Reply to Antiracist System Audit

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What does racial equity work look like when there is no proof that disparities in any particular measure means there is bias?

Why not just meet every child where they are and go from there? [/quote]

This is such a racist dog whistle. Any such disparities are due to systemic inquities in the classroom.[/quote]

It isn't racist.  It's intelligent inquiry.   Association is not causation.

But if you build policy on association, you end up with unintended, and often harmful impacts.   And no guarantee you actually fix anything.

Schools can't equalize outcomes when some kids are born and remain in poverty when others come from outrageous wealth.
Schools can't equalize outcomes when some kids have robust health insurance coverage that pays for neuropsych exams and years of therapy when other kids have nothing.
Schools can't equalize outcomes when some kids are homeless and others have stable homes, stable transportation, etc.
Schools can't equalize outcomes when some kids have parents with mental health or substance misuse disorders and other kids have parents with no additional medical needs.
Schools can't equalize outcomes when some kids have parents who can run to the store for the supplies they need for a last minute project and others can't.

If we ignore those systematic inequities outside of school, we have no hope of improving things within schools.   
[/quote]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think a goal of any school should be equalized outcomes.  Equalized opportunities sure, but not outcomes.[/quote]

If you read the comments in the audit report, it is clear that many do not perceive equalized opportunities.[/quote]

Yes, this has been an ongoing issue with the USA but not something MCPS can correct. MCPS needs to focus on educating children and leave societal issues to soceity.[/quote]

Obviously MCPS can't correct all the problems of society; no one is suggesting that they should. But I see nothing wrong with MCPS trying to correct the school-based problems cited in the report.[/quote]

Unfortunately those problems stem from larger societal problems and are beyond mcps' pervue.[/quote]

Sounds like you haven't read the report. There are plenty of issues within MCPS's purview.[/quote]

To cite a few examples, see page 99:

Bilingual staff who participated in the focus groups and interviews also highlighted the difficulty of being
expected to serve as translators in addition to their job’s assigned responsibilities. This additional role adds
considerably to their workloads and still often goes unacknowledged and unrecognized.

“Many things, like the assumption that the language, that you know a second language and you’re available
and then anybody can come and grab you, whatever they need you . . . they should no[t] use you like a free
interpreter at the school and things like that. And people coming to you with such an attitude and such as
demand, like, ‘Hey, you’re Latina, you’re here. You’re supposed to come and interpret for me whenever I feel like.’
It’s very sad and very... So, I see it so much throughout the county.” (Staff, Hispanic/Latino)

Page 113:

Others discussed the
ways in which teachers at MCPS take on extra work to go beyond what is required by the curriculum to
represent and meet the needs of their diverse students. In the staff focus groups, teachers shared how
they independently decided to integrate more culturally relevant material into the curriculum:

“I feel like Benchmark, they’ve tried to change Benchmark a little bit to be more inclusive, but my
teammate and I always, who’s also a Black woman, we, we tend to try to find other resources because
the Black people or anyone of color tend to be stories where they are not prosperous or enslaved or
somehow suffering. We have the perspective that students need to see that yes, being a person of color
in America is challenging, but it is not a guarantee that everyone is going to be poor and struggling. My
teammate says all the time, ‘I mean, can we have a story where the Black kid is on the basketball team?
And he just does normal things that normal children do?’ Like, ‘Why do they always have to be living in
destitute conditions and fathers dead?’ It just always feels that way. So we do have to do the work to find
materials that address the same curricula, but broaden that scope, that story more. And then as [an
Enriched Literacy Curriculum] ELC teacher, when we have to do genres like science fiction, there are very
few, it’s very difficult to find science fiction books that are appropriate and don’t have a White lead, very
difficult.” (Staff, Black/African American)

Page 158:

Multiple focus group/interview participants described staff who have limited expectations for English Learners.
Furthermore, many emphasized the prevalence of the assumption that all students who are Hispanic/Latino
are English Learners:

“I would get teachers come to me when they looked at a student’s name and saying, is this student ESOL? Is this
student receiving services? Well, no, the student’s not receiving services. It’s automatic assumption because of
the student’s name that the student is receiving services or that there’s just a deficit without even automatically
meeting the student.” (Staff, Hispanic/Latino)

“The principal says, ‘I just don’t think my ESOL students can think at that level.’ And people sometimes make
this general assumption that if they don’t speak English, that they can’t think, and it’s a language barrier, not
an ability to think barrier. And so sometimes they get put in on-level classes because well, they don’t know the
language and they just make this assumption that because they can’t speak English yet, that they also must not
have the academic ability to think at that level.” (Staff, Hispanic/Latino)

Issues like this are squarely within MCPS's purview. People should not just throw up their hands and say, "there's nothing we can do about it."[/quote]

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