Equity in Education
"I believe there is a lot that can be done to address the disparities and achievement gaps that make our schools less equitable. These include addressing our community's poverty issues, hiring more teachers of color, eliminating suspensions in our elementary schools (except in extreme cases), making bias and resiliency training mandatory for all teachers and staff, and moving toward greater integration of our schools. The school system has made positive moves toward reaching some of these goals, and I would like to see an expansion of these policies."
As a member of the New Hanover County School Board, I will advocate for greater racial and socioeconomic equity in our school system and to provide additional, much-needed resources for students with learning difficulties.
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My suggestions to alleviate these issues are:
Provide crucial resources and support for teachers/staff to help students who experience learning difficulties and mental health, behavioral, and academic challenges
Develop a trauma-informed instruction plan for all schools that will include resiliency training
Support the implementation of a community schools model
Support county-wide trainings for unconscious bias and the prevention of sexual abuse
Support the elimination of North Carolina's antiquated school grading system
The WestEd Leandro Report (shown below) found that there is a substantial achievement gap in testing proficiency and the grading designations of individual schools between high-poverty and low-poverty schools. These findings make it clear, some of our community's schools are being unfairly designated as 'failing schools' because of North Carolina's antiquated school grading system and the emphasis on proficiency over growth.
As a result, our community's children are disadvantaged by a biased system.
