Vineyard public schools will continue a program aimed at creating a more equitable school system, despite the Trump administration ordering a key partner to stop its federally contracted equity work.
The districtwide assessment, meant to produce policy changes for equal access and more fairness for students and staff, began last February in partnership with the nonprofit Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium (MAEC), which is funded by the federal government.
So far the district has already, with help from MAEC, completed a significant portion of the audit process, including conducting and analyzing surveys of students, staff, and parents, and reviewing policies in every school. The district has also identified four areas to focus on for policy changes.
While much of the work is complete, what policy changes will be made remain to be seen, and adjustments will likely have to be made.
The project, which grew from the district’s desire to examine itself in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, also comes as the Island’s student body has diversified greatly. The percent of students in Island schools who speak a first language other than English has gone up significantly over the past decade.
District Superintendent Richie Smith informed the All-Island School Committee of the funding changes at its meeting on Feb. 20. The consortium’s participation relied upon about $120,000 in federal grants, he explained.
“We received word from the Mid-Altantic Equity Consortium on Feb. 14 … that their federal funding had stopped, and they were instructed by the … U.S. Department of Education to stop all work, terminate all work that was contracted from that federal funding,” he said.
He has also said that the schools remain committed to the project, and will build on progress made already.
“From an overall standpoint from the Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools district as a whole, we found four areas that we want to work within,” he told the committee. “And that is in policy, in our professional development, in our curriculum work, and our staffing.” He also noted that each school has a small team analyzing school-specific data from surveys taken last spring.
“Luckily for us, we have, I think, a firm foundation. It’s almost as if we were trying to climb to the top of the mountain, and we’ve gotten to a great place, like a base camp, where we can set up and continue this work,” he said.
The reason the schools will carry on has to do with the meaning of the word “equity,” he told the committee. “And it’s really in the name of access for our students. People might get hung up on the word ‘equity.’ Equity is a strong word that just means access for everybody,” he said.
Whether the work will advance exactly as planned, however, remains to be seen. MAEC’s partnership came with a Road Map for Equitable Schools, an outline of the entire project up to June 2025 and beyond. By February, according to the map, schools were supposed to begin the last of four steps — adopt districtwide approaches and practices. “There will have to be adjustments,” Smith told The Times when asked whether schools will stick to the road map.
The district has also paused its website tracking the equity audit process. Smith said that the site will be down as the district looks at its next steps.
He also The Times there is still a chance that schools will continue to work with the consortium in some capacity, specifically with Dr. Rita Perez, who had worked with the district throughout the process. “We can try to look at working with Dr. Rita Perez in the future, and we will consider that,” Smith said. “But right now the thing I’m grateful for is [that] the work we’ve been doing in the last year and a half with MAEC really advanced us as a district.”
“Our work with equity, and basically instructing all students and having access for all of our students, is further along than we’ve ever been,” he said.
The All-Island School Committee meeting can be viewed on Martha’s Vineyard Community Television.
Apparently all requests for federal assistance must now not contain the odious words “diversity, equity and inclusion.” The 4-year-olds that are working for the non-elected South African Elon Musk don’t like those words. So let’s devise a vocabulary that will satisfy them, or at least not alert their computers. Sorry that this happened to our public schools. Even here on our remote island, this administration will clamp down.
Rather than blame everything on the admin and Musk, how about you try to understand that though this may have been working g on MV, the waste and fraud within the educational system.of the US has to stop. Tje DOE was formed under Carter in tje 70s and tje US prior to the DOE was @1 in education in the world. Now we are not even in the top 20. And I have seen 1st hand in NJ and FL what some.folks consider to be “Equity”.
The tactic I would take is to approach the DOE and the admin, show them the progress you have made and what the benefits are and ask them.to reconsider. Talk to your state rwp as well.
Ypu cannot continue to go down the same road and blame everything on Trump.and his people. It’s what cost the left the election in tje 1st place. And who does not want to see waste and fraud eliminated.
The current administration is working to eliminate the wasteful and fraudulent spending that started with Obama and continued with Biden. Unfortunately there will be some collateral damage. But in the end, we can only hope the good will outweigh the bad.
DEI are code words for all kinds of things most of us dont want so its good funds are withheld. Equity is a word thrown around everywhere basically meaning ”all sisters get earrings” which is a famous Soviet communist slogan by people who lived under it. That and ”we will pretend to work if you pretend to pay us”
Andy– It’s rare that you make mistakes about English words. But it seems you may be confusing “Equity” with “Equality”. It seems your comment that “all sisters get earrings” would apply to “equality”. Here is the definition– “The term “equity” refers to fairness and justice and is distinguished from equality: Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.” Please correct me if I am am misunderstanding your comment. We all make mistakes– just last week, our president confused the words “transgender” with “transgenic” while giving an important national speech. It’s possible that he didn’t understand the meaning of the word transgenic and what it is useful for, particularly in terms of medical research pertaining to hormonal therapy. Or he could have been just deliberately riling up his supporters by claiming we were making “transgender mice”– if so, it worked. You also say “most” of us don’t want DEI . I’m not so sure about that…I want to live in a society where everyone has a chance to live their life to the fullest potential their creator granted them.
Not confusing at all. I stand by my statement. Everyone in the US has equality of opportunity, they just dont have equality of result. Marxism wants equality of result so you do misunderstand my comment.
Andrew, most of us understand your correct use of communist slogan and its point. The minority who support DEI may be the majority in these pages, but there is good reason why our 3 branches of government are now controlled by “most of us”. There is truth to the observation that some groups don’t have the privilege and access to opportunities as some others and therefore have more obstacles to overcome, but I’ll forego the sound baths and gender studies and agree with you on why DEI is not what’s best. In fact, it’s more damaging than helpful.
How should local schools be funded?
Local real-estate taxes?
If we focused less on diversity equity and inclusion and more on reading writing and arithmetic our schools would be better
Let’s spend the DEI money on bonuses for teachers who excel
Here’s the thing about DEI and liberal-minded approval toward it. When my family members receive deserved acceptances, jobs, or promotions, there’s always been at least one liberal (jealous) friend who never fails to grumble about how “having an Hispanic name didn’t hurt” or that “they need more Hispanics in math departments”. What I’ve come to realize over the years is that liberal-minded folks are all for DEI— until they or theirs have to compete in the open market with someone equally qualified or, yes, better qualified. I hope I am using this word correctly when I say this is hypocrisy.
Looks like our comments are veering back to the same-old rants by the same-old people. That break didn’t help any of us. Don Keller, I so appreciate your comments and clarifications about equality and equity. Jackie, your comments about your “friends” who think Hispanic names get a leg up should realize that’s not true, generally speaking. But those mumblings won’t cease, will they? DEI doesn’t enhance anyone’s place in line. But once this nightmare of Elon algorithms ceases perhaps some sanity can be injected.
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