Office of the Opportunity Gap
docs.google.com/document/d/1Izx2AV2HsovrBP6nrWtowyTPCKVzW_Oa93v8Fo9xHqU/edit
PRIORITY AREA: Cultural Proficiency
OAG Objective 4.2:
Demonstrate how curricula are vetted for bias and cultural proficiency, and ensure that the curriculum and instructional strategies used in all subjects at all levels are rigorous, highly engaging, culturally affirming, and foster student identity and voice.
Background on Strategy:
Narrative:
As we move towards better curriculum choices for schools, it is important for us to redefine what high quality curriculum includes. In coordination with CLSP, our curriculum needs to reflect a myriad of points of view from the different cultures and social locations that our students come from. It is important that our curriculum connects to our students’ cultural schema and affirms/admires their backgrounds, identities, and experiences. Euro-centric views of education from English and history to mathematics and the arts, must not hold the lion's share of the curriculum and/or go unchallenged by other viewpoints. This calls for a decolonization of the curriculum so that we grow our catalog of perspectives/canons and topics of study while also acknowledging the bias that has surrounded information taught in American schools (Boston being no different) since compulsory education began. This does not mean that all bias needs to be taken out of the curriculum, rather students need to be explicitly taught how to be critical consumers of information while also exposing them to counter-narratives and streams of information that have been omitted in our schools and popular discourse. If our students are to have the critical consciousness to lead a more equitable world we cannot keep them for the very information and conversations that will challenge the status quo.
Along with the materials within schools, the strategies around 4.2 also push for a change in instructional strategies. The Essentials for Instructional Equity is an instructional position that the ASSET team is infusing districtwide. The EIE not only examines the conditions necessary for student success through a technical lens; it deeply embeds the authentic learning relationships needed between staff and students as central to teaching and learning. This operationalizes CLSP and other priorities such as social emotional development as essential to academic success and not ancillary topics disconnected from pedagogy.
Changes to policy/practice:
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Alignment with District Measurement Systems
Indicators
3-Year Target
Curricula reviewed during curricula audits will be anti-bias-70%
Performance Meter metrics 3-9 (disaggregated by subgroups)-Appendix E
Process Goal:
By Fall of 2017, we will re-design pre-k -2 curriculum to become more culturally responsive, both Dual Language and General Curriculum (EC)
Process Goal:
By SY 2018 -2019, all curriculum brought in at the school level will be examined through the lens of the 7- forms of bias protocol via a Superintendent Circular. (OAG)
Process Goal:
By 2018-2019 school year, develop and recommend a model for teacher and school leader competency development that lead to improved student outcomes for all subgroups with special attention to marginalized subgroups. (APL)
Process Goal:
By July 2018, APL will collaborate with ASSET colleagues to ensure that “instructional strategies used in all subjects at all levels are rigorous, highly engaging, culturally affirming, and foster student identity and voice” (OAG Policy, 2016) by training all BPS educators in the Essentials for Instructional Equity. (APL)
Process Goal:
By June 2019, we will have developed and implemented a process for vetting curricula for bias and cultural proficiency. Curriculum materials will be annotated in order to identify elements that “enables students to embrace their racial and cultural identity and feel empowered while developing counter narratives to the often negative dominant narrative on people of color and other marginalized groups.” (OAG Policy, 2016) (APL)
ALIGNMENT WITH STATE PRIORITIES
BPS
Massachusetts (DESE)
CLSP
Model Rubrics for Superintendent, Administrator, and Teacher- http://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/model/PartIII.pdf
DESCRIBE PLANS FOR SUSTAINING ACTION
The 7-forms of bias protocol will become a superintendent’s circular, as reviewing materials for bias is a state requirement and this protocol will be the way that BPS addresses bias in a comprehensive method. Decolonization of the curriculum will be a major undertaking of the Office of Academics in collaboration with OAG. Funding of the purchase or creation of new curriculum and continual supplementation will be necessary. Creating of working groups is well within the range of the current budget and curriculum adoption can mirror other curriculum roll-outs in terms of cost sharing with schools. The EIE will be a focus of teacher and school leaders courses across the district and will need continued collaboration and dedicated time from all ASSET offices to continue and grow.
Interesting Articles
https://escholarship.org/content/qt4rc558zw/qt4rc558zw.pdf
http://www.k12.wa.us/Equity/pubdocs/WashingtonModelsfortheEvaluationofBias.pdf
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docs.google.com/document/d/1Izx2AV2HsovrBP6nrWtowyTPCKVzW_Oa93v8Fo9xHqU/edit
PRIORITY AREA: Cultural Proficiency
OAG Objective 4.2:
Demonstrate how curricula are vetted for bias and cultural proficiency, and ensure that the curriculum and instructional strategies used in all subjects at all levels are rigorous, highly engaging, culturally affirming, and foster student identity and voice.
Background on Strategy:
Narrative:
As we move towards better curriculum choices for schools, it is important for us to redefine what high quality curriculum includes. In coordination with CLSP, our curriculum needs to reflect a myriad of points of view from the different cultures and social locations that our students come from. It is important that our curriculum connects to our students’ cultural schema and affirms/admires their backgrounds, identities, and experiences. Euro-centric views of education from English and history to mathematics and the arts, must not hold the lion's share of the curriculum and/or go unchallenged by other viewpoints. This calls for a decolonization of the curriculum so that we grow our catalog of perspectives/canons and topics of study while also acknowledging the bias that has surrounded information taught in American schools (Boston being no different) since compulsory education began. This does not mean that all bias needs to be taken out of the curriculum, rather students need to be explicitly taught how to be critical consumers of information while also exposing them to counter-narratives and streams of information that have been omitted in our schools and popular discourse. If our students are to have the critical consciousness to lead a more equitable world we cannot keep them for the very information and conversations that will challenge the status quo.
Along with the materials within schools, the strategies around 4.2 also push for a change in instructional strategies. The Essentials for Instructional Equity is an instructional position that the ASSET team is infusing districtwide. The EIE not only examines the conditions necessary for student success through a technical lens; it deeply embeds the authentic learning relationships needed between staff and students as central to teaching and learning. This operationalizes CLSP and other priorities such as social emotional development as essential to academic success and not ancillary topics disconnected from pedagogy.
Changes to policy/practice:
- Examination of all our current curriculum for bias
- Review of any new curriculum for bias
- Augmentation/creation of curriculum/units of study to decolonize
- New pedagogical focus- Essentials for Instructional Equity
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Alignment with District Measurement Systems
Indicators
3-Year Target
Curricula reviewed during curricula audits will be anti-bias-70%
Performance Meter metrics 3-9 (disaggregated by subgroups)-Appendix E
Process Goal:
By Fall of 2017, we will re-design pre-k -2 curriculum to become more culturally responsive, both Dual Language and General Curriculum (EC)
Process Goal:
By SY 2018 -2019, all curriculum brought in at the school level will be examined through the lens of the 7- forms of bias protocol via a Superintendent Circular. (OAG)
Process Goal:
By 2018-2019 school year, develop and recommend a model for teacher and school leader competency development that lead to improved student outcomes for all subgroups with special attention to marginalized subgroups. (APL)
Process Goal:
By July 2018, APL will collaborate with ASSET colleagues to ensure that “instructional strategies used in all subjects at all levels are rigorous, highly engaging, culturally affirming, and foster student identity and voice” (OAG Policy, 2016) by training all BPS educators in the Essentials for Instructional Equity. (APL)
Process Goal:
By June 2019, we will have developed and implemented a process for vetting curricula for bias and cultural proficiency. Curriculum materials will be annotated in order to identify elements that “enables students to embrace their racial and cultural identity and feel empowered while developing counter narratives to the often negative dominant narrative on people of color and other marginalized groups.” (OAG Policy, 2016) (APL)
ALIGNMENT WITH STATE PRIORITIES
BPS
Massachusetts (DESE)
CLSP
Model Rubrics for Superintendent, Administrator, and Teacher- http://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/model/PartIII.pdf
DESCRIBE PLANS FOR SUSTAINING ACTION
The 7-forms of bias protocol will become a superintendent’s circular, as reviewing materials for bias is a state requirement and this protocol will be the way that BPS addresses bias in a comprehensive method. Decolonization of the curriculum will be a major undertaking of the Office of Academics in collaboration with OAG. Funding of the purchase or creation of new curriculum and continual supplementation will be necessary. Creating of working groups is well within the range of the current budget and curriculum adoption can mirror other curriculum roll-outs in terms of cost sharing with schools. The EIE will be a focus of teacher and school leaders courses across the district and will need continued collaboration and dedicated time from all ASSET offices to continue and grow.
Interesting Articles
https://escholarship.org/content/qt4rc558zw/qt4rc558zw.pdf
http://www.k12.wa.us/Equity/pubdocs/WashingtonModelsfortheEvaluationofBias.pdf
dd