WESTERLY ARC POSITION PAPER

The Westerly Public School Equity Audit

January

Today’s parents and educators look for an education that speaks to all aspects of every
child -- an education that re ects the many races, ethnic groups, and cultures of our
community in school curricula and classrooms. Indeed, parents and educators want an
education to provide deep, respectful growth meeting the individual needs of each child and
multiple opportunities to become thoughtful and creative human beings.

More clearly than ever, we see the need to work together in a more purposeful, focused, and
conscious way. A st century education equips students with the knowledge and skills to
achieve their full potential; today’s students connect and contribute to an increasingly
complex global community; and today’s school policy makers strategically focus upon helping
teachers and parents empower students to lead better lives now and in the future. The
productive participation of democratic citizens hinges upon fairness, integrity, and inclusivity
in school policy. Today’s schools and educators increasingly focus upon evidence-based
instruction and school reform to achieve these goals. Equity audits direct us to focus upon
areas where we can work harder and smarter for all.

Equality and equity are different. Equality demands that all have access to the same
opportunities and resources; equity acknowledges that all have different needs for these
resources and opportunities. For example, two children are injured at school. One has a
minor paper-cut; the other a head injury. Equality is giving the children the same treatment -
a band-aid. The treatment is equal, but it is not equitable. The band-aid treats the paper cut,
but it does not treat a head injury. Taking the child with the head injury to the hospital is
equity; it is fair treatment based upon the child’s needs.
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 Likewise, when applied to education, equality and equity do not mean the same thing. In
education, equality in education means that each student gets the same resources and opportunity;
equity means that each student gets the opportunities and resources they need. Whereas an
approach to education based solely on equality might ask, "What’s wrong with students who
don’t succeed in our current system?", an equity-based approach asks, "How can we provide
services to ensure all students succeed? " To do otherwise is not to invest in all our children
and to leave untapped talent on the table. Good schools and good communities do not do
so. We cannot do so. What we can do is assess our needs, study the data, and reform delivery
of services. Just as businesses conduct nancial audits by objective experts to assess their
scal health and make recommendations for change, school systems conduct educational
audits to assess their educational health of school systems and make recommendations for
adjustment in delivery of instructional services according to student need. Such audits
ensure equity.

There’s no one-size ts all roadmap for equity in schools. Equity requires listening deeply to
the needs of students and teachers and building instructional and service systems that
respond to those needs. An equity audit is a big project. Good school districts align
opportunities and resources with individual student needs for powerful results. Our
students deserve such focused work; our community will pro t.

Substantial research shows that equity in schools is the answer to supporting every student,
not just those from disadvantaged backgrounds. An equity education reduces gaps in
achievement, opportunity and resources. We know that schools that close these gaps among
all demographics have the highest overall test scores. This means that when the most
disadvantaged students' scores improve, students' scores from more privileged backgrounds
also improve. The entire system is placed on an improvement trajectory.

Equity data shows that when schools provide their students with resources that t their
individual circumstances, the entire classroom environment improves. In addition, an
equitable education uses resources more ef ciently. Equity in schools also improves
communities through stronger social cohesion, and increases the skills that fuel local and
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state long-term economic growth. Simply stated, equity is a pro table social and economic
investment!

Without a comprehensive equity audit, the Westerly School Administration and School
Committee can only guess or assume what academic and achievement gaps exist and how to
address them. To receive an honest and reliable assessment, an equity audit must be
performed and led by independent and knowledgeable auditors who are skilled in school
social justice, trained to recognize and prevent unconscious bias, and avoid school politics to
invalidate results. Without skilled and practiced experts from outside a system which has
worked with many other school districts, a school system, no matter how well-intentioned,
misses the opportunities for improvement. In the very same way that independent nancial
auditors bring a new set of eyes to the same gures that insiders know so well, so too does an
independent, outside, objective educational equity audit.

Given the abundance of data that striving toward educational equity is a winning strategy for
all students, it is discouraging to hear some of our School Committee and community
members opposing the equity audit because of their lack of understanding what an equity
audit is and isn’t, confusing it with an Education Opportunity Audit, that it is only about
race, that most consultants are “selling us a bill of goods” or suggest the audit should be done
in-house.

Equity does not mean all students have equal outcomes in every subject; rather it means that
whatever variations there may be in educational outcomes, they should not be related to a
student's background. In other words, there can be numerous reasons why some students
perform better than others, but the performance differences should not be the result of the
conditions in which students learn.

An equity audit looks at - indicators, including special education needs, mental health
needs, socio-economic status, race, gender, and immigrant background. It also includes data
on student college-prep tracks, AP programs, bilingual education, dropout rates, proportion
of students disciplined, instructional programs and settings. It listens to our students, to our
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teachers and to those most affected in our community to ascertain the support they need.

To get accurate data, it is critical to have participants from a broad base affected by the
policies, programs and practices in light of ethnicity, gender, race, language, disability, and
similar factors associated with social, political, and educational disparities. Short cuts, such
as gathering data only on performance, will take us in the wrong direction and lead to
inaccurate decision-making. This is why equity audits are designed to touch all parts of the
system - policies, programs, and practices affecting teachers, staff and students.

An equity audit, for example, does not just look at the completion rates of students taking
Algebra I; it looks at the policy (e.g all students take Algebra I in Grade ), the algebra
curriculum, student assignments, supports for students needing help, and quali cations and
assignment of teachers teaching Algebra I. The purpose is to highlight, discuss, and generate
a pool of different responses to identify any systemic patterns of inequities.

An equity audit can do an enormous amount of good for a school's balance sheet. The
Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data shows that improving
education is not all about increasing costs and the volume of resources, but more about how
resources are allocated to provide teachers and students with a positive learning
environment - where they believe they can succeed, believe they belong in the culture they
are working in, and believe it is connected to a purpose.

Asking equity questions is more than just an intellectual exercise. If change is to be effective,
it will generate questions. Not all questioning is resistance and wanting to understand is a
good thing. Let push back be an indicator of what staff, students, parents, and the
community are thinking and feeling about the equity audit, and not about a minority trying
to use the equity audit as an outlet for their lies, division, and sel sh grievances.

It is a school’s challenge to become a healthy community that fosters the growth of all
individuals connected with it. Individuals in turn lend their strength to the development of
the school allowing it to serve as a center for the community around it. The ripples can
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 extend widely and in this decade fraught with dif culties, but lled with possibilities, it is
hard to say how far education can go in fostering social renewal. But is it clear that the
possibility exists with this equity audit initiative and that it is time to take courage in hand to
allow education and our community to bring forth the best in our students and each other.

Westerly ARC,
Anne Pearce

RESOURCES
. PISA : Insights and Interpretations, Andreas Schleicher.
. MAEC: An Equity Audit: Is it in your future? http://www.maec.org/equit-audit
. Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, ).
. Leading Every Day: Actions for Effective Leadership, rd editions, , by Joyce Kaser,
Susan Mundry, Katherine E. Stiles, and Susan Loucks-Horsley.
. Zinn Education Project, "A Talk to Teachers", Article by James, Baldwin, .
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