Reflecting the diversity of our community, ensuring equitable access and opportunities for each and every student, and providing relevant and culturally sustaining materials and practices have been key goals in our curriculum adoptions.    

In LWSD, the materials we adopt are determined by curriculum adoption committees.  The committees are composed of teachers from as many schools as possible, administrators, district specialists and parents and/or community members.   

Student voice is engaged in the adoptions in multiple ways, including focus groups, surveys, and panel presentations.  In our most recent adoptions, committee members were given training in equitable practices and received guidance from the Directors of Equity, Special Education, Accelerated Programs, and Intervention Services in how to evaluate curriculum for access for all students.  The committees use research based and district developed rubrics to evaluate curriculum and in the past several years, indicators for equity and culturally sustaining practices have been added to every category.    

This work has resulted in the adoption of curriculum that is significantly different from previous adoptions.  We are in our first year of implementing our new K-5 Science curriculum and teachers, parents, and students have given very positive feedback about the relevance and access it has for all students.   

We are currently in the process of adopting new 6-8 English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum and will make a recommendation to the Board for new materials at the next Board meeting.  The 6-8 ELA committee is excited about the recommendation because the materials are far more relevant, dynamic, and culturally responsive than the materials currently in place.   

We are also in the process of adopting new materials for ELA 9-12, with a recommendation of materials planned for December 2020.  All 6-12 ELA teachers will engage in professional learning as part of these adoptions.  It is of paramount importance to the committee to select materials that reflect our community and provide relevant and important learning opportunities for our students and that as educators, we continually engage in learning ourselves.   

We are planning to start the adoption cycle for new curriculum materials for Social Studies 6-12 in the fall of 2020, with implementation of new materials planned for fall of 2022.  As part of this cycle, we will again form a committee comprised of a diverse set of stakeholders who will engage in deep learning around standards and effective and culturally sustaining practices before evaluating curriculum.   We will also seek input and guidance from the larger community, including student and parent voice.   

However, in multiple content areas, it has been several years since new materials have been adopted and the resources in use may not reflect current thinking for effective or relevant resources.  In order to provide support to teachers and remedy the issue, the Teaching and Learning department formed content area advisories this year, comprised of teachers from schools that represented all attendance areas.    

These advisories met over the course of the year to develop guiding principles, engage in collaborative learning, determine professional learning opportunities for teachers, align instruction to current effective practices and standards, and identify gaps/needs in resources and practices.   Every advisory identified that providing relevant, engaging, and empowering instruction and learning experiences for all students is an essential goal.  Every advisory also identified areas where we are not fully meeting this goal and committed to working with urgency and purpose to improve our programs and the experience of our students.   

Curricula should be deeply intertwined within race and equity work, as described above with the collaboration between the Teaching & Learning and Opportunity, Equity, and Inclusion Departments. To ensure that our efforts will be ingrained in everything we do in order to dismantle racism, our work is grounded in the foundations of cultural competency, which includes raising individual awareness, deepening knowledge, increasing skills, and providing the foundation for advocacy and action.  

Below is an abbreviated listing of what we have done and will expand upon: 

• Race and equity training for administrators and staff on building Equity Teams, which is led by the Equity Department and race-centered educational partners  
• School Equity Teams are in every school—the work is focused equity, race, and cultural competency (e.g. awareness, skills, knowledge, and advocacy/action) 
• School Equity Teams work with their administrators to lead learning for staff  
• Race and equity training for staff across areas of responsibility, such as transportation, security, nurses, teachers, paras and instructional assistants, communications staff, office support personnel, instructional specialists and coaches, Human Resources, and district leadership 
• The District Equity Team meets about nine times a year (members include community partners, parents/guardians, staff, and administrators) 
• Cross-departmental collaboration of the Equity Director, Equity Specialist, and Family Engagement and Community Outreach Liaison with other departments, such as Teaching & Learning, Professional Learning, Intervention Services, Transportation, Food Services, Special Education, and Student Services 
• Learning for staff and administrators is centered on culturally responsive teaching   
• Learning for staff regarding shifts in instructional practices to more differentiated and inclusive to reach all learners  
• Increasing and maintaining diverse community partnerships to support our most vulnerable or historically underserved populations (e.g. Eastside Pathways, Friends of Youth, Baby Corner, King County Housing Authority, City of Redmond, City of Kirkland, and Eastside for All) 
• Social-emotional learning to support each student because we know students have different ways of processing and they have assets that should be honored in order to build stronger and more compassionate communities 
• Positive Behavior Intervention Support, which is grounded in equity, is being rolled out across the district in stages, with a focus on supporting better approaches to discipline by being proactive and appropriately responsive, such as in instances of racism, harassment, and bullying  
• Intentional family engagement and community outreach that is increasingly culturally responsive at the district and school level 
• Increasing student voice, especially for historically under-served or marginalized groups, through community events, focus group work, classroom learning, and problem-solving engagements 
   

As in any large organization, we understand that equity work is not the responsibility of just one person or within the domain of only one department. We understand that everyone must take ownership of the work, especially if we want deep, sustainable change in order to support the well-being and academic success of our students.  

Therefore, every department has extensive equity goals. Below are a handful of examples from some of our departments:  

• Human Resources: Improve hiring and staffing processes to increase the diversity of our teaching staff 
• Intervention Support: Provide instruction and intervention training and support for teachers that address equity, cultural competency, and race. Promote inclusive instructional practices.  
• Special Education: Equitably adopt, apply and evaluate resources and services for students to address equity, race, and disabilities including dyslexia or reading disorders and provide training and support for teachers that address equity, race, and disabilities, and promote inclusive instructional practices. 
• College & Career Services: Help support students in overcoming self-limiting expectations that limit access to post-secondary opportunities.  
• Accountability, Data, & Research: Ensure data sources include a variety of student data sources to analyze student achievement including qualitative, quantitative, and student voice to develop specific strategies and actions to close achievement gaps.
• Business & Support Services: Reduce fee barriers in accessing programs and classes. 

The following are resources to support learning around equity and anti-racism. These resources are intended for professional learning and personal growth. Please consider that each resource has a specific context and purpose.

Equity is the culmination of understanding, compassion and actions to create access. Striving for equity is a life-long commitment towards ensuring that everyone has opportunities for success in a way that meets their unique needs.

• Understanding that systems and institutions were explicitly and implicitly built to disadvantage some groups to maintain the status quo for those in power. 
• Showing compassion, yet not being paralyzed by this empathy.
• Knowing that specific and systemic actions are needed to remove barriers AND create opportunities.
• Providing the support to access these opportunities – so that adaptive change occurs, which reduces or eliminates the possibility that one’s future is determined by socio-economic status, race, language, identity or ethnicity.

Equity and anti-racism starter kit

• A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
• Stamped, Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi 
• So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo
• White Fragility, Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Race, Robin Diangelo
• What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy, Robin Diangelo
• The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
• Whistling Vivaldi, Claude M. Steele
• Me and White Supremacy, Layla F. Saad 
• Stamped from the Beginning, The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Ibram X. Kendi 

Equity and anti-racism intermediate kit

• How to be an Anti-Racist, Ibram X. Kendi
• The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
• Dying of Whiteness, Jonathan Metzl 
• Racism without Racists, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva 
• Tears We Cannot Stop, Michael Eric Dyson 

Equity and anti-racism advanced kit

• White Rage, Carol Anderson 
• Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge 

Equity and Anti-Racism Biography or Autobiography

• Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

Anti-Racism Specific Topics

• Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen
• Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD
• The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein 
• For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood, and the Rest of Y’all Too, Christopher Emdin 

LGBTQ

• Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation, Jim Downs
• Born Both, Hilda Viloria
• Sister Outsider, Audre Lourde
• Queer: A Graphic History, Dr. Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele
• The Gay Revolution, Lillian Faderman
• Black on Both Sides, A Racial History of Trans Identity, C. Riley Snorton
• Gender Outlaw, Kate Bornstein
• The World Only Spins Forward, Isaac Butler and Dan Kois