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Adapt, Advance, Achieve: Connecticut’s Plan to Learn and Grow Together
Equity
What if we use this time to re-purpose our leadership structures to build our
leadership muscle to be strategic equity leaders instead of reactive leaders.
Strategic equity leaders identify education challenges through an equity lens
and engage others in collaborative inquiry to figure out what to do to address
the challenges. Strategic equity leaders build the competencies of others
to interrupt status quo ways of doing things that perpetuate inequities…
— Vasquez, The National Equity Project
During the fall of 2019, Connecticut education leaders representing the CSDE, the Connecticut
Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS), and the Connecticut Association of
Boards of Education (CABE) issued a joint statement due to a number of high profile acts of
racism and anti-Semitism involving students in Connecticut schools. That statement emphasized
our mutual commitment to providing all students with school environments “where they do
not feel threatened regardless of their race, gender, gender identity or expression, religion,
nationality, status of citizenship, or sexual orientation. It is our core responsibility as educators to
do everything we can to foster environments that ensure equity, diversity and inclusion.”
The return to school is being contemplated amidst a global pandemic and national
demonstrations generated by the recent, yet too familiar, acts of racial and social injustice
against communities of color. In the midst of this crisis, our students, educators, families, and
communities are searching for the way forward. It is critically important that we deeply examine
policies, practices, and pedagogy through a culturally responsive and racial equity lens. Further,
inequities such as access to devices/technology, access to high quality curriculum, access to
social-emotional and mental health supports, and issues of exclusionary discipline must be
addressed.
In the voice of a student:
“Attention toward Mental Health — We are all experiencing one trauma
together, instead of just forcing us through it, talk about it with openness. So
many students are struggling, and so few are saying things. Have people
check in on them, have someone reach out. A lot of students need it.”
(Connecticut Student ThoughtExchange June 2020)
Educators need to be self-reflective so we are not blind to discrimination, inequity, racism,
implicit bias, and white privilege. Only by addressing these issues head-on, providing
professional learning for all staff, explicit engagement of students and families, and having
courageous conversations, will we make positive progress and create truly equitable schools.
The CSDE along with our partnering educational organizations throughout the state will continue
to provide extensive resources, guidance, and support to LEAs in their work to reduce the
negative effects of inequity and to assert our roles as equity leaders. Our students and their
families deserve our commitment. While resources alone will not change personal attitudes,
which is necessary to accomplish these goals, we must continue to learn together to forge our
way forward.