Rethinking Racial Equity In Education Training

Educators, administrators, and parents of pre-college age children are invited to attend the Rethinking Racial Equity In Education Training in Amherst on January 20 and 21, 2024.

Given local, state and national data on the disproportionality of BIPOC students in discipline reports (DESE: School and District Profiles; Massachusetts Advocates for Children, U.S. Dept of Education), educational institutions and educators need to review current practices and policies and develop new ways of seeing and educating children.  This training addresses how our personal perspectives, cultural practices, and institutional processes, need to be rethought and replaced. Putting racial equity at the center of these changes which will benefit BIPOC and white students.    

During this in-person training, participants will develop a personal awareness and systemic understanding of how racism affects instructional practices, policies, procedures, and social interactions with students and staff, while also gaining insight into how cultural racism can be embedded in our language, perspectives, unwritten policies, and ways of operating.  The training process builds trust and respect to break down barriers to racial equity in education, and strengthens one’s analysis of how racism manifests in schools, classrooms and communities. Attendees will rethink how we teach, interact with others, and understand our jobs, and then develop new approaches and practices and an awareness of how to incorporate these changes into our daily lives.

The founder of the Rethinking Racism Workshops and senior consultant of Equity Consulting Network, Annie Rodriguez, previously worked in the Five Colleges and was a core trainer of the Undoing Racism workshop for over 20 years.  She developed a training that starts with the history of racism, beginning with the European colonization of other countries/cultures, then offers an analysis of racism that acknowledges and identifies the imposition of white culture on other cultural/racial groups as well as the necessity of addressing systemic racism and finally, explores how to create change leading to racial equity.    

Amherst elementary educators taking part in an ethnic studies course will be attend the training and will integrate the concepts and learnings into their self understanding, teaching practices, and development of ethnic studies lessons. Amherst district staff will also be attending the training. Their participation will be sponsored by the Amherst Pelham Education Association (APEA). The APEA is committed to its membership engaging in their own racial identity work, interrupting implicit biases, and actively building anti-racist practices. 

While Amherst Public Schools staff are participating in this training, any educator, administrator or parent is invited to attend.  Those interested in attending this training should contact Ruthie Killough-Hill at rkilloughhill@gmail.com