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ICS for Equity in Action - Nate Schultz

Added Jul 26, 2021 •

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Atwater Elementary School principal Nate Schultz shares his thoughts on and experiences with implementing the ICS framework at Atwater this school year.

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please discuss how I see is has impacted you personally and professionally as a personal because they think the personal the personal tax professional right here who you are matters professionally to and so personally the reflection that the ICS modules and work out we've done has really challenged me and my thinking so as a white I'll have a male as a gay male like an all my identities going through the modules has helped me to understand myself better and the growth that I have had and will need to continue to have t e a more rounded human be professionally then when I put on kind of my educator hat it's really helped me to can you to grow to see the inequities in our system and to realize that yes as an individual I'm part of it but also that I've inherited and been a part of and helped create I'm in a horrible systems and so the ICS modules provided that structured opportunity to reflect and to really take that time to stop and think about my actions and our actions as a system an expression what has been please take away from the ICS practice biggest snake away what's the biggest takeaway from the process has been the amount of work that needs to be done for me prior to ICS I saw the inequities and I saw what I thought where the play this is to address and then by going through the modules it's helped me to realize the extent of the inevitable system that we have that everything is part of it it's not us it's not a simple fix and I never thought it was a simple fix but it's even more complex and more in-depth and ingrained in our system our beliefs and our is the general right Society but it's a bigger piece of that than I originally thought that everything that we do we have to come Matt and Tim think through again that it's not just something that you can Follow The Playbook and then put into place. It's a lifelong time of a lifelong commitment to really make through a chemical change from your perspective how has ICS been used to create more Equitable systems within our school yet this year what I've noticed about the modules so we started in September there was a training for leadership team in myself and others in in Play Summer and then in September we start with a full staff and we've worked our way through 4 module so far here at that water we're going to just just begin module five next week before the school year ends and what I've noticed is that the models we've done so far have focused and solidified the why of the work from many different angles from an understanding of identity to a history of margarine nation in schools to research do all either from ways we've been able to examine the deeper purpose into why we do this work and stuff throughout this entire year we've been able go to dig in and have some really in-depth conversations as a staff about systemic things about societal issues and really had a chance to reflect support example at 1 ICS drama time we had a teacher that brought up she was just really wondering about Doctor Seuss it was close to dr. Seuss when do schools across the country kind of celebrate and the work that he's done and so our staff has been really grappling with that for a while and a teacher took the opportunity to say can we talk about that can we talk about whether or not we should be using Doctor Seuss books and we had a really great conversation as a staff and decided that many of the works that he has are racist they are bigotry I should not be used to teach students Rhyme or patterns or literacy like they have in the past and so providing that space and opportunity for our staff to have that ball and to really think about is this practice or is this practice racist are we using things that we should not be using has been amazing and we've been able to do that here at Atwater because we're really learning about the y in the models are helping us do that how is this work with ICS different from other initiatives so I think the difference is that ICS is not only structured where we five modules we have coaches that we work with the experts that have done the research that have created these modules but we have the support but it also is able to be slowed at a pace or we can work through it in a way that makes sense for our community it's not something where you have to go through so fast it's not something where there are certain things like a checklist it doesn't work that way so when I've been working with our leadership team here at water or our coach that developed the ICS modules we've met several times this year in a fact about where is the staff right now and we spent more time in some areas last time in others you know we spend quite a bit of time in the identity module cuz we need to do that work whereas the research module went a little faster cuz we dissected the research and understood and had good conversations it was time to move on right so so it's different in that and that's one way that is different is the way that it set up the other way that it's different is an education you know a lot of pendulum spring swing so if you're an education for a certain amount of time you start to see kind of a pendulum swing where you were you go back to what research says and it kind of says we should do it this way now let's do it this way and if you're around long enough you see that 7 time around 10 years so I'm starting to kind of get that Viewpoint from any of that water staff members have expressed like the true core work will were really dismantling and not just putting another Band-Aid on something that this is more in-depth than we've ever done before it is more honest and authentic than we've ever done before and so I think four. the reason why it feels different is that it feels like we're really digging in rather than just adopting a new thing it's not a new thing it's a different way of doing school not adding something to the way that we do school what is a Glo indoor grow I think that we have had here at at water is through the ICS working through some other resource is that I pulled we're Partners school with e l education so it's an organization that mission is also to create Equitable learning for all students through authentic learning so projects we have crew connection things like that so between Cs and resources I use with ele education I believe that at water is becoming a more Brave Community we're talking talking more openly about race were talking more openly about inequities where were real morning and we're making chefs where we can make them and so I think that that has been a glow throughout the process for our building is to own it and to say we need to use what we need to we don't know what we're changing yeah right that's the long-term process and that's good right we want it to be slow and thoughtful we don't want to just changed to something different for the sake of change because that hasn't worked in the past has been done before you can't go about doing it that way but the grow is I believe the feeling among that water and our staff here at that it's time to make change that we understand their inequities you that I think a grow is to realize that in the moment it's one thing to say it in a professional development session to read an article and be like yes of course I just committed to recognize it in that today and soda grow is too in that moment with working with a student or creating that lesson plan or whatever it might be to stop and think and just say okay where where can I apply my ICS training right and those conversations not going to take some time that we're changing the way that we were taught to do school so it's not an easy thing but that's that's the girl that we have to do alright next question what work have you or your staff done to begin to eliminate inequities within our district so what is having those conversations right just creating a community where were openly talking about our identities robley talking about unable to share my story of coming out and and working as an openly gay male gay professional and that's something that isn't why I'm Fred right I mean that that's new so being able to create that brave Community right where we talked about that that's where the work starts is that open dialogue in that conversation that ownership right to be able to recognize the inequities and still starting there in terms of specific changes and things we've been proud of that water for being supportive and making changes things like looking at tax like Doctor Seuss right no longer using dr. Seuss to teach Rhyme or patterns or things like that but you use more portable resources right to use more Auntie racist and Tobias resources to teach reading and to teach science and whatever might be so that's a change that we were able to make also looked at a sasin practices beginning to look what is the best way to assess students reading levels and 2 look at research and and the bias that comes with assessments and to see if there are better ways and then one thing one pretty tangible that we've done this year to is at the elementary level we disrupted and changed our report card we recognized that there were pieces on the report card that we should not be assessing students on phrases like displays good man I think was something that was on there and it is not our biases with that like how do you how do you determine if a student is displaying good manners right what does that even mean and look like and how do you define that without bra your bias in for a white majority culture that we are at water right that's the one that we bring and we recognize we need to examine that but then it's not fair for us to put our definition of good manners on students on Hall Street and so at the staff we took that off we're not going to do that right we're not we're no longer a student and good manners for what respect looks like or things like that that are completely subjective and full of life and so we change report card and and a lot which explains why that there were reasons behind it but those more narrative with more teacher feedback right explaining through 21st century skills and character education and you know how to just treat others well right be good people but trying not to put the definition on it like we have in the past which is full of those by that lead on overtime right I mean it's not perfect but we made that pretty significant change this year because we recognize that that's causing harm and so we're no longer going to do things that cause her all right and the last question is on please share with us what else you would want people to know about ideas so I think I would want people to know about ICS that it will make you uncomfortable the only way you grow it through the comfort and so I share that with my staff I think that all staff need to know that that you are going to be discomfort in you have to in order to grow I would say that theme for community members and for parents of their two for students there's if you're really committed to following the ICS modules into really examining our systems and structures things have to change no longer can we say oldest in Shorewood that's how we do it that is unacceptable anymore so what I want people to know is ICS is an acronym rifle what really means is disrupting an equitable systems and what that really means is letting go of things that we have done for a long time here in Shorewood and that's going to make you uncomfortable instead of making people mad but if you are really committed to that then you whoever you is parents teachers are I'm talking about there right now you're really committed to that then you need to own and recognize that there are things that are an equitable and there is have to change and be willing to listen to those that have been impacted by those inequities those that have been marginalized so you can learn from that and commit to really doing better to shed your bias to Shag. Historical like this is how we he's done it because that is like I said no longer acceptable we can no longer do things that cause harm or cause marginalization so ICS doesn't just me know we're going to read some articles and make some changes and social justice work in the creek we need to do social justice work but it's bigger than that it's just that people have an experience before and we don't know exactly what that is yet so it's going to take I'm but it's going to be it's going to be good going to be right and be able to go but it's going to be for today

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ICS for Equity in Action - Nate Schultz

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