Innovations 2012Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Launching a college-wide conversation about narrowing

the achievement gap

Lisa Orta, Staff Development Coordinator

Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, CA

GOAL 1: STUDENT LEARNING AND SUCCESS: Significantly improve the success of our diverse student body in pursuit of their educational and career goals, with special emphasis on closing the student achievement gap.

OBJECTIVE: 1.1 Increase the percentage of students who transfer to a variety of four-year institutions while narrowing the transfer gap across subgroups.

GOAL 2: COLLEGE AWARENESS AND ACCESS: Increase awareness of and equitable access to the Contra Costa Community College District for a changing and diverse population.

OBJECTIVE: 2.2 Improve the participation and success rate gaps of racially and ethnically underrepresented students and of economically disadvantaged students.

Contra Costa Community College DistrictStrategic Plan 2011-2015

Whistling Vivaldi Project

Goals and Objectives of the Project:

Read Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us in common

Video conference with author Dr. Claude Steele Maintained a web page that listed college and community

events and resources (used for both instructional and extracurricular purposes)

Staged college-wide events (lectures, round tables, films, videos, speakers)

Devoted Spring 11 Optional Flex day (non instructional improvement day) to discussions related to narrowing the achievement gap

Summary of the Project:Phase 12010-2011

The objects of a stereotype can find their performance greatly affected by simply being reminded that the stereotype exists. Researchers gave a math test to a group of Asian female students. Before the test, the women filled out one of three types of questionnaires. One asked about their gender, one about their ethnicity, and one asked about neither. Those who were reminded they were Asian did the best on the math test. Those reminded they were female did the worst.

Another researcher found that when black adults were given tests four times in 2008, on two of those occasions their scores were much higher than the other two. What made the difference? Barack Obama. When the test was given right after his speech accepting the Democratic nomination, or just after his election, the scores of black test-takers were statistically equal to the scores of whites. On the other occasions, the whites scored higher.

Rosenberg, Tina. "Beyond SATs, Finding Success in Numbers." New York Times. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.

Keynote presentation by Dr. Shawn Ginwright, author of Black Youth Rising: Activism & Radical Healing in Urban America

Devoted Spring 12 Optional Flex day (non instructional improvement day) to subject matter break-out groups focused on retention intervention strategies

Facilitated inquiry groups focused on retention intervention strategies

Shared the Project at Innovations 2012 (event for professionals dedicated to improving organizational teaching and learning, and discovering new approaches for enhancing the community college experience)

Supported repositioning of mentoring and tutoring efforts

Summary of the Project:Phase 22011-2012

Integrated the topics of stereotype threat and narrowing the achievement gap into institutional activities (including student life Brown Bags)

Provided support for other college initiatives (College Success Inquiry group, Student Equity Committee, Foundations for College Success)

Dedicated ½ of professional development conference/travel funding for faculty to activities that directly addressed narrowing the achievement gap

Participated in district-wide initiative to address narrowing the achievement gap

Integration into the college community

o Cultural competence = an awareness of various ideas of diversity and how they might shape a person’s experience and interactions within a community

o Being in the minority creates additional challenges and experiences in comparison to those experienced by the students in the majority

Flex Activity (faculty, staff & managers)Brown Bag Lecture (students)

Cultural Competency

Britt Andreatta, Ph.D.Antioch University, Santa Barbara

University of California, Santa Barbara

Navigating the Research University: A Guide for First-Year Students

(3rd edition)

Understanding diversity is important to every college student

Definitions

Let’s all get on the same page – define these terms in small groups

Definitions

Let’s all get on the same page – glossary of terms

•Diversity = understanding and appreciating the differences among, between and within various groups (e.g. race, class, gender, religion…)

•Primary dimensions = the things that we are born with or cannot easily change about our physical being (gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities/qualities)

•Secondary dimensions = elements that still significantly shape who we are but that there is some degree of choice or ability to change (geographical location, education, economic status, religious beliefs/spirituality, political ideology, work experience, language/dialect, personality)

•All of these factors interact in unique ways to create the identity of any one individual

Dimensions of Identity

Crossing The Line Identify identity contingencies Make obvious the societal issues that bond us

and separate us One side of the room will represent groups

who are disadvantaged or targeted in society based on that identity.

The other side represents the group who has privilege or advantage around that identity.

Crossing the line

Exploring identity contingencies

If you identify as a woman move to the target side of the room

If you identify as a man move to the target side of the room

If you grew up in poverty, the lower class, or the working class

move to the target side of the room

If you have a physical, emotional, mental, or learning disability

move to the target side of the room

If your parents or grandparents are from a country other than the United States (i.e. immigrants)

move to the target side of the room

If you identify as a person of color or an ethnic minority

move to the target side of the room

If you identify as Hispanic or of Chicano or Latino heritage

move to the target side of the room

If you are Asian, Asian American or Pacific Islander, or have Asian or Pacific Islander heritage

move to the target side of the room

If you are Black, African American or have African

heritagemove to the target side of the room

If you are American Indian or Native American, or of American Indian or Native American Heritage

move to the target side of the room

What is one word that captures how you are feeling right now?

Debrief

Small group discussion

•How did it feel when while on the target side of the room the statistics read reflected your personal experience?

• How did it feel when while on the target side of the room a statistic was read but it did not reflect your own personal experience?

• How can what you experienced here help you be an ally at DVC?

Building Community•Requires people not only embrace that which they do share, but also to become informed about, and sensitive to, those things that are not shared

•The primary focus of getting an education is about learning those things that you did not previously know – in other words, becoming open-minded in the fullest sense of the word

•Building community is an active process that requires everyone to be open to learning in order to better the experience for all