Education/Schools

Challenges cited by group participants: How can we...

1) promote diversity in schools?

• Participate in inter-district diversity programs that encourage interaction among students from different backgrounds.
• Create a resource list of multi-cultural presenters for assembly programs and make it available to all Intermediate Units.
• Provide incentives to educators who attend courses, workshops, and training in diversity, multi-cultural-materials, and conflict resolution.
• Create and distribute a diversity newsletter, local or regional.
• Be familiar with demographic trends in the region.
• Acknowledge differences as well as similarities among students. Celebrate uniqueness.
• Adopt a sister school.

2) address stereotypes?

• While all educators should strive to address stereotypes as they are brought to their attention, the issue is complex and benefits from direct attention. One program that seeks to address assumptions, stereotypes, and discrimination is Study Circles. Students meet for six weeks to discuss the issues in a comfortable setting. The most successful Study Circles have been inter-district programs.
• Provide structured opportunities for integration e.g. inter-district programming.
• Take every opportunity to challenge bias and stereotypes.

3) reduce pressure to conform to cliques/groups?

• Offer a summer community-building program for youth entering H.S. Develop a program that addresses the issue of cliques and groups by focusing on community- building. High School students could serve as facilitators and mentors to incoming freshman.
• H.I.P.P. (Help Increase the Peace Project) was created by the American Friends Service Committee to teach conflict resolution skills to students as well as to promote acceptance and inclusion. Successful programs exist in Chambersburg, West Shore, Harrisburg, and Northern York school districts.
• Conduct a simple survey to assess the school environment and use classroom time to analyze responses

4) promote respect for others?

• Implement programs that encourage befriending people who are different from you such as Study Circles and HIPP.
• Ensure that all students receive hate prevention training through classroom activities, assemblies, and other school-related activities.
• Encourage children to tell stories about their families, however different they may be.
• Reach out to students who hate.
• Actively create a school environment where interrupting discriminatory behavior is expected from staff and students.
• Encourage students and staff to form a unity, diversity, multi-cultural, or anti-violence group.
• Teach children to look critically at stereotypes portrayed by the media.
• Teach students how to recognize bias and how to respond appropriately.

5) involve administration?

• Define diversity as it applies to your school community.
• Support students who seek to form clubs that promote diversity and inclusion.
• Use faculty meetings as a forum for discussion of diversity issues.
• Periodically review your school’s Mission Statement regarding respect for differences.
• Establish a diversity committee of students, parents and educators.
• Develop personal and institutional action plans for creating an equitable school.
• Develop and implement a process for institutional change.
• Encourage educators, students, parents and community members to communicate directly with administrators about their interests and needs.
• Develop partnerships with families, community organizations, and law enforcement agencies.
• Encourage administrators to attend the annual Superintendents’ Institute hosted by the Institute for Cultural Partnerships which addresses different aspects of diversity each year.
• Suggest that diversity committees or task forces be created in each school or district.
• Provide on-going diversity training or subject specific learning opportunities for all school staff.
• Provide hate prevention training to all staff, including teachers, administrators, school security personnel, and support staff.
• Revise staff recruitment policies in order to create and retain a diverse faculty.
• Develop a hate prevention policy to distribute to every student, every student’s family, and every employee of the school district.
• Develop a range of corrective actions for those who violate school hate-prevention policies.
• Adopt The Respect Pledge or create a version that works for you:

I will quit laughing when other people are put down. Then, as my courage grows, I will stop telling bigoted jokes. When someone else tells a bigoted joke, I will speak up and say, "Not around me." For the rest of my life, I will go out of my way to get to know people who appear to be different.

• Analyze your achievement, discipline and drop-out data, what does it indicate?
• When a hate incident occurs, tend to the victims AND the victimizers. Is this a teachable moment for the school?
• Establish policies where respect and acceptance are considered the standard of behavior.

Other recommendations:

Create and maintain a non-biased curriculum. Ways to accomplish this:

• Establish a task force to examine curriculum and teaching materials for bias and stereotypes.
• Help children develop a critical eye for bias and stereotypes.
• Provide contrasts to stereotypical representations found in curriculum.
• Adopt and incorporate Diversity curricula into all subject areas.
• Identify a Diversity resource specialist in each building.
• Increase and make available Multicultural materials and resources.
• Assign projects that require students to explore history and culture from multiple perspectives.
• Expose students to Diversity through field trips, speakers, collaboration with other schools, and the Internet.
• Initiate annual arts contests on the themes of Multiculturalism and Diversity.
• Be vigilant!