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What is Deep Equity?
Deep Equity is a comprehensive and systemic professional development process aimed at producing the deep personal, professional, and organizational transformations that are necessary to create equitable places of learning for all of our nation’s children.
This capacity-building programme helps educators dismantle disparities through sustained, collaborative efforts and courageous leadership.
"Working Together for Inclusion, Equity, and Excellence"
You want all students to succeed, but despite your best efforts, some students continue to fall through the cracks. Perhaps you have undertaken cultural competency initiatives in the past, only to find that the training was “all talk and no action.” Deep down, you know the real reasons why past efforts have not worked:
- Top-down school reform mandates generally don't produce large scale educational equity
- Punitive consequences for failure to comply have dispirited the educational workforce
- The dynamics of privilege and power must be confronted to impact real change
- Students' cultural realities and experiences must be at the center of the teaching and learning process
The Deep Equity programme is different.
Developed and implemented nationally by Gary Howard, the Deep Equity programme addresses the dynamics of power and privilege in a safe, engaging, and inspiring environment in which all educators are honored and valued as professionals. By engaging in the program, you and your colleagues will learn to dismantle educational disparities through your own sustained, collaborative efforts and courageous leadership.
The Deep Equity Competitive Advantages
The Deep Equity programme is uniquely designed as both an intensive system-wide model for equity transformation and a focused process that builds capacity for cultural competence and culturally responsive teaching at the building level. What makes the Deep Equity process different from traditional approaches to equity?
- A capacity-building model: To maximize the impact of your equity efforts, the Deep Equity “train-the-trainer” model enables staff at each school site to continue the work long after the conclusion of the Deep Equity training.
- Focused on organizational culture and climate: Many traditional approaches focus on delivering knowledge in a one-size-fits-all workshop, regardless of potential political/relational tensions or participants’ readiness to learn. The Deep Equity process was designed with a deep understanding of the complexities of human relations, organizational change, and adult learning. While some professional learning providers jump straight to instructional strategies, the Deep Equity model acknowledges the need to change the culture and climate across an organization in order to achieve long-term, sustainable change that addresses the root causes of educational inequities. Phase 1 focuses on creating the right tone and necessary level of trust for participants to engage with the training.
- Classroom applications: Some equity models focus on building educators’ understanding of equity issues, without giving teachers specific methods to apply their learning to the classroom. The Deep Equity process not only supports systemic equity transformation at the district level, but also provides a special focus on instructional applications for classroom educators.
- Strategic planning: Because closing achievement and opportunity gaps is a long-term process, the Deep Equity model give your organization the tools to create a long-term plan for addressing inequities after the formal training is complete. The tools help your organization develop the climate, protocols, common language, and common goal of embedding culturally responsive teaching practices into everyday classroom instruction.
- Involves students: Students have significant influence over the culture and climate of a school. The Youth Equity Stewardship (YES!) model brings students into the conversation in an age-appropriate way and supports intergenerational communication and collaboration.