Cedar Rapids educators focus on educational equity

CEDAR RAPIDS - Educators from Cedar Rapids schools swapped strategies for education equity last week during the district's first Equity Summit.

The inaugural summit, held June 6 to 9 at the Kirkwood Regional Center, fits into national conversations about the importance of closing achievement gaps, particularly for black students and students of low socioeconomic status, Cedar Rapids officials say.

Ken Morris Jr., the Cedar Rapids Community School District's manager of student equity, said the district struggles with racial imbalance, including in discipline rates and student achievement. An imbalance exists among district staff as well, he said, as the percentage of district staff of color has hovered near 5 percent for the past decade.

'All those things I just shared don't reflect the diverse country and society we live in,” he said.

Morris said striving for equity for all Cedar Rapids students is imperative, and that the summit allowed educators to learn from their peers to work to deliver education 'in a way that is meeting students where they are.”

'Their socioeconomic status, their race, their nationality - all those things that can make a difference - play a part into that,” Morris said. 'But ultimately we want the best for all of our students. And it's going to look different from one student to another.”

Equity goals vary from building to building, too. Educators from the district's 21 elementary, six middle and three high schools and its one alternative high school gave presentations on their building's challenges and efforts related to equity during the summit.

They also discussed tentative equity goals for next school year, many of which will build on this past school year's programs.

'The nice thing about how the district is approaching this is we're all sort of our own laboratories,” Kennedy High Principal Jason Kline said Thursday during high school presentations.

The equity goal addressed by educators from Kennedy, for example - where there are fewer students of color than other district high schools - focused on the school's 'smart lunch” period. During this extended lunch period, students can receive extra instruction from teachers.

At Washington High, the equity goal played to the school's strengths in Advanced Placement participation. Students at Washington take more AP tests than any other students in the state according to the Belin-Blank Center in the University of Iowa's College of Education.

But Washington Principal Ralph Plagman said only 37 percent of black students were enrolled in advanced courses last year compared to 62 percent of white students. Recruiting more black students in those courses is a priority, he said.

'I would way rather run the risk of pushing a student too hard than not pushing hard enough,” Plagman said.

Jefferson's equity goal, meanwhile, centered on increasing black student achievement by 10 percent. Next year, educators from Jefferson said they hope to continue that work by examining job shadow and internship opportunities for students.

Metro Principal Carlos Grant said disparities at the alternative high school are not necessarily related to a student's race. A large majority of Metro's students don't perform well in standardized tests, Grant said, so equity efforts there focused on increasing all student's engagement in the classroom.

Increasing achievement across the school's student populations was a common thread among the high schools, Kline said.

'All the schools have really tried to reach out broadly, so we're not helping one group of kids at the expense of another,” Kline said.

Morris said the district plans to continue hosting the Equity Summits in coming years.

'I was pleased to hear that principals were bold and courageous and sharing their challenges and sharing their successes,” Morris said. 'And (they're) excited about planning for the coming year.”