Are you looking for research-based strategies to expand education equity and reduce student achievement gaps in your public school? The new Region IX Equity Assistance Center at WestEd can help you. Check out our recently launched website and find out how we can assist you on civil rights, equity, and school reform issues.
Please visit our website often as we will be adding new features and resources to help you ensure that all children have access to equitable education opportunities!
The Region IX Equity Assistance Center (EAC) at WestEd is one of ten Equity Assistance Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education to provide technical assistance and training in civil rights, equity, and school reform. Our primary goal? To help ensure that all children have access to equitable education opportunities. The current network of Equity Assistance Centers will operate through 2014.
Our clients include districts, schools, state departments and other responsible agencies, organizations serving families, and community organizations throughout our three-state region of Arizona, California, and Nevada.
Contact Us
Rose Owens West, Director
510.302.4246
Region9EAC@WestEd.org
Equal Access to Content Instruction for English Learners:
An Example from Science
A new paper by Zoe Ann Brown and Kathy DiRanna
This paper highlights the importance of meaningful access to science content instruction for English language learners.
This paper describes:
- Quality science education as an example of using hands-on, inquiry-based lessons to apply higher-order thinking skills and promote the development of academic language
- Advocating high quality science instruction available to all students
- Policies and practices to increase implementation of science instruction
About the authors:
Brown is a Senior Program Associate with WestEd's Comprehensive School Assistance Program where she helps districts analyze achievement, access, and opportunity gaps; and modify programs, curricula, instruction, and assessment to improve English learners' achievement.
DiRanna is WestEd's K-12 Alliance Statewide Director and the Co-Principal Investigator/Project Director for the National Science Foundation-funded California Systemic Initiative and the Science Partnership for Articulation and Networking project.
New Data from U.S. Department of Education Highlights Educational Inequities Around Teacher Experience, Discipline and High School Rigor
The US Department of Education has just released new data from a national survey of more than 72,000 schools serving 85% of the nation’s students. The self-reported data, Part II of the 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), covers a range of issues including college and career readiness, discipline, school finance, and student retention.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the CRDC findings are a wake-up call to educators at every level and issued a broad challenge to work together to address educational inequities. Some of the key findings are:
- African-American students, particularly males, are far more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than their peers. Black students make up 18% of the students in the CRDC sample, but 35% of the students suspended once, and 39% of the students expelled.
- Students learning English (ELL) were 6% of the CRDC high school enrollment, but made up 12% of students retained.
- Only 29% of high-minority high schools offered Calculus, compared to 55% of schools with the lowest black and Hispanic enrollment.
- Teachers in high-minority schools were paid $2,251 less per year than their colleagues in teaching in low-minority schools in the same district.
The data from both phases of the 2009-10 CRDC are available on OCR’s website for the CRDC, .http://ocrdata.ed.govThe website, which has been improved for better usability, also contains CRDC data from 2000-2006. For additional information on the 2009-10 CRDC, visit http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/whatsnew.html
Our work is guided by a set of principles that align with the mission of WestEd, our parent agency: Working with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults.
- Equity must be at the forefront of all improvement efforts to achieve education excellence and increase student attainment.
- Districts must have the courage to acknowledge inequities in the system and culture, and then spearhead efforts to correct them.
- Decisions that promote equity and excellence are driven by the availability and transparency of reliable, valid data.
- Equitable school environments are cultivated when students, families, and staff are respected, valued, and safe.
