Unit 5 School District held its monthly board meeting on Wednesday night at Normal West High School. At that meeting Dr. Kristal H. Shelvin, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion presented an update on the district’s Equity Action Plan. After the meeting Dr. Shelvin gave us an interview regarding equity. Following is an edited version of that interview.
Question: What does equality mean?
Answer: For us we talk more about equity. Equality would be giving everyone the same thing where equity for us is giving everyone what they need. So that’s the difference. We focus on equity because our mission for the district is to educate each student for their personal excellence.
Question: I think a lot of people when they here about equality they think about equality of opportunity. What are your thoughts on that?
Answer: So equality of opportunity would be again giving everyone the same opportunity so the classic feature of that would be giving everyone the same size of step stool. Not everyone needs the same size of step stool. Some people need a taller step stool with grips. Some people need no step stool at all to achieve or to see the same thing.
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Question: So a lot of people think equity means equity of outcome. Is that what it is?
Answer: I guess it depends on what you are looking at. So we apply equity as far as the resources are allocated. When we talk about outcomes we are looking at proportionate outcomes. So for example disproportionality is when you see a particular student group or staff group who is over represented in something that is not a great outcome or underrepresented in something that is a great outcome.
Question: Are we talking about CRT (Critical Race Theory)?
Answer: We are not. So Culturally Responsive Practice or sometimes you might hear Equitable Educational Practices, just so the people don’t get that C mixed up, we are not talking about CRT because what we are talking about for our students is providing them the types of learning to teach them how to think. So we are not talking about trying to give them ideas about what to think.
Question: So when teachers go for training in equity, are they taught CRT?
Answer: No, no. So I can tell you what our trainings have been so far. So last year we had three major trainings; one was about identity, so who I am as a person and then how who I am as a person can shape the way that I view the world. So then we looked at bias and how everyone of us holds biases, it’s the way our brains are sort of developed, without kind of shortcutting thinking, we wouldn’t be able to live. And then we went from bias to microaggressions and how microaggressions can occur against a wide variety of folk and how we can identify what they are and then avoid them.
Question: Do elements of CRT find their way into equity training?
Answer: No, not in the equity trainings we talked about. So If you look at the history of CRT it really is about something that doesn’t happen in our school district. It’s something that happens at a graduate level discussion about how to view policies of the world and systems that are beyond the scope of what we talk about.
Shelvin encourages anyone that has questions or concerns about equity to contact her. She can be reached by phone at 309-557-4035 or by email at shelvik@unit5.org.
