Equity In Action

From your perspective, what impact has the ICS planning/work had on students and/or the community so far?

Jason clark: This continues to be a work in progress, but having these courageous conversations and helping both staff and students see multiple sides of equity issues continues to allow for greater connection, consideration, and awareness for all of us. Being intentional and thoughtful about how we approach equity is something we need to do with our students involved, not just with the adults behind closed doors. 

YRU Advisors: As Youth Rising Up Advisors (YRU), we recognize the significant impact of our high school equity initiatives, which extend beyond our work solely with YRU students to encompass the entire student body. Through various platforms such as our Black History programming, alumni luncheons, community outreach, workshop participation, and engagement in social justice movements, we have enabled our students' voices to resonate throughout our community and district. Notably, our students consistently leave a positive and enduring impression wherever they engage. As Advisors, we maintain a steady commitment to nurturing student voice, which has not only instilled a sense of cultural confidence within our students, but has also encouraged their openness to embracing and understanding cultures different than their own. We believe that many of our students would not have had the opportunity to undergo such transformative experiences had they not chosen to attend SHS.

How has your specific work aligned with our equity work?

Jason Clark: YRU, the choral program, teachers, advisors, and Ms. Jamerson collaborated for this year's Black History Month program. The diverse group unified from different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences to make a meaningful contribution to the program.

YRU Advisors: As YRU Advisors, our central mission revolves around empowering students to effectively discover and utilize their voices. The ICS framework serves as a vital tool in directing our focus towards social justice matters, both within the classroom and in broader contexts. This engagement often entails collaborating with classroom teachers to assess how curriculum decisions and instructional content shape student perspectives. Furthermore, we actively promote inclusivity by demonstrating to students that participation in YRU is open to all, while also encouraging wider student body involvement in events like the annual Black History Month program.

In our pursuit of social justice, we provide tangible examples of advocacy for change. For instance, in December of last year, we organized a trip to New York City to participate in the United Justice Coalition Summit hosted by Roc Nation. During this summit, YRU students had the invaluable opportunity to interact with esteemed professionals such as Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. Through these encounters, they gained invaluable insight on how to effectively amplify their voices to enact change within their respective communities.

What steps have you taken to look at inequities within your systems?  How have you tried to address these?

Jason Clark: By collaborating in this year's program, choir students had the opportunity to experience Gospel singing and the influence of Jazz. Bringing together the band, singers, teachers, and advisors provided a platform for an experience no one group could put together alone. 

YRU Advisors: We mentor our students to analyze how systems within both the school and the broader community influence their present and future experiences. Given our commitment to fostering student voice, as Advisors, our role primarily involves providing guidance and direction. We encourage students to cultivate interpersonal skills that empower them to advocate effectively for themselves and their communities. 

Our students actively engage not only in school-wide events but also contribute their insights to larger collaborative efforts within the district, such as Linkage Meetings with the school board. Ultimately, it’s our students who critically assess inequalities, identify them, and collaboratively devise strategies to address them. Additionally, they play a crucial role in bringing to our attention oversights that may arise due the clear distinction between our experience, age and classroom participation.

What collaboration has taken place within your sphere of influence to create different outcomes for the District?

Jason Clark: Each year, I actively seek out opportunities for my students to have an experience beyond the traditional classroom setting. I am hopeful we can continue to find ways to collaborate to bring more unity, belonging, and connection to diverse groups of students in Shorewood! 

YRU: When it comes to our Black History Month programming, we've always strived to ensure our shows truly reflected the diversity of our student body at SHS. Initially, one common question was, "Do I need to be Black to take part?" Our firm response has always been, "No!" This stance has encouraged more students of different ethnicities to participate over the years, whether it's in African dancing, delivering poetry, singing, playing instruments, or helping backstage.

This year, we wanted to team up with some of Mr. Jason Clark's high school choir students to emphasize that everyone can be part of the Black History Program because it's not just Black history, it's everyone's history. Mr. Clark also saw the importance of pushing our students out of their comfort zones and trying something new, even if it felt risky. He was fully on board with collaborating for the show and even adjusted his classes so all three could participate.

Recognizing the need for his students to explore music beyond what they traditionally sing and to connect with others who might be different from them, Mr. Clark's decision to include his classes in the program will hopefully be a two-way street. Our students might discover a love for singing in a choir, and his students might enjoy being part of our programming with YRU.

From your perspective, what impact has the ICS planning/work had on students and/or the community so far? The impact of our ICS Team at the high school has directly transferred into our line of work, and particularly in challenging us to shift our perspectives as a whole. We refrain from deficit vocabulary and verbiage, and lean toward language that focuses on growth. The work of ICS has given us the opportunity to reflect on ourselves and inherent habits that we’ve built, and this is passed down to our students. We are able to have courageous conversations with our students, which allows them to reflect on themselves, and how they can grow as individuals. This helps them promote their self-advocacy skills, as well as allowing us to reflect on ourselves as professionals.

From your perspective, what impact has the ICS planning/work had on students and/or the community so far?

I see how the work has impacted a change in perspectives, a willingness to reflect on practices that cause harm to others, look for ways to improve our day to day operations and an interest in coming to the table to listen, learn, act on and push forward things that will make all of us better. 

How has your specific work aligned with our equity work?

This work was one of the main catalysts for my move to Shorewood. I have seen many initiatives where we ask the hard questions but few where actions lead to the next steps. As a woman of color, who grew up in predominantly white spaces, there was a stressor at times where I felt I was over analyzed, assumptions were made, low expectations held and was constantly questioned about anything I achieved. Many times, I never saw reflections of myself at school. It was exhausting to say the least. I did have a fantastic teacher who did not look like me but ensured that I saw myself in books, when I drew pictures of myself and always told me I was enough. This provided the foundation for me as I found my voice to challenge those things that I felt were biased. I thought to myself as I continued in my educational journey, how can I ensure that every scholar has a positive experience with learning no matter the environment. It should be a celebration of cultures and beliefs coupled with rigorous academics. That is how I approach each day; the delicate balance of academic growth with joy! Equity work is a fantastic way to analyze our bias, find a new path while setting high expectations for all as you build their confidence to take on new tasks. Our ICS work and our EL work which are both focused on equity. 

What steps have you taken to look at inequities within your systems?  How have you tried to address these?

Our systems are multi-layered here at Atwater and require much reflection and action. We review our data often; both in culture/climate as well as academics. Teachers meet during collaborative time during the day as well as after school on Wednesdays to discuss academic goals and climate. We did this with EL so it is a natural segue for us with collaborative C3 teams. We meet 3 times a year to review data that outlines academic gains for all students as a larger team and in smaller groups twice a month to look at progress towards goals. This process allows us to see the trends in data that highlight those that are on the path to career/college readiness and others who may need more support. During this process we also review attendance data in addition to any social emotional information which may alert us to areas that we may have missed or need to focus more on in terms of the whole child experience for scholars. I often say without climate or culture there is no content. We also select a cross sample of students from each grade band to hear their lens on what is working and what is not in terms of academics and climate. We are very conscious of ensuring there is representation from our various populations so we get a balance. With this we continue to do what is working and reassess what is not then put in place groups, practices or resources toward that to change those outcomes. It is a constant cycle of feedback with action. We also have had PD around how to address our colleagues when we hear or see something that may be detrimental to our growth as a school. While we assume positive intent; we also must continue to help each other find a new path so we do not do what we have always done for the sake of tradition or comfort. It is difficult, at times, but necessary work. We have a very talented staff who are able to name it, address it and impact change.

What collaboration has taken place within your sphere of influence to create different outcomes for the District?

Working with a wonderful district leadership team has been a joy for me. I honestly feel heard, respected and valued. We as a team appreciate the open dialogue, critical feedback and solutions based thinking so we do not admire issues but address them. We will tap into each other for support at a moment's notice to ensure we support the values of the district while putting children first. The level of collaboration is constant, and impactful for our students. As a result of that I am able to tap into the experience, genius and honesty of the school leadership team, we are all very focused on ensuring the whole child is being nurtured at our school while holding each other accountable for next steps making sure we work smarter for our students.

1) From your perspective, what impact has the ICS planning/work had on students and/or the community so far?

As members of the student support team, we are often able to see the full picture of the high school, including the impacts that ICS has on both students and teaching practices.  In particular, we have witnessed departments working hard to ensure all students are exposed to challenging, rigorous curriculum, curriculum that can help them achieve their goals.  We’ve advocated for departments to eliminate less rigorous courses, in order to accelerate achievement for all students.  In addition, we advocated to eliminate prerequisite requirements for Advanced Placement courses, requirements that did not make sense for the content.  We also encourage grading practices that do not penalize students disproportionately for not turning in assignments, recognizing that essential learning targets are a more important showcase of learning; these are only a few ways in which we advocate for equitable support for all students.  All of these actions have helped level the playing field, providing more opportunities to students who may have experienced barriers to accessing curriculum.  Student voice has also been prioritized, with more students seeing themselves in the curriculum, along with more opportunities to speak up.  As student support professionals, we continue to advocate for tier one training that can help teachers differentiate instruction for all learners, including those with individualized education plans and 504 plans.  

2) How has your specific work aligned with our equity work?

As student support professionals, our role is to advocate for students.  ICS has helped all of us focus our attention on educational barriers that impact the whole child, finding ways in which we can provide flexibility and support for all.  In other words, this means we encourage individual solutions to problems, solutions that vary for each child.  ICS has helped focus our vision, recognizing that some students have experienced systemic and institutional discrimination, and as such, need more support.  By advocating for students with other stakeholders, we are able to support students’ mental and physical health, as well as help them pursue their unique goals.  We recognize that trauma and mental health disorders impact different populations in disproportionate ways, which helps us determine who might need further support. Destigmatizing mental health through classroom lessons, club meetings, and individual and group counseling sessions is also an important part of our work.  Psychoeducation, through our comprehensive 504 and IEP process, along with parent seminars coordinated with our partners at Children’s WI, and classroom lessons focused on stress and mental health, reach more students and families, ensuring that access to knowledge about mental health is widespread and available to all.

3) What steps have you taken to look at inequities within your systems?  How have you tried to address these?

A really important step our department has taken in examining inequities is to focus on data–primarily failures and attendance.  We utilize a team approach in our weekly problem solving team meetings, wherein the counselors, the school psychologist, and our associate principal look at trends in grades, attendance, and behavior, attempting to choose appropriate interventions.  We often try to work with families to help mitigate barriers, including bussing, transportation issues, and other impediments to student success.  Interventions include referral to outside resources (therapy, funding, etc.), in-house individual counseling, and group counseling focused on academic success and attendance as well as collaborating through the EMLSS process to provide students with the necessary tools to access classroom curriculum.  We utilize research based curricula, like School Connect and Student Success Skills, to guide these interventions.  We also meet as a district student support team to address issues that arise across schools, often focusing on ways we can be more equitable in our practices. This has included looking at disproportionality in special education, examining which students take different courses, ensuring wording in the Curriculum Handbook is equitable, and so on.  Some of our team work to promote mental health resources for all through a local REDgen chapter, a group focused on destigmatizing mental health disorders.  We also create our school’s weekly advisory slides, which focus on positive messages, coping skills, and adult check-ins.  We also help develop department specific and whole group professional development.  All of these activities assist in helping students feel a sense of belonging at school.  We provide comprehensive postsecondary planning conferences to all juniors, focused on an individualized plan for the future.  Finally, we continually work to learn more about our own biases and blind spots, through training, collaboration and professional development.

 

4) What collaboration has taken place within your sphere of influence to create different outcomes for the District?

As student support professionals, we work with virtually everyone at the high school–teachers, administrators, pupil services staff, special education teachers, administrative assistants, and others.  We also work with parents, students, and community partners, like Children’s WI.  The way in which we influence change is largely through advocacy.  We often advocate, on behalf of our students, for changes–changes in grading practices, flexibility for students struggling with trauma or mental health, and changes in policies.  For instance, we have advocated for grade changes during COVID, to acknowledge that our kids were struggling with isolation, recognizing that mental and physical health were more important than academic grades.  We also advocated for an advisory period, a place where students can get valuable information and also have time to decompress from their daily stressors.  We advocated to remove barriers of entry to certain classes, ensuring that more students were able to take advantage of our many offerings.  Ultimately, our goal is to help students, to provide them with opportunities in an equitable way.  

• 6th Grade: World Geography & Cultures "Then & Now": Drawing connections between ancient and modern worlds
• 7th Grade: Civics & Contemporary Issues
• 8th Grade: US & Wisconsin Studies/Civics 1924-1981

1) From your perspective, what impact has the ICS planning/work had on students and/or the community so far?

Through our ICS work, the staff has committed to creating more inclusive environments for all students. We have been working collectively to meet the needs of all students academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally through instruction in the general education setting. As part of this work, we have examined our personal identities and how these identities impact our interactions with others and the decisions we make as educators. We have also looked at the systems within the district that have contributed to inequities and looked for opportunities to proactively address and transform these systems to create more equitable outcomes for all students. As a staff, we have challenged each other to reflect on our practices within our classrooms and larger school community in an effort to provide individual students with opportunities for support within their classroom setting before seeking support outside of the classroom.

 2) How has your specific work aligned with our equity work?

 

The Equitable Multi-Level Systems of Support (EMLSS) process drives our work. At the center of the EMLSS framework are the strategic use of data, collaboration, and high quality instruction. In order to create equitable outcomes for all students, all layers of the support system framework must work in tandem. Using this framework has helped us make some impactful changes in our approach to literacy instruction in the primary grades. For example, as a result of our data team meetings, we noticed that many of the students identified for reading intervention support had gaps in their phonics skills and knowledge. We recognized the need for a universal approach for teaching these skills in a systematic and explicit way, so we implemented a phonics pilot for grades K-3 in the Fall of 2021. The pilot became the impetus for us to reexamine our literacy instruction as a whole; last summer, a group of teachers from Atwater, Lake Bluff, and SIS met to identify priority standards in English Language Arts and begin the process of developing common assessments for reading and writing units. By developing clear visions for teaching and learning, we are better prepared as a system to meet our goal of providing equitable outcomes for all students.

3) What steps have you taken to look at inequities within your systems?  How have you tried to address these?

Several years ago, a district Response to Intervention team was gathered to address the disproportionality and overrepresentation of Black students within special education. This team looked at root causes and possible solutions to create a more equitable learning experience for all students.  In order to create a more objective process for identifying students in need of additional support, the team recognized the need for a data-driven approach through the EMLSS process.  One of the outcomes of this work was the implementation of a universal screening tool (FastBridge) for reading and math K-8, which is administered three times per year. The FastBridge data provides grade-level teams with information that can be used in connection with other data gathered to design instruction for all students in their classrooms. We were also able to use the data to look at overall trends in student achievement and identify opportunities for our district to shift instructional practices, such as the implementation of a phonics program to systematically address the development of foundational skills in the early grades.

4) What collaboration has taken place within your sphere of influence to create different outcomes for the District?

One of the strengths of Shorewood’s staff is their willingness to collaborate on a range of topics to the benefit of all students. Collaboration occurs in formal and informal ways throughout the school year and over the summer. For the past two years, classroom teachers and support staff specialists have been meeting as grade level teams to analyze data from multiple sources at regular intervals throughout the school year. At these data meetings, staff identify strengths and areas for growth for students. Using asset-based language, grade level teams develop plans for whole group instruction as well as opportunities to support small groups or individual students working towards specific learning outcomes. In our supporting roles, we are in constant collaboration with teachers to ensure the best possible outcomes for our students. This can range from something as simple as identifying common language for introducing a phonics skill to spending weeks together in the summer to develop units of study for reading and writing that align with our vision for student learning outcomes at each grade level. 

1) From your perspective, what impact has the ICS planning/work had on students and/or the community so far?

 

The ICS work that Shorewood School District has been engaging in has had an impact on staff, as they have started to examine their identities, privilege, and systems that they are a part of. Although this work has started, equity is a lifelong journey where school staff are continuously reflecting on their practices and systems. I have seen many courageous and uncomfortable conversations happen amongst staff through ICS. The ICS work has had an impact on students because conversations around social justice, related to race, ethnicity, and gender are being held and welcomed within the classroom. 

 

2) How has your specific work aligned with our equity work?

 

My work with Rainbow Crew has aligned with the ICS work because Rainbow Crew supports LGBTQ+ students. Members in the LGBTQ+ community are historically marginalized; thus examining systems and restructuring them to affirm LGBTQ+ identities is a necessary part of the ICS work. I chose to start Rainbow Crew because I saw a need for additional support for LGBTQ+ students at the elementary level. Shorewood High School and Shorewood Middle School both have student clubs that support LGBTQ+ students. When I started at Shorewood, this type of support did not exist at the elementary level. Through establishing Rainbow Crew, I wanted to create a safe place for students to feel comfortable talking about gender and sexual orientation. Rainbow Crew is an affinity group for LGBTQ+ students and allies at both Lake Bluff Elementary School and Atwater Elementary School. Rainbow Crew meets once a month to discuss various topics related to gender and sexual orientation. Students participated in activities, conversations, and even designed Pride Month posters which were sold at the Lake Bluff Student Market to raise funds for UNICEF. Between both schools, there are over 180 students involved in Rainbow Crew.

 

3) What steps have you taken to look at inequities within your systems?  How have you tried to address these?

 

In my role as the Shorewood Elementary School Band Teacher, I have noticed the lack of a culturally responsive curriculum written for elementary band. This past summer, I wrote out the Shorewood Elementary Band curriculum in the form of a guaranteed viable curriculum. Marzano (2003) says that “a guaranteed and viable curriculum (GVC) ensures that all students have an equal opportunity to learn (OTL). Each student will have access to an effective or highly effective teacher, and access to the same content, knowledge and skills in each section or class.” The Elementary Band GVC is standards based and will create opportunities for all students to show their mastery in the music standards. 

 

Part of having an equitable curriculum is having culturally responsive curriculum resources to support learning the standards. After reviewing past band method books used in Shorewood (a curriculum resource), I have also adopted a new curriculum resource for fourth grade band that is more culturally responsive. Many elementary band method books contain popular songs that are also minstrel songs (“Camptown Races” and “Jingle Bells” are a few examples). Minstrel songs were used in minstrel shows. Minstrel shows were composed of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that characterized people of African descent in a racist way through the use of blackface. Although these tunes are well known and are easy for beginner band students to learn, I wanted to eliminate these songs from the elementary band resources because their roots are steeped in racism. Thus, I have adopted “Habits of a Successful Beginner Band Musician” as a resource where all songs are screened for cultural responsiveness. 

 

4) What collaboration has taken place within your sphere of influence to create different outcomes for the District?

Many staff members have collaborated with me to support Rainbow Crew at the monthly meetings. Additionally, with each lesson, I have created a caregiver guide that educates adults on the monthly Rainbow Crew topic. These documents were intentionally made to provide care and support to caregivers who in turn can provide care and support at home to the scholars in Rainbow Crew. The caregiver guides were designed by myself in relation to the monthly Rainbow Crew topic. The staff members that help with Rainbow Crew also review these guides and provide feedback. The Rainbow Crew caregiver guides highlight learning targets, new information learned, question prompts, and activities to extend learning. In the process of creating the caregiver guides, I learned the importance of supporting initiatives that are happening within the school building at home. In order for change to truly work, it needs to be a community effort. Thus, caregivers need to be educated about the initiative topics and how they support their scholars in the school’s work.

 

Outside of Rainbow Crew, I have collaborated with the previous Shorewood High School Band teacher, Bryan Kujawa, to discuss and review our band literature to work on programming more culturally responsive music. 

 

Links to Rainbow Crew Resources:

Rainbow Crew Caregiver Letter
Rainbow Crew Meeting #2

Rainbow Crew February Caregiver Information

Rainbow Crew Meeting #3

Rainbow Crew March Caregiver Information

Rainbow Crew Meeting #4

April Rainbow Crew Caregiver Information

Rainbow Crew Meeting #5

May Rainbow Crew Caregiver Information