Diversity Focus and West Wind Education Policy announce partnership

It's time for educators to focus on equity.

That's the message Diversity Focus and West Wind Education Policy are teaming up to deliver with their new initiative, the Creative Corridor Center for Equity. The collaboration, announced Tuesday, aims to aid school districts in Eastern Iowa and the Cedar Valley address the issues that come with an increasingly diverse kindergarten-through-grade 12 enrollment.

'We need to serve this population and that's what this whole initiative is coming from,” said Gabe Erickson, Diversity Focus' director of communications and media affairs. 'Diversity Focus would say we're operating pretty well in the 20th century education system and we need to move into that 21st century system. This will help us do that.”

Representatives from the Cedar Rapids-based Diversity Focus and Iowa City-based West Wind Education Policy have a plan, which includes taking lessons and research from successes in Minneapolis, to help school board members do the following three things for their districts:

l Develop a strategic plan with an embedded diversity initiative.

• l Participate in a multi-region Equity Improvement Plan.

• l Develop a sustainable funding model.

• 'We want to retain a diverse population of teachers. We want to retain a diverse population of students,” Erickson said. 'That's what we're all about: promoting diversity and inclusivity. The Center for Equity is saying, ‘We support communities of inclusivity. We're not going to leave people on the margins anymore. We're going to be proactive in welcoming new populations into the community.”

• Starting with the Iowa City Community School District, the center will stress participation in six projects in order to achieve these goals:

• 'Black Educator Recruitment and Retention.

• 'Teacher Leadership and Compensation System.

• 'Diversity beyond Labels for K-12.

• 'The Equity Initiative.

• 'Project Achieve Development System.

• 'Minneapolis/Eastern Iowa Collaborative.

• 'We think that it is a good time to start it because normally the school year starts around now,” said Chad Simmons, Diversity Focus' executive director. 'There have been equity reports in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and the reports talk about certain remedies they'd like to see in place. The people have spoken and our goal is to respond to the words of the people.”

• The Iowa City school board voted 6-0 Tuesday night to direct administrators to work with Diversity Focus. Board member Tuyet Dorau said the initiative could help bring about a positive cultural shift in the district and the community.

• 'I think that's something that has been slowly happening in our community but probably has not been as fully embraced as it ought to be,” she said.

• Chace Ramey, the school district's chief human resources officer, said administrators are excited about the proposal but still need to evaluate how such a partnership will work best.

• Simmons estimated the plans would take between three and five years to implement but the effect would be more permanent.

• 'We want to continue those long term to impact the overall culture in the school district and how we do business,” he said.

• Simmons said that representatives for the center are working with individual school districts to sign on to the initiative and those partnerships will be announced as they solidify. Once aligned, the center will work to garner government and philanthropic funds to support equity efforts.

• 'Ultimately we want to see districts commit to creating a budget that addresses these issues systemically and not just in the short term,” said Circe Stumbo, president of West Wind Education Policy and a member of Diversity Focus' board of directors.

• Iowa City school board member Patti Fields said the district has struggled in recent history to sustain programs funded by grants after that money stops.

• 'All of those things certainly keep me up at night thinking about that,” she said.

• Stumbo said that the project will focus on improving outcomes for students of color while also aiming to boost the climate for all learners.

• 'Ultimately the intention is to create an environment in the school community in which each and every child is successful. With that as the end goal, we want to look at what are the kind of conditions for learning and teaching that lead to that kind of success,” she said. 'Diversity and equity really are a part of a broader vision of what each and every child needs to have access to.”

• The Gazette's Gregg Hennigan contributed to this report.