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JOURNAL

Wednesday Journal, April 3, 2019

A YEAR-LONG SERIES FOCUSING ON COMMUNICATING OUR PRIORITIES FOR CHILDREN

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INSIDE

GLOSSARY OF EQUITY TERMS

What is equity? Why is it important?

By LACEY SIKORA

Contributing Reporter

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s Oak Park and River Forest introduce equity policies in their schools and potentially in village government, striving to create a more equitable playing field for residents, three local thought leaders immersed in the work of equity express their thoughts on what equity means here at home and why working towards it is so important.

Equity in the community Lisa Pintado-Vertner, member of Oak Park Call to Action, notes that her family’s own multi-cultural background informs her activism and push for equity in the community that she now calls home. To capture her views on equity, she points to the often-used visual of three children, one short, one VISUALIZATION: A way to look at equity. (Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire) medium-sized and one tall, attempting to look over a wall into a baseball dent, currently on the District 90 River game. When all three children receive more to do than celebrating cultures.

Forest elementary school board and the same height stool, the short child People want to experience diversity “People come currently a candidate for the school can’t see over the fence, the tall child but they don’t want to make sacrifices. board at OPRF. He is also executive diis raised high above the fence, and the If you want to live in a diverse comhere for diversity rector of the Center for Tax and Budget medium-sized child’s view is perfect. munity, you might have to give up but don’t really care Accountability (“CTBA”), a bipartisan The children all have the best view something.”

Pintado-Vertner wants think tank. of the game when they about equity.”

Oak Park’s village governMartire says he defines equity in a are given stools geared — Lisa Pintado-Vertner, ment to adopt an equity way that crosses political lines and simtoward their individual policy. “The idea is that plifies the picture for many.

Oak Park Call to heights. whenever you’re making “Look at the big picture. If the She says that levelling Action member decisions, you kind of American Dream means anything, the playing field doesn’t put on these racial equity the circumstances of a person’s birth mean throwing everyglasses. Look at things one together in a room current and historic need where they shouldn’t determine their ability to refrom that perspective the are and providing them both the op- alize the American Dream. Everyone with the same tools and whole time rather than portunity and the tools to be successful should be able to realize their potential looking for success. “Not and become an active participant in just tagging it on at the academically, financially, and socially.” everyone can take advantage of the same oppor- Lisa Pintado-Vertner end. It needs to be there Flournoy says that equity at home is the modern democracy. This is a very from the start. Our town reliant on government, schools, com- unifying definition that goes across all tunities and get the same is not all white. People munity, businesses and organizations world views. It’s what equity looks like outcomes.”

Oak Park, Pintado-Vertner says pro- affected by village policies are not all working together to make equity a re- from a community standpoint.”

He suggests ways a community can vides a unique perspective. “People white.” ality. She says a friend coined a phrase Mak Flournoy is co-founder and cur- that captures the importance of equi- evaluate its resolve. Is there a range of come here for diversity but don’t really care about equity. If you want to rent co-President of DivCo, the Oak ty work, “when we all do better, we all housing options: low, middle and high?

Does the community present itself as a enjoy the benefits of not living in a to- Park PTO Diversity Council. For her, do better.” tally homogenous society, there’s a lot equity means “meeting those with a Ralph Martire is a River Forest resi- welcoming community? Do people of

In partnership with

different backgrounds feel alienated or included? What does the education system look like? Does it have policies that support diversity? What kind of arts programming is offered? Is there a range of races and ages? Does the community support aging in place?

Are there activities for all people to engage in?

Equity in Education In the wake of the “America To Me” documentary series and with the adoption and proposal of equity policies in local schools, equity in education has been a focus of much attention. Martire, Pintado-Vertner and Flournoy are optimistic but agree that much work remains to be done.

Pintado-Vertner says that there is a clear need for an equitable approach to resolve some of the disparities in our schools. “In some ways, people

See EQUITY on page 3

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Wednesday Journal, April 3, 2019

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Why racial equity now?

A look at intersectionality

BY LACEY SIKORA Contributing Reporter

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s Oak Park and River Forest work to come to grips with the concept of racial equity – both in our schools and in the wider community – here’s another term to factor into the complex conversation and consciousness-raising ahead of us.

Intersectionality.

What does it mean? It means recognizing all the points of identity that can contribute to inequitable outcomes for an individual or group. The new equity policy in Oak Park’s District 97 public elementary schools lists race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, national origin, foster status, involvement with the juvenile justice system, IEP status, disability, learning difference, immigration status, or language.

The new policy, titled “Ensuring Racial and Educational Equity,” is inclusionary says Terry Terry Keleher Keleher. He is an Oak Park resident and director of Strategic Innovation at Race Forward, a national nonprofit racial justice organization, that works in partnership with the Government Alliance on Race and Equity. Keleher, who was instrumental in developing the D97 policy, says that while inclusionary policies work to address all types of identities and inequities, an intersectional approach does something different.

He points to Columbia Law School professor Kimberle Crenshaw who coined the term intersectionality to explain a unique kind of discrimination faced by African American women: a distinct combination of discrimination that is ignored or erased by taking in only the race component or the gender component.

According to Keleher, District 97’s new policy intentionally has an inclusionary, as well as an intersectional, framework. He says use of the inclusionary characteristics allows the district to embrace, “the notion that each student matters and every student has the right to an excellent and equitable educational experience.” grappled with inequity. “There’s been an under- tus and family status, the racial divide still exists.

He goes on to state, standing for decades now that there are dispari- It says to me that we’re still dealing with implicit “Intersectionality rec- ties when it comes to students’ academic success bias in systems and that allows this to perpetuognizes that there are and discipline. It happens around the country ate.” multiple power dimen- and here in Oak Park and River Forest.”

Keleher also sees implicit bias at work and says sions to our identities, Cassell says she is a firm believer in the idea it translates beyond the schools to the communiand there are differ- that all oppression is inter-rety at large. “If you look at any of the major quality ences in how we are lated, and says that research of life indicators in the U.S. situated in relationship shows that it is a false choice – from infant mortality to life to multiple power dy- to think that helping one expectancy and everything “If we are namics that can have group means that another in between, such as eduinteracting and com- group is not being helped. cational attainment, homeimproving and Carrie Kamm pounding impacts.” ownership, employment, “If we are improving and havhaving greater Carrie Kamm, Dis- ing greater levels of success income, health care access trict 97 senior equity director, says that Cren- for our students of color, it and net wealth -- there’s an levels of success shaw’s work informs her position at the district. will help all students.” overwhelming amount of for our students “Using intersectionality as a framework, we can evidence of deep and perShe points to research on look at the whole person and their entire identity. two points the school has sistent racial disparities.” of color, it will help From race, to gender to sexual identity, there are recently addressed to supHe points to statistics all students.” different biases. People have complex and over- port the theory that focusing provided by the Illinois Aslapping experiences.” sets Building Group that on racial equity — Jennifer Cassell, D97’s newly-adopted policy will shows that in 2011, the meprovides good OPRF school help guide the school board and dian white household had outcomes for all board member administration, and Kamm says they 16 times the wealth of Afristudents.

She are already trying to work with intercan American households says that the sectionality as a guide. “Three times and 13 times the wealth of research shows a year, we do data dives with our that having more teachers of color Latino households in the state. The wealth divide school district leaders. Information provides a richer educational experi- among white and African Americans in Illinois is aggregated by race, gender and ence and better outcomes for all stu- quadrupled between 1986 and 2011.

To Keleher, these statistics point to the strucother characteristics to better underdents and that creating more access stand how our students are experifor people of color to honors and tural racism at work in Illinois and here in Oak Jennifer Cassell encing issues. We are trying to gain AP classes does not water down the Park and River Forest. Embracing diversity is not enough, he says. “You can have diversity without a sense of understanding and look course content. for trends and then moving towards a root cause As the district works towards adopting an eq- equity. We have to go much further than diversity. analysis.” uity policy of its own, Cassell says it makes sense We have to specifically center race even when we At the high school level, Jennifer Cassell, a to start with a focus on racial equity. “Our re- have an intersectional lens. A society that focuses school board member at Oak Park and River For- search has shown that the greatest predictor of a on ‘color-blindness’ ignores our history with race. est High School District 200, notes that despite student’s success here is race. If the school’s goal We need to look at all the dynamics. A lot of the best intentions of board members and school is to have all students do their best, we’re not do- these are attached to systems of power that we administration and staff, the community has long ing that. Even accounting for socio-economic sta- really need to look at.”

Wednesday Journal, April 3, 2019

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The act of slaying ghosts

BY MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

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laude M. Steele, the prominent social psychologist, writes in his influential book Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us that “the pressure to disprove a stereotype changes what you are about in a situation.”

Steele explains that the act of trying to disprove a stereotype “gives you an additional task. In addition to learning new skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking in a schooling situation, or in addition to trying to perform well in a workplace like the women in the high-tech firms, you are also trying to slay a ghost in the room, the negative stereotype and its allegation about you and your group.

You are multitasking, and because the stakes involved are high -- survival and success versus failure in an area that is important to you -- this multitasking is stressful and distracting.”

For local school officials and education experts who have devoted good chunks of their lives to mitigating the implicit biases that contribute to classroom stereotyping, the act of slaying ghosts is not a task that ought to be assigned to students.

As Steele argues, “this is not an argument against trying hard.” So the conventional wisdom of students trying “twice as hard” — comic book-herolike — despite the stress of dealing with stereotypes should be tossed out of the

EQUITY continued from page 1 who accept the current situation are actually arguing for eugenics. If you look at the population of OPRF high school and say that’s just how it all shakes out, you’re basically saying either that one race is inferior or that there’s something else going on in society.”

For Flournoy, educational equity is an important focus. Because Oak Park claims both racial and socio-econom-

classroom window.

“The focus here, instead, is on what has to be gotten out of the way to make these playing fields mere level,” Steele writes. “People experiencing stereotype threat are already trying hard. They’re identified with their performance. They have motivation. It’s the extra ghost slaying that is in their way.”

Barb Hickey, a River Forest District 90 school board member, has undergone racial bias training and has read Steele’s book. In fact, the entire D90 school board has over the last several years been through ongoing racial bias training sessions, as have D90’s teachers and faculty.

The great leap, local educators involved with racial bias work say, is getting from racial bias as theory to what racial bias looks like in reality.

Hickey said that D90’s racial bias training, which is facilitated by the National Equity Project — a California-based organization that offers coaching and consulting on implicit bias for school districts across the country — taught her a deep truth about how bias expresses itself in reality.

“Some of the NEP training really makes you recognize that bias is expressed in small ways that are often much more significant to the person on the receiving end than the person on the giving end ever appreciates,” Hickey said.

“Disrespect is not necessarily intentional, but it certainly comes across to the person on the receiving end and I think our teachers have responded to a lot of that,” she added. “They rec-

ognize that the small things they do in their classrooms — the small, day-today ways they talk to their kids — this is what bias is in the real world.”

Gina Harris, an elementary school teacher who has facilitated racial bias training in her role as a board member for the Illinois Education Association, said that the path to that realization — from learning about bias as a concept to understanding its real-world implications — is not an instant process.

“It’s not an Aha!, light bulb moment for most people,” she said. “Just like how we teach math, we build out a concept, start with the small pieces and add to them so that eventually you know how to master the equation. That’s kind of similar to how we approach unconscious bias and racial education.”

Harris, a graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High School and a District 200 school board candidate in this week’s election, said that her training in unconscious bias “is very experiential” — not just theoretical.

“I use a lot of video clips, because you’re practicing experiences,” she said. “You do this over time until people start to see, ‘Oh, wow! I noticed something when I was out in the world that I wasn’t aware of before.’ People begin to see where their own stuff is coming from, because they move through the process slowly over the course of time.”

District 90 board member Calvin Davis said that he’s witnessed some of those realizations firsthand.

“I’ve heard some of the teachers say, ‘I didn’t realize I was doing this or that,’” he said, adding that the NEP training “has really taken hold and a lot of teachers are accepting the fact that they may have a natural bias and they’re slowly overcoming it.”

District 90 board member Rich

ference in outcomes for ic diversity, she says that students. There’s not one there is an expectation silver bullet, but if the disthat the schools should trict and the school board be farther along on the transform the way they move towards equity, think about engagement but they continue to with students, teachers struggle as do schools and the community, it can across the nation. She bring about significant praises the D97 equity change.” policy’s important comRalph Martire Martire uses educationponents, but says that al equity as an example of at the end of the day the policy is just a piece of paper. “It’s the how equity is a rising tide that lifts all doing of the work that will create dif- boats. “I think a lot of people don’t

Moore said that “the most striking thing” about the NEP training “was that teachers were very amenable to the training and ongoing professional development and they wanted practical examples of it.”

Those practical examples, Moore said, were complemented by lessons in American history that are often glossed over, or totally omitted, in most classrooms. For instance, the training includes a lesson on racially restrictive housing covenants.

Once in place, the collective understanding of unconscious bias permeates beyond a racial context and can benefit students suffering from a range of disadvantages, the D90 board members said.

Davis said that the district has even

recognize but should recognize that if you build a truly equitable education system, you build a truly excellent education system. It means every student gets what they deserve. The most gifted get the challenges they need. The most challenged get the supports they need, and that’s what gets lost now. People who are already successful are worried it’s a zero-sum game. An equitable system is not zero-sum, it’s Both And.” Flournoy, like Martire, sees equity in the community as a benefit to ev-

changed some practices that might stigmatize children receiving free or reduced lunches. Hickey said that district teachers have even started to pay attention to how subtle classroom practices might contribute to undue stereotype-related stress for some students, such as “telling boys and girls to line up on different sides of the room.”

Hickey, Davis and Moore were all candidates for reelection to the D90 school board in this week’s election.

For Harris, the thing for educators to realize is that the act of slaying ghosts, in addition to being their responsibility, is that the work is hard and it’s personal.

“This is internalized work,” she said.

“You have to take it in and chew on it.

It takes some doing. This can’t be done with just one-off training.”

eryone. “Imagine this. What if we invest in education for all, and if those students come back and raise their families here? What if we support the underserved, and purposefully help residents and businesses do better for themselves and be able to give back to their community? If we work together through community issues, we will get more done for Oak Park and build more capacity through increased efficiency and effectiveness.

Equity means more and more and more for our village.”

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A glossary of terms

“Bias” is prejudice in favor of or against a person or group relative to another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.

“Demographic group” generally

refers to any group of people who share similar characteristics, such as, racial or ethnic identification, socioeconomic status, gender identification, physical or learning disabilities, or language abilities.

“Disaggregated data” are results obtained from examining system-wide data through the lens of demographic groups to uncover patterns and trends that may be true for some student groups, but not all students in the system.

“Discrimination” refers to the unequal treatment of a person or group based on a protected characteristic such as race, gender, sex, sexual orientation, disability, or religion.

“Diversity” means variety in race, ethnicity or beliefs.

“Ethnicity” is a social construct that divides people into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interests, history and ancestral geography.

“Implicit Bias” is a bias of which

people usually are unaware or which operates at the subconscious level. Implicit bias is usually expressed indirectly.

“Institutional Racism” means social

policies, practices, procedures, and/or discourse that benefit people who are white at the exclusion of people of color, often unintentionally.

“Opportunity Gap” is the unequal

or inequitable distribution of educational resources and opportunities on the basis of race and/or ethnicity; resources may include staffing, academic supports, social and emotional supports, high-quality curriculum, and other programs. This gap can contribute to or intensify lower educational aspirations, achievement, and attainment for members of affected groups.

“Prejudice” is a preconceived opin-

ion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

“Race” is an applied categorization

based on a historic socially, economically and politically constructed set of beliefs, practices and behaviors that provide unfair advantages, power, social and political status to one group of people (whites) based on their assigned and constructed racial identity. In the United States, race signifies and symbolizes social conflicts

and interests by referring to different types of human bodies based on the lightness or darkness of an individual’s skin pigment.

“Racial Equity” means the systematic

fair treatment of people of all races and ethnicities that allows equitable outcomes.

Once racial and ethnic inequities are eliminated, race and ethnicity are not a factor in outcomes. When there is racial inequity, race and ethnicity are a negative factor in outcomes.

“Racism” is a socially and politically constructed behavior which derives from the dominant culture’s ideology of race.

Racism takes place in individual behavior, institutional practices, institutional structures, cultural beliefs and social discourse that unfairly advantages whites and disadvantages people of color. Racism simultaneously and unfairly denies power, cultural respect, social status, human rights, dignity, and access to basic human needs to people of color (non-whites) including

Black (wide variety of ethnic people part of the African diaspora), Latinx, American Indian, and Asian-American people.

“Structural Racism” means a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. The term identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist.

Distribution of information by a community group in accordance with District 97 policy does not imply, directly or indirectly, that the group’s program(s), event(s) and/or service(s) is sanctioned, sponsored or endorsed by the district, the Board of Education or the superintendent.