West Orange Schools Advance Diversity, Equity, Access Initiative

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of the West Orange Public School District. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.

The West Orange School District is moving forward in its commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Access (DEA).

Two District goals for 2021 include “To engage in auditing our school culture and curriculum for equity, diversity, and inclusion in order to provide an equitable school community which respects and values diversity by partnering with an outside organization which addresses racial equity through an inclusion lens and provide a needs assessment to create cultural sustainability within our district.”

The second District Goal is “To analyze data regarding the schools where there is a significant disproportionality in regard to diversity between the percentages of students compared to the percentages of staff. To implement a recruitment action plan, monitor the number of diverse candidates hired for the 2020-2021 school year and compare on an annual basis with the goal of closing disparities.”

The current demographic of the West Orange Public School District is listed below.

• African American/Black: 36%
• Asian: 5%
• Hispanic: 33%
• Multi-Racial: 7%
• White: 19%

The demographic estimates for West Orange as of July, 2019 are as follows.

• White: 42%
• Black/African American: 28%
• American Indian and Alaska Native: .01%
• Asian: 7.5%
• Two or more races: 4.5%
• Hispanic or Latino: 19.9%

This may be a daunting task but the establishment of the Diversity, Equity, and Access Committee in 2019 has begun to lay the groundwork for strengthening the way West Orange Schools address the issues.

First, what exactly do these words mean? The UC Berkeley Center for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity and the University of Houston’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion helped with these definitions:

Diversity: Includes but is not limited to race, color, ethnicity, nationality, religion, socioeconomic status, veteran status, education, marital status, language, age, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental or physical ability, genetic information, and learning styles.

In the past, diversity was primarily equated to racial and ethnic minorities. With its broadened definition, diversity now becomes an even more important consideration when addressing a person’s identity.

Equity: The guarantee of fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all while striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups. The principle of equity acknowledges that there are historically under-served and under-represented populations and that fairness regarding these unbalanced conditions is needed to assist equality in the provision of effective opportunities to all groups.

In the 1920’s, women suffragettes fought for the right to vote. In the 1960’s and to the present equitable pay for women compared to men could be considered an equity issue.

Inclusion: Authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power and ensures equal access to opportunities and resources.

Access: The commitment to foster attitudes, behaviors, and procedures to facilitate access that promotes equity and diversity, fosters inclusion and allows people to maximize their contribution to our association and communities that our members serve.

Access is a broader stroke of inclusion because it is more than just “inviting everyone to the table.” It is working to address people’s attitudes, behaviors, and ways of doing thing that they may not even be aware of.

The mission statement of the West Orange Diversity, Equity, and Access Committee is:

The mission of the committee is to through its effort validate and celebrate the school district’s diversity in all its forms. As importantly through feedback sharing, critical and civil discourse, data collection and analysis identify focal points for improvement, further study, and/or information sharing relating to equity and access. The work and findings of the committee, therefore helps to inform BOE priorities and organizational goal setting.

The team is chaired by the district Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction and consists of over thirty members representing district administrators, faculty, and volunteer community members.

Current members include Superintendent of Schools, Dr. J. Scott Cascone, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Eveny de Mendez, Executive Director of Personnel and Special Projects Joseph Vespignani, District Director of School Counseling Cheryl Butler, Roosevelt Middle School Principal, Lionel Hush, Assistant Principal of Redwood and Washington Elementary Kimya S. Jackson, Social Studies Supervisor Michael Figuereido, and Roosevelt Middle School Science teacher Hillary Rubenstein.

The team is subdivided into the following Subcommittees: Hiring Procedures and Practices, Curriculum and Instructional Materials, Diversity and Cultural Competency, and Affirmative Action and Equity Planning.

There has been diversity training held over the past several years in the WOSD as aresult of the New Jersey Amistad Law (P.L.2002, c.75 (A1301 1R), which requires New Jersey schools to incorporate African-American history into their social studies curriculum. This legislation also created the Amistad Commission, a 23-member body charged with ensuring that African-American history, contributions and experiences are adequately taught in the state’s classrooms. However, this is only the beginning of what is needed to address diversity, equity, and access issues. This has been underscored by the Black Lives Matter movement and protests following the deaths of black people attributed to police, like Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude, Rayshard Brooks, Walter Wallace, Jr., Jonathan Price, and Elijah McClain, to name a few.

Beginning in the fall of 2020, professional development seminars began for staff and administration, researched and orchestrated by the committee following survey responses from staff on topics they felt were important. Spanning K-12 teachers, administration, and in some cases students, Jackson detailed the training that has been and will continue to be held.

Here are the Professional Development topics currently approved and underway:

• Garden State Equality Cultural Competency for faculty and students
• American History through a Different Lens
• Equity Leadership Group: Implicit Bias
• NJ Bar Training: Talking about Race
• LGBTQIA+ Mandate Training
• NJEA Conversations on Race
• Opportunity Gaps in Science – Data Analysis and Inclusivity
• Diversity Book Clubs (Opt-In)
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Culture Committee

In 2019, New Jersey State Legislature passed S1569, requiring that the boards of education for middle and high schools ensure that instructional materials, such as text books, include accurate portrayals of the contributions made by LGBTQIA+ people and those with disabilities beginning in the 2020-2021 school. The district has been in partnership with Garden State Equality to facilitate training of staff and students.

“A”, “I” “+” has recently been added to the LGBTQ acronym (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer) to reflect “Intersex,” “Agender/Asexual,” and the “+” sign to represent “Pansexual/Gender Fluid.”

In his continued commitment to the inclusion of students in the process, in October of 2020 Dr. Cascone formed the Superintendent Equity Student Advisory Council consisting West Orange High School student advocates.

Underscoring the move towards a more balanced DEI environment, implicit (suggested but not communicated directly) bias is a critical factor in reprogramming people’s thought processes.

The Perception Institute describes implicit bias this way.

“Thoughts and feelings are “implicit” if we are unaware of them or mistaken about their nature. We have a bias when, rather than being neutral, we have a preference for (or aversion to) a person or group of people. Thus, we use the term “implicit bias” to describe when we have attitudes towards people or associate stereotypes with them without our conscious knowledge. A fairly commonplace example of this is seen in studies that show that white people will frequently associate criminality with black people without even realizing they’re doing it.”

The importance of understanding implicit bias is explained.

“The mind sciences have found that most of our actions occur without our conscious thoughts, allowing us to function in our extraordinarily complex world. This means, however, that our implicit biases often predict how we’ll behave more accurately than our conscious values. Multiple studies have also found that those with higher implicit bias levels against black people are more likely to categorize non-weapons as weapons (such as a phone for a gun, or a comb for a knife), and in computer simulations are more likely to shoot an unarmed person. Similarly, white physicians who implicitly associated black patients with being “less cooperative” were less likely to refer black patients with acute coronary symptoms for thrombolysis for specific medical care.”

To address implicit bias, the Perception Institute concludes:

“Social scientists are in the early stages of determining how to “debias.” It is clear that media and culture makers have a role to play by ceasing to perpetuate stereotypes in news and popular culture. In the meantime, institutions and individuals can identify risk areas where our implicit biases may affect our behaviors and judgments. Instituting specific procedures of decision making and encouraging people to be mindful of the risks of implicit bias can help us avoid acting according to biases that are contrary to our conscious values and beliefs.

The above describes the foundation-laying efforts of the West Orange Diversity, Equity, and Access Committee. Committee Co-Chair Kimya Jackson noted, “People need to want to change. Imagine being in a situation from which you are unable to leave. Change must be brought about by internal and external factors.”

Teacher and anti-racist activist Jane Elliott performed a well-known experiment on her students in the 1960’s with “Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes.” Students with brown eyes were told they were superior to students with blue eyes. Students with blue eyes had to wear armbands and brown-eyed students had the support of their teacher. It soon became apparent that discrimination was developing purely over eye color. Blue-eyed students were treated as inferior by brown-eyed students and felt discriminated against. Elliott then switched eye colors the next day. The results were the same.

In an educational setting, an important way to address implicit bias is to normalize differences, integrate students to work towards a common goal, and make sure the teacher is a mediator and not an instigator.

What can families do at home to enhance the work in the school district? Jackson recommended that families and groups of friends start book clubs so that the issues can be discussed. In September, 2020, the committee held an event at Redwood School on “Culturally Responsive Education,” opening the door for a continued series of workshops and seminars.

Another important tool is Harvard University’s "Project Implicit." Click on the link to take a series of implicit bias tests to determine what biases the test-taker may have.

During his confirmation hearing for Attorney General on Feb. 23, Merrick Garland said, “Implicit bias just means that every human being has biases. That's part of what it means to be a human being. And, the point of examining our implicit biases is to bring our conscious mind up to our unconscious mind and to know when we're behaving in a stereotyped way.”

In sum, Dr. Cascone commented, “It is not that the district has been indifferent to matters of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access in the past. However, what has been missing, and that to which we have now pledged fealty, is a long term commitment, inclusive and strategic effort to address inequities where they exist within the school system.”

The following books are recommended by the DEA Committee.

So You Want to Talk About Race?

Intersectionality
Cultivating Genius
Me and White Supremacy
Courageous Conversations About Race

Amazon offers a wide selection of books for children. Go here to view options.

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