Interim Dean Tambra Jackson and Professor Annela Teemant at the IUPUI School of Education have been awarded a $498,308 grant from the Indiana Department of Education to provide cultural competency training and support for over 300 schools in Indiana. The work supported by the grant will further the School of Education’s mission to promote equitable, just, culturally relevant and sustaining practices in teaching and learning.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity for the IUPUI School of Education to have statewide impact and assist schools to enact social justice practices that result in positive and equitable outcomes for students,” says Jackson.

The grant is a response to the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a national education law that governs K-12 education policy. ESSA works to ensure states provide all children with equal access to a high-quality education. ESSA does so, in part, by requiring states to hold schools accountable for student outcomes and by identifying schools to receive comprehensive, additional targeted, or targeted support and improvement (CSI, ATS, or TSI respectively) if their students, including historically underserved student groups, struggle to succeed. Under ESSA, a school must develop an improvement plan if that school has a consistently underperforming group of students (e.g., African Americans, students designated as English Learners, students with disabilities, or from low income families, etc). States and districts are responsible for improving the quality and effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other school leaders in increasing student academic achievement.

The two-year grant awarded to the IUPUI School of Education provides TSI schools with four strands of professional learning focused on creating equitable learning environments for all children.

In addition to Jackson and Teemant, the core grant team is comprised of School of Education professors Cristina Santamaria Graff, Cleveland Hayes, Lasana Kazembe, Gina Yoder, and Les Etienne. The team’s cumulative academic, professional, and personal experiences demonstrate a longitudinal understanding of and experience with addressing issues of equity at the school and district levels for culturally, linguistically, economically, and learning diverse student populations.

The Region III EAC The Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP Center)—a project of The Great Lakes Equity Center—is proud to announce that Naperville Community Unit School District 203 (Naperville) has been selected as the 2022 MAP Center Equity Innovator. Naperville will be recognized at the 2022 Equity Leaders Institute, “Fortifying Ourselves and the Work Toward Education Justice: Attending to the Mental Health of Educators and Students.” Naperville will receive a special plaque and present at the Equity Leaders Institute.

Naperville was selected for the 2022 MAP Center Equity Innovator recognition because of the passion and persistence exhibited by school community stakeholders, educators, and administrators in pursuit of educational equity for all students in the district, with particular attention to groups of students who have been historically marginalized. This work and the creation of an extensive district improvement plan was created in collaboration with the MAP Center.

“What a moment of pride! It’s gratifying for the equity learning and work in which our district has engaged to be recognized at this level,” said Ms. Jackie Thornton, Principal of Naperville Central High School.

The 2022 Equity Leaders Institute, hosted by the MAP Center, consists of participants from 13 states whom will engage in two days of dynamic learning around centering equity in definitions and implications of mental health for adults and students in schools. This annual event will be held virtually this year and galvanize 60+ educators from across the country to collaborate in action planning toward equity and mental health school-based supports.

The Great Lakes Equity Center, an educational research and service center located in Indiana University’s School of Education at IUPUI, engages in equity-focused technical assistance and related research with educational and community agencies focused on systemic improvements to serve all learners with particular focus on educational access, participation and outcomes for those who have been historically marginalized. The collection of projects housed at the Great Lakes Equity Center includes one of four Equity Assistance Centers in the U.S., the Midwest & Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP Center). The MAP Center provides three tiers of technical assistance related to race, sex, national origin and religion desegregation to K-12 public education agencies in a 13-state region free of charge.