You must begin wherever you are.
—Jack Boland

The following provides a general overview of key issues and strategies that have proven helpful in ensuring that students receive an equitable education. The information in this section will help staff plan for and assess their progress in incorporating equity strategies into their daily activities. For more indepth information, consult the publications mentioned in the preface or visit the Equity Center's Web site at http://www.nwrel.org/cnorse/. The Web site contains helpful information as well as links to additional resources.

 Planning for Equity

Equity is achieved through comprehensive planning, constant attention to both obstacles and progress, and, perhaps most importantly, an unyielding commitment to equity for all.

Planning is the first step toward achieving any goal. Good planning is especially important in striving for equity in charter schools given that charter schools are in their infancy and have a limited experience base from which to draw. There are no ready-made plans for setting up and running charter schools. Each state authorizing charter schools has unique laws-there are almost as many approaches as there are schools.

Equity in education is a complex, multifaceted issue. Many factors must be taken into account when planning for equity, including:

• Who are the students the school serves? How will their needs be met?
• How will the school ensure compliance with local and federal laws?
• How will the school's financial needs be met? Are there specific costs associated with achieving equity in your school? Are these included in the budget?
• How can staffing decisions facilitate equity?
• How will equity training be made available to teachers?
• What role will families play in achieving equity? How will families be informed and educated in equity issues?
• Are school policies in place to ensure access to high-quality education for all students?
• What outside resources can the school draw upon? Are there specific resources in the district the school can use to solve a particular equity problem?

Ideally, a detailed plan for achieving equity will be in place before a charter school begins operation. Early planning allows maximum flexibility to meet goals through staffing decisions, facilities planning, and other start-up decisions. But a plan can also be crafted to move an existing organization toward a future goal.

A formal written plan that is periodically evaluated and updated is an indispensable tool to ensure that goals are met and progress monitored. Key elements of a school's plan may be included in, or derived from, the accountability standards in its charter.

1. Establish goals and objectives. Areas to consider include selection and recruitment, academic performance, curriculum, staffing, and facilities.

2. Identify the needs of individual students and specify resources necessary to meet these needs. Such resources might include instructors, curriculum and facilities for disabled students, or bilingual instructors and curriculum for LEP students.

3. Establish a process to recruit staff to achieve racial and gender balance, promote diversity, and provide diverse role models.

4. Determine financial resources necessary to accomplish equity goals as part of the overall budget process.

5. Develop policy to meet equity goals. Explicitly state the school's commitment to nondiscrimination and equal access to educational opportunities for all students. Prohibit racial and sexual harassment on the part of staff and students. Publicize your commitment to enforcing all policies. Specify and make available to staff and students enforcement and grievance procedures.

6. Establish a curriculum review process to ensure that curriculum is screened for bias and meets the needs of all students.

7. Make equity training available to all staff on an ongoing basis.

8. Form an equity committee to review equity policies, issues, complaints, and progress towards equity goals. Recruit parents and other members of the community to serve as committee members. Identify one or more staff to serve on the committee and to coordinate the school's equity policies and compliance with antidiscrimination laws. Include student representatives on the committee. (Designation of a staff member to monitor compliance with Title IX is a requirement under federal law.)

 Equity Components and Strategies

The classroom is the front line in the struggle for equity in education. On a daily basis teachers must confront and compensate for the effects of inequity in society so that all of their students realize their full poten tial for learning. This requires an awareness of equity issues and a re sourceful approach to build upon the life experiences, strengths, and skills of all students to prepare them to succeed in our increasingly multicultural society.

Virtually every classroom contains students who are victims of discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, language ability, or physical and mental disabilities. The educator's charge is to develop teaching strategies that give each student the opportunity to overcome disadvantages and participate fully in the learning process. Below is a brief overview of key equity issues and strategies that charter school staff need to incorporate into their understanding and day-to-day activities.

To improve access to the instructional program and accomodate the varying needs of its students, one charter school provides after-school, weekend, and inter-session academic enrichment opportunities

Following are some examples of teaching strategies that help each student overcome barriers that prevent him or her from achieving the same level of learning as the class as a whole:

• Make additional computer time available at school for those students who don't have access to a computer at home.
• Give extra encouragement to female and minority students, especially in subjects such as math, science, and computers, where they may be less confident.
• Give high-needs students the extra time and instruction they need to succeed. Support the social and academic resiliency of high-needs students.
• When students work together, make sure their groups are diverse and that all members have an opportunity to take active roles.
• Ensure that all students have a chance to answer questions that require reasoning or problem solving. Avoid asking technical questions only of certain students.

Some teaching strategies that help to minimize bias and the effect of bias in materials include:

• Screen all materials used in class for bias.
• Replace biased materials with bias-free materials.
• If bias cannot be eliminated, note its presence and use it as an opportunity to discuss bias and stereotyping in class.
• Include contributions from non-European sources to provide a balanced study of world cultures. Include the past and present experiences of people of color and women in studies of current events, economics, government, history, social studies, and science.

Examples of biased attitudes that can result in low performance include:

• Most lower-income, ethnic minority, LEP, and lower-achieving students will not go on to college
• Boys are more interested in mathematics, science, computers, and other technology than girls
• Lower-achieving students aren't really interested in school and consume valuable class time that could be more profitably spent on serious students

Some strategies to minimize the impact of biased attitudes are:

• Be aware of your own attitudes and how they may influence how you treat students.
• Make a conscious effort to prevent biased attitudes from influencing your interactions with students.
• Examine problematic relationships with students to determine whether bias is a factor.
• Educate yourself on how biased attitudes are formed. Seek out examples that counter stereotypes and biased attitudes.
• Model appropriate behavior and confront biased remarks and actions of students.

Language can convey biased or ethnocentric attitudes. For example:

• Identifying people by race or ethnic group unless it is relevant. One doesn't usually point out that an individual is White or of European American heritage. The same rule should apply to all groups.
• Using the term "non-White" for people of color, which sets up White culture as the standard by which all other cultures should be judged. When appropriate, use "non-minority" to refer to Whites.
• Using "culturally disadvantaged" and "culturally deprived." These terms imply that the dominant culture is superior to other cultures or that other groups lack a culture.

Some strategies for minimizing bias in language are:

• Watch your own language and usage in class-for example, using "girls" to refer to adult women. Become informed about nonbiased alternatives and use them at school.
• Screen materials used in class for biased language.
• Take advantage of opportunities to point out biased language and usage in a positive and nonblaming way.

• Displaying lower expectations for students of color or female students.
• Praising girls' work for neatness while remarking on the content of boys' work.
• Taking disciplinary action that is more frequently directed toward particular groups of students or avoiding discipline of certain groups. Inconsistent and disproportional discipline can lower student morale.

Some teaching strategies to avoid bias in interactions are:

• Demonstrate the same high expectations for all students. Communicate these expectations regularly and challenge all students equallyin terms of both performance and effort.
• When asking questions in class, don't always call on the first students to raise their hands. Give less confident students, who tend to be female and minority students, more time to raise their hands and to respond. Also call on students who never raise their hands.
• Establish a routine for class discussions so that all students participate on a rotating basis.
• Encourage students to speak up if they feel excluded.
• Always apply discipline with an even hand, based only on misbehavior and not on other factors. Notice which students you tend to treat with leniency and adjust this behavior.
• Pay attention to your interactions with all students but especially with students who don't participate in class or those with whom you have a difficult relationship.
• Monitor your use of praise. Make certain all students are reinforced equally for their work and effort.

A teacher's goal should be to explore various teaching styles to meet the needs of individual students and to further the learning of the class as a whole:

• Hands-on learning is a universal method that appeals to almost all students. Learning by doing works especially well for technical subjects such as mathematics or science where observable reality is used to explain abstract concepts or formulas. Hands-on experience is also effective in breaking down language barriers to learning.
• Small-group discussions and problem solving can also be an effective teaching strategy. Generally groups should be composed of students of mixed abilities and cultures, but groups can also be arranged to permit the use of home languages when appropriate.
• Whenever possible teachers should make connections between subject matter and the lives of their students. This can be done by providing culturally meaningful examples and analogies to help students make the link between their prior experiences and their new knowledge.

• Establish a clear policy prohibiting racial or sexual harassment and enforce it.
• Point out other instances of cultural or sex discrimination or bias as they occur in class and correct them. Discuss them in a nonthreatening, supportive way.
• Use examples of bias found in classroom materials as prompts for discussing discrimination and bias. Bring in materials such as newspaper or magazine articles or advertising to use as examples of bias. Involve students by asking them to identify examples of bias and discrimination they observe inside and outside class.

Further, research indicates that lower tracks tend to be disproportionately composed of lower-income and ethnic minority students, thus compounding the disadvantage many students already face. Data also show that in some cases students of color with the necessary scores for high-track placements are less likely to be placed in those classes than their European American peers.

While tracking can be clearly detrimental to low-track students, detrack ing and learning in heterogeneous classrooms is beneficial for all. As schools across the country increasingly begin to detrack, often to adhere to their commitment to high standards for all students, results show that previously high-track students continue or exceed their achievement levels and previously low-track students are likely to increase their achievement levels substantially.

Detracking involves comprehensive changes not only in daily practices but also in the school culture. Following are strategies to aid in successful detracking and structuring schools for teaching in heterogeneous classrooms:

• Educate staff and the surrounding community on the effects of tracking and create a climate of support for offering high-quality instruction and demanding curricula to all students.
• Ensure that a commitment to high expectations is reflected in the school's mission. Align all school decisions with the stated mission and regularly assess progress toward goals.
• Implement coordinated changes in curriculum, instructional strategies, assessment, and classroom environment. Offer all students a common challenging, advanced curriculum and use instructional techniques, such as cooperative learning, that capitalize on students' strengths and treat learning as a complex, active process.

Teachers can collaborate with parents or guardians to maximize students' academic achievement. It is especially important for school staff to reach out to racially and culturally diverse parents, who may have been victimized by discrimination and therefore may be less inclined to become involved. One can't assume a "one-size-fits-all" or "business-as-usual" approach. Creative strategies need to be developed to make sure that all parents feel welcomed by the school and their child's teacher.

Parents, like teachers and school staff, also need to be educated in equity issues to participate most effectively in maximizing their child's educational opportunities. Research shows that because of gender and cultural stereotypes, parents are often more willing to accept their child's underachievement in math and science than they are in other subjects. For example, they may give less encouragement to their daughters than their sons in these subjects. Some ethnic minority parents may have lower expectations for their children based on their own schooling experiences.

Strategies for improving family involvement of underrepresented groups include:

• Take the time to get to know families. Successful family involvement efforts involve staff in becoming familiar with the strengths and needs of families.
• Use a variety of ways to invite families to school:
  • Flyers and handwritten notes
  • Posters or notices posted at school, in neighborhood stores or meeting places, and at social service agencies
  • Announcements in traditional media and in community- oriented newspapers, radio, or television
  • Telephone calls
  • Home visits

In the handbook Together is Better: Building Strong Relationships Between Schools and Hispanic Parents, the authors conclude: "The personal approach, which means talking face to face with the parents, in their primary language, at their homes, or at the school, or wherever a parent could be 'engaged,' was the strategy deemed most effective by 98 percent of project coordinators." And meeting once was not always enough. Sometimes it takes several visits to persuade reluctant parents or guardians to become more involved in their children's education.

• Make written materials available in the home languages of your student population.
• Provide transportation, interpreters, and child care, if possible. Let parents know that these services are available.
• Provide equity training for all parents or guardians during parent-teacher meetings or in special equity seminars.

• Celebrate diverse cultural, religious, and national holidays such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, International Women's Day, Cinco de Mayo, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. Involve students in preparations and presentations.
• Explore cultural celebrations or observances of life transitions or rites of passage, such as weddings, graduations, bar mitzvahs, first rice celebrations (South Asia), birthdays, wakes, and so forth. Enlist the aid of students who experience these celebrations as part of their own culture.
• Explore different cultural expressions in the arts, such as music, dance, drama, film, and visual arts. Invite local multicultural artists to make presentations in the class.
• Involve the whole class in discussions and appreciation of these presentations. Ask students whether they see similarities to their own culture.
• Be sure to emphasize that all people have a culture. Include all students in discussions of cultural heritage and background.

By respecting and celebrating diversity, all students have a broadened appreciation of culture and experience the positive side of diversity. Students also experience an affirmation of their own culture and can take pride in sharing that culture with the rest of the class.

The U.S. Department of Education funds several regional assistance centers that are able to provide professional development at no cost to K-12 charter school staff in equity-related issues. These include: equity assistance centers, comprehensive regional assistance centers, Eisenhower regional math/science consortia, and regional resource centers for special education. Information on centers can be found at http://www.ed.gov/about/programs.jsp. Select Education Resource Organizations Directory, and then select a state from the map or list provided. A list of the above organizations should appear.

One of the best ways to combat both unconscious and conscious prejudice is to perform equity audits of a school's organizational behavior and one's own conduct as an educator. Ideally, this is an ongoing, day-by-day process. To reinforce this continuous, informal assessment, periodically schedule a formal or semi-formal equity audit. Create a checklist of questions or equity indicators that are tailored to the goals in the school's charter and that reflect general practices of equity. Use this checklist to monitor progress and to pinpoint specific problems as they occur.

The questions that follows may serve as a starting point for conducting an audit. All staff should participate because each person has a unique perspective and knowledge. The audit may be carried out by querying staff members in a special meeting or more formally by distributing written questionnaires. Individual staff members may not have sufficient knowledge to answer all questions in the audit; teachers, for example, will have a different experience base relative to administrators. The results may be compiled by the equity committee or the staff's equity representative. The final summary should be presented to the equity committee, staff, families, and the school board.

1. Does your school's student population mirror the same diversity found in the population of the geographic area the school serves? If not, what are recruitment steps or other actions that could be taken to make the educational opportunities at your school available to underrepresented groups?

2. Who are the students the school serves? What are their individual needs? Does the school presently have the facilities and staff to meet these needs? Does the school have instructors and facilities to effectively teach LEP or special needs students who are enrolled? If not, what steps can be taken to remedy this situation?

3. Do students in the school participate equally by gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status in special elective courses, such as high-technology or accelerated-learning courses? If not, how can these courses be made more accessible to underrepresented groups.

4. Do students participate equally in extracurricular activities? If not, what steps can be taken to increase access to these activities, such as providing transportation or other support?

5. Who are the staff, teachers, and consultants employed by the school? Does their diversity reflect that of the students? If not, what changes can be made to expose students to greater diversity among instructors and role models?

6. Is the school in compliance with local and federal civil rights laws? If not, how can the school comply?

7. Are teachers and staff getting the equity training they need? If not, how can this training be provided?

8. Are curriculum and materials used by the school evaluated for bias?

9. Do the school's equity policies need revision? Is there a grievance procedure in place? Have there been any incidents or complaints that indicate the need for new or revised policies? If so, what are the changes needed and how will they be implemented?

10. What is the level of equity-related problems or incidents in the present review period compared to previous reviews? Are there specific problems that are unresolved?

Teachers can use the questions that follow as a starting point to monitor their behavior in the classroom. They may wish to videotape a class and conduct a self-evaluation or invite another teacher to critique their interactions. A good video will also reveal facial expressions or body language that convey unconscious messages to students.

1. Who are your students? Do they all have equal access to the learning process? If not, what can be done to improve access for individual students?

2. Are you aware of your own your own biases and stereotypes? Do you try to prevent them from influencing your interactions with students?

3. Do you have the same expectations for all of your students or do you discount the abilities of some students and give them less attention?

4. Do you allow adequate time for all students to answer questions or raise their hands?

5. Do you try to provide positive role models for all students in your class through selected teaching materials and diverse guest lecturers?

6. Have you screened materials used in your class for bias? Do they depict a broad range of individuals in various roles? Are they free of stereotypes? Do they include the contributions of all people?

7. Are your disciplinary actions based only on students' misbehavior and not influenced by their race, gender, ethnicity, or other perceived difference?

8. Do you have difficult relationships with certain students that may be influenced by your racial or cultural differences? If so, have you looked for ways to bridge the gap, such as seeking outside help or other resources that may lead to better understanding and an improved relationship?

Depending on their ages, students may be surveyed in class on their perceptions of their own experiences. Analysis of their responses may reveal patterns associated with certain groups of students that indicate bias, or specific problems of individual students originating inside or outside the classroom.