Toolkit Delivers Anti-Racist Instruction for Middle School Math
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 09/23/20
Nearly
two dozen organizations, including teachers, instructional coaches,
researchers in higher education and experts from nonprofits and
offices of education recently contributed to the creation of a
digital
toolkit
for anti-racist instructional practices for teaching math in grades
6-8. Coverage includes guidance for teachers implementing hybrid and
remote learning. The project was led by the Education
Trust-West,
which advocates for "educational justice and high academic
achievement" for and among California students.
The
kit offers reports or "strides" in five areas.
-
The
longest component, stride one, is an 82-page report with exercises
for helping teachers "dismantle" their own biases and
"deficit thinking";
-
The
second stride (15 pages) covers approaches for deepening student
conceptual understanding;
-
Number
three (20 pages) shares practices to support students' social,
emotional and academic development;
-
The
fourth stride (43 page) offers tools for connecting math thinking to
English language learning; and
-
The
fifth one (28 pages) discusses coaching structures to support math
educators in their ongoing pursuit of equity practices.
"The
gaps in academic access and achievement for Black, Latinx and
multilingual students are being exacerbated during the pandemic,"
says Elisha Smith Arrillaga, executive director of the Education
Trust-West, in a statement. "We can do better for California's
students by offering educators the research-supported instructional
practices necessary for addressing inequities in math education.
School leaders and teachers can move from crisis to opportunity by
using these tools to close these gaps."
"The
toolkit will transform math education by addressing long-standing
barriers to learning and success for Black, Latinx and bilingual
students," added Rachel Ruffalo, director of educator engagement
at the Education Trust-West. "There's no quick-fix to addressing
systemic inequities in learning. However, these resources are
designed to be used by educators now as they plan their curriculum
and offer educators opportunities for ongoing self-reflection as they
develop anti-racist math practices."
Although
the toolkit is focused on California and relied primarily on
contributors in the state, much of the content would be applicable to
educators in any location.
The
toolkit is openly available as a ZIP download on
a dedicated website, "A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.