Center Statement
Ever-recent and pervasive, we experience mass shootings taking place while people are living their lives, engaging in everyday activities—celebrating the Lunar New Year (Monterey Park), going to the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon (Buffalo, New York), attending Sunday church service (Laguna Woods, California), and learning and teaching in school (Uvalde, Texas). Additionally, tragedies like the state-sanctioned killing of Tyre Nichols keep the Black community in a constant state of mourning. Each one of these instances adds to the collective trauma we all experience as a society when faced either directly or indirectly with this type of mass violence. We know that these events are devastating for the families, loved ones, and the communities in which they happen. Across our Great Lakes Equity Center projects, and particularly in our Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Centers, we commit to the contribution of safe and inclusive schools through deep partnerships with education agencies and communities. We urge action in whatever way you can contribute: through policy, testimony, love, learning, and holding accountable our legislators, colleagues, friends, neighbors, and ourselves to end this violence by building just, equitable, inclusive, and safe spaces where our communities and youth thrive.
Great Lakes Equity Center/Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center
Downloadable Resources
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Equity Express: Radical Self and Community Care In this issue of Equity Express, we emphasize the importance of tending to your whole self on your own terms, of and within [minoritized] communities, amid furthering equity-centered work.
Centering Equity in Social Emotional Learning This Equity Tool is a rubric, enabling users to determine the extent to which developed standards reflect an equity-focused approach to Social Emotional Learning. Adapted from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s (CASEL) Framework for Systemic Social Emotional Learning, this Tool reframes each competency toward more equitable educational experiences for students who are members of historically marginalized groups by guiding users to consider the degree to which each competency implicates the role of the school in determining social norms, the politics and power imbalances embedded in emotional interactions, and the degree to which the standard promotes student agency.
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Equity Express: Fortifying Ourselves in the Work In this inaugural issue of Equity Express, we highlight and provide resources which attend to the importance of strengthening and protecting oneself, while in the midst of equity work.
With racism and xenophobia all heightened in our present politically polarized times, students often feel unsafe and vulnerable. Those sensibilities, however understandable, nonetheless can interfere with an individual student's learning, and larger classroom and school dynamics. This vodcast consists of four seasoned secondary educators, who will offer their perspectives and strategies for helping students feel welcome, safe, and able to learn. Download Transcript (241.84 KB) |
Counselors can play an integral role in developing transformative schooling environments that center equity and disrupt marginalizing practices. The purpose of this Equity by Design brief is to conduct a critical examination of the profession and training of school counselors, shifting towards positioning the school counselor as an equity-oriented liaison and leader.
Creating Caring Classroom Communities In this edition of Equity Dispatch, we will discuss the definition and characteristics of a caring classroom community, its benefits, and the practices that educators can leverage to create caring classroom communities.
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Supporting Students with Making Healthy Connections During this virtual session, we explore how virtual learning during the pandemic impacted students' social development and what effects this will have upon re-entry into in-person classes in the fall. Download Transcript (653.99 KB)
Raising Critically Conscious Children Part 1 This is the first part of a three-part Equity Spotlight Podcast and Vodcast Series focused on raising critically conscious children and making critically conscious choices around schooling for their children, as well as exploring research on Critical Race Parenting in the context of their lives and lived experiences of parenting. Download Transcript (224.93 KB)
Raising Critically Conscious Children Part 2 This is the second part of a three-part Equity Spotlight Podcast and Vodcast Series focused on raising critically conscious children and making critically conscious choices around schooling for their children, as well as exploring research on Critical Race Parenting in the context of their lives and lived experiences of parenting.
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Students are Not Their Behavior: Returning to the Roots of Multitier Systems of Behavior Support This Equity by Design Research Brief describes the foundational principles underpinning multitier systems of support, challenging common usage of the approach to label students. Whether imparted explicitly or implicitly, the inclination to identify and treat individuals—as opposed to addressing specific behavioral and learning needs—is often counter to the aims of the framework. As such, this brief identifies and examines the consequences of this conflating behavior, describing how to promote effective and supportive policy & practice.
Supporting Social-Emotional Needs of Students Who Are Refugees This brief provides an introduction to the refugee population, describe common experiences of trauma and resultant treatment, and offer an overview of research-based school supports for students who are refugees.
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This Equity Tool illustrates research on the effects homophobia and transphobia have on the mental health of LGBTQ+ students, as well as strategies and resources teachers and administrators can use to address this issue. This tool includes three infographics to help the audience understand this information, and share it with others, in an accessible and engaging way. In addition to each infographic, this Equity Tool includes corresponding information and questions to help the audience engage with the content.
Reframing School-Based Mental Health Supports with an Equity Lens This edition of the Equity Dispatch states that like physical health, mental health is essential to students’ successful participation in school. Students who are mentally healthy and socially and emotionally competent usually have better academic outcomes. Often, when we think about mental health services in school, we tend to focus on service provision to individuals experiencing mental health issues, especially those with labels like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Autism Spectrum Disorder. While it is certainly beneficial for targeted students to receive one-on-one mental health supports, the overall scope of mental health service provision needs to be much larger. Based on this recognition, we must create local, multi-tiered systems of service that emphasize the development of a supportive school culture, inclusive classroom communities, and positive relationships. Accordingly, this article offers key equity considerations and recommendations regarding the promotion of mental health for all students. Download PDF (148.41 KB) |
Resources
Trauma Care Resources for BIPOC Communities |
Trauma Care Resources for Children |
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Chicago Public Schools Repository for Antiracist Education A toolkit to help foster productive conversations about race and civil disobedience Research Article |
Articles School Shootings and Student Mental Health: Role of the School Counselor in Mitigating Violence We are Once Again Reeling from Grief and Outrage Gun violence, grief, and trauma: A resource guide for students, teachers, and parents Helping Youth after Community Trauma: Tips for Educators Video A Kids Book About School Shootings by Crystal Woodman Miller |
Trauma Care Resources for LGBTQIA+ Communities |
Trauma Care Resources for the Disabilities Communities |
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Brief |
Research Article Make Real Change On Gun Violence: Stop Scapegoating People with Mental Health Disabilities 'CAHOOTS': How Social Workers And Police Share Responsibilities In Eugene, Oregon |
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Survivors of Gun Violence ResourcesFROM HEALING TO ACTION: A Toolkit for Gun Violence Survivors and Allies |