Project: Support for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Team

Scope

Region 5 Comprehensive Center (R5CC) will help the DEIB team build their capacity to implement the Kentucky Board of Education's commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in all schools. The work in Year 4 will continue some initiatives begun in Year 3, and will also include new approaches to help the DEIB team more effectively meet the needs of Kentucky students.

High-Leverage Problem

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has established three pillars for their work: a vibrant student experience, innovation (especially related to assessment), and community engagement. The DEIB team has asked R5CC to support them in meeting several goals, to further their work aligned with those pillars. All of the DEIB team's work is aimed at fulfilling their mission, which is to "create and deepen partnerships to remove long-standing barriers to equity by providing supports in developing an equity lens; elevating student and educator voice; and promoting equitable, inclusive and healing learning communities." The four initiatives outlined below each address one of these three pillars and the DEIB mission.

Approach to Capacity-Building Services

R5CC will support the DEIB team with capacity building in four areas: 1) Supporting the expansion of, and support for, the pipeline of underrepresented groups preparing for and taking Advanced Placement (AP exams); 2) Continuing to support the social and emotional learning (SEL) team as they finish developing and begin implementing a comprehensive statewide SEL framework; 3) Developing a learning culture at KDE by continuing and sustaining book studies about DEIB topics; and 4) Providing individualized and team coaching to the DEIB team. Work on these four initiatives will help the DEIB team more effectively implement their mission. For each area, R5CC will base its capacity-building efforts on recent research and best practices.