Gender inequities are not limited to the experiences of women who teach or lead in education – as we’ve documented here, students also bear the brunt in inequitable practices in schools, districts, and educational organizations. Importantly, inequity is not limited to different treatment of the genders, but instead extends to the range of identities a person might represent (see our brief introduction to intersectionality). Yet we know that gender bias manifests in classrooms in a couple of ways: girls may be called on less frequently than boys, be assigned to lead groups less frequently than boys, girls who evince more traditionally masculine characteristics may be subject to school-based consequences, and students who identify as nonbinary or trans may be erased or persecuted.

The mission of Aequitas is to rectify inequities in our schools. We have a number of tools for doing so, some of which we’ve created and some of which we’re learning about from other practitioners and teachers. Today’s blog overviews a Data Equity Walk, which was developed and engineered by The Education Trust-West. We’ll provide an overview as well as some information about what kind of teaching your team might need in advance of the Data Equity Walk.

What will we do?

• Gather multiple stakeholders in and around an educational organization (may be comprised of faculty, leaders, families, policymakers, board members, etc.).

• Review data which reflect the performance and experience of students.

• React, individually and collectively, to various data presentations and imagine the ways in which organizational structures, practices, and cultures contribute to the outcomes represented in those data.

What does a team need to maximize the benefits of the Data Equity Walk?

• Leader preparation. It is essential that the DEW leader or facilitator thoroughly prepare by compiling data (The Education Trust provides template slides), reviewing the facilitator guide, and establishing group norms.

• Shared definitions of concepts associated with equity, diversity, and achievement. You might include terms like equity, equality, access, bias, and gender.

• Common goals for subgroups of students and particularly students whose identities put them at greater risk in educational organizations. You may include some or all of the following: minoritized students, queer students, female students, or low-income students.

What are the benefits?

• Data Equity Walks establish common ground from which stakeholders may begin or continue discussions of interventions that promote equity and increased performance outcomes.

• Establishing common language and goals around data outcomes tends to create urgency, so that multiple stakeholders share a single agenda.

• Your team may be better equipped to actively dismantle cultures of inequality by consistently pointing to data – this may include addressing issues such as teachers’ expectations of students of color, hiring practices that prevent women from being promoted to school and district leadership, siphoning resources from the most vulnerable students, or professional development on issues of intersectionality.

That tool was particularly for discussions or community settings in which harm and oppressive behaviors become evident. Such behaviors may not be immediately evident in spaces like classrooms and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) because repeated behaviors often become normalized. It is nevertheless important to address dangerous inequities in schools and to cultivate cultures of professional learning and individual safety which, when taken together, promote equitable outcomes for all students.

-Lauren