I love words. When I graduated high school, one of my most treasured gifts was a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. I studied words and the way we use them to communicate big ideas with each other. I look up words all the time. We’ve even explored words here together in the past — specifically those familiar words we struggle to define but know them when we see them. Words like:
- Framework
- Fidelity
- Motivation
- Behaviors like “defiance” and “disrespect”
Today, we continue our quest to define the word “equity.” The National Equity Project says “educational equity means that every child receives what they need to develop to their full academic and social potential.”
Perfect.
Except. Well...
In that definition, what do they mean by “what they need”? In a quest for clarity, sometimes even the definition requires a definition.
Equity vs Equality
We need to take a quick side quest over to a word that sounds the same as equity but carries a different definition: equality. Equality is “the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.” The difference between equality and equity boils down to the difference between what’s equal and what’s fair.
Maybe you’re familiar with this cartoon:
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Angus Maguire created this version of Craig Froehle’s original art describing the difference between equal opportunities and equal outcomes. The left image shows us an example of equality. Everyone gets the same support regardless of their need. The right image is an example of equity. Rather than giving everyone the same support, we distribute the three boxes equitably based on what each person needs and now everyone can see the game!
Make certain the request for more support is truly based on student need rather than simply an outcome of inequities within your Tier 1 systems and practices.
Basically, we all have different needs! The support that works for most sometimes isn’t enough for every student to achieve their full social and academic potential. Sometimes we need to offer something different. If you implement a multi-tiered system of support like PBIS, maybe you know where we’re headed next…
A Triangle Full of Support
There are two visual models to describe the PBIS framework. The Circles represent the essential elements of PBIS. The Triangle represents the tiered nature of the supports you provide.
There are three tiers in our triangle.
- Tier 1: This is the foundational tier. These are the supports you offer everyone across all settings. They are the systems, practices, and data you implement schoolwide and help at least 80% of your students experience success.
- Tier 2: This middle tier includes any secondary supports you offer students who are at risk of developing more serious behaviors. On average 10-15% of your students receive this level of support in addition to the Tier 1 supports you offer to everyone.
- Tier 3: The support you offer at this tier addresses the higher-intensity, sometimes dangerous behaviors that prevent students from learning or exclude them socially. Typically, 1-5% of students receive these individualized supports when efforts at Tier 1 or 2 alone haven’t connected.
Deciding which students might benefit from which supports is a team-based process…and one that must consider equity. Here are some decision rules we recommend.
Check Schoolwide Data Early and Often
Sometimes teachers will request additional support for a student in their class. Your referral data can help identify students even earlier. Did you know 50% of elementary schoolers who ended the year with more than six referrals had already received two referrals by the end of October?1 Here’s an even more specific finding: Research shows 91% of middle school students referred in September for “Defiance” ended the year with six or more referrals.2 Getting students access to the support they need is an example of centering equity in your problem-solving priorities.
The SWIS Referrals by Student Report is one way to get a quick view into which students might benefit from additional support. Here’s an example from the SWIS Demo account showing the students who received 2-5 administrator-managed referrals:
As a general rule, students who receive 2-5 referrals to the office for their behavior might benefit from some kind of Tier 2 support. In this report, we see 23 students who match that description. As a team, we could stop here, share these names with our Tier 2 teammates, and ask them to evaluate this group of students for additional support or resources.
From an equity perspective, we can take one more step before we send those names along.
Be Sure it’s Really a Tier 2 Need
Tier 2 supports are great options for ensuring equitable outcomes. Make certain the request for more support is truly based on student need rather than simply an outcome of inequities within your Tier 1 systems and practices. For this decision, you want to make sure the proportion of students you refer for additional support is equal to the groups’ proportion of the total student enrollment.
I know…Let’s go back to our example from the SWIS Demo account and I’ll show you what I mean.
We know more about our list of students than just the number of referrals to the office they received. We know 12 of them are White, six of them are Black, and five of them are Hispanic/Latino. Let’s compare these numbers to their proportion of our total student enrollment. It looks like this:
| Race/Ethnicity | # of Students Enrolled | % of Total Enrollment | # of Students With 2 to 5 Referrals | % of Students With 2 to 5 Referrals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 300 | 60% | 12 | 52% |
| Black | 65 | 13% | 6 | 26% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 100 | 20% | 5 | 22% |
We would expect the percent of the student group’s enrollment would be the same as the percent of students with 2-5 referrals. What I notice in these data is:
- Our White students make up 60% of our student body and 52% of our students with 2-5 referrals.
- Our Black students make up 13% of our student body and 26% of our students with 2-5 referrals
- Our Hispanic/Latino students make up 20% of our student body and 22% of our students with 2-5 referrals
It could be just a fluke in our data, but before we move forward with our requests for additional support, we should look a little closer at the reasons why our Black and Hispanic/Latino students are overrepresented in our referrals for Tier 2 supports. As a Tier 1 team, we need spend some time exploring the potential inequities in our discipline policies and procedures.
Watch for Peaks and Valleys in Progress
Once you’ve enrolled students in an intervention or started up additional supports like Check-In Check-Out (CICO), collect some data and schedule time to check on how things are going. If the intervention works the way you hope it will, you’ll see students thrive and experience success. If things aren’t working out, students deserve our attention to find an equitable solution to that challenge.
Here’s an example report from the CICO-SWIS Demo account showing us how our students enrolled in the intervention are doing overall.
We have 21 students enrolled and so many of them are meeting or exceeding their goal! Did your eyes almost immediately catch the names of the two students in particular who haven’t experienced as much success?
Brian Bender and David Anderson-Jones average just 50% of their total points during the day. We’d like to see them average more like 75-80% of those points. Continuing these two students with the CICO intervention might still be a good idea. It also might be time to consider alternative solutions. It’s important to find that sweet spot between giving an intervention enough time to achieve successful outcomes and knowing when it’s time to make a change. It all comes back to that definition of equity: “…every child receives what they need…” If you see them struggling, make a change.
When it comes to achieving equitable outcomes in education, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Identify which students might benefit from additional support by checking your schoolwide data regularly. Before you request additional support, make sure you refer students based on their need rather than based on inequities in your Tier 1 systems and practices. Once you’ve started additional supports, monitor student progress, celebrate successes, and make a plan for those who might need more.