National Education Equity Leaders Meet on UW-Madison Campus April 27-28
April 27, 2015
A national network of educators organized by the University of Wisconsin-Madison will gather April 27 – 28 in Madison to focus on the latest research and most promising practices for eliminating racial disparities in achievement in schools across the United States.
The Minority Student Achievement Network, a project of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research within the School of the Education, is dedicated to eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps that persist in our nation’s schools.
With the group’s annual institute returning this year to Madison, Minority Student Achievement Network Executive Director Madeline Hafner believes local interest will be high.
“The network’s messages and strategies are more relevant than ever in our state. Racial equity in education today is front and center in Wisconsin,” she states.
Her comments refer to the impact of the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress report, often called the Nation’s Report Card, conducted by the U.S. Department of Education that ranked Wisconsin as having the largest achievement gap between black and white students in the country.
The Minority Student Achievement Network is a coalition of 28 multiracial, suburban-urban school districts in the United Sates working together to understand and eliminate opportunity gaps that persist in their schools. Member districts are located on the east coast, across the Midwest and in the states of Arizona and Washington. Local members include the Madison Metropolitan, Middleton-Cross Plains Area, Sun Prairie Area and Verona Area school districts.
Creating change in schools starts by getting commitment from administrators and teachers, which is why the annual institute focuses on building the competence of administrative leadership around equity and ensuring all educators are culturally competent.
“Eliminating institutionalized racism is at the core of our activities,” Hafner states. “While information can be shared virtually, nothing equals individuals from different racial, ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds coming together in a space where it is safe to talk about racism to jointly construct anti-racist educational strategies.”
Speakers at this year’s institute include UW-Madison scholar Gloria Ladson-Billings, known internationally for her breakthrough work in culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory; School of Education Dean Julie Underwood; and academic language experts from WIDA, a UW-Madison resource for teachers and schools that focuses on boosting the achievement of linguistically diverse students. WIDA is the largest and fastest-growing project of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Hafner said including WIDA in this year’s institute fulfills the dual mission of updating attendees on research and offering tangible best practices they can take back to their districts.
“While our members and districts across the United States have shown progress in addressing the institutional barriers that prevent students of color from reaching their academic potential, we still have much work to do on topics such as implicit bias, deficit thinking, racial microaggressions and disproportionality in discipline,” she said. “We want everyone to be able to walk out of the conference with a good idea of how to actually implement policy or practices that will diminish inequality in their schools, and with connections to professionals in other districts they can contact for support.”
The educators taking part in the institute already share the goal of eliminating racial disparities and academic achievement gaps in their own school districts, but the institute will help them focus on what works best in getting results.
“They take action in their schools every day to understand and change school practices and structures that keep racial achievement gaps in place while improving achievement for all students. Offering them implementable solutions is a vital part of the institute,” Hafner said. “Attendees will come away challenged and then must challenge themselves to work even harder to change themselves and their districts.”
The 2015 Minority Student Achievement Network Institute takes place at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, Monday, April 27, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Tuesday, April 28, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
