Our plan aims to ensure students will graduate prepared for success in their choice of career and/or post-secondary education, be able to compete in and contribute to the global community, and be motivated tocontinue the pursuit of knowledge throughout their lives.
Tommie Lewis, a DEIB consultant, with over 30 years of experience, facilitates coalition meetings alongside Vanessa Giddings, Executive Director of Student Support Services. The coalition monitors the DEIB strategic plan through data analysis and provides ongoing feedback regarding areas of celebration and areas of improvement in the following areas:
- Increase cultural awareness of students and staff as well as a deeper understanding of diversity and inclusion.
- Implement a unified multi-tiered system of support.
- Increase student, family, and community engagement.
On March 7, 2023 our coalition met to review disaggregated fall 2022 student perception data from several questions related to our DEIB strategic plan. That data may be reviewed HERE for grades 3-5 and HERE for grades 6-12. During the March meeting coalition members charged the district to act upon the student perception data in the following ways:
- Build on the strengths that are represented in the data.
- Consider this as one data point to consider, recognizing that there could be flaws in the data.
- Look at the disparities between student populations and explore these more with our staff.
- Develop ways to gather quantitative data from students to learn from their experiences and stories. Gather this data from trusted adults and ensure that various student populations including non-gender conforming youth are included.
Additionally, the coalition started the process of evaluating the DEIB strategic plan as we look to the 2023-24 school year. The coalition made the following recommendations:
- Tell our story more frequently and in more places. There is a strong desire for the coalition to ensure all staff and community members know that this work is taking place and our schools are committed to our work.
- Create more collaboration between our coalition and the School Accountability Committees as well as the District Accountability Advisory Committee.
- Continue to explore ways to support staff as we engage in courageous conversations with families and community members about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
If you know someone who would be interested in joining the Inclusive Excellence Guiding Coalition for the 2023-24 school year, please have them contact Vanessa Giddings at (970) 247-5411 or [email protected].