Education Equity Working Group: Policy Agenda

ERASE Racism Convenes Education Advocates

In order to sharpen our policy agenda for the 2017-2018 year, ERASE Racism called upon our Education Equity Working Group (EEWG) members to form a policy committee. The committee has already made great progress in defining what changes we need to see to achieve our goals of greater racial and socioeconomic equity in Long Island schools.

Attendees have included college professors, current and past school board members, superintendents, principals, teachers, parents and not-for-profit organization advocates. They have been critical to assisting ERASE Racism in prioritizing policy action items to pursue.

On Wednesday, September 27th, the policy committee convened to discuss important topics such as: the new ESSA New York state plan, teacher diversity, implementation of culturally responsive education practices, restorative justice policies/practices and how to support and sustain diversity in already diverse districts on Long Island. Everyone who attended the meeting had the opportunity to share their opinions on such matters through small group discussions.

Furthermore, the intimate setting produced an incredibly collaborative atmosphere that only revitalized the committee’s ability to brainstorm concrete ideas that will support greater equity for Long Island schools. Some of those ideas include:

mentorship programs connecting newly minted black and brown teachers with veteran teachers of color
ERASE Racism providing a platform to connect black and brown educators with Long Island districts
collaborating with higher education institutions to provide an institute on culturally responsive education
creating forums for local administrators to attend with speakers addressing implementation of restorative justice
Getting the school board association to support culturally responsive policies that promote diversity

All of these policy items unite under one message: We want integrated learning environments for our students at all levels. We want students to be learning in diverse classrooms, with diverse teachers, with a diversified curriculum. Our policy committee meetings have done a superb job with identifying Long Island schools’ weakest areas, and thinking creatively about ways we can better support those areas. Moreover, attendees have recognized that we must attack the issue of racial and socioeconomic isolation in our districts in multiple ways looking at our issues through multiple lenses. Having such a variety of voices at the discussion table has allowed us to think of policies through many perspectives.

ERASE Racism will continue to convene our policy committee meetings to push forward our policy goals with the aid and input of our EEWG members. The next meeting’s date is currently being organized and we are seeking times that will help facilitate increased involvement of parents.