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Below are tools and resources that will help you operate with an equitable or antiracist lens. Use them to plan  and to evaluate your work

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Click here for a calendar of religious and cultural holidays to help plan for the year. You will find dates, videos, classroom resources and personal essays about the different events.

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The following modules and workshops are designed to be done either as a team or individually.

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Schools and offices need to plan for the families we often struggle to engage. Typically, thinking about these families is an afterthought. The following resources will help you plan and evaluate all of your family engagement from large meetings to creating communication and PowerPoints.

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This self-paced online module is designed to provide staff with the language, structures, and resources to be able to talk about race and racism. Staff will learn strategies on how to create safe spaces to build community so we can facilitate challenging discussions about race and social justice.

Click Here For Module

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How to Be An Antiracist and Antiracist Educator

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How to Be An Antiracist and Antiracist Educator

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In this self-paced online module, individuals will develop an understanding of the differences between diversity, inclusion, equity and antiracism. Learn what it means to be antiracist through actions that interrupt beliefs, practices, and policies perpetuating institutional racism in our school system.

Click Here For Module

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Planning and Leading Effective and Culturally Responsive Meetings

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Planning and Leading Effective and Culturally Responsive Meetings

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It is not enough to have passion around equity. Leaders need to organize meetings that make the most of their time and support staff to address root issues.

This is an interactive module that provides an overview of what effective meetings look like, explains key concepts, gives you a planning worksheet and specific tools.

Click Here for Module

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This is a great module to do with your staff. It includes an activity where everyone writes their own cycle of socialization.

Have your team get into small groups (using breakout rooms) to share their stories. This is a wonderful team-building activity while also developing important knowledge about culture.

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Why did we ask you these questions?

How we see the world today is based on a lifelong process of learning the expected norms and customs of a group or society through social interaction.

Some examples include the things adults told you as child or modeled for you. What you saw on TV and in the movies. Who you saw in text books. What your friends told you.

This is called Socialization.

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Why did we ask you these questions? How we see the world today is based on a lifelong process of learning the expected norms and customs of a group or society through social interaction. Some examples include the things adults told you as child or modeled for you.

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Teams that want to be effective need to lead meetings that keep race and equity at the forefront. This planning document provides guiding questions and specific tools for planning and leading effective meetings.

Click Here for Planning Document

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Considerations for Writing to a Diverse Community

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Considerations for Writing to a Diverse Community

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This document provides simple ideas on how to make your communication effective for a diverse parent community.

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Considerations For Writing Documents to a Diverse Parent Community.pdf

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Click this link for suggestions on how to make your slides accessible to all parents.

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Creating Culturally Responsive PowerPoint and Google Slides

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How to Create a Culturally Responsive Flyer

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How to Create a Culturally Responsive Flyer

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How to Create a Culturally Responsive Parent Flyer.pub ed.pdf

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The goal of this lesson is to provide students and staff with the structures and tools to help them navigate conversations about current events more effectively and to support the district’s Be Well 365 program at the student level. Students will have the opportunity to reflect and share their perspectives and experiences. This lesson will provide an overview of the four skills of emotional intelligence (self awareness, social awareness, self management and relationship management) and focus engagement on the skills of self awareness and social awareness.

Click Here for Lesson Plan and Slides

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Courageous Conversations Compass and Dialogue Sheet

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Courageous Conversations Compass and Dialogue Sheet

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These two resources (Compass & Dialogue Sheet) provide a structure for productive Conversations.

First watch the short video  to learn how to use both tools and then click here to download the document.

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Tips for Facilitating Conversations About Race With Students or Staff

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Tips for Facilitating Conversations About Race With Students or Staff

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Even with the best preparation, issues and dynamics will come up that may be challenging. The following are questions that educators have asked us in the past, along with suggestions on how to handle the challenge.

Click Here for Tips

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The goal of this lesson is to provide students and staff with the structures and tools to help them navigate conversations about current events more effectively and to support the district’s Be Well 365 program at the student level. Students will have the opportunity to reflect and share their perspectives and experiences. This lesson will provide an overview of the four skills of emotional intelligence (self awareness, social awareness, self management and relationship management) and focus engagement on the skills of self management and relationship management.

Click Here for Lesson Plan and Slides

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Equity Matters is a monthly newsletter of the  MCPS Equity Initiatives Unit to provide timely resources, videos, and articles.

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Includes a powerful section on MCPS Voices.

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The calendar said it was time to send out a resource document for Hispanic Heritage Month. We created a committee, reviewed the documents we sent out last year, made a few modifications, and changed the date. We were ready to go.

Except we weren't.

One member of our team had been silent through most of the meeting. When he finally spoke, he reminded us that we were working to become an antiracist department and that required us to stop and reflect on our practices. He pushed us to remember that our work had to be developed with an understanding of the current sociopolitical context and a knowledge of our history. He believed that our document would meet our technical goal of getting a resource out, but not our adaptive goal of actually making a difference.

When Edvin was done speaking, we made a collective decision that although we had commitments to several other projects and would most likely not get this done by September 15, we needed to scrap our old work and start from scratch.

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi says in his book, " How to be an Antiracist" that being racist and antiracist are not "...fixed categories or tattoos. Literally what we're doing in each moment determines who and what we are in each moment." We in the Equity Initiatives Unit need to be vigilant to be antiracist at all times. And, we need to ensure that we have the processes and relationships in place to be called out when we are not.

Latino children make up one third of our students. In case we needed reminders of systemic inequities, the Washington Post published on July 14, 2020, that 74 percent of new covid-19 patients in Montgomery County are Hispanic. What is our responsibility as MCPS staff to stop what we are doing, and take the time to reflect on whether or not our practices and policies are truly antiracist?

In this edition:

We organized this newsletter with our definition of an antiracist educator in mind. You will see:

Several opportunities to hear voices from students and staff

A section on the history of Latinos in the United States and a section on learning about Latin America with a focus on Central America

Suggestions for books, movies and TV programs that highlight the diverse cultural experiences of Latinos

Resources for you to take action and change practice

If you don't have a lot of time, at least listen to a couple of the videos from MCPS students and staff.

With graditude,

Troy, Daryl, Deanna, Edvin, Ericka, Joan, Maniya, Marya, and John

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The calendar said it was time to send out a resource document for Hispanic Heritage Month. We created a committee, reviewed the documents we sent out last year, made a few modifications, and changed the date. We were ready to go. Except we weren't.

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Dear friends, we hope you are well and finding time to take care of yourself. This is an extraordinary time. We are all worried about our families, friends, and students; and we are anxious about how to make the first semester work.

We are sending this edition of EquityMatters! as a reminder that everyone in MCPS needs to plan, work, and teach with an equity lens. Prior to Covid-19, racial inequity was evident in every aspect of our data and we know that distance learning has exacerbated these inequities. With intentionality, we can bridge the gaps in our sphere of influence to foster equitable spaces for teaching, learning, and leading.

The Leadership Edition of EquityMatters provides resources to help Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) leaders create antiracist schools, offices, and departments. In addition to what you find below, we have created a live resource page where we will continue to add tools, modules, articles, and other resources.

Please start with the video below, and then review the sections on Listening to Our Students, Racial History in the United States, What Does it Mean to Be an Antiracist Educator, and How to Be an Antiracist Leader.

With graditude,

Troy, Deanna, Edvin, Daryl, Ericka, Joan, Maniya, Marya, and John

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Dear friends, we hope you are well and finding time to take care of yourself. This is an extraordinary time. We are all worried about our families, friends, and students; and we are anxious about how to make the first semester work. We are sending this edition of EquityMatters!

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In our Equity Matters! newsletter last August 2019 we wrote "many of us feel overwhelmed by the racial, cultural, and socio-political issues in our country and all over the world. We want to escape the news and focus on our classrooms and worksites. Our students, however, will be walking into school looking to us to teach them, make them feel safe, and help them make sense of the world. Are we ready?"

That was seven months before the COVID-19 pandemic,nine months before the video showing the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, and 10 months before the world watched the heinous murder of George Floyd. The issues our students face now are having a profound emotional impact and many of our students are facing them alone.

On Friday, May 29, 2020, the Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools, Jack Smith wrote, "The recent events...are not new to our society, but they have once again forced us to see the pervasive injustice, inequality and hate that African Americans face every day in our communities. Events like these impact us and our society as a whole but, depending on our race, we do not experience them in the same way. I cannot refuse to understand the problem or feign confusion about the issues."

Deputy Superintendent Monifa McKnight wrote, "While our focus as a school system has been on the wellness and education of our students in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent events in our country remind us that there are other things affecting all of our lives and the lives of our students and their families. There is no doubt that the kids we serve are aware of, and affected by, the unrest in communities across the nation.

We know that students are looking at us for support. How do we show them care and concern in an online environment? How do we understand the complexities that they may be feeling that could be similar or different from our own? Most importantly, how do we give them a voice? I do not want any student in this system to feel alone, unseen or unheard right now."

This issue begins with three personal pieces followed by concrete resources and tools that we have divided into four parts:

Educating Yourself

Lead with an Anti-Racist Mindset

Tools for Educators to Engage Students

Resources for Parents to Talk with Their Children About Racism

As you read through this document, consider the picture above. Substitute one of your students for the faceless student in the picture. The student is sitting alone at a desk trying to concentrate on your assignment with all the chaos surrounding them. Find just one resource that you think will help.

Troy, Deanna, Edvin, Joan, Daryl, Maniya, Marya, Ericka, and John

Introducing Equity Office Hours

We are here to support you! For the next few weeks, the Equity Initiatives Unit will hold Zoom office hours to answer staff questions and provide support. Any MCPS staff member can make an appointment by emailing Ericka_Hebron@mcpsmd.org.

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In our Equity Matters! newsletter last August 2019 we wrote "many of us feel overwhelmed by the racial, cultural, and socio-political issues in our country and all over the world. We want to escape the news and focus on our classrooms and worksites.

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We are proud to offer this special edition of Equity Matters! In celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

In this newsletter, we want to elevate the triumphs, challenges, and diversity of the LGBTQ+ community in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). We also want to highlight that students who identify as LGBTQ+ face bullying at significantly higher rates than their peers. The consequences are heartbreaking.

For many of our students, The stories, videos, and resources in this guide will help all of us better understand the experiences and needs of our students, families, and colleagues so that we can create a safe and inclusive school district.

This guide is organized into five parts:

What is it like to be an LGBTQ+ student in MCPS?

Resources to better understand terms and suggestions for how to engage in the classroom

LGBTQ+ Intersectionality: voices from Latino, Asian, Black, and Native Americans who identify as LGBTQ+.

Pivotal moments in LGBTQ+ history

Partner organizations that support staff and LGBTQ+ students and families

Thank you,

Troy, Daryl, Deanna, Edvin, Ericka, Joan, John, Maniya, and Marya

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We are proud to offer this special edition of Equity Matters! In celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. In this newsletter, we want to elevate the triumphs, challenges, and diversity of the LGBTQ+ community in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). We also want to highlight that students who identify as LGBTQ+ face bullying at significantly higher rates than their peers.

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Below are resources that have been provided during Equity Matters Dialogues.

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Resources from Equity Matters Dialogue: Culturally Responsive Teaching and Distance Learning

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Resources from Equity Matters Dialogue: Culturally Responsive Teaching and Distance Learning

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Online Teaching Can Be Culturally Responsive

Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy

Using Culturally Responsive Practices to Foster Learning During School Closures: Challenges and Opportunities for Equity

Padlet From Dialogue

Ready for Rigor Framework

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Culturally Responsive Family Engagement Planning Tool

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Culturally Responsive Family Engagement Planning Tool

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This step-by-step guide is based on thousands of hours of dialogue with diverse leaders, teachers, and families from various organizations and schools. It offers school and district leaders reflective questions and thoughtful considerations.

Click Here for Planning Tool

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Creating Safe and Inclusive Schools: Four Session Dialogue Plan for Elementary Students 

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Creating Safe and Inclusive Schools: Four Session Dialogue Plan for Elementary Students 

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Many elementary schools are looking for strategies to address bigotry, hate, and racism with their students. This agenda provides activities and facilitator directions for four one-hour dialogue sessions that can be used with fourth and fifth grade students to learn about identity, culture, stereotypes, and bigotry.

Click Here for Lesson Plan and Slides. Speak with your Equity Specialist to help adapt for your school.