Port ed board provides DEI plan update

Committees’ findings include the need to strengthen connections with community partners

BY CAMERYN OAKES

The Port Washington Board of Education reviewed the district’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Action Plan after its first year and the plans as they go into year two during its meeting Tuesday night.

In March 2021, the district partnered with NYU to develop a plan to promote diversity in the school district.

Culturally responsive education is intended to provide a welcoming and affirming environment, high expectations and a rigorous curriculum, ongoing professional learning and support, and inclusive curriculum and assessment, according to the district’s presentation.

The presentation included demographic data about the district.

The Port Washington School District is comprised of 66% white students, 22% Hispanic students, 11% Asian students and 1% black students.

In the presentation, the district shared that its historical data has shown uneven participation in school programs, high school outcomes and suspension rates in secondary schools.

PEP, the district’s gifted student program, is 82% white students and 21% Asian students. This is dispro- portionate to the percentage of both ethnic groups in the district.

The district also found that black students have the lowest graduation rate of 80%, followed by Hispanic students graduating at 86%. White students and Asian students graduate at rates of 98% and 97%, respectively.

To address the issues of equity, the district has presented a five-year strategic plan to support equity work for the district.

Seven committees have been working to execute the goals of the five-year plan, starting with actions such as collecting data, creating and launching parent questionnaires and reviewing the district’s systems of support.

Some things the committees have learned in their pursuits are that the district needs to strengthen connections with community partners to assist with outreach attempts and some faculty and staff are unaware of the extent of resources available to students.

Going into year two, the district will be implementing a new structure in which every school has an equity team that is connected to the district’s equity team, which will all work together to advance equity initiatives.

The board also presented the results of its Panorama Survey, a series of surveys regarding the district’s climate.

Families, students and staff were asked questions regarding the school’s climate, school safety and grit.

The Panorama Survey provides a scale to measure the response rates using percentiles. It categorizes the top two percentile categories, the 60th-79th percentile and the 80th-