Promoting Equity in Education

Our Commitment

The Partnership for Public Education stands with communities of color in these difficult and critically important moments in history, and we recognize our responsibility to actively redress inequitable policies and practices and promote work that ensures equitable education opportunities and outcomes for all Delaware students. Since our inception, we have centered equity issues in all of our work, prioritizing initiatives that hold promise to shift structural inequities and positively impact marginalized students and communities. We have funded fellows seeking to build equity-centered partnerships with Delaware schools (see below), developed joint professional learning opportunities with school and district partners, and created resources that promote cultural competence and diversity in the educator workforce. We continue to affirm our commitment to equity in current and future work and believe we can make real change in the world, together.

Resources from UD Scholars

PPE’s briefs on promoting equity literacy and promoting culturally competent teaching and fostering equity literacy

Dr. Deb Bieler’s book, The Power of Teacher Talk promotes positive interactions among teachers and students.

Dr. Ken Shores’ recent work on sources of inequality in multiple educational outcomes.

Dr. Tia Barnes’ research, tools, and professional learning on culturally responsive pedagogy and SEL.

Dr. Roderick Carey’s work on the Black Boys Mattering Project and Finding Future Selves Post-Secondary Curriculum.

Dr. Elizabeth Soslau’s work with critical service learning pedagogy 

Dr. Jill Flynn’s Critical Multicultural Pedagogy and Using Quad Text Sets to Teach for Social Justice and Equity in the ELA Classroom.

For additional references or more information about UD’s leaders in educational equity, email PPE-info@udel.edu.

E4E Equity-based Podcast Episodes:

S4. E7. Health Disparities in Stigmatized Communities: A Look at the Evidence on the Relationship Between Multidimensional Stigma and Health Outcomes and Interventions in the Sexual and Gender Minority Community

S4.E6. Social Emotional Learning in Urban Schools: A Look at the Evidence on Social Emotional Learning Interventions and Culturally Responsive Implementation with Dr. Tia Barnes

S4.E4 Achieving Equity In School Discipline Practices: A Look at the Evidence on the Use of School-wide Positive Behavioral Supports to Reduce Discipline Disproportionality with Dr. Brittany Zakszeski

S4. E2. Slashing the Stigma: A Look at the Evidence on the Relationship Between Stigma and Food Inequalities with Dr. Allison Karpyn and Dr. Valerie Earnshaw

S3.E3. Building Brave Community: Fostering Student and Faculty Learning in Discussions About Race with Dr. Janine de Novais, Dr. Nathalie Princilus, and Monique Martin

S3. E2. Diversity in Teacher Hiring: A Look at the Evidence on Student Body Demographics and the Likelihood of Hiring a Teacher of Color with Dr. Lauren Bailes and Ann Hlabangana-Clay

S2.E2. Literacy, Equity, and Social Justice in the ELA classroom: Developing Adolescent and Equity Literacy Using the Quad Text Set Approach with Dr. Jill Flynn and Dr. William Lewis, Taria Pritchett, and Casey Montigney

S1.E6. Increasing food security: a look at the importance of nutritional equity for students and families with Dr. Allison Karpyn

S1.E5. Identifying sources of disciplinary inequity: a look at the research on school discipline policy and implementation with Dr. Lauren Bailes

S1. E3. The impact of housing insecurity on education for children in the state of Delaware: A look at the evidence on youth housing insecurity with Dr. Ann Aviles

S1.E2. Investing in educational equity: a look at the evidence on school finance reforms with Dr. Kenneth Shores

Funding Equity Focused Work: The PPE Fellows

Ann M. Aviles, an assistant professor in Human Development and Family Studies worked on a project that engages youth in the Riverside community of Wilmington, DE to promote civic engagement via Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) to increase youth’s capacity to be knowledgeable, active participants in their community’s revitalization efforts. 

Katrina Morrison, a Researcher at the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy, partnered with Akoben LLC, in a research-practice partnership around the use of restorative school practices, emphasizing student voice and experience.

Roderick L. Carey is an Assistant Professor in Human Development and Family Sciences. In partnership with Newark High School, Dr. Carey imagines mattering– learning from the experiences of Black and Latino boys and the ways they do or do not infer their mattering in school spaces to develop professional learning experiences for educators.

Dr. Elizabeth Soslau, an associate professor in Education, led the Need in Deed Critical Service Learning Collaborative, working in partnership with Warner Elementary to implement a critical service learning curriculum that facilitated elementary students’ year-long projects, enabling a culturally relevant curriculum that addresses the required standards and positioned children as empowered change agents by connecting classrooms with the community. This work has since expanded to other DE and PA school districts. 

Additional Campus Resources and Contacts

UD centers on equity not only in its research and work with our P-12 partners but also in preparing future educators and leaders.  

Learn more about anti-racism, equity, and teacher education resources from Drs. Jill Flynn, Rosalie Rolon-Dow, Lynn Worden, Kisha Porcher, and others.

Teacher educators as disruptors

The responsibilities of white teacher candidates and teacher educators

Teacher candidates’ racial literacy

Anti-Racism at UD (UDARI)

Discover projects, courses, and campus initiatives associated with pre-service and in-service education through the Delaware Center for Excellence and Equity in Teacher Preparation’s diversity, equity, and inclusion site.