It’s important to establish a shared understanding of “equity” with your team before engaging in this work. This is our district’s definition: Educational equity means that each student receives what they need to determine and achieve their academic and life aspirations.

It’s a good idea to collect a variety of definitions of educational equity, so your team can identify what resonates most. 

As long as your working definition is about tapping into students’ cultural and personal identities and gifts, and acknowledges that your job is to interrupt inequitable practices and to achieve better outcomes, the Equity Pauses will complement your work. 

In addition, ask your team members to go through the following resources before you look at data together:

• Take the Common Beliefs Survey. Don’t overthink it. Go with your ”gut.”
• Afterward, read the Common Beliefs Descriptions and reflect on your survey responses.
• Watch the video of Tracy Oliver-Gary, 2011 Teaching Tolerance Award winner.
• Read this brief 2-pager on Implicit Bias.

Invite teachers to sit and reflect on the FRAMING QUOTE for one minute:

“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” – AUDRE LORDE

PRE-WRITE/REFLECTION PROMPT:

What are my motives for doing educational equity work? Am I here to “save” students from their deficits? Or, am I here to provide access to educational opportunities that allow students to maintain their individual identities?

AS YOU ANALYZE THIS DATA, ASK YOURSELF:

1. When analyzing student performance and well-being data, what opportunities do I have to observe this student working, engaging with peers and to explore their work samples?

2. How can I genuinely approach understanding my students’ well-being and academic performance through listening and learning?

SUPPORTING RESOURCES:

• Diversity Team Building Activities is a book of numerous activities designed to build inclusion and interrupt conditions of oppression and invisibility.

Invite teachers to sit and reflect on the FRAMING QUOTE for one minute:

“To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.” – bell hooks

PRE-WRITE/REFLECTION PROMPT:

What were the most meaningful relationships I had with adults when I was young, and in what ways, if any, did cultural identity factor into those relationships?

AS YOU ANALYZE THIS DATA, ASK YOURSELF:

1. How am I taking responsibility for my students’ emotional and physical safety, and their need to be productive and feel valued?
2. In what ways might my teaching methods support everyone’s basic need to feel a deep sense of belonging rooted in their cultural identities?

SUPPORTING RESOURCES:

• What We Know About Belonging includes multiple strategies to increase students’ sense of belonging.
• Personal & Cultural Identity is a 2-pager describing a set of characteristics that support positive identity development.

Invite teachers to sit and reflect on the FRAMING QUOTE for one minute:

“Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.” – ALBERT EINSTEIN (ATTRIBUTED)

PRE-WRITE/REFLECTION PROMPT:

In what ways do I access a rich diversity of sources, methods & contexts for learning, so my personal preferences are not privileged over the needs of individual students?

AS YOU ANALYZE THIS DATA, ASK YOURSELF:

1. Do all of my students have authentic access to the resources I provide? Are there additional ways to level the playing field?
2. In what ways are my teaching methods informed by my students’ strengths as opposed to my students’ challenges?

SUPPORTING RESOURCES:

• Selecting Equitable Strategies is a tool that guides identifying strategies to improve student performance

Invite teachers to sit and reflect on the FRAMING QUOTE for one minute:

“I see life as a blessing, a gift granted to me. Why should my tint describe me? Why should my culture degrade me?”- PABLO VEGA, 11TH GRADE, CHAPEL HILL HIGH SCHOOL

PRE-WRITE/REFLECTION PROMPT:

In what ways do the identities I hold about myself influence how I understand my students’ experiences?

AS YOU ANALYZE THIS DATA, ASK YOURSELF:

1. As I reflect on my classroom/school and my instruction, in what ways are my students’ identities positively reinforced?
2. In what ways do I believe that my students’ race, ethnicity or culture influences their ability to learn?

SUPPORTING RESOURCES:

• Identity Exploration Resources to assist educators in reflecting on their own identities and increase awareness of students’ unique identities.

Invite teachers to sit and reflect on the FRAMING QUOTE for one minute:

“The route to achieving equity will not be accomplished through treating everyone equally. It will be achieved by treating everyone justly according to their circumstances.” – PAULA DRESSEL

PRE-WRITE/REFLECTION PROMPT:

How might my understanding of equity as distinct from equality inform the ways I respond to the performance of individual students?

AS YOU ANALYZE THIS DATA, ASK YOURSELF:

1. What role do my students play in setting standards for their own performance?
2. In what ways do I respond to my students’ perceived failures? With a learning mindset or an accountability mindset?

SUPPORTING RESOURCES:

• Student Goal Setting Packet is a guide to empower students to set meaningful goals.

• Equity vs. Equality is a simple 1-pager that helps describe the differences.

Invite teachers to sit and reflect on the FRAMING QUOTE for one minute:

“Our jobs have shifted from dispensers of information to producers of environments which allow students to learn as much as possible.” – FRANK DRAPER, BIOLOGY TEACHER

PRE-WRITE/REFLECTION PROMPT:

In what ways might my teaching address historical and current inequities my students experience along race, gender, language, sexual orientation, ability and/or class lines?

AS YOU ANALYZE THIS DATA, ASK YOURSELF

1. Along with this data, how might I solicit the stories and experiences of my students to deepen my understanding of current and historical inequities that are impacting their lives?
2. When I review student data, what assumptions or stereotypes influence my thinking? What mindsets can I hold to push against these ingrained biases?

 SUPPORTING RESOURCES 

• The Empathy Interview Guide can help make visible your students’ experiences, as well as reduce the influence of assumptions and stereotypes.

Invite teachers to sit and reflect on the FRAMING QUOTE for one minute:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – MAYA ANGELOU

PRE-WRITE/REFLECTION PROMPT:

What do I believe about the relationship between a student’s academic performance and their social, emotional and physical well-being?

AS YOU ANALYZE THIS DATA, ASK YOURSELF:

1. When analyzing data, what insights am I drawing that might inform my approach to forming a meaningful & supportive relationship with this student?
2. What do I still want to understand better about this student, their personality, cultural identity or their prior experiences?

SUPPORTING RESOURCES:

• Students Feeling Heard Toolkit provides a variety of activities & resources to foster student-adult connections.