Equity & Anti-Racism
Our Commitment to Equity and Anti-Racism Statement
Equity & The Mission and vision of the West Hartford Public Schools speak to our commitment to clear paths so that each and every student is able realize their potential and their humanity. We remain committed to dismantling systems that create barriers for students, particularly students of color and students of low-income socioeconomic status. We commit to become an anti-racist organization. This promise is grounded in our core values of equity, diversity and inclusion.
We value diversity across multiple dimensions with recognition that for far too long, African American and Latino students have not fared well in American public schools. Further, the voice and visibility of our Asian and Native American students have not been recognized proportionately. We are keenly aware of our own shortcomings relative to achievement, opportunity, and culture issues within our schools. Our structures reflect our long-standing commitment to this work. Over the last several years, we have created the Office of Diversity Advancement, adopted a framework for Cultural Competence, provided ongoing professional development to all of our staff, and integrated cultural competence targets and indicators into our district development plan and Board of Education goals.
Despite strides that we have made over the last several years, disparities within and among student groups persist. We acknowledge that there is still much for us to learn and to do on deeper levels to transform our systems to ensure equitable access, opportunities and support for underserved and underrepresented students. Therefore, it is important that we reflect on and honor areas of progress, so that we can leverage our most effective and promising practices to give each and every student the best chance for school success and postsecondary outcomes.
Curriculum
We have revised our curriculum and resources to ensure opportunities for all students to have windows into the diversity of culture within our community and our world as well as reflections of their own identity in ways that celebrate their heritage, achievements, and role in society. We have undertaken significant resource adoption with this cultural competence lens, revised curriculum to showcase the perspectives of multiple voices within history and the arts, and partnered with national and community organizations in order to provide authentic learning experiences that tell the story of underrepresented groups, their sacrifices and their achievements. Using the Windows, Mirrors and Sliding Glass Doors framework, we have updated and curated our collection of diverse guided and independent reading choices across elementary and secondary school grades and reading levels. We have included author and illustrator visits that showcase the work of writers and artists from diverse identities, cultures and communities.
It Isn't Enough
Resources are scarce and quality and suitability for our intended purposes can vary greatly. We must not let the challenges of matching resources to content, grade and reading levels prevent students from seeing themselves within the context of teaching and learning. To ensure that the narratives, experiences and perspectives of our students are reflected in the curriculum, we must do more to access and develop culturally relevant and responsive resources.
We will:
- Continue to make this work a priority providing tangible supports for the work within our budget, curricular review, and relevant structures.
- Seek out partnerships with organizations such as the Amistad Center to provide authentic voice to the work and where resources cannot be found.
- Commission or create the resources in alignment with our curricular and cultural competence goals.
Professional Development
We have engaged our entire staff consistently over a period of several years in a professional learning program centered around Cultural Competence. All staff have experienced training in anti-bias, culturally responsive teaching, and social emotional learning. Most recently, some staff have begun a train-the-trainer model focused on trauma informed-practice with a district-wide turn-key to all staff planned in the fall. We have hosted multiple assured professional learning workshops to ensure training of the entire staff as well as investing in capacity- building of key teacher-leaders and others in advanced equity and diversity training.
It Isn't Enough
One of many benefits to our ongoing training and focus on equity, diversity and inclusion is a sharpened lens that informs our own awareness of the amount of work still to be done. Sadly, at times we recognize more glaring examples of our own shortcomings and the need to work not only broadly with all staff but also closely with individuals. We recognize the need to instill an ownership of this work in every educator regardless of individual identity or cultural background.
We will:
- Develop an anti-racism professional learning program and layer this work into our existing professional learning plans around cultural competence and building capacity for culturally responsive teaching practice.
- Instill urgency, ownership and agency for this work across all of our staff.
- NOT tolerate behaviors or practices incongruent with our focus on equity, diversity and inclusion.
Teacher Diversity
We have demonstrated incremental growth in the diversity of our teaching staff every year for six years amounting to a 2.5% increase. Looked at through another lens, over the span of these six years, we have seen a net increase of 19 teachers of color as part of a larger whole of an additional 24 teachers among minority race classifications. These changes occur during a period of a net decrease of one teacher. This is a result of both competency-based promotions and diversity hiring principles, including our commitment to creating diverse hiring pools for all positions. Several years back, in the face of challenges encountered with assembling a diverse hiring pool, WHPS partnered with Central Connecticut State University, among other local colleges and universities, to develop a program to grow our own pipeline of educators of color. The Future Educators of Diversity (FEOD) project has quickly become a hallmark for the district and a model for the state and our university system. We have partnered with Historically Black Colleges (HBCUs) and the Minority Recruitment Teacher Program of the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) to attract, recruit, hire, support and retain a diverse teaching personnel that more closely represents the diversity of the student population.
It Isn't Enough
As a district, our student population has become increasingly diverse. Currently 41% of our student population are students of color (American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Hispanic/ Latino), up over 5% in the last five years. Teachers of color make up only 9% of our overall certified staff. That underrepresentation makes it all too common for students to experience a teacher who looks like themselves infrequently, if at all.
We will:
- Continue to pursue highly qualified teachers of color for all roles.
- Attend and host minority recruiting fairs and look to expand programs such as FEOD.
- Leverage structures such as EDC and others such as LGBT+ to ensure we are providing visible supports and formal structures to ensure an inclusive workplace environment for all staff.
District Systems And Structures For Equity, Diversity And Inclusion
We have developed structures and procedures that closely examine systemic policies, programs and practices to guard against inequities, barriers and oppression in order to create equitable systemic approaches. Our Equity and Diversity Council (EDC) led by our Director of Diversity Advancement is our foremost visible structure to lead and support systemic improvements in order to promote equity, advance diversity, and foster inclusiveness across all areas of our district's programs and services. The EDC's equity agenda is reflected across all of our leadership structures, within our Professional Learning and Evaluation Committee, and in our parent organizations. The work of the district leadership team together with the EDC provides professional learning and a formal framework to build the capacity for cultural competence in our staff across all levels of our organization.
It Isn't Enough
While we are proud of our many achievements to include continuous reduction of the achievement gap over multiple years, continuous growth in access to college and career ready opportunities for students of color, and increases in our percentage of teachers of color, we have significantly further to go. Our increases, while consistent, are incremental and sizeable gaps across most measures persist. We remain focussed on increasing opportunities, reducing achievement gaps, eliminating disparities relative to student discipline and disproportionate rates of identification for special education.
We will:
- Redouble our efforts, relating to rooting our systemic inequities while developing our staff and leadership capacity for this work.
- Develop and overlay an anti-racist les to our existing cultural competence framework and build upon our successful assured professional learning experience this past year to provide professional learning for all staff on anti-racism.
- Examine and refine our building-based Equity Leadership Teams to drive school efforts to achieve our district vision.
School Climate And Student Engagement
We have engaged in a multi-year Welcoming Schools initiative to formally study and strategically improve our school climates with aims of inclusivity, equity and family and community engagement. We have made significant strides with welcoming and supporting stronger community bonds with our Hartford families who participate in the Choice Program and other groups such as: the Community of Concern (CoC), the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) parent groups, Hello! West Hartford, Special Education Parent Teacher Organization (SEPTO), West Hartford African American Social and Cultural Organization (WHAASCO), and the recently formed Concerned Parents of Color of West Hartford (CPCWH), etc. We offer a wide array of extra-curricular programs and activities (PK-12) that create school environments that develop student character, citizenship, social-emotional skills and develop a collective sense of cultural competence. We celebrate and showcase the achievements and contributions among our diverse community through formal programming related to Black History Month, Human Rights Day, etc. We provide students with leadership roles and agency by positioning students within underrepresented groups as mentors, WEB and CREW leaders, in order to build opportunities for student engagement, as well as provide role models for our younger students that they may see themselves as leaders.
It Isn't Enough
Recent events unquestionably demonstrate that no matter the progress we feel we've made to build welcoming, inclusive, and culturally competent school environments, our efforts fall short of a truly balanced and equitable treatment of all students and a climate that fosters and promotes a positive self- image and cultural identity for every child.
We will:
- Learn from student voices how we can best improve our culture and climate.
- Leverage student interviews and focus groups to assess our most and least impactful efforts and relentlessly pursue continuous improvement.
- Engage students in peer-to-peer and student/educator discussion platforms and events that center racial justice and anti-racism in teaching about race, racism, privilege, allyship and justice.
- Strengthen our efforts to engage parents and care-givers as shoulder partners to improve the learning, development and well-being of all students.
