Equity

Matthew Lynch published in Equity January 7, 2023

Educational Equity: Everything You Need to Know

Educational equity refers to a process whereby everything is put in place for all children, regardless of their backgrounds (e.g., lower socioeconomic status, minorities, English as a second/third language children), can succeed without favoring one over the other, and not denying them opportunities for growth and instead, giving it to kids from privileged backgrounds.

Quite sadly, we need to recognize that education policy in this country has a poor history of true educational equity, with glaring commitments that prevent these bodies from making it a priority. The present educational equity structure is replete with several gaps and issues that must be addressed if there would be progress – no matter how insurmountable those challenges appear.

There is also the matter of political correctness that is hard to attain with this kind of duty. Nonetheless, if the educational system must rise to the ideals portrayed by fundamental American qualities and principles, this hard work must be done.

According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), equity in education appears with two closely intertwined dimensions. These include:

Fairness: It means ensuring that social and personal obstacles aren’t obstacles to achieving educational potential. It bans discrimination based on ethnic origin, gender, or socioeconomic status.

Inclusion: It makes sure a basic minimum standard of education for everyone. For instance, all should be able to read, write, and perform simple arithmetic. If some students require more to get there, they should obtain it.

Educational leaders should take robust steps to introduce equity into their classrooms and schools. The following approaches may change teaching dynamics and better outcomes for pupils of all backgrounds.

Personalized learning: Educators have to develop the skills to comprehend pupils’ individual needs to excel academically. This typically necessitates implementing individualized lesson plans and advocating for individual pupils who might need tailored educational opportunities or resources.

Cultural responsiveness: Culturally responsive teaching is an important skill that all teachers have to implement within their classrooms. Pupils from diverse cultural backgrounds should be provided with a safe environment in which to learn.

Early intervention: Providing dedicated, personalized support at an early stage in the process is key to achieving educational equity. Early intervention may substantially impact a student’s future success by helping to foster strengths and develop crucial skills for overcoming challenges.

Community engagement: Education goes beyond the classroom and into the homes of students and communities. Educators should engage communities and families in the learning process. This will motivate diverse voices to review and rectify system inequities, further improving educational equity for all pupils.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Equity January 17, 2020

School Leaders Can Help Reduce Minority Teacher Turnover

One of the biggest problems in the United States’ public education system is the sheer amount of turnover – a near-epidemic which is harming our students and wasting valuable and limited resources on the training and evaluation of teachers who aren’t sticking in the profession. An example of the harm it’s having on our student populace lies in data compiled by Charlotte Mecklenburg which chronicles a sharp decline in student math achievement every time an effective teacher leaves the job or the profession entirely.

The problem becomes even more troublesome when you consider the departure of minority teachers. As those of minority are sorely underrepresented in our public schools’ faculties, to begin with, the loss of a minority teacher can serve as a major loss for minority students who identify with a teacher who may look like them instead of the vast norm of white middle-class teachers on public educational dockets.

Why minority teachers are so important

Data points surrounding the pairing of minority teachers with minority students show a direct increase in the exertion of personal effort in the classroom, a much better chance for minority students to gain acceptance into gifted-and-talented programs, and a greater likelihood that students from underrepresented backgrounds will complete high school and enroll in higher education. These data points have led to a concerted effort to add to the ratio of minority teachers in public school education.

However, the increase in minority teachers hasn’t been sharp enough to weather the impact of turnover. While strategies to diversify the teaching workplace such as recruitment efforts focused on colleges which are doing a good job of graduating students of color have been implemented by many school districts, such recruitment efforts are costly and aren’t feasible when budgets are taken into account. Thus, it’s critical that we shift our focus to retaining minority teachers, putting the onus on our school leaders to make the efforts necessary to do so.

How school leaders can reduce the turnover of minority teachers

One of the key things principals can do to reduce the overall turnover of minority teachers is to consult with minority teachers about what administrative practices they feel will help foster a work environment they can thrive and be happy working in. School leaders must work alongside their minority teachers to identify any cultural dissonance within the institution which could indirectly promote race-based stereotypes or serve as a counterbalance to inclusivity efforts.

In addition to this, school leaders have to show their minority teaching staff members that there are equal pathways for them to enter leadership positions and enter them with the same preparation as anyone else. It is up to our school leaders to give appropriate opportunities for advancement to the entirety of their staffs, rather than leaning on minority teachers to be liaisons for minority students.

A safe, inclusive work environment will help reduce teacher turnover as a whole, but it could have a particularly huge impact on minority teacher turnover if school leaders cultivate the right working conditions and policymakers help to give school leaders the tools to ensure such working conditions are in place.

Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity, Racism October 25, 2019

Understanding Why Cultural Appropriation is Wrong

In the past half a century, a lot of people have found themselves in hot water because they were accused of cultural appropriation. What is cultural appropriation? It is the use and adoption of features of another culture with the consent or approval of people who belong to that culture. The vagueness of this definition, as well as the vagueness of cultural appropriation, in general, has made it a troublesome phenomenon.

America is a “melting pot” that includes people from various cultures, races, and ethnicities, so it is not surprising that the traditions and practices of various cultural groups get co-opted. People who grow up in communities with a lot of diversity pick up the slang, customs, and nuances of the cultures that are represented.

However, this is not cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation happens when the members of an oppressive or dominant group exploit the cultures of less entitled communities. This is usually done without a proper understanding of that culture’s history and the nuances of their traditions.

What is Cultural Appropriation?

In the introductory paragraph of this piece, we gave a brief explanation of what cultural appropriation is. However, to fully understand the concept, we must dissect the terms “culture” and “appropriation.” Culture can be defined as the traditions, ideas, beliefs, and speech associated with a specific group. Appropriation is the unjust and sometimes illegal taking of something that is not yours.

Black music, Asian martial arts, and Native American decoration, fashion and cultural symbols have been the most culturally appropriated things in American history. This can be traced back to the fact that Americans have a history of seeing people of color as less than human. And consequently, borrowing or taking from them was no crime.

Art forms and music forms that emanated from people of color end up being emulated by the dominant group, and after a period, these artistic contributions end up being associated with the appropriator and not the originator. The appropriators end up appearing innovative and creative, and the people they stole from continue to be labeled as unintelligent and unoriginal. This is particularly concerning, as this exploitation robs minority groups of the credit they deserve and perpetuates a false narrative of white superiority.

Avoiding Cultural Appropriation

As a member of the majority, it may be challenging for you to recognize that you are guilty of cultural appropriation unless it is brought to your attention. However, it is your responsibility to research ways to gauge if something you want to do is under the umbrella of cultural appropriation. Luckily, I have a solid method for deciding if an action is a cultural appropriation. I call it the D.E.E. method, and all you have to do is ask yourself a series of questions. Here we go:

Denigration: Does what I am planning to say or do, denigrate another culture? Meaning, is it respectful to the culture in question? How would the members of that culture feel?

Exploitation: Am I “borrowing” or “emulating” parts of this culture out of genuine interest or am exploiting it for material gains?

Embarrassment: Am I using portions of another culture in a satirical or comical way? Do I plan to embarrass members of the culture by making fun of their customs, practices, or beliefs?

If you are planning to do any of these things, then you will be guilty of cultural appropriation if you go through with it. If you have a genuine interest in the culture, then you may have a reason to emulate it. The exchange of traditions, foods, and customs helps to keep life interesting and the word diverse. Just make sure your intentions are good and that you portray the culture in question in a positive light.

Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity June 25, 2019

The Lasting Impact of Mispronouncing Students’ Names

It is essential that a teacher pronounces students‘ names correctly. Though this may often be ignored or not taken seriously by some educators, a student’s name is tied to his or her identity. So, it is important to get it right.

While it may be difficult to get the pronunciation of every child’s name right, the attitude of a teacher and effort he or she makes towards learning how to pronounce the child’s name correctly matters so much to the child.

Our names convey powerful messages about our existence. Your identity as an individual is centered around your name. Most names reflect the family culture and belief system. The naming tradition makes up the core part of every culture. A child’s name is one of the first things they learn while growing up.

Some parents and cultures give a name to a child relative to the story surrounding their birth or to honor a family value, but when a child is forced to adopt “Americanized” names or nicknames, the child gradually loses grip with his or her identity, origin, and existence.

Besides the child’s home, one of the places where a child is identified with his or her name is in the school system. Mispronouncing a child’s name repeatedly can have a lasting impact on them. It can make the child lose his or her identity, affect their confidence and negatively impact the child’s academic performance.

Frequent mispronunciation of a students’ name may make them become socially withdrawn and try to hide or fake their identity to fit in, which in the end can cause such students to lose a connection with their family roots.

A 2012 study conducted by Kohli and Solórzano showed that students with unfamiliar names had to deal with their teachers mispronouncing their names constantly. The worst aspect of it is when the teacher laughs at or makes a mockery of the students’ name instead of making a real effort to learn how to pronounce their names correctly.

Negative impacts of mispronouncing a students’ name:

1. Loss of identity

Students of ethnic minorities, immigrants and African-Americans are those mainly affected by the mispronunciation of names. Names hold ancestral and historical significance for many minorities and immigrants. Names bring stories, which students are often forced to adapt to an “Americanized” context.

To avoid constant embarrassment, many of these student’s adopt an American name which has no true connection with their original name. A good illustration of this is a seventeen-year-old immigrant, Yee Wan from China, who changed her name to “Winnie” to make it easy for her educators to pronounce her name. This suggestion was made by her ESL teacher.

That experience spurred Wan the present president of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) to launch a campaign to promote the correct pronunciation of a child’s name in school irrespective of his or her cultural background.

Yee Wan, the president of NABE, launched the My Name, My Identity Campaign in collaboration with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) to educate people about the lasting negative impact mispronouncing a child’s name can have on them and make propositions on how such issues can be remedied in schools and communities.

Again, the brother of Kohli dropped his native South Asian name, Sharad (‘shu-rudth’) and changed it to Sharub when he was in his ninth grade. But then, his teachers and classmates felt it was easier to call him Shrub, and that was the name they called him all through his high school forcing him to drop his original name and identity.

Michelle-Thuy Ngoc also dropped the second half of her Vietnamese name to make it more comfortable for others and only answered to Michelle. She eventually went back to her full name.

2. Loss of self-confidence

According to PBS News report, mispronouncing a child’s name can have a lifelong negative impact on them. Rita Kohli, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside reiterates that when a child experiences constant mispronunciation of his or her name by their teachers, they start to build a wall around themselves.

Over time, it’ll start to affect the child’s self-confidence, making them feel like they don’t belong, especially when their teachers make fun of their names and they are laughed at by their fellow students.

The PBS report also recounted an anecdote from a student at a school in Portland, Oregon who skipped her graduation and failed to receive her award because her principal “murdered” her Chinese name on the stage. The student was traumatized because the principal not only mispronounced her name but made a joke of it and attracted the laughter of the audience.

Although it can be difficult to pronounce the name of every student correctly, the teacher should make an effort t. A child may fail to answer the roll call because their name was mispronounced. Such an experience can make a child enter their shell, and become socially withdrawn.

3. Low academic performance

A child’s self-confidence affects their performance in school. A child that lacks self-confidence and feels shamed in the presence of their peers probably won’t perform well academically. Teachers should work hard to promote an inclusive culture in their classroom and the entire school. No child should be ridiculed or made to feel ashamed of their name, their identity or culture.

Santa Clara County Superintendent, Jon Gundry, was a teacher of middle and high school English as a second language students for more than a decade. When he was a teacher, he formed a culture of respect by learning the correct pronunciation of all his new students the first day they appeared in the class.

Learning how to pronounce your students’ name correctly is a huge step towards their acculturation. It makes it easy for them to cope in their new school environment.

4. Renders the student implicitly invisible

Carmen Fariña, a native-Spanish speaker during her kindergarten days in Brooklyn, was marked as absent for weeks for failing to respond to her name during roll calls. She didn’t respond because her teacher incorrectly pronounced her name. While the teacher thought that she was being obstinate, the poor child didn’t hear her name being called by the teacher.

As a present chancellor of New York City schools, Fariña drawing from her experience noted in her keynote address to the National Association for Bilingual Education, that mispronouncing a child’s name basically makes the child feel invisible in class.

5. Has a negative emotional and social impact

Many immigrant students and students from ethnic minorities already must deal with not having a teacher that looks like them in their school. Also, they would rarely find a teacher who speaks the same language as them, and they struggle to learn a curriculum that is entirely different from what they are used to in their native land.

A 2012 study by Rita Kohli and Daniel Solórzano found that mispronouncing a student’s name is one of the hurtful microaggressions that the students can suffer. The study, “Teachers Please Learn Our Names! Racial Microaggressions and the K-12 Classroom,” found many instances of students who were shamed, anxious, or embarrassed because their names were constantly mispronounced in class. This makes them begin to gradually withdraw from their language, cultural origin, and family background.

The case of the native Chinese student in Portland, Oregon-area illustrates it all. As we discussed earlier in this article, the student failed to rise during an honors ceremony because their principal mispronounced their name and laughed over it, making the audience chuckle.

What teachers and fellow students can do to help

When teachers overlook or downplay the necessity of correctly pronouncing a student’s name, they make the situation worse A teacher may not pronounce a student’s name correctly the first time, but he or she must make a sincere effort to get it right rather than making a joke of it and laughing about the mistake.

Teachers should work to promote an inclusive culture where all students from different cultural background feel like they belong.

Making a mockery of a child’s name affects their self-confidence. Mollie Robertson a math teacher at Iroquois High School in Jefferson County, KY believes it is the responsibility of every educator to encourage fair play and foster respect for all students in their class. She advocates for a safe learning environment for all by starting with the correct pronunciation of her students’ name.

A teacher can help by not laughing when they mispronounce a child’s name. And the students can show they respect their peers by learning to pronounce their names correctly and not laughing when someone gets it wrong. Instead of laughing, they should help their classmates learn the correct pronunciation.

When teachers take the time to learn how to pronounce their students’ name correctly, they are helping them connect with their origin and helping them to form their true identity.

Matthew Lynch published in Classroom Management, Diversity, Equity May 1, 2019

Cultivating the Inclusive Classroom

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, by the year 2027 the percentage breakdown of students is projected to look like the following: Caucasian 45%, Hispanic 29%, Asian 6%, Black 15%, and of Two or More Races 4%. Clearly, educators must understand the role diversity takes in the classroom, and work to accommodate and understand students of many ethnicities.

There are many actions administrators, staff and teachers can take to be more mindful of the social and emotional dynamics that influence learning. They bear close examination.

Examine the curriculum. Most teachers do not have a say in the curriculum they use to teach a certain subject, but learning to look for biases and perspectives that do not account for multiple student groups is an excellent habit to form. In this way, instructors can intentionally incorporate more diversity into the lesson.
Be aware of unintentional behaviors that can reduce some students to the fringes of the class experience. Mispronouncing names is a behavior that makes students feel like outsiders.
Work to create a diverse, respectful school community. This can start by having teachers from different backgrounds and socio-economic statuses so that students see an integrated instructional team.

Specific actions and orientations for teachers when interacting with students are:

Learning who your students are.
Learning why they are taking your class.
Asking how you can improve their learning both in and out of class.

Building rapport intentionally gives you a better understanding when teaching. Students are more comfortable expressing their thoughts, which leads to more engagement, which leads to more learning. When students feel valued, the environment is more stimulating.

The teacher who stays to chat for a bit after class is more approachable, especially when he/she knows the students’ names. Don’t be afraid to laugh and employ humor while teaching—it makes you more human.

Faculty Workshops

According to ASCD Inservice, “Highly trained teachers are vital to educating students about privilege and oppression. But according to a piece from Counseling@NYU, which offers an online masters in school counseling from NYU Steinhardt, many teachers do not have enough of an understanding of these topics to properly support students.” A key administrative strategy for an inclusive mindset is in faculty workshops, which should reflect the open dialogue and exchange of ideas that characterize an inclusive oriented classroom. The Teaching Center at Washington University in St. Louis suggests the following topics to begin changing the school culture:

Reducing Stereotype Threat
Fostering a Growth Mindset
Understanding Implicit Bias and its Effects on Teaching and Learning (includes discussion of “micro-aggressions” that can negatively impact the learning environment)
Facilitating Challenging Conversations in the Classroom
Fostering Inclusive Learning during Group Work
Designing Inclusive Objectives and Assignments

Starting to create sustainable and broad-based change, even with baby steps, is a move in the right direction. Raising awareness and fostering the atmosphere to begin the discussions can help teachers, staff and administration to identify the assumptions they hold, encouraging them to evaluate the areas of bias they might not see.

Matthew Lynch published in Black Boys in Crisis, Diversity, Equity March 12, 2019

7 Ways That Black Students are Discriminated Against in U.S K-12 Schools

African Africans have a long history of being mistreated in the United States, starting with slavery. It should come as no surprise that their children face the same treatment in U.S. K-12 public and private schools. How? Keep reading. In this piece, I will briefly list 7 ways that black students are discriminated against in U.S. schools.

Black students are less likely to be identified as gifted. Because current gifted assessments were created for the prototypical white student, they discriminate against black children by giving them inequitable representation in the program. This increases the achievement gap, as gifted programs allow students an opportunity to increase their aptitude and intelligence, which gives them a greater chance of being successful later on in life.
Black students are more likely to receive a substandard education. Blacks students are more likely than any other student group to attend schools that are made up of unqualified teachers, administrators and have limited resources. As a consequence, black students are more likely to experience academic failure and drop out of school.
Black students are less likely to have access to technology and Wi-Fi. Even with the proliferation of technology, many black families below the poverty line cannot afford to purchase it. This puts their child at a disadvantage because even if they are issued tech devices by their schools, the absence of Wi-Fi at home prevents them from completing homework and other assignments. Thankfully forward-thinking school districts are counteracting this by parking buses with Wi-Fi in areas where they know student lack access to the internet.
Bias against black students starts in early childhood. Although Black preschoolers represent only 18% of the early childhood population, they comprise 42% of pupils who have been suspended and about half of the preschoolers who were suspended multiple times.
Black girls are disciplined more severely. Black female students are a whopping 5.5 times more likely to be suspended from school, and an unbelievable 6.1 times more likely to be expelled, than their white gender counterparts. They are also 2.5 times more likely to be expelled and denied access to educational services for the duration of their expulsion.
Black students are more likely to be suspended from school. Black students in K-12 schools are overrepresented when it comes to school discipline rates, specifically, expulsions and suspensions. This is particularly troubling, as black students make up only about 15.5% of all public-school students, but they represent about 39% of pupils who are suspended from U.S. schools.
Black students are overrepresented in the school to prison pipeline. When schools don’t provide students with the support and resources that they need to succeed academically, they become disenchanted with the public school system and more often than not, drop out of school. No surprise that most of these students are black. Without a high school diploma and with the omnipresence of racism, many of these students have a hard time finding gainful employment. If they do, they quickly find out that the money that they make is not enough to sustain them. Disenchanted, many of them will turn to the criminal lifestyle, hoping to make enough money to support themselves. More often then not, they end up going to prison, get out, and end up going back.

Sad commentary. How can we as educators end the rampant discrimination that black students in U.S. schools face?

Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assistive Technology, Career Readiness, Child Development Tech, Classroom Management, October 31, 2018

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 7: How Digital Age Teachers Can Win Over Parents

Education is a collaborative process, as it takes many stakeholders working in unison to help students succeed academically. One of the most integral parts of this collaborative team is parents, as teachers know all so well. So, if you are a teacher struggling to increase parental engagement, how do you fix this issue? In this episode, we will discuss 7 ways that digital age teachers win over parents.

Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assessment, Assistive Technology, Black Boys in Crisis, Child Development Tech, October 13, 2018

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 6: 8 Ways That Digital Age Teachers Avoid Burning Out

Being a teacher is a tough job. So much so, many new teachers end up leaving the field within their first three years. To ensure that the next generation of students have qualified teachers, we must nip this phenomenon in the bud. In this episode, we will discuss 8 ways that digital age teachers avoid burning out.

Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assessment, Assistive Technology, Black Boys in Crisis, Bullying, October 1, 2018

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 5: The Archetype of a Great Teacher

One of the questions that I am frequently asked is, what does a good teacher look like? I respond by mentioning my 10th-grade Biology teacher, Mrs. Minor, and listing the attributes that made her the archetype of a great teacher.

Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assistive Technology, Black Boys in Crisis, Bullying, Child Development, September 24, 2018

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 4: How to Create a Culturally Responsive Classroom

Building a culturally responsive classroom is hard. To help you along your journey, here is your guide to exploring and respecting the cultural backgrounds of your students while also using diversity as an asset. If you you listen to this episode of the podcast, and take my advice, you will have a culturally responsive classroom in no time.

References

Culturally responsive teaching is a theory of instruction that was developed by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings and has been written about by many other scholars since then. To read more of her work on culturally responsive teaching and other topics, click here to visit her Amazon.com page.