1. Promoting High Achievement through Teacher Collaboration using Critical Race Theory and Harro’s Cycle of Liberation
Capitol Region Education Council & Hartford Public Schools Hartford, Connecticut

2. Getting to Know Who’s in the Room
Sasha Douglas, Principal , Metropolitan Learning Center for Global & International Studies
Lisa Sepe, Instruction and Climate Support Specialist, Hartford Public Schools
Roles: K-12 Teacher, School Administrator, Central Office Administrator, Student, Community Partner, Higher Education representative
School, District: Rural, Suburban, Urban, Mixed (Regional)
Sasha

3. Workshop Objectives
Participants will explore how teacher collaboration can be used to enhance learning opportunities for diverse learners. By engaging in this session, participants will gain a better understanding of the analytical frameworks of Critical Race Theory and the Cycle of Liberation. They will develop a plan to support effective collaborative practices/ structures to support the academic achievement of diverse students.
Lisa
3 minutes
Intro ourselves and where we’re from
How does this session link to Great schools partnership
Emphasize that this session will only touch on a few of the big concepts and provide a framework on how to understand……

4. Introduction to Critical Race Theory
CRT is a framework used to examine and challenge the ways race and racism implicitly and explicitly shape social structures, practices, and discourses. CRT scholars begin with the premise that race is a social con­struct and that racism is permanent in U.S. society. Rather than focus on explicit acts or incidents of racism, CRT scholars instead focus on the subtle, hidden, and insidious forms that operate at a deeper, more systemic level. By focusing on the hidden and everyday forms of racism, CRT posits that racism has never waned; it has merely assumed a normality, and thus an invisibility, in our daily lives."
(p. 9, López & López, 2010)
Sasha
Read over - note words of significance
Turn and talk- what words and phrases stand out to you/ surprise you and why?
Beyond race- gender, disability,

5. Introduction to Critical Race Theory
CRT is a framework used to examine and challenge the ways race and racism and explicitly shape social structures, practices, and discourses. CRT scholars begin with the premise that race is a social con­struct and that racism is permanent in U.S. society. Rather than focus on explicit acts or incidents of racism, CRT scholars instead focus on the subtle, hidden, and insidious forms that operate at a deeper, more systemic level. By focusing on the hidden and everyday forms of racism, CRT posits that racism has never waned; it has merely assumed a normality, and thus an invisibility, in our daily lives.” (p. 9, López & López, 2010)
What are normalized forms of racism? Where do we see them in society? (large group discussion, share out)

6. Video: The Unequal Opportunity Race
2 min. for video
6 minutes small discussion (ex: what did you see, what did you notice, how are these examples of racism
Consider how other forms of identity and intersectionality might apply

7. Where do Connecticut’s scores rank nationally?
How do racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of subordination shape the experiences of students in the U.S? (Lopez & Lopez, 2010)
4th Grade Math
4th Grade Reading
8Th Grade Math
8Th Grade Reading
Overall
26 of 50
6th best
20 of 50
4th best
Low-income
4th worst
31 of 50
3rd worst
17 of 50
Black/ African American
10th worst
21 of 41
27 of 39
11 of 42
Hispanic/ Latino
6th worst
18 of 47
2nd worst
23 of 46
English Language Learners
22 of 41
19 of 42
Where do Connecticut’s scores rank nationally?
Sasha
CRT applied in school

8. Where does Connecticut’s achievement gap rank nationally?
How do racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of subordination shape the experiences of students in the U.S? (Lopez & Lopez, 2010)
Gap Between
4th Grade Math
4th Grade Reading
8th Grade Math
8th Grade Reading
Low-income and Non-Low-income
3rd worst
7th worst
Worst
10th worst
Black/ African American and White
6th worst
5th worst
Hispanic/ Latino and White
2nd worst
4th worst
English Language (ELL) and Non-ELL
20 of 41
23 of 42
Where does Connecticut’s achievement gap rank nationally?
Sasha
What are normalized forms of racism in schools? Write on slip of paper, put in the middle, then read.
Policies and practices, structures and institutions that contribute to opportunity gap

9. Changing the Structure
“If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed.”
(Paulo Freire, 1972)
Data- shows that something is going on;
Freire quote, need to change the structure
This quote is the link (between concepts)

10. Cycle of Liberation What do you notice? What do you wonder? (Lisa)
Provide participants with a copy of the cycle
Annotate cycle using notice and wonder protocols
NOTES from reading:
Harro, Cycle of Liberation (liberation defined as critical transformation)
Waking Up
“Critical Incident” Person starts “experience intrapersonal change” when something that made sense or never questioned we now question or doesn’t make sense anymore
Getting Ready
A process that includes “introspection, education & consciousness raising” p 620
Breaking apart of past beliefs, “discriminatory
Building Community
Next phase is “A change in how we view people and interact with each other”
Building community is done through dialogue—speaking, listening, considering perspectives of others (being willing to challenge yourself and thinking; assume positive intentions)
Dialogue to reveal both differences, but more importantly commonalities
Coalescing
Those that are in dialogue commit to collective action knowing the power of the collective over the individual
Creating Change
A change within the system takes place as a result of previous actions (awakening, getting ready, building community, etc.)
Maintaining
A process is developed to ensure the change is sustained (“progress-monitoring” and continuous improvement processes)

11. Developing a Liberatory Consciousness (Love, 2000)
What are the collaborative practices/structures that support the academic achievement of diverse learners?
Lisa will talk through if running ahead, then ask Q
2 min brainstorm, share out
Lisa will recap Love/ fill in the “blanks on thinking” using love

12. Conceptual Connections
How might Critical Race Theory and the Cycle of Liberation impact these collaborative practices to support the academic achievement of diverse learners?
30 MINUTES
(Lisa)-- How are these examples of collaboration just shared, related to these concepts of CRT, Cycle of Libeation and academic ahcievement
Turn and talk- Q1
Concept Map- How can these collaborative experiences be framed within a frame of CRT, Cycle of Liberation and a tool to support diverse students? (concept web activity in small groups)
Gallery Walk- to make and then share observations with group

13. Coalescing & Action Planning
Critical Race Theory
A method of critically analyzing and examine how race (gender, immigration status, ethnicity, disability, SES, intersectionality) shapes social structures in order to dismantle the system
Developing a Liberatory Consciousness
Multi-phase process of building awareness of self, and others and using this awareness to develop collaborative partnerships to create change
Cycle of Liberation
An ongoing process that can be used to implement practices to break free of oppressive social structures
Sasha
Talk through each of these concepts and how they connect and relationships between (1st coalesce whole group, then as individuals/ teams)
10-15 minutes for Action planning/coalescing (if go 15 minutes and need to fill time, do a gallery walk)

14. Next Steps & Reflection
Sasha
5 minutes Reflection- on stick it- reflecting on your learning and your action plan, what is the first step you will take in taking action around……..
What’s your starting point and something that can take back for immediate implementation
Lisa
Using Harro’s Cycle of Liberation- create a plan on how you will use teacher collaboration to create change to support students achieving at high levels
Provide a blank Cycle of Liberation as a graphic organizer
Personal action plan- what is one concrete action/ strategy you can share/ implement with your collaborative group at your school?
We will develop and trademark a tool for use

15. Contact Information
Sasha Moseley-Douglas
Lisa Sepe

16. Works Cited
2015 NAEP Analysis: National and State Results. (2015, November 2). Retrieved November 15, 2016, from naep-resu
Harro, B. (2013). The cycle of liberation. In Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Casteneda, C., Hackman, H. W., Peters, M. L. , Zúñiga, X., (Eds.), Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. New York: Routledge.
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? In Taylor, E., Gilborn, D., & Ladson-Billings, G. (Eds.) Foundations of critical race theory in education. New York: Routledge.
López, M.P. & López, G. R. (2010). Persistent inequality: Contemporary realities in the education of undocumented latina/o . New York: Routledge.
Love, B. J. (2000). Developing a liberatory consciousness. In Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Hackman, H. W., Zúñiga, X., Peters, M. L. (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice: An anthology on racism, anti-semitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism. New York: Routledge.