October 23, 2008

The beginning of a new cycle for the New England Equity Assistance Center

The New England Equity Assistance Center (NEEAC) recently received a $1.7 million three-year award from the United States Department of Education. The NEEAC was one of six regional centers to be refunded for this new funding cycle. The Education Alliance has operated the NEEAC since 1992.

The work of the New England Equity Assistance Center is grounded in Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of l964. One of ten regional centers, NEEAC provides technical assistance and professional development for districts as they resolve equity problems in education related to race, gender, and national origin. Initially, the centers worked with schools in the development and creation of desegregation plans; however, that role has shifted in recent years as schools have confronted the challenges of changing ethnic and racial demographics within their walls, as well as the need for addressing more culturally competent faculty and more inclusive curricula. In the l970s, the Lau v. Nichols (1974) decision was a major spur in broadening the role of the centers to include work related to national origin. Among the issues addressed by the EACs are discipline, grouping for instruction, and extracurricular activities. Services related to gender discrimination are also paramount considerations.

The New England Equity Assistance Center has worked in all six of the New England states and has trained educators and teachers in urban, suburban, and rural districts over the past fifteen years. It has developed relationships with each state department of education and assisted in the preparation of guidance documents and policies that assist English Language Learners (ELLs). NEEAC has convened the region’s educators to discuss issues of minority teacher recruitment, teacher preparation and school climate. The staff has helped districts as they grapple with disproportionality in their special education classes as well as their gifted and talented programs. The Center hosted a national conference on gender equity in 2007. An important outreach component of The Education Alliance’s mission is to serve those students who have traditionally been denied access to high quality education because of race, gender or national origin. In this regard, the NEEAC is a signature initiative of the Alliance.

The three objectives of the newly funded NEEAC are teacher quality, disproportionate representation, and school environment. During its tenure, the NEEAC has contributed to the development of materials to assist teachers, schools, and districts, as well as helping to identify conditions underlying stagnation in student achievement and to build capacity within schools to generate engaging curricula that promote ELLs’ success.

The New England Equity Assistance Center was one of the co-sponsors of the 13th New England Conference on Multicultural Education at the Hartford Convention Center in 2008. The well-attended conference featured Carlos E. Cortes, author of Multicultural Education: Building a More Inclusive American Future, as keynote speaker. The major themes were: Cultural Competence, School Climate, Increasing Student Achievement, English Language Learners, Best Teaching Practices and Leadership in Promoting Equity. The conference created an important opportunity to network. Our staff presentations included “Strengthening Our Laws and Policies to Prevent Bullying and Harassment,” which gave an overview of the anti-bullying legislation in New England and highlighted the model comprehensive district policy developed in Massachusetts that is being adopted in other states. Other workshops dealt with the socio-cultural factors that impact the learning and behavior of ELLs; the unique circumstances of ELL families; and the strengths perspective as an effective foundation for parent outreach and inclusion.

The NEEAC has planned a very active fall with presentations throughout the region and beyond. For example, there will be workshops, in New Hampshire, on “Examining Disproportionate Representation of Minority Students in Special Education”, and in South County, RI, on creating ELL Networks to engage in a self-assessment of instructional programs for ELLs. A survey designed for this assessment will help document the quality of programs and will inform what improvements should be made in order to better serve district needs. A workshop at the International Bullying Association on “The Role of Empathy in Bullying and Harassment Prevention: Issues, Obstacles, and Programs” is also on the NEEAC’s calendar. At the Aquidneck Collaborative for Education Conference, the workshop, “Understanding All Adolescent Boys and Planning for Their Success” will lay out successful strategies. NEEAC’s staff are continuing to work with districts to outline work for the 2008-2009 academic year.

This is a critical time in our history. While the era of court supervision of school desegregation is over, within our schools there is a rising and troubling overrepresentation of English Language Learners and African American males in special education and an underrepresentation of the same population in gifted and talented programs. This disproportionality has distressing consequences for the future of our nation. With recent court cases, school districts face significant challenges on how to create and maintain more racially and ethnically diverse schools. How can they provide high quality equitable education to all students regardless of their race, gender, or national origin? In a time of greater accountability and as the diversity of the New England region continues to grow, the work of the New England Equity Assistance Center continues to be as relevant and critical today as it was when the network was formed in 1964.

For more information, please visit the NEEAC’s website.