On Thursday, March 18th nearly 50 of the District’s strategic framework partners participated in the first Integrated Comprehensive Systems (ICS) Equity Ally Academy Workshop. This meeting is one of a four part series which will help support the work the District is doing with ICS. The goals of the ICS Equity Ally Academy are to:
- Learn more about the Shorewood School District’s Equity work
- Learn how to support the district’s efforts-as an ally
- Learn how to advance equity in your community spaces (e.g., home, work, church, community)
The Equity Ally Academy Workshop is intended to give participants a greater understanding of the work that is being done at the school level, and learn how they can support the District and advocate for the work in the community.
During the first session, the participants learned about the History of Marginalization in schools that has existed for centuries. Dr. Capper and Dr. Frattura discussed how the role of education impacts societal inequities. The participants learned about how creating more programs, though well-intended, has actually created persistent and consistent inequities.
Following the 2.5 hour long training, participants walked away with valuable information and a better understanding of the framework ICS provides to support eliminating the inequities in the District.
Below is some of the feedback participants provided, when answering "What resonated with you? What gave you pause?"
“The importance of understanding the historical roots of these inequities”
“The importance to keep up the fight for the children regardless of the pushback.”
“How equity is complicated and nuanced and cannot be solved easily or quickly.”
“What feels like the enormity of the task (though I do feel like we have great guidance - thank you!).”
“The idea of all of the separate services that were created to "help" but that actually perpetuate inequities. Mind blown!”
“The idea of an access gap, not an achievement gap and how intervention programs can be detrimental to students' access.”
“How we go about transforming over 200 years of a broken system to serve students in an equitable manner.”
“I appreciate the conversation that is pushing people to think about achievement gaps and resource/experience/equity gaps so that we can begin to take ownership that this is a system issue and something that we are doing TO kids not something they are/aren't doing.”
The next session of the series will take place on Thursday, April 15, from 6-8:30 pm and hopes to cover ICS Module 2/Step 2: Shifting from Deficit to Asset Perspectives and ICS Module 3/Step 3: Identity Development for Equity Systems Change.
For more background information on the ICS for Equity partnership, visit the ICS for Equity webpage.