Strategic Diversity Plan Outline
Mission and Overview
The Cabot School district is committed to educating all students to be responsible citizens who value learning, treat others with dignity and respect, and successfully adapt to the demands of a rapidly changing society. The Cabot School District strives to meet the needs of “Every Child, Every Classroom, and Every Day”.
The Cabot School District is committed to meeting the needs of all students not only academically but also socially and culturally by creating an atmosphere that embraces diversity and provides students with meaningful diversified and multicultural educational opportunities. The goals and objectives set forth in this strategic planned are aimed at providing a learning environment that enriches the quality of education by providing students with the opportunity to acquire skills that allow them to function effectively as human beings in a highly diverse society.
I. Where we are?
The Cabot School District provides educational opportunities to the communities of Cabot, Ward and Austin. Cabot is a bedroom community that lies 20 miles northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas. The district serves over 10,000 students and has a slightly diverse population in regards to race- 98% of the student population is Caucasian. Of the district’s 10,219 students, one-third of them qualify for free or reduced lunches. The district itself is composed of nine elementary schools (K-4), two middle schools (5-6), two junior highs (7-8), a Freshman Academy (9th), one high school (10-12), one charter school (7-12) and an alternative school (7-12).
Currently, the Cabot Public Schools lacks in the area of diversity when it comes to race and ethnicity. However, in recent years, t...
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...s diversity.
VI. Measurable Goals
The Cabot School District will:
1. Develop an inclusive climate that promotes diversity in all schools throughout the district.
2. Create a comprehensive curriculum that reflects multicultural diversity and addresses other areas of prejudice that members of the student body and society currently face.
3. Recruit, hire and maintain minority faculty and staff.
4. Provide diversity training for all faculty and staff that addresses race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic factors, mental/physical abilities, religion, etc., promotes tolerance and acceptance, and appreciation of the diverse groups within the school and community.
5. Increase community and parental involvement within the school by establishing programs and events that help inform and promote diversity through school events, programs, trainings, etc.
Connecting people to the success of the district is one matter, but asking them to support it financially is another. The district is growing in size and is in need of new facilities and internal academic structures to support the growth. As the district continues to grow she is challenged with ensuring that the schools continue to interact with each other and do not return to the independent silos they were when she arrived. Ms. Hall realizes that she is the internal and external face of the district. She takes that very seriously and therefore, tires to view challenges as opportunities and successes as building blocks and
... practices could be put into action, to build towards an anti-biased curriculum and inclusive environment.
In Topeka, Kansas, the school for African-American children appeared to be equal to that of the white school. However, the school was overcr...
Richards, H., V., Brown, A., F., Forde, T., B. (2006). Addressing diversity in schools: culturally responsive pedagogy. Retreived March 30th 2014from http://www.nccrest.org/Briefs/Diversity_Brief.pdf
Provide a high-quality education with appropriate resources and support to ensure equal opportunity for all students in order to eliminate the achievement gap between Hispanic students and other students on appropriate state assessments and other indicators.
Importantly, if individuals, especially school officials, took this article into consideration, schools would become a more welcoming and assimilating environment for multiracial adolescents. Contradictory to that, if individuals don’t take this writing seriously, society will continue on a one sided path to viewing multiracial individuals and racism in societies will not make that one step closer to being
Connecticut General Statute 10-189 establishes that “A local or regional board of education is mandated to provide free school services to all school age children who are permanent residents of the town or school district.” This statute empowers school districts to deny educational services to students who reside outside of the local school district. The Court recognized that district residency requirements established by state law in Connecticut are the root cause of segregation and a primary contributing factor to the lower academic achievement of racially, ethnically and economically isolated Minority students (Eckes, 2005). It was clear to the Court, and blatantly obvious to any objective observer of public education in Connecticut, that the State’s system in which 169 independent towns and cities manage educational services at the local level is the primary cause of racial, ethnic, and economic
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.
Those efforts improve students' learning and experiences by cultivating key behaviors and knowledge and by providing a unique educational context. Published in the American Educational Research Journal, this paper gives insight into how racial diversity stretches beyond educational engagement and social composition. The significant difference made by diversity-related efforts, such as hybridized racial interactions and policies, is fully explored. The findings of the study presented can be generalized to the argument of institutional racism, as this piece presents rationale against it. The limitations of this paper are the insufficient detail regarding educational context needed to illustrate the steps institutions can take to apply diversity.
The multicultural identity of my school district also impacted my identity. The classrooms had a medium level of diversity and an equal number of males and females. People came from various ethnicities and a very wide range of social classes. Most teachers were able to celebrate diversity and were encouraged to respect all students, regardless of their personal beliefs and background. I was able to experience diversity in my learning
Develop an argument on or some ideas of understanding about curriculum as multicultural text by relating the works of Darling-Hammond, French, & Garcia-Lopez, Delpit, Duarte & Smith, Greene, Nieto and Sletter to your experience of curriculum, teaching, and learning as affirming diversity. You could think specifically about the following questions: Is there a need for diversity in curriculum studies and designs? Why? What measures do you think will be effective in incorporating such a need into curriculum studies and designs? What is the relevance of diversity to your career goal, to education in your family, community, and school, to education in Georgia, and to education in general? In which way can you develop a curriculum which helps cultivate empathy, compassion, passion, and hope for citizens of the world, and which fosters social justice?
2). She writes, “Educational inequality is repugnant in a society that has pledged to provide an equal education for all students regardless of rank or circumstance. Yet educational inequality is commonplace in schools all over our country” (p. xiv). She provides an excellent overview of how to construct effective multicultural educational programs. Her characteristics of multicultural education (p. 68) create the foundation upon which we build comprehensive understanding insuring a teacher does more than give cursory asides to diversity in the classroom but appreciates fully the different gifts the students bring to the educational experience.
Diversity in classrooms can open student’s minds to all the world has to offer. At times diversity and understanding of culture, deviant experiences and perspectives can be difficult to fulfill, but with appropriate strategies and resources, it can lead students to gain a high level of respect for those unlike them, preferably from a judgmental and prejudiced view. Diversity has a broad range of spectrums. Students from all across the continent; students from political refugees, indigenous Americans, and immigrants bring their cultural and linguistic skills to American classrooms. Students not only bring their cultural and linguistic skills, but they bring their ethnicity, talents, and skills.
The world is currently undergoing a cultural change, and we live in an increasingly diverse society. This change is not only affect the people in the community but also affect the way education is viewed. Teaching diversity in the classroom and focusing multicultural activities in the programs can help improve positive social behavior in children. There is no question that the education must be prepared to embrace the diversity and to teach an increasingly diverse population of young children.
We need to be aware of the diversity in the classroom. Cultural diversity includes: bi-racial, adoptive, immigrant, gay, and step-families. It is a large majority of the students today even in my generation. Focusing on making a balanced curriculum that exposes the students to all of these different backgrounds is very important. I know that it is likely that a teacher will not be able to cater to every student, but it is important to involve each of them. There is a large percentage of students that have dropped out due to the lack of having a connection with the curriculum. It is frustrating that we are lacking progress in our schools to help these children connect when studies show that each cultural group will soon be equal in numbers. We need to form a better