Equity, Inclusion, & Cultural Responsiveness

Curriculum Revision

• Reviewing and revising the elementary social studies curriculum (2020-2021 school year)
• Reviewing and revising the literature studied in middle school ELA to ensure a diversity of authors and topics.
• Revised the middle school social studies curriculum (Summer 2020)
• Reviewing and revising the literature studied at the high school in English 9 and English 10 to ensure a diversity of authors and topics. (2020-2021 school year)
• Revising high school social studies program to ensure all students receive instruction Wisconsin State Standards related to equity. (2020-2021 school year)

Rigorous Courses

• Ensuring all students complete rigorous courses to close the opportunity gap by preparing students for a successful post-secondary or career experience.
  • Algebra For All - All 8th grade students take Algebra I (as a minimum). By completing Algebra I in 8th grade, students are on pace to complete Algebra II by the end of their 10th grade year. Successful completion of Algebra II by a student’s 10th grade year is an indicator of future collegiate success.
  • Biology First - Implemented during the 2018-2019 school year, Biology is the first science course all students must take as a freshman at Homestead High School. Starting with the 2020-2021 school year, successful completion of Biology became a graduation requirement.

An AVID District

Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, is a national, nonprofit college & career readiness system adopted by the MTSD. The system is designed to equip students with the necessary intellectual skills and behaviors for academic success in rigorous coursework. The instructional strategies grounded in AVID’s professional learning framework provide educators with turn-key techniques to design high-quality instruction. Using AVID strategies, educators design learning opportunities that challenge students to think critically, ask questions, and collaborate to create solutions. AVID’s College & Career Readiness System places a strong emphasis on relationship-building, and the development and refinement of student agency in writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading (WICOR). Students are empowered to learn how to master these and other academic behaviors that will help them succeed in school and life. As a national program, AVID is designed to support traditionally underrepresented college bound students and first generation post-secondary education participants.

Co-Plan to Co-Serve to Co-Learn (C3)

C3 Team meetings are a dedicated time in a school’s weekly calendar where educators work together to collaboratively design and deliver learning experiences, keeping each student’s diverse and unique talents, interests, and skill sets in mind, so that all students can thrive in the universal setting.

Educators achieve that purpose in C3 Team meetings by:

• Co-Planning: Educators collaborate to proactively plan for standards based, differentiated instructional opportunities that provide an entry point for each student.
• Co-Serving: Educators collaborate to proactively leverage resources that ensure an entry point for each student.
• Co-Learning: Educators collaborate to build and strengthen their skill and knowledge to deliver universal instruction that is effectively differentiated for each student.

Cultural differences are a large part of what defines the complex essence of American society. Thus, we believe culture should play a significant role in learning - not just in the content of our curriculum, but in the way student thought processes are shaped. By graduation from HHS, all students will:

• investigate and interpret interactions between individuals and groups.
• identify and analyze democratic principles and ideals.
• examine individual cognition, perception, behavior, and identity
• examine and interpret rights, privileges, and responsibilities in society.
• assess the role that human behavior and cultures play in the development of social endeavors.
• analyze human movement and population patterns.
• evaluate government decisions and their impact on individuals, businesses, markets, and resources.
• evaluate the relationship between identity and place.

Ref: Wisconsin State Standards for Social Studies

MTSD has identified 9 skills that are necessary for workforce readiness. By providing intentional instruction in the Notable 9, our students are better able to develop the relationships needed to better understand the needs of others. Below are the skills focused on equity and inclusion:

• Collaboration - The action of working with others.
• Interpersonal Skills/Communication - Transmit facts, thoughts, ideas, interpretations, desires, and emotions.
• Adaptability - The quality of being able to adjust to new situations.
• Professionalism - Methods, characteristics, and attitudes of a person.
• Leadership - Sharing a vision, enlisting the talents of group members, and working collectively toward a future goal.

MTSD utilizes a comprehensive system of support for all students so that they can develop the tools to help them be resilient and cope when a situation arises. As part of the comprehensive system, we incorporate social-emotional learning (SEL) skills into the curriculum.

Social, emotional, and behavioral learning in MTSD is a set of integrated, proactive, and responsive systems, including:

• Direct skills instruction
• Embedded social-emotional practices into academic instruction
• Structures and routines to develop safe & supportive learning environments
• Intentional building of authentic teacher-student relationships

Through these systems, children & adults: build & maintain strong, respectful relationships, understand the social context of behaviors, develop the skills to understand and respond to emotions, set & achieve goals, and make caring & constructive choices about behaviors, which facilitates the co-creation of solutions that lead to individual and community well-being.

Social, emotional and behavioral Learning in MTSD is informed by evidence-based indicators of social emotional learning (CASEL) and Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports (PBIS) structures; it is grounded in equity, elevated youth voice, and authentic relationships between staff, students, and families.

Our focus is to discover and nurture students' gifts and talents with the ultimate goal being to maximize achievement and support students in their unique growth trajectory. Counseling, social and emotional support, and collaboration with parents is available for all identified students. The MTSD TAG (Talented, Advanced and Gifted) programming is aligned to our Multilevel Systems of Support. Selected Focus learning opportunities are provided by the classroom teacher and are monitored and supported by the TAG Coordinator. Intensive Focus learning opportunities are provided by the classroom teachers, the TAG Coordinator, and/or other specialists, and are monitored and supported by the TAG Coordinator. During the 2019-2020 school years, the identification process was revamped to ensure that more students of color were being invited to participate in TAG learning experiences.

Each year prior to the start of the school year, teachers, specialists, and support staff connect with specific students and families to ensure they feel welcome and prepared for the new school year.

The Mequon-Thiensville School District embraces a culture of equity and inclusion. We know how important it is for students to build relationships with educators who look like them in positions of leadership in their classrooms and schools. We also know that the more diversity we have among our educators, the better our schools will be for all students. Our goal is to attract, develop, and retain a diverse workforce within an environment that prepares each student for a life of infinite possibilities.

MTSD continues to support teacher growth through professional learning to promote and facilitate culturally relevant teaching. This training is facilitated through the District’s collaboration with AVID and is centered around the premise that the cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of our students brings value and assets to our classrooms and communities. Participants explore strategies and lessons that help empower students through examination, validation, and celebration of their own and others’ cultures. Additionally, the school district has provided regular training:

• AVID - Each summer, a team of MTSD teachers participate in the AVID Summer Institute’s Culturally Relevant Teaching professional learning. During this training, teachers learn how to:
  • Foster a growth mindset within themselves and their students.
  • Recognize and understand their own cultural beliefs and biases.
  • Realize the critical need to develop relational capacity with their students.
  • Create a learning environment that is safe, supportive, and respectful.
  • Maintain high expectations for all students.
  • Embrace the importance of equity in meeting the needs of students.
  • Provide support through scaffolding and differentiation.
  • Bridge connections between home, school, and community.
  • Consistently evaluate their teaching practices and adopt a willingness to change in order to address the ways in which their students learn.
• PACE Inservice Days - PACE stands for Prepare, Align, Collaborate, and Evolve. These inservice days are conducted prior to the first day of school each year. Over the past four years, MTSD staff has participated in the following equity-focused professional learning:
  • 2017 - Keynote by Jonathan Grant Brown title, “People Like Me: Opening Doors to Opportunity”
  • 2018 - Each Student, Every Time, Empowered to Succeed
  • 2019 - We All Have a Role (in each student’s success)
  • 2020 - Educator Resilience (meeting the needs of each student)
• Winter Equity Inservice - MTSD’s winter inservice day, scheduled each February, is dedicated to continuing to build each staff member’s capacity to create educational equity. Below are the professional learning topics staff have participated in during the last three winter inservices:
  • 2018 - Joint Ownership of Students
  • 2019 - Trauma and Culturally Responsive Classrooms
  • 2020 - Leading for Equity
• iSummit - Each summer, a team of MTSD staff attend the iSummit conference on Inclusive Practices for Equity and Access for All. Staff members learn effective strategies to engage and include all students in learning experiences.

The MTSD continues to support student learning by promoting and facilitating classroom interactions that are centered around the premise that the cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of our students brings value and assets to our classrooms and communities. Teachers create culturally relevant classrooms by implementing the following practices:

• Greet - Greet students at the door at the beginning of each day.
• Guide - Guide students to reflect upon and question situations using multiple lenses/ perspectives rather than relying on a single story.
• Show -Use storytelling to illustrate your point.
• Involve - Use a call and response to get the attention of the class.
• Be Fair - Do not make generalizations about a group.
• Nurture - Create a safe learning environment.
• Share - Share your story in order to build relational capacity.
• Understand - Know that biology, family, community, culture and generation all contribute to a person’s tapestry.
• Remember - Remember, you cannot not communicate. Every behavior is a kind of communication.

DELT is an action-oriented team of staff members responsible for planning and implementing culturally responsive practices in MTSD. This committee has two primary duties: developing professional learning opportunities for teachers, staff, and administrators and to help develop a culture where we empower and inspire all within the school community to create an environment where members feel and understand they are accepted, heard, nurtured, safe, and equipped to thrive. DELT designs and plans the equity-focused winter inservice each school year.

Student voice in ensuring a student-centered approach to building a culture of belonging is important. As such the high school has developed/supported/works with numerous student groups including:

• Roses - A student-chosen name for the group, refers to lyrics from a Tupac song which refers to people of color who have overcome challenges as, “Roses that Grew from the Concrete.” Since 2012, Roses has met, eaten lunch together once a week, planned events with guest speakers, hosted in and out of school field trips, and sought to do the following:
  • Build connections with each other and the community
  • Discuss ways to handle real-life situations
  • Break through stereotypes, developing ways to deal with ignorance and other challenges
  • Influence and motivate one another toward academic success, personal growth, and social leadership

• AAML - A name that replaced "Bros," which meant brothers. After many of the male students participated in the summer AAMI (African American Male Institute), the name changed to AAML - African American Male Leaders. In 2012 this group began to meet under the name Bros. Since then the group met periodically, but in 2020, before the pandemic, a solid restart led to the name change, and the boys ate lunch together once a week, planned events with guest speakers, hosted in and out of school field trips, and sought to do the following:
  • Build connections with each other and the community
  • Discuss ways to handle real-life situations
  • Break through stereotypes, developing ways to deal with ignorance and other challenges
  • Influence and motivate one another toward academic success, personal growth, and social leadership

• Best Buddies - The vision behind the Best Buddies program is to maximize social opportunities for high school students in mainstream and special education classes by matching them in one-to-one friendships. Together, they can participate in a variety of activities both at Homestead and out in the community. The goal is to establish foundations for genuine friendships, thus enriching the lives of both participants.

The MTSD Human Resources department enlists the support of numerous voluntary employee resource groups (ERGs) to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace aligned with the District’s mission, vision, goals, and values. Currently, the school district hosts three ERGs including one representing instructional staff, support staff, and African American/Black employees.

Through the school district’s Student Support Services and Communication & Engagement Departments, the organization provides larger scale events regularly to inform our collective efforts to promote academic and social emotional growth. These events are generally open to all district parents and staff members. The events often include a guest speaker and are supported by our community partners (PTO/PTSO, MTEF, etc.).

• June 2020: The Talk (Dr. Smith and Dr. Moutry) - an informational and interactive discussion about privilege and race designed to help us to live the vision we have created for our school district: Each student, every time, empowered to succeed.
• February 2020: Wake Up Call (Your Choice to Live, Inc.) - a substance abuse educational program and exhibit that provided practical information on current drug trends.
• May 2018: An Evening of Music & Conversation for Teens (Hannah Mrozak and Sue McKenzie) - included an opportunity for families including middle and high school aged students to participate in an event focused on the topic of coping with stress, anxiety, and overall mental health.

The MTSD is a founding member of the Closing the Achievement Gap Consortium (CAGC), a collection of nearly 40 public and private school systems in southeastern Wisconsin that have united together to create a high impact professional learning community focused on creating greater equity in their schools. Members of the organization serve regularly in leadership roles and participate in professional development and CAGC activities.