Dropout Prevention & Student Engagement Summit February 18, 2011 Welcome!

Using the Equity Toolkit in Building & Maintaining a Positive School Climate Bill De La CruzDe La Cruz Consulting Inc. b.delacruz@comcast.net 303-875-0070 Rachel Heide Greeley-Evans District 6 rachel.root@du.edu rheide@greeleyschools.org

Introduction Personal background Interest in the study Goal of the study Perhaps a heightened level of awareness will lead to a more culturally proficient teacher and stronger relationships between the teacher, their students, and the school community. The key here is not the kind of instruction but the attitude underlying it. When teachers do not understand the potential of the students they teach, they will underteach them no matter what the methodology. --Lisa Delpit (1995, p. 175) Being Assistant Principal in Greeley has opened my eyes to inequitable situations between minority and non-minority student groups Discipline, academics, sports, extracurricular activities, family involvement, etc. I desire to understand these gaps and how we might bridge these gaps so we can ensure access and equity in our educational system

Research Background and Rationale Educators cannot escape the growth of diversity within the student population and the accompanying inequities that are present in our schools and communities 2000 U.S. Census revealed an increasing number of minority groups in the U.S Many teachers and administrators in schools have a limited awareness of how their class, gender, race, and bias impact their work These limited, or uneducated, views may also contribute to the achievement gap that exists between students belonging to the minority and non-minority groups The minority student population is growing while the minority teaching population is shrinking

Demographic Chart http://www.cde.state.co.us/cde_english/download/Res ources-Links/Equity%20toolkit%20Final_2010.pdf

Reflection The positive or negative manner in which educators and community members respond to the cultural and racial diversity present within schools has extensive impact on students’ self-esteem and academic success of students from varied cultural backgrounds (Phutsog, 1999).

In order to effectively teach a diverse population of students, teachers need to examine their own classroom practices and reflect on the contradictions that may be influencing student’s abilities to learn (Delpit, 2006, Beegle, 2003). At your tables discuss what you see to be the current reality of your system in regard to teaching students from diverse populations. Share out discussion points

Need for the study Closing the achievement gap could be viewed as the Civil Rights Movement of our time A key element to bridging the achievement gap is to remain student-centered by connecting learning to students’ lives through the students’ culture, strengths, goals, dreams, and interests as a starting point for learning rather than focusing on the students’ deficits (Williams, 2003). Access and equity in education for all students

Participants Multi-site design comparing four public middle schools in Greeley John Evans MS, Heath MS, Franklin MS, and Brentwood MS 104 participants took the self-assessment from the CDE Equity Toolkit for Administrators Focus groups- A minimum of five teacher participants and a maximum of eight were gathered for three of the four sites

District Information Approximately 19,851 students served in grades K-12 in Greeley-Evans District 6 Approximately 2,900 students in Middle School grades 6-8 Demographic Data Approximately 57.93% Hispanic Approximately 37.53% White Approximately 1.42% Asian Approximately 1.32% African-American Approximately 0.36% Native American Approximately 0.27% Pacific Islander Approximately 1.17% Two or more demographic identifications Socio-Economics Approximately 53% eligible for free/reduced price meals

Individual School Information J Evans I.B. Middle School 674 total students 73.3% Hispanic 26.7% Non-Hispanic Heath Middle School 781 total students 63.4% Hispanic 36.6% Non-Hispanic Brentwood Middle School 655 total students 68.9% Hispanic 31.1% Non-Hispanic Franklin Middle School 751 total students 77.7% Hispanic 22.3% Non-Hispanic

Data Collection and Analysis Quantitative data Survey data Discipline data Qualitative data Focus group Reflective journal Over/Under Representation Analysis Pearson’s Correlation and Spearman’s Rho Coding using a Priori themes Inductive Coding Over/Under looks at the proportion of students in the dichotomous groups receiving discipline referrals Pearson’s and Spearman’s used to see if a relationship exists between survey score and dichotomous student discipline data– Comparing average score of each school with overall percent of Hispanic students receiving discipline referral Focus group- Month 1 Bias; Month 2 Discrimination and Harrassment; Month 3 Community and Family Engagement Reflective journal- prompts from toolkit

Survey Scoring Possible answer choices: Most of the time= 3 Some of the time= 2 Never= 1 Individual answers added together for one final score Cultural Proficiency- 75 and above Cultural Competence- 65- 74 Cultural Precompetence- 55-64 Cultural Blindness- 45-54 Cultural Incapacity- 35-44 Cultural Destructiveness- 34 and below

Cultural Proficiency Continuum Culturally destructiveness: negating, disparaging, or purging cultures that are different from your own. Cultural incapacity: elevating the superiority of your own cultural values and beliefs and suppressing cultures that are different from your own. Cultural blindness: acting as if differences among cultures do not exist and refusing to recognize any differences. Cultural precompetence: recognizing that lack of knowledge, experience, and understanding of other cultures limits your ability to effectively interact with them. Cultural competence: interacting with other cultural groups in ways that recognize and value their differences that motivate you to assess your own skills and expand your knowledge and resources and that, ultimately, cause you to adapt your relational behavior. Cultural proficiency: honoring the differences among cultures and viewing diversity as a benefit, and interacting knowledgably and respectfully among a variety of cultural groups. Lindsay (2005, p. 54). Table discussion- Have tables discuss where they feel they are on the continuum

Findings November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 Average Cultural Proficiency Score by School School Identification M Proficiency Level MS1 59.6 Cultural Precompetence MS2 58.0 Cultural Precompetence MS3 62.0 Cultural Precompetence MS4 62.1 Cultural Precompetence November 19, 2018November 19, 2018

Findings (cont.) Over/Under Representation Analysis for Dichotomous Student Groups at Each Site School Identification Hispanic Non-Hispanic MS1 -2.92 2.92 MS2 -11.53 11.53 MS3 9.30 -9.30 MS4 -12.79 12.79 Positive number indicates an over representation of that student group while a negative number indicates an under representation Discussion point: At your tables discuss your thoughts on why student groups are either under or over represented in the discipline data.

Findings (cont.) Pearson’s Correlation and Spearman’s Rho Spearman’s Rho not statistically significant at the 0.05 level [r(104)= 0.118, p=0.234] Pearson’s Correlation was also used and was also not statistically significant at the 0.05 level [r(104)=0.106, p=0.286] It would seem that a relationship does not exist between the average scores on the survey by school and the overall percent of Hispanic students receiving discipline referrals at each school site. A limitation of this research study is not having individual teacher data in regard to the discipline data to be able to look for relationships between individual teacher Cultural Proficiency and the disaggregated discipline referrals they write.

Findings (cont.) Journals Reflective Participants identified past experiences which influence their current perspective and understanding of race and culture Share prompts Read John’s entry

Findings (cont.) Focus group Bias Discrimination/Harass ment Community and Family Engagement Identify current reality Plan of action Participants shared experiences and insights into the current reality at each of the school sites and the district overall; examples of the various levels of Cultural Proficiency could be identified throughout the transcripts; a very serious need for Culturally Responsive strategies was apparent throughout the transcripts; deeper understandings of the quantitative findings could be identified through the qualitative findings

Findings (cont.) Recall your table discussions around the Over/Under Representation Analysis Focus group data gave insight into why the inequalities represented in this data may be occurring “Deficit Descriptors” for Hispanic students Courageous conversations page xiii Words and phrases such as “gangster,” “Mexican kid,” “those Hispanics,” “families who are gangsters,” “those kids,” “hard to build community with those kids,” “Greeley Hispanic,” “rough, tough Hispanic group,” “real bad Hispanic kids,” “tough kids,” and “hard core,” are examples of the negative perception teachers are functioning under regarding Hispanic students which were not present for other student groups within the focus group data.

Findings (cont.) November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 I don’t really know how to put [this] in words but I think part of this has really opened my eyes to a lot of different views and issues. Part of it has made me a little bit more uneasy about things too that there is such a problem and we right now don’t have anything really concrete in place to deal with it. But I think this was just very beneficial, opening my eyes to what’s going on here and especially the big change since I’ve been out in the classrooms…it’s enlightening really just eye-opening. And that affects me and how I tell that poor Hispanic student about their ‘C.’ And it might affect how I tell the not so poor Anglo students about their ‘C’ because of how I might forecast their future. And is that okay? As an educator noticing those things has a tendency in me, I just really have to consider those, whether that’s a good thing or not.” November 19, 2018November 19, 2018

Findings (cont.) I don’t think we really know the culture that students are coming from as a staff. I don’t think we do. We have some snippets but we’re always—I think that as a staff, we are really in the process of just starting to perceive the culture we’re teaching and comparing it to the one that we came from and pointing out the way that they should be so that we can teach them the way that we teach. And I think that’s where there is a disconnect…I think that it’s very easy to want to expect students to change so that they can learn from us and not expect us to change so that we can teach them how they are.

Conclusion Thank you to Dr. Medina and her staff for the incredible work put into the toolkit. Thank you to all of you for giving me the opportunity to share with you my research.