Engaging Equity

Contrary to those mainstream efforts that paint racism and social oppression as remnants of a troubled past, today’s relations of social power remain intractable as they continue to mediate and discipline the lives of the oppressed. Recognizing that racism and other forms of oppression continue to evolve and adapt to our changing times, it is crucial that our strategies for resistance are equally dynamic and proactive. In this reader, Leeno Karumanchery has brought together some of critical theory’s most powerful and insurgent voices to explore this vital strand of the anti-racist tapestry by asking, “How do we understand our oppression, and how do we frame and manage our resistance in the face of it?” Engaging Equity is framed as a sociohistoric expose of the Western educational system, revealing the banality of oppression in today’s schools. Developed within a philosophy of hope, this book reminds us that real and meaningful change towards social justice can be achieved, but only if our politics, strategies, and resolve are equal to the task.

This book is for anyone who is challenged or troubled by the substantial disparities in college participation, persistence, and completion among racial and ethnic groups in the United States. As codirectors of the Center for Urban Education (CUE) at the University of Southern California, coauthors Alicia Dowd and Estela Bensimon draw on their experience conducting CUE’s Equity Scorecard, a comprehensive action research process that has been implemented at over 40 colleges and universities in the United States. They demonstrate what educators need to know and do to take an active role in racial equity work on their own campuses. Through case studies of college faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals engaged in inquiry using the Equity Scorecard, the book clarifies the “muddled conversation” that colleges and universities are having about equity. Synthesizing equity standards based on three theories of justice—justice as fairness, justice as care, and justice as transformation—the authors provide strategies for enacting equity in practice on college campuses. Engaging the “Race Question” illustrates how practitioner inquiry can be used to address the “race question” with wisdom and calls on college leaders and educators to change the policies and practices that perpetuate institutional and structural racism—and provides a blueprint for doing so. Book Features: Provides concrete examples of policy and practice for improving equity in postsecondary education. Examines the role of individuals and groups in the change process. Includes examples of action research tools from the Equity Scorecard. Offers strategies for professional development and organizational change. “Dowd and Bensimon have been at the forefront of racial equity research in higher education for nearly two decades, and their racial equity scorecard has changed the way higher education thinks about the issue.” —Patricia Gándara, co-director, The Civil Rights Project “Proven strategies that every educator in America can use to develop context-specific solutions for advancing equity while exploring the legacy of institutionalized racism that typically paralyzes reform and hinders change.” —Tia Brown McNair, senior director for student success, Association of American Colleges and Universities “A valuable step-by-step guide to making our colleges more academically inviting and egalitarian.” —Mike Rose, author of Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education

A fast and engaging read, Equity helps leaders create more inclusive organizations using human-centered design and behavior change principles. Even the most passionate advocates for diversity, equity, and inclusion have been known to treat equity as the middle child—the concept they skip over to get to the warm, fuzzy feelings of inclusion. But Minal Bopaiah shows throughout this book that equity is critical if organizations really want to leverage differences for greater impact. Equity allows leaders to create organizations where employees can contribute their unique strengths and collaborate better with peers. Bopaiah explains how leaders can effectively raise awareness of systemic bias and craft new policies that lead to better outcomes and lasting behavioral changes. This book is rich in real-world examples, such as managing partners at a consulting firm who learn to retell their personal stories of success by crediting their systemic advantages and news managers at NPR who redesign their processes to support greater diversity among news sources. This slender book expands DEI past human resources initiatives and shows how leaders can embed equity into core business functions like marketing and communications. Filled with humor, heart, and pragmatism, Equity is a guidebook for change, answering the question of how that so many leaders are asking today.

This book presents a powerful model for using relational trust, cultural humility, and appreciation of diverse perspectives to build learning communities that collectively uplift all students and all members of the learning community.

Educators must both respond to the impact of trauma, and prevent trauma at school. Trauma-informed initiatives tend to focus on the challenging behaviors of students and ascribe them to circumstances that students are facing outside of school. This approach ignores the reality that inequity itself causes trauma, and that schools often heighten inequities when implementing trauma-informed practices that are not based in educational equity. In this fresh look at trauma-informed practice, Alex Shevrin Venet urges educators to shift equity to the center as they consider policies and professional development. Using a framework of six principles for equity-centered trauma-informed education, Venet offers practical action steps that teachers and school leaders can take from any starting point, using the resources and influence at their disposal to make shifts in practice, pedagogy, and policy. Overthrowing inequitable systems is a process, not an overnight change. But transformation is possible when educators work together, and teachers can do more than they realize from within their own classrooms.

Creating Safe, Equitable, Engaging Schools brings together the collective wisdom of more than thirty experts from a variety of fields to show how school leaders can create communities that support the social, emotional, and academic needs of all students. It offers an essential guide for making sense of the myriad frameworks, resources, and tools available to create a continuous improvement system. Filled with recommendations gleaned from research and ongoing work in every US state and territory, this book is a critical resource for understanding and adopting evidence-based practices and making programmatic decisions to ensure the ideal conditions for learning, growth, and development. "Creating Safe, Equitable, Engaging Schools is an essential read for teachers, principals, district leaders, and organizations that work with schools to create challenging and supportive environments for all students." --Paul Cruz, superintendent, Austin Independent School District "Osher and colleagues not only connect the dots between big ideas--deeper learning, trauma, social and emotional learning, evidence-based programs, comprehensive community planning--but they model the continuous improvement approach in the way ideas are ordered across and within the chapters. This is a masterful volume: comprehensive, accessible, and way overdue." --Karen J. Pittman, cofounder, president and CEO, The Forum for Youth Investment "This book provides a very usable road map for creating safe, healthy, equitable, and caring schools. The editors and contributors successfully integrate research, practice, and policy to help educators develop and implement effective and sustainable models to nurture caring schools that all children and educators deserve." --Mark T. Greenberg, Bennett Chair of Prevention Research, Pennsylvania State University David Osher is vice president and an institute fellow at American Institutes for Research. Deborah Moroney is a managing director at American Institutes for Research and is director of the youth development and supportive learning environments practice area. Sandra Williamson is a vice president for policy, practice, and systems change at American Institutes for Research.

Transform your school and your classroom with these best practices in equity That the typical modern classroom lacks equity will come as no surprise to many educators. But few resources explain how to remedy that situation in the here and now. Leading Equity delivers an eye-opening and actionable discussion of how to transform a classroom or school into a more equitable place. Through explorations of ten concrete steps that you can take right now, Dr. Sheldon L. Eakins offers you the skills, resources, and concepts you'll need to address common equity deficiencies in education. You'll learn about: Things you can do today to advance the cause of equity in your classroom, from reconsidering your language choices to getting to know yourself and your students Using social justice as the basis for your advocacy for equity How to promote a decolonial atmosphere and model vulnerability and humility for your students and colleagues Ideal for educators and educational leaders at all stages of their careers, Leading Equity will help you improve your ability to offer an equitable environment to all of your students.

This book challenges pre-service and in-service educators to reflect critically on their assumptions and engage in praxis promoting racial and social equity. Grounded in policy contexts, historical understandings, and critical theories, this book describes innovative community-engaged approaches to resisting racism and promoting equity and features reflections and personal narratives from partners in change—including on-the-ground activists, voices from younger and older generations, educators, and first-time writers. Fueled by the ideology of white supremacy for over four centuries that whites matter more than Blacks, the authors argue that racial inequities exacerbated during the Trump administration and the legacy of neo-liberal policies dating to the "New Federalism" fiercely necessitate invoking community-engaged strategies to advance equity. This book advocates for collaboration among schools, community organizations, businesses, university centers, and community activists to address historically pressing issues, including systemic racism, declining educational opportunities, limited access to ongoing health care, and the decline of civility in public life.