Glossary of Terms

Advisory:  A program in which students and teachers (Advisors) are connected during the school (usually through a regularly scheduled class focused on essential knowledge and skills) to establish community and to ensure personalization, social-emotional mentorship and support, and academic support and success. 

Aggregate Data: Data that is shown in the most summarized form; the results are not broken out or shown separately for different groups of people.

Antiracist: One who is consciously aware of and committed to the continuous work of self-reflection, assessment and transformation of their own beliefs, values and actions towards eliminating instances and patterns of oppression, exclusion and the dehumanization of people of color.

Assessment: The measurement of performance and progress that facilitates ongoing improvement. Assessment differs from evaluation in that assessment is ongoing and focused on what needs to change in order for a circumstance or set of abilities to improve; evaluation is a one-time appraisal aimed at establishing current merit.

Authentic Assessment: Assessments that are reflective of a community’s expectations in a manner that is meaningful to the community and its students. 

Autonomy: Freedom to act in accordance with local and contextual circumstances. Commonly recognized as core areas of autonomy for school operation are curriculum & assessment, budget & purchasing; staffing; schedule & calendar; governance; and facilities.

Clarifying Question: A Question that is for the benefit of the “asker” and are answered through quick and succinct (less than a phrase or two), factual responses.  They are asked to better prepare the “asker” to serve as a critical friend.  As they ask specifics about “who, what, where, when and how” (not “why”,) they are not likely to offer any “food for thought” to the presenter.

Community of Practice - a group of educators, administrators, or other stakeholders who regularly come together to share knowledge, collaborate, and engage in collective learning around a specific area of interest or practice. The focus of a CoP is often on improving teaching practices, student outcomes, or addressing specific challenges such as equity, instructional strategies, or school culture.

Community School: A public school that acts as the hub of its community by engaging community resources to offer a range of on-site programs and services that support the success of students and their families. 

Competency: The ability to work effectively within a given discipline or body of practice. 

Cultural Competency: The ability to read the linguistic and behavioral meanings and contexts of one’s own and others’ cultures, to understand cultural differences so that they do not become barriers to communication, and to help recognize and reverse oppressive patterns of behavior.

Culturally Relevant: Teaching techniques, work styles, curricular materials, and other practices and artifacts that are pertinent to or understood by the people with whom they are being used.

Culturally Responsive Teaching (Pedagogy): a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning. (Ladson-Billings, 1994) 

Culture: symbolic communication; the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.

Cycle of Inquiry: a process in which assessment data is collected, analyzed, and used to drive instruction, providing intervention where necessary. 

DBI (Data-Based Inquiry): Examination of data through a lens of equity to identify and investigate any achievement or opportunity gaps. 

Disaggregated Data: Data that has been broken out to illuminate the performance of different kinds of students; for example, disaggregated data may show how one population (i.e., girls or African Americans, etc.) performs.

Dominant Culture: A culture that can use its economic or political power to impose its values, language, and ways of behaving on a subordinate culture or cultures.

EC PLC: Equity Centered Professional Learning Community (see iGroup.)

EQ (Essential Question): an open-ended question that guides a larger inquiry, may have multiple answers, and gets to the heart of a matter.  These questions tend to be about subject area of importance to an individual (which sometimes may also be about the individual.)

Equity: The work of eliminating oppression, ending biases, and ensuring equally high outcomes for all participants through the creation of multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial practices and conditions; removing the predictability of success or failure that currently correlates with any social or cultural factor.  See SF-CESS’ Working Definition for “Educational Equity.”

Equity Audit - a data-driven assessment designed to identify inequities in various aspects of a school's structure, policies, programs, and practices. The audit typically examines factors such as access to educational resources, student outcomes, curriculum content, staff diversity, discipline policies, and the school culture to determine whether all students, regardless of their backgrounds, are being equitably served.  The audit helps schools understand where gaps in equity exist and provides data that can be used to inform decisions aimed at creating a more just and inclusive educational environment. After the audit, schools often develop action plans to address the identified inequities and improve outcomes for all students.

Equity Walk - a practice where school leaders, educators, or external reviewers systematically observe and assess various aspects of the school's environment, policies, and practices to ensure they are equitable and inclusive for all students. During an equity walk, observers may look for disparities in resources, opportunities, and support systems available to different student groups (e.g., based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, disabilities). The goal is to identify areas where inequities exist and develop strategies to create a more inclusive, fair, and supportive learning environment for all students. 

Ethnicity: Belonging, allegiance, or association to a social group that has a common but distinctive national or cultural traditions (arts, beliefs, cuisine, language, religion, etc.). 

Evaluation: Measurement of performance and progress aimed at making a static statement of condition. Evaluation differs from assessment in that assessment is ongoing and focused on what needs to change for a circumstance or set of abilities to improve; evaluation is a one-time appraisal aimed at establishing current merit in order to make a strategic decision. (Note: both assessment and evaluation are useful but are to different ends.)

Exhibition: a public event at which students must demonstrate mastery of determined outcomes and indicators. 

Gatekeeper: A body of skills or a curricular area in which high performance allows broad access to further opportunities, and in which low performance bars access to a range of future options. Literacy and numeracy are common gatekeeper skills; algebra is often noted as a key gatekeeper class in early high school that fixes students into tracks of opportunity.

Identity: Self-named attributes or characteristics of central importance. These attributes may be physiological (e.g., race or gender), cultural (e.g., language or nation of origin), or social (e.g., sexual identity, occupational goals, or shared activity).

Indicators: The means by which outcomes are coached, taught, assessed, and demonstrated in all the classes.

Inquiry/ Inquiry Learning: The act of curiosity and investigation in which one locates, gathers, analyzes, critiques, and applies information in a wide range of contexts as she develops understanding.

Key Driver Diagram - a visual tool used to map out the essential factors (or "drivers") that influence a desired outcome or goal, particularly within improvement or change initiatives. It helps identify the primary drivers of change and the specific actions or strategies that can be implemented to achieve the goal. This tool is used in continuous improvement processes in education to create a clear, focused plan for addressing complex issues like student achievement, equity, or school climate. The diagram visually organizes these components to show how they are interconnected and guide the school's strategic efforts in addressing the root causes of the issue at hand. This approach helps ensure that all efforts are aligned and focused on the key elements necessary for achieving the desired change.

Nationality: The status of belonging to a particular nation by origin, birth, or naturalization.

Norms (vs. Agreements): Explicitly or implicitly established patterns, rules, or standards of behavior.  Unlike agreements, norms exist whether or not discussed.  Agreements are a set of rules or standards of behavior that learning or working communities encourage; over time, agreements may become norms.

Numeracy: The skills and practices associated with manipulating numbers. This includes analytical skills of arithmetic, but also confidence with numbers and patterns, the ability to contextualize and predict, the ability to visualize combinations and manipulation of shapes and objects, and the ability to identify appropriate arithmetic or mathematical skills for a particular real-world application.

Oppression: The use of power to maintain power; the systematic mistreatment of a group of people by society and/or by another group of people, with the mistreatment encouraged or enforced by society and its culture. Specifically, oppression includes the use of power to reinforce male, white, upper class, adult, or other privilege. Oppression differs from prejudice in that prejudice is an individual expression of bias, whereas oppression is bias that is linked to and maintained by powerful political, economic, and social structures.

Internalized Oppression: The acting out of oppression on oneself. People believe the messages they receive and because of the oppression, act harmfully toward themselves. 

Transferred Oppression: Prejudicial actions toward someone in one’s own group (or in the case of racism) a person of color in another ethnic group.

Outcomes: The knowledge and skills that students should learn by a determined period.  The knowledge and skills should be coached, taught, and assessed by the staff, and demonstrated by the students.

Pedagogy: The techniques, practices, or profession of teaching.

Peer Coaching: A confidential process through which two or more professional colleagues work together to reflect on current practices; expand, refine, and build new skills; share ideas; teach one another; conduct classroom research; or solve problems in the workplace.  (Robbins, 1991)

Peer Observation: A strategy in which pairs (or small groups) of teachers– in service of each other - observe each other in the classroom and provide constructive feedback intended primarily to increase the learning of the person doing the observing.

Percentile: a number from 1-99 which indicates the percentage of students scoring at or below than a test score in question; percentile scores compare a student in question with other students in the “norming population.”  It is important to know the norming population’s demographics to understand the meaning of the percentile numbers.  Differences in percentile points are not equal throughout the scale (i.e., the difference between 45th and 50th percentile is not the same as the difference between 5th & 10th percentile) so percentiles cannot be averaged, summed, or combined in any way.

Portfolio: A collection of documents (evidence) that demonstrate knowledge and skill as well as growth over time.

Power: Political or social authority, capacity, or control, which is given, delegated, or assumed, to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.

Privilege: An advantage, benefit, immunity or right granted or available only to one person or group of people.

Qualitative Data: data generally of a descriptive nature, qualitative data usually is difficult to quantify.  Methods to collect include observations, case studies, ethnography, student work samples, open-question surveys, interviewing, focus groups, etc. 

Quantitative Data: generally numerical data, quantitative data includes standardized test scores, multiple choice surveys, student demographics, grades, etc.

Race: A manmade classification of human beings based on (supposed) physical or genetic traits shared by each group (i.e., hair type, skin tone, stature).  

Most biologists & anthropologists do not recognize race as a biologically valid classification, in part because there is more genetic variation within groups than between them.

Racism: The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to other races, and the resultant prejudice, discrimination or antagonism of those with real or perceived power directed against someone of a different race to gain or maintain power.  

Raw Score: A raw score is the number of questions scored correctly on a test.

Resources: A broad category of things that people and organizations need to be effective. These may include time, money, technology, political alliances, and other material and social assets. 

Responsive: Actions that attempt to fully meet the needs of oneself and others, or to avoid problems before they emerge.

Rubric: Tool of assessment that communicates the appropriate level of achievement needed for each grade point (A, B, C or 4,3,2,1 etc.).

Scaled Score: A raw score converted to a score that gives more weight to hard questions and less weight to easier questions is a scaled score.

Schema: A model, pattern or structured framework imposed on complex reality or experience to assist in explaining it, mediate perception, or guide response.

School Community: All persons who participate in or benefit from the school’s presence and operation. This includes students, teachers, staff, administrators, parents and other family members, and the residents and businesspeople of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Shared Decision Making: A style of leadership that affords empowerment and ownership to a team that can make a difference.

Standards: A set of criteria and examples against which performance is compared for purposes of assessment or evaluation. Because standards describe acceptable achievement, they can be limited to acquisition of content knowledge or broadened to include changed behaviors and attitudes, such as are outlined in the habits of heart, mind, and work.

Theory of Action (or Change): An explicit articulation of the assumptions of how results or change are expected occur given a particular context and in relation to particular actions.

Transformation: Change or elimination of oppressive structures and behaviors in order to create new, empowered and equitable relationships and outcomes.