May Issue, 2009
Equity Matters

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Access and Opportunity

The world is changing
Take your time, look around
Make the right decision

- Lucky Dube, Changing World

Education is billed as the bridge to a more prosperous future, yet students who need access to the most robust and challenging curricula often attend crumbling schools that provide inadequate intellectual resources and limited curricula. High school graduates from poor schools face stumbling blocks in higher education, technical schools, and on-the-job career opportunities. Jean Anyon, Jonathan Kozol, Pedro Noguera, Jeannie Oakes, and Gary Orfield as well as many other researchers have chronicled the institutionalized policies and practices that create inequitable systems of public education that advantage some children in some places while handicapping others because of the economic, political, and ideological contexts in which schooling occurs in the United States. As schools in the US greet an increasingly diverse population of students, educators and policy makers alike need to examine the contexts in which we ask our students and our teachers to labor together in pursuit of 21st century knowledge and skills. In this issue of Equity Matters, we point our readers to tools, resources, and events that shift our efforts to creating access and opportunities to learn for each and every student.
Equity in Action

A group of high school students from Pomona, California learned about the democratic process when a video they made about the economic plight facing their families and the community gained national attention and caught President Obama's eye. The nine-minute video entitled “Is Anyone Listening?” shows several students at Pomona's Village Academy detailing the human impact of the recession. Their teacher, Michael Steinman, was teaching the classic novel, The Great Gatsby , when the idea for the video came about. The book, about a shattered American dream, had many parallels to the current experiences of the students. The students' stories struck a chord in the Oval Office, after a staffer spotted it on YouTube. President Obama, in his first major speech on education, described the video and addressed the Pomona students. 'I am listening. We are listening. America is listening,' the president said. 'And we are not going to rest until your parents can keep their jobs, your families can keep their homes, and you can focus on what you should be focusing on: your own education.' The students’ stories were shared nationally on several newscasts. Learn more about the process they used.

Tools You Can Use

Books

The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies by Patricia Gándara & Frances Contreras. The Latino Education Crisis describes the hardships endured by Latino children within the complex school systems of the United States. The book outlines the effects for families, the community, and the nation, as many of these students begin their school experiences behind on academic measures, then struggle to catch up.  The "American dream" drives some to go on to college, however they are often ill prepared and seldom finish, while others, unable to meet the demands of schooling drop out of high school altogether.  Informative, yet disconcerting, everyone involved in planning the future of our school system should spend time reading and thinking about The Latino Education Crisis in order to make changes that benefit all students.

Online
Publications

North Carolina state profile. NCCRESt has recently published a new state profile for North Carolina. This State Profile provides a snapshot of North Carolina's efforts to address the disproportionate representation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in special education. These reports explore the various elements related to the development of culturally responsive systems including: educational outcomes, general and special education policy and practice, and broader contextual factors impacting the experiences of students, families, and educators. These reports are the first in a four-part series that will examine the efforts of states to create culturally responsive systems. NCCRESt has also published state reports on Connecticut, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Visit the NCCRESt website to view all the state profiles.

  New and Exciting

New NIUSI-LeadScape Principal! NIUSI-LeadScape welcomes Christopher Bernier, the new principal of Chain of Lakes Middle School in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Bernier had been the Senior Director of Professional Development Services for Orange County Public Schools, and has led a high school and several middle schools in OCPS. He was also selected as a member of the Leadership Academy Design Team for the State of Florida. Christopher Bernier brings a wealth of leadership experience and a passion for working in middle schools. We’re very pleased that he will be joining our community of inclusive school principals and continuing the excellent work that’s going on at Chain of Lakes Middle School.

 

NAESP Summer Institute The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), is hosting its Summer Institute 2009, Response to Intervention: The Leadership Challenge and Reward, July 6-9, 2009, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The institute is designed to provide a professional development opportunity to school principals regarding response to intervention. Visit their website for more information.

 

Language Differences Media Lab: Call for Submissions Join this exciting project by submitting examples of best practices to educate students who are (1) struggling academically and/or behaviorally, or students who are gifted and (2) use AAE or are ELLs. Selected submissions will be featured on the Language Differences Media Lab that offers resources for practitioners working with speakers of AAE and/or ELLs. The selected examples will be clearly attributed to their authors on the website. To submit a media artifact, please visit http://equityallianceatasu.org/ell

Seclusion and Restraint Report. Disability Rights Wisconsin (DRW), Wisconsin FACETS, and Wisconsin Family Ties (WFT), have released their brand new report entitled, Out of Darkness…Into the Light: New Approaches to Reducing the Use of Seclusion and Restraint with Wisconsin Children. This report examines the use of seclusion and restraint on Wisconsin children in schools and treatment settings throughout the state. It describes the ways in which Wisconsin children have been both emotionally and physically injured by such practices, including one child who died in restraints. The report also describes actions taken by other states to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint of children, and calls for legislative and administrative agency action to protect children from these dangerous practices.

 

NASP in New Mexico The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is hosting one of their 2009 Summer Conferences, Culturally Competent Practice, July 20-22, 2009 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. NASP has invited three members of our Equity Alliance team, Elizabeth Kozleski, Kathleen King, and Amanda Sullivan, to present sessions on equity matters related to the practice of school psychology. Interested individuals should visit the NASP website for more information.

 

Ezra Jack Keats Foundation: Mini-Grants (Deadline: September 15, 2009) The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is offering mini-grants to school and public libraries to programs that encourage literacy and creativity in children. The Maximum award is $500 and all programs housed in the United States are welcome to participate. Visit their website for more information.

Online Tools

Examining Curriculum from a Culturally Responsive Perspective: The Mississippi Cultural Responsivity Matrix. In partnership with the state of Mississippi’s Department of Education, the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt) developed this tool to help practitioners examine the materials and activities that they are using in classrooms. Based on the work of James Banks and Cherry McGee-Banks, the tool helps educators to analyze content to determine the degree of cultural responsiveness. The tool also helps school teams to create a curricular profile of the activities, assignments, language use, and populations studied in order to develop action plans for school improvement. The Mississippi Cultural Responsivity Matrix is available for download from NCCRESt.


Equity Alliance at
ASU Online

Visit our website: http://www.equityallianceatasu.org/.

Check out our NIUSI-LeadScape guest writers blog: www.niusileadscape.org/bl/.

Equity Alliance at ASU team members presented research on the overrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education at the AERA Annual Meeting last month. Download their presentation on our website.

NCCRESt worked with the American Education Research Association (AERA) to produce a special issue of Educational Researcher focusing on dispropoportionality: Representation of Minority Students in Special Education: Complicating Traditional Explanations {Educational Researcher, Vol. 35 (6)].

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