Blog #10
Jan. 10, 2019 – Equity
Sheridan School District 2 is committed to equity in our schools.
It’s a tall order, but we are committed to ensuring this idea across the board and in everything we do.
What is equity in the context of schools?
It’s fairness—it’s the idea that a person’s background and upbringing are not a barrier to success. Educational equity means that each child receives what they need to develop to be academically and socially successful in life.
One of the four pillars of our work in Sheridan is increasing
our cultural competency, the key ingredient in ensuring equity.
And what is cultural competency? It’s the ability of any institution or individual to interact effectively with people of all backgrounds.
Key word: All.
Second key word: Effectively.
The critical underpinning of this thinking is to recognize that schools serve students from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures. Once we acknowledge this—and once we recognize that these backgrounds and cultures create a playing field that is not level—we can do something about it.
Sheridan teachers recently had the opportunity to join Littleton
Public Schools to hear Dr. Pedro Noguera, a highly respected professor from the
University of California Los Angeles. As I was listening to Dr. Noguera speak,
I was struck at what great work and challenge we have before us.
The hardest part of this work is a change of mindset.
With a touch of exaggeration added for emphasis, here’s the old mindset: We throw open the doors of school each morning, hand every student a class schedule, teach the same curriculum we have taught for the past many years and hope the students adapt themselves to our way of doing things and get with the program.
Here’s the new mindset: Students come to us from diverse backgrounds, we recognize those differences as assets to be celebrated, and we meet those students where they are and help them find their place on the road to success.
This is work for each and every one of us—to examine our biases and to examine the systems we have in place today to see if we are doing everything we can to make this critical adjustment.
I am very proud of Dr. Christine Muldoon, Sheridan’s Director of Language, Culture & Equity, for the work she’s doing with Sheridan staff on increasing cultural competence.
When Littleton Superintendent Brian Ewert reached out to me about Dr. Noguera and the possibility of Sheridan participating (and I really want to thank Littleton Public Schools for this invitation), it was Dr. Muldoon who organized the day for us. She also recently spent a day with all classified staff on these issues, working toward a simple goal—to strengthen the power of our staff to connect to our students’ lives.
Yes, it begins with a connection. Person to person. Teacher to
student. Individual to individual.
As she emphasized that morning, every staff member is capable of developing a “personal equity plan” that will make a difference as the entire district goes about its business every day.
Demography and diversity does not equal destiny! As Dr. Muldoon told the classified staff, we need to recognize and believe in the brilliance of students regardless of where they have come from or—and this is the hardest part of all—regardless of what they might have done in the past.
Ask Dr. Muldoon about her own background, and you might be surprised—she had a “Velveeta cheese and pancakes” upbringing. Her family was considered “poor white trash” (her words, not mine). Today, she holds a Ph.D. Somebody recognized her talents and showed her the way. She is, as a result, deeply empathetic with the idea of increasing cultural competency.
This requires a mindset “unapologetically and relentlessly student centered.” That quote is Dr. Muldoon.
I am confident in our highly professional staff and our ability
to make a difference!
Together, we will move forward and create a district where all
students will be prepared for life choices with all options available to them.
Thank you for your hard work! I am proud of all of you!