There is currently a national debate surrounding what can and cannot be taught in K-12 public schools. In this Equity Dispatch we remember that centering equity and being able to recognize, name, and address the history of systemic racism and oppression in the United States is inclusive, not divisive.

Re-committing to equity work means that equity-oriented educators must reflect on the impact of historical and systemic inequities on minoritized students, accepting that transformative change towards equity takes time and unrelenting and continuous hard work, and it means being willing to pursue educational equity even in the face of fierce…

This brief explains how four important system design initiatives frequently promoted by state and local education agencies for school improvement can be implemented through an intentional systematic approach for a powerful, positive impact on student outcomes. As technical assistance providers with expertise in four specific frameworks for…

This edition of "Equity Dispatch" aims to reimagine a school environment where student-led activism, towards social justice, of oppressive school systems is legitimized rather than marginalized.

In this edition of "Equity Dispatch," we seek to emphasize the criticality of intersectionality, or the ways in which social, economic, and political identity-based systems of oppression and privilege connect, overlap, and influence one another, as a powerful construct and tool for strengthening culturally responsive and sustaining…

In this edition of "Equity Dispatch," we discuss the equity implications of the impact of online/distance learning, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As school districts are preparing to open, we argue the importance of positioning minoritized students' and families' knowledge production and lived experiences as assets in the…

This edition of Equity Dispatch speaks to educational leaders within systems who, through policy and practice, pigeonhole K-12 educators into inauthentic social justice roles--which push educators to continually reproduce practices that historically marginalize. Provided within is a socio-cultural history of social justice education theories and…

In this issue of the "Equity Dispatch" we focus on the collective power of minoritized communities to positively impact the quality of education students receive within their districts through the selection of equity-focused, locally-elected school board members.

In this edition of "Equity Dispatch," we explore the concepts of allyship and accomplice, and how they may manifest at the intersection of education and advocacy.

This Equity Tool provides guidance in reviewing standards and curricular materials using equity-oriented domains. It also includes a scoring and analysis guide to assist with the evaluation process.

This issue of "Equity Dispatch" spotlights the 2017 Midwest & Plains Equity Assistance Center's State Equity Leaders Summit, centering the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The focus is on re-centering the spirit of Civil Rights legislation through leveraging ESSA to support equity-focused school transformation, highlighting the…

This issue of "Equity Dispatch" seeks to interrogate and redefine what it should mean to have a diverse workforce, specifically at the district level. When we begin to recognize the importance of holistic representations of difference, we can begin to shift the culture of our districts in equitable and inclusive ways.

In this issue of "Equity Dispatch," we rethink how the "achievement gap" is conceptualized. We can begin moving away from describing the achievement gap as a persistent disparity of educational measures between groups of students defined by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES) and gender (Hidden Curriculum, 2014), to…

In this edition of "Equity Dispatch," we discuss equity implications around disciplinary policies in virtual learning contexts. We offer practical applications of principles of Universal Design for Learning & Culturally Responsive Pedagogy as proactive strategies for engaging students in virtual learning activities.

This issue of Equity Dispatch discusses engaging teachers as social justice actors. In this issue, we contextualize current teacher mobilizations toward fair wages, better resources, and better learning conditions within a professional history of objectification and exploitation. We provide examples of "social justice unionism" (Alter,…