pursuit of Equity | Cult of Pedagogy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Awareness of educational inequity is important, but we also need to take action. Pedro Noguera shares ten ways educators can do just that.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On April 6, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education released for public comment its proposed amendment to the Department's regulation implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The proposed amendment aims to advance Title IX's longstanding goal of ensuring equal opportunity based on sex in athletics and would provide much needed clarity for students, parents, coaches, and schools. The Department's notice of proposed rulemaking will be open for public comment until May 15, 2023.
Disability Discrimination (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act)
On May 6, 2022, OCR announced that it intends to propose amendments to the Department's regulations at 34 C.F.R. pt. 104, implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As part of this process, OCR is seeking written suggestions from the public about how best to improve the current regulations. It would be appreciated if longer and more detailed comments were submitted by the end of June 2022, but all comments submitted prior to the issuance of any notice of proposed rulemaking will be reviewed. Instructions and cautions are below.
INSTRUCTIONS:

Send your comments to Section504@ed.gov.

If you are submitting attachments with your email, the Department strongly encourages you to submit attachments in Microsoft Word format. If you must submit a comment in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), the Department strongly encourages you to convert the PDF to "print-to-PDF" format, or to use some other commonly used searchable text format. Please do not submit the PDF in a scanned format. Using a print-to-PDF format allows the Department to electronically search and copy certain portions of your submissions and will make them more accessible when made available for public viewing.

If you do not have internet access or electronic submission is not possible, you may mail written comments to: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Bldg., 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20202-1100.

CAUTIONS:

Be careful to include only information, including personal information, that you are comfortable making publicly available. The Department may make all emails and attachments received at Section504@ed.gov available for public viewing without redactions.

Emails received at Section504@ed.gov will not be treated as complaints. If you wish to file a complaint alleging that an educational institution engaged in discrimination on the basis of disability, please follow the complaint-filing instructions available on our website.

Do not submit questions or inquiries to Section504@ed.gov. Receipt of your email will be acknowledged, but questions and inquiries will not be responded to. Questions should be directed to OCR@ed.gov.

Do not submit comments focused on OCR's handling of particular pending complaints filed with OCR to Section504@ed.gov. They will not be individually responded to. Such comments should be directed to the appropriate OCR regional office responsible for the complaint.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
civil rights; racial discrimination; national origin discrimination; disability discrimination; sex discrimination; age discrimination;

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Regulations enforced by the Office for Civil Rights.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the last webinar of our series on school climate, NEA and Teaching Tolerance will offer strategies for responding to biased remarks in a timely manner and helping students to do the same. You will learn to name different types of biased language you might hear at school, identify words that have become colloquial yet are still harmful, understand intent versus impact and gain valuable skills for creating a positive school climate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the last webinar of our series on school climate, NEA and Teaching Tolerance will offer strategies for responding to biased remarks in a timely manner and helping students to do the same.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Can your students tell the difference between real news and "fake" news? Do they have the tools to speak up when they witness offensive speech online? Teaching Tolerance is proud to introduce our newest collection of K-12 lessons to help students learn to be responsible digital citizens. Join Dr. Kate Shuster and us as we discuss today's online media landscape and examine numerous challenges students may face in the digital era. This webinar will introduce the Teaching Tolerance Digital Literacy Lessons Suite to help you prepare your students to surf intelligently and responsibly.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Can your students tell the difference between real news and "fake" news? Do they have the tools to speak up when they witness offensive speech online? Teaching Tolerance is proud to introduce our newest collection of K-12 lessons to help students learn to be responsible digital citizens.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Listen to my interview with Victor Small (transcript):
Sponsored by Pear Deck and Peergrade

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
A student threw a chair at a teacher.
That's the story I heard. It was a story meant to illustrate how bad a particular group of kids was, and now I can't even remember who the teacher was or where the school was located, or even the gender of the teacher or the student. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've heard two or three different stories about students throwing things at teachers, each one told with the intent of showing just how bad those kids were.

But every time I've heard a story like that, my first thought has always been, Holy crap. What kind of a relationship did that teacher have with those students? What was going on in the minutes, days, and weeks leading up to that chair being thrown?

And I know how that sounds. It sounds like I'm blaming the teacher. Or that I don't think a student should be held responsible for doing something as awful as throwing a piece of furniture at another human being.

I don't think that. But here's what I think probably happened in all of those schools: The student was removed from class and promptly suspended, maybe even expelled. And if and when that student returned to school, nothing much was done to repair that student's relationship with the teacher. Or to really address the other issues that may have been going on leading up to that chair being thrown. And if that kind of work isn't done, if we focus only on making our punishments stricter, then things like chair throwing will keep happening. And nobody wants that.

Getting students to behave in a way that is conducive to learning is a perennial challenge for teachers. On this site I have dealt with the topic a number of times. And every piece of advice-the tips and hacks and bits of wisdom-they are all useful.

But one approach to addressing problematic behavior-restorative justice-really stands on its own, because it focuses on building relationships and repairing harm, rather than simply punishing students for misbehavior.

I have wanted to share more about restorative justice on my site for years, but every time I started, I found that the topic was just too big, too complex to handle all at once. Usually, I try to share things that teachers can understand and apply right away, and the concept of restorative justice just wasn't letting me package and deliver it in a tidy little bundle.

So rather than try to do that, I'm going to just start with an overview. This will not be a comprehensive study of restorative practices, but an introduction designed for teachers who are just starting to get interested in this approach.

Helping me do that is Victor Small, Jr., a middle school administrator in Oakland, California. He has been using restorative practices for several years and supports other teachers through a Twitter chat-using the hashtag #RJLeagueChat -and a Voxer group called the Restorative Justice League, where educators talk about the challenges they're facing in implementing restorative practices and help each other work through tough situations.

In our interview, Small walks me through some of the basics of restorative justice-called RJ by many of its practitioners-and talks about how teachers can get started. You can listen to the interview in the player above, read a full transcript, or review the key takeaways here.

What is Restorative Justice?

The philosophy of restorative justice has its roots in the criminal justice system. When a crime is committed in a modern society, the typical response is to punish the offender, and that's about it. But societies all over the world have started to recognize that this approach doesn't repair the harm that was done; it also does nothing to address underlying problems that may have led to the offense in the first place. So they are starting to replace-or at least supplement-the standard approach with restorative justice practices, which focus on repairing harm for all parties involved. This process may include some form of punishment for the offender, but the lens is much wider than that.

"Say you stole a car," Small says. "Instead of you necessarily doing jail time, really what you would have to first do is make sure that you restore the situation to the person who you actually harmed, which would be the person whose car you stole, right? So you would have to restore that in some way. Either you'd have to get them their car back or get them a new car and apologize or something like that. Basically, the debt that you owe to society is to that person that you harmed."

This shift toward restorative justice has led to reduced recidivism (repeat offenses), greater satisfaction with the outcomes from all stakeholders, and reduced post-traumatic stress caused by the crime. (These results are summarized in this overview from the University of Wisconsin.)

Encouraged by these successes, educators in some schools have started using restorative practices to address disruptive or harmful behavior. With this shift, schools hope to see improved behavior and to reverse a disturbing trend: The zero-tolerance discipline policies of the past few decades have dramatically increased suspension rates in many districts, which can in turn lower graduation rates and ultimately push more students into the juvenile justice system. And again, those suspensions do nothing to repair harm.

Common Restorative Practices

The thing about restorative justice is that unlike a typical discipline program, it is not a cut-and-dried system with prescribed steps to follow in every situation. If done correctly, schools that shift to restorative justice will approach it holistically, looking at preventing wrongdoing as much as-if not more than-how to address it when it occurs.

"What we're essentially teaching students is your behavior affects people," Small explains, "and so in order to pay it forward or to deal with the consequences of that, you're going to have to figure out how to make things right. When we talk about restorative justice practices, we're talking about the things you're doing to ensure that students are recognizing when they're doing something wrong and finding a way to make it right."

Although restorative justice models vary somewhat from school to school, Small says schools that are doing it right have the following practices at their core.

Building Relationships

Schools that get interested in restorative justice may be tempted to jump right to the alternative punishments, but a true RJ program puts heavy emphasis on relationships. These relationships go in all directions: teacher to student, student to student, teacher to teacher, and between the school and the larger community.

These bonds are not forged overnight. Daily conversations, team-building exercises, telling our own stories and making time and space for students to tell theirs helps build relationships over time. "You've got to give them time to grow with one another," Small says.

And if you do, it pays off. "If you've got everybody in the school liking and getting along with one another, well when they do something wrong, it's a lot easier for that kid to apologize. The reason I'm really a very big proponent of RJ is if you're doing it right, you're going to prevent a whole lot of issues from occurring."

A Mindset Shift

To be effective with restorative justice, teachers need to adopt a restorative mindset, a way of looking at wrongdoing and punishment through a different lens.

"Everything that a kid does shouldn't have to have a consequence," Small says. "I mean if a kid gets angry and says something to another kid, and that kid gets mad, do they need detention for that, or do they need to just fix the problem and not be mad at each other? Probably just fix the problem, not be mad at each other, and go on about their lives. If they didn't do anything wrong to the class or the community and they just did something messed-up to another student, they can handle that between the two students. You could facilitate that. It teaches them, hey, you have to be accountable for your actions, because your actions do have impact on other students, without having them sit in detention, right?"

Circles

Pulling groups of people together into circles for conversation is one of the most recognizable features of schools that have adopted restorative practices. These circles can take many forms: mediation circles when a problem needs to be addressed, healing circles when group members are hurting or grieving, or circles that form just for dialogue and storytelling. When circles are a regular part of the school culture, they give students a vehicle for communicating when problems arise, rather than handling them in less constructive ways.

Where to Start

Small offers this advice for educators who want to get started with restorative justice:

Read about RJ

A lot of excellent books have been written about restorative practices. To make sure you and your colleagues are working from a solid foundation, read up on the history and philosophy before attempting to implement an RJ program. I have listed a few good starter books at the end of this post, and a lot more can be found online that detail specific practices.

Identify Your Biases and Triggers

A big part of addressing student misbehavior and building strong relationships with students is uncovering our own built-in biases. And the first step toward doing that is getting comfortable with the idea that we all have them.

"It's really painful for us to consider this," Small says, "but if we walk into our classrooms and we really try to believe that an approach to colorblindness is one that's effective, we're really shortchanging our kids' lives, because if we're just constantly telling them, 'Hey, I don't see color,' when they leave your classroom, someone's going to see their color. And someone's going to act possibly on the fact that they see their color, so we're setting them up for failure if we don't do our own investigation of, 'Do I have any biases against any particular type of culture, any particular type of culture activity, any of my students? Do I have any things that trigger certain behavior or fears or anger that they do that they do naturally? Taking a step back and wondering, is it me or is it them?'"

Build Culture and Community

If you have a school culture where students feel known, where they feel at home, behavior on the whole will be better and efforts to address wrongdoing will be more productive. Getting to that point will happen if you approach culture-building from a lot of different angles.

"Work on finding ways to include kids in what's going on," Small says, "like allowing more student voice, allowing more student opportunities for them to display their culture, act on their culture, be a part of their culture."

Having caring adults in the building who look like the student body is also more important than many people realize. "You need to give (students) opportunities to learn about people that look like them, that are from their culture, that represent them. If 99 percent of your staff is white and 99 percent of your student body is black and Latino, you're going to need to figure out a way to get more black and Latino staff members in your school." ( This conversation with former teacher of the year Nate Bowling dives more deeply into this topic.)

Finally, schools can work to make the school more integrated into the larger community. "If you can find ways to learn about the neighborhoods, the communities and find ways to bring people from the community and in the neighborhoods into your school, you're creating a school culture that the students can feel more at home in." And when students feel at home, when they know each other, there's less of a need to address misbehavior.

"They just get along better, so they fight less," Small says of his students. "There's less reason for them to fight, because everyone knows everyone else."

Okay, but what about the discipline?

Having finished this overview, I realize I never quite got to the question of How does restorative justice actually deal with the misbehavior?

The answer to this is complicated, because it's not as simple as detention-suspension-expulsion. There are conferences and circles, a lot of discussion about the harm that was done and how it can be repaired. Individual decisions are made on an individual basis. There's more to it than I can cover in one post, but I plan to do more posts later to dig more deeply into the details. I really do believe that restorative justice is the direction we need to be heading to create safer, healthier school communities.

I hope you'll take a step in that direction. ♦

To Learn More

These books offer a great starting point for learning more about restorative practices:

Better than Carrots or Sticks:
Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management
Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey

The Little Book of Restorative Justice
Howard Zehr

The Little Book of Restorative Discipline for Schools:
Teaching Responsibility; Creating Caring Climates
Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, Judy H. Mullet

Touching Spirit Bear
(Reader Recommended)
Ben Mikaelsen

You can find Victor Small, Jr., on Twitter at @MrSmall215, and join him every Sunday night at 8pm EST for the #RJLeagueChat.

Come back for more.
Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration-in quick, bite-sized packages-all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 other teachers have already joined-come on in.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Restorative Justice in School: An Overview

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Instead of looking for ways to make punishments stricter, restorative justice seeks to build relationships and repair harm. Learn more about how this holistic approach works and how you can get started.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Co-hosted by Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board members Kinette Richards, Ph.D., school psychologist, and Barbie Garayúa Tudryn, school counselor, this webinar will help you gain a common understanding of trauma and how it affects both learning and relationships at school-for students and educators alike. It will also examine ways to recognize trauma in students and address it, both virtually and in person. Finally, you'll learn about tools to build strong relationships and address trauma in your school. Join us!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Co-hosted by Learning for Justice Advisory Board members Kinette Richards, Ph.D., school psychologist, and Barbie Garayúa Tudryn, school counselor, this webinar will help you gain a common understanding of trauma and how it affects both learning and relationships at school-for students and educators alike.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Join Teaching Tolerance for a webinar on the importance of educators practicing self-care. Featuring middle school literacy coach Geneviéve DeBose and school social worker Shoshana Brown, this webinar will help educators understand the science and psychology of self-care, including how educator self-care affects students. You will learn a variety of practices and tools, and you will be able to identify practices that work best for you so that you can thrive and really show up every day in your school community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Join Teaching Tolerance for a webinar on the importance of educators practicing self-care. Featuring middle school literacy coach Geneviéve DeBose and school social worker Shoshana Brown, this webinar will help educators understand the science and psychology of self-care, including how educator self-care affects students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cohosted by Dr. Charles Barrett, Chair for the National Association of School Psychologists Multicultural Affairs Committee, this webinar focuses on challenges students face regarding mental health, including how those challenges can vary.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Skip to main content

Want to better support LGBTQ students in your classroom? Based on our Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students, this webinar models how to create an inclusive classroom culture and build an intersectional curriculum that incorporates queer history and perspectives.
Earn credit: When you complete 95 percent or more of the webinar, a certificate of completion will be available for you to download and print from within the webinar platform. Please note this certificate will not state how long the webinar was or how long you viewed the webinar. Because Learning for Justice is not a credit-granting agency, we encourage you to check with your administration to determine if your participation will count toward continuing education requirements.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LGBTQ Best Practices: Classroom Culture and Curriculum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Skip to main content Want to better support LGBTQ students in your classroom? Based on our Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students , this webinar models how to create an inclusive classroom culture and build an intersectional curriculum that incorporates queer history and perspectives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
February 2003 | Volume 6 | Number 5
Equity and Opportunity

John Emerson and Thomas Lovitt

These are the voices of some of our most vulnerable students: children in foster care. These students all too often fail to thrive in school. Many of these students are not provided an equitable education or given equal opportunities for academic achievement. As a result, children in foster care are more likely to drop out, rarely enrolling in college or postsecondary training programs.

Many foster children face a dismal state of affairs in schools today. But there are strategies that teachers and other school personnel can use to help these children have meaningful and productive school experiences.

A Demographic Snapshot

According to recent estimates, there are about 600,000 children in foster care in the United States. About 70 percent (420,000) of these children are of school age. Recent statistics about how these children fare in school reveals that

Approximately 30 percent have below-grade-level basic skills in reading, writing, and math.

About 40 percent have repeated one or more grades.

An estimated 35 percent qualify for special education services-three times more than the general school-age population.

Most experience high rates of absenteeism due to frequent home placement changes.

The drop-out rate is twice that of children not in foster care.

There are many reasons why the situation is so bleak for students in foster care. Abuse, neglect, and trauma contribute to school failure. So does the transient nature of these children's lives. About 50 percent of foster care children have changed schools at least four times; experts note that it can take a child four to six months to recover academically from the disruption of changing schools. Another contributor to the poor performance of these children-perhaps one that's hard to face-is that some educators may be insensitive to or unaware of the needs of children in foster care and do little to try and meet those needs. Too many of these children do not have what they desperately need: a consistent educational advocate in their lives who can provide a passionate voice and guide them to educational success.

The only stable thing in my life was my high school, an alternative school on the campus of the local community college. When I got moved to the children's shelter, school staff took turns picking me up to make sure that I got to school. At that time, I was just glad to get out of the shelter, but in retrospect, I realize that that was the most powerful thing somebody could have done for me-make sure I got an education.

(Male, age 22)

How Teachers Can Help

Educators can play a major role in improving the situation for their students in foster care. In addition to providing transportation to and from school, teachers and other school personnel can

Obtain relevant background information from the student's social worker and caregiver. This is the most obvious obligation for schools. Too often, teachers don't really begin working with children until their records arrive, which can take up to three or four weeks, loosing valuable learning time.

Advocate for students' needs and teach them to advocate for themselves. Many foster children do not know how to be independent. Fortunately, a number of schools emphasize self-determination training. The skills this curriculum helps develop, such as goal setting and tracking progress, are valuable for children in and out of school.

Help children develop adequate social skills. Studies have indicated that foster children are more apt to lack these skills. Most schools have social-skills training programs. Teachers should encourage their foster-care students to participate in these vital programs so that they acquire the behaviors they need to positively interact with others and make friends.

Anticipate difficult social situations. Because of a history of abuse, neglect, and removal from the home, foster care children may be especially wary and even suspicious of others. Allow these students to work on their own until they feel comfortable with their environment, and help them gradually establish relationships with peers and adults.

Modify homework assignments. Some common assignments can be insensitive to the situations of many foster children. Projects requiring children to bring in baby pictures, trace their family trees, or describe family traditions, for example, should be modified. Also, make sure foster children know how to carry out homework assignments on their own or that there will be someone at home to help them, if need be.

Be conscious of educational gaps. The numerous moves that many foster children must make often result in school absences. Students may have significant gaps in the acquisition of language, motor, and basic academic skills. Provide tutoring and other remedial services to help close this gap.

Convince youngsters that they are worthwhile. Many of these children have a longing for respect and recognition. Children in foster care can be shown how to think positively about their lives and plan for their futures.

If adults who worked in the system would step back a little and watch today's youth, they would understand and recognize the talent we young people possess. If we can use and gain from our skills, which we have acquired from our troubles, in a way, our troubles would be worth it.

(Anonymous)

In every community in America, children spend over six hours a day in school. Those in foster care will have a better chance for a rewarding life if the educators they spend this time with intervene in positive ways. Aware, caring, and skilled teachers can provide the kind of effective support that will result in the educational success we expect of all students. If teachers and other school personnel implement the strategies described in this article, we can improve the educational opportunities and outcomes for our most vulnerable children.

Read more about this topic online. We'll have tips on how to work with social workers and caregivers, along with a list of exemplary programs and resources that help make school success a reality for children in foster care.

John Emerson ( jemerson@casey.org) is the director of education for Casey Family Programs, a Seattle-based organization that provides an array of services for children, with foster care as its core. Thomas Lovitt is Professor Emeritus, University of Washington.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Attaining Educational Equity for Students in Foster Care

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
February 2003 | Volume 6 | Number 5 Equity and Opportunity John Emerson and Thomas Lovitt These are the voices of some of our most vulnerable students: children in foster care. These students all too often fail to thrive in school. Many of these students are not provided an equitable education or given equal opportunities for academic achievement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching During a Global Pandemic: Addressing Hunger, Homelessness, Abuse, Neglect, and Equity in Education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Never before has education been so uncertain and inconsistent in the states. Schools have always varied in their effectiveness, equity, and opportunity in every state and every county. This year, however, every school experience will look different, and every child will struggle with different things.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The education system in the United States is experiencing a period of innovation and evolution. A critical area of focus involves theorizing and implementing innovative research and techniques to leverage educational equity in both public and private sectors of education. Achievement gaps and disparate outcomes have shown that educational equality (the attempt to treat every student the same) has failed students from certain backgrounds, while the evolution to educational equity (addressing each student's individual needs) can improve education for students who have been neglected. With a growing demand for professional educators, the US education system is recognizing the need for professionals to advance equity in education.

Educational Equity vs. Educational Equality

Educational equity ensures that the needs of individuals from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, individuals with disabilities, and other disenfranchised minorities are provided with educational tools, resources, and support that are individualized to a student's educational needs. In juxtaposition, educational equality assumes that all students' educational needs are the same, and that individualized systems of educational resources are not warranted. Educational equality negates the ability to transition into the next iteration of public education that focuses on education that is equitable.

Educational equity allocates educational resources by equalizing the educational system for students whose low SES (socioeconomic status), ethnic background, family background, or geographic region impeded their academic growth. This would help close the gap between students from a low SES compared to those individuals from a high SES.

Educational equality in schools is especially detrimental to individuals who are English language learners (ELLs). English language learners are those whose primary language spoken in the home is other than English. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 4.9 million students were categorized as ELL in 2015, which made up 9.9 percent of the overall student population in public schools. Hispanics made up 3.8 million of the 4.9 million students, while Asian students made up 511,700.

Educational equity is important for ELL students, because those students need individualized educational resources to encourage their academic and English language competency. Educational systems need to recognize that ELL students should be encouraged to develop both native and English language competencies due to their cognitive and economic benefits. By providing ELL students with resources, community support, and familial outreach, educators and communities can work together to develop a more equitable learning environment.

In 2016, 2.9 percent of Hispanic students were held back between grades 9-12 in part as a result of educational inequity. Equity in education is integral to the success of individual students from diverse backgrounds.

Advancing Educational Equity

The pursuit of educational equity is key to the sustainability and evolution of education systems in the US and abroad. The impact of educational inequity is felt most clearly at the classroom level and ripples its way throughout school districts. Achievement gaps are evaluated by analyzing student performance on standardized tests, access to advanced academic courses, and graduation rates.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), students who attended urban schools during the 2015-2016 school year were 65 percent more likely to be in high-poverty districts. The achievement gap between individuals from high-poverty districts and wealthier districts is distinct, and is a direct result of educational inequity among school districts in the United States. Achievement gaps affect individuals from many different backgrounds, including low-income students, minorities, ELLs, and students with disabilities.

The National Association of Education of Young Children argues that the future of the education system is undergoing a systematic change toward educational equity and away from educational equality. The association also posits that the current inequities in the education system are rooted in the "nation's social, political, economic, and educational structures" that are in turn based on systemic biases regarding "race, class, culture, gender, sexual orientation, disability, language, national origin, income, religion, and other identities."

These and other complex inequities in the education system further support the notion that educational equity needs to be advanced by professionals in the field of education who are cognizant of their explicit and implicit biases.

To advance educational equity, equitable academic resources, programs, and opportunities must be available to students from all backgrounds. Each student's strengths need to be nurtured by specialty learning programs that are geared toward advancing academic success, closing the achievement gap, and eliminating inequities in education.

Equity can be achieved in the education system by utilizing technology, preparing educators with the skills necessary to teach in diverse settings, developing inclusive methods of teaching students from different backgrounds, as well as celebrating diversity. Achieving educational equity requires educators to reflect on their implicit and explicit biases, and understand that the inequities within the education system are based on systemic biases.

How to Encourage Equity in Education

Educational leaders can take concrete steps to introduce equity into their schools and classrooms. The following approaches can change teaching dynamics and improve outcomes for students of all backgrounds.

Cultural Responsiveness: Culturally responsive teaching is a skill that all educators must implement within their classrooms. Students from diverse cultural backgrounds should be provided a safe environment in which to learn. Educators must also understand that a disproportionate number of students of color are expelled or held back each school year compared to their white counterparts. The key to culturally responsive teaching is to dismantle systemic biases and provide high-quality education that is tailored to students' unique needs.

Personalized Learning: Educators must develop the skills to understand the individual needs of students to excel academically. This typically entails implementing individualized lesson plans and advocating for individual students who may need tailored educational resources or opportunities. The ultimate goal is to ensure that no student falls behind academically, thus further closing the achievement gap.

Early Intervention: Providing personalized, dedicated support at an early stage in the educational process is key to achieving equity. Early intervention can have a significant impact on the future success of a student by helping to cultivate strengths and develop vital skills for overcoming challenges.

Community Engagement: Education extends beyond the classroom and into the communities and homes of students. Teachers should engage families and communities in the learning process. This will encourage diverse voices to assess and correct systemic inequities, further promoting educational equity for all students.

The Online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership program at American University's School of Education offers students the opportunity to learn from faculty members who are leading scholars in education. The program offers students the tools to create equitable learning environments through coursework and research that focus on providing educational equity to disadvantaged groups and communities, including program evaluation and collaborative inquiry.

Learn how the American University Online EdD in Education and Policy program prepares leaders to shape the future of education policy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What's the Difference Between Educational Equity and Equality?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The education system in the United States is experiencing a period of innovation and evolution. A critical area of focus involves theorizing and implementing innovative research and techniques to leverage educational equity in both public and private sectors of education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Vulnerabilities of highly gifted children

This article by Wendy Roedell points out that although good social adjustment, emotional maturity, and healthy self-concepts are realized by many intellectually gifted children, this same group of children is uniquely vulnerable to a variety of adjustment difficulties. Problems of uneven development, perfectionism, adult expectations, intense sensitivity, self-definition, alienation, inappropriate environments and role conflict are explored. Roedell concludes that the degree of success at these adjustments depends to a great extent on environmental support.

This article examines the unique vulnerabilities of children with extraordinarily advanced intellectual skills, and highlights the differences between highly gifted and moderately gifted children. Problems of uneven development, perfectionism, adult expectations, intense sensitivity, self-definition, alienation, inappropriate environments and role conflict are explored.

Wendy C. Roedell is a gifted education consultant for the Northwest Gifted Education Center at Educational Service District No. 121 in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Roedell is co-author of Gifted Young Children (Teachers College Press, 1980), and a Contributing Editor of this journal.

Good social adjustment, emotional maturity, and healthy self-concepts characterize the experience of many intellectually gifted children. Numerous studies have confirmed Terman's early finding that moderately gifted individuals tend to do well in school and to achieve success in later life (Gallagher, 1958; 1975; Hollingworth, 1942; Terman, 1925). Such life success is not automatic for the gifted, however, and depends to a great extent on environmental support. Even moderately gifted children are vulnerable to a variety of adjustment difficulties. As the degree of intellectual advancement increases, so does the child's risk of social maladjustment and unhappiness (Hollingworth, 1942; Terman, 1925; Terman & Oden, 1947; Tannenbaum, 1983).

Children with unusually advanced intellectual development are uniquely vulnerable. Moreover, studies throughout the country have begun to document the fact that extraordinarily gifted children exist, at least in some cities, in larger numbers than would be expected on the basis of the normal curve. Studies at the University of Washington (Roedell, Jackson, & Robinson, 1980; Robinson, 1980), at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (Stanley, Keating, & Fox, 1974; Keating, 1976), and at the University of Denver (Silverman, in preparation) have all identified significant subpopulations of highly gifted children.

The definition of extraordinary precocity differs from study to study. Some researchers cite IQs above 145 as indicating highly gifted abilities, while others reserve the label for children whose IQs exceed 165 or even 180. Some define extraordinary giftedness in terms of scores on other types of tests, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or in terms of high level creative productivity. Whatever the definition, there is general agreement that highly gifted children are more susceptible to some types of developmental difficulties than are moderately gifted or average children. Areas of vulnerability include uneven development, perfectionism, adult expectations, intense sensitivity, self-definition, alienation, inappropriate environments, and role conflicts.

As Leta Hollingworth (1942) commented, it is difficult to have the intelligence of an adult and the emotions of a child in a childish body (p. 282). The gap between a child's advanced intellectual capability and more age-appropriate social and physical skills can lead to unrealistic expectations for performance. Young children become frustrated when their limited physical capabilities prevent the construction of the complex projects created in their extremely capable imaginations. Adults, expecting social maturity to match high level intellectual development, may label a highly articulate, logical child as a behavior problem when he or she exhibits an age-appropriate tantrum.

Even more damage can result when adults ignore a child's high level ability and focus instead of weaknesses in areas of slower development. A child's giftedness may even go unnoticed, eclipsed by behavior problems, physical weakness, or social immaturity. Whitmore (1980) gives the example of Bobby, with an IQ of 153, who spent a second year in the first grade as a result of his disruptive behavior and his failure to complete daily classroom work. A teacher's underestimate of a child's ability can trigger a rapid decline in self-esteem. Pringle (1970) found, for example, that most of the 103 bright children brought to a clinic because of general maladjustment had teachers who underestimated their ability. The most frequent symptom presented by these able misfits was a lack of confidence.

Perfectionism
Many gifted children exhibit an inner push toward perfection which drives them to set impossible goals for themselves. They use their extremely capable conceptual abilities to imagine ambitious and detailed products, and then direct their similarly well-developed critical thinking skills to the task of tearing down their own imperfect efforts to realize their ideal. As they learn to appreciate professional work in the arts and sciences, they set professional level standards for themselves, and become impatient with the skill development which must occur before they can achieve that proficiency. Years of hearing parents and teachers say that's wonderful! to projects that do not meet the child's own high standards leads to a distrust of feedback from those sources. A child who consistently receives an A without putting forth maximum effort ceases to value that A grade as a serious measure of performance.

This perfectionism has both positive and negative aspects. In a positive form, perfectionism can provide the driving energy which leads to great achievement. The meticulous attention to detail necessary for scientific investigation, the commitment which pushes composers to keep working until the music realizes the glorious sounds playing in the imagination, and the persistence which keeps great artists at their easels until their creation matches their conception all result from perfectionism. Setting high standards is not in itself a bad thing. However, perfectionism coupled with a punishing attitude towards one's own efforts can cripple the imagination, kill the spirit, and so handicap performance that an individual may never fulfill the promise of early talent.

The inner drive to be perfect leads many gifted children to perceive themselves as failures even when external evidence indicates high level success. It is in the child's reaction to this perceived failure that the danger lies. A series of studies by Carol Dweck and her colleagues on the differences between children who exhibit a sense of helplessness in the face of failure and those who demonstrate a sense of mastery help elucidate the question of why highly capable children might perceive themselves as inadequate.

In several studies (Diener & Dweck, 1978; 1980; Dweck, 1975; Dweck & Repucci, 1973), Dweck found that helpless children attribute their failures to stable factors, such as lack of ability, and their successes to unstable factors, such as effort or luck. Mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, attribute their successes to stable factors, such as ability, and their failures to unstable factors, such as effort or luck. When mastery-oriented children succeed, they interpret the success as diagnostic of their underlying ability. When they fail, they tend to concentrate on modifying their problem-solving strategies, rather than on analyzing reasons for failure (Diener & Sweck, 1978).

Helpless children, on the other hand, interpret failure as diagnostic of their perceived underlying lack of ability, and tend to give up, rather than to try a different strategy. Such children do not perceive success as evidence of high ability, but rather as the result of an easy task, teacher kindness, or blind luck. When their perfectionism interacts with a helpless orientation toward perceived failure, highly gifted children may exhibit lowered self-concepts and ineffective approaches to problem-solving. On the other hand, perfectionism coupled with a mastery orientation can lead to a high level of creative productivity.

Offering specific feedback on a gifted child's work, rather than global evaluations, can help direct the child's attention toward strategies for improvement without regard for failure or success. Feedback from professionals, obtained through mentor programs or special workshops, can be particularly valuable in helping a child understand the years of dedication required to become a creative professional.

The perfectionism of gifted children is frequently exaggerated by adults who constantly urge them to live up to their potential. Parents may overschedule their child with lessons and worthwhile activities, leaving no time to daydream or to play with ordinary toys. Teachers who observe the spark of high-level talent pile on extra work, and never seem satisfied. Children in a departmentalized secondary school can feel torn apart by teachers urging increased performance in each subject area, without regard to the student's own interests or the pressures being applied by other teachers. Work harder on your math, says one teacher. You have the ability to really push ahead. Work harder on your writing, says another teacher. You really have talent. Work harder on your social studies project, says a third teacher. You aren't even beginning to tap your real ability. A multitalented child may well have the ability to excel at high levels in every subject area, but realities of time and the dictates of the child's own interest make living up to your potential in every area an impossibility.

Intense Sensitivity
The intense sensitivity and internal responsiveness characterizing many highly gifted individuals can intensify reactions to the ordinary problems of growing up (Silverman, 1983; Whitmore, 1980). By tuning in to a wide range of social cues during social interaction, a highly sensitive gifted child may perceive social rejection where it is not intended (Whitmore, 1980). Furthermore, sensitivity to society's injustice and hypocrisy leads many highly gifted children to feel despair and cynicism at very young ages.

Although heightened sensitivity to environmental and social cues may be a normal response for gifted children, Silverman (1983) points out that they may perceive their own intense inner experiences as evidence that something is wrong with them. Other children may ridicule a gifted child for reacting strongly to an apparently trivial incident, thereby increasing the child's feeling of being odd. Like perfectionism, intense sensitivity can have positive or negative effects, depending on the individual response.

Self-definition
The classic adolescent identity crisis may come earlier for highly gifted children whose intense analytical approach to life leads to early analysis of self. Their own perfectionism, coupled with inappropriate adult expectations, can make the process of identity formation particularly difficult for highly gifted children.

In addition, highly talented children often have the potential to succeed in a number of different fields. Deciding which area should engage their minds and talents can be an excruciating experience (Sanborn, 1979). Unsure about their ability to live up to their own expectations and the expectations of others, confused about the direction of their true talent, and worried about the ways in which they are different from average students while simultaneously fearing mediocrity - these are the dilemmas which face gifted students attempting to define themselves in a confusing and often hostile world.

Alienation
While moderately gifted children tend to be popular with their classmates, children with unusually high levels of ability sometimes have a more difficult time finding compatible peers (Gallagher, 1958). Hollingworth (1942) and O'Shea (1960) have suggested that problems of communication, starting in the preschool years, may be one root cause of the highly gifted child's involuntary isolation. A 3-year-old who expresses abstract ideas using the vocabulary of the average 6-year-old may not be understood by same-age peers. Four-year-olds who enjoy playing monopoly and checkers have difficulty finding same-age playmates with similar skills (Roedell, Jackson, & Robinson, 1980).

With their advanced conceptions of group organization, highly gifted children may develop an adult-like manner with others, and be accused of bossiness. When efforts to be accepted fail, a highly able child may withdraw from social interaction. One 4-year-old was diagnosed as emotionally disturbed by his preschool teachers because of his tendency to withdraw from social interaction. Worried, his parents enrolled him in a program for highly gifted children, where his friendly, outgoing manner demonstrated that his emotional disturbance had merely been a reaction to having no intellectual peers on his own level with whom to interact.

Children who withdraw early from social interaction may deprive themselves of the opportunity to learn needed social interaction skills. While intellectually advanced children frequently have advanced conceptions of the dynamics of social interaction, their good ideas may not translate into social behavior without the benefit of guided social experience in the company of true peers (Roedell, Jackson, & Robinson, 1980).

The social alienation of extraordinarily gifted children is exacerbated by the insistence of educators and parents that they spend most of their time in the company of chronological peers. The assumption that children of the same age constitute a true peer group only holds true for children of average development. The term peer does not, in essence, mean people of the same age, but rather refers to individuals who can interact at an equal level around issues of common interest (Lewis, Young, Brooks, & Michelson, 1975). Highly gifted children are not likely to find developmentally defined peers among their age-mates, and in fact many of them prefer older companions (Hollingworth, 1942, Silverman, in preparation). Given a choice, highly gifted children tend to form friendships with others of similar mental age (O'Shea, 1960).

For children whose development is highly uneven, true peers may vary depending on the activity. A child with extraordinary intellectual but average physical skills might have one set of peers for discussing literature or playing chess, and another set of peers on the soccer field. The potential social alienation of extremely able children can be avoided by special efforts to help such children find companions with similar interests and abilities. Unless such efforts are made, highly gifted children run the risk of being labeled different and strange by their age mates, and may internalize this designation and become eccentric social isolates. Ronald, a 5-year-old in a program for extraordinarily advanced children, explained these feelings well when he commented, Do you know why Bill is my best friend? Because he's the only one who understands the kind of guy I really am.

Inappropriate Environments
Highly gifted children experience increased vulnerability when they spend large portions of their time in inappropriate educational settings. The more a gifted child's abilities differ from the norm, the more inappropriate becomes the educational program offered in the regular classroom. A 7-year-old with the reasoning capacity of an 11-year-old, whose reading and math skills equal those of the average fifth grader, will find little useful activity in a regular second grade classroom. Even if the teacher presents new information, the instructional pace will be unbearably slow, forcing the child to practice endlessly skills mastered in less than half the time taken by the average student (Stanley, Keating, & Fox, 1974, Keating, 1976).

Many programs for gifted children also constitute inappropriate environments for the extraordinarily gifted child (Stanley, 1979). Part-time pullout programs only relieve the boredom of the regular classroom for a few hours per week. In some school districts, the content of the gifted enrichment class is not linked logically to the identification system. A mathematically brilliant youngster might be identified for such a program, for example, and be asked to spend his enrichment hours working on creative writing and art, with no attention paid to his interests and abilities in mathematics. Even when the child's abilities and the content of the program are linked, the learning pace of the program may be geared to the level of the moderately gifted child.

It is important to remember that a child with an IQ of 164 is as different intellectually from a child with an IQ of 132 as that child is different from the 100 IQ child. Forcing a child with an IQ of 164 to learn at the pace of the average child, or even the pace of the moderately gifted, is akin to placing an average child in a special education classroom and asking that his/her learning rate be slowed down to keep pace with the rest of the class. The frustration of highly gifted children forced to stifle their love of learning in inhospitable environments can result in withdrawal, behavior problems, or psychosomatic symptoms.

Role Conflict
The conflict between society's stereotyped expectations for certain age, sex, and racial groups and the highly gifted child's need to fulfill extraordinary individual potential can be severe. For example, in most junior high and high school settings, the macho image prevails. It is the football star who is the hero of the school, not the mathematics whiz. The desire to fulfill the role expectations for the adolescent male can dim a gifted young man's aesthetic appreciation for music or extraordinary ability in literature or mathematics.

The under-representation of minorities in mathematics and science courses at the secondary level has been attributed to a range of problems, including the lack of role models and the perception of mathematics as the domain of white males (Johnson, 1982). Highly gifted students from culturally different backgrounds face special conflicts in fulfilling individual potential without becoming alienated from their cultural heritage (Frasier, 1979). Peer pressure and the idea that academic excellence is reserved for the majority culture prevents many highly able minority students from enrolling in gifted programs or in advanced academic courses.

Highly gifted girls experience equally severe role conflicts. These girls, for example, are less likely than boys to take advantage of opportunities to accelerate their mathematics education, and in general are less likely to enroll in high level math and science courses (Fox, Brody, & Tobin, 1980). Role conflict for gifted girls stretches beyond math and science, however, to a basic conflict between traditional conceptions of femininity and the inner drive to excel. In a 1978 study of gifted boys, it was found that only 18 percent of the boys expected their wives to have full-time careers, and 57 percent did not expect them to work after they had children. A companion study of highly gifted eighth grade girls revealed that 48 percent saw major problems in combining scientific careers with family responsibilities. In a study of highly gifted seventh graders, only 46 percent of the girls, but 98 percent of the boys expected to have continuous full-time careers (Fox, Tobin, & Brody, 1981).

In her work on the moral development of women, Carol Gilligan (1982) describes the developmental path which leads women to define morality in terms of care and responsibility towards others, so that even when a girl does aspire to a career, it may be for different reasons than are voiced by boys. One 11-year-old girl is quoted as saying,...

I want to be some kind of a scientist or something, and I want to do things, and I want to help people... I think that everybody should try to help somebody else in some way, and the way I'm choosing is through science. (p. 34)

Gilligan asked women of varying ages, to describe their views of self and morality. From these interviews, she defines a feminine view of the world as comprised of a web of interconnections and contrasts this perspective with the male view of a world comprised of hierarchical relationships. As Gilligan explains:

The images of hierarchy and web, drawn from the texts of men's and women's fantasies and thought, convey different ways of structuring relationships and are associated with different views of morality and self. But these images create a problem in understanding because each distorts the other's representation. As the top of the hierarchy becomes the edge of the web and as the center of a network of connection becomes the middle of a hierarchical progression, each image marks as dangerous the place which the other defines as safe. (p. 62)

Thus, Gilligan characterizes women's fear of success as essentially a fear of being alone at the top without a supporting network of equal relationships.

Conclusions
Obviously, not all highly gifted children suffer as a result of the vulnerabilities described above. No inherent quality of giftedness automatically dooms these individuals to social maladjustment or unhappiness. In most cases, problems for extremely able people arise from the discrepancy between their level of development and the expectations of society. As information about the needs of highly gifted children becomes more widespread, and society's expectations become more closely attuned to the realities of gifted development, the degree of vulnerability of these children will diminish.

Awareness, however, is not enough. Nurturing the development of highly gifted children requires a commitment to building support systems to help them come to terms with their prodigious abilities. Such support systems include appropriate educational programs; systematic affective education including social skills training and self-concept development; planned efforts in career counseling, academic counseling, and personal counseling; and supportive adults to act as role models, provide guidance, and offer understanding. Without these avenues of support, extraordinarily advanced intellectual abilities become a tremendous burden rather than the foundation for a creative and productive life.

References

Diener, C.I., & Dweck, C.S. An analysis of learned helplessness: Continuous changes in performance, strategy, and achievement cognitions following failure. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 1978, 36, 431-462.

Diener, C.I., & Dweck, C.S. An analysis of learned helplessness II: The processing of success. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 1980, 39, 940-952.

Dweck, C.S. The role of expectations and attributions on the alteration of learned helplessness. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 31, 674-685.

Dweck, C.S., & Repucci, N.D. Learned helplessness and reinforcement responsibility in children. Journal of Personality and Social Pychology, 1973, 251 109-116.

Fox, L.H. The problem of women and mathematics. New York, New York: The Ford Foundation, 1981.

Fox, L.H., Brody, L., & Tobin, D. (Eds.). Women and the mathematical mystique. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.

Fox, L.H., Tobin, D., & Brody, L. Career development of gifted and talented women. Journal of Career Education, 1981, 7, 289-298.

Frasier, M.M. Counseling the culturally diverse gifted. In N. Colangelo & R.T. Zaffrann (Eds.), New voices in counseling the gifted. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1979.

Freeman, J. Gifted children. Baltimore, Maryland: University Pack Press, 1979.

Gallagher, J.J. Peer acceptance of highly gifted children in elementary school. Elementary School Journal, 1958, 58, 465-470.

Gallagher, J.J. Teaching the gifted child. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon, 1975.

Gallagher, J.J., & Crowder, T. The adjustment of gifted children in the regular classroom. Exceptional Children, 1957, 23, 306-312, 317-319.

Gilligan, E. In a different voice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Hollingworth, L.S. Children above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet. Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York: World Book, 1942.

Johnson, J.L. Blacks in mathematics: The state of the art. Paper presented at the Equity in Mathematics Core Conference, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, Virginia, February 19-21, 1982.

Keating, D.P. (Ed.). Intellectual talent: Research and development. Baltimore Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.

Lewis, M., Young, C., Brooks, I., & Michelson, L. The beginning of friendship. In M. Lewis & L.A. Rosenblum (Eds.), Friendship and peer relations. New York, New York: Wiley, 1975.

O'Shea, H. Friendships and the intellectually gifted child. Exceptional Children, 1960, 26, 327-335.

Pringle, M.L.K. Able misfits. London: Longman, 1970.

Robinson, H.B. The uncommonly bright child. In M. Lewis & L.A. Rosenblum (Eds.), The uncommon child. New York, New York: Plenum, 1980.

Robinson, N.M., & Robinson. H.B. The optimal match: Devising the best compromise for the highly gifted student. In D. Feldman (Ed.), New directions for child development: Developmental approaches to giftedness and creativity. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass, 1982.

Roedell, W.C., Jackson, N.E., & Robinson, H.B. Gifted Young Children. New York, New York: Teachers College Press, 1980.

Sanborn, M.P. Differential counseling needs of the gifted and talented. In N. Colangelo & R.T. Zaffrann (Eds.), New voices in counseling the gifted. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1979.

Silverman, L.K. Gifted education. St. Louis, Michigan: C.V. Moseby, in preparation.

Silverman, L.K. Issues in affective development of the gifted. In J. VanTassel- Baska (Ed.), A practical guide to counseling the gifted in a school setting. Reston, Virginia: Council for Exceptional Children, 1983.

Stanley, J.C. Identifying and nurturing the intellectually gifted. In W.C. George, S.J. Cohn, & J.C. Stanley (Eds.). Educating the gifted. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.

Stanley, J.C., Keating, D.P., & Fox. L.H. Mathematical talent: Discovery, description, and development. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974.

Tannenbaum, A.H. Gifted children. New York, New York: Macmillan, 1983.

Terman, L.M. Genetic studies of genius: Mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children (Vol. 1). Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1925.

Terman, L.M., & Oden, M. Genetic studies of genius: The gifted child grows up: Twenty-five years follow-up of a superior group (Vol. 4). Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1947.

Whitmore, J.R. Giftedness, conflict, and underachievement. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon, 1980.

Comments

Parent on 8/6/2018

As a gifted girl, I learned quickly that smarts put you at the lonely top. By age 9 I had developed the art of fitting in and appearing what I thought was normal. I have hobbled myself so badly, in so many areas where I could have excelled, because it became second nature to lower my bar to normal. I am nearly forty and no longer care as much about fitting in. This article is so spot on for so many things in my life. I wish I knew what was going on long before now. It clears up the why of many things for me as well as for my gifted children. Thank you for publishing this.

Student on 5/13/2018

I'm so relieved that my experiences aren't weird or unusual. Growing up, my parents pushed me to the verge of suicide by constantly pushing me to "reach my full potential." Math was a weak area of mine, so my mother would watch me do math problems for hours, only to have a panic attack during the test, and tell me that I needed to study more because getting an A was "reasonable" for me. It was, as I found out during my higher education, but only if I stopped putting so much pressure on myself to dedicate every moment of my day to study! I can't help but be disillusioned with the state of the American public school system and judging from this article, its shortcomings have been evident for decades.

Parent on 9/2/2015

Yes. I find so many of these to be true. Especially the classroom part. My child had much difficulty until he was put in a self-contained gifted classroom. Thanks!

Student on 12/18/2014

Thank you greatly for this article. I see my issues, although vague, actually had a foundation I never detected. As a side note, my family still believes my life to be one of a solitary, reclusive, know-it-all. All the while without taking a chance to see the sides of my being I have tried to show them for 10 years. Thank you again.

Parent on 10/25/2014

What about the Six Profiles of Giftedness by Betts & Neihart? Why isn't Giftedness covered in the Child Behaviour Checklists? Why don't medical professionals and teachers know about giftedness - other than the precocious easy learner type?

Parent on 5/1/2013

Thanks you! I am the mother of a 14 year old gifted boy. Thanks to an illness he has been able to quit school for a year and study from home. He has made his own curriculum and is delighted, learning much more than at school. However, he feels sad. I wish I knew why. He cannot explain it.

Parent on 4/16/2013

I'm the mother of a 20-year-old highly gifted son, a medium to highly gifted 10-year-old daughter and low gifted 8-year-old son. What you wrote in this article was spot on. Our daughter (who exhibits all tendencies in the article) is becoming isolated and alienated in the 4th grade. I'm working with her school with limited success. Thank you so much for sharing!

Other on 4/12/2013

Hello! I enjoyed reading your article very much. I was in a gifted program from the 5th to the 12th grade, and now I am an adult. Thank you!

Parent on 7/11/2012

THANK YOU! Finally some validation for the parent who is striving to find balance between the emotional needs, and the intellectual/educational needs of a gifted child! Dealing with educators and administrators who can not, or will not, operate outside their comfortable box is akin to hitting oneself in the head with a brick! Navigating the rocky and seemingly endless road of "proofs" to provide the gifted and/or talented the "appropriate" education they require is frustrating and exhausting for the gifted and their advocate! Thank you for the validation!!!

Educator on 4/20/2012

This is one of the best articles I've found in helping me understand what I was dealing with.

Other on 8/18/2011

I am the grandmother of a profoundly gifted child who gives much pleasure to us. As I read through the article, which was shared by the parents of my grandchild, two things struck me. In my mind's eye, I see a child who has not found the right school with informed and knowing teachers, so is being home schooled. The parents do a good job with this child and are sensitively attuned to the needs. They provide excellent support and find understanding and knowledgeable help for their child. They keep the grandparents informed and educated so we can be a positive part of the support system. There is something none of us can provide. The picture in my mind is that of our precious child standing with nose pressed through the chain link fence surrounding a school yard, staring longingly at children playing on the swings and slides. Not a word is uttered, but it is a long stop on a neighborhood walk. I see in my mind a child who wants a good buddy with whom to be intimate on a more-than-once-a-year basis, perhaps a clone. I see the parents' frustration and grief because they can't find a way to provide that bosom buddy. I see a child who turns to grandparents for some of that friendship. Surely there is a way to provide better social interaction for all such children. What can be done? My second point: Many of my friends are teachers, some with Phd's, yet do not understand the needs of a profoundly profoundly gifted child with an I.Q. which tops the charts. They judge and condemn the parents. Is there something missing from the education of educators which needs to be added to advanced curricula?

Student on 6/21/2011

I am so glad I found this article. I am a 29-year old female with high intelligence. I have struggled in much of my life as a result of many of these exact issues. To those who have experienced these issues, the term 'damaging' is an understatement. Growing up, I was labeled as a troubled child. All would say I was very smart, but apparently none picked up on the fact that I was not just 'smart', I was incredibly gifted. The environment I grew up in, and the way I was treated by adults, was more damaging than being socially isolated because my so-called peers could not relate to me. In fact, I was even pulled out of my traditional school and placed in a school for juvenile delinquents. My talents and abilities were never encouraged or even recognized growing up... except for a middle school math teacher who advised my parents that I needed to be in advanced classes. They never heeded the advice. None of the district or state-wide writing contests I won in elementary school were noticed. It was not until college that my intellectual abilities were ever really picked up on.

Parent on 9/21/2008

The pressures are immense on children who strive out of necessity to please their parents; living up to the parents expectations should never be the focus. Adjustment to expectations once a child is determined to be moderately or highly gifted can be similarly detrimental as to a gifted child who is never recognized as gifted. It is truly saddening when children are suppressed to fit into molds and not encouraged to be themselves. Talents need to be acknowledged and explored.

Parent on 5/23/2006

This was so helpful. I was starting to grow frustrated at the search for a preschool and finding that our 2 year old already has done the curriculum before he even enrolls in school. So, this has been very helpful.

Educator on 4/5/2005

I wish my parents could have read this when I was growing up. I'm 30 now, and while I've achieved some great things in my life, I feel very disillusioned about my place in the world. I began to cry as I read this article, because it reminded me of my difficult childhood which, in retrospect, could have been somewhat different had I had the right resources. Instead, I ran up against things like: As a child, my father would praise the art I made by saying, "You had to have traced that. I don't really believe you drew this. Don't lie to me, son." My mother threw away a novel I wrote at twelve because it had a few curse words in it. When I was fourteen, and becoming involved in an artistic community of adults, my mother discovered the age of my friends, and forbade me from hanging out with them. As a result, I spent most of my teenage years a loner, until I discovered that I could dumb myself down and be socially accepted-- and tolerate my "peers"-- that way. Though my interests and talents tended towards the arts, there was a lot of pressure put on me to follow my father into business! Reading this article was similar to reading a study of my life. I'm glad to know that there were more factors at play than my being "lazy", "crazy", "troubled", or a "loser".

The appearance of any information in the Davidson Institute's Database does not imply an endorsement by, or any affiliation with, the Davidson Institute. All information presented is for informational purposes only and is solely the opinion of and the responsibility of the author. Although reasonable effort is made to present accurate information, the Davidson Institute makes no guarantees of any kind, including as to accuracy or completeness. Use of such information is at the sole risk of the reader.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Vulnerabilities of highly gifted children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This article by Wendy Roedell points out that although good social adjustment, emotional maturity, and healthy self-concepts are realized by many intellectually gifted children, this same group of children is uniquely vulnerable to a variety of adjustment difficulties. Problems of uneven development, perfectionism, adult expectations, intense sensitivity, self-definition, alienation, inappropriate environments and role conflict are explored.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Watch the webinar presented by Dr. Hulett on 3.21.2019.
The issue and importance of equality has been a common fixture in the American vernacular for the past sixty plus years. As a whole, working towards equality for all people, regardless of unalterable characteristics, is a valid and worthy pursuit. For special education, however, equality falls short of what is needed and desired for children with disabilities - both legally and morally. As a community of people passionate about serving these children, we need to move from a paradigm focused on equality and one that works toward equity.
Why equity? Why now?
People often confuse the two terms as synonyms, when in fact they are both quite different things with very different intended outcomes. Both equality and equity aim to ensure basic fairness. With equality, the end goal is simple fairness - everyone has the same starting point and is treated exactly the same. With equity, however, the presumption is that not all people begin from the same place - so each person is given what they need to be successful, based on their unique abilities and needs.

It makes sense that equality would have been the focus over the past four decades given the Supreme Court's establishment of the standard of 1982, which enshrined the term 'de minimis' education in reference to what was required from school districts serving students with disabilities. In Rowley the Court ruled that the law's intent was not to enable students with disabilities to achieve their full potentials, but rather to give them equal and sufficient access to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). Ever since this decision, too many schools simply complied with paperwork requirements and provided cookie-cutter services which were anything but truly individualized. The presence alone of a disability did not mandate special education services.

However, the very nature of special education is that no child is starting from the same place. With the Supreme Court's unanimous 8-0, decision (2017) on the books and a new standard established which requires schools to demonstrate 'meaningful progress' and 'appropriately ambitious' goals for students with disabilities, it is time we move from focusing on equality to truly one of ensuring equity.

Here are eight tips schools can put into place to ensure equity is a driving force and desired outcome for all children receiving special education services.

Tip 1: Principal Leadership

Principals must take an active role in the individualized education program (IEP) process, and a leadership role within the school relative to special education. The principal is one of the key culture determinants in the school environment and can communicate volumes to the school community by demonstrating an active interest in special education. Principals play an enormous role in the authorization of resources and supports in the public school environment and need to exercise their full authority to ensure every child receives every resource necessary to truly be successful and grow. Although IEP meetings are comprised of many members, the principal always retains a special role of significance and has a unique ability to impact the education of each child in the building. A principal can move a school from equality to equity by ensuring the proper resources and services are available for each child.
Tip 2: Develop Truly Individualized and Quality IEP's
The IEP is the heart of the special education enterprise and ensures the legal and educational rights of every child. Educators must put quality time, thought, and care into the development of each child's IEP. The quality of the IEP document is in direct correlation to the quality of the education and services being provided to a child. For reasons of convenience and efficiency, some schools condone the copy and pasting of content, services, and goals from one IEP to the next. This approach not only violates the law, but significantly reduces the quality of the final product. Remember, the present level of academic achievement (PLAAFP) must drive the IEP and be aligned to the goals. At a minimum, ensuring the PLAAFP and the goals are aligned will go a long way to ensuring a quality program. Without a strong, personalized IEP that is uniquely crafted for a child based on her needs, it is extremely difficult to ever truly create educational equity.
Tip 3: Use Online and Blended Learning Options
Regardless of disability or setting, if a child has significant academic deficits, personalized learning can and will help. Whether before school, during an intervention period, during small group instruction, or in an after-school tutorial, all students with deficits can benefit greatly from truly personalized learning with diagnostic assessment elements. In order to catch up with their own-age peers, students with disabilities often need more supports and intervention approaches. We need to move beyond only considering the curriculum provided as one-size-fits all, and begin to customize and extend learning for those that truly need it. One way to achieve this is by taking advantage of the growth of educational technologies that enable us to provide truly personalized learning supports.
Tip 4: Let Data Drive Instruction and Intervention
The heart of special education is rooted in the cyclical process of assess, intervene, instruct, and re-assess. If we are to truly provide children with equity in education, we must engage in proactive, high-leverage, research-based best practices and avoid reactionary, 'de minimis' practices that fall short of maximizing a child's true learning capacity. Today there is certainly no lack of data available to assist us in this endeavor. The boom in the EdTech industry has created solutions that allow schools to garner copious amounts of student data. Whether academic or behavioral, tracking performance, evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, making adjustments, and differentiating instruction are made easier by diagnostic learning tools that allow schools to make data-driven instructional decisions.
Tip 5: Thorough and Individualized Lesson Planning
Lesson planning is no fun - but every great teacher does it - and does it well. Preparation is the key to success in special education, and whether a resource, inclusion, or functional skills classroom, it is imperative that the teacher plans individualized instruction for each child. All too often we provide a one-size-fits-all lesson - even within special education. We need to remember our instructional cycle and apply it individually and with great forethought. Ensuring equal access and equality of instruction that teaches one learning objective to the whole is meeting the bottom floor of expectation. Truly pouring over instructional data, planning creative activities, differentiating instruction based on need and performance, providing formative re-direction and scaffolding, and enthusiastically engaging each child in the learning process is a major component of providing educational equity.
Tip 6: Establish High Standards for Each Child
Just because a child has a disability doesn't mean they can't be pushed or reach great achievements. All too often, we candle or pacify students when they begin to struggle. It is okay for a child with a disability to struggle and work their way through a problem. Children normally rise only as high as we ask. Although this sounds like a soft recommendation, there is plenty of hard science in education that underscores the importance of high expectations and teaching children to have a growth mindset. A part of ensuring equity, is ensuring a positive belief in oneself and one's abilities. We must go beyond just academic instruction and consider the whole child. For a child to truly receive educational equity, she must understand she is capable and worthy of high achievement.
Tip 7: Motivation and Enthusiasm
One cannot over-emphasize the power of enthusiasm and positive thinking with children. All students thrive with positive feedback and encouraging words. No matter how difficult a child or situation may be or become, stay positive and enthusiastic. The power of positivity has no limitations in the special education world. Re-set yourself every morning and come into the school and classroom with an outwardly positive and enthusiastic demeanor. So often, we focus myopically on the academic needs of children with disabilities. The education of the whole child demands that we help to inspire and motivate children to live, learn, and achieve at their maximum capacity.
Conclusion
Moving a field from a mindset of equality toward one of true equity is not easy, nor will it happen overnight. That said, significant strides forward can be achieved by following some or all of the tips I outlined above.

We are truly at a turning point in the history of special education. The Endrew F. decision serves as a line of demarcation and a determining factor as we move forward. It is time for all educators to move away from terms such as 'de minimis' education, compliance, and equality and towards a present and future that includes the vernacular of maximization, personalization, and equity.

No field in the child services industry has ever been more successful at advocating for and achieving change than special education. In the 1970's the field of special education came together as one to enact one of the largest and most impactful legislative changes for children in the history of America - the creation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Today, it is once again time for change. The gauntlet has been thrown down, and it is time for the field of special education to collectively step forward.

DDr. Kurt Hulett

Dr. Kurt Hulett is a former school principal and a current writer special education consultant, and advocate whose goal is to bring educators and stakeholders from all strata together to work for the benefit of all children. He is also a member of the Center for Special Education Advocacy and hosts the Kurt's Kitchen Table EdTalk video podcast. Dr. Hulett is the author of Legal Aspects of Special Education and is currently working on an education reform book entitled Miles to Equality, due out in 2020.
Learn more out about our comprehensive, evidence-based solutions for Special Education at www.rethinked.com.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Tips for Achieving Equity in Special Education - Rethink Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Dr. Kurt Hulett Watch the webinar presented by Dr. Hulett on 3.21.2019. The issue and importance of equality has been a common fixture in the American vernacular for the past sixty plus years. As a whole, working towards equality for all people, regardless of unalterable characteristics, is a valid and worthy pursuit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Q: What happens when teachers work to ensure their students' success but that success remains elusive?

A: Frustration. I hear frustration from teachers when they feel they are not meeting the needs of their students. Teachers care deeply. They work diligently to meet their students' needs. At the root of their concern, they may not have had the professional development to gain the skills to equitably meet the diverse needs in their classes. Their frustration is palpable, accompanied by descriptions of students not participating in instructional activities. They want to help but may be uncertain how to equitably meet the needs of their students.

This concern is often especially vivid when working with English Learners. English Learners (ELs) bring the fullness of second languages and cultural diversity into classrooms. They provide different perspectives on our world, yet frustration is often the emotion I see in teachers as they wonder how and when they can meet the needs of their EL students. The combination of celebrating different cultures and perspectives while providing equitable access to instruction and academic language can lead to awesome rewards for both teachers and students.

Studies confirm the concerns that teachers have with providing equitable instruction for ELs. Ross (2014) found that teachers felt less confident teaching ELs than non-ELs, and years of teaching experience did not change teachers' lack of self-efficacy. Reeves (2006) found that nearly 70% of teachers "reported they did 'not have enough time to deal with the needs of ESL students'" (p. 136). In that same study, over 80% of teachers disagreed with the statement that they had adequate training to work with EL students. O'Brien (2011) revealed that teachers indicated they were unable to meet the needs of ELs in lessons, assignments, and projects.

The good news is that professional development, in face-to-face or remote environments, can increase teachers' self-efficacy and skills in reaching and teaching ELs and save the teachers time.

Educational leaders can reduce the frustration for teachers and provide them with collaborative professional development opportunities that will enable them to meet the needs of students. Professional development involving collaboration builds not only the sense of self-efficacy for teachers with English Learners but also their abilities to implement more equitable practices (Hazzard, 2019).

As leaders formulate a game plan for equity, there are several critical steps.

1. Find out the needs

Ask and listen to students, families, and staff about needs they see related to equity. Include teachers in discussions to clarify needs. Teachers have great insights into what students and parents perceive their needs to be. Along this journey, leaders have the opportunity to build stronger relationships with teachers and families. By listening, leaders learn the needs of their constituents and can formulate the game plan for meeting their needs and exceeding their expectations.

This spring when we all suddenly found ourselves working and teaching from home, I listened as teachers shared that ELs needed more support with their assignments. Teachers shared that students felt frustrated as they strived to meet instructional challenges. Teachers worked tirelessly from home but often did not have the opportunity to directly see the struggle of ELs after a synchronous class or group meeting, and the students didn't always reach out to the teacher to ask for help.

Teachers and parents were united in their commitment to the success of our students. More academic language support was necessary for some students to be academically successful.

2. Set the goals for equity

Based on the needs discovered while listening to students, families, and staff, set the goals for equity. What are you trying to accomplish in the name of equity? Consider how your data aligns with those needs. Data can be numerical or qualitative. What you hear from parents, students, and staff is an important part of your data. What support can be offered that will meet student, family, and staff needs, and what will impact the data that you have?

Pre-made and readily available scaffolds for students became more critical during remote learning. Those scaffolds needed to provide support for any student who needed access to academic language including ELs. If teachers needed support in creating those scaffolds because of time and learning how to make them, then a solution must be forged.

3. Offer professional learning for the short and long term (impact now and later)

Professional development during remote learning is not just for remote learning. Professional development needs to impact practices for the short and long term. The practices need to work whether we are face-to-face or remote to meet students' needs in any situation.

Teachers implemented many engaging remote activities, and the work was intense and time-consuming. How could we incorporate something that saved teachers time during remote learning in our professional development? We needed to help teachers, students, and parents during this time frame and ensure the impact would be lasting.

4. Create the opportunity and purpose for teamwork

Collaboration offers the opportunity for everyone to combine their expertise and build relationships. Leaders focus the team on the goal. Time is important, so ensure the purpose is clear for the work of the team.

Create teams that offer the opportunity for cross-sharing complementary expertise to reach the goal. If teams of teachers and specialists will be working together, consider the expertise lens that each team member will contribute. For example, reading specialists offer great insights into English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum and students' literacy needs. EL specialists contribute valuable insights regarding academic language and ensuring access to grade-level content. Special Education teachers can promote ideas for differentiation. Content teachers maintain focus on grade-level content and standards. When leaders focus expertise on one purpose guided by the needs and goals set before them, then real change for equity can happen. Diversity in team members' skill sets can help meet the needs of diverse learners.

Ensure that where your team meets, especially if it's remote, is conducive to teamwork. Zoom breakout rooms work better for collaboration than large groups in Zoom. When we are face to face, breaking larger teams into smaller collaborative groups or partners encourages strong collaboration from all. Remember, the members of groups and partners should offer heterogeneous insights into solving the problem.

5. Create the path for communication

When a team has great ideas for a great purpose, then those ideas need to be shared. Consider what opportunities already exist for communication and sharing. Can they be leveraged efficiently and purposefully?

During remote learning, my district implemented weekly Remote Planning Workshops (RPWs) akin to cross-school Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for grade levels. RPWs were created to provide teachers from the same grade levels throughout the district with the opportunity to cross-share ideas for upcoming content. Two reading specialists would lead each grade-level RPW in a Zoom with breakout rooms. These RPWs were the perfect opportunity for professional development about academic language supports because the supports could be linked to the content discussed during RPWs. EL teachers and I shared academic language scaffold examples and the "why" behind them with grade-level teachers.

One key to the communication pathway for the RPWs was learning the content to be discussed prior to meeting as a team. Reading specialist meetings followed by EL specialist meetings were key in this process. Each week to prepare, I learned what ELA instructional topics the reading specialists would be talking about the following week in RPWs and then relayed that information to the EL specialist team, so they could develop examples of academic language supports to share in each RPW. Collaboration with reading specialists and EL specialists provided opportunities for necessary communication to meet our goal.

6. As leaders, model the way

Leaders must model the importance of the steps they are asking their team to take for equity. Set the example for your team, so they take strong steps for equity with you.

I wanted my EL specialist team to know that I valued equity - and the work that goes toward it. After meeting with the reading specialists, I made scaffold templates and models to share with the EL specialist team. Then I met with the EL specialists who designed similar models for different grade levels. For example, we made writing frames and graphic organizers for argument and opinion as one type of scaffold. I shared examples in grade-level RPWs with the EL specialists. I modeled the importance of enhancing equity. One EL specialist or I shared a grade-level model in each RPW.

This game plan resulted in wins for our constituents.

The grade-level teachers left the RPW with great ideas for ELA, an academic language scaffold they could implement with students soon after, an understanding of why the academic language scaffold was helpful for ELs and other students who needed it, and a template to make a similar scaffold in the future. Teachers were thankful for those examples that they could use right away for instruction. Parents could see their students participate in activities using those scaffolds during remote learning. Using those scaffolds reduces student frustration and enhances learning.

In this process, the EL specialists gained a stronger foothold with grade-level teachers and reading specialists. Their collaboration extended beyond the RPWs, and the learning extended beyond our spring remote learning. Leadership was distributed.

Equity definitely isn't a game, but we can make a game plan for it.

Equity, especially during remote learning and especially for English Learners, is a challenge and an opportunity. Make a strong game plan for equity. Plan for team members with diverse expertise to collaborate and develop professional learning that will impact equity for the short and long term. Model for your team just how important equity is to you, and they will reflect its importance in the work they lead.

Ross, K. E. L. (2014). Professional development for practicing mathematics teachers: A critical connection to English language learner students in mainstream USA classrooms. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 17(1), 85-100.

Reeves, J. R. (2006). Secondary teacher attitudes toward including English-Language Learners in mainstream classrooms. The Journal of Educational Research, 99(3), 131-142.

O'Brien, J. (2011). The system is broken and it's failing these kids: High school social studies teachers' attitudes towards training for ELLs. Journal of Social Studies Research, 35(1), 22-38.

Hazzard, J. (2019). Professional development for the equitable assessment of English learners. (Publication No. 13881232) [Doctoral dissertation, Wilmington University]. ProQuest.

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. Jossey-Bass.

Jessica Hazzard, Ed.D.

Jessica Hazzard, Ed.D. is a District English Learner & Reading Specialist for Cape Henlopen School District in Lewes, Delaware, and specializes in educational equity, professional development, and improving programs for English Learners. She has a master's degree in Reading and Technology, a doctorate in Educational Leadership, and 20 years' experience in public education as a teacher and EL and reading specialist.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Collaborative Plan for Student Equity | Frontline Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A: Frustration. I hear frustration from teachers when they feel they are not meeting the needs of their students. Teachers care deeply. They work diligently to meet their students' needs. At the root of their concern, they may not have had the professional development to gain the skills to equitably meet the diverse needs in their classes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Equity Collaborative | About Us and the Work We Do

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Equity Collaborative is made up of lifelong educators dedicated to educational equity, antiracism, and DEI initiatives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The work of the University of Washington's Equitable Parent-School Collaboration research project is driven by a desire to expand how schools and districts recognize and tap parental expertise and leadership in improving student learning. For the past three years, UW researchers have partnered with schools, families and community organizations in the Road Map Project region of South Seattle and South King County to develop pathways and tools that will foster authentic parent and family engagement.

The newly available tools include:

Road Map Family Engagement Survey User's Guide - Designed to help schools, districts and community-based organizations get started as they build equitable collaboration between families, communities and schools.

Parent Curriculum: Families in the Driver's Seat - A culturally-responsive, asset-based curriculum that can be adapted by schools to build capacity and relationships between parents and educators.

Building Relationships Bridging Cultures - This research brief is a comparative case study that describes cultural brokers (individuals who acts as bridges between families and schools) and three promising strategies they used to engage families.

Data Inquiry For Equitable Collaboration - This research brief describes one example of an inquiry process that engages a broad range of stakeholders in making sense of data to improve the work of an educational organization.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The work of the University of Washington's Equitable Parent-School Collaboration research project is driven by a desire to expand how schools and districts recognize and tap parental expertise and leadership in improving student learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I have found that that in order to have equity in education, we must create it.

Our society, not to mention our educational system, is not set up to be equitable. As leaders in education, it is our duty to establish an even playing field or at least to allow everyone to see the playing field as depicted in the depictions of equity and equality below. History teaches us that everyone should get the same things in education; rather, I believe that our students should first have access to the same opportunities regardless of their circumstances, in order to create the equitable playing field.

Another great image that illustrates the challenges we are up against in education is depicted in the cartoon below in which a variety of animals are given the task to climb a tree in order to be "fairly selected" for something seemingly meaningful. The image speaks for itself in terms of the unfairness in education. Hip-hop artist, Prince Ea brought this cartoon to life, from the perspective of the fish, with this video, in which he sued our educational system.

So, how do we create an equitable playing field where "fish" don't have to climb trees? I believe that we need to look at our opportunities to create equity from a NEW angle. Specifically, we must:

Naming our Diversity

First, we need to be honest with ourselves about the assumptions and beliefs that we as educators have of our students. Assumptions and beliefs based on preconceived notions misguide our judgement of our students' potential. Dismantling the barriers that block our understanding of the truth, allows us to foster meaningful relationships with our students and colleagues to create culturally relevant pedagogical systems for teaching and learning.

Building trust is step one in the process of creating equity in education. As principal of a school that focuses on social-emotional learning I have learned the value of intentional conversations with other educators about what it is that makes the school different and unique. Recently, I have been spending a lot of my time helping people understand the perspectives of other peoples. The results have been staggering: Personal connections across professional lines have strengthened. Understanding of our students' life situations have grown. Ultimately, our relationships with students have deepened to the point where daily class meetings are forums for building trust among students from a variety of multicultural perspectives. Empathy for diversity is powerful in the pursuit of equity.

Empower Open-Mindedness

Next, I have learned to surround myself with like-minded individuals in education. While having honest and intentional conversations is the first step in creating equity, having the courage to confront the people who lack an open-minded approach is the next leap. We need to challenge people who perpetuate a negative view of their students' potential that is based in preconception. No single educator can do this alone. I believe in empowering all those who demonstrate even a sliver of confidence to stand up to the injustices they see.

Fatigue from the day-to-day demands of work in a school is normal; countering others with negative beliefs is a further struggle. After seeing the benefits of an entire school focused on social-emotional learning, I surrendered my own assumptions and beliefs that were perpetuating the cycle of a doubt about our students' abilities and jumped all in on developing a school culture that does not tolerate negativity. I established an expectation that all would cultivate an open-minded approach to learning in order to create an empowering school culture focused on equity. Our results included:

Staff diversity increased from 2% to 20% teachers of color.

Annual school suspensions decreased from 58 to 16 over the course of three years to the point that suspensions of students of color and with disabilities became proportionate to th school demographics.

The percentage of students reading on grade level skyrocketed from 64% to 84% over two years. Potential became a reality.

Welcome Out-of-the-Box Ideas

Innovation is the final step in creating equity in education. We created a resource center called "The Empowerment Zone." All our school resources for students, parents, teachers, and community members are centralized in one room for easy access to supports. In The Empowerment Zone, our 36 community partners provide resources and services including academic, mental health, financial, and wellness opportunities. The reality of the equal playing field described at the beginning of this blog came to life in The Empowerment Zone, where all of our students and their families have access to the same opportunities.

In addition, our social-emotional learning efforts are positively affecting students' academic performance. Our instructional model integrates SEL and PBL initiatives that meet students' needs and enhance the culture of learning at Ecoff. The components of the instructional model include:

A framework that calls for multiple teaching styles to support multiple learning styles with a focus on relationships

A systematic process to maximize cross-curricular integration of learning objectives

Built-in mechanisms for equity checkpoints to ensure culturally relevant instruction

Embedded STEAM strategies to support students' career readiness

Encompassing of the 5 C's (communication, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and citizenship) to support students' goal setting, leadership. and personalized learning

Moving forward, I believe in the need for "A New Angle" on structuring our educational system. The process takes intentional and honest teamwork with the willingness to have courageous conversations about our differences. We must empower our educators who have an open-mind attitude toward students and who believe in making a difference in all of their students' lives. Ultimately, we need to create a context that allows innovation to thrive in a world of inequities. Our educational "playing field" needs to become level where "climbing trees" is no longer an unfair expectation for success.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A NEW Angle: Creating Equity in Education | Center for the Collaborative Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I have found that that in order to have equity in education, we must create it. Our society, not to mention our educational system, is not set up to be equitable. As leaders in education, it is our duty to establish an even playing field or at least to allow everyone to see the playing [...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Equitable Collaboration Framework was developed by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project at the University of Washington's College of Education. The project's research team seeks to understand and support parent-engagement programs that promote equitable educational outcomes for underserved students, families, and communities.

The Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project's research program currently focuses on the Road Map Project, a regional initiative in Washington state working to dramatically improve student achievement from cradle to college and career. During the 2012-2013 school year, the Road Map region served a diverse population of more than 120,000 students, of which 59% came from low-income households, 67% were students of color, and 16% were English-language learners.

"We stand at a critical moment for understanding the potential of family engagement for addressing persistent educational inequities in our schools and communities. Decades of research suggest parent-family-school relations are pivotal to student success. Especially for non-dominant communities, however, traditional parent involvement approaches-such as parent-teacher associations, open houses, and parent-teacher conferences-rarely realize this promise. New 'collective impact' efforts have arisen to eliminate educational disparities from 'cradle to career' through multi-sector collaboration. These initiatives bring together schools, community-based organizations, advocates, businesses, governmental agencies, and the public at large to improve the educational outcomes of students throughout a community. Within this context, family engagement represents a potentially powerful lever for change."
Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from Parent Engagement Initiatives in the Road Map Project, Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott

The Equitable Collaboration Framework

The Equitable Collaboration Framework encompasses several resources and publications that describe a variety of approaches to equitable collaboration with students, families, and community members. The following sections provide a brief introduction to a few of the models and recommendations produced by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project.

The Principles of Equitable Collaboration describe the six essential elements of equitable collaboration identified by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project: Community Capacity (strengthening individual and collective capacity to improve schools), Authentic Relationships (building relationships among families and between families and educators), Families as Experts (seeing family experiences and stories as sources of knowledge, expertise, and solutions), Educators as Learners (positioning educators as learners working to improve their practice), Balanced Power (attending to power imbalances and planning for equal voice and influence), and Family-Driven Goals (beginning with and prioritizing family goals and concerns). Source: Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project

Contrasting Rules of Engagement

The work of the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project utilizes a conceptual framework originally articulated by Ann Ishimaru in a 2014 article. The Equitable Collaborations Framework describes two contrasting approaches to family and community engagement in education- traditional partnerships and equitable collaborations-across four foundational dimensions of educational engagement: Goals, Strategies, Parent Roles, and Processes. The framework draws on previous studies of community organizing and civic capacity-building, or what the scholar Clarence Stone calls "the mobilization of varied stakeholders in support of a communitywide cause."

The Equitable Collaboration Framework describes "contrasting rules of engagement" that characterize more traditional approaches to family engagement and evidence-based approaches to developing equitable partnerships between schools and families-or what the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project sometimes refers to as "next practices." Source: Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott, Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from Parent Engagement Initiatives in the Road Map Project

In Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from Parent Engagement Initiatives in the Road Map Project, Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott describe two essential elements of equitable organizing and capacity-building that are useful for understanding the Equitable Collaborations Framework:

1. Understanding

" Understanding highlights the need for collective vision and goals, as well as a sense of shared responsibility that moves beyond blame. Strategies that build capacity and relationships are key to this understanding and ability to act. To cultivate understanding, efforts must build individual capacity and understanding of the work as well as relationships between individuals, both those from similar backgrounds (for example, immigrant parents) and those from different backgrounds (for instance, parents and educators). Finally, at the level of organizations, sustainable reform requires changing relationships and interactions to create the political context needed to institute and sustain new practices."

2. Participation

" Participation -or contribution to the cause-focuses attention on the role of stakeholders in the common effort, the resources they bring, and the need for cooperation between them. In conventional approaches, non-dominant parents are often relegated to the role of client or beneficiary. Educators or professionals act as "experts" who know what is best for them, and interactions are typically infused with highly unequal power dynamics. But as experts on their own children's native language, culture, community context, and learning needs, low-income parents of color can play key decision-making, design, and implementation roles in education reform efforts."

Four Dimensions

The four dimensions of the Equitable Collaborations Framework:

1. Systemic change that occurs within a culture of shared responsibility

Equitable collaboration requires educators, families, and community members to share responsibility for eliminating inequities in districts and schools. Traditional approaches to family engagement often focus on discrete goals-such a resolving a specific conflict between a teacher and parent, or fixing a problem with a single school program-rather than on systems-wide changes that will strengthen relationships between all teachers and families in a school, for example, or that will improve educational outcomes for students throughout a district. In school and community cultures characterized by "denial and implicit blame," educators, families, and community members may deny their personal role in creating or perpetuating inequities, shift blame onto others, or believe that inequities are the result of causes beyond their control.

2. Adaptive change that builds capacity and relationships among a broad range of stakeholders

Equitable collaboration requires adaptive approaches to addressing educational inequities throughout a school system, not just tweaks and technical changes to existing policies, programs, and practices. In traditional school-community partnerships, for example, administrators may make hurried, unilateral decisions based on assumptions about student or family needs, rather than listen to the community express its needs and concerns, and then develop more informed and responsive programs in collaboration with students and families-as they would in a culture of equitable collaboration. Educators may also seek out partnerships with community leaders or organizations they are socially connected to or comfortable working with, for example, instead of actively and intentionally reaching out to local cultural groups they don't already partner with, but that may be more representative of the students and families the school serves.

3. Non-dominant parents are seen as educational leaders who contribute to and help shape the agenda

Equitable collaboration requires school leaders and educators to see families as experts who possess valuable knowledge about their children, community, or culture-especially parents and family members from groups that were historically marginalized by the education system. In traditional partnerships, educators may overvalue educational or technical expertise, such as an understanding of state education policy or effective methods of instruction, for example, while undervaluing other forms of expertise, such as a mother's understanding of her child's social-emotional needs or a nonprofit's knowledge of a particular racial, ethnic, or cultural community. Equitable collaboration also requires school leaders and educators to share power or decision-making with youth or families, particularly during the early stages of a process when questions are being framed, problems are being discussed and agendas are being determined.

4. Reform is a political process that addresses broader issues in community

Equitable collaboration requires participants to acknowledge and understand that schools are situated in complex, interdependent communities, and that both school systems and communities are shaped by larger historical, socioeconomic, political, and cultural forces. For example, some families-such as those from dominant cultural groups and more privileged backgrounds-are typically better positioned to influence school policies or advocate for their children, while others-such as those from historically marginalized cultural groups and less wealthy or educated backgrounds-may not have the same level of knowledge, confidence, or social connections, which can undermine their agency and influence on the school system. In this context, equitable collaboration may require capacity-building strategies-such as training in community organizing, for example-that will help youth and families from non-dominant cultural groups identify and understand systemic inequities and how they can mobilize to demand changes in school policy or practice.

Continuum of Involvement, Engagement, and Collaboration Strategies

Another useful framework described in Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration is the Continuum of Involvement, Engagement, and Collaboration Strategies, which is based on case-study findings from the Road Map Project and on previous research on effective family-engagement models. The continuum is represented as a pyramid to "suggest both the number of parents who may be engaged with those strategies at any given moment as well as the progressive nature of the journey from involvement to equitable collaboration."

The Continuum of Involvement, Engagement, and Collaboration Strategies shows a progression from foundational involvement strategies (meeting family needs and building parent knowledge of academics and the educational system) to culturally responsive engagement strategies (using cultural brokers and creating culturally responsive spaces for parent-to-parent relationship-building) to systemic collaboration strategies (building systems-wide capacity to collaborate with families and scaffold parent leadership). Source: Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott, Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from Parent Engagement Initiatives in the Road Map Project

1. Foundational Involvement

Foundational involvement strategies can reach a larger percentage of students and families in a school system, and they can provide a variety of benefits and essential services, but foundational involvement strategies are less like to build the knowledge, skills, and confidence of students and families or result in policies, programs, and practices that promote equity throughout a school system. Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott describe two representative approaches to foundational family involvement:

Meeting family needs refers to programs that have a "holistic focus on helping families to address their basic economic, health, and other needs as a means of enabling them to better support their children's learning and academic success." This approach to family involvement may provide essential or urgently needed interventions and services-such as food, healthcare, childcare, counseling, or housing assistance, for example-but it typically focuses on short-term, case-by-case solutions to problems that are ultimately driven by systemic causes such as poverty, opportunity gaps, institutionalized racism, or political disenfranchisement.

Building parent knowledge and self-efficacy refers to orientation programs and learning opportunities that provide families with "information about how schools work," such as the school's "expectations for students, identifying whom to talk with to address questions or resolve issues, and academic concepts such as grades, test scores, and standards." This approach to involvement may increase family understanding of school policies, help students make more informed educational choices, or increase a parent's ability to support their child's education at home, for example, but it typically focuses on educating families about the existing system, rather than changing the system to better serve families. As the authors write, "Conventional parent-education efforts often focus on giving parents information without a concurrent focus on receiving feedback and information from them to improve educational systems."

2. Culturally Responsive Engagement

Culturally responsive engagement strategies not only help to create "a context within which parents and families feel welcome and part of the school community," but they also "acknowledge and affirm the diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds of families as a source of strength rather than as a barrier to student success." The authors describe two representative approaches to culturally responsive engagement:

Leveraging cultural brokers refers to schools working in collaboration with teachers, staff, youth leaders, parents, or community members who "represent the many cultural communities" served by the school and who "have a foot in two worlds: the world of the school/formal organizations and the world of a specific cultural community." Cultural brokers can "help families from non-dominant cultural communities to understand and access information, resources, and opportunities from the dominant institutions," while also helping institutions "address, understand, and change community needs and priorities."

Creating culturally responsive spaces for relationship-building refers to policies, programs, and practices that promote cross-cultural awareness, sensitivity, and understanding both inside and outside of the school and classroom. Examples of culturally responsive spaces might include courses that are taught in multiple languages or that feature multiple cultural perspectives, youth-organizing groups that build build multicultural coalitions of students and adult allies, restorative-justice circles that create opportunities for cross-cultural understanding and conflict resolution, or home-visit programs that facilitate relationship-building interactions between teachers and parents outside of the school.

3. Systemic Collaboration

Systemic collaboration strategies "seek to change the structures, systems, policies, and practices in educational systems that systematically exclude or marginalize families and students, particularly when they do not reflect the dominant class, culture, and language." The authors describe two representative approaches to systemic collaboration:

Building systemic capacity refers to schools and community partners supporting strategies that develop the knowledge, skills, and mindsets-of school leaders, educators, students, families, and community partners-that are required to identify, challenge, and redress entrenched inequities in educational systems. Systemic capacity-building can take a variety of forms, including school-community partnerships that help to remove barriers (e.g., limited access to transportation, a lack of childcare, or language differences) to family engagement; training and skill-building programs that address issues such as diversity, cultural sensitivity, or trauma-informed instruction; academic courses and adult-learning opportunities that educate students and families about race, class, power, and privilege in society; or inclusive planning and organizing processes that involve educators, staff, students, families, and community members in the co-development of more equitable school policies and programs.

Scaffolding parent leadership development refers to programs and practices that progressively develop parent leadership skills and provide ongoing support to emerging parent leaders. Examples of scaffolding leadership development could include parent groups self-organizing to advocate more equitable district policies, "parent universities" that provide instruction and training in advocacy or civic leadership to parents; or diversity recruitment and hiring initiatives help parents become volunteers, family liaisons, or educators in the school system. The authors discuss an example of a program that supported families "take on "stretch" assignments with increasing responsibility and influence. 'Stretch' assignments are tasks or roles that require knowledge or skills beyond individuals' current capacity in order to enable them to grow and learn." Over the course of 12 months in one district, "community leaders became recruiters, translators, workshop facilitators, trainers, curriculum developers, and even teachers within their communities."

Recommendations for Cultivating Equitable Collaboration

The case studies in this research suggest promising strategies for strengthening family engagement work within a collective impact context. Equitable collaborations between families, schools, and communities are not, however, built overnight. The findings from this study suggest that such work entails long-term investments, new relationships, and capacity-building of not only parents, but also educators and staff who work with culturally and linguistically diverse communities. We first provide a set of general recommendations and then address recommendations tailored to districts, schools, and collective impact initiatives.

1. Create a reciprocal, collective and equitable vision of family engagement tied to improving educational systems.

Individualistic, deficit approaches to "training" parents are often strongly embedded in the culture and norms of schools and other organizations. Thus, explicit conversations among school/district leaders, educators, families, and communities about the collective goals and outcomes of family engagement work must move beyond conventional assumptions and practices. When all stakeholders have a meaningful role in shaping this vision, they can become co-creators of equitable family engagement practices and, as a result, more responsive schools and institutions.

2. Recognize and address inequities in power between districts and community-based organizations.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) can be powerful allies and resources for schools and districts, but the highly unequal power dynamics between CBOs and districts can threaten their ability to collaborate productively and to realize the promise of collective impact. Although the rhetoric of partnerships is everywhere, districts often set the agenda and terms of engagement, relegating CBOs to passive support roles. Because of their greater power, it is incumbent on districts and policymakers to take the first steps to open the lines of communication and provide access to the resources (not only financial resources but also time and space) and decision-making processes that most directly affect the families served by CBOs. Schools can commit to connecting families with CBOs, sharing data, providing space, communicating regularly, and jointly planning school engagement and improvement efforts.

3. Recognize and address inequities in power between policymakers, professional educators and parents/families.

The profound power differentials between policymakers, professional educators and parents/families both within districts and in the broader regional context can stifle the meaningful participation of parents and families and limit their contributions to improving the opportunities to learn for young people. Both research and practice have demonstrated parents' capacity to engage in core discussions and critical decision-making about the issues that concern them most; professionals and educators who presume parents should not be present or part of policy or organizational decision-making are underutilizing the intellectual and social resources of their communities. Rather than feeling they are losing power or control, professionals and educators can proactively seek out the expertise of parents and families to gain new ideas and additional capacity. Districts and other institutions may need to challenge policies that reinforce power inequities, such as formal education requirements for leadership roles, English-only discussions, or meeting times that create barriers for participation. And organizational leaders must play a key initiating and supporting role in creating the conditions that promote equitable relationships.

4. Create and sustain a culture of professional learning in family engagement practice.

Like good teaching, equitable family engagement work is complex, context-specific, and requires constant reflection, collaboration, and efforts to improve. Organizational leaders (in both districts and CBOs) should approach family engagement work as a professional practice that entails ongoing reflection, learning, and efforts to innovate as part of a broader culture of learning throughout the organization. Organizations should model and support the collection and use of broad forms of data (including student and family voices) to assess progress and guide improvement.

5. Provide multiple opportunities for engagement that foster parent-to-parent networks and leadership.

A range of engagement opportunities enables parents and families to engage in ways that are meaningful and culturally appropriate for them and their children while also growing their capacity and participation over time. While such opportunities may start with workshops and services to meet family needs, promoting parent-to-parent networks and cultivating leadership opportunities can strengthen how schools leverage the knowledge, skills, networks and other assets that parents/families can bring to improve schools and communities. Designated physical space in schools and time for families to meet and build relationships can facilitate these networks. Leadership opportunities can include both formal and informal roles, facilitation, and mentoring for other parents, and participation in community, district, and school-level committees. Family participation across these roles should reflect the student populations in the community.

One of the organizations studied by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Project was Neighborhood House, a community-based organization that serves 23 culturally and linguistically diverse low-income communities. Neighborhood House uses a "data carousel" process with its community to raise questions, make sense of data, improve programs, and strengthen relationships and trust between the organization and its community. The six-step Data Inquiry for Equitable Collaboration process, which is based on the data carousel, is an example of one form of equitable collaboration available to schools, organizations, and communities. Source: Data Inquiry for Equitable Collaboration: The Case of Neighborhood House's Data Carousel.

DISTRICTS

1. Prioritize family engagement work as a strategic, shared responsibility

Superintendents play a pivotal role in communicating the strategic priorities and expectations of family engagement work as a shared responsibility that is central to the core work of educating students, rather than the marginalized domain of a few designated staff members. The inclusion of family engagement as a key component of a district's strategic work can signal its importance and highlight roles in the work for every educator, from the superintendent and school board to classroom teachers and support staff. Moreover, dedicated resources-both full-time staff and financial resources for programs-comprise critical foundational infrastructure for sustained family engagement work in schools and across a district.

2. Invest in building educator capacity

Teachers and other educators (including instructional assistants and specialists) are often the first point of contact for families, but they often also feel under-prepared and have weak supports for building reciprocal, learning-focused relationships with families in linguistically and culturally diverse communities. School-centric cultures, a fear of parent voices and power, and limited understanding of issues of race, culture, class, and power can further limit educators' ability to engage productively with parents and families, particularly around issues of teaching and learning. Educational leaders can provide professional development, modeling, and ongoing resources and supports to build teachers' capacity to collaborate with families, particularly through models which rst position educators as learners (such as home visits, neighborhood walks, or equity work).

SCHOOLS

1. Cultivate a welcoming learning environment for families and community

As school leaders, principals play a key role by modeling responsiveness to families and opening new opportunities for collaborating with them. This requires more than an "open door" policy or the inclusion of families as an afterthought. Empowering school leadership practices can build capacity and lead to sharing leadership, planning, and decision-making with parents, teachers, other educators, support staff, and community members. Such practices should strive to create "community-ready" schools in which educators see themselves as part of the neighborhood and parents and families perceive the school as a hub for the entire community.

2. Identify and leverage cultural brokers to foster culturally responsive relationships between parents/families, teachers, and other educators

In building trust and highly reciprocal relationships between families and educators-especially when language and cultural differences are present-"cultural brokers" play a key role. These individuals are familiar with the cultures of schools and often already informal leaders in their own cultural communities. Cultural brokers can be district staff, but they should not be restricted to employees. These connectors introduce families to the school culture, build their capacity to advocate for their own and community needs, introduce educators to the cultures of their students and families, and facilitate ongoing, two-way communication between families and schools. Schools need to be culturally responsive to the racial/cultural communities of their students and families, even if they are groups who speak English well, such as African Americans, American Indians and Pacific Islanders.

COLLECTIVE-IMPACT INITIATIVES

1. Establish a regional policy for equitable parent/family engagement.

Collective impact initiatives are uniquely situated to prioritize the work that promotes equitable family- school-community collaboration. [Hub organizations] can convene districts, CBOs, families and other stakeholders to envision and develop policies and strategic efforts around equitable family engagement across the region. The initiative can also identify resources and facilitate capacity-building to implement such a policy with multiple actors at multiple levels of the educational system.

2. Foster cross-organizational learning and capacity-building around equitable practice in family engagement.

Collective impact hub organizations...can play a critical role in building organizational capacity and cross-effort learning to improve family engagement practices. Creating meaningful opportunities for the voices and expertise of parents and families themselves to impact regional priorities and efforts can provide a powerful model for participating organizations. Moreover, Road Map organizations are eager to gain access to indicators, tools, professional development and other supports for improving their work and their approach to collaborating with families in new and more reciprocal ways.

3. Create systems, policies, and practices of equitable collaboration between organizations within the initiative.

In an equitable collaboration, all the participating organizations feel they have an equal voice and that their knowledge and contributions are valued and legitimate contributions to the shared goals of the effort. Policies and practices that reinforce individualistic competition between organizations for resources, legitimacy, support, or attention can undermine the sustainability and political will of individuals and organizations to sustain the collective effort. One manifestation of this is the equitable allocation of funding and access to funding opportunities between organizations of varied sizes and capacities. Funders can also play a critical role by supporting collective grants that allow collaborating partners to fund aspects of each partners' budget that is allocated to the parent engagement effort.

Acknowledgments

Organizing Engagement thanks Ann Ishimaru for her contributions to improving this introduction, and the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project for permission to republish excerpts and images from its website and publications.

Creative Commons

This work by Organizing Engagement is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. When excerpting, adapting, or republishing content from this resource, users should cite the source texts and confirm that all quotations and excerpts are accurately presented.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equitable Collaboration Framework - Organizing Engagement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Equitable Collaboration Framework was developed by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project at the University of Washington's College of Education. The project's research team seeks to understand and support parent-engagement programs that promote equitable educational outcomes for underserved students, families, and communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Addressing systemic barriers to racial equity. Amplifying community voice. Building stronger systems. In seven King County school districts.

Now available: Our Rising Voices

For too long, our education systems have treated "English language learners" as a problem to be managed and minimized. Our Rising Voices: A Call to Action to Support Emergent Multilingual Students pinpoints five specific yet sweeping recommendations for building transformative changes and uplifting community voices.

Regional Progress

From early learning to college

LEARN MORE

Our multisector partnership is comprised of hundreds of individuals and organizations: school districts, postsecondary education institutions, community-based organizations, businesses, government agencies, teachers and parents, students and youth, and many more.

We are all working together to build stronger systems for our communities.

Learn More

We use data and research to help us understand how to improve the education experience for students. While we do look at traditional student-level measures such as assessment scores and graduation rates, we also work to illuminate how systems can better serve our young people.

Our use of this information is driven by the recommendations, experiences, and perspectives of the most-impacted communities in our region.

Learn More

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Addressing systemic barriers to racial equity. Amplifying community voice. Building stronger systems. In seven King County school districts. For too long, our education systems have treated "English language learners" as a problem to be managed and minimized. Our Rising Voices: A Call to Action to Support Emergent Multilingual Students pinpoints five specific yet sweeping recommendations for building transformative changes and uplifting community voices.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Problem

Our region has changed, our systems haven't

We want every child and young person in our region to thrive in their education, communities, and life. But our systems and policies are too outdated to support the success of our students today.

Our region's economic growth is exacerbating the consequences of education inequities. Income disparities are growing. Gentrification is pushing out our youth and families. Poverty is concentrating in South King County: 59 percent of our region's students are low-income and 4 percent are homeless-more than two times what it was in 2010.

Our student population is diversifying

The Road Map Project region is home to more than 128,000 K-12 students. Our student population overall has grown by nearly 10 percent and our schools are enrolling more students of color than ever before.

Our communities are international

Many of our students are English language learners. They speak 169 primary languages and come from 152 birth countries.

And they deserve better

Research confirms what our communities have always known: A learning environment where students feel respected, valued, and engaged matters to their success. Students do better when they have teachers who can better relate to them. Families are better engaged when schools are more culturally responsive.

Advance student success, remove systemic barriers

The discourse on how to "fix" education too often focuses on what students and their parents should be doing. But the real problem, as demonstrated by the magnitude and duration of disparities, is institutional racism. What needs fixing are systems that maintain an unrepresentative educator workforce, discipline students of color more harshly, fail to support early learning or college guidance, and don't weight education funding by student need.

We must chart a bolder road map toward education equity

Eighty-three percent of our students say they want to earn a college degree. And by 2020, 70 percent of jobs in the state will require postsecondary education. Yet, despite the aspirations of our students and the reality of the region's economy, only 30 percent earn a college degree by their mid-twenties.

Our students are ambitious about their futures. Our job is to build systems that support their needs and their dreams.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Problem We want every child and young person in our region to thrive in their education, communities, and life. But our systems and policies are too outdated to support the success of our students today. Our region's economic growth is exacerbating the consequences of education inequities. Income disparities are growing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Our Approach

Collective action for student success

The Road Map Project is a collective impact initiative. No single organization, program, or sector alone can create systems-level change. And real change in education cannot happen without our youth and families at the table.

Within our communities, there are many powerful individuals, programs, and schools doing meaningful work for student success. We want to break down silos and help make connections so that we are all learning from, and collaborating with, each other to create large-scale, regional change.

Our goals are to increase equitable policies and practices so that 70 percent of South Seattle and South King County students earn a college degree or career credential by 2030.

Who's involved

We come from a wide range of sectors and an even greater number of communities. Through a common agenda toward a common goal, we are building systems that work for our youth of color and low-income students.

Racial Equity Essentials

To guide our work toward transformational change, Road Map Project partners have created a list of System-Wide Racial Equity Essentials. Our collective work focuses on improving these system conditions so our young people of color are well supported to reach their full potential.

Equitable Funding

Advocate for local and regional funding equity, including public and private sources

Advocate for state funding equity

Increase Culturally Relevant School Climate And Supports

Build capacity of culturally specific community-based organizations

Reform discipline policy and practices

Diversify educator workforce

Improve cultural competence of workforce

Support bilingual pride and language access

Strong Family Engagement Practices And Functions

Build strong district and school family engagement practices

Support families as early childhood brain-builders

Build regional capacity for grassroots parent advocacy

Increase Access And Dismantle Barriers To Opportunity

Increase career connections and pathways to college success

Increase access to strong family supports

Increase access to high-quality early learning

Increase access to quality out-of-school-time

Increase access to quality reengagement programs

Strong Civil Rights Policies

Support strong implementation of House Bill #1541 (state "opportunity gap" bill)

Advocate for federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) implementation as a civil rights opportunity

Learn More

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our Approach The Road Map Project is a collective impact initiative. No single organization, program, or sector alone can create systems-level change. And real change in education cannot happen without our youth and families at the table. Within our communities, there are many powerful individuals, programs, and schools doing meaningful work for student success.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
However, there's still much to do: access to formal early learning programs is inadequate and uneven, schools need to strengthen family engagement, and although more than half of our students go off to college, less than a third earn a degree by their mid-twenties. Large performance and opportunity gaps by race still persist.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Thirty-nine percent of Road Map Project students are multilingual-and the number is growing. Our education systems must shift towards programs and policies that reflect our diverse and growing student body. Celebrating the Power of Bilingualism, a report from OneAmerica and the Road Map Project English Language Learners Work Group Read More

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Our Rising Voices: A Call to Action to Support Emergent Multilingual Students - Road Map Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For too long, our education systems have treated "English language learners" as a problem to be managed and minimized. Our Rising Voices: A Call to Action to Support Emergent Multilingual Students instead highlights data that shows it is the system that is inadequately supporting students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Practitioner Based Publications:

2015: Building Relationships Bridging Cultures: Cultural Brokering In Family Engagement 2015: Data Inquiry For Equitable Collaboration: The Case of Neighborhood House's Data Carousel 2015: Users Guide for Road Map Family Engagement Survey: Data Inquiry For Equitable Collaboration

A comparative case study, this brief describes cultural brokers-individuals who acts as bridges between families and schools-and three promising strategies they used to engage families, especially those farthest from opportunities, in their children's education: 1) parent capacity building; 2) culturally specific relationship building; and 3) systemic capacity building. We offer recommendations for cultural brokering strategies that build more reciprocal, collective, and relational family-school collaboration. Download"

In this brief, we describe one example of an inquiry process that engages a broad range of stakeholders in making sense of data to improve the work of an educational organization. We call this process data inquiry for equitable collaboration . Our research suggests that this model has potential to become a "next practice" for building more equitable collaboration between marginalized families, educators, formal leaders and community members. Download"

This user's guide contains our newest version of the family engagement survey, a tool to measure family engagement from an equity perspective. This survey and user's guide is the result of a two-year process of design and piloting in the Renton school district. It builds off of our previous work with CCER and the Road Map Project to define indicators of equitable parent engagement. Download"

2015: Families In The Driver's Seat: Parent-Driven Lessons and Guidelines For Collective Engagement
2014: Charting A Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from parent engagement initiatives in the Road Map Project

The Kent Design Team-comprising parents, teachers, principals, district leaders, and researchers- met intensively during the winter, spring and summer of 2014 to create a culturally responsive, asset-based curriculum driven by the interests, priorities, and needs of Kent parents, families, and communities that can be adapted to and shared across the region. The process positioned parents as experts and agents in their own learning and in the collective work of school improvement. Download"

We stand at a critical moment for understanding the potential of family engagement for addressing persistent educational inequities in our schools and communities. Decades of research suggest parent-family-school relations are pivotal to student success. The case study research reported here sought to understand how district-based and community-based parent engagement initiatives within a collective-impact effort seek to build the participation of parents/families, particularly those from low-income, marginalized communities, in education. Download"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Practitioner Based Publications: 2015: Building Relationships Bridging Cultures: Cultural Brokering In Family Engagement 2015: Data Inquiry For Equitable Collaboration: The Case of Neighborhood House's Data Carousel 2015: Users Guide for Road Map Family Engagement Survey: Data Inquiry For Equitable Collaboration A comparative case study, this brief describes cultural brokers-individuals who acts as bridges between families and schools-and three promising strategies they used to engage families, especially those farthest from opportunities, in their children's education: 1) parent capacity building; 2) culturally specific relationship building; and 3) systemic capacity building.

# data[].attributes.body
-Continuum of Involvement, Engagement, and Collaboration Strategies
-Recommendations for Cultivating Equitable Collaboration for
DISTRICTS, SCHOOLS, and COLLECTIVE-IMPACT INITIATIVES

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Equitable Collaboration Framework was developed by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project at the University of Washington's College of Education. The project's research team seeks to understand and support parent-engagement programs that promote equitable educational outcomes for underserved students, families, and communities.

The Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project's research program currently focuses on the Road Map Project, a regional initiative in Washington state working to dramatically improve student achievement from cradle to college and career. During the 2012-2013 school year, the Road Map region served a diverse population of more than 120,000 students, of which 59% came from low-income households, 67% were students of color, and 16% were English-language learners.

"We stand at a critical moment for understanding the potential of family engagement for addressing persistent educational inequities in our schools and communities. Decades of research suggest parent-family-school relations are pivotal to student success. Especially for non-dominant communities, however, traditional parent involvement approaches-such as parent-teacher associations, open houses, and parent-teacher conferences-rarely realize this promise. New 'collective impact' efforts have arisen to eliminate educational disparities from 'cradle to career' through multi-sector collaboration. These initiatives bring together schools, community-based organizations, advocates, businesses, governmental agencies, and the public at large to improve the educational outcomes of students throughout a community. Within this context, family engagement represents a potentially powerful lever for change."
Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from Parent Engagement Initiatives in the Road Map Project, Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott

The Equitable Collaboration Framework

The Equitable Collaboration Framework encompasses several resources and publications that describe a variety of approaches to equitable collaboration with students, families, and community members. The following sections provide a brief introduction to a few of the models and recommendations produced by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project.

The Principles of Equitable Collaboration describe the six essential elements of equitable collaboration identified by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project: Community Capacity (strengthening individual and collective capacity to improve schools), Authentic Relationships (building relationships among families and between families and educators), Families as Experts (seeing family experiences and stories as sources of knowledge, expertise, and solutions), Educators as Learners (positioning educators as learners working to improve their practice), Balanced Power (attending to power imbalances and planning for equal voice and influence), and Family-Driven Goals (beginning with and prioritizing family goals and concerns). Source: Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project

Contrasting Rules of Engagement

The work of the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project utilizes a conceptual framework originally articulated by Ann Ishimaru in a 2014 article. The Equitable Collaborations Framework describes two contrasting approaches to family and community engagement in education- traditional partnerships and equitable collaborations-across four foundational dimensions of educational engagement: Goals, Strategies, Parent Roles, and Processes. The framework draws on previous studies of community organizing and civic capacity-building, or what the scholar Clarence Stone calls "the mobilization of varied stakeholders in support of a communitywide cause."

The Equitable Collaboration Framework describes "contrasting rules of engagement" that characterize more traditional approaches to family engagement and evidence-based approaches to developing equitable partnerships between schools and families-or what the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project sometimes refers to as "next practices." Source: Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott, Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from Parent Engagement Initiatives in the Road Map Project

In Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from Parent Engagement Initiatives in the Road Map Project, Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott describe two essential elements of equitable organizing and capacity-building that are useful for understanding the Equitable Collaborations Framework:

1. Understanding

" Understanding highlights the need for collective vision and goals, as well as a sense of shared responsibility that moves beyond blame. Strategies that build capacity and relationships are key to this understanding and ability to act. To cultivate understanding, efforts must build individual capacity and understanding of the work as well as relationships between individuals, both those from similar backgrounds (for example, immigrant parents) and those from different backgrounds (for instance, parents and educators). Finally, at the level of organizations, sustainable reform requires changing relationships and interactions to create the political context needed to institute and sustain new practices."

2. Participation

" Participation -or contribution to the cause-focuses attention on the role of stakeholders in the common effort, the resources they bring, and the need for cooperation between them. In conventional approaches, non-dominant parents are often relegated to the role of client or beneficiary. Educators or professionals act as "experts" who know what is best for them, and interactions are typically infused with highly unequal power dynamics. But as experts on their own children's native language, culture, community context, and learning needs, low-income parents of color can play key decision-making, design, and implementation roles in education reform efforts."

Four Dimensions

The four dimensions of the Equitable Collaborations Framework:

1. Systemic change that occurs within a culture of shared responsibility

Equitable collaboration requires educators, families, and community members to share responsibility for eliminating inequities in districts and schools. Traditional approaches to family engagement often focus on discrete goals-such a resolving a specific conflict between a teacher and parent, or fixing a problem with a single school program-rather than on systems-wide changes that will strengthen relationships between all teachers and families in a school, for example, or that will improve educational outcomes for students throughout a district. In school and community cultures characterized by "denial and implicit blame," educators, families, and community members may deny their personal role in creating or perpetuating inequities, shift blame onto others, or believe that inequities are the result of causes beyond their control.

2. Adaptive change that builds capacity and relationships among a broad range of stakeholders

Equitable collaboration requires adaptive approaches to addressing educational inequities throughout a school system, not just tweaks and technical changes to existing policies, programs, and practices. In traditional school-community partnerships, for example, administrators may make hurried, unilateral decisions based on assumptions about student or family needs, rather than listen to the community express its needs and concerns, and then develop more informed and responsive programs in collaboration with students and families-as they would in a culture of equitable collaboration. Educators may also seek out partnerships with community leaders or organizations they are socially connected to or comfortable working with, for example, instead of actively and intentionally reaching out to local cultural groups they don't already partner with, but that may be more representative of the students and families the school serves.

3. Non-dominant parents are seen as educational leaders who contribute to and help shape the agenda

Equitable collaboration requires school leaders and educators to see families as experts who possess valuable knowledge about their children, community, or culture-especially parents and family members from groups that were historically marginalized by the education system. In traditional partnerships, educators may overvalue educational or technical expertise, such as an understanding of state education policy or effective methods of instruction, for example, while undervaluing other forms of expertise, such as a mother's understanding of her child's social-emotional needs or a nonprofit's knowledge of a particular racial, ethnic, or cultural community. Equitable collaboration also requires school leaders and educators to share power or decision-making with youth or families, particularly during the early stages of a process when questions are being framed, problems are being discussed and agendas are being determined.

4. Reform is a political process that addresses broader issues in community

Equitable collaboration requires participants to acknowledge and understand that schools are situated in complex, interdependent communities, and that both school systems and communities are shaped by larger historical, socioeconomic, political, and cultural forces. For example, some families-such as those from dominant cultural groups and more privileged backgrounds-are typically better positioned to influence school policies or advocate for their children, while others-such as those from historically marginalized cultural groups and less wealthy or educated backgrounds-may not have the same level of knowledge, confidence, or social connections, which can undermine their agency and influence on the school system. In this context, equitable collaboration may require capacity-building strategies-such as training in community organizing, for example-that will help youth and families from non-dominant cultural groups identify and understand systemic inequities and how they can mobilize to demand changes in school policy or practice.

Continuum of Involvement, Engagement, and Collaboration Strategies

Another useful framework described in Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration is the Continuum of Involvement, Engagement, and Collaboration Strategies, which is based on case-study findings from the Road Map Project and on previous research on effective family-engagement models. The continuum is represented as a pyramid to "suggest both the number of parents who may be engaged with those strategies at any given moment as well as the progressive nature of the journey from involvement to equitable collaboration."

The Continuum of Involvement, Engagement, and Collaboration Strategies shows a progression from foundational involvement strategies (meeting family needs and building parent knowledge of academics and the educational system) to culturally responsive engagement strategies (using cultural brokers and creating culturally responsive spaces for parent-to-parent relationship-building) to systemic collaboration strategies (building systems-wide capacity to collaborate with families and scaffold parent leadership). Source: Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott, Charting a Course to Equitable Collaboration: Learning from Parent Engagement Initiatives in the Road Map Project

1. Foundational Involvement

Foundational involvement strategies can reach a larger percentage of students and families in a school system, and they can provide a variety of benefits and essential services, but foundational involvement strategies are less like to build the knowledge, skills, and confidence of students and families or result in policies, programs, and practices that promote equity throughout a school system. Ann Ishimaru and Joe Lott describe two representative approaches to foundational family involvement:

Meeting family needs refers to programs that have a "holistic focus on helping families to address their basic economic, health, and other needs as a means of enabling them to better support their children's learning and academic success." This approach to family involvement may provide essential or urgently needed interventions and services-such as food, healthcare, childcare, counseling, or housing assistance, for example-but it typically focuses on short-term, case-by-case solutions to problems that are ultimately driven by systemic causes such as poverty, opportunity gaps, institutionalized racism, or political disenfranchisement.

Building parent knowledge and self-efficacy refers to orientation programs and learning opportunities that provide families with "information about how schools work," such as the school's "expectations for students, identifying whom to talk with to address questions or resolve issues, and academic concepts such as grades, test scores, and standards." This approach to involvement may increase family understanding of school policies, help students make more informed educational choices, or increase a parent's ability to support their child's education at home, for example, but it typically focuses on educating families about the existing system, rather than changing the system to better serve families. As the authors write, "Conventional parent-education efforts often focus on giving parents information without a concurrent focus on receiving feedback and information from them to improve educational systems."

2. Culturally Responsive Engagement

Culturally responsive engagement strategies not only help to create "a context within which parents and families feel welcome and part of the school community," but they also "acknowledge and affirm the diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds of families as a source of strength rather than as a barrier to student success." The authors describe two representative approaches to culturally responsive engagement:

Leveraging cultural brokers refers to schools working in collaboration with teachers, staff, youth leaders, parents, or community members who "represent the many cultural communities" served by the school and who "have a foot in two worlds: the world of the school/formal organizations and the world of a specific cultural community." Cultural brokers can "help families from non-dominant cultural communities to understand and access information, resources, and opportunities from the dominant institutions," while also helping institutions "address, understand, and change community needs and priorities."

Creating culturally responsive spaces for relationship-building refers to policies, programs, and practices that promote cross-cultural awareness, sensitivity, and understanding both inside and outside of the school and classroom. Examples of culturally responsive spaces might include courses that are taught in multiple languages or that feature multiple cultural perspectives, youth-organizing groups that build build multicultural coalitions of students and adult allies, restorative-justice circles that create opportunities for cross-cultural understanding and conflict resolution, or home-visit programs that facilitate relationship-building interactions between teachers and parents outside of the school.

3. Systemic Collaboration

Systemic collaboration strategies "seek to change the structures, systems, policies, and practices in educational systems that systematically exclude or marginalize families and students, particularly when they do not reflect the dominant class, culture, and language." The authors describe two representative approaches to systemic collaboration:

Building systemic capacity refers to schools and community partners supporting strategies that develop the knowledge, skills, and mindsets-of school leaders, educators, students, families, and community partners-that are required to identify, challenge, and redress entrenched inequities in educational systems. Systemic capacity-building can take a variety of forms, including school-community partnerships that help to remove barriers (e.g., limited access to transportation, a lack of childcare, or language differences) to family engagement; training and skill-building programs that address issues such as diversity, cultural sensitivity, or trauma-informed instruction; academic courses and adult-learning opportunities that educate students and families about race, class, power, and privilege in society; or inclusive planning and organizing processes that involve educators, staff, students, families, and community members in the co-development of more equitable school policies and programs.

Scaffolding parent leadership development refers to programs and practices that progressively develop parent leadership skills and provide ongoing support to emerging parent leaders. Examples of scaffolding leadership development could include parent groups self-organizing to advocate more equitable district policies, "parent universities" that provide instruction and training in advocacy or civic leadership to parents; or diversity recruitment and hiring initiatives help parents become volunteers, family liaisons, or educators in the school system. The authors discuss an example of a program that supported families "take on "stretch" assignments with increasing responsibility and influence. 'Stretch' assignments are tasks or roles that require knowledge or skills beyond individuals' current capacity in order to enable them to grow and learn." Over the course of 12 months in one district, "community leaders became recruiters, translators, workshop facilitators, trainers, curriculum developers, and even teachers within their communities."

Recommendations for Cultivating Equitable Collaboration

The case studies in this research suggest promising strategies for strengthening family engagement work within a collective impact context. Equitable collaborations between families, schools, and communities are not, however, built overnight. The findings from this study suggest that such work entails long-term investments, new relationships, and capacity-building of not only parents, but also educators and staff who work with culturally and linguistically diverse communities. We first provide a set of general recommendations and then address recommendations tailored to districts, schools, and collective impact initiatives.

1. Create a reciprocal, collective and equitable vision of family engagement tied to improving educational systems.

Individualistic, deficit approaches to "training" parents are often strongly embedded in the culture and norms of schools and other organizations. Thus, explicit conversations among school/district leaders, educators, families, and communities about the collective goals and outcomes of family engagement work must move beyond conventional assumptions and practices. When all stakeholders have a meaningful role in shaping this vision, they can become co-creators of equitable family engagement practices and, as a result, more responsive schools and institutions.

2. Recognize and address inequities in power between districts and community-based organizations.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) can be powerful allies and resources for schools and districts, but the highly unequal power dynamics between CBOs and districts can threaten their ability to collaborate productively and to realize the promise of collective impact. Although the rhetoric of partnerships is everywhere, districts often set the agenda and terms of engagement, relegating CBOs to passive support roles. Because of their greater power, it is incumbent on districts and policymakers to take the first steps to open the lines of communication and provide access to the resources (not only financial resources but also time and space) and decision-making processes that most directly affect the families served by CBOs. Schools can commit to connecting families with CBOs, sharing data, providing space, communicating regularly, and jointly planning school engagement and improvement efforts.

3. Recognize and address inequities in power between policymakers, professional educators and parents/families.

The profound power differentials between policymakers, professional educators and parents/families both within districts and in the broader regional context can stifle the meaningful participation of parents and families and limit their contributions to improving the opportunities to learn for young people. Both research and practice have demonstrated parents' capacity to engage in core discussions and critical decision-making about the issues that concern them most; professionals and educators who presume parents should not be present or part of policy or organizational decision-making are underutilizing the intellectual and social resources of their communities. Rather than feeling they are losing power or control, professionals and educators can proactively seek out the expertise of parents and families to gain new ideas and additional capacity. Districts and other institutions may need to challenge policies that reinforce power inequities, such as formal education requirements for leadership roles, English-only discussions, or meeting times that create barriers for participation. And organizational leaders must play a key initiating and supporting role in creating the conditions that promote equitable relationships.

4. Create and sustain a culture of professional learning in family engagement practice.

Like good teaching, equitable family engagement work is complex, context-specific, and requires constant reflection, collaboration, and efforts to improve. Organizational leaders (in both districts and CBOs) should approach family engagement work as a professional practice that entails ongoing reflection, learning, and efforts to innovate as part of a broader culture of learning throughout the organization. Organizations should model and support the collection and use of broad forms of data (including student and family voices) to assess progress and guide improvement.

5. Provide multiple opportunities for engagement that foster parent-to-parent networks and leadership.

A range of engagement opportunities enables parents and families to engage in ways that are meaningful and culturally appropriate for them and their children while also growing their capacity and participation over time. While such opportunities may start with workshops and services to meet family needs, promoting parent-to-parent networks and cultivating leadership opportunities can strengthen how schools leverage the knowledge, skills, networks and other assets that parents/families can bring to improve schools and communities. Designated physical space in schools and time for families to meet and build relationships can facilitate these networks. Leadership opportunities can include both formal and informal roles, facilitation, and mentoring for other parents, and participation in community, district, and school-level committees. Family participation across these roles should reflect the student populations in the community.

One of the organizations studied by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Project was Neighborhood House, a community-based organization that serves 23 culturally and linguistically diverse low-income communities. Neighborhood House uses a "data carousel" process with its community to raise questions, make sense of data, improve programs, and strengthen relationships and trust between the organization and its community. The six-step Data Inquiry for Equitable Collaboration process, which is based on the data carousel, is an example of one form of equitable collaboration available to schools, organizations, and communities. Source: Data Inquiry for Equitable Collaboration: The Case of Neighborhood House's Data Carousel.

DISTRICTS

1. Prioritize family engagement work as a strategic, shared responsibility

Superintendents play a pivotal role in communicating the strategic priorities and expectations of family engagement work as a shared responsibility that is central to the core work of educating students, rather than the marginalized domain of a few designated staff members. The inclusion of family engagement as a key component of a district's strategic work can signal its importance and highlight roles in the work for every educator, from the superintendent and school board to classroom teachers and support staff. Moreover, dedicated resources-both full-time staff and financial resources for programs-comprise critical foundational infrastructure for sustained family engagement work in schools and across a district.

2. Invest in building educator capacity

Teachers and other educators (including instructional assistants and specialists) are often the first point of contact for families, but they often also feel under-prepared and have weak supports for building reciprocal, learning-focused relationships with families in linguistically and culturally diverse communities. School-centric cultures, a fear of parent voices and power, and limited understanding of issues of race, culture, class, and power can further limit educators' ability to engage productively with parents and families, particularly around issues of teaching and learning. Educational leaders can provide professional development, modeling, and ongoing resources and supports to build teachers' capacity to collaborate with families, particularly through models which rst position educators as learners (such as home visits, neighborhood walks, or equity work).

SCHOOLS

1. Cultivate a welcoming learning environment for families and community

As school leaders, principals play a key role by modeling responsiveness to families and opening new opportunities for collaborating with them. This requires more than an "open door" policy or the inclusion of families as an afterthought. Empowering school leadership practices can build capacity and lead to sharing leadership, planning, and decision-making with parents, teachers, other educators, support staff, and community members. Such practices should strive to create "community-ready" schools in which educators see themselves as part of the neighborhood and parents and families perceive the school as a hub for the entire community.

2. Identify and leverage cultural brokers to foster culturally responsive relationships between parents/families, teachers, and other educators

In building trust and highly reciprocal relationships between families and educators-especially when language and cultural differences are present-"cultural brokers" play a key role. These individuals are familiar with the cultures of schools and often already informal leaders in their own cultural communities. Cultural brokers can be district staff, but they should not be restricted to employees. These connectors introduce families to the school culture, build their capacity to advocate for their own and community needs, introduce educators to the cultures of their students and families, and facilitate ongoing, two-way communication between families and schools. Schools need to be culturally responsive to the racial/cultural communities of their students and families, even if they are groups who speak English well, such as African Americans, American Indians and Pacific Islanders.

COLLECTIVE-IMPACT INITIATIVES

1. Establish a regional policy for equitable parent/family engagement.

Collective impact initiatives are uniquely situated to prioritize the work that promotes equitable family- school-community collaboration. [Hub organizations] can convene districts, CBOs, families and other stakeholders to envision and develop policies and strategic efforts around equitable family engagement across the region. The initiative can also identify resources and facilitate capacity-building to implement such a policy with multiple actors at multiple levels of the educational system.

2. Foster cross-organizational learning and capacity-building around equitable practice in family engagement.

Collective impact hub organizations...can play a critical role in building organizational capacity and cross-effort learning to improve family engagement practices. Creating meaningful opportunities for the voices and expertise of parents and families themselves to impact regional priorities and efforts can provide a powerful model for participating organizations. Moreover, Road Map organizations are eager to gain access to indicators, tools, professional development and other supports for improving their work and their approach to collaborating with families in new and more reciprocal ways.

3. Create systems, policies, and practices of equitable collaboration between organizations within the initiative.

In an equitable collaboration, all the participating organizations feel they have an equal voice and that their knowledge and contributions are valued and legitimate contributions to the shared goals of the effort. Policies and practices that reinforce individualistic competition between organizations for resources, legitimacy, support, or attention can undermine the sustainability and political will of individuals and organizations to sustain the collective effort. One manifestation of this is the equitable allocation of funding and access to funding opportunities between organizations of varied sizes and capacities. Funders can also play a critical role by supporting collective grants that allow collaborating partners to fund aspects of each partners' budget that is allocated to the parent engagement effort.

Acknowledgments

Organizing Engagement thanks Ann Ishimaru for her contributions to improving this introduction, and the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project for permission to republish excerpts and images from its website and publications.

Creative Commons

This work by Organizing Engagement is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. When excerpting, adapting, or republishing content from this resource, users should cite the source texts and confirm that all quotations and excerpts are accurately presented.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equitable Collaboration Framework - Organizing Engagement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Equitable Collaboration Framework was developed by the Equitable Parent-School Collaboration Research Project at the University of Washington's College of Education. The project's research team seeks to understand and support parent-engagement programs that promote equitable educational outcomes for underserved students, families, and communities.

# data[].attributes.body
Five barriers
Systemic level barriers
Institutional level barriers

# data[].attributes.body
Roadmap Project Theory of Action
Check out REFERENCES
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CULTIVATING
EQUITABLE COLLABORATION

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
References

Carter, D. J. (2008, Winter-Spring). Cultivating a critical race consciousness for African American school success. Educational Foundations, 11-28.
Google Scholar

Fuentes, E. H. (2005). Just parents: The politics and practices of community organizing for school change (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Dissertations and Theses @ University of California (AAT 3187035).
Google Scholar

Howard, T. C., Reynolds, R. (2008, Winter-Spring). Examining parent involvement in reversing the underachievement of African American students in middle class schools. Educational Foundations, 79-98.
Google Scholar

National Education Goals Panel . (1993, September). The National Education Goals Report: Building a nation of learners. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/goals/report/goalsrpt.txt
Google Scholar

Posey, L. (2009). The fine line between integration and gentrification: The politics of middle-class parental engagement in a city public school (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Dissertations & Theses @ University of California. (ATT 3411172)
Google Scholar

Reynolds, R. (2010, April/May). "They think you're lazy," and other messages Black parents send their Black sons: An exploration of critical race theory in the examination of educational outcomes for Black males. Journal of African American Males in Education, 1(2), 144-163.
Google Scholar

Stevenson, Z., Laster, C. (2008). 2003-2006 Monitoring cycle report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/monitoring/monitoringcyclerpt1008.pdf
Google Scholar

U.S. Department of Education . (2011). Obama administration announces $500 million for Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge: New state competition to establish and expand high quality early learning programs. Washington, DC: Press Office, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/obama-administration-announces-500-million-race-top-early-learning-challenge
Google Scholar

Zhou, M., Baston, C. (1998). Growing up American: How Vietnamese children adapt to life in the United States. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
Google Scholar

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Equity Issues in Parental and Community Involvement in Schools: What Teacher Educators Need to Know - Patricia Baquedano-López, Rebecca Anne Alexander, Sera J. Hernandez, 2013

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
References Carter, D. J. (2008, Winter-Spring). Cultivating a critical race consciousness for African American school success. Educational Foundations, 11-28. Google Scholar Fuentes, E. H. (2005). Just parents: The politics and practices of community organizing for school change (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Dissertations and Theses @ University of California (AAT 3187035).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Five strategies that help middle and high school students form a community of learners in the virtual classroom.

The pandemic has completely transformed the way we teach and the way students interact. At the beginning of the school year, I imagined breakout rooms being a popular feature among students during remote learning. I was disappointed when I saw students sitting in silence with their screens off, so I focused on building a community of students that would connect and learn from each other, and ensure that with our limited time, each breakout room would be purposeful and meaningful.

I've found that the success of breakout rooms hinges on a strong action plan. Here are five strategies I've found that improve the overall breakout room experience.

5 Tips for Better Breakout Rooms

1. Individual tasks first, then group tasks: To ensure that time is purposeful when students enter breakout rooms, assign students individual tasks before group work. This strategy helps foster meaningful discussions, and students focus on listening and speaking to each other about their tasks instead of just focusing on finishing the work. This builds a connection and encourages students to synthesize their ideas.

Another idea is to have students record their discussion, which holds them accountable for their contributions. I've found that using the recording for formative assessment when students create, evaluate, or explore a topic can be very useful.

2. Team-building activities: Starting class with an energizing community builder allows students to form relationships, share ideas, and practice communication skills. When I let students choose their groups and limit the number of participants in breakout rooms, students talk more and have a more intimate and relaxing experience. As students become increasingly comfortable with each other, I switch groups but continue to keep the number of students in the breakout rooms small.

The need for social and emotional activities has become more apparent during the pandemic and remote learning. Using only SEL strategies in the breakout rooms and allowing students to work on content individually fosters a strong sense of community in the class. SEL strategies help build self-management, social awareness, and responsibility.

These skills translate into creating a dynamic classroom where students understand their purpose and importance in the classroom. When students complete the individual content work, it allows them to practice the SEL skills learned during breakout rooms. As time goes on, students are more apt to participate in activities surrounding content.

3. Student roles: To promote ownership in the breakout rooms, I assign a group leader or ask for a volunteer. The group leader will help establish the expectations and keep the group on task. If the discussion or group assignment is falling silent or off-task, the group leader can engage the students back on track. Having a set role for students eliminates any silence or awkwardness.

These roles also promote a sense of ownership of the learning. I've considered assigning multiple roles to students in breakout rooms-roles such as curator, timekeeper, checker, or questioner. For example, students with the role of curator can take notes and organize information from all the group members. Teachers can customize roles depending on the activity.

When assigning students to breakout rooms on Zoom, I select " Let Participants Choose Room." I assign some students at the beginning to be the "movers" and other students to be "presenters" so that each student knows their initial role. The movers change between breakout rooms, and the presenters stay in the rooms to share information. The students switch roles once all students have moved between all the virtual rooms. I use the broadcast feature and timer to ensure that students are on task and continually moving. Students record their findings on a Google Doc as they move through the activity.

Another variation of the strategy is to have students create shared meeting links, which I love because it allows students to interact with almost everyone in the class. Since the students frequently switch, discussions rarely fall silent, and students build and extend their discussions.

5: Norms and expectations: At the beginning of the school year, my students set the class norms and expectations. Allowing students to create the ground rules of how the group will function enhances the breakout room purpose. Students are aware of the expectations of the group and what they need to contribute, and they understand what's expected of them.

As I continue to plan and try to improve my lessons and student participation, I remind myself of what students need right now, which is a place to connect. Teachers should be aware of the important components of successful online teaching, which include clear, authentic, and meaningful activities. Consider how you can create a space for students to connect, think, grow, and collaborate.

As in-person classes eventually resume, I'll continue to implement these strategies. Social and emotional activities will still be necessary. I've seen students improve their critical thinking and collaboration skills. Continually setting norms for groups, giving students assigned roles, and providing time for individual assignments first will foster highly effective student collaboration and critical thinking for a lifetime of learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Better Breakout Room Experience for Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Five strategies that help middle and high school students form a community of learners in the virtual classroom. The pandemic has completely transformed the way we teach and the way students interact. At the beginning of the school year, I imagined breakout rooms being a popular feature among students during remote learning.