UHS Social JusticeJune 2013

Meaningful Collaboration UIUC & UHS Challenging the “ivory tower” notion by learning from

experts within the field

Nurturing stronger community relationships

Fostering a more democratic school improvement effort:

Equity centered

Inquiry based & participatory (professional learning communities)

Student voice in school improvement

Critical reflection & feedback

Elements of School ImprovementStudent Voice?What about the voices of those most impacted by the school improvement decisions of educational stakeholders?

School Leadership: Administrators must take responsibility to foster, support, and embed student voice into school improvement initiatives.

Student Voice, Youth Participatory Action Research &

School Improvement

Ms. Moyer Teaches English at UHS

Chair of the Social Justice Committee

Serves on the School Improvement Administrative Advisory

Taught Social Justice elective course for the first time this year

Committed to Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and disrupting traditionally asymmetrical power dynamics in the classroom

Course overview

In the first half of the semester, I led lessons that helped students engage with issues of identity and power

In the second half of the semester, students engaged in Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)

First half of the semester

learned key vocabulary and frameworks related to identity and power

reflected on our own identities

studied historical and current events

engaged in debates

discussed the issues in our community and decided to take action

Notable vocabulary

Social construction: a perception or idea that is 'constructed’ (or made up) through cultural or social practice; a product of human interaction

Intersectionality: the overlapping of identities

Who’s marginalized? Who’s privileged?

Notable readings Select chapters from The Latinization of US Schools

by Jason Irizarry

“Colorblindness: the New Racism” (Teaching Tolerance)

“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” by Peggy McIntosh

Excepts by Gloria Ladson-Billings

Excerpts from Courageous Conversations about Race by Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Linton

Notable assignments Gender autobiography

Race autobiography

Counternarratives

Co-authored an article for The Social Justice Leader with Dr. Welton and Mr. Wiemelt

Copies available at the poster sessions

Common CoreAlignment to English and Social Studies standards

Reading Example: RH.11-12.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights

gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole

Writing Example: WHST.11-12.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate

to task, purpose, and auidence

Speaking and listening Example: SL.1..-12.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on texts,

issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively

Research Example: WHT.11-12.9: Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

Keep in mind… …because of purposeful recruitment of students by

myself, the counseling department, and administrative team, the class demographics were representative of the school population

About 40% white, 40% black, 10% Latino, 10% other

About 66% low SES

…the class was comprised of 30 out of 32 underclassmen (majority freshmen)

…the work you’ll see from here (Powerpoint, posters, letters, etc.) are completely student generated

Second half of the semester

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)

Youth gathering together to solve real problems through research

Students and teachers work collaboratively to incite change within communities

www.mikvachallenge.org

How we chose our topics Voting

Root causes and rationale

Institutionalized racism: the cumulative effects of policies and systems which have the effect of disadvantaging certain racial groups; describes a system of inequality that can occur in institutions

This does not include individual acts of blatant racism

Color blindness: claiming that race doesn’t matter (“I don’t see race”)

White privilege: unearned advantages white people benefit from because of their light skin (ex: white people can go shopping pretty well assured that they will not be followed or harassed)

Root causes brainstorming

Our topics

Teacher-student relationships

Lack of faculty racial diversity

Underrepresentation of students of color in honors courses

Disproportionate dress code enforcement on females of color

Overrepresentation of students of color in DRA

Research process

Developed guiding research questions

Consulted a variety of sources to find answers

Established claims based off of findings

Research methods Quantitative research methods

developed and distributed surveys

tallied and tabulated survey results

organized data into charts and graphs

compared survey results with other statistics (especially from the Interactive Report Card)

Qualitative research methods

Read and discussed scholarly articles related to research topics

Conducted interviews with staff and students

Coded interviews and short answer survey results for themes

Letters to the administration

We summarized our findings and offered recommendations for the future to 2013-14 UHS administration in letters

copies available during the poster sessions

Student presentations

May 10th and 17th, UHS library

In attendance: teachers, counselors, deans, administrators, U of I students and faculty, community members, central office staff, students

May 10th presentations

Teacher-student relationships CLAIMS AND FINDINGS

We claim that culturally responsive teaching affects students’ learning in positive ways because students’ identities are affirmed; relationships between students and teachers matter

We learned that teachers can better relate to students by developing relationships and embracing their students’ cultural identities

Disproportionate dress code enforcement on females of color

CLAIMS AND FINDINGS

We claim that females of color get more dress code infractions than any other group at UHS

We learned that the vast majority of students believe that the dress code is enforced more severely on black girls

Lack of faculty of color

Overrepresentation of students of color in DRA

CLAIMS AND FINDINGS

We claim that the higher level of referrals black students receive may be “pushing” kids out of school

We learned that 74% of students that receive DRA are black

Underrepresentation of students of color in honors courses

CLAIMS AND FINDINGS

We claim that there is a lack of racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity in Advance Placement courses

We learned that the rate of white students enrolled in AP courses is over three times the rate of black students enrolled in AP courses.

Video clips

Student and teacher activists Our next steps will be to…

…work with administrators to implement as many of our recommendations as possible

…work with the Social Justice Committee to advocate for and facilitate these changes

…propose a second social justice class to the Curriculum Development team

…collaborate with the next Social Justice class in order to continue this work

Q & A

What questions do you have for us?

Poster sessions

We invite you to learn more about why we’ve made these claims

Posters include

guiding research questions

research methods

the top 5 things we learned from our research

claims

recommendations

Your role

Ask us questions

Examine our materials

surveys, letters to the administration, etc.

Offer us feedback

Engage in debate