District Strategic Diversity Plan Field Project to Diminish Achievement Gap between Black and Non-black Students

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Background

With an enrollment of over 13,000 students in 23 schools, Pulaski County is one of the largest districts in the state of Arkansas. Pulaski County Special School School District (PCSSD) is committed to providing each student with an excellent education. Our district’s diversity committee reviewed the district’s mission, vision and core beliefs. The committee reviewed Aspire test score data, discipline data, and absenteeism data to identify the achievement gap between black and non-black students. The largest areas of need for the district revolve around diversity issues.

The achievement gap between black and non-black students in Pulaski County on the Literacy portion of the Aspire is 17%. 70% of white students were proficient, whereas 53% of black students scored proficient on the Aspire.

The achievement gap in the Math portion between black and non-black students in Pulaski County is 16% on the Aspire. 68% of white students were proficient whereas 37% of black students scored proficient.

Definition of Diversity

Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD) defines diversity as a range of identities that exist in a group of people. Diversity in PCSSD goes beyond color and ethnic backgrounds also including customs, cultural and religious experiences, political views, sexual orientation and more. PCSSD is committed to a culture that reflects, respects and embraces the voices, perspectives, and differences arising from our diverse community.

Needs Assessment/Justification

Our district is committed to eliminating educational inequities by providing equitable access to services, school resources, and other learning opportunities especially when it comes to educating our African American students. “One area where racial disparities continue to exist alongside the achievement gap is in the area of discipline” (Koppelman, 2014, p.193). As a district, we will implement Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to focus on increased class times for all students focusing on minority students and decreased time in office and suspensions. In connections with AVID, we will also initiate a district-wide mentor program called “Guys in Ties” for our at-risk black males and “DIVAS” (Dynamic Intelligent Vibrant Ambitious Students) for our at-risk black females. We will use minority community members to mentor and tutor these specific students on a weekly basis.

In PCSSD, we believe all students will learn and be successful and we recognize that students have different learning styles and we must provide equitable supports and differentiated instructional practices for individual students. However, there is a disjoint in the data in what our minority students specifically our black students are learning in comparison with Caucasian students in the same buildings. It is crucial that we create a strategic action plan to consistently progress monitor students and provide timely, prescriptive interventions to reduce the achievement gap. “After more than fifty years since Brown vs. The Board of Education, the struggle to provide a quality education for every child regardless of ethnicity continues” (Milton, 2008, p.58).

Diversity Mission and Shared Core Beliefs

Our district is devoted to decision making that is aligned to the district mission and shared core beliefs.

Mission Statement:

PCSSD staff believe in a district that teaches or children and ourselves to live, learn and work together collaboratively in a vibrant diverse world involving all stakeholders (teachers, students, families, community and business partners, and administrators).

Vision Statement:

To become the premier school district in central Arkansas, providing an excellent educational experience to all students. PCSSD embraces, celebrates and values diversity and explicitly practices it in all our endeavors. We seek to build an educational community based on mutual respect, trust and decency.

Shared Core Beliefs:

We believe that our schools must provide a physically and emotionally safe learning environment.
We believe that in order to achieve academic excellence, students, teachers, parents, and community members must be active partners.
We believe in an inclusive curriculum, instruction and assessment that is learner-centered rigorous, engaging and real-world.
We believe that we should use data to drive all our decisions.
We believe that our schools are communities of learners where everyone works together to do whatever necessary to help students learn at their highest level.

Statement of Priorities

Our district’s Equity monitoring committee has identified (5) goals for the Pulaski County Special School District to employ when contending with our diversity and equity concerns as it relates to student achievement gaps between black and non-black students on the state-mandated Aspire test. Our identified priorities are:

Utilizing Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) PCSSD will work to reduce discipline referrals and suspensions by 5% yearly over the next 4 years for all minority students with an emphasis on African Americans.

PCSSD will recruit, hire and retain teachers, administrators and staff of color providing staff that reflects the community it serves.
PCSSD will increase the enrollment of African-American students in the Gifted and Talented programs, Pre-Advanced Placement and Advanced Placement classes by 5% yearly over the next 4 years.
PCSSD will decrease by 5% yearly over the next 4 years the number of African Americans enrolled in remedial courses.
Over the next 4 years, PCSSD will increase African American student performance on the state-mandated Aspire test by 5% yearly.

Delegation of Responsibilities

The office of equity monitoring led by the assistant superintendent of equity monitoring will train and monitor each school’s equity monitoring team on a yearly basis to ensure that each school is following the district diversity plan.

Each school in the district will establish an equity/diversity monitoring team made up of school administrators, staff and community members to monitor the effectiveness of the district diversity plan by completing a yearly walkthrough and reviewing lesson plans. The results from the committee walkthrough will be submitted to the office of equity monitoring for review.

Statement of Responsibility

Even though there is legislation such as the Every Student Succeeds law, minority students still continue to fall behind in Math and Literacy. “The reality of urban education and the plight of many African American children is that many of these children are being left behind, even with the No Child Left Behind legislation” (Milton, 2008, p.55). Pulaski County Special School District’s Strategic Diversity Plan will be implemented with fidelity beginning fall of the 2020 school year and will be reviewed annually each year for the next four years. The equity monitoring committee developed our motto-Equity and Excellence. Our district is committed to reducing the achievement gap by 5% each year over the next four years. Meeting this goal yearly over the course of the next three years will reduce the achievement gap to almost zero in Math and Literacy.

“Achieving true equity for all students must be a central and essential component of any attempts to close the racial achievement gap” (Singleton & Linton, 2006, p.46). Our goal is to impact the underlining areas that are attributing to lower test scores. By utilizing PBIS Positive Behavior Interventions and Support we will begin decreasing African American students’ time out of class for office referrals, suspensions, and in-school suspensions we will directly impact student learning. We will use the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) system, Guys in Ties and DIVAS to mentor and tutor minority students to lead African American students to take more Advanced Placement classes and decrease the number of minority students labeled and placed in the special education program. We will work in PLCs to review student data, provide common formative assessments and reteach skills in small groups on students’ level.

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