The Equity, Disproportionality & Design Project: Understanding What We Do and How We Connect With Others
Photo by Omar Flores on Unsplash
When we at the Equity, Disproportionality and Design (ED&D) project work with SELPAs and school districts, we lead with empathy and relationship building. That’s because we know that an environment of safety and trust is required before we can do anything creative together for our students.
But once relationships are developed, the SELPAs and school districts we serve eventually ask the question “What is it that you do exactly?” One way to answer that question is to talk about the services we provide, which I'll do at the end of this post. I'll also go into more detail about this in a future post. In the meantime, you can learn more about our services in this talk I gave at the CodeStack 2020 Conference.
In this post, we’ll focus on a different set of questions: What is the ED&D project? Is it a SELPA? An agency? Or something else? We’ll also explain where our project is situated in the larger California System of Support (more on what that is later), how we’re connected to other content experts in the state, and how we collaborate with SELPAs and school districts.
What’s a SELPA?
First, let’s talk about what ED&D is as an entity. Our project is funded by a grant from the California Department of Education that was awarded to the South County SELPA to help prevent disproportionality in schools1. So ED&D is part of the South County SELPA, but not a SELPA in and of itself.
To understand how all the different support entities fit together across the state, it helps to define what a SELPA is2. SELPA stands for Special Education Local Plan Area. They’re agencies that support district special education programs in their region. There are over 130 SELPAs in the state of California. Some SELPAs support multiple school districts and other SELPAs support one large district.
California System of Support
Conceptually, school districts, SELPAs and county offices of education are nested within larger areas of support. You can imagine each layer like this:
- School sites are at the center
- Many school sites are grouped together in districts
- Groups of districts are supported by county offices of education
- The special education programs are supported by SELPAs, again in groups of districts
- Some county offices of education and some SELPAs were awarded grants to support school districts all over California
The county offices and SELPAs in this last bullet participate in a network called the California System of Support.
This brings us back to ED&D. ED&D is a project of the South County SELPA. The South County SELPA is one of seven SELPAs that participate in the California System of Support.
Our Network Becomes Your Network
The details of the structure are abstract, so when we work with SELPAs and districts we present ourselves as another support team helping them promote equity for students. But I wanted to write about how the structure works because it shows how ED&D is positioned to network with many parts of the school system in California3. Indeed the secret sauce to ED&D’s work is working with others, especially folks outside our team. Here’s why:
The first level of learning happens in our individual contributions. I learn as much as I can about ways SELPAs can use data as part of their equity work. My teammates Marcus Jackson and Olivia Rivera, who lead our schoolwide intervention training efforts, learn as much as they can about using the Multi-Tiered System of Supports and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports to prevent disproportionality.
To me, it starts to get interesting at the next level of learning, which is what we learn from each other. This level is where we ask questions like “What happens when we apply the principles of our data literacy training to how we discuss MTSS?” or “What happens when we use MTSS to find meaning in our disproportionality data analysis?” At this level, learning happens from a mix of personal and professional styles. When our team collaborates with each other, we’re asking the question, “What lessons can we learn from each other about the most creative ways to prevent disproportionality in our schools?”
The third level of learning is perhaps the most exciting. This is learning that happens when different teams mingle through networking and collaborative projects. At this level, we’re asking questions that draw on the California System of Support’s collective knowledge.
This is a powerful way to learn when you consider the potential innovations made possible by the mixing of different methodologies within the California System of Support4, 5. For example, consider questions that have helped us grow as a team so far: How can ED&D improve their design process by learning about improvement science from the Systems Improvement Leads? Or how can ED&D improve the execution of our deliverables by learning how Marin County SELPA applies the principles of implementation science?
ED&D In Action
So far we’ve explored entities in the California System of Support. We also explored why our participation in the network helps us give the best services to SELPAs and districts that we can. Finally, let’s describe what our mission to prevent disproportionality in schools looks like in action. We have two main points of contact: SELPAs and other members of the California System of Support.
When we work with SELPAs, we focus our collaboration and learning on raising awareness about disproportionality and taking action to prevent it. We’ve helped SELPAs do community research to learn how they can meaningfully build awareness about disproportionality. We’ve helped SELPAs understand disproportionality metrics. And we’ve helped SELPAs clarify ethical guidelines for using disproportionality data as a tool for their equity work.
We also collaborate with members of the network. Sometimes, we help California System of Support members plan their disproportionality prevention strategy. We did this with the Shasta SELPA when we collaborated on a messaging plan for the equity work they’re doing. Other times, we help members of the California System of Support serve school districts. We did this with Imperial County SELPA when we collaborated on a training series for South Bay Union School District about serving English Learners who are also students with disabilities.
Here are other examples. Can you start to see how districts, SELPAs and county offices connect and learn together?
ED&D collaborated with Shasta SELPA to design and test a podcast that shares stories about equity interventions happening in local schools
ED&D collaborated with the Systems Improvement Leads to design a measurement system for Shasta SELPA’s podcast project
Supporting Inclusive Practices (a member of the California System of Support) connected ED&D with the San Mateo-Foster School District and their county office of education to explore collaboration opportunities
ED&D is providing professional development to SELPA and district multi-disciplinary teams on using a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to reduce disproportionality
I hope that helps explain who we are, how we fit into California’s support network, and how we can collaborate with you to prevent disproportionality in schools. To set up a time to explore working together, contact Wilma Johnson or find us on Twitter.
Notes
This study is a good example of how disproportionality is identified and measured: Ahrem et al. “Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education: Case Studies of Suburban School Districts.” Teachers College Record, October, 2011, pp. 2233–2266. We’ve also been reading Dr. Fergus’s book that we received as part of the System Improvement Lead’s training event with Dr. Fergus: Fergus, Edward. Solving Disproportionality and Achieving Equity: A Leader’s Guide to Using Data to Change Hearts and Minds, Corwin, 2017.
More on SELPAs: “What Is a SELPA?” SELPA Administrators of California, https://selpa.info/public/what-is-a-selpa; “California’s Special Education Local Plan Areas.” SELPA Administrators of California, https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/selpa_brochure_jan2019.pdf
The idea of leveled networks came from Douglas Engelbart, a computer engineer who worked on a networking project in 1968. Bryk et al tell this story in their book Bryk et al. Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better. Harvard Education Press, 2017.
I recently read David Epstein’s Range, which got me thinking about what kind of solutions we can discover by thinking broadly across our network. In Range, Epstein reviews stories and research about the relationship between interdisciplinary knowledge, broad interests, and breakthrough findings. Epstein, David. Range: Why Generalists Triumph In a Specialized World. Riverhead Books, 2019.
You’ll find a range of methods used by SELPA content leads to develop services for other SELPAs, including implementation science, improvement science, and design thinking. True to the idea of applying concepts broadly, these are approaches used in other fields, like healthcare, manufacturing, and technology. Bauer et al. “An Introduction to Implementation Science for the Non-Specialist.” BMC Psychology, 2015, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4573926/; Brown, Tim. Change by Design, Revised and Updated: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. Harper Business, 2019; Bryk et al. Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better. Harvard Education Press, 2017; “Design Thinking for Educators.” Ideo, Jan. 2013, https://www.ideo.com/post/design-thinking-for-educators