Creating a Shared Vision for Institutionalizing Racial Equity

Melia LaCour, MSWDirector, Equity in EducationPSESD

2014, WASA Conference

Goals for Today To engage in self-reflection and

exploration necessary for visioning for racial equity.

To define the terms fundamental to institutionalizing racial equity.

To understand the sense of urgency to lead with a racial equity lens.

To identify first steps to enhance your vision.

Stay Engaged Don’t Let your heart and mind check out!

Experience Discomfort Agree to experience discomfort so that we can deal with issues of race in an honest way.

Speak your truth Be honest about your thoughts, feelings and opinions. Say them in a way that is true for you.

Expect and accept non-closure Accept that you will not reach closure in your understandings about race and race relations. There is no such thing as a

“quick fix.”

Intent vs. ImpactCheck for intent when impact seems to communicate bias

The Four Agreements

Think of a time in your life when you realized race mattered.

Why do you think a focus on race is an important part of your leadership as superintendents?

“The most troublesome achievement gap [opportunity gap] is the racial gap—the difference in student achievement between White and Asian students and their Black, Latino, Native American, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander counterparts. Without question, poverty and wealth impact student achievement as well. Statistically, however, even within the same economic strata, there is an achievement gap based on race.”

Glenn Singleton

Why are we talking about

race when we talk about the

opportunity gap?

Changing Patterns“ As long as race, class, ethnicity continue to predict the life chances of some children in our nation, we must work within schools and school systems to identify related barriers and obstacles to opportunity and development, interrupt their negative impact and eliminate the persistent disparities in child outcomes”.

National Equity Project 2012

What do our students see?Can they see themselves in the world of

successful adults around them ?

If your are not outraged, you’re not paying attention…

-Andrew Harvey

Lay It On the Line

Achievement Gap vs. Opportunity Gap

Equality vs. Equity

Individual racism:• Pre-judgment, bias, or discrimination by

an individual based on race.

Institutional racism:• Policies, practices and procedures that

work to the benefit of white people and to the detriment of people of color, often unintentionally or inadvertently.

Structural racism:• A history and current reality of

institutional racism across all institutions. This combines to create a system that negatively impacts communities of color.

Lack of opportunity and access

Person Call To Action…

Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and

Accountability Committee, 2013 Report

Decrease the disproportionate representation of students of color in

disciplinary actions in schools.

Enhance the cultural competence of current and future educators.

Provide English Language Learner/Second Language Acquisition endorsement for all educators.

Create new English Language Learner Accountability Benchmarks.

Provide tools for deeper data analysis and disaggregation of student demographics to inform instructional strategies to close the opportunity gap.

Invest in the recruitment and retention of educators of color.

Step 5: Empower Our Children

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhribaNXr7A&t=10s