Education Equity Organizing Collaborative
InCommons Collaboration Challenge
Education Equity Organizing Collaborative
The Education Equity Organizing Collaborative is a partnership between strong community organizations rooted in diverse communities, primarily communities of color. Racial dispariaties in education are stark in Minnesota, and communities of color must be leaders in creating solutions. The collaborative includes American Indian, African American, Latino, Somali, Hmong and white community organizations. Together, we have built tools and strategies that have already helped ensure that educational decisions lead to more equitable outcomes for children of color.
About You
About You
First Name
beth
Last Name
Newkirk
Country
United States, MN, Hennepin County
About Your Organization
Organization
Organizing Apprenticeship Project
Organization Website
Organization Phone
612-746-4224
Organization Address
2525 Franklin Avenue East, Suite 301,Minneapolis
Organization Country
United States, MN, Hennepin County
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Your Story
Collaboration Title
Education Equity Organizing Collaborative
Country your work focuses on
United States, MN, Hennepin County
Describe your locally-based collaboration and the problem it sought to address
The Education Equity Organizing Collaborative is a partnership between strong community organizations rooted in diverse communities, primarily communities of color. Racial dispariaties in education are stark in Minnesota, and communities of color must be leaders in creating solutions. The collaborative includes American Indian, African American, Latino, Somali, Hmong and white community organizations. Together, we have built tools and strategies that have already helped ensure that educational decisions lead to more equitable outcomes for children of color.
Tell us about the community in which this collaboration took place
The collaboration includes partners in communities of color and American Indian communities in Mpls, St. Paul,suburbs,St. Cloud,Owatonna,Moorhead, MN. They work with families in 10 districts which together teach half the total number of additional students of color who would need to pass key benchmarks to achieve testing equity in MN, one but not the only measureof education equity.
Issue Selector
n/a
Partnership
Who was involved in co-creating or implementing your collaboration (other organizations, leaders, community members, etc.)?
The EEOC was co-created by the Organizing Apprenticeship Project, MIGIZI Communications, Somali Action Alliance and ISAIAH/GRIP. Each had successfully worked for equity in education, but faced barriers. Collaborative has grown to also include HOPE Community, Coalition of Black Churches, Ready for K Parent Empowerment, HACER, Centro Cultural (Moorhead) and Centro Campesino(Owatonna)
To what extent does your collaboration involve partnerships that are outside or cross traditional organizational or sector boundaries?
Communities of color are often treated as the problem rather than the solution in closing education gaps. We focus on our own communities, and have few spaces to explore our shared vision. EEOC partners cross racial, cultural and geographic boundaries. Together, we challenge the passive role assigned to us, create solutiosn and work with school stakeholders as powerful partners for equity.
Innovation
What makes your locally-based collaboration innovative and unique?
EEOC successfully brings together groups within diverse communities of color and American Indian communities, creating real relationships and common strategies. The collaborative is led by leaders and organizers within communities of color, who are deeply grounded in their own cultural, community or faith organizations. To address barriers facing students of color, we must be able to name the elephant – race - and communities of color must be at the table. Constructive, solution-centered discussion of race is possible, but unusual and often avoided We create a space for communities to explore that issue and build to tools that forward real solutions to racial or economic barriers in education.
We do not focus on just one aspect of education. We work to transform the ways in which schools and communities relate, and build sustainable commitment to equity at the center of schools and education. The Annenberg Institute has recently documented the importance of community organizing to improving lasting educational outcomes,particularly in low income communities of color. We have created innovative strategies for connecting communities and educators around equity goals.
Did you take risks in establishing this collaboration? Explain
It is risky to reach across cultures and build common strategies. Communities of color have distinct cultures often buried in society, and we work hard to honor those cultures. Explicit discussion of race, and the use of racial equity research is powerful but involves some risk. This approach cuts against business as usual, which does discourage direct, constructive conversation about race.
How did this collaboration differ from the normal way of doing your work?
Each partner would normally focus on issues impacting their own community. Through EEOC, we go further, bringing issues to a common table, sharing strategies, and collaborating on messages and strategies. The collaborative has helped leaders of color build a more powerful voice, transforming leadership. We are creating new approaches to buidling powerful relationships with educators as well.
Impact
How do you know your collaboration has been effective?
We have stronger relationships with each other, and have had a powerful impact on critical decisions in one key urban district. The outcome of our equity assessment of a school referendum was passage of that referendum by communities of color – and an agreement with the district to work with us to ensure that equity would truly result. Through our work, we saw that District become one of the 1st in the nation to use racial equity impact analysis to inform a policy decision. We have introduced strong racial equity frames into current school board elections, asking the kinds of questions candidates say need to be but are rarely asked. Finally, new members are joining because they the early progress we are making Communities see that this approach might work, and want to be part of it.
What progress or impact has been made?
The nation-leading use of racial equity impact assessment at the point of decision on 1 policy in an urban school is groundbreaking. Though imperfect, this stopped disruption for over 1,000 students of color. This same assessment identified ways the changes would close pathways to opportunity for key communities, and community leaders were able to then create new strategies to address that issue.
Next Steps
How would you go about continuing, expanding, or replicating this collaboration?
The Education Equity Organizing Collaborative decided to expand its work in December 2009. We added 5 new organizational partners and spent time building relationships and a common understanding across the groups, and the cultural, geographic and issue communities now represented. We also reflected on our successes, lessons and the work yet to do in one District, Minneapolis. From that reflection, we developed a two-prong strategy for moving forward. We will build on the relationships and opportunities in Minneapolis and work to implement a set of equity practices that would help make the District’s equity goals and community partnerships real. A subset of the collaborative is working on this goal.
We are also developing strategies to build state recognition of equity progress and practices in schools. Each partner is moving key elements of this in their communities, and we are meeting with state education leaders to explore the idea of building recognition and "rubrics" for equity progress and strategies for accomplishing it. We will include our partners, other stakeholders and other communities in this project.
Describe the current stage of implementation and desired next steps
The collaborative as a whole and the Minneapolis subgroup are meeting @ once a month to plan and develop strategies for the above campaigns. We worked with a research intern this summer to look at examples of equity practices in other districts and countries, and to develop a working discussion guide on what racial equity might look like and the important areas in which racial and economic equity should be measured. That discussion guide will be used by our partners to launch community conversations on this subject. We also asked for and explored research on Minnesota’s achievement gap, specifically research that helped identify where the districts and schools where a focus on equity might help close that gap. The statewide collaborative also began a series of meetings with legislators and other education leaders to assess the best strategy for moving a statewide discussion on racial equity standards, and to build some initial allies and new partners in this campaign. Next steps will include development of a working partnership with the leading research group on racial equity in education, working with one of our partners (ISAIAH) to include the EEOC in planned meetings with new Department heads. We will also be reaching out to a range of stakeholders to contribute to the initial discussions around defining equity and equity practices in schools. Based on those meetings and what we learn we will craft the next stage of this work, which will begin with the state Department of Education, with key districts interested in piloting parts of this work and with opinion leading groups who can carry a central message about the importance of highlighting progress towards equity as well as excellence in multiple ways.
The Minneapolis sub –group has met with district leaders and with all school board candidates and held a creative candidates forum focused on racial equity issues with all school board candidates and communities of color. After this fall’s election, we will begin work with school board members and key leaders to identify areas in which equity practices might contribute to equitable outcomes and to institutionalize some new equity practices within the district. We will also engage this and other district’s in broader work to shape state dialogue around education and equity o
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