A Tale of Two School Districts: Lessons Learned When Using MAEC's Equity Audit Tool to Evaluate Systemic Barriers to Equity in Two Different Contexts

Abstract Information: This presentation will discuss how the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium (MAEC) implemented its Equity Audit Tool in two distinct school districts located in New England and in the Mid-Atlantic to produce quantitative measures of equitable policies and practices across schools. Based on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s framework of intersectionality and asset-based language, MAEC’s Equity Audit Tool is a unique instrument that helps school districts to critically examine policies, programs, and practices that directly or indirectly affect students or staff relative to their race, ethnicity, gender, national origin (English Learners), language, disability, age, sexual orientation, sexual identity, religion, or other socio‐culturally significant factors. The broad scope of the tool provides school districts with the flexibility to apply it based on their distinct goals. While one school district implemented the entire tool as part of its Antiracist Audit to examine race-based inequities, another district selected fewer domains from the tool to gather data on general equity issues. More than a survey, the Equity Audit Tool fosters constructive dialogue among school staff on the extent that the school is being equitable to a diverse population of learners and educators while providing district leaders with quantitative comparisons among schools on equity-based strengths and equity gaps. This presentation will discuss (1) the background of the Equity Audit Tool, (2) the process for training school-based equity teams to implement the tool , (3) MAEC’s experiences administering the tool in two school districts, and (4) the challenges of producing actionable insights from the tool to drive district-wide reform.

Relevance Statement: The nationwide protests resulting from the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 have led school districts in the U.S. to rectify systemic discrimination through policy reforms based on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles. Generally, schools have quantitatively measured the learning and work conditions of students and staff as well as family engagement through school climate surveys. However, such surveys have not consistently been centered on equity. Furthermore analyses of results of climate surveys have often focused on highlighting differences between the average experiences of various disaggregated groups. In such analyses often outcomes for members of the privileged groups as the standard by which success is measured. This makes it difficult to identify clear action steps for school improvement. The Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium (MAEC) developed its Equity Audit Tool to offer districts, schools, and teachers a more concrete understanding of what it means to operationalize equity, and reflect on whether current school policies, procedures and practices are equitable. This tool critically examines policies, programs, and practices that directly or indirectly affect students and staff relative to their race, ethnicity, gender, and other dimensions of identity. It is meant to provide a birds-eye view of various aspects of equity, highlighting existing systemic barriers. A feature of the implementation of the tool is a consensus process where members of representative groups from school communities discuss their experiences on various items of the tool and reach agreement on how to rate the school on this item. This process provides space for courageous conversations, and opportunities to highlight barriers to equity that might not arise from a traditional climate survey. Applying the Equity Audit Tool at two school districts underscores the importance of developing instruments that can elevate engaging stories about the strengths and equity gaps of school districts. For a school district in the Mid-Atlantic, the Equity Audit Tool was triangulated with data from MAEC conducted focus groups and surveys to develop recommendations on how the district could confront racial disparities. For the school district in New England, the Equity Audit Tool was used as the primary instrument that provided the foundation for the district’s equity roadmap. It was also triangulated with other data collections that the district had previously gathered. In both cases, MAEC staff and district representatives collaborated closely to tell and reveal informative stories to the community that would lead to equity-centered policy reforms. This presentation will illustrate how evaluation can wield quantitative data to produce actionable stories for practitioners. The two case studies demonstrate that quantitative measures paired with effective communication can encourage educators and district leaders to move past superficial statements of support for equity and reach towards codified reforms. Furthermore, storytelling in evaluation should avoid simplified characterizations where educators and district staff are villainized for equity gaps. Rather, asset-based evaluation should tell complex stories that recognize the best intentions of community members in a school district while holding organizations accountable for systemic change.