Article #5
Educational
Equity Framework
To meet state requirements and to provide
the district with the theoretical underpinning for periodically issue
Educational Diversity Impact Assessments (EDIAs), officials at the Minneapolis Public
Schools work from an Education Equity Framework.
A summary of Acceleration 2020/ Educational
Equity: Developing a Framework for
Student Achievement for All as presented by Kim Matier and Lanise Block to
the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of
Education in 2015 is given below:
Educational
equity results from three sources:
1) excellent education;
2) excellent teachers;
3) warm relationships with students and
their families.
The “Draft
for Educational Equity” was presented in triangular visualization with “Collective Accountability” at the center, with
“instructional transformation,” “personal transformation,” and “structural
transformation” each located pictorially at one of the three angles. Then outside the triangle, on each of the
three sides were given the values, “evidence-based research”; “families
and communities”; and “integrated systems”; with “pedagogy of equity” topping the visual
at the triangle’s apex.
These values then gained a bit of additional
comment on another page with the heading, “Desired
Outcomes for Systemic Change.“
Additional comment highlighted the following:
>>>>> “evidence-based
policy, program, and practice,” so as to “integrate racial/ cultural competency
in the development and implementation of systems to rapidly improve outcomes “;
>>>>> “pedagogy
of equity,“ so as to “ensure targeted groups access learning with the
cultural and linguistic assets of students in mind “;
>>>>> “integrated
systems,” so as to “build and manage interdependent relationships that
create and sustain adaptive systems to meet diverse needs” ;
>>>>> “families
and communities as education partners,” so as to “normalize the inclusion
of the perspectives of our families of
color and American Indian communities to interrupt marginalization.”
The next steps in the process are given
according to the following timetable:
Phase
One >>>>> April
2015-October 2015
>>>>> Identify Desired Outcomes
>>>>> Develop
Draft Framework and Recommend Changes to EDIA
Phase
Two >>>>> November
2015-June 2016
>>>>> Stakeholder Groups formed
>>>>> Action
Plans Developed for Desired Outcomes
>>>>> EDIA
Piloted, Feedback Collected, and Final Adjustments Made
Phase
Three >>>>> January
2016-June 2016
>>>>> Board Update on Equity Framework and EDIA
(January and June)
>>>>> Board
Training
>>>>> Equity
Audit
The document and presentation ends with a
citation of work that will continue, according to certain existing offices and
programs: Racial Equity Institute/
Professional Development, Coaching for Equity, B.L.A.C.K. (not listed in the
power-point, Block explained helpfully that his acronym stands for “Black Lives
Acquiring Cultural Knowledge”), Ethnic Studies Courses, Social Justice Fellows,
Vendor Diversity work, and EDIA.
