Equity Framework
Introduction
The 2022-27 Sun Prairie Area School District Strategic Framework strategically enacts the School Board’s Equity Statement by specifically stating our commitment to “Equity and Excellence Through Continuous Improvement.” The SPASD Equity Framework details and informs our systemic approach around equity work for all students. We will continue to use Our Equity Framework to guide how we apply strategies in a systematic manner across our departments and schools to authentic equity transformation. The Equity Framework informs the District Scorecard from which fixed strategies cascade to department and site scorecards that include the systemic action steps for equity.
The Framework
Equity Evaluation
Our Commitment to Continuous Improvement
For the last seven years, the SPASD Strategic Plan has guided our commitment to continuous improvement through the following Foundational Thread: A Culture of Continuous Improvement: Use evidence-based quantitative and qualitative methods to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of service delivery processes in classrooms, schools and the district toward the pursuit of better service and outcomes for all students. During the 2021-2022 school year, the SPASD refreshed our strategic plan in collaboration with our community, and our commitment to continuous improvement has evolved with a more significant focus on equity: Our Commitment to Equity and Excellence through Continuous Improvement.
In the spring of 2020, the SPASD endeavored to get feedback as aligned to our commitment to continuous improvement. The following evaluation is an important input to our strategic efforts to continuously improve. Its purpose is to purposefully and productively inform our work; however, the evaluation in no way or form should be “weaponized” or utilized in a way to target, disparage, or attack any staff, students, and/or parents. Any efforts to mischaracterize the purpose of this evaluation will be redirected to purposeful and solution-oriented work on behalf of our institutionally marginalized students and families.
Disproportionality
This evaluation, unfortunately, cites a fact that this school district, this state, and this nation are severely struggling to comprehensively address: There is clear and predictable disproportionality between our students of color and other historically marginalized populations, and our white students and students who are not living in poverty.
Sadly, the disproportionality cited in this evaluation reflects the exact disproportionality trends in other school districts across this state and across this nation.
However, what is different in the Sun Prairie Area School District is our comprehensive and systemic approach to interrupting obstacles for students to reach their full potential. The way we make progress toward our commitment to racial equity is through collaborative, solution-oriented work toward dismantling racial inequities in our policies and practices, behaviors, and actions.
The Evaluation
The report (below) is a 139-page document. It includes 4 Cornerstones, 14 Steps, and 31 Essential Next Steps. This evaluation is an examination of our practices as assessed against the Integrated Comprehensive Systems for Equity (ICS) Framework. The Cornerstones cited in this evaluation are the same Cornerstones embedded within the ICS Framework. We transparently acknowledge that the ICS Framework has both similarities and differences with the district-adopted framework, which is the Pacific Educational Group’s Framework for Systemic Equity Transformation.
The purpose of the following chart is to condense the complexity of the report into a more accessible resource and to provide specific information on how this evaluation is aligned to and informing current and future equity strategy for the Sun Prairie Area School District.
If you have any questions about the evaluation or about SPASD's comprehensive approach to equity through our Equity Framework, please contact:
Michael Morgan, Director of Systemic Equity and Inclusion
Email
608.834.6599