Resources

The Civil Rights Data Collection provides data on key education and civil rights issues in the nation’s public schools for use by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, other Department of Education offices, and other policymakers and researchers. This data collection provides information about students in public elementary and secondary schools on a variety of indicators, including enrollment; access to educational programs or services; and academic proficiency results disaggregated (i.e., broken out) by race, ethnicity, sex, and disability.

Although the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders does not necessarily endorse the point of view expressed in this presentation (by The Education Trust) and the conclusions drawn from the data, it is a good example of advocacy for equity work using data. 

As discussed in the 2009 biennial  report of the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, the Tennessee Department of Education collected and analyzed data on teacher patterns and identified disparities in the state’s high-poverty and high-minority schools in 2006. See Chapter 3 in the report for additional information.

In collaboration with the Delaware Department of Education and the Mid-Atlantic Comprehensive Center, the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center) developed interview protocols to study access to great teachers in the state. State education agencies and districts can modify these protocols to conduct similar needs assessment work. See Chapter 3 in the report for additional information.

Access to important educational resources in California’s middle and high schools is not equal among schools that serve different student populations. Overall, the most disadvantaged populations of middle and high school students are likely to have the least access to the resources necessary for learning. 

Annually, teachers in Chicago are presented with the Golden Apple teaching awards during a black-tie event. The Golden Apple organization and the Chicago media team up to air the ceremony for the community. Although the content does not reflect purely issues of inequitable access, it provides an example of strategic ways to engage with the media to share education successes. 

In 2010, Charlotte-Mecklenburg (in North Carolina) prioritized the equitable access to effective teachers in the school district as a key objective in its overall goal of providing effective educators for all students. Specifically, the school district called for high-need schools to have teachers and administrators with the same experience and degrees for teachers in schools recognized as Schools of Excellence and Distinction.

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and the Office of Educator Equity and Talent (OET), in partnership with the New Teacher Center, piloted a three-year program called TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning) to provide educators in Ohio with data, tools, and support to facilitate school improvement planning and address issues of inequitable access. As a part of the initiative, Ohio is doing the following:

The Office of Educator Equity was created within the Center for the Teaching Profession at the Ohio Department of Education to do the following:

The Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center—in partnership with the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality—hosted two webinars for state officials in Tennessee who were committed to addressing the state’s equity problem. The first webinar, which took place in March 2007, highlighted strategies used by other states and the challenges and opportunities they encountered in collecting and analyzing equity data. The Tennessee Department of Education’s study of equity also was discussed. A follow-up webinar was held a month later.