1. RJTI Teach-In on Implicit Bias
Candace Moore
Educational Equity Project

2. Making the Connection Between Implicit Bias and Disparate Outcomes
Candace Moore
Educational Equity Project

3. Defining and Framing: Engaging the “mind”

4. WHAT IS IMPLICIT BIAS?
Implicit bias is the “attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner” (Staats, ).
Bias = the evaluation of one group and its members relative to another
Expressed directly/explicitly: “I like whites more than Latinos.”
Expressed indirectly: E.g., Sitting further away from a Latino than a white individual.
Explicit = Person is aware of his/her evaluation
Implicit = Person doesn’t perceive or endorse evaluation
(Rudd, 2012)
1) Staats, Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know, American Educator
2) Rudd, Implicit Bias & Education: A Presentation to the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. August 11, 2012.

5. The Unconscious Mind
The human brain can take in 11 million pieces of information in a single second
We’re only consciously aware of maybe 40 of these - at best. (Powell, 2014)
System 1:
Unconscious Mind
System 2:
Conscious Mind
Cognition that occurs outside of your awareness
(Staats, )
Thinking that we are aware of; the product of effort and deliberate concentration
Ex: Walking into a room and taking a seat
Ex: Developing a lesson plan or curriculum
1) Powell; Implicit Bias - Equity & Inclusion_March_19 jp2.pptx, University of California, Berkeley. Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. March 20, 2014.
2) Staats, Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know. American Educator

6. Schemas
They help us organize information into broader categories and conserve mental resources
objects (e.g., “chairs”)
behaviors (e.g., “ordering food”)
human being (e.g., “the elderly”)
Situational cues
Schemas and the unconscious are social. They exist in and our shaped by our environment.
Experiences with other people
Perceptions of structures
Narratives
Stories, books, movies, media, and culture
(Powell, 2014)
Examples of Schemas:
AIRPORTS: We know where to go in new or foreign airports.
Powell; Implicit Bias - Equity & Inclusion_March_19 jp2.pptx, University of California, Berkeley. Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. March 20, 2014.

7. Identifying & Measuring Implicit Bias
Ask people/Self-Reporting?
Not reliable or popular in a post-civil rights era
Subconscious thoughts are outside people’s awareness or conscious thoughts
Physiological
Increase in heart rate, sweat glands, blood pressure, brain activity
Reaction Time Measurements (IAT)
Measures implicit reasoning
Asked to categorize information quickly
Calculates reaction time in milliseconds
Calculates accuracy
Statistically, speed and accuracy difference meaningfully reflects your cognitive process
IAT is an empirical tool to measure bias
Implicit Bias_powell_March_19 jp2.pptx - Equity & Inclusion 
University of California, Berkeley
Bias. Implicit. Bias. john a. powell. Executive Director. Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. March 20, 2014

8. Group Processing Activities

9. Say the category that is associated with the word you hear
Bug or unpleasant= Left Flower or pleasant= Right
___ Poison ___
___ Tulip ___
___ Cheer ___
___ Damage ___
___ Bedbug ___
___ Vomit ___
___ Enjoy ___
___ Gloom ___
___ Daisy ___
___ Peace ___
___ Ugly ___

10. Say the category that is associated with the word you hear
Bug or pleasant = Left Flower or unpleasant = Right
___ Orchid ___
___ Love ___
___ Wasp ___
___ Lily ___
___ Stinky ___
___ Centipede ___
___ Beautiful ___
___ Fly ___
___ Peony ___
___ Evil ___
___ Happy ___

11. Provide resources for more information

12. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit//
HOW CAN YOU LEARN MORE?

13. Add in the lens of RACE

14. WHAT IF OUR IMPLICIT BIASES ARE ABOUT RACE?
Negative Symbolic Attitudes
Implicit Racial Bias
Prejudice & Racial Stereotyping
Discrimination
Racial Inequality & Injustice
Kirwan Institute suggests:
Implicit racial bias is one principal force that energizes widespread racial and ethnic inequality (the other is structural racialization).
Understanding the causes of implicit racial bias and pushing back against its consequences are critical to the movement for social justice and racial equality.
Rudd, Implicit Bias & Education: A Presentation to the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. August 11, 2012.

15. Providing concrete examples: Engage the “hearts”

16. HOW ARE OUR STUDENTS IMPACTED BY THEIR BIASES?
What do you think contributes to her implicit bias?
What narratives are being reinforced?
What is the role of parents?
What is the role of school administrators and teachers?

17. HOW ARE OUR STUDENTS IMPACTED BY OUR BIASES?

18. How would this make you feel if these were young people in your care?
LET’S TALK ABOUT IT!
How would this make you feel if these were young people in your care?
Young people you see it impacting
Young people who say your implicit action have impacted them
How might you address it, both immediately and long term?

19. Add in the lens of SCHOOLS/DISCIPLINE

20. DEVELOPING A STRATEGY FOR COMBATTING OUR IMPLICIT BIAS IN SCHOOLS

21. When are we most vulnerable to implicit bias?
Situations that involve ambiguous or incomplete information
Situations where the we have to have discretion or require us to make subjective observations and analyses
The presence of time-constraints
Especially prevalent in situations of crisis and or high pressure
Circumstances in which our cognitive control may be compromised
Ex. Fatigue, having a lot on our minds
Staats, Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know. American Educator
Source: Staats, Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know. American Educator

22. How does implicit bias impact school discipline?
Interpretation of subjective infractions
Ex. Disruptive behavior/excessive noise, disrespect, insubordination
Dependent on the context and how the person assessing the behavior is feeling
How loud is too loud? What qualifies as disrespect? What is qualifies as threatening?
Disciplinary decisions
How do we determine severity of discipline?
What behavior constitutes a pattern? What generalizations/assumptions do we make?
What are the appropriate interventions to remediate student behavior?
Confirmation bias
We see more errors and problems where we expect to see more errors or problems
Teacher’s expectations of student achievement
Source: Staats, Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know. American Educator

23. What can we do to address implicit bias?
Become aware of our own biases
Intergroup contact = opportunities to meaningfully engage with individuals whose identities differ from you
Project Implicit  Implicit Association Test
IAT is an empirical tool to measure bias
Statistically, speed and accuracy difference meaningfully reflects your cognitive process
Slowing down/taking more care to process decisions
Counter-stereotypical exemplars = examples of individuals who contradict widely held stereotypes
Ex. Checklist and Protocols
“Approach to Student Behaviors Guide” and the “Disciplinary Checklist” within TSDC’s Model Student Code of Conduct
Ex. Male nurses, female scientist, African American judges, etc.
Visually shift the narrative with images (photos, posters, décor) and stories (books, movies)
Data Collection and Analyses
Collecting meaningful data  Identify trends and root causes  Solutions
161 N. Clark Street, Second Floor
Source: Staats, Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know. American Educator

24. How can Restorative Justice help address implicit bias?
Restorative Justices/Practices
Debiasing/Mitigation of
Implicit Bias
Emphasis on Relationships
Circle Practice and emphasis on equity of voice
Focus on repairing harm and restorative accountability
Allows you to get proximate with people from different perspectives; develop new positive associations Intergroup contact is optimal when there is equal status within the situation and working toward a common goal To meaningfully address the impact of implicit bias we must acknowledge unintentional harm and hold ourselves and our communities accountable for repairing

25. Add in a lens of WORKPLACE

26. How can implicit bias impact the workplace?
Affinity bias: The tendency to warm up to people like ourselves.
Halo effect: The tendency to think everything about a person is good because you like that person.
Perception bias: The tendency to form stereotypes and assumptions about certain groups that make it impossible to make an objective judgement about members of those groups.
Confirmation bias: The tendency for people to seek information that confirms preexisting beliefs or assumptions.
Group think: This bias occurs when people try too hard to fit into a particular group by mimicking others or holding back thoughts and opinions. This causes them to lose part of their identities and causes organizations to lose out on creativity and innovation.
Price, S. (n.d.). Think slow. BCCJacumen.com. Retreived from SP.pdf.

27. How can implicit bias impact the workplace?
Hiring and promotion decisions
A 2004 study, economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago distributed 5,000 resumes to 1,250 employers. The researchers assigned stereotypically Caucasian and African-American names to otherwise identical resumes. Resumes with stereotypically Caucasian names led to 50 percent more callbacks than resumes with stereotypically African-American names.
Evaluation of work product
In one study, law firms were given a fictitious legal memo that included grammatical, factual, and technical analysis errors. Half of the memos were from an African American author and the other half were from a Caucasian author. When the memo was perceived to be by the African American author, law firm partners found more of the errors and rated the memo as lower in quality than when the author was perceived to be Caucasian
Stephens, A. (08 July 2015). How unconscious bias can control where we live and work. Next City. Retrieved from

28. Providing an opportunity to explore application

29. LET’S TALK ABOUT IT!
Identify one example of where you think implicit bias negatively impacts your work.
Name potential ways you/your organization could work to mitigate negative outcomes.

30. Closing

31. Key Takeaways about Implicit Racial Bias
We unconsciously think about race even when we do not explicitly discuss it.
We are all impacted by our implicit biases; no one person and or group is exempt.
You can’t avoid bias by avoiding
race; it does not work.
Conversations about race are not
easy, but they are vital.
Environments & narratives matter
Powell, john; Implicit Bias - Equity & Inclusion_March_19 jp2.pptx, University of California, Berkeley. Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. March 20, 2014.
Source: Lester, Julius. Let’s Talk About Race

32. Credits
Works cited:
Staats, Cheryl; Understanding Implicit Bias: What Educators Should Know, American Educator
Powell, john; Implicit Bias - Equity & Inclusion_March_19 jp2.pptx, University of California, Berkeley. Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. March 20, 2014.
Rudd, Tom; Implicit Bias & Education: A Presentation to the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. August 11, 2012.
Price, S. (n.d.). Think slow. BCCJacumen.com. Retreived from
Special acknowledgement:
Dr. Pamela Fenning, Loyola University Chicago School of Education
Professor Miranda Johnson, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Transforming School Discipline Collaborative
Illinois Community of Advocates for Race Equity (“ICARE”)

33. CONTACT US!!
Candace Moore, Staff Attorney Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights

34. General Notes Presentation takes between 1:30min – 2 hours.
More time supports more discussions and questions.
Typically I am invited to present or have been referred to organizations.
The best group size is participants.
If you are doing more or less you may consider adapting.
Most audiences range from no familiarity to some foundational knowledge.
The more advanced the audience is the more you may need to manage their expectations.
Prioritize discussions and processing, they are the most valuable.
Share your truth.