Students and parents at Montgomery County Public Schools are being asked to fill out a survey this month about racism and inequity in the schools to learn how welcoming and inclusive MCPS is to people of color.
The survey is for fact finding and is part of the Anti-Racist System Audit. It includes questions on racial disparities in ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and language proficiency. The audit will determine which policies and practices do not create access, opportunities and equitable outcomes for all students in regard to their their academic and social emotional well-being.
The survey was created by Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium in Bethesda in collaboration with the MCPS Office of Strategic Initiatives.
“We want to make sure that parents and guardians and everyone in MCPS have the opportunity to voice what barriers they see in our educational system that is keeping students from academic success,” Edvin Hernández, MCPS Equity Specialist, told MyMCM.
MCPS is aware that “not all students are achieving at the same rate,” he said.
Hernandez stressed that the survey is not about shaming anyone or pointing fingers at anyone. Here is more of Hernandez’s explanation of the audit.
According to a letter written by Superintendent Monifa McKnight, the survey is one piece of MCPS’s commitment to address racial barriers in each school. During the summer, school officials will take information gathered from the survey and come up with ways to combat racism.
The audit covers six areas: workforce diversity analysis, work conditions; progress and barriers, equity curriculum review, equity achievement framework progress, community relations and engagement and evaluation of school cultures.
There are racial disparities in many aspects of school district. People of color have higher suspension and discipline rates and fall into the lower categories for reading and graduation rates. Also, there have been multiple racist events at recent sporting events and white supremacist graffiti found at schools.
The audit, which cost MCPS about $450,000, does not touch on gender bias or antisemitism. It only concerns racism, according to MCPS officials.
“This is not an either or kind of thing,” said John Landesman, executive director of MCPS’ Office of Strategic Initiatives. “The whole idea is to make sure everyone feels safe in MCPS.”
According to MCPS’ website about the audit, “Racism is the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another.”
It also noted that “Antiracism is not code for anti-white. MCPS is committed to providing students with age-appropriate tools to explore the evolution of our nation, its institutions, and polices through a lens that accurately reflects the experience of all communities and cultures. Curriculum and textbooks only portraying white people as either hero or villain are as inaccurate as the omissions of the histories and contributions of people of color.”
MCPS does not teach or promote Critical Race Theory curriculum, it notes on its website.
