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The Journey To Approval!
This blog tells the story of how I came across the topic of diversity and inclusion as my research topic and how I plan on approaching it.
Background
An example of a parent expressing their concerns regarding the equity policy during a DCSD board meeting. This livestream is the September 28, 2021 DCSD Board meeting held in Castle Rock, CO.
Throughout my junior year, I became obsessed with my new favorite show to watch while cramming my different assignments. Surprisingly it was not a new drama by Shonda Rhimes but rather the Douglas County School Board meetings that were live streamed every other Tuesday on YouTube. The sheer joy I received from watching the democratic process and community engagement in front of my eyes truly intrigued me, especially when the time came for public comment.
As a social justice advocate, and one who is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within schools I was ecstatic when I heard that the board was passing a equity policy to ameliorate the concerns of the community. However, hearing the immense backlash to such policies made me question the impact of such policies and prompted me to investigate deeply the correlation of the concerns of my community and the new policy.
The Equity Policy
bc913934-13e7-4442-802f-06a7e38b043e.pdfAs I became more invested in the topic, I began to research the DCSD equity policy and realized that I needed to conduct higher level research in order to discover the relationship between the policies and critical race theory. I sought out various mentors who are apart of my project including Ms. Burnham, Mr. Laudick, and Ms. Pascoe who all serve as individuals who have critically helped with understanding these policies and how I will be deconstructing them.
I have attached the DCSD Educational Equity policy that was published and sparked my interest in the topic. This document was directly received from the Douglas County School District website.
Question Development
Key Search Terms:
“history of critical race theory"
“implementation of critical race theory.”
"educational equality"
"district school board equality"
Sub-questions
``How does the background of a school district affect their standards of equality and their efficiency in the implementation of elements of critical race theory?”
Influential Works
“Diversity, Inclusion and the Law” from Managing Workplace Diversity
The source reveals the background and history that surrounds critical race theory, but further analyzes laws that are related to diversity and inclusion. Through a large legislation review from 1970-2008 the study further analyzes trends and assesses how the impact and influence of critical race theory has influenced legislation.
Critical Race Theory Matters.” from Education and Ideology
This research article has had a large influence in my research as it has provided me with a lot of resources to further analyze my topic and has opened my perspective on the overall topic itself. This research article further analyzed the impact of critical race theory on the overall education system by specifically looking at textbooks that have been published in the United States for the Advanced Placement United States History course since the 1960s.
FINAL RESEARCH QUESTION:
What is the overall correlation between critical race theory and the recent diversity and equity policies/statements established by Colorado school districts?
Methodology:
Correlational Study
Through a critical race theory metric I will be developing with my mentor I will be cross-analyzing equity policies from 8 school districts in the Denver Metro Area after a careful selection that will be done. Once the data sets are created through the comparison with the metric, a statistical test will be performed using chi-square to see if there is a statistically significant relationship between critical race theory and these equity policies
After creating a successful proposal and research pitch video (on my homepage!) I was approved without revisions to begin my research! I have attached my research proposal for your reading pleasure.
I would additionally like to thank my mentors, Mr. Laudick, Ms. Burnham, and Ms. Pascoe for helping me work through the kinks and logistics of my project. Additionally, I would like to thank Ms. Dobos for her continued guidance during this process
Stay tuned for my next blog post where I will document my data collection!
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