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Community Conversations for School
Success: Marching Toward Equity
By Lynne Hamer, PhD, and
Willie McKether, PhD
The Truth Contributors
As we have noted before, the vision of
Community Conversations for School Success is that “by
tapping our own local knowledge we will develop our
community’s capacity for positive change.” The
conversations are only successful if we have people from all
walks of life coming together to share information and
deciding to work together to make positive change.
At the end of each conversation, it is our
tradition to consider what information we need to understand
next, and to consider what presenters we could invite to
help increase understanding and access information.
In our most recent conversation, on February
29, we focused on “Equity and Institutional Discrimination:
Taking Responsibility for Change,” with the idea that for
change toward equity to happen, we all have to decide equity
is something we value and are willing to prioritize. At our
next meeting, Brian Murphy, chief operating officer for
Toledo Public Schools, will discuss how the administration
works to ensure equity is a primary focus in all aspects of
the district’s operations.
At the February 29 meeting, Community
Conversations steering committee member Diane McCarthy gave
us a working definition of educational equity, citing
educational scholars Debnam et al. (2014) to give us more
understanding. These scholars define educational equity as
the extent to which there is fair treatment for all
students. Educational equity is achieved when factors
outside and inside the school are addressed such that the
student can fully engage in the educational experience.
Addressing all those factors can seem
overwhelming, which might be why our public institutions
have often been reluctant to acknowledge equity issues and
work to address them. But we think that that notion of
“factors outside” and “factors inside” the school can open
up the issue in a useful way, and can make it seem less
daunting. For one institution or entity to be responsible
for ALL those factors, inside and out, is not reasonable.
It’s not even realistic, as no one institution has the
resources or the authority to do so.
Debnam et al.’s (2014) discussion of equity
can serve as a useful springboard for our sharing the
responsibility: institutions of all sorts must make it a
priority to identify equity issues and make it a priority to
address them. And in addressing them, research suggests,
engaging with the community to identify specific factors,
inside and outside the school, and to figure out how to
address them together is essential.
For example, educational consultants Toney
and Keleher (2013) report findings from their work with
Minneapolis Public Schools to address equity issues. The
main concern was that some minority groups had much lower
grade-level reading proficiencies than did others. As their
article (available for download from the Community
Conversations Facebook group) describes, the district and
community were able to make a plan that seems to be working
well in improving equity in terms of reading outcomes.
Toney and Keleher (2013) suggest that other
districts and communities with similar issues can benefit
from paying attention to five lessons learned in
Minneapolis. We quote from them:
1.
Stakeholder
engagement from the outset of planning and decision making
is critical.
2.
Multiracial
alliances and analyses are needed.
3.
School district
and community collaboration is well worth the investment.
4.
The use of race
equity research tools is critical to success.
5.
Equity impact
assessments need to be institutionalized. (p. 167)
We believe
that Toledo is well-positioned to proactively address the
issues of equity that continue to arise across our
community.
The
conversation on March 14 will focus on Toledo Public Schools
and promises to provide us with an opportunity to learn how
the district works with the community when it comes to
inclusion. In the end, by working together, we can build
upon our successes, learn from our issues and strive for
resolutions. We recognize that Community Conversations is
not the first nor the only effort to bring people together
to work together, but we hope that it contributes to our
community’s success in doing so.
Works Cited
Debnam, K. J., Johnson, S.
L., Waasdorp, T. E., & Bradshaw, C. P. (2014). Equity,
Connection, and Engagement in the School Context to Promote
Positive Youth Development. Journal of Research on
Adolescence, 24(3), 447-459.
Toney, & Keleher, (2013).
Using a Racial Equity Impact Analysis in the Minneapolis
Public Schools. Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty
Law and Policy, 47 (5-6), 163-168.
Everyone is welcome to join in the Community
Conversations, alternate Mondays, 6:30-8:00 pm, at various
branches of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library system.
Please email
lynne.hamer@utoledo.edu
or
willie.mckether@utoledo.edu
to get on the Community Conversations email list, or join
our public Facebook page at “Community
Conversations for School Success Toledo.”
The next
conversation will take place at the South Branch, 1736
Broadway St., Toledo, Ohio 43609 (419.259.5395) on Monday,
March 14, at 6:30-8:00 p.m. Our speaker will be Mr. Brian
Murphy, Chief Operating Officer for Toledo Public Schools,
on the topic “Toledo Public School’s Plan to Address Equity
Issues.”
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