Lifting Our Voices
Reimagining Schools for Students of Color Amid COVID-19
We find ourselves at a unique moment in history where we have all undergone a collective trauma from which we are beginning to emerge as a global community, a nation, and a state. Students, parents, teachers, and other members of the educational community have voluntarily quarantined, sheltered-in-place, separated themselves from friends and loved ones. With school closures, children have created new digital worlds for themselves with technology playing the dominant role in their lives for six to ten hours a day with few opportunities for face-to-face interactions. These experiences — if they are dissected, carefully examined, and thoughtfully considered — can serve as guides for how we can better serve our students.
The Lifting Our Voices Field Guides are designed to serve as meaningful professional learning opportunities that allow us to learn from the experiences and reflections of our students, parents, teachers, paraeducators, principals, district staff, and other members of the educational community. With each set of experiences from a specific vantage point, we learn of a unique perspective that tells a different story of precisely how the events of the past year have completely changed millions of lives. By leveraging the "lessons learned," we hope to reimagine a more successful educational experience for every student in California.
The twelve Lifting Our Voices Field Guides can be accessed here.