USD116 BOE Update: Feb. 1, 2022

The Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion facilitated presentations and discussions with two private consulting firms. These presentations and proposals will be considered as part of the selection process in finalizing an outside consultant to conduct and lead the District through a formal Equity Audit.

Presentations given by:

Dr. Chance Lewis with Education Innovations and Solutions: Dr. Chance W. Lewis is the Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Urban Education and former Provost Faculty Fellow for Diversity, Inclusion and Access at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Additionally, Dr. Lewis is the Executive Director of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Urban Education Collaborative which is publishing a new generation of research on improving urban schools.

• Has done more than 50 equity audits with schools.
• Leads international and national initiatives in Urbana Education

Equity Audit for Urbana School District #116: Paving the Pathway Forward

PHASE 1

• Vision, goals and desired outcomes
• Quantitative data available for audit
• Stakeholders who will be made available to collect qualitative data

• Background on vision and goals
• Quantitative and Qualitative Results
• Specific Recommendations

Examples of data other districts have looked at:

• levels of programming
• school discipline data
• looking at how resources are distributed across the District.

Equity Audit Letter

The Equity Imperative: Mr. Matthew Rodriquez and Mr. Ed Morris, presenters

VISION

At The Equity Imperative, we envision the day when all organizations become sanctuary sites for equity.

MISSION

Our mission is to relentlessly ensure opportunities for all, especially those who are marginalized.

OUR FOCUS

We work with practitioners at different levels of leadership within an organization who desire equitable outcomes through systematic change. We are a limited liability corporation organized to provide consulting services that illuminate inequities, indicate strategies and navigate system-wide change.

Equity Audit:

General areas of focus include

• Student achievement
• Academic Programming
• Staffing
• Budget decisions
• Family and community engagement
• Climate/culture/discipline
• Other categories identified

Purpose: To provide thought partnership and support in efforts to complete a comprehensive district-wide equity audit. We also propose to lead strategic prioritization & planning that will result from the findings of the equity audit. This process will be broken down into and delivered in the following project parts.

Five Parts of Audit

• Planning with core stakeholders
• Quantitative analysis
• Stakeholder surveys and interviews
• Artifact analysis
• Reporting & Strategic Planning

The Equity Imperative Proposal

The BOE was given an update on the current initiative to expand standards-based grading to all levels and strengthen current practices.

Standards-Based Grading: What does it mean and why is it important?

• SBG provides feedback on specific skills and priority standards
• Utilizes equitable practices that are FAST (fair, accurate, specific, and
• timely)
• Evidence of mastery of key skills (i.e not extra credit, access to resources)
• Provides current level of proficiency
• Provides consistency following elementary

Standards-Based Grading Oversight Committee: What Have We Done So Far?

• 15 Members
• The team meets every two weeks for two hours
• Studied other district policies, plans, and journeys
• Established district vision, tenets, common terminology
• Finalizing district timeline
• Building-level work
• Curriculum process work

USD 116 SBG Vision

At Urbana School District 116, every aspect of teaching and learning is designed to support our mission of educational excellence for all learners to achieve personal greatness. Standards Based Learning equitably, accurately, and consistently communicates learning progress and achievement to students, families, educators, and postsecondary providers. Evidence of learning is reported using a standards-based approach to establish a clear and meaningful profile of each learner beyond a letter grade.

USD 116 Tenets for Standards-Based Grading

• Curriculum, instruction, and reports are based on clearly specified learning goals and performance standard measures.
• Students are given multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of the standards.
• Students play an active role in their learning and communicate their progress regularly.
• Standards-based reports accurately describe a student’s academic progress and current level of proficiency toward mastery.
• Work habits are assessed and reported separately from academic measures.
• SBG Reporting will reflect differentiated learning opportunities that have been developed collaboratively in order to challenge students at their personal level of achievement.

View Full Presentation

Highlights:

• Tuesday was Chinese New Year. 2022 is the year of the Tiger!

• If conditions continue to worsen or travel continues to be unsafe, any additional days out of school will be considered “traditional snow days.” We will message families regarding Thursday’s plan by 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

• USD #116 is holding a COVID-19 booster shot clinic for staff and students on Thursday, Feb. 17 from 3:30-6 p.m. in the UHS small gym.
  

• COVID Testing changes: some testing sites will transition to SHIELD Testing starting next week.

• USD is hosting a demo night for the Open Gate System being installed at UHS on Wednesday, February 16 from 4-6 p.m. Anyone who would like to see how the new system works is welcome to attend.

• The deadline for the public to submit a BOE Sub-District map is March 1. Directions on how to do this along with other helpful information is available on our website: https://usd116.org/redistricting/

• & much more!

Email: contactus@usd116.org
Website: usd116.org
Location: 205 North Race Street, Urbana, IL, USA
Phone: (217) 384-3600
Facebook: facebook.com/usd116
Twitter: @urbana116