Equity part of the Education Reform Network

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Policy-Makers

• American Association of University Women
  The AAUW is not your grandmother's AAUW: it now focuses much of its efforts on educational equity, following its landmark publication in 1992 of How Schools Shortchange Girls, that remains controversial and a target of the right although it merely summarized over 1100 previous research studies. Their sites is full of analysis and research briefs, and they provide a large amount of scholarships and awards, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Teacher Fellowships for teachers working on gender equity projects.
• American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
  The Education section on the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee provides advice to educators and what teachers can do are good, as well as lesson plans on Arab discrimination and Arab stereotypes. Every teacher should familiarize themselves with "facts about Arabs" and "facts about Islam." A short piece on how to evaluate the multicultural programs in your school nicely summarizes the work on James Banks and Sonja Nieto, leading multicultural educators.
• Anti-Defamation League
  The Anti-Defamation League is one of the most recommended sites for prejudice reduction work by equity experts. Of note see their Education page for short articles about discussing hate and violence with your children, responding to hate-motivated behaviors you might see in your children and others, and what to tell your children about prejudice (the latter in both English and Spanish.) Helpful "Tools for Teachers" section.
• Back-to-School/Stay-in-School
  The Back-to-School/Stay-in-School Program was created in response to alarming high school dropout rates. Understanding the correlation between education and life-long earnings and the need to maximize the human potential.
• BICS versus CALPS in English Language Learners
  This provides a concise explanation of the difference between BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALPS (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency Skills), the knowledge of which is central to an understanding of how vitally important it is to the cognitive development of non-English speaking students to receive at least some instruction in their native language as they learn English. Underscores how damaging the ?English only? movement is to the future of Limited English Proficient children.
• Campbell-Kibler Associates
  Yet another extraordinary gender equity trainer is Pat Campbell of Campbell-Kibler Associates, especially in the area of gender equity in math, science, and technology. Her excellent website has a remarkably large number of free and "user friendly" (in her words - and she is right!) brochures and pamphlets that you may download and use.
• Center for Gifted Education Policy
  The Center for Gifted Education Policy is run by the American Psychological Association and conducts research and advocacy work to inform educational policy on Gifted and Talented youth. They also have a newsletter, a journal, and a listserv.
• Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence
  CREDE conducts research and provide information dissemination on issues of the education of linguistic minority students. One particular concern is the assessment of such students.
• Center for the Study of White American Culture: A Multiracial Organization
  Probably often confused as a white supremacy/neo-Nazi site, the Center has remarkable resources and the best listing of anti-racism organizations we have found. From their list we can particularly recommend the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (http://www.thepeoplesinstitute.org) as providing one of NICI's equity trainers with high-quality and effective anti-racism training.
• Circle of Inclusion
  For families and early childhood educators with a great deal of information about effective and best practices of inclusion and accommodations for special needs children. Includes free materials to download and links to other resources.
• COMRISE: Center of Minority Research in Special Education
  COMRISE is designed to enhance the capacity of researchers in special education from historically Black colleges and universities and other minority institutions of higher education to build and pursue research agendas focused on minority issues in special education.
• Crosspoint Anti-Racism
  Crosspoint Anti-Racism lists over 2000 anti-racism organizations in 114 countries and gives one a sense of the remarkable work that is being done around the globe on issues of oppression. Great for researchers as it shows how different countries and cultures address problems of equity differently.
• Curveball
  Steve Gould's New Yorker review of Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve Nov. 28, '94.
• Cyber Sisters
  An educational telementoring program in science, math and technology for middle school girls.
• Department of Justice ADA Home Page
  The ADA Home Page provides access to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations for businesses and governments, technical assistance materials, ADA Standards for Accessible Design, updates on new requirements, information about settlement agreements and enforcement activities and access to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ADA material.
• Differentiated Instruction
  CAST is well known in the Special Education world (see SPED references in section below), and is especially worth checking out for their work on assistive technology. Here is an excellent overview of classroom best practices in Differentiated Instruction.
• Differentiated Instruction
  This Teach-Nology site for educators has links to a good number of ERIC research articles on Differentiated Instruction.
• Directory of Educational Equity Organizations
  WEEA, listed above as a gender equity resource, in housed in the Educational Development Center and has the most comprehensive listing of all Federal, Regional, and State equity-related agencies that we could find, so we will not duplicate the information here. The Directory of Educational Equity Organizations listing includes full contact information for 1) State Equity contacts, 2) the federal and regional offices of the Office of Civil Rights, 3) the ten Equity Assistance Centers (formerly known as Desegregation Assistance Centers), 4) the Comprehensive Centers, funded to provide assistance for Limited English Proficient students, high-poverty or Title I students, immigrant/migrant students, Special Education, and education for homeless youth and Native-Americans, 5) the R-TECs funded to provide training for technology integration, including equity issues in technology, 6) the Eisenhower Regional Clearinghouse and regional alliances and consortiums for math, science, and technology education, 7) OBEMLA (see listing under National Origin here in the Equity Portal), and, 8) the ten Regional Education Laboratories.The Federal government funds the ten equity assistance centers listed in the EDC site above to help schools stay in compliance with Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
• Diversity in the Classroom: A Checklist
  This checklist is designed to help teachers and other educators to effectively identify and respond to diversity in the classroom. It focuses on various aspects of the classroom environment, including curriculum materials, teaching strategies and teacher/student behaviors.
• Diversity Within Unity
  This document identifies 12 essential principles for teaching and learning in a multicultural society. Also included is a checklist for assessing the principles.
• Educating Jane
  Educating Jane is a wonderful site full of thoughtfully-chosen resources and other information. Has an excellent section on women in history.
• Educational Justice
  The Justice Matters Institute sponsors Educational Justice, a fantastic site of extensive research and annotated links on the gamut of educational equity issues, including how equity plays out in whole school reform efforts. Research-based strategies and online discussion forums.
• Eisenhower National Clearinghouse
  As mentioned above, the taxonomy of the Equity Portal was based on the excellent work done by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. Their site deserves another mention here, and particularly this page of a fantastic collection of self-assessment on equity.
• ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education
  The ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education reviews many programs aimed at helping urban youth - especially those students of color and low socio-economic status - and suggests some best practices in urban schools. Especially see reports on educational issues of African-American and Hispanic students.
• Exemplary and Promising Gender Equity Programs 2000
  This well-researched report provides reviews of an exemplary other promising gender equity programs in a variety of subfields including gender equity in math, science, and technology and in career education.
• FairTest
  FairTest, otherwise known as the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, is the only national watchdog group as alarmed as the rest of us with the overuse and misuse of standardized testing. The site has research on how standardized tests are biases on the basis of gender, race, class, and cultural difference.
• Family Literacy for Language Minority Families: Issues for Program Implementation
  This on-line article is included in the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCLEA) website. Topics addressed include the role of the family in children�s learning, barriers to family involvement, and Project Flame: A family literacy project for Latinos.
• Fog Watch: The New Racist Onslaught
  Edward Herman, "Fog Watch: New Racist Onslaught,_ on The Bell Curve and popular reception of it.
• Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network
  GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educator Network, is the premiere organization for all educators concerned about the physical and emotional safety and well-being for gay, lesbian, or questioning youth both in and out of schools. Annotated resources, current issues, and information on local chapters is also provided.
• Gender Equity in the Classroom: Viewing Guide
  A remarkable free equity resource is the Viewing Guide, written by notable gender equity experts David Sadker and Phyllis Learner, for their Gender Equity in the Classroom video. The video is also available for purchase at this site.
• GrayMill
  "I just completed the exciting, energizing, enriching three day workshop on GESA facilitating and haven't felt this motivated and inspired in years._ With experience, I can assure you this is a typical comment from a participant in a training session in GESA (Gender/Ethnic Expectations and Student Achievement.) Possibly no individual has more success in teaching teachers how to teach more equitably than Dee Grayson. Along with her partner, Pam Miller, Graymill offers no-nonsense training in strategies that work to lessen the particular "disparities_ that exist within the interaction of the classroom teacher and different subgroups of students.
• How Girls Hurt
  An article from the American School Board's Journal about how girls use covert aggression against one another.
• How Negative Expectancies and Attitudes Undermine Females'Math Confidence and Performance: A Review of the Literature by Jennifer Gutbezah
  A good survey of a number of articles on factors that affect girl's discouragement at math in High School may be found by Jennifer Gutbezahl in "How Negative Expectancies and Attitudes Undermine Females' Math Confidence and Performance: A Review of the Literature._ .
• Human Nature: Born or Made
  The article Human Nature: Born or Made, by Mine Aysen Doyran (March 2000) is an excellent survey of various writings on sociobiology and human biological, neurological, and intellectual differences.
• IDEA Practices
  IDEA Practices is recommended by Special Education experts as a wealth of resources to help researchers and practitioners keep up-to-date with the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Of particularly usefulness is the ?IDEAS That Work? section that includes best practices for providing children with Special Needs access to the regular curriculum.
• Institute for Democracy, Education, & Access
  Oakes' Institute for Democracy, Education, & Access runs projects including an Urban Educator Network, Teachers as Agents of Equity and Change, and an Educational Justice Collaborative. Oakes, Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality (Yale University Press, 1985) and her many more recent articles and books including Educational Matchmaking (1992).
• Institute for the Study of Academic Racism (ISAR)
  The Institute for the Study of Academic Racism is a long-standing organization of academics and researchers. Top pick articles include Garland Allen's "Science Misapplied: The Eugenics Age Revisited,_ that surveys the history of eugenics.
• Kids at Risk - Kids and Learning
  On-line resources to assist educators with at-risk children.
• Learning Disabilities Online
  Leading site recommended by experts for educators and parents on learning disabilities. One may ask questions about learning disabilities through the site and get an answer electronically from an LD expert.
• Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
  MALDEFs National Education Policy Forums engages parents, educators, policy makers, community and business leaders, in the discussion and advocacy of current educational issues. Their National Parent/School Partnership Program teaches parent their rights and responsibilities under the law, about the structure and function of schools, about effective relationships with teachers, and provides valuable leadership training to parents.
• Mid-Atlantic Equity Center
  The Equity Assistance Centers with the greatest amount of useful information is probably the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center http://www.maec.org Although funded to provide equity-related services to states in the mid-Atlantic region (DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, and WV) their "Education and Equity News" has many articles on national issues. To subscribe send a message to [email protected] stating on the subject line: subscribe ed-news and your e-mail address (e.g., subscribe ed-news [email protected].).
• Myra Sadker Advocates for Gender Equity
  David Sadker, along with his late wife Myra, are the undisputable King and Queen of research on gender equity in education in the 20th century. Of note on his website is an excellent survey and analysis of the recent bonanza of books about boys.
• National Association for Gifted Children
  NAGC is an organization of parents, teachers, educators, community leaders and others who are concerned with providing the best educational and life experiences for children who are identified as Gifted and Talented. They have added a useful feature to their site: a "Parent Resource Specialist_ who will respond electronically to your questions and concerns about providing appropriate services to Gifted and Talented children.
• National Coalition Building Institute
  The National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) is a prejudice reduction leadership training organization that is highly effective and research-based. Skills are taught that directly reduce prejudice and intergroup conflicts.
• National Dropout Prevention Center
  The National Dropout Prevention Center, housed at Clemson University, has effective strategies and model programs on its website. The Statistics page highlighted here shows that Hispanics have almost twice the dropout rate than Whites do, with Blacks in the middle between the White and Hispanic rates.
• National Research Center on Gifted and Talented
  The National Research Center on Gifted and Talented, run by noted expert and author Joseph Renzulli (see his book on ?curriculum compacting,? among others) has a huge number of links and resources, including their newsletter. The ?Big Red Notebook? is a compilation of resource material on the full-range of issues for Gifted and Talented education and is available as a free download from the site.
• National Women's Law Center
  The National Women's Law Center's section on Education has many policy briefings and texts of Congressional testimonies on issues of females and education, especially on Title IX, and has special sections on sports, sexual harassment, single-sex schooling, career education, and overall gender equity in educational achievement.
• North Dakota State Board for Vocational and Technical Education
  The North Dakota State Board for Vocational and Technical Education has developed a comprehensive list of Educational Equity Standards that cover preservice and inservice education, climate, curriculum, instruction, assessment, administration and leadership, and the workplace. These are copywrited so ask permission before using or adapting.
• Office for Civil Rights
  The Office for Civil Rights is the main governmental office for the enforcement of Civil Rights laws, such as those that protect us against discrimination based on race, national origin (commonly understood as language) and sex. They have the power to withhold funds to schools and school districts who do not comply with Civil Rights laws, although to date they have not withhold funds from any violator.
• Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement & Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA)
  Now that programs for English language learners are funded out of Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act, virtually all of the existing programs for language minority students are no longer active. This site should be periodically checked for new programs as they are developed.
• Partners Against Hate
  Provides background information on bias-motivated behavior and youth-initiated hate crimes. It also provides tools and strategies to help adults engage in meaningful discussion and activities so that they can learn about the causes and effects of prejudice and bias-motivated behavior.
• Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
  Part of the OSEP Technical Assistance Center is the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program. PBIS provides free resources, including a newsletter, to schools and individuals interested in best practices of school-wide discipline programs.
• Racism Resurgent: How Media Let The Bell Curve's Pseudo-Science Define the Agenda on Race
  "Racism resurgent_ by Jim Nauekas on how media uncritically praised pseudo-scientific racism of Bell Curve. From Extra!.
• SEED Project
  The SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Project in Inclusive Curriculum provides resources to set up powerful roundtable, book study groups of teachers who wish to transform the (still) largely White Male curriculum. Peggy McIntosh developed the SEED project through the Wellesley Center for Research on Women (www.wellesley.edu) and is the author of "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack._ Short, powerful, and easily readable, her 1989 article has centered our thinking about race (and other variables) on the notion of "privilege_ like nothing else.
• Teaching For Change
  Probably the best catalog for overall equity and social justice issues in education is put out by Teaching for Change. Beyond Heroes and Holidays in a "must-have_ for both inservice and preservice work on gender-fair and multicultural education that moves beyond celebrating the "Three F's_: Food, Fun, and Festival, and focuses on undoing racism and oppression.
• Teaching in mixed-ability classrooms
  A good "first article_ on differentiated instruction, first developed as a method to effectively reach all children in heterogeneous, mixed-ability classrooms, then later co-opted as a "best practice_ in the worlds of Special Education and Gifted and Talented education.
• Teaching Tolerance
  Teaching Tolerance serves as a clearinghouse of information about anti-bias programs and activities being implemented in schools across the country.
• Teaching Tolerance/Southern Poverty Law Center
  Teaching Tolerance is a national education project of the Southern Poverty Law Center dedicated to helping students foster equity, respect, and understanding in the classroom and beyond. The Teaching Tolerance magazine is free and excellent with many useful articles and information for the classroom teacher as well as equity researcher.
• The American Forum for Global Education
  The noted Global Education/Social Studies expert from CCSSO, Fred Czarra, helped draft these self-assessment checklists with the American Forum for Global Education. The checklists include questions on student knowledge of global issues and cultural awareness, and asks how well schools, school systems, and state education agencies are preparing students to participate in the shrinking global economy.
• The Association for the Severely Handicapped
  TASH is an international association of people with disabilities, their family members, other advocates, and professionals fighting for a society in which inclusion of all people in all aspects of society is the norm.? This site was recommended by Special Education experts for its Methods and Practices section. Information is available on its provocative newsletter, Connections, that consistently challenges any hesitancy about the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the classroom and in the greater society.
• The Mismeasure of Man
  Excellent and brief review-summary of Gould's The Mismeasure of Man, a "must-read_ for any educator interested in the history of IQ and intelligence testing and the legacy of inequalities that lives on today.
• The National Association for the Education of Young Children
  NAEYC describes itself as the nation's largest and most influential organization of early childhood educators. Although a bit dated, every equity researcher and inservice and preservice teacher should have a copy of the Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children by Louise Derman-Sparks, full of research and strategies, available through NAEYC's website for an incredible $12.00!.
• The National Coalition for Equity in Education
  The National Coalition for Equity in Education employs structures such as Personal Experience Panels and dyads that get to the deepest emotional-psychological experiences of prejudice and discrimination, and healing the pain of racism and other forms of oppression through expression of feelings and personal reflections. For more information contact Julian Weissglass, Professor of Mathematics now housed in the education department at UCSB at [email protected].
• The National Women's History Project
  The National Women's History Project is highly recommended by many gender equity experts and is a wonderful teacher resource in planning gender-fair curriculum. Their Biography Center is an excellent place for students to begin their research.
• The Politics of Biological Determinism
  "Politics of biological Determinism_ Winter 1999 condensed from Mismeasure of Man survey for educators by Rethinking Schools.
• The Tracking Wars
  A full-text version of the pro-tracking book by the right-wing Brookings Institute (The Tracking Wars: State Reform Meets School Policy, Tom Loveless, 1999). Note that this book could not get published by an objective academic press.
• Tracking & Ability Grouping
  Review of Research on Tracking .
• Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative
  The Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative is a network of special education leaders from urban school districts. The site lists resources, conferences, newsletters, professional development training, and publications.
• Weaving Gender Equity into Math Reform
  One of the best articles summarizing best practices for addressing the persistent problem in math education -- even when we get girls to take math classes in numbers close to those of boys substantially fewer girls choose math-related college majors and careers. Article has been effectively used in teacher study groups for professional development.
• WEEA Equity Resource Center
  WEEA (Women's Educational Equity Act) is the only Federal legislation devoted to issues of girls' and women's' education. Although it had received much more substantial funding to do outreach and fund small-scale research projects around the country, in the 1990s it was scaled back to only a clearinghouse of information.