Academic Equity

Pennsylvania Multi-Tiered System of Support
Pennsylvania's Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a standards-aligned, comprehensive school improvement framework for enhancing academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes for all students. Cross-disciplinary teams represented at the district, school, grade, and individual levels use a problem-solving process to integrate evidence-based academic, behavioral, and social-emotional practices matched to student needs and with fidelity of implementation. A continuum of supports and services exists at all Tiers and is undergirded by high-quality professional learning, cultural responsivity, partnership and meaningful involvement with families, and dynamic decision-making that rests on the use of reliable and valid data sources. Sustainability (transformational change) is the ultimate implementation goal of a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) and is very much contingent upon Leadership, Organization and Competency.

Do Wisconsin Schools Implementing Integrated Academic and Behavior Support Framework Improve Equity? (PDF)
This evaluation brief describes how Wisconsin is implementing an equitable multi-level system of supports (MLSS) framework, also known as a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), and how schools implementing this framework with both a behavior and reading focus have shown positive outcomes for all students. The data analyzed in this brief were derived from a small, Wisconsin RtI Center staff directed project. The focus was on the impact of an equitable multi-level system of supports (MLSS). The data look at schools that engaged in professional development in several MLSS training series that have an explicit focus on equitable outcomes for all students. Educators may choose to use this resource to evaluate their current readiness to embark on installation of an integrated MTSS framework.

The Equity Literacy Framework
Equity literacy is a comprehensive approach for creating and sustaining equitable schools. The foundations of equity literacy are (1) a commitment to deepening individual and institutional understandings of how equity and inequity operate in organizations and societies, and (2) the individual and institutional knowledge, skills, and will to vigilantly identify inequities, eliminate inequities, and actively cultivating equity. At the individual level, when we embrace equity literacy we learn to become a threat to the existence of inequity and an active cultivator of equity in our spheres of influence.

Pursuit of Equity: Aligning Transition Planning from the State, Local and District Levels (PDF)
Link to part two of a four-part equity webinar series around transition planning for students with disabilities. Educators may use this webinar to support their efforts in developing inter-agency partnerships, and strategies to better prepare students for transition.

NYSED Culturally Relevant Sustaining Education Framework (PDF)
The Culturally Responsive-Sustaining (CR-S) framework is intended to help education stakeholders create student-centered learning environments and policies that affirm cultural identities; foster positive academic outcomes; develop students' abilities to connect across lines of difference; elevate historically marginalized voices; empower students as agents of social change; and contribute to individual student engagement, learning, growth, and achievement through the cultivation of critical thinking.

Assessing Bias in Standards and Curricular Materials
The Great Lakes Equity Center Assessing Bias in Standards & Curricular Materials Tool enables users to determine the extent to which developed standards and curricular materials reflect educational equity. The tool provides guidance in reviewing standards and curricular materials using equity-oriented domains and includes a scoring and analysis guide to assist with the evaluation process.

Miseducation: ProPublica -- Is There Racial Inequality at Your School?
Based on civil rights data released by the U.S. Department of Education, ProPublica has built an interactive database to examine racial disparities in educational opportunities and school discipline. Look up more than 96,000 individual public and charter schools and 17,000 districts to see how they compare with their counterparts.

Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Response to Intervention Within Multi-tiered System of Supports: Fidelity of Implementation Rubric (PDF)
The Culturally and Linguistically Responsive (CLR)–Response to Intervention (RTI) Fidelity Rubric is used by individuals who are responsible for monitoring school-level fidelity of RTI implementation within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). The rubric is aligned with the essential components of RTI and the infrastructure that is necessary for successful implementation. It is accompanied by a worksheet with guiding questions and score points for use in an interview with a school’s RTI leadership team.

CCSSO Restart and Recovery: Access and Equity for English Learners (PDF)
This tool offers state leaders recommendations to provide effective equitable practices to English Learners in the midst of COVID-19.

R&D Center to Improve Secondary Education for English Learners (wested.org)
This website focuses on deepening and accelerating learning by removing systemic barriers, and promoting success for English Learners in community, college, and career.​

MTSS for All: Including Students with the Most Significant Cognitive Disabilities (PDF)
The National Center on Educational Outcomes in coordination with the TIES Center (the National Center on Inclusive Education) describe the history of multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). The focus from a schoolwide framework with a focus on general education students who were not identified as qualifying for special education services to a framework that is beneficial for all students, including those identified as students with disabilities, has emerged. However, MTSS typically has not explicitly included students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. This publication explores how the MTSS framework can be applied to instructionally include this population of students and to reduce the numbers of students participating in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS).

The National Center on Inclusive Education
The National Center on Inclusive Education is known as the TIES Center. TIES represents Time, Instructional Effectiveness, Engagement, and State Support for Inclusive Practices. It works with states, districts, and schools to support the movement of students with disabilities from less inclusive to more inclusive environments. This comprehensive resource includes topics of curriculum and inclusive instruction, systemic change, distance learning, family stories, collaborative teaming and more.

Pennsylvania Deaf-Blind Project
The Pennsylvania Deaf-Blind Project provides specialized training through the Open Hands Open Access (OHOA) Deaf-Blind Intervener Learning Modules. The Open Hands Open Access (OHOA) Deaf-Blind Intervener Learning Modules are designed to increase awareness, knowledge, and skills related to intervention for students who are deaf-blind and are being served in educational settings (ages 3 through 21). The 27 modules include a variety of accessible videos, photographs, slide presentations, and learning activities. For more information, contact Patti McGowan at pmcgowan@pattan.net

Optimizing Outcomes for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (PDF)
The National Association of State Directors of Special Education released the third edition of Optimizing Outcomes for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in 2019. The purpose of these educational guidelines is to supplement and update the information needed by teachers, leaders, families, school instructional support personnel and other stakeholders to have the knowledge, skills and vision to help all deaf and hard of hearing children be successful.

IRIS Resource Locator
The IRIS Center is a national center dedicated to improving education outcomes for all children, especially those with disabilities birth through age 21, through the use of effective evidence-based practices and interventions. The resource locator allows educators to search for specific topic areas such as School Improvement and Leadership, Differentiated Instruction, Transition, Content Instruction, etc. Each topic has specific modules, activities, articles, case studies and vignettes to support professional learning.

Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard (PDF)
The NYU Metro Center designed this tool to help parents, teachers, students, and community members determine the extent to which their schools' English Language Arts curricula are (or are not) culturally responsive. The creators of the tool anticipate that the process will provoke thinking about how students should learn, what they should learn, and how curriculum can be transformed to engage students effectively. To create this tool, the creators used a wide variety of existing resources, including multicultural rubrics, anti-bias rubrics, textbook rubrics, and rubrics aimed at creating cultural standards for educators, determining bias in children books and examining lesson plans (ADEED, 2012; Aguilar-Valdez, 2015; Grant & Sleeter, 2003; Lindsey et al, 2008; NCCRES, 2006; Rudman, 1984; World View, 2013).

We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service (YouTube)
Merging theory and practice, connecting contemporary issues to historical ones, and providing a deep analysis on the current state of education, Dr. Chris Emdin ushers in a new way of looking at improving schools and schooling. Drawing from themes in his New York Times Bestselling book, and the latest album from rap group A Tribe Called Quest, Emdin offers insight into the structures of contemporary schools, and highlights major issues like the absence of diversity among teachers, the ways educators of color are silenced in schools, the absence of student voice in designing teaching and learning, and a way forward in addressing these issues. This hour-long TED Talk may be useful for educators seeking to find ways to rethink traditional educational practices.

Universal Design for Learning Graphic Organizer
The graphic organizer developed by CAST provides a concise overview of the mechanisms to provide universal design for learning in classrooms. It describes multiple means of engagement, representation and action & expression. District and school leaders may use this tool to support educational staff in their understanding and delivery of universally designed practices.

Inequities in Online Classrooms: How Do We Bridge the Distance (Learning)? | Great Lakes Equity Center
This edition of Equity Digest is a call to action for school community stakeholders to work alongside minoritized students and families (people with identities such as LGBTQ+, non-binary, women, disabled, non-Christian, people of Color, and/or emergent multilingual individuals) as they experience compounding inequities during this historic period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we discuss inequities related to online/distance learning, and how schools and school communities can serve as resources and supports for minoritized students. Having these ongoing discussions lend themselves to keeping pace with the growing body of knowledge in relation to COVID-19 and schooling.

Asia at the Smithsonian
Explore many facets of Asia, and of being Asian or Asian American through diverse digital exhibits. For example, explore people and places of the Pacific, or the US-China relationship through postage stamps. Explore Asian American experiences and heritage through Art, photographs and other exhibits.​

STEM Education Equity Analysis Tool
Self-assessment tools offer an opportunity to pause and critically reflect on policies and practices; this tool, developed from the Great Lakes Equity Center, in particular invites schools into a self-evaluation of equity in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning, with an eye toward graduating students who are prepared for and excited about engaging in STEM careers.

STEM Equity Program Evaluation Rubric
This rubric, from the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE), is designed to help program administrators, designers, implementers and funders identify the critical attributes of a STEM program to determine the degree to which it is inclusive and supports access and success for students who historically have not engaged in STEM. Serving "all students" does not ensure equity, so considering how each of these attributes impacts underrepresented students in STEM and addressing those barriers will create a STEM learning environment where every student can succeed.​

Understanding Language, Stanford University
The goal of these materials is to illustrate how Common Core aligned math tasks can be used to support math instruction and language development for English Learners (ELs) at three grade spans (elementary, middle, and high school). Sample lessons are also provided to the user.

PaTTAN CS Administrator Toolkit: Equity & Inclusion
"CS For All PA" sums up what we're striving for in K-12 Computer Science (CS) education: Equitable CS education for all students including students of color, historically underrepresented populations, English language learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities. The toolkit is organized in the following categories: Access, Representation & Participation, and Instruction & Classroom Climate.

Access and Equity in Mathematics Education
The National Council of Mathematics Teachers issued a position statement regarding the importance of access and equity for students. In short, they note that "practices that support access and equity require comprehensive understanding. These practices include, but are not limited to, holding high expectations, ensuring access to high-quality mathematics curriculum and instruction, allowing adequate time for students to learn, placing appropriate emphasis on differentiated processes that broaden students' productive engagement with mathematics, and making strategic use of human and material resources. When access and equity have been successfully addressed, student outcomes—including achievement on a range of mathematics assessments, disposition toward mathematics, and persistence in the mathematics pipeline—transcend, and cannot be predicted by students' racial, ethnic, linguistic, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Classroom Practices That Support Equity-Based Mathematics Teaching
This tool provides recommended classroom practices to support equity-based mathematics instruction. The resource indicates that "equity-based mathematics teaching requires more than implementing new curriculum or using specific practices, because it involves taking a stand for what is right. It requires mathematics teachers to reflect on their own identity, positions, and beliefs in regard to racist and sorting-based mechanisms. It involves noticing students, learning about the worlds they live in, and building mathematics that comes from these worlds. And finally, it involves engaging other educators in partnerships to build equity-oriented communities."​

Rights, Respect, Respo​nsibility: A K-12 Sexuality Education Curriculum - LGBTQ-inclusive sexual health curriculum by Advocates for Youth

Center for the Collaborative Classroom "A Conversation about Instructional Equity"
In this article, Zaretta Hammond, an author and national education consultant, discusses instructional equity both from the big picture and classroom practice. The article outlines the differences between multicultural education, social justice education and culturally responsive education and provides useful context for schools and educators beginning to discuss instructional equity.

Learning for Justice
Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors, and other practitioners—who work with K-12 children. Educators can use the materials to supplement curriculum, inform their practices, and create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

National Center on Deaf-Blindness Cultural Competence Resources
As the number of children and youth with deaf-blindness from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds continues to grow, educators and others who provide services to them and their families are expected to demonstrate awareness of cultural differences and use culturally responsive practices that respect diversity. The resources on this page can help technical assistance (TA) providers and educators increase their knowledge of these practices to inform their teaching, TA, and partnerships with families.

Literacy Practices for African-American Male Adolescents – Nellie Mae Education Foundation
In 2009 only 38 percent of 12th graders performed at or above a proficient level in reading. Despite efforts to close the achievement gap, African American boys fare even worse in literacy. This 2012 Students at the Center paper makes the case for deeper efforts in schools to help African American boys achieve literacy, highlighting outcomes of proficient reading including personal development, economic vitality, and global participation. "Because reading comprehension forms the foundation for learning just about anything after fourth grade and for functioning in society, educators need to pay more attention to how literacy instruction can safeguard academic and personal well-being."

Ensure Educational Equity & Excellence for Students with Disabilities - Teacher Professional Learning | Literacy, Math | MTSS
This video references The Supreme Court's ruling in the 2017 Endrew F. case which set a new bar for ensuring educational equity for students with disabilities in the United States and redefined the process for establishing IEP goals.

Educating English Learners
This circular provides local education agencies with the requirements and interpretations of the legal mandates governing the education of students who are English learners (ELs). The information included should be used in designing, staffing, and evaluating effective programs for ELs.

Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) English Learner Toolkit
The English Learner Toolkit was published in 2015 as a companion to support the 2015 "Dear Colleague Letter" (DCL) produced by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice, outlining legal obligations for English Learners (Els). Some chapters of the tool kit have been updated related to the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA). The English Learner Tool Kit helps state and local education agencies help English Learners by fulfilling these obligations. The Toolkit has 10 chapters (one for each section of the DCL), and contains an overview, sample tools, and resources.

Step by Step Planner: UDL Lesson Design
Finding the time to adapt lessons to meet the needs of every student can be a daunting task. Lesson planning with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can help educators design lessons to teach the range of students in their classrooms. This resource describes lesson planning using UDL in practice. A step by step planner for UDL Lesson Design may be downloaded from the site.

Classwide Intervention (PaTTAN) (YouTube)
When the data show that a majority of the students are not meeting benchmarks, intervention begins at the core level. Whole group problems warrant whole group solutions. Without classwide intervention, tiered intervention groups will be burdened with large numbers and rendered less effective. This session will examine when classwide intervention is necessary and what evidence-based practices can be applied to classwide intervention.

Equity through Instructional Practices Room in the Classroom for ALL with Dr Anita Archer (YouTube)
This hour-long webinar from acclaimed educator, Dr. Anita Archer, discusses how to achieve equity through instructional practices. High growth is a goal for all students. Despite this vision, educators often inadvertently use instructional practices that favor one group of students over others. For example, one common practice is to call on volunteers rather than call on students randomly. High-performing, assertive students proficient in English are most likely to volunteer, increasing their amount of practice and subsequent learning. This is just one of many instructional practices that Dr. Archer sheds light on during this webinar.

​The National Center on Inclusive Education
The National Center on Inclusive Education is known as the TIES Center. TIES represent Time, Instructional Effectiveness, Engagement, and State Support for Inclusive Practices. It works with states, districts, and schools to support the movement of students with disabilities from less inclusive to more inclusive environments. This comprehensive resource includes topics of curriculum and inclusive instruction, systemic change, distance learning, family stories, collaborative teaming and more.

Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment Consortium with University of North Carolina: Professional Development
Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) offers instructionally relevant professional development modules and a virtual community of practice to support educators who teach and assess students participating in the DLM system - an instruction and assessment system for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Writing with Alternate Pencils, Ten Frames, Measurement, Beginning Communicators and Symbols are just several of the professional development modules provided specific to students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.

PaTTAN CS Teacher Toolkit: Equity & Inclusion
The PaTTAN Computer Science Teacher Toolkit's focus on equity and inclusion is presented in two sections: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Accessible Computer Science Curricula. Resources are included in each of the two main sections, specific for teacher use and review.

K-12 Curriculum from Asian Americans Advancing Justice
An expansive database of curriculum materials and lesson plans. Searchable by grade level, theme, time period, and subject areas. Includes lesson plans to accompany specific episodes of PBS' Asian Americans series.

Immigration History
Lesson plans and resources on immigration history developed by award-winning Asian American Studies (AAS) faculty.

Learning for Justice - APA Lesson Plans & Resources
Essays, videos, webinars and lesson plans for exploring different aspects of AAPI experiences.​

Understanding Language, Stanford University
The goal of these materials is to illustrate how Common Core aligned math tasks can be used to support math instruction and language development for ELs at three grade spans (elementary, middle, and high school). Sample lessons are also provided.

Classroom Practices That Support Equity-Based Mathematics Teaching
This tool provides recommended classroom practices to support equity-based mathematics instruction. The resource indicated that "equity-based mathematics teaching requires more than implementing new curriculum or using specific practices, because it involves taking a stand for what is right. It requires mathematics teachers to reflect on their own identity, positions, and beliefs in regard to racist and sorting-based mechanisms. It involves noticing students, learning about the worlds they live in, and building mathematics that comes from these worlds. And finally, it involves engaging other educators in partnerships to build equity-oriented communities."

Math Vocabulary Cards
This resource contains math vocabulary cards for Kindergarten through 8th Grade and Secondary 1 Mathematics. These cards can also be found in Spanish, Chinese, and French under the Dual Immersion menu. Portuguese, German, and Russian vocabulary cards are located at the following website: USOE Dual Immersion Vocabulary Cards.

The Mathematics Improvement Network
Tools to assist with the improvement of curriculum and instruction for mathematics. The resources provided are available for download for educators to engage in self-directed professional learning.

The Mathematics Assessment Project
The Mathematics Assessment Project is part of the Math Design Collaborative initiated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project set out to design and develop well-engineered tools for formative and summative assessment that expose students' mathematical knowledge and reasoning, helping teachers guide them towards improvement and monitor progress. The tools are relevant to any curriculum that seeks to deepen students' understanding of mathematical concepts and develop their ability to apply that knowledge to non-routine problems.

PROJECT STAIR (Supporting Teaching of Algebra: Individual Readiness)
In this 5-part video series, culturally responsive teaching p​​ractices are highlighted to ensure all students are included, engaged, and provided with high expectations in the mathematics classroom.

• Culturally Responsive Teaching – Part 1 | Project STAIR (smu.edu)​
• Culturally Responsive Teaching – Part 2 | Project STAIR (smu.edu)​
• Culturally Responsive Teaching – Part 3 | Project STAIR (smu.edu)​
• Culturally Responsive Teaching – Part 4 | Project STAIR (smu.edu)​
• Culturally Responsive Teaching – Part 5 | Project STAIR (smu.edu)​

Social Justice in Science Class
This article, from Teaching Tolerance, highlights the ways science instruction may serve as a mechanism to support students as they understand and articulate issues around social justice. The author notes: "Too often, we think of social justice education as the domain of humanities educators—what students learn in history and literature classes. But science education, at its heart, is about teaching students the methods they'll use to understand the world around them. Why shouldn't we ask them to look up from anthills and spiderwebs and use what we've taught them to understand themselves and each other a little better, too?"

Class-Wide Math Intervention Protocol
This resource offers methods to provide classwide intervention for math.

Reading Intervention Protocol: Partner Reading and Paragraph Shrinking
This resource offers methods to provide classwide intervention for reading.​

What is universal design for learning?
This resource provides an overview of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how it can be applied in classrooms. It notes that "the goal of UDL is to use a variety of teaching methods to remove any barriers to learning and give all students equal opportunities to succeed. It's about building in flexibility that can be adjusted for every student's strengths and needs."

Five paradigm shifts for educators (PDF)
Dr. Paul Gorski provides a clear one-page guide to educators as they consider becoming more equity literate. Educators may use this tool to consider their current approaches to instruction as well their current adopted paradigms. These shifts include advocating equity, eradicating marginalizing practices, self-examination, fighting for the rights of marginalized families, and committing to equity.

Solving the Achievement Gap Through Equity, Not Equality
Dr. Lindsey Ott offers a 9-minute TED Talk describing the importance of solving the achievement gap through equity, and not equality. This distinction is crucial in understanding the definition of equity in practice. In education, equality reinforces the achievement gap by applying the same expectations and norms to unequal groups. Instead, equity is needed: giving the needed resources to each individual group.

Understood
Since 2014, Understood has served families of kids who learn and think differently. In 2012, their Workplace Initiative was created and has helped people with all types of disabilities find meaningful employment at inclusive companies. Their programs for Families, Educators, and Young Adults focus on empowering people who learn and think differently and those who support them, offer customized, accessible resources and a compassionate community.

Exploring Equity Issues: Promoting a Safe and Welcoming Environment for Immigrant Students (PDF)
This resource offers strategies for creating educational spaces for immigrant students to thrive.​

Center for the Collaborative Classroom "A Conversation about Instructional Equity"
In this article, Zaretta Hammond, an author and national education consultant, discusses instructional equity both from the big picture and classroom practice. The article outlines the differences between multicultural education, social justice education and culturally responsive education and provides useful context for schools and educators beginning to discuss instructional equity.

​Examples of engaging instruction to increase equity in education
This technical brief is based on the 5-point multicomponent approach to reduce disproportionality from the National PBIS Center (www.pbis.org). This brief elaborates on point one, regarding academic instruction, by defining key principles of evidence-based instructional practices. The instructional practices reviewed, include: Using explicit instruction, Build and prime background knowledge, Increase opportunities to respond, and Provide performance feedback. Educators may choose to use this tool to enhance their current practice, in an effort to reduce behavioral challenges in the classroom setting.