Title: Increasing Equity for All Students | Edutopia
Headings: Increasing Equity for All Students
Education Equity
Increasing Equity for All Students
By Sarah Yost
August 29, 2018
Ground Your School in a Simple, Student-Centered Mission
Let the Data Be Your Guide
Allow for Student Voice
Demonstrate Growth Mindset and Nurture Trust

Content: There is research suggesting that teachers’ racial biases negatively affect student achievement, and sharing this information with faculty can make starting conversations about racial bias in classrooms less personal and more objective, and help lower individual teachers’ defenses. Then, taking the Harvard Implicit Bias Test can help educators see their personal data and privately reflect on how their own assumptions and biases might be affecting students’ performance. Allow for Student Voice
If we allow students the freedom and a platform to address inequities or raise concerns without the threat of consequences for being disrespectful, we’ll be able to move forward toward more equitable discipline and instruction. Schools or classrooms can provide systems for students to report concerns, and individual teachers and administrators can respect students’ dignity simply by listening and responding with genuine empathy to their concerns about equity and fairness. Demonstrate Growth Mindset and Nurture Trust
When we’re vulnerable enough to share how we have grown in our own understanding and to listen patiently to one another, we can rise together to overcome internalized assumptions or implicit biases. Reading the National Board’s Equity Standards as a faculty and discussing frankly how accomplished teachers ensure student access in their classrooms can lead to deeper understanding and more intentional practice. It’s understandable that many teachers unconsciously re-create the classrooms they knew as students, the classrooms where they were successful. If we were teaching rooms full of carbon copies of ourselves this might be OK, but the truth is, all classrooms are heterogeneous. If we aren’t intentional about creating systems in which all students can be successful, too many classrooms and schools will continue to show achievement gaps. This is why raising awareness is so critical for closing such gaps.