We had to get more comfortable talking about the uncomfortable and
lean into that discomfort because
what ends up happening when you
grow, growing is not easy you know, no
no form of growth is easy. It
actually kind of hurts a little bit. And so in order for us
to grow we have to lean into that discomfort. We have to be
able to have tough conversations. That
will not be easy.
When I was a principal we started having conversations about
equity. We started looking
at behavior data. When we looked at
our suspension data and looked at the
level of students that were being suspended that are
children of color versus our students that were being
suspended or even referred, you know, behavior referrals between
white and non-white students,
it was so disproportionate. And why?
There is no clear cut answer to why.
But it starts the conversations.
The guidebook, I have to say, was truly a collaborative
effort. It involved adults from
different walks of life, from educators to people
who were not in the field of education, because we
always need those different perspectives. I kind of
pushed the envelope a little bit and involve students
who were as young as third graders.
The equity guide book has been created
to have us work towards being more
equitable with our instruction, equitable with
resources and finances, and equitable when
it comes to parents and stakeholders. Just making
sure that our students and our staff
and all of us are working to address our biases working
to address
the lack of resources and the lack
of support just so that we can do
better for our children. I think co-designing systems to
sustain equity is so important because this work
is not work that can be done in silos and it's
also not cookie cutter work. So we have to ensure that
we're working across the district or across organizations or
across communities to really ensure that the work we're
doing is beneficial. And the way that you deliver this
information to one group may not be the same as other
groups. And so that's why, from a collaborative point in
the planning, it's so important to have other people at the
table to be able to give their input so that
we can design programs that benefit all and not
just one.
Our district now has a gender and identity inclusion department. We have
a Black and Latino males department now. I think
that we've identified
more areas and some new areas in which
we need to advocate for our children, expose them
to new learning. We have to be mindful and intentional
in all that we do in our parenting and our teaching
and in the spaces that we create to have conversations
around equity. And I think now that people are
more intentional, you are seeing, you know,
these things taking,
over in ways that I think are providing the
space for change. It's happening everywhere. The
fact that our department can even exist is a
reflection of that. Equity doesn't look
like a one size fits all
the work that's done is truly diverse
for some the work focuses
in on
racial equity for others.
They're thinking about areas
that our food deserts. Others
see equity as related to academics.
Over time,
we have come to understand that equity includes
so many different areas, so many different lenses,not
just the cultural but instructional, staffing,
making sure
that that teachers are qualified, making
sure that our staff is ready and
capable so that we can do the best that we can possibly do
for our students. All of those things are pieces of
equity to help our children be the best that they can
possibly be.
I believe this work
requires creating intentional space. I think
with all that we do, intentionality is very important.
And the reason why I think so
many things don't work or so many things fail is
because there isn't any intentionality and
I think proactive solutions come from
intentionality. The guidebook I should say is a
living, breathing document, and so it's not like this
is it and it's done. As part of the policy
around the guidebook it
is updated yearly. This
is not a destination. This is
truly a journey and it is truly head and
heart work. Visionary work initially
has to have time
set aside for it. I think
over time, it becomes routine and
becomes a part of what you already do. When we
started having these conversations about equity, we needed set-
aside time, we need to training
for how to even start the
conversations, for how to even bring this to our staffs.
Last year during our, we
call them CAO meetings, which stands for Chief Academic Officer
meetings, we decided as
an office to make sure that we
are including equity standards in all of our meetings. We're setting
aside time to do these things, but it's
becoming more of an ingrained process.
We recognize there's
inequity.
Let's fix it.