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Welcome back! I have some very important updates to share with you!
What's New?
Since you have last checked up on my blog post, I was working on my methodology and the creation of the metric that will be used for my research. After going through countless articles and researching the history of critical race theory in K-12 education since the Civil Rights Movement, I was able to create a metric that will be used for my research. Attached on the right side, I have included an example of the table that is used for documenting my research. As a reminder, I will be reading the diversity and equity statements and will be ranking each category from 1-3 (1= strongly present, 2=moderately present, 3=not present). These rankings will then be used to develop the statistical and graphical analysis for my project. It has been super relieving to get this part of my project done that was time intensive.
Figure 1: Here is a snapshot of the metric that is used for my research and will be further used to compare against the school districts and the association with critical race theory.
(Screenshot from my personal Google Drive document from March 3, 2022)
Process, Choices and Changes!
Here is me working hard in my research dojo, Ms. Dobos's room!
Photo Courtesy of Nishi Veer on March 2, 2022
Process!
Process!
The work of getting all my tables is being completed right now and I am wrapping up the work of filling them all in. Reading the diversity and equity statements and policies have been difficult and time-consuming but I am ensuring that my research is being completed.
Right now, the only two school districts that I have left to analyze are Boulder Valley School District and Aurora Public Schools.
Attached is a map of the school districts in Colorado, I will primarily be focusing on the middle part which is the Denver Metro area
Photo Courtesy of Rachel Estabrook from Colorado Public Radio. Accessed on March 4, 2022. (Image 1)
Choices!
Choices!
After looking into more than 178 school districts, I decided to cut down the number I was analyzing to 10 to ensure that it was an adequate number to analyze in the short time frame that we are given. As seen in the image attached above, the 178 school districts are mapped and encompass different areas of the state. Therefore, I focused primarily on school districts near the Denver Metro and surrounding areas. These can be found near the central part of the map near the city of Denver.
The final ten that were selected were:
Douglas County School District
Cherry Creek Schools
Jefferson County School District
Aurora Public School District
Boulder Valley School District
Adams 12 School District
Saint Vrain Valley School District
Weld County School District
Mesa County Valley School District
Littleton Public Schools
These schools were selected due to their size and their demographic makeups that further reflect the state as a whole, therefore conclusions can be applied to the project as a whole.
Here is me holding a sign during the student walkout on Feb 7, 2022 regarding the firing of Corey Wise, a topic related to my research.
Photo Courtesy of Brynn Castro
Changes!
Changes!
Since starting my project, the impact and necessity of my project has become even more amplified. On February 4, 2022, the Douglas County School District School Board in a 4-3 voted to unilaterally terminate the superintendent contract of Corey Wise. One of the critical reasons to their rash decision was due to the recent actions that Wise allegedly took to confound the board on the policy.
As such, I have added these conflicts into my final paper and will be discussed in my final presentation.
Although my involvement and personal opinions may raise concern about bias, my project is not subjective and I have used things in my metric such as including the location of where I found certain parts to score to ensure that my research remains unbiased.
Results and Conclusions (so far!)
Results and Conclusions (so far!)
Results
Some common trends that I am noticing is that school districts seem to score lower (more present) in categories
Multiple Perspectives
Parental Opinion
And are scoring higher (less present) in categories
Acknowledgement of Systemic Racism
Book List
Overall, we are starting to discover that there is not a large linkage between critical race theory and these diversity and equity statements. As my scores are being calculated I am seeing much higher scores and seeing a small linkage between these two elements.
Conclusion
As I am wrapping up my initial data collection the next steps include my analysis and statistical calculations. With this in mind I will need to check in with my statistics mentor and AP Statistics teacher, Ms. Uchyn, who will graciously help me with ensuring that my data analysis is conducted with the correct tests. I will also be using Google Sheets to produce visual graphs and calculate data statistics to analyze my data.
I am also practicing and formulating my final presentation, oral defense and my final paper for the College Board.
I cannot wait to share the rest of my research project once it is fully completed! See you soon :)
Image Citations
Estabrook, Rachel. “178 School Districts in Colorado.” Colorado Public Radio, https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.DychpsYX4sYLk9etrM3uHAHaFu?
pid=ImgDet&rs=1. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022. (Image 1)
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