Equity in Education Archives - Learning Circle

Roundtable Discussion: Equity in Education

Adam Oakley — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 19:45:12 +0000

We spoke with leaders in education from various backgrounds to get their thoughts on how educators can work to improve equity in their schools and communities.

First, let’s meet our roundtable participants:

Dr. Keith M. Bell, Sr. is a Director of Leadership Services for the Educational Service Center (ESC) of Northeast Ohio. Prior to joining the ESC, Dr. Bell served as Superintendent of the Euclid City School District. Currently, he is assisting with initiatives for the college and transition for underrepresented students to graduate school at Ohio State University.
Kirk Koennecke is the superintendent of Graham Local Schools, a remote rural school district in Ohio.
Tiffany Workman is a first grade teacher and building enrichment leader at Dublin City Schools, a suburban school district in Ohio.

What is the number one thing districts/classrooms can do to get started building a culture of equity?

Dr. Keith Bell:

The first thing is to facilitate a cultural audit to determine where gaps currently exit. This could be done by reviewing student class offering and selection data and developing a composite.

Additionally, get an idea from the community as well as other key stakeholders by understanding what the current perceptions are related to the current cultural climate

Kirk Koennecke:

Start with a vision that creates the value of equity for everyone in the organization. Give people a target and norms of behavior to follow.

Tiffany Workman:

Set an expectation of what the culture in a building and classroom needs to look and sound like. It’s important to set common teacher, language expectations as well.

Offering teachers a model of what a culture of equity can look like and sound like in a classroom or building gives teachers an access point to build their own culture of equity. It is also important that everyone in the building is aware of this expectation and feels supported.

In your experience, what is the most overlooked underserved population in schools?

Dr. Keith Bell:

Students of color and students with disabilities along with those students in the middle. We assume they are getting it because they don’t make a lot of noise and they are “okay.” But, I have found they sometimes have the most need because there is no official identification.

Kirk Koennecke:

Poor children in rural America have been underfunded and under-represented for decades in all manner of diversity topics, discussions, opportunities, funding, etc.

Tiffany Workman:

Children with disabilities. Also, children who lack experiences prior to beginning any formal schooling. These are often children who come from economically disadvantaged families where they have been denied opportunities that many other school aged students have been provided.

How can teachers make a difference regarding equity?

Dr. Keith Bell:

By aligning their practices and student oriented actions toward representing equity. If they value equity, yet classroom practices and actions don’t align with that, there is a problem. In my experience that has been identifiable in classroom teacher behaviors.

Kirk Koennecke:

They can learn about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, set non-negotiables for treatment of children, and embrace technology as an equity and access tool.

Tiffany Workman:

In my experience teachers can automatically make a difference regarding equity by establishing a positive classroom culture with their students with routines that promote equity from the start.

If students feel and know that the culture in their classroom is valued by all members of the classroom community, then they will feel like an equal and contributing member of the community. This helps students not only know that the teacher values equity but that all students in the classroom do as well.

How can superintendents create a culture of improving equity in schools?

Dr. Keith Bell:

Holding all stakeholders accountable for what is listed above.

Kirk Koennecke:

Address it, and communicate the expectations intentionally, routinely, and consistently with local, state, and national advocacy attention.

Tiffany Workman:

Creating and implementing expectations. Establishing a district culture by providing professional development consistently and providing opportunities for teachers to demonstrate and share ideas regarding equity and how they implement a culture of equity in their own classrooms and buildings.

How can districts, schools and classrooms use data to improve equity?

Dr. Keith Bell:

Determine where gaps exist to establish goals – where do you want to go (use research to determine what’s appropriate) and take steps to intentionally address those areas by adjusting current practices that lead to the desired change.

Kirk Koennecke:

Start with assessments that are universal and provide choice and voice. Provide multiple platforms for assessments, not just standard test formats.

Tiffany Workman:

Schools can use data to track if student climate is postive and track and monitor if students feel like their culture and beliefs are valued. This can also be tracked at a district level.

Data can also provide an opportunity to see which programs and interventions are most effective for underserved student groups.

How can districts, schools and classrooms achieve equity while not reinforcing stereotypes?

Dr. Keith Bell:

By understanding the difference between fair and equal. Those that need more should get more (fair). Don’t just give everybody the same thing as that might not be what they need to be successful. Secondly, if you don’t know the kids you teach – you may never get to ALL – know what you don’t know to become effective.

Kirk Koennecke:

Treat each child with a personalized plan for their chosen pathway. Don’t apologize for being from a typology, celebrate and embrace them all.

Tiffany Workman:

I am a firm believer in establishing a good classroom culture and establishing good rapport with students first. If you have a classroom climate that truly supports students, they can feel that.

Students also benefit from having a model. Modeling community and equity is so important. Making sure that you honor and have conversations about all cultures, all types of learners, and all types of people in general provides the sense that your classroom culture is an equal one.

I also think that talking about community and building classroom community is the first step to building equity in your classroom and in your building.

A great way to achieve equity is through reading mentor texts to students, especially ones that are diverse. Students need to see, hear, and be exposed to situations that provide conversation around equity.

The post Roundtable Discussion: Equity in Education appeared first on Learning Circle.

Learning Circle Deep Dive: Closing the Opportunity Gap

Adam Oakley — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 19:26:29 +0000

The post Learning Circle Deep Dive: Closing the Opportunity Gap appeared first on Learning Circle.

5 Steps to Uncovering Underserved Student Groups in Your District, School, & Classroom

Adam Oakley — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 18:54:10 +0000

Educators agree that equity in education should be a priority, that all students should have the opportunity to learn on an even playing ground.

The problem is knowing where to start and how to help…

How can educators support students in need when they are facing challenges both inside and outside the school system where educators have limited influence?

Moreover, which student populations are being underserved?

Complicating matters even further? Every school system is different. Demographics aren’t distributed evenly across the USA, or even across individual states.

Often, they’re not even evenly distributed across districts.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach for schools to follow when it comes to helping underserved populations.

So, districts need to look at their own specific circumstances to uncover which underserved student groups are at their schools…

For example, an inner-city school serving a diverse group of students is going to face much different challenges than a rural school serving students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

And a suburban school with large migrant populations will face different challenges than one serving students with Native American backgrounds.

The point is, regardless of where your school is located, or the demographics of the students you serve, there is always room for improvement, and there is almost always an underserved student group to be uncovered.

Just think about all the variables and challenges that can exist for students…

Age (older or younger for their grade?)
Ability (physical and mental)
Ethnicity (heritage)
Gender
Race (physical)

Sexual Orientation
Socio-Economic Status
Family Makeup
Behavior
Educational Background

Geographic Regional Background
Language
Learning Style
Beliefs (political, social, religious)

With all these variables in existence, you’ll need to do some legwork and research to discover which student populations at your school are most underserved.

This will help your district to:

Pinpoint underserved student groups
Inform program planning and measure efficacy
Illustrate where resources are needed most
Visualize important trends in behavior and achievement
Advocate for specific policy changes
Provide evidence for funding opportunities

Below we’ve outlined a process to help you pinpoint underserved student groups using your district’s student data.

Here are 5 Steps to Uncovering the Inequities that Exist in Your District, School, & Classroom

Step 1: Get the Big Picture

You may think the underserved students at your school are obvious, but it’s still good to do this exercise to get base metrics of the demographic makeup of your school. You might even reveal some data that surprises you.

To start, break down your school’s data by major demographic groups. You can pick whatever variables you think are most important or easiest to gather, but for most schools the following metrics are a good place to start:

Gender
Race
Residency/Zipcode
Ethnicity/Religion
Socioeconomic (i.e. Participation in Free/Reduced Lunch Program)
Primary Language
Disability
Migration Status

Here is a very basic example of data you might gather:

Gender
Male	52%
Female	48%

Race
White	42%
Black or African American	26%
Hispanic/Latino	17%
Asian	10%
Two or More Races	5%

Socioeconomic
National School Lunch Program	22%
NA	78%

Next, you’ll want to get a snapshot view of the student performance indicators you choose to measure.

At a minimum, we recommend districts track data proven by research to correlate with student graduation:

Attendance
Behavior
Core Academics

Sample District Performance Data:

School-wide Attendance %	95%
Average Behavior Incidents per Student	2
Core Academics	84%
English/Language Arts	86%
Math	84%
Science	84%
Social Studies	85%

Now that you have some base data to refer to, it’s time to dig deeper…

Step 2: Disaggregate Your Data by Subpopulations

Disaggregating data is the practice of breaking down aggregate data (like the data collected in step one) into smaller subpopulations to discover hidden insights about student groups.

In the above step you identified the subpopulations that exist in your school by getting the big picture of your student population.

The subpopulations you choose to isolate will vary based on the demographic makeup of your school. That’s why step one is so important…

Perhaps you found that your district has a group of migrant students who are also English Language Learners, or a percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced school lunches.

Now, isolate these subpopulations and determine how they are doing regarding the student performance metrics.

How you do this will depend on what data tool you have.

If your district has access to Learning Circle, you can simply use our filtering tool to compare student populations by any variable tracked at your school.

This includes variables such as gender, race, 504 and IEP plans, grade level, Limited English Proficiency (LEP), whether a student is new to the district, and more.

Otherwise accessing this data and getting it into a workable format will likely be the most challenging part of the process. If you’re working with Excel you can use formulas, filters or create a pivot table to help.

In the end, you want to have a table that measures the student performance indicators for each subpopulation you’re measuring:

	Male	Female	White	Migrant	African American
Attendance %	94%	96%	97%	92%	95%
Behavior Incidents	3	1	1	1	3
Core Academics	84%	85%	88%	77%	86%
English	82%	89%	92%	75%	88%
Math	88%	80%	87%	76%	86%
*Science*	85%	82%	84%	79%	85%
*Social Studies*	82%	88%	88%	77%	86%

Step 3: Compare Disaggregated Data to Overall Population

In the simplified example below, we’ve isolated some student populations and compared them to the overall population average. Not only that, but we can also use this table to compare between the different subpopulations.

	Average	Male	Female	White	Migrant	African American
Attendance %	95%	94%	96%	97%	92%	95%
Behavior Incidents	2	3	1	1	1	3
Core Academics	84%	84%	85%	88%	77%	86%
English	86%	82%	89%	92%	75%	88%
Math	84%	88%	80%	87%	76%	86%
Science	84%	85%	82%	84%	79%	85%
Social Studies	85%	82%	88%	88%	77%	86%

One fast and easy way to find positive/negative trends is to subtract the subpopulation data point from the average data point by creating a variance/different table.

	Average	Male	Female	White	Migrant	African American
Attendance %	95%	-1%	1%	2%	-3%	0%
Behavior Incidents	2	1	-1	-1	-1	1
Core Academics	84%	0%	0%	3%	-8%	2%
English	86%	-4%	4%	7%	-11%	3%
Math	84%	4%	-4%	3%	-8%	2%
Science	84%	2%	-2%	1%	-4%	2%
Social Studies	85%	-3%	3%	3%	-8%	1%

You can also create variance tables to compare subpopulations – this can really demonstrate achievement gap.

Male vs Female Example

	Male	Female	Variance (F-M)
Attendance %	94%	96%	2%
Behavior Incidents	3	1	-2
Core Academics	84%	85%	1%
English	82%	89%	7%
Math	88%	80%	-8%
Science	85%	82%	-3%
Social Studies	82%	88%	6%

White vs African American Example

	White	African American	Variance (AA – W)
Attendance %	97%	95%	-2%
Behavior Incidents	1	3	+2
Core Academics	88%	86%	-2%
English	92%	88%	-4%
Math	87%	86%	-1%
Science	84%	85%	1%
Social Studies	88%	86%	-2%

White vs Migrant Example

	White	Migrant	Variance (Migrant – W)
Attendance %	97%	92%	-5%
Behavior Incidents	1	1	0
Core Academics	88%	77%	-11%
English	92%	75%	-17%
Math	87%	76%	-11%
Science	84%	79%	-5%
Social Studies	88%	77%	-11%

Using these variance tables produced some interesting findings from our example district:

Migrant students are struggling in all core academics and in attendance
African American students have lower attendance, lower English scores, and more behavior incidents
Male students on average misbehave and miss more school than females
Females are doing significantly worse in math than their male counterparts
Males are doing significantly worse in English and social studies than their female counterparts
Females attend school more often than males on average

Step 4: Compare Schools and Grade Levels

Now, that you’ve compared disaggregated data at the district level, it’s time to look at individual schools and grade levels in your district.

Many school districts have school with widely varying demographics. Is there an outlier school that needs extra resources?

And, there are certain ages or grade levels where student performance data can change significantly.

For example, data shows that female students typically do as well or better than their male counterparts in math, but around junior high this data tends to flip.

By getting granular with student data, we can move beyond the “what” factors of inequity

and determine “why” inequity exists and “how” to fix it.

Step 5: Implement Programs, Refine, Measure, Repeat

Steps 1-4 help you to uncover general trends. From here you can diagnose and treat the areas where students need extra resources to receive an equitable education.

Some quick examples:

Math club for girls in the 7^th grade when you realized they started to fall behind their male peers at this age.
Alarm clock program for students struggling with attendance
Free English tutoring and pen pal club for English Language Learners
Free breakfast for students to ensure students on free & reduced lunch programs aren’t left feeling hungry in morning classes
Study skill classes for underperforming students
Self-management class targeted at male students
Policy change for teachers and principals for alternative discipline options to suspension or office visits

As time goes on, you can start to measure these trends and see if the extra resources, programs and interventions you’ve invested into your underserved populations are making a difference.

Monitor these interventions continuously to see if they’re having an impact.

Is the impact positive, negative, or even neutral? This is knowledge is vital to making informed decisions on whether to remove or add new interventions for students.

Continue to repeat steps 1-4 to uncover other inequities that exist to find other underserved groups. There is always more that can be done. And more ways to test for inequities.

Here are additional examples of data comparisons you can make:

Are underserved students typically assigned to more or less experienced teachers? Is this correlating to their success?
Look for outlier students who are doing better than their peers in underserved groups. What is different about their circumstances that might be helping them succeed?
Are students who don’t participate in programs with out-of-school time providers doing better or worse?
Are underserved student groups more or less involved in extra-curricular activities?

You can also start to create new data:

Surveys and questionnaires (for students, teachers, and community members)
Interviews or focus groups
Teacher logs
Classroom observations

Bonus Tip #1: If You Have an Early Warning Indicator System, Analyze At-Risk Students

One component of Learning Circle is its early warning system. Using a system like Learning Circle, you can analyze students who are in alarm and/or warning stages and see if there are any demographic trends.

Using filters, schools can isolate certain student populations to see their risk factors.

This helps streamline the process of finding underserved students.

Bonus Tip #2: Take Advantage of Learning Circle’s Custom Filters & Custom Watch Lists

Educators can use Learning Circle to create custom watch lists to easily keep tabs on the trends of underserved students at any level: district, school, classroom, or even students involved in specific community organizations.

Learning Circle also makes it easy to compare student populations by gender, race, 504 and IEP plans, grade level, Limited English Proficiency (LEP), whether a student is new to the district, and more!

Do you have any tips on how to find and serve underserved students? We’d love to hear them in the comments below!

The post 5 Steps to Uncovering Underserved Student Groups in Your District, School, & Classroom appeared first on Learning Circle.