(Editor’s Note: Part I of a two-part series on students’ views on acceptance and equity in the Athol Royalston Regional School District. Today: What the survey reveals. Tomorrow: Students’ action plan.)
ATHOL — The definition of “acceptance” — the act of accepting something or someone — may seem fairly simple and straightforward, but getting others to practice acceptance, particularly of other people, especially those deemed different by any given individual, is far from simple and straightforward. But a group of students at Athol Royalston Middle School and Athol High School is doing its best to convince classmates to accept one another — to respect one another — despite their differences.
At the June 15 meeting of the School Committee, three students who are members of the district’s Equity Team, as well as the high school’s Diversity Club, presented results of a survey distributed to students at the middle and high schools, along with the first draft of an action plan to address issues raised by the survey, which received a total of 86 replies. Javon Pottinger, Alancia Santer and Sisueli Bueho were joined by one of their faculty advisors, ESL instructor Beth Gospodarek.
Using a scale of 1 to 5, respondents rated their overall experience in the district at 2.4. Many related they had seen or experienced harassment, bullying, and/or discrimination targeting students due to their race, sexual identity, and/or their family’s economic status. Some said they have sometimes felt unsafe at school. These were a number of serious issues raised by the results of the survey, which received 86 responses.
A draft action plan for addressing the issues raised by the survey and released by the Equity Team states: “Educational equity is when all students get what they need to be academically successful regardless of their external or internal, social or cultural contexts.”
(The Equity Team is made up of students, parents, teachers, community members and administrators.)
Two main goals were identified in the action plan; first among them building a culture where everyone, regardless of identity, is safe and treated with dignity. This would be accomplished by training staff and, eventually, students how to hold sometimes difficult conversations relative to identity. Other steps would include “creating a community of trust and belongingness among staff,” setting goals and collecting data to determine if goals have been met, providing professional development for district staff regarding restorative practices, developing an “educational component” which acknowledges hurt caused and providing the tools for responding to incidents of hate speech.
The second goal calls for “academic equity.” Steps to attain this goal include researching competencybased grading practices in secondary schools, exploring models employed by other school districts, setting up “‘training of trainers’ teaching and modeling systems among teacher teams” to improve inclusion, and “supporting culturally responsive curriculum by planning for intentional entry points related to Athol-Royalston culture and then, sharing successes and exemplar materials with colleagues.”
In response to a question from committee member Brittany Newton, Gospodarek said plans call for a similar survey to be distributed during the latter part of the 2022-23 academic year to help gauge the progress being made toward reaching the goals in the plan.
“Has anything been done and implemented so far that seems to be having success?” asked committee member Carla Rabinowitz. “Can you point to any significant success at this point in time, or are your just still in the planning and strategizing stage?”
“I think there has been significant training of administrators,” responded Gospodarek, “and I think that is huge — a huge catalyst so that people understand the importance of belongingness.”
“So, you can see it make a difference in classrooms” Rabinowitz asked, “in some cases, anyway?”
“We’ve got a long way to go, Carla,” Gospodarek continued, “but I think the administrators have a vision, the Equity Team has a vision. The next step is getting more teachers — the teachers are on board — but getting them some actual practices they can use, and then have that used as training for students.
“So, we have done some things, but as you can see from the (survey results), students have varying experiences.”
“I think it won’t take effect as quickly as we hope for it to,” added Alancia Santer, “because ignorance is very normalized. I’m pretty sure this hasn’t been a topic people willingly want to speak about because it’s an uncomfortable topic. If it can be left alone, people are going to leave it alone. But now that we’re actually getting it right on, it’s going to take some time for people to catch on and for people to understand … this is a chance for us to help other people feel like they belong.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com