This School Board Policy on equity ensures access to educational opportunities for all students by minimizing or eliminating the impact of disparities in abilities, levels of preparation, available resources and socio-cultural differences in achievement and performance so that all students may perform at optimum levels.
Mt. Diablo Unified School District. 2012. Equity School Board Policy - BP 5001/Student. Concord, California: Mount Diablo Unified School District
The article describes how PBIS was included in the 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and stresses the usefulness of PBIS for ensuring a free and appropriate education for students with disabilities and for protecting students at schools. The article is useful to practitioners and state and local education agencies that seek to understand the links between policy, practice and student outcomes.
Turnbull, R. H., Wilcox, B., and others. “IDEA, Positive Behavioral Supports, and School Safety.” Journal of Law and Education, 30(3), 2001: 445-503.
Developed by NYU, this workbook functions as an additional tool to help determine the institutional and personal contributions to racial inequity in schools.
Kramarczuk Voulgarides, Catherine, and Zwerger, Natalie. n.d. Identifying the Root Causes of Disproportionality. New York University: Metropolitan Center on Equity and the Transformation of Schools.
This brief distills key lessons from the pilot phase of the Scaling Up MTSS Statewide Initiative and found that educators’ experiences with other tiered intervention programs fundamentally shaped how MTSS implementation unfolded at school sites. This was due in large part to the MTSS framework being too broad in scope to provide schools with clarity and guidance; too narrow in how student behaviors are assessed and addressed to facilitate innovation; and silent on issues of race and culture.
Chong, S., Ortiz-Gonzalez, I., Koon, D., Winn, L. (2023). Lessons from the Pilot of MTSS School-Site Implementation. California MTSS Research Consortium, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Accessed September 5, 2023. https://transformschools.ucla.edu/research/ca-multi-tiered-system-of-support-ca-mtss-pilot-program/
This research snapshot provides an overview of a project led by Jason Okonofua, funded through the SERN K-12 Teachers and Classrooms Research Portfolio. The study employs a randomized placebo-controlled field experiment to test whether an intervention focused on teachers' empathic-mindset – valuing students’ perspectives and prioritizing the maintenance of positive teacher-student relationships – reduces and mitigates racial disparities in suspension rates.
Student Experience Research Network, (2021).
The NCSI supports State Education Agencies (SEAs) assisting them to learn about and understand seminal research around policy development implementation to meet the needs of students with disabilities. NCSI assists SEAs to translate that research into practice. Particular attention is given to the systemic functions of data literacy, evidence-based practices, stakeholder engagement, and systems coherence, in order to help SEAs cultivate knowledge and skills that enable them to achieve lasting impact for students.
This tool assists educators in assessing six domains when reviewing educational policies and procedures to uncover their potential inequitable outcomes.
Great Lakes Equity Center. 2015. Policy Equity Analysis Tool.
Intended to discontinue individual and systemic equity gaps, this tool helps users identify equitable policies, practices, and values.
Seattle Public Schools. nd. Racial Equity Analysis Tool.
According to the author, the Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) is a systematic examination of how different racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision. The tool is used to minimize unintended consequences of policy and practice.
Keleher, Terry. 2009. Applied Research Center. Racial Equity Impact Assessment. Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation.
The Regional Educational Lab (REL) West partners with key stakeholders in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah to develop evidence that can inform consequential decisions about policy, programs, and practice. Key stakeholders include organizations with decision-making authority and the ability to influence education policy and practice, such as state and local education agencies, school boards, institutes of higher education, and student, family, and community organizations. RELs partner with these organizations on applied research and development; training, coaching and technical supports; and dissemination.
