Equity

Rooted in this belief, the Portland Village School strives to create a space where each individual is a valued member contributing to the health of the whole community. PVS seeks to foster an educational community where each individual is honored and valued. We welcome diversity of race, culture, spirituality, neurology, gender, identity, ability, and orientation.  We believe the essential work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion aims to promote a healthy social life and is the responsibility of every individual in our community. 

• Increasing our understanding of Restorative Practices and coaching for change. The PVS board has approved significant funds to support our collaboration with Stephen Fowler of Resolutions NW. Staff meets on a weekly, and monthly basis with Stephen to develop restorative practices, circles, and engage in restorative dialogues. This is work we will continue to engage in throughout the remainder of the year and into the future. 

• All staff book study of Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. This text is extremely well regarded in public and private educational circles for its exploration of instructional practices that support culturally diverse students. Many of these practices are embedded in Waldorf Education - so much so that Zaretta Hammond was part of writing the Charter for the Community School for Creative Education - a Public Waldorf school in Oakland, CA. We are and will continue to unpack the lessons of this text, to discuss, refine and implement these strategies in our classrooms. 

• Providing “wrap” supports to families and students in need in order to help them access hybrid and CDL learning. This looks like different supports for different families based on their needs. We are the only PPS charter school to have a full time counselor - Mr. O. Our counselor provides ongoing social-emotional support to students and helps in coordinating access to various mental health resources within our community. In addition, Mr. O works to connect families with transportation options, provides assistance with meeting basic needs for food, clothing, school materials and other necessities, connects families with physical and mental health services, provides technology resources and removes barriers to access.

• Participation in ongoing Professional Learning and implementing what we learn. Learning for equity is not a one and done - the professional learning is ongoing, recursive and requires reflection. Recent and upcoming training includes: 

1. RNW White supremacy culture: A healing dialogue for executives and decision-makers - this week administration is attending this training designed to help us recognize how White Supremacy culture shows up in organizations and how we can avoid these patterns in our operations in the time of COVID and into the future. 
2. Culturally Responsive Teaching webinar series administration is attending that unpacks the bigotry of low expectations for students and the importance of ensuring that students have access to CORE level content the majority of their learning time - this is how schools make “close the gap” growth rather than perpetuate outcome disparities!
3. Utilizing the Equity Lens training is scheduled with Tobias Sherwood for both the PVS board and for the staff. This important process will help ensure we are all on the same page in our understanding of what we mean by “using an equity lens,” and give us practical tools to help our application of an equity lens in our decision making. 
4. Building Equitable Systems: Moving math from Gatekeeper to Opportunity Gateway - training made possible through a partnership Education Week and Los Angeles Schools. The training description notes: “ For decades, mathematics has been a de facto gatekeeper to future success and upward mobility for Black and Latinx students, and students experiencing poverty. To make math a gateway to opportunity for students of color and low-income scholars, we must examine and elevate experiences that students have in math classrooms.” Practical tools to ameliorate math outcome disparities and improve math equity for social justice will follow. 

• Continued development of our community outreach, weighted lottery and hiring practices to increase diversity of our student and staff population. We are committed to reflecting the community we live in, and are committed to harnessing the power of Charter schools to serve students from across the Portland Metro area as a way of ameliorating de facto segregation that occurs through rigid neighborhood school boundary lines. Charter schools are a mechanism for desegregation!

• Development of our new Strategic Plan. The three pillars of our new strategic plan are aligned with creating: 1) A positive, safe school climate and culture with a collaborative sense of belonging; 2) Increasing racial/cultural diversity, equity, safety, and inclusion within staff members, the board, and the student body; and 3) Providing a Culturally Responsive Waldorf pedagogy. These board directed pillars will provide the compass direction for our school over the next several years. This Spring, the PVS staff will work to determine the action steps necessary to implement these overarching goals. Components of these goals include: a genuine engagement with ALL families, commitment to restorative practices, closing the opportunity and achievement gaps, offering a competitive salary and benefits package to recruit and maintain a culturally diverse staff, and a commitment to growth and development for staff, families and board in DEI and anti-racism. 

• Development of the Families of Color affinity group. The PVS board and administration is committed to implementing this critically important piece of our organizational chart that will provide a direct line of communication from Families of Color to the Executive Director. Look for more information on this group over the next weeks and months. 

• Continued evaluation and collaboration between staff Equity and Waldorf Teaching and Learning committees to move away from a eurocentric, judeo-christian and patriarchal curriculum while expanding on justice, inclusion, multiculturalism, anti-racist and anti-bias teachings. Choosing lesson content that represents an encompassing, diverse and inclusive worldview that brings the perspective of oppressed peoples to the forefront of critical conversations.

• Continued staff discussion, reflection and adaptation of our curriculum to represent all learners, and of our lessons to be inclusive and to highlight systems of injustice and oppression.