Ashlee Gutierrez is the equity coordinator for the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. She spoke to TeachFX about equity, inclusion, and helping schools and teachers translate initiates into their daily practice. Below are some notes from the event.

What does it mean to work on DEI? Guiding principles?

• As a teacher, I thought the focus was on representation in curriculum and relationships. As principal, it was diversifying staff. Now, I think it's that AND exposing the way racism and white supremacy culture are at work in our institutions. People thought, "we'll hire an equity coordinator and racism will be solved.” And then, the equity coordinator is a thorn in people's side. It's not just projects but deeply personal and critical self reflection.

What are the critical dimensions? How do you know it when you see it? 

• Looking at data: Academic achievement, attendance, social and emotional survey data. Also shows up in how we interact with each other. Plenty of strategies to increase achievement that can be problematic. 

• Rooting ourselves in collectivism, community, and how we interact with each other.

What do we mean by inclusion? What are we including students in? 

• Fascinating how much we talk about students without including students.

• When our district is making a decision that impacts students, I ask, “can we just go get some students and ask them what they need?” 

• Started a Student Senate which meets in advance of each school board meeting. They are doing surveys of their fellow students.

• We get students involved in the interview process for teachers. Include students on the interview panel. 

• We need to move from Culturally Responsive Pedagogy to Culturally Responsive Systems

Student voice: Is it natural? Does it have to be encouraged? 

• Students will self-select to participate, but almost every student has an opinion about their experience in school. They don't need much prodding.

How can school systems become more culturally responsive?

• Systems approach: Instead of taking a top-down approach, seek input from bottom up. Be mindful of the interconnections. 

• Interrogate the ways white supremacy culture is alive. 

• Tension: Figure out what we can learn on our own and what we must learn in community with each other. 

How do principals help schools become more responsive? 

• Principal is a tough job. Intermediary between students and district.

• Have to be present for teachers, students, and their families. Want to learn how to make things better for teachers. 

• At Caliber, I learned from teachers that I need to give them more planning time. Research shows a relationship between teacher satisfaction and student achievement. Turns out when you show teachers you value them, they do more of the things that are good for student learning.

Q&A Discussion:

How do you reach more teachers? 

• Working Group with representatives from all 35 schools and we meet monthly to engage in community building. Want it to be a place of restoration, encouragement, and professional learning. Train the Trainer. I model PD. We experience it, reflect on meta-moment, and then they present that info to their staff. 

What's the most effective train the trainer model?

• Interrogating white supremacy culture. 

How do you match the ideal with reality?

• Challenging work is often restrained. I didn't realize how quickly that would happen.

How do you address resistance? 

• That's hard. I try to appeal to humanity. Rhetoric has been politicized. Reframe the issues as human rights ones and lead with students' stories -  include quotes, share student experiences, and their narratives interrupt the ideological gridlock.

Grading…Issues of equity in grading?

• Offer examples of what to do differently. 

Want to learn more about TeachFX at your school? Let us know!