Classroom Equity Data Inquiry for Racial Equity

ABSTRACT

Longstanding inequities exist in community colleges across the United States. To address these inequities, California Community Colleges educators have engaged in a variety of practices including the writing of equity plans and participation in equity data inquiry. However, there is an urgent need for greater focus on racial equity and for more faculty involvement in equity work at the classroom level. This paper presents a teacher case study exploring Classroom Equity Data Inquiry (CEDI), a tool for faculty professional learning focused on equitable student outcomes. In CEDI, professors examine their disaggregated classroom data, reflect on their class equity gaps, and pursue relevant professional development. They implement targeted interventions and then assess those interventions. This paper describes the author’s sustained CEDI utilizing six years of equity data in her English as a Second Language classes at a small northern California community college. First, it provides a definition and rationale for CEDI. Second, it details the author’s CEDI process and challenges. Third, it shares the author’s changes in thinking and practice including high impact interventions the author implemented to reduce equity gaps for men of color in her classes. Fourth, the article describes positive qualitative student data and increased success and retention rates for Hispanic and multi-race males following the interventions. The article concludes that CEDI requires training, support, and time, but that the approach merits further research. More research is needed on CEDI methods and their possible impact on racial equity in the classroom.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the institutional researchers at the Northern California institution where this study occurred. For the purposes of anonymity, I cannot name those researchers. However, there were three supportive institutional researchers involved in my study. They assisted me with my research questions, provided data in response to each of my inquiries, worked with me to interpret and compare the data, and to verify the data. I am grateful for their assistance. Thank you also to Dr. Rose Asera, Dr. Katya Karathanos-Aguilar, and Dr. Mark Felton who peer reviewed my manuscript, providing useful and encouraging feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Communities of practice” are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger & Trayner, 2015).

2. I believe sitting in the back is also a street-smart habit for students to see who or what is coming into the room.

3. TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.