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assists schools in creating learning environments that embrace concepts of equity and eliminating bias and discrimination in their day-to-day activities.Educational equity means recognizing and eliminating biased and discriminatory practices and policies that stand in the way of equal opportunity, equitable treatment, and equal outcomes for all groups of students. Schools can achieve equity when school staff infuse equity into their students' hearts and minds; integrate equity into policies, practices, and the curriculum; and keep their eyes on equitable results for students.
Over the past two decades NWREL has operated regional centers to address race, national origin, and sex equity to assist teachers, administrators, and parents in identifying and removing barriers to equal opportunity. Currently NWREL operates one of the nation's 10 regional desegregation assistance centers, serving Alaska, Idaho, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and the U.S. Pacific jurisdictions. The center also administers NWREL's work in urban education, addressing cultural and linguistic diversity issues www.nwrel.org/cnorse/urbaned/, and is beginning a two-year project on mentoring young women, focusing on training career mentors as a strategy for improving the education of young women of color, young women with disabilities, pregnant and parenting teens, and those whose first language is not English.
Several fundamental attitudes are essential to the attainment of educational equity:
- Equity is an attitude and commitment
- Equity is an achievable goal
- Equity is not an add-on, but a basic educational approach
- Equity must be intimately linked to school reform efforts
- Equity is intimately linked to the school community, where it must be reflected and modeled
- Equity is learner-centered
- Equity requires that some groups receive resources above routine allocations to ensure equal learning by all students
- Equity-focused resources are abundant and readily accessible
www.nwrel.org/cnorse/
Major 1998 Accomplishments
- Eighty-two workshops and presentations were conducted for school personnel on equity topics such as preventing harassment, meeting the needs of ESL students, building strong communities, and equity in technology.
- Five Equity Academies were conducted to train educators from the Pacific and Northwest who then conducted equity sessions in their districts. A four-day Principals Leadership Equity Academy was conducted for high school administrators in American Samoa.
- A regional conference, Unity in Diversity '98: Preventing and Countering School-Based Harassment, included a training-of-trainer awareness session for all 165 participants.
- A new resource guide, Improving Education for Immigrant Students: A Guide for K-12 Educators in the Northwest and Alaska, was developed.
- Planning assistance was provided to organize and develop training for more than 1,300 school staff in the seven school districts in Hawaii.
- Two U.S. Department of Education-sponsored teleseminars-on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study Report and Healthy After-School Activities -were presented to local educators in collaboration with other agencies.
Center Components
Improving Education for Immigrant Students
Information, training, and technical assistance aids educators in understanding immigration and the immigrant and to meet the educational needs of immigrant students within the context of regular classrooms.Equitable Access and Use of Technology
Training and self-assessment materials enable practitioners to determine whether technology practices provide students with equitable access to equipment and instruction and ways to deal with inequities.
Mentoring Young Women
Resources are being developed to provide a comprehensive approach to setting up and conducting mentor-training programs with specific guidelines for working with Latinas, American Indians, African Americans, girls with disabilities, pregnant and parenting teens, and those whose first language is not English.Preventing and Countering School-Based Harassment
Information and strategies are provided to school staff, students, families, and communities to identify, prevent, and address school-based harassment. This approach includes training activities, classroom and curricular strategies, legal responsibilities, and self-assessments.Bilingual/English as a Second Language Program Design
Training, technical assistance, and an implementation manual help administrators and teachers design effective programs for bilingual/ESL students.Long-Term Assistance to School Districts
Long-term assistance to districts facilitates the development and implementation of a comprehensive approach to equity planning and services based on the results of a Valuing Diversity Climate Survey and a student survey.
Focus on Preventing and Countering School-Based Harassment Racial harassment reports have increased over the past several years as a consequence of highly publicized incidents that have resulted in death or serious physical injury to victims. Less vicious forms of racial harassment often go unreported and are not addressed when they are reported. This project assists educators, students, families, and communities to recognize the similarities in the causes and results of both forms of harassment. The solutions help to establish a safe and equitable learning environment.
Schools and communities must develop and institutionalize policies, procedures, and behaviors to prevent harassment and to act swiftly in accordance with legal guidelines to counter harassment when it occurs. This project provides schools with comprehensive training to provide the entire school community with a clear understanding of harassment and its legal responsibilities to respond and report harassment in a timely manner using effective and appropriate strategies.
The development of a comprehensive approach to address harassment is the result of two statewide racial harassment conferences and numerous training-of-trainer workshops conducted by the Equity Center over the past five years. In 1995, a two-day sexual harassment training-of-trainers workshop was developed based on a thorough review of literature, curriculum materials, workshop models, audiovisual resources, and feedback from national experts on harassment. A resource packet was developed and pilot-tested at training-of-trainers workshops with more than 500 educators throughout the Northwest and Hawaii.
In 1996, the Equity Center shifted its approach to respond to client requests for harassment training. A more comprehensive approach recognizes and addresses harassment in its broadest sense, developing greater capacity for school staff to address all forms of harassment.
A resource guide to address school-based harassment was developed in 1997, providing a comprehensive presentation of strategies, definitions, self-assessments, and legal considerations.
Preventing and countering school-based harassment was the theme of the center's 1998 annual conference, including sessions on legal requirements and how to develop effective harassment policies, procedures, and guidelines. Center staff developed an antiharassment awareness training-of-trainers workshop and presented an introductory training to all conference attendees. Staff from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the Oregon Department of Education, and NWREL facilitated sessions for participants to provide examples of case studies on school-based harassment.
Products
Preventing and Countering School-Based Harassment-This resource guide includes a comprehensive overview of harassment; strategies to prevent and respond to school-based harassment; what school employees, families, communities, and students need to know; legal foundations; and resources and references.
Support for Equity and What You Need to Know About Harassment-A Spanish audiotape includes sections of the resource guide focusing on what families, communities, and students need to know about harassment.
Services
Equity Center 1998 Annual Conference-The two-day conference on preventing and countering school-based harassment provided participants with information and a training-of-trainers.
Antiharassment training workshops-Workshops and training-of-trainers activities are conducted on request from school districts.
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