3 minute read
Training: Equity Institute
TRAINING
A pipeline for teachers from communities of color
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BY SARAH FRANCIS | Contributing Writer
THE ORIGINS OF THE Equity Institute are rooted in the personal lives and barriers confronted by its co-founders and teachers Karla Vigil and Carlon Howard.
The Equity Institute is an education-based Latino- and Black-led nonprofit that develops programs for teachers, administrators and the community. It focuses on creating diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racist policies.
Although Vigil and Howard had been working on the concept for some time, the Equity Institute officially got off the ground just before the COVID-19 pandemic. In an unexpected twist, the pandemic had a positive effect, Vigil says, with support for underserved communities coming from foundations across the country.
The institute’s training, propelled by its mission, went virtual, reaching more people.
“We survived because we had to,” Vigil said.
In just two years, the Providence nonprofit helped schools create equity learning labs and launched monthly community meetups, bringing together historically underrepresented groups. Some 1,700 educators, leaders and community members have connected.
Vigil also points to the work the organization has done with school districts, giving support to more than 2,000 teachers and leaders. These tools, in turn, build trust with students.
Think about the classroom curriculum, Vigil says.
“Are the authors that students read predominantly white? Are students seeing themselves in the school community in the posters on the wall? Are disciplinary policies just targeting Black and brown students? Make sure there are social services and lunch available for them,” she said.
Vigil, who was born in El Salvador and grew up in Providence’s West End, knows firsthand how inequity can shape someone’s life. Working as a teacher for several years cemented her commitment to recruiting and supporting teachers of color.
Howard was raised in Georgia. He hadn’t intended to go into education but became interested in fighting social injustice because of friends who’d had challenges with the criminal justice system. He landed at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence for a year, where many students are from immigrant families. He says the experience was very gratifying.
“I could identify with them and what they were facing and ended up teaching a couple of years,” Howard said. “I wanted to make changes in that education space. One thing that was sad is that these students weren’t necessarily performing better and weren’t accessing opportunities of more affluent kids; I felt more could be done. The conventional wisdom is if you work hard and you’re nice, you’ll be successful. My experience is that isn’t always the case.”
According to the Pew Research Center, 80%
EQUITY INSTITUTE
BROADENING EDUCATION: Staff members at the Equity Institute work together in Providence. The institute is an educationbased nonprofit that develops programs for teachers, administrators and the community, with a focus on creating diversity, equity, inclusion and anit-racist policies.
PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM
of public school teachers across the country are white, much less racially and ethnically diverse than their students. An ongoing national shortage of teachers and would-be teachers is also a reality.
One effort to stem that is the nonprofit’s Educator Pathway Program. Working with College Unbound, the TA to BA program provides support to teacher’s aides, administrative assistants, paraprofessionals and others working in neighborhood schools who come from a range of diverse backgrounds.
These future educators have deep connections to their students but historically have faced barriers to completing college and becoming certified teachers. Participation has climbed from 15 potential teachers in 2020 to 70 this year, with 150 expected in 2023.
“The clearest outcomes we’re pushing for are improving the shortage of educators and a more diverse teaching group,” said Howard, who as chief impact officer oversees the program.
However, Vigil says the most important aspect of the training at the Equity Institute is its dedicated staff of 13, which works on everything from managing programs to data crunching and tracking benchmarks the organization wants to meet.
“When we hire people, they have to really believe in this kind of work,” Vigil said. “We’re not solving these problems in the next 50 years. The job will outlive me.” n
