Organizing your Equity Committee
We believe that two critical factors dictate the success of a school or district Equity Committee:
- The Equity Committee must have real power to effect change and exist independent of other committees. School or district leadership must assign the committee work that is crucial to the improvement of equitable schooling in the building and must adequately fund and support such work. We have outlined what we believe these responsibilities might look like in the last half of this toolkit (see Responsibilities 1-4). Further, the Equity Committee cannot serve as a proxy for the School Governance Committee or School Improvement Committee.
- The Equity Committee must include educators, school leaders, students, family members, and community members. Students should have an equal voice in the priorities and functioning of the committee while also be provided the necessary support to organize and make progress in such a setting. The inherent assets of family and community members should be sought out and taken advantage of in terms of school programming, community resources, and valuable perspectives.
The following section provides practical examples and templates for you to set up an Equity Committee, run effective equity-centered meetings, and develop focused mission statements with equity in mind.