Diversity, inclusion, equity survey released

REDDING — Months after sending out a controversial diversity, equity and inclusion survey, the EastonRedding-Region 9 district task force gathered few responses with mixed results.

While the 60 students who responded said they felt safe and respected most of the time, responses also suggested there were few opportunities to discuss diversity, and some students didn’t feel represented in the curriculum or among the staff teaching them.

The DEI survey, created by the Easton-ReddingRegion 9 Joint Boards of Education Task Force on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, aimed to help the schools better understand how safe, represented and included students feel on campus and in classrooms. The survey’s premise was sparked by a petition that was signed by over 500 Joel Barlow High School students who had asked for a task force to help the school “address systemic racism.”

The presentation at a task force meeting last month included results from two surveys — one on diversity, equity and inclusion, and an annual school climate survey which has been sent out for about a decade.

The DEI survey was designed for middle and high schoolers on an “opt-in” basis, meaning their parents had to sign off before they were sent the survey. The survey was also open to parents. The climate survey was for all students, staff, and parents.

“I think that the respondents, while there weren’t very many, shared some experiences about their specific situation that will be helpful to us,” said Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Pierson Ugol of the DEI survey.

But even with a low survey response, she said this survey’s results were worth consideration, especially if any respondents reported feeling unsafe or uncomfortable.

“It really doesn’t matter how many people say that, we need to be looking at that situation carefully,” she said.

Task Force Chairwoman Heather Whaley said that the group is still waiting for further analysis, which is expected in early December.

Kevin Glass, of EdAdvance, an educational nonprofit, presented the findings.

Glass has more than 20 years of educational research experience. He works with more than two dozen school districts to survey school climate.

DEI survey findings

Responses were collected through SurveyMonkey with 20 middle school respondents, 40 high school respondents, and 284 parent responses.

Because of the low response rate, Glass pointed out that the results could not be considered statistically significant.

“We can, however, look at those surveys and draw out some underlying themes at least for those folks who responded in the surveys,” Glass told the task force. “We’re looking for larger themes and then individual students who felt, addressed, or aggreived in a particular way based upon the questions that were asked within that survey.”

He added that when looking at the findings, especially student ones, “we know that there is enough there for there to be actionable items around.”

In the student survey, the major findings were that middle and high schoolers felt safe and respected, and supported by friends and teachers above 90 percent of the time.

Glass said that responses that included “being teased, being isolated, being bullied” primarily revolved around school events, rather than the classroom.

The survey also identified that students had few opportunities to discuss race, gender and sexual preference in classes, and multiple students did not feel represented in the curriculum, or by the faculty and staff instructing them.

Compared to demographically similar districts, Easton-Redding-Region 9 scored lower in this area than what would be expected, Glass said.

Many middle school survey respondents said they felt that “incidences of mistreatment and bullying around gender and sexual orientation are increasing,” at a rate that was higher than expected, according to the presentation. Glass caveated that bullying is always perceived to be higher at the middle school level than at the high school level.

When it came to parents, 90 percent felt the school promotes academic success, but a low percentage felt that the schools encouraged students to share differences. Less than half felt they had guidance on talking to their children about DEI issues.

Glass said parent respondents fell into three distinct groups. Those who felt the school needed to do more in this area, those who didn’t think anything needed to change, and those who felt the schools were doing too much.

Superintendent Jason McKinnon asked Glass if that division among parents was something Glass has seen in other places.

“You always get some kind of stratification around the views of the parents on a particular topic, especially with something around DEI. In the last 10 to 12 years it’s become more pronounced,” Glass responded.

“This is kind of, to me, fascinating how it sort of dove tailed with the kind of conversations that we’ve had over the course of the past 18 months,” said Whaley.

Moving forward

With results in hand, the district will look for ways to move forward, according to Pierson Ugol. This could include new teacher trainings, clubs and leadership groups, and cultivating an atmosphere where kids learn to be “upstanders” instead of bystanders.