Dismantling Racism Component for Educators (DRCE) to Overcome the Achievement Gap | Esther B. Coleman and Deborah Stewart
Program Description
The Dismantling Racism Component for Educators (DRCE) is designed to increase the understanding of racism and how it impacts educational institutions, individuals, and society. Participants will examine their own attitudes and behaviors in relation to racial oppression and how it affects educational institutions and their instruction. They will develop a network of allies in the educational community that are concerned with institutional change. DRCE provides education leaders with an opportunity to explore personal leadership issues related to race and to identify strategies for addressing institutional racism and educational equity. All programs are developed based on a theory of change and a professional development logic model in accordance with standards and principles of the National Staff Development Council - NSDC.
Virginia Standard(s) Addressed
Planning & Assessment (ISLLC standard 3)
Instructional Leadership (ISLLC standard 1)
Safety & Organizational Management for Learning (ISLLC standards 2 & 3)
Communication & Community Relations (ISLLC standard 4)
Professionalism (ISLLC standards 5& 6)
Program Goals and Objectives
By the end of this program, participants will demonstrate the ability to decrease the achievement gap associated with race in the school division and will create a critical mass of change agents in the school division who offer support to each other with the long-term vision of dismantling racism in the division.
The general objective of DRCE involves employing a progressive sequence of new learning for participants in the stages as defined by Robert Kegan as embeddedness (internal and external), differentiation, and transforming. DRCE acknowledges that through this developmental process, and as Kegan suggests, there is confirmation (which supports an adult learner through the recognition stage), contradiction (which releases the individual at the appropriate time in order to facilitate differentiation), and, finally, continuity (which provides the stability and commitment of support while an individual moves through new and unfamiliar stages of development). This progression in the learning and supporting process is parallel to the phases of the change - initiation, implementation, and institutionalization.
Specific Objectives:
In the context of their institutions, participants will examine relationships and practices that are needed to ensure the following transformations and skill sets:
- Understanding that an equitable, quality education must be provided to all students
- Developing a lens to understand how individuals hold multiple and cross-cutting social group memberships
- Understanding how oppression resides not only in institutions but also within the human psyche
- Developing skills of perspective taking, empathic listening, self-examination, and allyship
- Empowering individuals to be change agents in dismantling racism through education and introspection In this environment, educators will be guided to employ these skills and their newly developed lens for holding high expectations for all students and for encouraging other stakeholders (students, parents, families, staff, and community leaders) to join in efforts for improving student achievement and eliminating disparities. They will learn and apply collaborative skills to conduct meetings, make shared decisions, solve problems, and work collegially (organizing).
Program Format
Instructional Strategies will include the following:
- Participation in intensive model group workshops designed with multiple interactive activities
- Engagement in a participant-centered approach to learning and transformation emphasizing the importance of individual change as a precursor and foundation for larger organizational and community change
- Utilization of clear and detailed training materials to implement the workshop strategies as part of their follow-up activities
- Completion of a pre/post "gap analysis" to determine the impact of the program on student achievement
- Participation in electronic dialogue with facilitators and other participants
- Completion of electronic follow-up activities to include implementing lessons and their impact
Target Audience
School and district level administrators, school staff, parents, community members, school volunteers.
Self-Selection and/or Identification Through School Division
Yes/yes.
Duration of Program
Tailored to the needs - This training is best delivered in a series of three sessions spanning one semester or longer with follow-up assignments in between sessions.
Outcomes Measured
Measurement of outcomes will focus upon the program goals transformed into outcomes developed within an NSDC framework.
Initial (Within six months)
Participants' knowledge and awareness of racism
- Increased awareness of participants' own biases and stereotypes
- Increased awareness of how institutional racism impacts educational outcomes
- Increased awareness of how to handle and work through conflict with others
- Increased awareness of educators in different parts of the country who do cutting edge work to eliminate racism
- Increased skill in assessing school environments and leading constructive change processes that ameliorate current disparities in education
Intermediate (At one year)
Participants' actions and behaviors related to overcoming bias
- Increased demonstrations of empathy for others from different racial/ethnic backgrounds
- Identification of personal prejudice and misinformation
- Increased ability to communicate effectively with people from different racial/ethnic backgrounds
- Increased dialogue with people from different racial/ethnic backgrounds
- Increased discussions of racial/ethnic differences
- Increased awareness of power dynamics in groups
- Increased assistance to others in examining their behaviors and attitudes about racial/ethnic differences
- Increased involvement in controversial discussions regarding racial/ethnic differences
- Increased ability to work effectively with people who hold very different views about race
- Increased ability to confront/educate others regarding racist behavior
- Increased activities to learn about other races and cultures
- Increased activities to interrupt incidents involving bias
Participants' activities related to overcoming bias
- Increased reading of newspapers or magazines written/published by people of color
- Increased attendance at conferences or workshops regarding closing the achievement gap between white and minority students
- Increased efforts to confront racist remarks made by family members, friends, or colleagues
- Increased efforts to interrupt jokes that demean people of a certain racial/ethnic background
- Increased involvement in organizational meetings where opinions are voiced about creating a diverse and inclusive environment
- Increased participation in groups that encourage dialogue among people of different racial/ethnic backgrounds
- Increased efforts to encourage schools and/or districts to assess how inclusive they are
- Changing dysfunctional intra-racial and inter-racial behavior
- Utilization of specific strategies to eliminate racism in their schools and/or within their departments
- Utilization of specific strategies to address the achievement gap between white students and students of color in their classrooms, within their schools, and/or within their departments.
- Understanding of social identity formation and their relationships to systems of oppression and liberation
- Building an inclusive community by being a part of a process that does so
- Accessing and analyzing information from new perspectives to build cross-cultural competency through mutual understanding, trust, and respect
Summative (At three years)
Knowledge and Awareness of Racism
- Ninety percent of participants will examine their own attitudes and behaviors in relation to racial oppression and how it affects educational institutions.
- Ninety percent of participants will increase the understanding of racism and how it impacts educational institutions. Actions and Behaviors Related to Overcoming Bias
- Ninety percent of participants will explore personal leadership issues related to race and difference and will identify constructive strategies for addressing institutional racism and educational equity.
- Ninety percent of participants will take concrete actions to address bias.
- Ninety percent will have remained in contact with other participants.
- Ninety percent of participants will spend time building more effective collaborations across racial lines.
- Ninety percent of participants will learn the critical skills of "change agency."
- Ninety percent of participants will learn to be leaders with the intentionality of commitment to racial justice and equity.
- Fifty percent of participants will develop a network of allies in the educational community that are concerned with, and committed to, institutional change that is directly connected to educational institutions and systems.
Specific Strategies to Eliminate Racism and the Achievement Gap
- Fifty percent of participants will evolve into a critical mass of change agents who are skilled and motivated to intervene in oppressive situations, initiate programs and training, and offer support to each other with the long-term vision of dismantling racism.
- Ninety percent of participants will initiate institutional strategies to decrease the achievement gap associated with race.
Program Evaluation
The component evaluation process is ongoing and will include multiple sources of information. Central to the evaluation process are pre-and post-surveys of participants that document and objectively indicate a comprehensive educational change. Participants will complete pre- and post-surveys of their awareness, attitudes, and behaviors in a number of areas related to overcoming bias, supporting diversity, and promoting educational equity. The participants will complete a pre/post "gap analysis" to examine the progress of targeted groups of students for the purpose of analyzing the impact of lessons learned about racial disparities upon their teaching and their students' learning.
These evaluation elements measure the degree to which the specific objectives are achieved by measuring change. This change is determined by participants' confirmation through student data analysis and through self-reporting of the participants' changes in skills, knowledge, or attitudes that the component is designed to teach. This information is vital if points are to be earned for certificate renewal.
Program evaluation is centered upon participants' growth in the following areas (the evaluation framework is developed in accordance with standards and principles of the National Staff Development Council - NSDC):
- Knowledge
- Attitudes
- Skills
- Aspirations
- Behaviors
Evaluation Questions:
- To what extent did participants change their knowledge and awareness of racism?
- To what extent did participants change their actions and activities related to overcoming bias?
- Did participants implement strategies to eliminate racism and the racial achievement gap?
- Did the achievement gap narrow as a result of participants' growth in awareness, action, and activities pertaining to dismantling racism?
Contact Information
Esther Coleman
Educational Consultant
2304 N. Main Street
South Boston, Virginia, 23452
Phone Numbers: 919-932-7711 Office | 561-707-6094 Cell
ebellcole@aol.com