Equity Plan

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Goal: Supporting Students of Color

in a Concurrent Enrollment Education

Pathway Program

through Mentoring

to Become Educators of Color

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Irene Mineoi Amrani

December 6, 2021

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“Mentors”

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• more experienced in the field than their mentees
• provide support, encouragement and wisdom
• available to their mentees to ask questions to push their thinking as well as to answer questions they may have
• give the gift of time and believe in giving back
• want to see their mentee succeed and will provide the support necessary in order for them to do so

• college level courses offered at the high school in partnership with a local college
• students receive credit for both high school and college simultaneously
• teacher at the high school has their masters degree in the field of study

“Concurrent enrollment /Dual Enrollment”

Background

• Pathway program already in place at Patrick Henry
• Series of meetings from November 2020-June 2021
• Program began at South fall of 2021
• Currently offering one course and will build up to four

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• Introduction to Urban Education
• Multicultural Approaches to Education
• Introduction to Special Education
• Technology for Educators

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Problems this Plan Addresses

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1. Teachers of Color and American Indian Teachers (TOCAIT) are not proportionally represented in teaching.

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Students need to be able to see themselves in who they seek help from (Cartegena & Slater, 2021, p. 14).

Problems this Plan Addresses

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2. Students of Color and teachers of color underrepresented in Advanced

Academics courses

35% gap

Problems this Plan Addresses

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3. Students of Color not supported when they are placed in Advanced

Academics course

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“The need is very high. Anecdotally, students in advanced coursework at South feel isolated and unsupported” (Cheng, 2021).

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Students of Color in Advanced Academics courses

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Survey Results

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119 BIPOC respondents /235 total respondents

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• 39 BIPOC students said that “Having an advisor, an academic advisor, a mentor and/or a staff person who I can check-in with and help support me” would be helpful
• If offered after school mentoring or tutoring were offered, 28 BIPOC students (23.5%) would take advantage of this service
• 31 BIPOC students (26%) would take advantage of being “paired with an academic advisor, a mentor, a teacher and/or staff person who I can check-in with and help support me”
• 48 BIPOC students (50%) said they do not see their culture and people from their community represented in the curriculum of the class, 3 not sure.

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Students of Color in Advanced Academics courses

When asked, what else would you like to share about your experience taking advanced classes at South and how we can help more students be successful in these classes?:

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Student of Color responses:

• “Heavily encourage POC to take advanced courses. And don’t make it seem daunting.”
• “My experience taking advanced classes was actually very fun but the only thing I didn't like was the lack of diversity.”
• “They are way too full of white students and not students of color.”
• “I wish we had more diversity in advanced classes”
• “Advanced classes at South are very divided, meaning a lot of white students are in these courses which is interesting because of the high black population here at South”
• “I think my experience when it comes to taking advanced classes is the lack of color students in a classroom.”
• “What I noticed is that there isn't more POC kids in Advanced classes and that it's predominantly white kids. I don't feel as much confident in my advanced classes.” compared to the others. Also the teachers are fast paced and expect us to be independent.
• “I like the classes, but pltw is not very diverse like my other classes.”

Concurrent Enrollment Intro to Education course

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38/44 identify as American Indian or Students of Color =

86% students of color!

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Last year, there were 37.6% white students

and 62.4% students of color.

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Primary and Initial Goals

• Provide support for students of color and American Indian students in South High School’s concurrent enrollment education pathway program
• Set up mentorships with BIPOC mentors starting in the Introduction to Education course
• Build positive relationships between mentor and mentee

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Long Term Goals

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• Increase confidence in high school students in their decision to attend college
• Help support our students to overcome barriers they may face along their journey to become educators
• Provide opportunity and experience for BIPOC teachers to mentor
• Replicate program to support BIPOC students across other advanced academics classes
• Increase educators of color in the workforce

Proposed Timeline

Letter Writing - Pen Pals

• Why were you interested in urban ed (Nov)
• Decolonizing & Indigenous Education (Dec)
• Black Lives Matter at school (Jan)
• Language Justice (Feb)
• Hope as a teacher (March)
• Social Justice Teaching (April)
• Family & Community Partnerships (May)

Resources Needed - School

• continued cooperation and enthusiasm from the teacher of the “Intro to Education” course about this idea, including willingness to set aside time in the course in order to do mentor and mentee activities, starting with relationship building
• support from high school administration to implement the plan
• allowances for in-person visits such as background checks and signing in. If guests are still not allowed in the building at the time due to Covid-19 protocols, then access to technology would be required for virtual meetings.
• in person classroom space
• virtual classroom connection as needed

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Resources Needed - District

• support from district administration to implement the plan
• grants and funding to cover mentor stipends, coordinator stipends, books and other costs
• Training resources

Resources Needed - Community

• establish connections or to build off of pre-existing connections with local colleges and universities
• support from Minneapolis College, Metro State and other partners
• willing Mentors
• support from the corresponding concurrent enrollment Minneapolis college professor
• support from college/university professors and field experiences director to encourage their BIPOC teacher candidates to participate in this mentorship program

Research Basis for this Plan

Research Basis for this Plan - Mentoring

Allen, Eby, & Lentz (2006)

Belmore, 2019

Mentors:

• it is a way to give back to their profession
• provide lessons learned
• welcome those new to the industry
• use a common platform for sharing information

Mentees:

• way to gain knowledge
• find career motivation
• get exposure to industry leaders
• receive career and personal guidance

Eby and Lockwood (2005) suggest that mentors in a formal mentorship may focus more on what “they learned from the relationship and enjoyed interacting with the protege ́ (as cited in Allen, Eby and Lentz, 2006, p. 576).

Kram (as cited in Allen, Eby and Lentz, 2006) said that proteges may judge the relationship “in terms of the ability of the relationship to enhance their own sense of personal and professional competence.”

“perceived input into the matching process appears to be critical” (p. 575) and positively contributed to greater mentorship quality.

Another finding was that high quality training, not solely having training, positively related to psychosocial mentoring (p. 576).

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Research Basis for this Plan - Advanced Academics

Blad, 2020

• Automatically enroll students
• Teachers talk to all students
• Removes financial barriers

Cartagena and Slater (2021)

Transform leadership

Commitment to equity, grounded in community

District:

• Synergy
• Commitment to improvement
• Financial support

Witenko, Mireles-Rios and Rios (2017)

Wang and Eccles (as cited in Witenko, Mireles-Rios and Rios, 2017) found that “diverse networks of social support are critical for student achievement”

ESSN = extended social support network

The types of social support :

• “emotional support (care, trust, love, empathy)
• instrumental support (money, time, work)
• informational support (advice, suggestions, information)
• appraisal support (affirmation, feedback)” (p. 179)

Research Basis for this Plan - BIPOC mentorship

Brissett (2020)

• mentorships between faculty and students of color go beyond advising academics
• counselor, advocate and role model
• “overwhelmingly feel a sense of social responsibility to their communities of color” (p. 564)
• felt a personal responsibility to give back
• felt “the need to nurture, shepherd but also challenge students of color are the most dominant responsibilities” (p. 568)
• providing “racial literacy” to students
• “counter-narratives” and “counter-space” (p. 569)
• Strayhorn calls mentors of color “cultural navigators” (as cited in Brissett, 2020, p. 560).
• Santos and Reigadas (as cited in Brissett, 2020) found that cultural navigators:
• met more frequently with their mentees
• were viewed as more supportive by their mentees
• helped with adjustment to their institution which in turn had a positive effect on their academic achievement.

Luedke (2017)

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• mentors valued the capital that students already brought with them to campus

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• honest and authentic with students, allowing them to be more vulnerable and to grow through giving them constructive feedback.

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• Through this holistic relationship, students were able to gain more social and cultural capital

Research Highlights - Successful Program

Perkins (2016) - Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers (TSTT)

Bettye Perkins, Ed.D.

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Nationally, 30 percent of teachers leave teaching within five years” and only 10% of TSTT participants do (p. 16).

�Successful Strategies:

• future teachers clubs
• bring together area high school students
• take students on college visits and advocate for scholarship opportunities
• students participate in job shadowing, internships, workshops, weekly meetings and classes, college prep support and learn about issues integral to the field of education
• provide opportunities for students to tutor other students
• provide classroom teachers as mentors

Research Highlights - Successful Program

Perkins (2016) - Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers (TSTT)

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Continues to provide support throughout the completion of college. (None of the 245 programs she studied did!)

Perkins shares that participants in TSTT meet weekly with a teacher mentor and once they are in college they are paired with a different mentor (p. 15). Of the mentorship program, she says:

“The mentor-mentee relationship is one of the program’s strengths. We pay our mentors, who follow our curriculum. Over the years, many mentors and students have become friends, colleagues, and part of a strong support network that lasts long after the formal program ends. The students’ relationships with mentors are among the reasons why the program has such high retention rates.” (Perkins, 2016, p. 16)

Research Highlights - Successful Program

Pathways2Teaching, University of Colorado, led by Dr. Margarita Bianco

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One of the 6 guiding principles

Mentors and Role Models:

• Students enrolled in the Pathways2Teaching program will be provided with opportunities to establish mentor/mentee relationships with undergraduate and graduate students as well as community members.
• CU Denver faculty, including faculty of Color will also engage with P2T students – again to demystify the college experience.
• Nationally recognized scholars of color will be invited to participate in our guest speaker series via internet video conference call.

Acknowledgements

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School Family

Angelica Torralba-Olague

Amun Said

Fred Cheng

Carmen

BIPOC colleagues

students

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District Community�Crystal Polski Kleber Ortiz

Jen Simon Paul Spies

Dr. Martin Kerr

Classmates and Cohort members

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References

Achinstein, B., Ogawa, R., Sexton D. and Freitas, C. (2010). Retaining teachers of color: A pressing problem and a potential

strategy for "hard-to- staff" Schools. Review of Educational Research, 80(1), 71-107.

https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654309355994

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Advanced Academics. South High School. (Hyperlink) Google Form. September 2021.

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Allen, T., Eby, L. & Lentz, E. (2006). Mentorship behaviors and mentorship quality associated with formal mentoring programs:

Closing the Gap Between Research and Practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(3), 567-578,

https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.567

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Belmore, B. (2019). President’s message Mentorship. ITE Journal. 4

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Bianco, M. (2010). Guiding Principles. Pathways2Teaching. https://www.pathways2teaching.com/guiding-principles.html

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Blad, E. (2020). The simple policy change that’s getting more students of color in advanced courses. Education Week

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-simple-policy-change-thats-getting-more-students-of-color-in-advanced-courses/2

020/03

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Brissett, N. (2020). Inequitable rewards: Experiences of faculty of color mentoring students of color, mentoring & tutoring.

Partnership in Learning, 28(5), 556-577, DOI: 10.1080/13611267.2020.1859327

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References

Cartegena, E. & Slater, C. (2021). A district’s journey of transformative leadership: Moving beyond open access to the improvement,

inclusion, and success of students of color in advanced placement. Journal of School Leadership, 1-22, https://doi.org/10.1177/1052684621994474

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Chan, A. (2018) Trust-building in the mentoring of students of color. Mentoring & tutoring. Partnership in Learning, 26(1), 4-29. DOI:

10.1080/13611267.2017.1416265

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Coalition to Increase Teachers of Color and American Indian Teachers in Minnesota. Legislation. Retrieved July 25, 2021 from https://www.tocaimn.com/legislation

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Endo, R. (2020). Retaining and supporting faculty who are black, indigenous, and people of color: The promise of a multi-leveled

mentoring-partnership model. Multicultural Perspectives, 22(4) 169-177. DOI: 10.1080/15210960.2020.1845178

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Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106-116.

Gold, T. (2020). Pipeline and retention of teachers of color: Systems and structures impeding growth and sustainability in the United States. Digital Promise. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12265/96

Hinsdale, M. J. (2016). Mentoring and decolonization. In M. A. Peters (Ed). Encyclopedia of educational philosophy and theory, 1–7.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: A.k.a. the remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74-84.

Luedke, C. (2017). Person first, student second: Staff and administrators of color supporting students of color authentically in higher education. Journal of College Student Development, 58(1), 37-52. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2017.0002

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References

Majari de Silva, R., Gleditsch, R., Job, C., Jesme, S., Urness, B. & Hunter, C. (2018). Gloria Ladson- Billings: Igniting student learning through teacher engagement in culturally relevant pedagogy. Multicultural Education, 23-28.

Minnesota Department of Education. Who are the students? Demographics. ​(2021). Minnesota Report Card. Retrieved July 24, 2021

from​ https://rc.education.mn.gov/#demographics/orgId--30001362000__p--b

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Minnesota Department of Education (2018-19). Enrollment_public_file_2019_v2.

https://public.education.mn.gov/MDEAnalytics/DataTopic.jsp?TOPICID=2

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Metropolitan State University. (n.d.). School of Urban Education. Retrieved July 24, 2021 from https://www.metrostate.edu/academics/urban-education

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https://mn.gov/pelsb/assets/Supply%20and%20Demand%202021_Final_tcm1113-46380 1.pdf

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Paris, D. & Alim, H.S. (2014). What are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining pedagogy? A loving critique forward.

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Partee, G. (2014). Retaining teachers of color in our public schools: A critical need for action. Center for American Progress. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED561078.

Ortiz-Walters, R., & Fullick, J. M. (2015). Mentoring protégés of color: Experiences of primary and informal mentors. The International

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References

Perkins, B. (2016). Growing the next generation: A program encourages students of color to become teachers. American Educator,

12-16.

Rios, R. & Longoria, A. (2021). Creating a home in schools: Sustaining identities for Black, Indigenous and teachers of color. Teachers College Press: New York.

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Witenko, V., Mireles-Rios, R. & Rios, V. (2017). Networks of encouragement: Who’s encouraging Latina/o students and White students to enroll in honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses? Journal of Latinos and Education, 16(3), 176-191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2016.1229612