Glossary

Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

Audit - An official inspection of data and feedback to gather information "below the surface" and assess a situation

CCE - The Center for Collaborative Education, a nonprofit partner that is facilitating this equity root cause analysis and ERT meetings

Disproportionality - The over-representation of a specific group in special education programs or disciplinary outcomes relative to the presence of this group in the overall student population, and/or the under-representation of a specific group in accessing intervention services, resources, programs, rigorous curriculum and instruction relative to the presence of this group in the overall student population. [from MetroCenter]

Equity - The state of "fairness," when every member of a given group has what they need to achieve equal success. Equity may be considered the means of achieving true equality in outcomes.

ERT - Equity Review Team - the group leading this investigation and root cause analysis - comprised of teachers and district leaders, community and nonprofit partners, as well as parents and students.

Forum - A gathering of people in a community that enables people to share their points of view, ideas, questions and concerns

MetroCenter - An initiative of New York University's Steinhardt School - The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools

ME2 - ME Squared, that is, Manchester Equity Education - this project

MSD - Manchester School District

MST - Manchester School of Technology, one of Manchester's four high schools

NMEF - Nellie Mae Education Foundation, a funder and convener for this root cause analysis work

Outcome - A specific result or situation that can be measured at the end

Positionality - Positionality is the place from which you view the world. The concept grew out of reflexive anthropology and sociology in the 1980s, and is a way of describing one’s social position in order to understand power relations and how one’s own subjectivity affects how one interprets and observes experiences. [from MetroCenter]

PSU Holmes Center - Plymouth State University Holmes Center, who is facilitating the participatory community survey and progress monitoring of the Manchester Equity Education Equity Review Team.

Root Cause Analysis - A root cause analysis is a study or series of activities that will prompt stakeholders to understand how disparities, or disproportionalities, come to exist over time. The goal is to unpack why persistent disparities in the access, opportunity, outcomes, and lived experiences of your students exist [adapted from MetroCenter definitions].