AF Equity and Diversity

Purpose

Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is a culturally and linguistically responsive, diverse community committed to educational equity for all students. APS provides various levels of support and assistance to students, families, and schools that are appropriate to specific needs. APS students deserve respectful learning environments in which their diversity in all areas of disaggregation is valued and contributes to successful academic outcomes through equitable decisions by the district.

This policy recognizes the institutional issues related to inequitable actions that result in predictably lower academic achievement for students who experience such actions. Understanding and addressing institutional inequity will increase achievement, including on-time graduation, for all students while narrowing the gap between the highest and lowest-performing students.

APS acknowledges that complex societal and historical factors contribute to inequities within a school district. APS must provide all students with the resources, support, and opportunity to succeed.

Eliminate Systemic Disparities

To interrupt systems that perpetuate inequities, the superintendent shall:

Invite and include people from all disaggregated areas of potential inequity (e.g., races, ethnicities, gender, gender identity, economic) to examine issues and find adaptive solutions, which address the root causes and systems, rather than technical solutions that provide one-time situational fixes

Develop the personal, professional, and organizational skills and knowledge of its employees to enable them to learn, understand and address the role and presence of inequity

Eliminate practices that result in lower academic achievement for any student group compared to peers

Ensure Systemic Equity

The districts shall implement and lead from a system-wide equity plan that focuses on family, student, and community engagement, leadership for learning, and academic outcomes with four core values: culturally responsive curriculum and training; equity-centered focus; asset-based approach; and intersectionality (understanding how social and political identities {e.g.: gender, sex, race, disability} may lead to discrimination and privilege).

The district shall ensure and promote equitable access to high quality culturally responsive instruction for all students, aligned instructional and assessment practices in general and special education, bilingualism, and biliteracy, and opportunities for all students to develop critical racial, ethnic and cultural competencies.

Family, Student and Community Engagement

APS employees will develop and implement equitable practices for and with students, families and other community members including:

Intentionally seeking and including students’ multiple perspectives in the development and implementation of equitably responsive (e.g., racially and culturally responsive) teaching and learning practices and curriculum

Engaging family and community members with staff and students, district-wide and at school and program sites, in the development and implementation of appropriate and effective partnerships between home and school; and inviting and including community members to bring multiple perspectives to examining and solving issues of equity

Leadership for Learning

APS leaders will ensure that equity guides employees’ actions and leads to improved academic results by:

Recruiting, employing, supporting, retaining and continuously developing a workforce of competent administrative, instructional and support personnel who understand the challenges of inequity – particularly as related to all protected groups of students

Modeling equity in business practices; replacing inequitable operational practices with systems that support implementation of this policy and focusing accountability systems and metrics on equitable results

Academic Outcomes

APS employees shall work together to increase their individual and collective capacity to effectively teach an equitably diverse and changing student population by:

Ensuring a positive and academically rigorous school environment that engages ALL students
Collaborating as teachers and administrators to create and implement equitable instructional practices, curriculum and assessments
Eliminating practices that lead to the over or under representation of any student group compared to peers

Implementation and Monitoring

The Board of Education directs the superintendent to develop and implement a system-wide equity procedural directive from this policy with clear accountability and metrics that will result in measureable academic improvements for APS students. The superintendent shall regularly report progress on the plan and outcomes.

Board of Education Position: Board President

Administrative Position:

Superintendent
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Operations Officer
Chief of Human Resources & Legal Support Services
Associate Superintendent of Equity, Innovation, Instruction and Support
Chief Information and Strategy Officer
Associate Superintendents for Learning Zones 1, 2, 3 and 4
Associate Superintendent of Special Education

Department Director:

Executive Director of Budget and Finance
Senior Director of Equity & Engagement
Director of Strategic Analysis and Program Research
Support Principals

References:
Legal Ref:

Hispanic Education Act Section 22-23B-2 NMSA 1978
Indian Education Act Section 22-23A-10NMSA 1778
Section 22-2C-5 NMSA 1978
Section 22-8-18 NMSA 1978
Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico (2018)

Board Policy Cross Ref:

Procedural Directive Cross Ref:

Equity and Diversity

NSBA/NEPN Classification: AC, ACB, JB
Introduced: October 7, 2020
Reviewed: October 7, 2020
Adopted: October 7, 2020

This page was last updated on: October 14, 2020.