Marshalling and Using Resources Based on Data and Student Needs
Instructor Notes
The purpose of this module is to introduce students to equity audits as a data resource tool to examine the current
conditions within their organizations. While equity audits can be done broadly, they can also be directed at specific
organizational functions and policies. This module examine the assumptions that guide an equity audit, ways to identify
problems of high leverage for which an equity audit would provide useful evidence of practice, techniques for conducting
equity audits, and examples of equity audit surveys and procedures.
Powerful Learning Experience 1: Understanding Diversity in the Classroom/Schools
Element
Essential
Questions
Activity 1
Activity 2
Description/Instructions
1. What are diverse students'
experiences in schools?
2. What are issues surrounding
diversity in schools?
There are countless resources
available for students to read on
diversity in the classroom. We
advocate for student choice and the
use of multiple resources.
We suggest the use of literature
circles to allow for familiarity with
multiple books/authors in a short
amount of time, hence, each group's
book talk (similar to the Carousel
Reading Strategy).
Instructor Notes
We believe that before participants engage in an understanding and
exploration of equity audits, it is important for them to explore ideas
on diversity in classrooms and schools.
Instructors should assign students to groups of 3-4 or 4-5
(depending on how large the class is) based on student interest in
available resources on diversity. We suggest literature circles be
conducted in the class setting first so that the instructor can scaffold
as necessary. Once students are comfortable moving between roles
and holding themselves accountable for reading pace and being
prepared for discussion, the literature circles can move outside of
the class setting and time.
To capitalize on as many resources as possible, we believe the use
of book talks is an essential beginning to the study of equity audits
and data collection in schools. Each group must design a book talk
that engages their student colleagues in an intellectual and practical
discussion about the content in their books and design a practical
activity for getting the content of the book across to students in a
form other than a simple powerpoint presentation.
Powerful Learning Experience 2: Building and Ethical Framework for Schooling
Element
Essential
Questions
Description/Instructions
1. What group has an advantage over
others under our current educational
practices?
2. What does an ethical school
environment look like?
Activity 1
We have suggested a classic book on
ethical frameworks that not only
explains the multidimensional
framework we advocate for, but also
gives readers a practical glance at
what an ethical school looks like.
Activity 2
Instructor Notes
We believe that before participants engage in an understanding and
exploration of equity audits, and after they have gained an
awareness of diversity issues in schools, it is important for them to
build an ethical framework for understanding how current
educational practices benefit some students and fail others.
We suggest that students read this book in small groups with
designated stopping points (similar to a Directed Reading-Thinking
Activity) with pre-determined discussion points. As they are reading
the book, we suggest that the instructor direct students to obtain
data from their school settings for a preliminary look/analysis. This
data analysis should remain very open ended and simple. It is just a
beginning for what will follow later in the module. Students should
become familiar with what data are easily accessible and what data
are consistently missing.
Having knowledge of ethical
Once students have become familiar with the preliminary data they
frameworks is useless unless students have collected, they should use the information about what data are
are able to pair this knowledge with
missing and where gaps lie to begin thinking about how their
practical significance for change in
schools might look different with Starratt's framework applied.
schools.
Powerful Learning Experience 3: What is an Equity Audit?
Element
Essential
Questions
Description/Instructions
1. What is an equity audit?
2. How are equity audits used in the k12 setting?
3. Why are equity audits a vital part of
the of the overall data collection
Instructor Notes
We believe that before participants can effectively marshal and use
resources based on data for the specific purpose of better meeting
student needs, it is important for them to: 1) understand what equity
audits are; and 2) become familiar with the history which brought
them to k-12 practice.
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
process of districts and schools?
We have suggested two practitionerfriendly resources for students to read
to become familiar with the concept of
an equity audit.
Once students become familiar with
the concept of an equity audit and
understand why it is important to
conduct one (or several), they must
learn how to advocate for them in their
districts so that they become an
ongoing part of best practice.
Aspiring leaders must learn not only
how to put their advocacy skills to
paper, but also be able to express
their opinions for best practice by
voice and visual presentation.
The first article suggested for reading will give students historical
knowledge of equity audits as well as a defined process for
conducting one. The second article suggested defines typical equity
traps (thinking patterns and behaviors) and strategies for
overcoming them. If possible, we suggest instructors spend several
class sessions on this activity.
This activity requires that students make meaning of the knowledge
they gained in Activity 1 and use it to effectively advocate for equity
audits as a regular part of the data collection process in their
districts. Students are required to write succinctly and concisely as
they are given only two pages to get their point across.
Students are encouraged to put their technology skills to use as
they create visual media and presentations to gain buy-in from both
district administrators and teachers.
Powerful Learning Experience 4: Exploring Student Data
Element
Essential
Question
Data set
Description/Instructions
Instructor Notes
How do we examine existing data for The activities in this PLE are designed to help students disaggregate
insights into the experiences and
data by useful categories but then to move beyond the numbers to
achievements of multiple racial,
understand what they mean. The purpose of exploring student data
ethnic, and language groups?
is to first find patterns, then to ask why those patterns exist, and
finally to interrupt the patterns
We have included a data set based
Although we have developed the excel spreadsheet, our experience
upon a real school district. We have
is that the most learning occurs when students bring data from their
provided it in an Excel spreadsheet
own schools. In earlier modules we have provided some
since that is the format most students suggestions about how to gather those data.
will use in their schools.
The data set is for an entire school district. We have also provided
the data by school in subsequent workbooks. We have included a
guide to the variables.
We assume that students know how to use excel for data analysis
and disaggregation. For those who don’t, we suggest some of the
following tools:

Scott McLeod has put together some tutorials at the following
site: http://schooltechleadership.org/research/school-data-tutorials/chartsformulas-pivot-tables/

SES
We have included a proxy for
SES in the data set. This is
named Economically
disadvantaged and defines as
student as economically
disadvantaged if he/she:
(1) is eligible for free or reducedprice lunch;
(2) receives TANF (Temporary
Aid for Needy Families); or
(3) is eligible for Medicaid.
Race as a variable
Language
Our institution subscribes to Atomic Learning and they have
some very good tutorials. It is likely that your institution also
has this resource, or one that is similar, available to students
This measure is often used as a proxy for SES in studies that
students will read. This can be a good opportunity to talk about
how reliable or valid this measure is. The following link explores
the problems with using this proxy.
http://www.edweek.org/media/nagbmeasures-14socioeconomic.pdf
While this may be more than you want to know, it is a thoughtful
discussion of the pitfalls of drawing conclusions from this
measure.
The module, Building a Community of Trust Through Racial
Awareness of Self, explores definitions of race and why we are still
using a construct that has no biological support.
You might have noticed that we use the term Latina/Latino instead of
Latino. We do this to honor our commitment to gender inclusive
language which acknowledges both sexes.
Powerful Learning Experience 5: Disaggregating Achievement
Element
Description/Instructions
Instructor Note
Disaggregating This PLE focuses on helping students We found that one of the concepts with which students have difficult
Data
disaggregate data.
is comparing groups. We try to help them understand when to you
the percent within group and the percent within variable.
For instance, if we are comparing the proportions of white and black
who are classified as students with a learning disability, we need to
compare the proportion of all black students with an LD label to the
proportion of all white students with an LD label. Students tended to
compare the number and percent of black and white students with
the LD label out of the total population of students.
We also learned that the first time around, it was useful to provide
students with table templates to help them think about their
comparisons.
Powerful Learning Experience 6:
Element
Essential
Question
Description/Instructions
Are there inequities in the
school/district analyzed? In what
areas? For which students? Why?
Instructor Notes
There are a number of ways for participants to engage in an equity
audit. We encourage the instructor to familiarize him/herself with the
options available and select the way(s) which suit the students
depending on the amount of time available for this PLE. Students
can work individually or in groups. If being used in a content course,
we suggest having student align the audit to course content. If being
used in a course on social justice and diversity, we suggest having
the students collect data on all areas of equity.
Powerful Learning Experience 7: Framing the problem
Element
Description/Instructions
Identifying root cause or an essential
issue
Instructor Notes
This is one of the hardest PLE’s for students and, we believe, the
profession. Once we see the data, what is the next step? For many,
the data analysis is the end. For instance, students might
disaggregate the achievement scores by race/ethnicity. They might
find that the scores of white students and Asian students are higher
than those of black and Hispanic students. And that is the end of the
discussion.
This PLE challenges students to narrow their gaze to identify why
these scores might be different and also where. This requires
looking at individual student patterns, further disaggregating.
Examining where on the test this small set of students is weak is
useful. Looking at these weaknesses to see if they are the same
across classrooms or just in a few classrooms is useful. Examining
absentee and discipline data for these students is useful.
I’m sure you get the picture. We want the students in the classroom
to keep digging and to avoid falling into equity traps.
DOI: 10.1177/0013161X04268839
Equity Traps: A Useful Construct for Preparing Principals to Lead
Schools That Are Successful With Racially Diverse Students.
Kathryn Bell McKenzie and James Joseph Scheurich
Educational Administration Quarterly 2004; 40; 601
Powerful Learning Experience 8: Developing a plan for improvement
Element
Plan of Action
Description/Instructions
This PLE is focused on developing a
Instructor Notes
This activity is the natural extension of understanding data and one
plan to address the problem framed
in PLE 7.
of the ways we help students remember that we are looking at the
data for a reason and that the analysis is only the beginning.