Actions are hollow unless there is accountability.  Educators must collaborate on the creation of relevant professional learning and accountability systems that monitor the progress of the implementation of actionable item.

Guide to Equitable Teaching and Instruction

Things to Consider

• Acknowledge the structural and institutional racism inherent in schools.  We are educators.  We cannot look away or claim a privileged stance because we might prefer to believe education does not contribute to the oppression of Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o/x students.  Addressing systemic racism is needed in order to build safe-social connectedness during a time of isolation and fear.  There is no mental well-being including social-emotional safety if we are not dismantling racist policies and practices and co-creating anti-racist policies.  Educators should discuss, identify, and acknowledge anti-racist policies, practices, and behaviors in order to be able to lead by example in supporting anti-racist behaviors for themselves and one another.   

• The physical and mental well-being of students, teachers, and families are the priority, always.  The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our communities.  Civil unrest is affecting our communities.  Health and healing during this crisis should be prioritized.  An initial reaction may be to “fill the day” with academic activities and diagnostic testing, but educators should consider how they can focus on supporting meaningful, purposeful learning while prioritizing mental well-being and a psychologically-safe and racially-just school and classroom environments.  

• Design policies and practices around the most vulnerable students.  In a traditional school setting, efforts are made to provide “Wraparound” services for students most in need.  Sites and districts need to evaluate current methods of providing these Wraparound services and work within their communities to expand these services so that our most vulnerable populations have an opportunity to participate in a psychologically-safe and racially-just school and classroom environment.  Other vulnerable populations such as students receiving Specialized Education services as well as language learners may benefit from Wraparound services that support their cultural-, linguistic-, and neurodiversity.

• Radically restructure the parent-school relationship to position parents as central to student learning.  Schools must be accountable and work for the community they serve.  Eliminate deficit views of the parents and students that are served by the school.  Seek out and uplift the Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o/x students’ parent voices.  Acknowledge their funds of knowledge.  Partner with parents and students to probe and problematize racist systems, practices, and policies in order to dismantle and co-create racially just systems. 

• Learning for all learners is served by attending to social justice, equity, access, and innovation rather than trying to adhere to a rigid, predefined scope and sequence.  Educators should prioritize learning that is meaningful, responsive to the sociopolitical needs of the situation, community-based, and does not reinforce oppressive practices.  Transitioning a primarily face-to-face learning environment to a home learning environment or to a blended model will entail challenges to teacher, student, and family time and resources.  The goal should not be that students are “caught up,” that content is “covered,” or that tasks are “checked off” of a list.  Attempting to accomplish a previously planned scope and sequence or using traditional bell schedules is not likely or advisable.  Consider giving students grade-level, cognitive demanding, high-interest opportunities to reinforce and go deeper through discourse and meta-reflection in order to activate students’ ability to think independently and flexibly. 

• Leveraging the assets of home-based and/or community learning, can provide meaningful learning experiences that connect to students’ lives, interests, and identities.  Educators should consider how to support student agency to pursue relevant learning via resources that are available at home and with meaningful family engagement as possible.  The importance of recognizing the  learning that occurs outside the classroom cannot be overstated. Outside learning enhances classroom learning. 

• Eliminate remediation strategies.  Remediation is a deficit-view practice that deprives all students, particularly those who are marginalized, of opportunities. Using acceleration for learning, teachers can give students instant access to grade-level content, by strategically integrating key prerequisite concepts when students might need them to master grade-level work.  This “just-in-time” teaching ensures students spend more time on their grade-level work, which is key to “catching-up.”  Elevate the professionalism of teachers.  Accountability systems over time have deprofessionalized teachers.  They are systematically denied autonomy over their own instructional decisions and access to meaningful professional collaboration around authentic student data.  This type of deprofessionalization influences the notion that the primary responsibility of a teacher is to implement curriculum.  Teachers are complex persons who care deeply about students and are capable of engaging in deep work to serve their communities.  Implement policies and practices that value teachers’ time for learning and collaboration in order to empower them to make design decisions that are driven by empathy and the variability of the learners. 

• Paradigm shift in assessment.  Move beyond high-stake testing and emphasize authentic assessment to inform curricular and instructional policies and practices.  Formative assessment should be integrated seamlessly with the curriculum.  Formative assessment should be classroom-based student work that shows progression of learning over time.  Formative assessment provides the teacher with feedback about what students know and their agency.  Formative assessment provides an array of information that teachers can use to evaluate their own practice and can use to collaborate with peers.  Formative assessment provides students with information about their own learning, prompts them to participate in the monitoring of their own learning, and guides them to deeper learning. 

• Quantity does not replace quality.  A common response is to compile lists of resources.  One unintended consequence is creating more work for teachers and families to sift through resources of varying quality. Recommendations should be concise and serve a purpose that advances learning goals and does not promote “busy-work.”

Guiding Questions

• When something is equitable, for whom is it equitable? 

• What are some of my beliefs, expectations, behaviors and practices, and resources and tools that ensure proficiency for every student? 

• What does equitable access to learning look like, sound like, feel like? 

• What does “empowerment” mean for my students? 

• What specific actions do I take so that my students are themselves reflected in the work we do?  

• How am I centering the diversity and dignity of humanity? 

• How am I going beyond traditional narratives? 

• How am I addressing the marginalization of groups of students? 

• How am I exploring the complex ways that racism manifests in myself, individuals, schools, districts, society? 

• What am I doing that reinforces stereotypes? 

• How am I focusing on my individual actions over policies and/or systems? 

• How am I speaking up about systemic inherent biases, racism, and oppression that marginalizes groups of students and their families?  

• How am I shifting from family engagement to family partnerships?  

Resources

CARE Review Tool: An Evaluation Tool for Curricular Materials  
Educators committed to antiracism ask the question:  “What messages are teaching resources sending to students?,” with every instructional choice they make. CARE’s resources review tool walks you through a simple set of questions aligned to the CARE Antiracist Principles. Use it to sharpen your antiracist lens by evaluating materials you’re already using in your classroom.

Equity Journal
This equity journal is adapted from Dismantling Racism in Math Instruction, Stride 1 of the Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction Toolkit.  This toolkit can be adapted for any content area.  

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