Recently, the U.S. Department of Education released the FAQ guidance for states as they develop plans to ensure equitable access to excellent educators for students from low-income families and students of color. The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) is pleased to launch the Equitable Access Toolkit to support states in this work. The toolkit includes the following:
Moving Toward Equity Stakeholder Engagement Guide
The stakeholder engagement guide is designed to support states in planning and putting into action effective strategies to engage critical stakeholders—early, often, authentically, and constructively. The guide includes step-by-step guidance for short- and long-term stakeholder engagement planning that will work in your state’s specific context.
Data drives the equitable access planning process. State education leaders need to examine the most meaningful equitable access metrics and ensure that plans are in place for improving data quality. This tool is designed specifically to help state leaders assess, analyze, and communicate their data and tell a story about equity gaps in their states.
Improving equitable access requires first drilling down to the root causes of equity gaps specific to your state’s context. This workbook supports state leaders in pinpointing the core challenges so that strategies and resources can be targeted toward them. Through a series of eight strategic steps, state teams can investigate the underlying causes of equity gaps and collaboratively brainstorm how best to take action.
Time to Reboot Educator Equity Plans
What are the main challenges states must be mindful of as they develop new equitable access plans? Jane Coggshall, principal researcher at American Institutes for Research, identifies four issues hindering equitable access in a blog post:
- Limited focus targeting high-need schools in state equitable access plans
- Recruitment challenges within localized teacher labor markets
- School-level factors, such as budgets and teacher-principal relations
- Imperfect educator evaluation systems
For more information, please visit: http://www.gtlcenter.org/learning-hub/equitable-access-toolkit
For the U.S. Department of Education FAQ guidance for equitable access, see: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/Equitable%20Access%20FAQs%20Final.pdf
