DEI: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
The Principles of DEI (IED)
"Diversity is the presence of differences in dimensions of human identity. Dimensions of diversity may include, but are not limited to, race, age, sex, gender identity, gender expression, (dis) ability, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, citizenship, socioeconomic status, housing status, marital status, language, and political perspective.
Equity is the fair and just allocation of resources, access, and opportunities in such a way that all persons have what they need to succeed, grow, contribute and be represented in all parts of society. Equity refers not to providing identical resources to everyone but to distributing resources and opportunities based on each person’s needs.
Inclusion is the intentional, ongoing effort to ensure that diverse individuals have equitable access and involvement in community and decision-making. As an action, inclusion entails welcoming, supporting, respecting, and valuing diverse individuals and groups for their unique contributions and perspectives, while ensuring none are excluded from presence, belonging, and participation with dignity".
CRT: Critical Race Theory
Some Principles of the CRT Practice
"Critical race theory, according to founding critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw, is a discipline that seeks to understand how racism has shaped U.S. laws and how those laws have continued to impact the lives of non-white people".
https://abcnews.go.com/US/critical-race-theory-classroom-understanding-debate/story?id=77627465
While recognizing the evolving and malleable nature of CRT, scholar Khiara Bridges outlines a few key tenets of CRT, including:
- Recognition that race is not biologically real but is socially constructed and socially significant. It recognizes that science (as demonstrated in the Human Genome Project) refutes the idea of biological racial differences. According to scholars Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, race is the product of social thought and is not connected to biological reality.
- Acknowledgement that racism is a normal feature of society and is embedded within systems and institutions, like the legal system, that replicate racial inequality. This dismisses the idea that racist incidents are aberrations but instead are manifestations of structural and systemic racism.
- Rejection of popular understandings about racism, such as arguments that confine racism to a few “bad apples.” CRT recognizes that racism is codified in law, embedded in structures, and woven into public policy. CRT rejects claims of meritocracy or “colorblindness.” CRT recognizes that it is the systemic nature of racism that bears primary responsibility for reproducing racial inequality.
- Recognition of the relevance of people’s everyday lives to scholarship. This includes embracing the lived experiences of people of color, including those preserved through storytelling, and rejecting deficit-informed research that excludes the epistemologies of people of color.
Effects of Lowering Educational Standards
June 21, 2023 Report
" The average test scores for U.S. 13-year-olds have dipped in reading and dropped sharply in math since 2020, according to new data from National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The average scores, from tests given last fall, declined 4 points in reading and 9 points in math, compared with tests given in the 2019-2020 school year, and are the lowest in decades. The declines in reading were more pronounced for lower performing students, but dropped across all percentiles.
The math scores were even more disappointing. On a scale of 500 points, the declines ranged from 6 to 8 points for middle and high performing students, to 12 to 14 points for low performing students".
October 30, 2023 Report
A new working paper from Brown University titled 'The Unintended Consequences of Academic Leniency' digs into these questions by looking at what happened when a state, North Carolina, lowered its standards.
The new, laxer standards allowed the lower-performing students to increasingly disengage from school and fall further behind their peers. Worse, these effects compounded over time, and the more lenient grading standards eventually led to lower ACT scores for the students who came in the furthest behind".