“It’s quite alarming,” says Javaid Siddiqi, the former Virginia secretary of education and now the CEO of Hunt Institute. The organization created the map for the One Million Teachers of Color campaign, which is a collaboration by several equity advocacy organizations. “[School leaders] need to be aware how their share fits in with the larger state share and how the state share fits in with the larger one million,” Siddiqi continues.

Superintendents can’t close the gap by themselves but there are several things K12 leaders and their teams can do once they are aware of the scope of the problem, Siddiqi counsels. Grow-your-own programs are gaining traction in many districts as educators look to move paraprofessionals into full-time teacher roles and inspire high school students to put education at the center of their college and career plans.

“Superintendents are sitting on goldmines,” Siddiqi attests. “They are graduating young people of color and they know who the five-star African American, Hispanic and AAPI students are.”

Approximately 40% of schools lack even a single teacher of color. And, as most educators know, extensive research shows that if students of color have even one teacher of color while they’re in school they are more likely to graduate, be ready for college and be enrolled in AP and other college-level classes. And they are also less likely to be suspended. “It improves the things we want to improve and reduces the things we want to reduce,” Siddiqi notes.

The same holds true for gaps between teachers and school leaders, and the U.S. education system now has a diversity gap of about 30,000 administrators. When teachers of color work with administrators of color, they feel less isolated and are less likely to leave, he adds.

Digging into the diversity gaps

The map measures the gap between the percentage of students of color enrolled in public schools and the number of teachers of color in each state. The numbers vary throughout the country’s region—for instance, some of the states with the biggest and the narrowest gaps are in the Northeast. However, those numbers may be skewed by the low number of students of color in states such as Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

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Some of the biggest gaps are in the West, and in states considered the most politically “blue.” California, for example, needs about 139,000 teachers to close its gaps.

On the other hand, the smallest gaps are concentrated in states with tiny populations of students of color.

These 10 states have the largest gaps based on the following percentage points:

1. Nevada: 46.5
2. Delaware: 45.1
3. New Jersey: 40.3
4. California: 39.7
5. Rhode Island: 39.3
6. Arizona: 39.1
7. Maryland: 38.8
8. Connecticut: 38.5
9. New York: 38.2
10. Washington & Virginia: 35.5

These 10 states have the smallest gaps:

1. Vermont: 9.1
2. Maine: 9.5
3. West Virginia: 8.6
4. New Hampshire: 15
5. Wyoming: 15.9
6. Montana: 17.6
7. Utah: 20.5
8. North Dakota: 21
9. Kentucky: 21.3
10. Idaho: 21.9

View the rest of the data included in the map, which also measures diversity gaps between students of color and school leadership.

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At the same time, solutions are emerging and evolving as K12 leaders work to reverse the trend and eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline.

“We cannot be complacent when the data repeatedly tells us that the race, sex, or disability of students continue to dramatically impact everything from access to advanced placement courses to the availability of school counselors to the use of exclusionary and traumatic disciplinary practices,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a recent statement.

Disciplinary disparities

Black boys are more than twice as likely to be suspended than their white male classmates, according to a November report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

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Overall, about 638,700 students were suspended (out-of-school) at least once and about 28,300 were expelled in the most recent year for which national data was available, 2020-21. Black students, among other groups, are also overrepresented when it comes to arrests and law enforcement referrals:

• Black students represented 15% of K12 enrollment, but 18% of students referred to law enforcement and 22% of students subjected to a school-related arrest.
• White students represented 46% of enrollment, but 55% of students referred to law enforcement and 47% of students subjected to a school-related arrest.
• Students with disabilities represented 17% of enrollment, but 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 28% of students subjected to a school-related arrest. They also accounted for 29% of students who were suspended at least once of 21% of those who were expelled.
• Boys, Black students, students of two or more races, and students with disabilities were subjected to restraints and seclusion at disproportionate rates.

Districts reported approximately 274,700 school offenses in 2020-21, the large majority of which were “threats of physical attack without a weapon.” About 180 schools (less than 1%) reported at least one school shooting and about 100 schools reported a homicide of a student or staff member, the Department of Education reported.

‘Peace-Building Circles’

New solutions are emerging and other practices are being refined right alongside the troubling numbers. In November, a leading civil rights group took aim at dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline. Learning for Justice, an initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center, released several resources for school leaders who want to reform disciplinary practices in their districts.

“Educators and families can advocate for and implement practices that prioritize mental health and well-being and do not push children out of the classroom,” says the nonprofit, which shared the following ideas and articles:

1. A community “Freedom School” model embraces transformative practices to strengthen relationships.
2. A tool kit for using peace-building circles.
3. “Decarceration” gives educators a key role in ending discipline that criminalizes youth with trauma-informed practices and other reforms.
4. “It Was Always About Control“: Why class management that’s based on compliance is at the root of discipline that harms young people.
5. School safety without police is an effort to advocate for students’ dignity.
6. How leaders can work with parent-led grassroots organizations that want to end punitive school discipline policies.
7. From slavery to school discipline: Examining the connection between school discipline and the history of slavery can help schools affirm and protect Black students.
8. A webinar on trauma-responsive education.

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School district administrators typically do not want to do any more testing than is absolutely necessary. It takes away valuable instructional time and resources that could be used for something else. What’s more, as schools work to help students rebound from COVID-related learning loss, new ideas are needed for how to best target instruction to student learning needs—and this includes advanced learning needs.

It doesn’t have to be this way

School districts can use data they already have on hand to universally screen students for advanced learning opportunities. I led a research initiative to develop and release guidelines on how schools can use assessment data they already have on hand for the secondary purpose of making their identification process better and more equitable.

Most gifted and talented identification systems follow a two-phase process. In the graphic at right, Phase Two is where the actual identification or eligibility determination takes place. That’s where a school might collect a range of data to make eligibility decisions for gifted and talented programs or even 8th-grade Algebra 1 placement. But Phase One is where many students are missed. Too often there is no universal screener. Instead, schools rely on referrals, nominations or applications.

The result: Any student who isn’t referred or nominated or who doesn’t apply is never considered. And because research has shown that some students are more likely to be referred than others, the result is an ineffective and inequitable process.

Existing data can improve the identification process

Although it won’t solve all the ills facing gifted and talented identification, one simple way to help improve such a process is to use an existing, universally administered achievement or accountability test to screen all students for eligibility. Students who meet a certain threshold on the universal screener then move on to phase two where actual eligibility is determined.

This saves time and money because 1.) not every student goes through phase two and 2.) an existing assessment is used at phase one. It’s also more equitable because all students have access to the process via a universal screener.

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There are three requirements for an effective universal screener. First, it needs to be reliable in a psychometric or assessment sense. This means scores aren’t influenced by outside, irrelevant factors. This is a place where standardized achievement tests, for all their imperfections, outshine nominations or referrals. They are just much more consistent, particularly because their scores do not depend on who is doing the nominating or referring.

Second, an effective screener is strongly correlated with the eligibility criteria. In an ideal world, every student who will do well at phase two will do well at phase one (and vice versa). Since most gifted and talented services are academic in nature, phase two criteria should also be focused on specific domains. As a result, an academic achievement test in the same domain will be strongly correlated with phase two and make for an effective screener.

Finally, we want an effective screener to be fast, cheap and easy. We don’t want to spend more time testing than is absolutely necessary. And it doesn’t get faster, cheaper or easier than an assessment you’ve already purchased and already administered. Achievement data that a district already has on hand checks all three of the boxes.

So what should a district administrator do? I helped develop guidelines for how districts can use their existing achievement data as a universal screener for gifted and talented and other advanced learning opportunities. I’ve also written (along with my co-authors) additional guidelines on how to put these systems together. But that’s for the advanced user. For now, districts can make a lot of progress using data they already have to proactively seek out students who might benefit from advanced learning opportunities.

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But building student pipelines between K12 and colleges is easier said than done. For one, creating partnerships can be extremely overwhelming: Consider the thousands of colleges and universities and the tens of thousands of K12 schools nationwide.

“It’s really hard for us, as an independent public K12 school, to build a relationship with each college or university across America,” says Josh Garcia, Tacoma Public Schools (Wash.) superintendent. “That’s what makes this work so complex. It’s all about partnership-aligned pipelines, but you’ve got to plumb each one of those pipelines individually to some level.”

And pipelines are only as good as the effort that goes into them. If there is no active intention behind them, they are destined to wilt.

“In some of my research, I’ll sometimes talk to leaders in other districts outside of Maryland who will say, ‘Well, we had a university partnership, but it just sort of fizzled out because we just didn’t feel like the university was preparing our students for what we need,'” says Dr. Christine Neumerski, faculty specialist at the University of Maryland (UMD) and associate director for its doctoral program in school system leadership.

However, educators in Maryland, California and Washington are leveraging several strategies to close the delta between K12 and higher education as the need for equitable student outcomes reaches its crescendo.

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Formalized agreements create stronger K12 partnerships

The key to creating a diverse array of K12-higher education pipelines is a solid legal framework, says Garcia, who has been Tacoma’s superintendent since 2012. “That formalized agreement is really important to build trust and credibility with the students we’re trying to serve,” he says. “This is not just a ‘wink, wink.’ This is an actual, legitimized partnership.”

Tacoma shares a guaranteed admissions program with the University of Washington, Tacoma, which partners with its guidance counselors to clarify admissions requirements and provides community resources that students can use to ensure their success. Additionally, the University of Puget Sound has committed to grant 30 Tacoma district students a financial aid package that meets their total demonstrated financial need.

“If you’re going to create generational impact, it’s going to take 10 to 12 years,” Garcia says. “That can’t be dependent on a new leader’s vision; rather, it takes a sustained community vision. That’s why those formalized partnerships are so critical. It’s not just higher ed or K12 or leadership changes, but the promise has to sustain itself despite leadership changes.”

Outside of ensuring the success of Tacoma students, Garcia recognizes that binding legal frameworks must be broad enough to be replicated. This way, higher education institutions can easily partner with more districts. For example, the University of Washington, Tacoma’s guaranteed admissions program extends to 10 other districts.

Garcia’s focus on formalized agreements that are replicable and grounded in long-term change seems to be working. In the 2021-22 academic year, nine out of 10 of Tacoma’s high school students graduated in four years, which is 8% higher than the Washington state average, according to data from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. And in the past nine years, its graduation rate increased by 23% for Black students, 33% for Hispanic students and 27% for low-income students. Along with Tacoma’s impressive graduation rates, more than 80% of its students have attained dual enrollment credits for higher education since the 2017-18 academic year, which applies to its Black, Hispanic and low-income students as well.

Community college pipelines

This year, the California State University (CSU) System unveiled a guaranteed admission program across its 23 campuses, beginning with the class of 2023. It’s different from Tacoma’s pathway in that first-time freshmen must start in the California Community College System, and it is specifically geared toward high school graduates whose personal or financial situation inhibited them from applying to a CSU institution directly.

In addition to offering under-resourced students a secure stepladder to a major state university, the Transfer Success Pathway provides them personalized support and resources from CSU, such as additional academic counseling and access to a transfer planner to stay on track with what they need to accomplish.

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with them earlier in their journey,” said April Grommo, CSU’s assistant vice chancellor of Strategic Enrollment Management, according to Sacramento State. “The Transfer Success Pathway is the CSU’s promise and commitment to those who don’t take a direct route to a four-year degree, particularly those who face academic, geographic, or financial barriers.”

The University of California system may also be embarking on a similar mission. In March, UC introduced to stake lawmakers its mission to enroll one community college transfer for every two first-year undergraduates, EdSource reports.

Preparing the new generation of superintendents

The job of the K12 school district superintendency is mired in political, logistical and administrative challenges that can often strain and overwhelm. Just ask the state of Maryland: Last year, about a third of its superintendent positions were up for grabs.

The University of Maryland’s practice-based doctoral program provides its students with real-world experience to prepare them for the complex political environment and performance objectives that have continued to change since the pandemic. One of those challenges UMD is preparing the next wave of superintendents for is ensuring success for the state’s changing student demographics.

“We pay attention to the needs of all learners in the state of Maryland, and more specifically, those students and populations of color, given that the research trends are showing us that the schools are becoming more heavily populated with the students of color,” says Dr. Pamela Shetley, associate director of UMD’s Education in School System Leadership, Ed.D. “Our workforce is not equally catching up to that change.”

Thanks to UMD’s partnership with state school districts, its doctoral school leadership program challenges students in its capstone project to take on a district’s real-time wicked problem that they’ve identified, diagnose its root causes and alleviate it under the guidance of the program.

While students are already experienced Maryland K12 educators and administrators, they receive a state-approved superintendent certification upon program completion.

“Our goal is to build a pipeline of system-level thinkers that are change agents that have a disposition for change, for equity, for students in a way that maybe hasn’t been as intentionally focused in other programs,” says Dr. Doug Anthony, the program’s director.

One of the guiding posts UMD’s program uses when teaching instructional leadership is the Maryland Blueprint, an equity-based legislative framework that prioritizes college and career readiness. It also intends to raise state funding for education by $3.8 billion annually over 10 years.

While the onus falls on the student-turned-superintendent to effect relevant change in his or her school district, it’s up to administrators in higher education to help equip them with the tools. Some of these lessons may require reckoning with uncomfortable truths.

“It takes courage at the university level to make sure that the curriculum, for instance, isn’t watered down or history isn’t erased when we talk about institutional barriers within the context of an educational setting,” Dr. Anthony says. “Problems exist because there are problems before it, and there are institutional barriers that exist. Many things exist in school systems that the superintendent has to be willing to unpack if they’re going to make a difference.”

The post Institutions are blending K12 and higher ed to improve student equity. Here’s how appeared first on District Administration.

“We really need to look at our footprint,” Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Chief Financial Officer Ronald Joseph said, according to the Gazette. “We are operating more buildings than we should, which means that our resources are spread out over all those buildings and we also have to maintain those buildings.”

In San Antonio, charter schools are moving in as districts prepare to shut down buildings, according to the nonprofit San Antonio Report. Edgewood ISD leaders, who told the website that more than 1,000 students within its boundaries attend schools in the IDEA charter system, are exploring how to reduce facilities costs by closing multiple sites.

“Charters have changed the game,” Edgewood Superintendent Superintendent Eduardo Hernández told the San Antonio Report. “The bottom line is we have to do as well as they do.”

Closing schools equitably

Closing schools is, of course, often a turbulent experience for communities, families and students. But leaders can take some steps to reduce distress with an eye toward equity, says Carrie Hahnel, a senior associate partner for policy and evaluation at the education research nonprofit, Bellwether.

School closings often hit Black students and other students of color the hardest, says Hahnel, who co-authored a recent guide for K12 leaders who want to make school closure decisions more fairly. “That’s not to say inequities can be avoided entirely, but those harms can be reduced or managed if equity is part of the process,” she adds.

One of the main causes of inequitable closures is that districts default to fiscal considerations as the sole driver of closures and ignore the demographic impacts. Rarely are ethnic or racial breakdowns of students or communities a part of the discussions when leaders list potential closures. Academic impacts are also often absent from the debate, Hahnel notes.

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Administrators can make the closure process more inclusive and transparent by assuring impacted families that there will benefits to switching schools. “Offer something of value to displaced students,” she explains. “If a school site is going to be closed, ensure that the student and families who will be relocated have meaningful academic opportunities elsewhere and are not just shuffled to the next closest school geographically.”

Closings should prompt leaders to examine “broader attendance zone considerations,” such as which academic and extracurricular programs are offered—or not offered—at different high schools. Ultimately, administrators must engage with communities in recognizing the checkered history of closing schools in historically marginalized neighborhoods.

“Closure decisions are coming on top of a long history of segregation and systemic disinvestment,” she concludes. “To treat this as a demographic accident is disingenuous to the history of those neighborhoods and communities.”

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Two things we haven’t addressed enough, particularly in professional development, are teacher efficacy and pedagogical content knowledge. How can we expect to achieve equity in education if we don’t invest in our teachers’ ability to teach effectively? Increasing the level of confidence that teachers have in their ability to guide students toward success, and strengthening their belief that all students are capable of academic success, are key components to making equity actionable in teaching and learning.

Putting equity into action

As educators, we have the responsibility to engage in substantive equity conversations to make sure all students have an opportunity to succeed and thrive in their schooling. This starts with our own academic identities—the attitudes beliefs, and dispositions toward teaching and learning. Unhealthy academic identities can manifest as disengaged students in class; behavioral problems; teachers’ inability to move students’ scores; or students who think they can’t succeed.

Consider mathematics, for example. If we are all working toward improved student performance, then math academic success should be a nonnegotiable goal for students, but it’s not. That’s because most of us are content with not being a “math person.”

How many adults proudly affirm that they’re not a “math person?” A mindset of “not being a math person” is a hindrance to one’s academic identity. There are non-math-people teaching our students right now, and that is creating a different problem: unhealthy math academic identities.

Our academic identities are constantly being developed, as are those of our students. Early on in my teaching career, I became aware of my unhealthy math academic identity and was able to reflect on how it could influence my instruction. Employing strategies to help all students thrive in the mathematics classroom was how I placed equity in the context of teaching and learning.

Operationalizing equity requires courageous discussions and deep reflection, both within you and with others. Attending to the work of equity means being deliberate in raising your awareness of self and others, exploring your beliefs, examining your actions, and strengthening your academic identity.

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This type of inner work doesn’t always feel comfortable. But if we want to see ourselves as equity change agents, then we need to start by owning the contexts and identities that we bring to our work. In other words, if we get vulnerable and self-reflective, we can start to find opportunities to make our efforts and experiences more equitable.

A key to student success

In my book, The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success, I provide you with a framework through which you can put equity into practice. Using the entry points to make equity actionable in your work is not about doing anything new. Rather, it’s about thinking differently, entering the equity conversation from another perspective, and closing the gap between having knowledge about equity and putting it into action with intention and focus. The entry points for equity can support you and your learning team in taking ownership of equity.

Students’ success hinges upon the dispositions and beliefs they have about teaching and learning. Our call to action as educators is to cultivate a practice of understanding ourselves and others. Question your biases. Hold yourself accountable. If you reach the point where you feel that you can’t grow any further, then you’ve restricted the intellectual spaces to which you and your students can go.

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The answer may be simpler than it seems: Find the common ground. Cut through the noise, figure out where there are areas of agreement and move forward from there.

Common ground regarding bathrooms

For every issue, the first step is to know the laws in your state. Your school district may be required to prohibit transgender students from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. Alternatively, other school districts may be required to allow transgender students to use that bathroom.

When finding common ground, conservatives and liberals can generally agree that (1) bathrooms should be places where students can relieve themselves without fear of intimidation, harassment, bullying or assault; (2) students have an expectation of privacy in the bathroom; and (3) students should not be made to feel uncomfortable in the bathroom.

Therefore, first, make sure your student codes of conduct are updated, clear and equally enforced. Have swift responses to allegations of inappropriate bathroom behavior, especially those related to improper sexual conduct in violation of Title IX.

Second, make sure your bathrooms (and locker rooms) are private. Have stalls and shower curtains, and install privacy strips. Third, have a single-stall bathroom open for students who are uncomfortable using a multi-stall bathroom.

Common ground regarding names

Recent research published in the Journal of Adolescent Health revealed that young people who are allowed to use their chosen name at school, home, work and with friends experienced 71% fewer severe depression symptoms, a 34% decrease in reported thoughts of suicide and a 65% decrease in suicidal attempts. As said by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox about transgender students, “Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live.”

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Transgender students are not the only students who have thoughts of suicide, however. This is another place to find common ground. Students who feel disrespected, misunderstood and bullied may experience severe depression, regardless of their gender.

Indeed, bullying on the basis of religious ideology often flies under the radar. If schools intend to be a psychologically safe space for all students, they should promote efforts to be that for all students. Deal with bullying and promote a culture of respect. Teach how to disagree respectfully and how to research.

Again, state-by-state, the law varies on what school districts are required to do in regard to using chosen names and pronouns, and it is important to work with your legal counsel to determine what your obligations are. Regardless of the law, though, school districts should continue to promote respect for all regardless of ideology, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Common ground regarding disability

Liberal and conservative groups alike generally support a free and appropriate public education for students with disabilities. Recently, some parts of the country have recognized gender dysphoria (i.e., psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity) as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This means school districts must make accommodations. If the gender dysphoria impedes a child’s learning, a Section 504 Accommodation Plan may be in order.

Students with gender dysphoria may appropriately be accommodated by a plan that allows them access to certain resources and services. If being barred from a certain restroom causes a transgender child such distress that they do not use the restroom at school and develop urinary tract complications, an appropriate accommodation may be allowing them to use that bathroom.

If being called by their given name causes a transgender child such psychological distress that they cannot focus on school, an appropriate accommodation may be requiring school staff to use their chosen name.

While this disability-related information cannot be shared without the parent’s consent, this is where the culture of respect comes in. “We are all on different journeys and this helps your classmate on theirs,” may be all a child needs to hear if the culture has been created. It’s important to create this culture before you need it.

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But the decisions are being met with howls of derision in some communities.

School officials in Northborough, Massachusetts reversed course on canceling an elementary school Halloween parade after some parents complained they weren’t consulted about the change. Superintendent Gregory Martineau told NBC Boston that, last year, more than 100 elementary school students opted out of the parade and officials did not want those children to feel left out again in 2023. The school had intended to replace the parade with a “fall-themed spirit day,” CBS News Boston added.

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But Martineau also acknowledged on the district’s website that he and his team should have included parents in the decision. “As the principals and I reconsidered,” he wrote in a community message, “we took a ‘Yes and’ decision-making approach—Having an in-school Halloween parade and ensuring that students have options if they are not planning to participate in the parade, whether from being scared of costumes and anxious about marching in a parade or Halloween not being aligned with family beliefs.”

Any Halloween celebrations at the South Orange Maplewood School District in New Jersey will have to take place outside school hours. “Is promoting school-sponsored Halloween activities creating indirect and unintentional financial hardships for students and families? Do school-sponsored Halloween activities violate the dignity of some of our students and families, either culturally or religiously? Does the promotion of school-sponsored Halloween activities create tensions with the equity and access values of SOMSD?” Superintendent Ronald G., Taylor asked in a community message cited by The Village Green.

Administrators there are leaning toward holding a student-centered Fall Festival, the message said.

Students at Taft Elementary in Iowa’s Humboldt Community School District will participate in fall-themed parties instead of traditional Halloween activities, KCCI.com reported. “All decisions we make are in the best interests of students while considering instructional time, attendance, families having the financial means to participate, and being inclusive to those from all backgrounds,” Superintendent Jim Murray told the station.

In New York, administrators in North Colonie Central Schools also informed parents that the district’s elementaries will be shifting away from Halloween costume parties, News10.com reported.

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Some 30 million households are eligible for, but not taking advantage of, the federal Affordable Connectivity Program, also known as ACP. Drilling down, a quarter of low-income residents in five big cities said they do not subscribe to home internet service, according to a survey for Connected Nation’s latest report, “Mind the Gap: Closing the Digital Divide through affordability, access, and adoption.”

“It is all too easy for us to make assumptions about why a family or individual is not subscribing to high-speed internet,” said Tom Ferree, chairman & CEO of Connected Nation, a Kentucky-based nonprofit working to get more families hooked up to the internet.

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“This is a nuanced issue,” Ferree continued, “and it’s critical for us to identify the pain points and work together to find solutions for not only expanding access to broadband but also helping people adopt and use the resources it offers.”

Around 9% of low-income respondents surveyed said they don’t subscribe to internet service because the monthly cost is too high. More than two-thirds said they did not know about the Affordable Connectivity Program and about three in 10 didn’t think they qualified for the discounts. Still, a large majority of the program’s subscribers are satisfied with the process of getting connected and are using the internet for homework, telework, participating in video meetings and taking online classes, the report found.

Here are five ways school leaders work with community organizations and others to better inform families about their broadband options:

1. Local, trusted entities should promote home internet service. The survey revealed that many participants are skeptical of offers from internet providers or the federal government that may seem “too good to be true.” Education leaders can work with more trusted community institutions—such as places of worship, libraries and community centers—to introduce residents to affordable internet connectivity. Some organizations are training digital navigators to show people how to sign up for broadband and how to use computers and the Internet.
2. Promote digital equity programs in a variety of ways. Programs that promote low-cost home internet service or computing devices must be
   advertised in low-income communities rather than, for example, on social media networks to which they may have little or no access. School district leaders can help promote home internet programs such as ACP. Connected Nation has found the program has more subscribers in metro areas where there is greater awareness of it.
3. Highlight the benefits of home internet access. The top reasons many households do not subscribe to home internet service include having the ability to get online at the library or with smartphones. Educators can talk about the greater functionality of home internet for tasks such as homework, filling out job applications or sharing information with healthcare providers.
4. Target the needs of populations who are the least likely to subscribe. Ads will fall flat if they don’t address issues of specific concern to various communities. For example, young and older adults will trust different sources of information. Educators can craft messages that inform their target audiences—students and families—of the empowering, even life-changing impact of home internet.
5. Potential enrollees want as much detail as possible. Some potential subscribers did not consider themselves poor but still may qualify for discounts. Educators can spread the message that many current subscribers described the sign-up process as positive.

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White authors and characters remain far more present in K12 curriculum than authors and characters of any other race or ethnicity, according to the “The Search for More Complex Racial and Ethnic Representation” study by The Education Trust, the nonprofit that advocates for equity in K12 instruction.

The authors acknowledge the hard work districts and educators have done in recent years to diversify curriculum. But in a review of 300 English language arts texts, for example, the organization’s researchers found plenty of stereotypes and that “people of color centered in these books were one-dimensional, portrayed negatively, or did not have agency.”

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And many historical events and social topics were sanitized and not put into context for students to find meaning in the texts. “Despite an extremely narrow representation of people of color, the nation is witnessing a well-funded political strategy to erase the very few books schools have to prepare students to compete in a global economy by learning about people of different races and ethnicities,” Tanji Reed Marshall, a co-author of the report, warns.

“While fighting to stop book bans, advocates must also push for including books with characters of color who are fully realized and positively represented,” adds Marshall, Ed Trust’s director of P-12 practice.

How to have more comprehensive classroom discussions

Ed Trust offers six recommendations to create more representational curricula:

• Challenge dominant norms and singular perspectives
• Expand publisher and educator definitions of cultural relevance
• Ask a new set of questions about representation
• Consider how texts sit in conversation with one another
• Expand educator choice in curated materials
• Provide professional learning to all curriculum decision-makers, including authors and developers

“We are witnessing a literacy crisis and historic drops in student achievement, and better representation in our classroom books will help all students achieve,” says William Rodick, Ph.D., one of the study’s authors and a P12 Practice Lead at Ed Trust. “The fact is that students of color learn and perform better when they see themselves and their experiences authentically and non-stereotypically reflected in their school curricula.

“Seeing a diverse set of people in books also helps White students develop a deeper understanding of their racial and ethnic identity and the world around them, which is filled with people of varying ethnicities and cultures,” Rodick concludes.

The post Why laws that bar teaching about race, LGBTQ topics have little to block appeared first on District Administration.