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EquityMatters! Summer Leadership 2021

Students with backgrounds similar to mine remain at the bottom for most of the good categories and the top for most of the bad categories. We either need to believe that there is something inherently wrong with our students and their families to put them in this situation generation after generation or there is something wrong with our system that recreates this demographic hierarchy ... The folks on my staff...we believe the latter. That's why the work can’t stop."

Dr. Daman L. Harris, principal, Wheaton Woods Elementary School

Dear Colleagues,

As we breathe a collective sigh of relief after the most difficult year in memory, it is important to remember that we cannot just go back to the way we were doing things before COVID-19 shut down our schools. Prior to distance learning, racial disparities were seen in almost every area of MCPS. We can and must do better!

The resources in this newsletter provide the lens, habits, tools, and inspiration to do all of our work with an antiracist mindset. Take a minute and browse through the whole issue and find one or two resources that will help in your journey.

In this issue:

With appreciation,

Troy, Daryl, Deanna, Edvin, Ericka, Joan, Maniya, Marya, and John

MCPS students and Staff in the Women's History Month Edition of EquityMatters!

Listen to the Students

Before you look over the resources, take a few minutes to listen to amazing students talk about their experiences in Montgomery County Public Schools. This is a short compilation from three forums that the Equity Initiatives Unit organized this year in collaboration with other departments and organizations.

Tools to create an equity lens in all planning and decision making

We are often asked what does it mean to operate with an equity lens. At a minimum, it means to ask yourself a series of questions throughout all aspects of planning and decision making.

Below are two resources.

  • The first is the Evidence of Equity Framework, a list of questions that help you keep an equity lens.
  • The second is a module and resources that help you plan and lead meetings that are racially conscious and culturally responsive.

Evidence of Equity Framework

We all need to develop the habits of asking critical questions about race and equity throughout all aspects of leadership, planning, and engagement. The Evidence of Equity Framework provides an easy tool to build equity into all aspects of planning, implementation, and evaluation. Use these questions in tandem with Planning Effective and Culturally Responsive Meetings.

Plan Effective and Culturally Responsive Meetings

It won't do any good to use the Evidence of Equity Framework if your meetings are not structured well.

This module will help you rethink how you can organize and facilitate meetings in a way that builds trust and safety with an equity lens. The activities are designed to work individually or with a team.

How to Engage Your Families

The challenges with distance learning highlight that some of our practices around family engagement and communication are not working for many of our families. Effective family engagement is not difficult. It just requires that we work with intention.

We have a set of tools that provide a culturally responsive lens you can use as you engage with families and the community. The tools include:

  • A step-by-step planning guide that provides guiding questions, considerations, and examples to help you plan effective family engagement and communication
  • A rubric for writing clear communication to a diverse community
  • Basic tips on creating culturally responsive flyers and PowerPoints
  • Considerations for creating culturally responsive parent presentations
MCPS staff and Students Highlighted in the Hispanic Heritage Month Edition

The MCPS Antiracist System Audit

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is engaging in a comprehensive Antiracist System Audit. While there have been many reports and initiatives to understand and address racial gaps in Montgomery County Public Schools, the Antiracist System Audit is the first time that MCPS is implementing a comprehensive analysis across all policies, practices, and systems.

What is the definition of racism?

Racism means the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another. Racism plays out on multiple levels: internalized, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic.

What is Antiracism?

Antiracism is actively working to ensure racial justice by identifying, interrupting, and dismantling practices, policies, and attitudes that disproportionately harm communities of color.

Being antiracist means:

  • Demonstrate an everyday commitment to critical reflection of how our beliefs, practice, and interactions contribute to inequitable outcomes by race.
  • Acknowledge the generational harm and advantages racism has caused in the communities in which we work and live.
  • Understand how the prioritization of dominant culture contributes to racial inequities and the permanence of racism.
  • Identify the racial inequities in our context and collaborate with staff, students, families, and community members to address them and hold each other accountable.
  • Disrupt and eliminate racist policies, practices, and procedures that block access, opportunity, and equitable outcomes for students, staff, and families of color.
  • Proactively develop new practices and policies that create access, opportunity, and equitable educational, social-emotional, and health outcomes for students, staff, and families of color.

What is Critical Race Theory?

In addition to antiracism, the idea of Critical Race Theory has been in the news a lot lately. Before forming an opinion, or trying to respond to a colleague or a parent, learn more about Critical Race Theory.

According to Education Week, "Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies."

"A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas."

To be clear, Critical Race Theory is not something that most schools teach students, nor is it currently in any of the training offered by the Equity Initiatives Unit (EIU). However, the basic tenant of CRT connects to the EIU's core belief that "This racial predictability is not simply a factor of individual beliefs and actions, but is institutionalized. To eliminate this racial predictability we must remove institutional barriers and demonstrate culturally proficient policies, practices, and behaviors.

Students and staff Participating in Student/Staff "Study Circle" dialogues

The Counter Story

The Counter Story is a monthly column that features the voices of MCPS students, families, and staff who are often marginalized in the media, curriculum, and our classrooms. Counterstories help us to interrupt our explicit and implicit biases, and to inspire us to action.

These videos provide opportunities to bring in voices that may not always be heard. They can be used as activators for staff or planning meetings, or to use with students.

Equity Journey

We are all at different places on our journey to be culturally proficient and antiracist. We periodically highlight MCPS colleagues on their equity journey, how they got started, and how they overcome challenges.

James K. Allrich, principal, Argyle Middle School

Dr. Yong M. Kim, principal, Herbert Hoover Middle School

Dr. Daman L. Harris, principal, Wheaton Woods Elementary School

From the Black History Month "Everyday Sheros and Heros" column

Productive Dialogue

Study Circles Dialogue

Seneca Valley High School Study Circle May, 2021

The Study Circles Program provides schools and offices a structured and facilitated process to engage students, parents, and staff in productive dialogue about racism and other challenging issues.

The Study Circles process can be adapted to reach different kinds of outcomes. For example:

  • To have productive dialogue about challenging issues
  • To get deep and important input from parents, students, and staff who schools typically don't hear from
  • To create teams and professional learning communities that have the relationships, structures and tools to be effective

There are many different types of formats for Study Circles. Below are some examples:

  • High School and Middle School students and staff
  • Elementary School Grade 4 and 5 students
  • Parent/Staff dialogues
  • Principal advisory committies
  • Spanish-language
  • School and office leadership teams

Elevate the Discourse: Guide to Facilitating Conversations About Race & Other Challenging Issues

This guide provides leaders and teachers the tools they need to engage their staff and students in dialogue about important and challenging issues. Below are two videos that talk about the importance of these conversations.

Craig W. Staton, principal, Julius West Middle School

Alexandra L. Walsh, Grade 2 teacher, Captain James E. Daly Elementary School

Equity Matters Dialogues

The Equity Initiatives Unit facilitates periodic staff conversations about the content and issues covered in this newsletter. Sign up on PDO if you would like to recieve announcements about these dialogues.

PDO # 90211

More Equity Resources

Dr. Joan’s Gems

Each issue, Equity Initiatives Instructional Specialist, Dr. Joan Mory, provides new, specific resources that can be used at meetings, in planning, and in the classroom, home, or community. They address different themes associated with teaching, learning, and leading. This month the focus is leadership.

Resource Calendar for Religious & Cultural Commemorations

Did you know that we have a calendar of holidays and commemorations that includes resources? The EIU calendar includes videos, articles, and classroom activities to help schools and offices better understand the experiences of students, families, and colleagues.

Borrow a book from the Equity Initiatives Unit Professional Development Collection. This is a lending library to support your equity journey. Just click on the link below and then hit borrow.

Equity Modules

Below are modules that provide the skills and practice needed to address complex equity problems. The modules are designed to be self-paced or done as a team. Participants can recieve PDO credit.

  • How to Talk About Race -- PDO #89781 EIU
  • Planning Effective and Culturally Responsive Meeting -- PDO #89783
  • How to Be an Antiracist -- PDO #89782

Your Feedback

Please take two minutes to give us your feedback on this newsletter and to let us know what kinds of resources you would like to see.

Created By
John Landesman
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