Veronica Parker: Good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining today's session with myself, Veronica Parker, as well as Neda Anasseri. I see people coming into the room, so that's great. You all are able to access our session. We definitely appreciate you being here and joining us this morning.

And I'll just let a couple more people come in-- I see the numbers are still increasing-- before we get started. Again, thank you all very much for taking the time to join us this morning. Great to see you again, Dr. Diaz.

All right. So the numbers are holding steady. And good morning to you again, Diana. And good morning to you, Kim. Thank you all very much for being with us this morning.

All right. So we'll go ahead and get started with our session this morning. Again, my name is Veronica Parker. And I am the coordinator with the CAEP Technical Assistance Project. And I have my colleague here, Neda Anasseri, who was also a coordinator with the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

So before we get started, of course, we are the presenters, but we're also the tech hosts. So we're doing double duty here. But before we get started, we'd like to share with everyone that this session is being recorded and will be available on the vFairs virtual platform at a later time. So if for any reason you have to leave us or if you'd like to come back or share with a colleague who was unable to participate in today's session, you will be able to do so by accessing the recording.

If you have any questions or comments, please be sure to use the chat for commentary and use the Q&A section for questions. Throughout our presentation, we'll stop intermittently and take questions and be able to provide feedback based on your questions. So definitely engage with us on that level.

And we have a lot of other engagement tools that will be used in through our presentation this morning. So there will be opportunities for us to dialogue with one another, although we can't verbally speak to one another in this platform.

And we do have an evaluation. So once we are done with this session, definitely feel free to complete our evaluation. And let us know what you thought about today's session. And provide feedback to us. And let us know what you thought. We definitely value feedback. And we'll use that moving forward. So definitely feel free to complete the evaluation.

Now, with that, we will go ahead and get started. Again, thank you all very much this morning. It is an honor to present for you all. And thank you for joining us. So we'll go ahead and start sharing our presentation.

And the slide deck is not available at this time. However, it will be available after our session. So don't worry. You will definitely get a copy of the PowerPoint presentation if you'd like to receive it.

So again, my name is Veronica Parker. And I am presenting with my colleague, Neda Anasseri. And our presentation today is titled Equity, not Equality-- Practical Racial Justice Strategies to Increase Awareness.

So the next slide we are going to go to is introducing us in another way. So at this time, we are taking off our coordinator's hat and we are putting on our scholar's hat. So I am a doctoral candidate at the USC Rossier School of Education in the Educational Leadership Program, concentrating on Urban Education.

Now, I want to preface this webinar by letting you all know that I am in no way an expert in the area of equity. But I am a Black scholar. And I know and understand and believe that it is my responsibility to work towards racial justice for all humans but with a particular focus on Black people.

Again, I would like to preface this by letting you know that I am in no way a expert in this area. But I am here along with my colleague to share with you what we have learned in our respective programs and how this is applicable to adult education. So I'll turn it over to Neda.

Neda Anasseri: Good morning, everyone. Neda Anasseri. So like Veronica said, we are taking our coordinator hats off from CAEP TAP and OTAN. And we're sharing with you some of our experiences, whether a Black student and/or a person of color, in some of our programs and how are we feeling with some of the racial justice pieces that are happening in the world and how we can incorporate them in our systems.

I'm a master's student at CSU Sacramento. And I am enrolled in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program, where I obtained my administrative services credential. And I'm wrapping up my master's thesis-- or master's project, rather. And my topic is accommodations for the adult learner, the IEP, and the 504 process.

Like Veronica said, we don't claim to be experts in the area. But we do want to share some of our experiences and what we've learned throughout our projects and our programs.

We work for the Sacramento County Office of Education. So we work for those projects to see [audio out] that are housed under Sacramento County Office of Education, where we are very proud to be a part of some of their efforts with diversity, inclusion, and equity. So that's also happening at the Sacramento County Office of Education, where they've done some hiring with leadership to really address some of these issues in our schools in our area and so on.

So we have a couple of questions for you. So share with us in the chat why you're here today. From our title and our description, we want to know. What do you hope to get out of this session? Why did you choose to attend the session? What attracted you? And what were you hoping to gain?

So let's take a couple of moments. Share with us in the chat why you decided to join us today. My audio's phasing a bit. Thank you, Wendy.

That's a good idea, Veronica. I'll stop my video as well. Excellent. Let's take a look at some of those responses in the chat.

Veronica Parker: Yes. I see them coming in.

Neda Anasseri: Because racial justice and equity need to be a job. Yeah. Let's see. It needs to be addressed professionally. Absolutely. Dr. Diaz, I think it's an important topic to discuss. And this is a safe place to learn more. Absolutely.

Working on antiracism task force and wanted to do better for our students and our consortium. Thank you, Kim. Addressing equity and equality issues in our schools. We miss you too, Diana. And we are making good efforts to bring awareness around equality and equity. Very good. Implicit biases. Yes, absolutely. It's very important, Cheryl. Hi, Rosanna. Excellent.

Well, take a look at the chat box. Your colleagues are sharing some of the reasons why they've joined us today. Hi, Jacqueline.

Veronica Parker: Yes. And Peggy says, I'm here because I need to be with like-minded people focused on change. I lived through the 1960s, and I'm ready for real change right now for good. Absolutely, Peggy.

And Daniel says, equity is the topic we chose for our ILT area of focus. And I was also inspired by Dr. Noguera's speech. I want to learn some equity strategies to implement at our school. And Laura says, because we all should be talking about racial justice right now. I agree.

And we have some people coming in and introducing themselves. And then Ashley states, always striving to improve equity to improve outcomes for our students. And then Will states, goal is to further develop racial justice and equity conversation. Absolutely.

Elvira Martinez, interested in topic, as it is an active topic on our campus. And then Ashley states, again, and improve education as a whole. And then Anthony, interested in hearing both of your perspectives both personally and professionally.

And Greg Hill says he loves the concept of equity over equality. Absolutely. And Denise says, change. Greg Hill says, equity of outcomes, not just opportunity. Yep, absolutely.

And we got some hellos in here. And Wendy is agreeing with Peggy. We need to reinvigorate all social justice movements from another boomer. And Greg is here. Greg Ludwe is here, is introducing himself. And we have Stephanie introducing herself. So yes.

Neda Anasseri: Fantastic.

Veronica Parker: Those are some great reasons on why you have joined us this morning. And we hope that this presentation continues to support the conversation around equity and racial justice.

Neda Anasseri: Absolutely. So let's discuss a couple of norms. We added this slide yesterday after attending a wonderful session by CALPRO. And we thought, you know, what a beautiful way to kick off our presentation to really talk about some of the norms during our presentation.

So we ask you to listen actively and understand other points of view. Be OK with the conversation. Again, this is really just a conversation amongst us educators in this meeting room, this webinar room. We all have biases, and we understand that. We definitely want to remember to assume positive intent. Veronica, do you want to continue?

Veronica Parker: Yes. We affirm each other's lived experiences. As I mentioned in my opening, I am a Black scholar. And I have lived experiences when it comes to racism and racial equity or inequity. And so all of us have probably had some experiences when it comes to racism and racial inequity, whether it be personal experiences or whether it be experiences that we have had in our workplace at the school site with our students, personally, professionally.

But we want to make sure that we affirm each other's lived experiences and we hear one another. But then also, we want to create an environment that's centered on healing and humanity in all its forms. So we want to make sure that we are not intentionally continuing to inflict harm and pain on each other.

So we want to make sure that-- I've seen in the chat this is a safe space. And it's absolutely a safe space. And I know that Neda and I and I'm sure the rest of you are committed to no longer inflicting undue harm on one another. So we want to make sure that we adhere to that norm as well.

Neda Anasseri: So yes, we wanted to share that we do especially thank you for joining us today. And really, the title is really to-- the key there, the two key words, is to increase awareness. We are all in this room here ready for strategies and potential opportunities to share amongst our agencies and people that we work with and beyond, our families and so on.

So we just wanted to point out a couple of different pieces in our description where it's-- let's talk about keeping our minds on adjusting to student-specific backgrounds, with the ultimate goal to increasing outcomes. And so later, when we go through the actual description, it talks about increasing racial justice awareness.

And most importantly, this is an open space for brainstorming. So all of this with keeping in mind that this is an opportunity that we continuously strive towards enhancing our adult student achievement. Veronica, did you have anything to add to this slide?

Veronica Parker: No. You have definitely covered it all. And I'm excited to dive in.

Neda Anasseri: Good. So on the agenda today, we're going to talk about equity, not equality. And what does that mean as we dive deeper into it? We are going to go through a timeline past, present, and the future. Veronica's going to touch on our timelines. And what does this mean as far as racial equity?

We do have some data that we want to point out and potentially also help educators and practitioners to find this information to potentially assist in our classrooms at our agency, talk about current practices, some strategies, and really ultimately increase awareness and inspiration to enact change. Take a moment to read that quote.

All right. So we're setting the stage for you here some recent activities that we've all experienced. And we talked. Veronica and I have been students in our programs. And we thought about, what do we want to do? How can we help? How can we assist in moving forward with not being quiet anymore? And how do we bring our colleagues together to really address the issue?

And so here we are. These images capture it all, giving credit to the images that have been taken. So please keep in mind that those things are an opportunity to give credit to those who have taken these photos. But really, this is an opportunity for us to look back at these recent events. And now it's not just the events that are making us move forward. But really, it's time for us to move forward to make those changes. Veronica?

Veronica Parker: Yes, absolutely. And I definitely want to speak to silence is violence. And so as we have all been experiencing the impact of the pandemic and COVID-19-- but during that same time frame, we've also been experiencing racial unrest.

But even prior to that-- so I've been in my program for a year now. I am entering or finishing up the first semester of my second year. But even throughout my first year, prior to the uprisings of racial unrest, I was always thinking to myself as I was having conversations with my colleagues in class about their experiences when it comes to race and racism and the systemic inequities that are embedded in our education system.

I always wondered, well, are we having these conversations in our adult education field? Should we be having these conversations? Are we going to have these conversations? And then everything happened.

And then we were still a little silent-- or at least on my end. I can't speak for everyone else. But on my end, we were still silent about the issues. And so when it came to not wanting to perpetuate remaining silent because I do believe that silence is violence-- and if you don't speak up about it and raise awareness, then you are perpetuating what everyone else is experiencing.

And so I figured I had to find my place in it and figure out what it was that I can do to raise awareness. And so this was one of the opportunities to do so. So yes, silence is violence. But it's time for us to break that silence and really be vulnerable and have open-minded, open-heart conversations around the experiences of our learners and ourselves.

All right. So we are going to move forward with the next slide. And so before we dive deep into our content, we definitely want to cover some vital vocabulary, and so the first being white supremacy culture. And that is the tacit and explicit social system that prioritizes whiteness in color, culture, and consciousness and maintains white innocence at all costs. This system seeks to subjugate.

Then the next term is bias, which is a skewed belief. An implicit bias-- a skewed belief that is unconscious. As well as intersectionality, which is the interlocking system of advantage and disadvantage based upon a myriad of identity factors.

And lastly, antirace, which is expressing an antirace idea. And I can't see the bottom part of it. But it's definitely the expression of an antiracist idea.

Neda Anasseri: Expressing an antiracist idea or supporting an antiracist policy with their actions.

Veronica Parker: Thank you so much. I was having a hard time seeing the bottom of the screen. Thank you.

Neda Anasseri: So we've seen this image. We've seen this image floating around. We saw it with Dr. Noguera. We saw it with our friends at CALPRO. We continuously see there's a missing component of this where-- what's currently happening? What's our reality? So equality, equity-- here it's liberation. But we may have seen it as freedom.

So when we talk about these particular pieces and how they fit into our adult education realm, we take pride in saying that adult ed is diverse. And adult ed is equitable. And true when we look at our ESL classrooms and we look at how many races we have in a classroom and if our ESL classrooms are diverse.

But we're still missing some components. And we tailor our learning to meet the needs of those learners across the board. But ultimately, there are still-- when we look at our different program areas-- so let's look at adult ed as a whole. So we're looking at ESL, adult basic ed, adult secondary education, career technical ed, and beyond.

Are we truly looking at this and seeing that our-- is it equitable? Do we still have that fence? Is that fence still up? And how do we make it more equitable for all of our races that are a part of our communities? Veronica?

Veronica Parker: Yes. So Neda has covered equality, equity, and liberation in the adult ed context. And so now I'm going to bring it to a broader context and talk about the same three concepts. So first, equality-- so equality is typically defined as treating everyone the same and giving everyone access to the same opportunities.

Equity is providing resources based on unique needs of the recipient when they need it. And our adult learners need equity to thrive in our system.

Our learners, with an emphasis on Black learners and African American learners, they come to our adult education system with a lot of needs outside of an academic setting. They are experiencing disenfranchisement, health issues, police brutality, mental health issues, and, most importantly, the experience of being denied access to opportunities and resources because of the color of their skin, which is inherent racism.

Now, we get to liberation. And we think liberation is the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression, ultimately release. But how can we achieve equity and true liberation without talking about race and racism in the educational system?

So with that being said, let's talk about race. So race is a false classification of people that is not based on any real or accurate biological or scientific truth. Race is a political construction. The concept of race was created as a classification of human beings without the purpose of giving power to white people and to legitimize the dominance of white people over nonwhite people.

So if we don't acknowledge this context, students are left to assume we think these conditions are acceptable, that we are unaware of the impact of these harmful policies and practices on students and their families, or worse, that we just don't care. Again, as we mentioned in the previous slide when we were framing our presentation, silence is violence.

So people often think that racial equity is a thing of the past. But it's very prevalent today. And we saw it this past spring. So let's think about Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many more beautiful Black souls who were murdered. They were murdered at the hands of white people.

And when we think about those things, we think those are current and those are recent. However, it didn't start with these murders. It started a long time ago with the Middle Passage. It started with slavery. It started with 3/5 compromise. It started with Jim Crow. It started with the war on drugs. It started with mass incarceration. It started with the school-to-prison pipeline and many more events that have shaped where we see ourselves today.

So the socially constructed reality called race is one of the strongest predictors in a statistical sense of how groups of people fare in terms of wealth, health, education, and many other aspects of life. So simply put, the problem is real. And unless active measures are taken to change the systems that continue to fuel it, racial inequalities will persist and will continue to widen.

So the picture that you're looking at now is a policy timeline. And these policies are affecting Black students in the state of California. But before we get to the state of California-- and I see Greg had posted about the 13th Amendment and Southern strategy. So I am going to take our historical context of racism in education back to the South.

And it's important for us to always educate and/or revisit the historical context of racism in education because it provides context to the root causes of the issues we see present day. There is no way that we can enact change if we don't address the root causes and continue to address the root causes. And always refer back to the root causes because any initiative, any program, any policy that we begin to implement will not be effective if we do not address the root causes. So the historical context provides opportunities not only to address the root causes, but it also provides opportunities to have conversations about systemic racism.

So I'm going to take it back to before 1852, as you see on this timeline, but take it back to 1787. And according to James Anderson in The Education of Blacks in the South, Thomas Jefferson first articulated the relationships between popular education and free society. He expressly excluded the education of enslaved children, believing that peace, prosperity, and civilization depended on the containment and repression of literate culture among its enslaved population.

So between 1830 and 1835, it was a crime to teach enslaved children to read and write. By 1860, 5% of enslaved people had learned to read, even though it was considered against the law. By 1865, 14 Southern states had established 575 schools for 71,779 Negro and white children in regular attendance. And in 1866, the Freedmen Bureau closed all Black schools under their authorization.

However, the Louisiana Educational Relief Association was organized to disseminate the principle of education. So ex-slaves initiated and sustained schools whether or not Northern aid was available to them because they were that passionate. They were that passionate. And they were very determined to make sure that they had education at their disposal.

In 1866, planters, with few exceptions, viewed Black education as a distinct threat to the racially qualified form of labor exploitation upon their agrarian order. And mass education was necessary for white children so that they could properly be prepared to maintain supremacy of the white race. And Black teachers insisted that ex-slaves must teach themselves.

So the timeline that I just went over, again, between 1787 and 1866, this timeline tells us that Black families placed a high value on education at the risk of their own lives in many cases. And this runs counter to the current narrative that Black students are disinterested and incapable of achieving high standards of achievement in school. Further, it contradicts the notion that Black parents are unwilling to partner with schools to support their students' learning.

And white people intentionally sought to deny Black families the right to educate themselves as a means for maintaining an economic system rooted in white supremacy. And when it becomes clear that Black gains in literacy and operating schools would not be reversed, the notion of schooling was reframed as an opportunity to socialize Black and white children and also instill an acceptance of Southern racial hierarchy.

So I go over this historical context, again, to be able to have us picture and envision the root causes of where we are today. And then also to let us know, especially with this policy timeline of policies that are affecting Black students in California, it's to let us know-- Dr. Noguera stated yesterday that there are millions of adults who are undereducated. And when we think about why they are uneducated, we have to think about some of these policies that are in place that will equate to them being uneducated and potentially pushed out of an education system.

So I provide this context for Black students in California. So in 1852, we talk about as part of California's Fugitive Slave Law, the state, which was California, was a free state at that time-- it states that Black children in California were banned from public schools, and although California was a free state at that time.

And then in 1872, when we talk about Plessy versus Ferguson, Plessy versus Ferguson by six years-- so preceding this theme. Let me pull this up on my screen because I'm having a hard time reading it. But the Ward versus Flood upholds segregation as separate but equal and supports a public school's refusal to admit a Black student.

But by 1930, when we talk about the second wave of the great migration, the Black population in California expands and increases to 500%. So the pictures here that are highlighted in red really let us know, again, the root causes of how we have ended up where we are at this time. And it continues on to present day.

So now to the next slide, now we're going to take a dive and look at adult education statistics for the California Adult Education Program. Now, these pictures were taken from the California Adult Education Pipeline on LaunchBoard, as well as the California School Dashboard.

So I'm going to start with the total number of students served in adult education from 2018 to '19. So we have 897,325 total adults served in our California Adult Education Program. And when we look at participants in adult basic education and participants in adult secondary education, we have 13% and 23%.

Now, when we go down to the bottom left-hand side of my screen and we look at ethnicity and highlighted-- again, focus on the Black learner. We have Black or African American students at 40,516 of the 897,325 students. And when you calculate that, you have 5% of the total population of Black students or Black learners in the California Adult Education Program.

Now, when Neda and I were preparing for our presentation and we were doing some research, we were thinking about pathways from K-12 education to adult education. And so we looked at the California Dashboard. And so the center, this economically disadvantaged picture, says that of the more than 6 million K-12 students, 60.9% are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

And when we highlighted over what this stat meant, the California Dashboard defined socioeconomically disadvantaged as students who are eligible for free or reduced price meals or have parents slash guardians who did not receive a high school diploma. And so when we're thinking about our adult basic education programs and our adult secondary education programs, these are the parents that should be in our programs.

And unfortunately, the California Dashboard did not provide-- or they didn't break down this particular statistic to let us know the demographics of the 60.9% or even information about their parents. So we wish that they would have, but they didn't. However, it does paint a picture that the vast majority of the parents who are of our K-12 students come from a socioeconomically disadvantaged household.

And we thought about, OK, is our adult education programs-- is there a clear pathway for these parents to enter our programs? And so that's all we were left with when we were thinking about these statistics, but also really focusing on the fact that only 5% of the total adult education program's population-- only 5% are Black learners.

So we'll go on to the next slide. And the next slide is a table from the California WIA Title II Federal Table for 2017-2018 and, again, focusing on Black or African American. And so when we look at these numbers, there is a total of 11,695 students, male and female, who are Black or African American enrolled in ABE and a total of 2,757 enrolled in ASE.

Now, when you look at the total for this particular column, 16,545 are enrolled out of 307,478. Again, when you do this math, it is roughly 5%. So again, 5% of our adult learners in the WIOA program are-- 5% are Black or African American. And so that sets the stage for our presentation. Next slide.

So now you think, why Black learners? Black learners are currently underrepresented in our adult education program. And based on the statistics that we just provided, it proves that they are underrepresented in our program.

And for me, since I found this information out, I have been wondering why. Why is the percentage of Black learners so low in the adult education programs when we know that there is a higher percentage of us Black people who do not have a high school diploma or a GED? And so we also know that Black learners live at the intersections of racism and gender and class. Black learners are both invisible and hypervisible in our society. Next slide.

Neda Anasseri: So I see that Daniel asked a question about, is the Dashboard same as LaunchBoard? So I think, essentially, LaunchBoard copies a little bit about how you gather that data. But the California Dashboard is K-12 specific as far as the K-12 learners.

But we highlighted that socioeconomically disadvantaged piece because we wanted to show that students in the K-12 system is referring back to even parents of those students that may have not received a high school diploma and why they're receiving free and reduced lunch as far as income and so on. So the California Dashboard is specific to K-12. The LaunchBoard is through the Cal-PASS pipeline, which refers to data from CAEP.

OK. So we wanted to talk about current adult education practices. So who are our current students? So we have our ESL students. We have our ABE students and our ASE students. And you could see from the chart that Veronica just shared that our students in our ABE/ASE classrooms are-- what are we doing? Are we looking at our data enough to really increase awareness and to invite students?

What are we doing to invite students to enroll in our programs, knowing that they do not have a high school diploma or high school equivalency and that they can utilize our resources, whether their support services and so on? Are our students currently obtaining that information? And are we looking at our community demographics to really address the need?

In addition to that, what are we doing to teach our students about equity? So when I talk about what we're doing to teach our students about equity, I refer back to some of my teaching days as far as like in an ESL classroom-- I'll use my ESL classroom for example.

There are many different biases that surface when you're teaching adult ESL students when they already have kind of an idea of the students of color and who they might be and why they might be that way. So I brought this to our attention because I got a question from an Armenian student who had a problem with a woman wearing a scarf or wearing a hijab and basically said that they're hurting the Armenian people.

Now, they're referring to some of the activities that may be happening in Turkey and because they're Muslim countries. So then the Muslim culture as a whole is now the issue with the Armenian family. And so there's just not enough of those conversations to bring awareness to eliminate those biases. So what are we doing to teach our students about those diversity pieces and the equity and race and the differences between geography and so on?

Now, with that being said, also, when I was teaching a multi-level ESL classroom, we refer back to some of the resources or lesson plans that we might have access to. And EL Civics would be one of them. And so EL Civics has a website where you can find several pieces of information on, what if I wanted to teach about a holiday that was coming up?

So I continuously would find information on teaching about Martin Luther King. And that was so foreign for my students. Why was I teaching them about it? They wanted to know why. And I was guilty to say that I taught that specific topic only during that holiday time. And so what am I doing to increase some of those learning opportunities throughout the year in my ESL classroom?

Same when we look at adult basic education-- are we incorporating some of those materials in that curriculum, in those lessons? And with our ASE students, are we giving them the opportunity to do more project-based lessons to where they can actually dive into specific topics and specifically earn their credits towards English and other topics? Are we giving them the opportunity to teach them about equity and include diversity and race and some of those discussions with our students?

What about our colleagues? So what do our instructors look like? What do our offices look like, our office staff look like? Are students paying attention to that? The Harvard Implicit Bias Test-- are we utilizing that with some of our instructors in our professional development?

And what does our leadership look like? What do some of our leaders at our agencies or at our state level look like? So some of those opportunities arise where we can utilize some of those resources to include in some of our current adult education practices.

So these questions here where it says is Adult Education education really diverse? And is there a need based on the data? When you look at the California CASAS data table that we just shared that Veronica referred back to and then if we look at Cal-PASS and LaunchBoard, we can easily tell you that there is a need. And are we addressing some of those needs potentially in our outreach?

What does our catalog look like when we're inviting students in? Do our students know that they fit into this particular program area? Do our graduation pictures that we're posting on social media-- are they inviting every student in our community?

And I added the census link because when we apply for those grants, like WIOA Title II grants, we have to go back and look at some of that data and pull some of those census pieces so we can talk about the community that surrounds our adult agency. And so are we looking at-- when we look at that and we bring in those percentages.

So we're bringing in the percentages to say that this is the community that's surrounding our agency, perhaps. But are we using that any further when we're building some of our courses, our pieces in our programs, to really design programs that invite all students from every walk of life, from every color?

And so specifically for this presentation, what are we doing to invite our Black students in our communities at our agencies? So we do have to go back to the data. I am a data nerd. I am a data geek, in that sense. But I do think that data says a lot.

And if it is saying something low, and we take pride in the fact that we do have and offer these diverse courses and opportunities, then are we sharing that data accurately? So are we reporting it accurately as well? So this was an opportunity to look back and see some of our current adult education practices and the opportunities through data.

I do want to take this opportunity to use the annotation tool if you haven't already used it in the past. If you hover over your screen on the very top and use the little dropdown key, you can open up the annotation. And then you'll be given an opportunity to draw a stamp and/or even add text.

So while using that, please go ahead and let us know. Do you have an equity and diversity team at your agency or district? And I'll pause for a second and see if everybody found the annotation tool. Oh. So Veronica, I don't think the annotation-- no stamps. OK. I'm sorry.

All right. So then let's use our chat pod here. Let's take an opportunity. So let's use this as a numbering system.

So we have question number one. Do you have an equity and diversity team at your agency or district? Please enter that in the chat. Remember to filter for panelists and attendees. Very good. Very good, Jamie. Yes. Tamalpais does have an equity team. And the staff is on it. Very good.

Question number two-- do you look at ethnic tables on the CASAS data portal and California LaunchBoard? Very good, Peggy. I see some nos, too. We see some not sures. And that's OK. Not so far. Right, exactly. Not that I'm aware of.

But hopefully the not sures and the not that I'm aware of-- we can take that information back and share with our directors and agencies. That will lead these efforts to really start looking at some of that information. Absolutely.

All right. Let's take a look at question number three. California education data reflects 6% Black students served. Are we aligning our outreach practices to the need? So that's question number three.

Are we aligning our outreach practices? What are we doing to invite our students to come and join our programs? And if we are, what can we potentially do to invite our students? What are some of the pieces that we can potentially add to show our students that they belong at our school, that we do have programs that serve them?

Good. It's been a focus since September. Absolutely. Yes, please. Please share how. Very good. Outreach flyers in many different languages. We do. OK. Very good. We could do better. Absolutely.

Is the population 4% Black African American, 16% Hispanic, 30% Asian. Hey, Wendy. Thanks for plugging in those stats. You've been looking. Very good.

And let's look at question number four. Do you address this in your annual and three-year plan? Oh, those plans. We love them. Well, we don't love them, but we have to have them.

So I know that Veronica may have some ideas of-- yes, Wendy, absolutely-- of some of our agencies that are funded through CAEP and some of their practices to address it in their annual and three-year plan. Veronica, can you share with us a story or two?

Veronica Parker: Yes. So we have a consortium down in Southern California who has created an entire framework on bringing awareness to racial justice issues and equity within the consortium. And it consisted of a, I want to say, potentially six-month professional learning opportunities where they have invited leading experts in the field at the university level, at the district level, and also at the state level to come in and provide those professional learning opportunities and be able to engage all staff and all educators in this effort.

And it was a framework that was laid out. And each professional learning opportunity built upon each other. So it wasn't that one-and-done professional learning opportunity, but it was a continuum. And it, again, built upon one another.

And that was the East Region Consortium. And they are currently engaged in that work. So that's how they addressed it in their three-year plan. And there are some other consortia who are addressing these issues in their three-year plan-- excuse me, their annual plan.

The CAP office did ask for consortia to address how they were going to bring awareness and tackle the issue of racial justice in their annual plan. So we have seen some consortia who are definitely committed to this work. And it's been great to see.

Neda Anasseri: Thank you, Veronica. Now I see some folks adding that the process of updating our WASC plans [inaudible] including it in WASC. And these plans and some of these pieces may come off as compliance in that we have to do them to submit them for x, y, and z. But personally, I think the WASC process is very eye-opening for agencies.

I definitely have been a WASC coordinator and had sat on many different WASC committees. But it's definitely an eye-opening process as far as looking down deep into what you're offering your students and how you're offering it and some of the problems that you can-- or setting goals for yourself through these plans. And I would talk about the annual and the three-year plan targeting that as well.

Thank you. Sorry that the annotate tool did not work. But we did manage to get the conversation going in the chat. I want to hand it over to Veronica.

Veronica Parker: Thank you, Neda. And I definitely appreciate seeing some of these comments in the chat. And I appreciate the vulnerability because although we aren't currently addressing these issues, especially as it relates to the Black and African American community, I do see in the chat that participants in this room are letting that be known but then also talking about how they want to do better. So that is very much so appreciated. It's definitely an area of need. And we want to make sure that we are covering all of our adult learners.

And so here is the next slide. So Neda took us through adult education practices. And next, I want to take us through individual reflective practices. And so when you think about attacking racial justice work-- and this is one thing that has truly stuck out to me in my year in this doctoral program-- is to always be reflective.

We are all on a learning journey, as Dr. Noguera stated yesterday. The continuation of learning is ongoing. And as educators, we should be committed to learning but also learning about ourselves and learning about how we can improve as individuals.

It is my philosophy that this work starts with self. And if you don't address self and our inherent implicit biases or how we are perpetuating white supremacy culture, then there is really nothing that we can do. We can do things. However, if we don't do it within ourselves, then what we're doing may not manifest into what it is that we are attempting to achieve.

And so I have been extremely reflective this past year when it comes to myself. I am a Black woman and a Black scholar. And I have to look at some of my own implicit bias and how I am perpetuating white supremacy culture professionally and personally.

And so that brings me to this next slide when we talk about white supremacy culture tenets. And this is produced by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, who are our leading experts on white supremacy culture. And so they have these 14 tenets, one being perfectionism. Two being sense of urgency. Three being defensiveness.

Four, quantity over quality. Five, worship of the written word. Six, only one right way. Seven, paternalism. Eight, either/or thinking. Nine, power hoarding. 10, fear of open conflict. 11, individualism. 12, progress is bigger, more. 13, objectivity. And 14, right to comfort.

So for each of these white supremacy culture tenets, there are also descriptions of how these are perpetuated in our education system and in life and in our organizations. And so the purpose of bringing awareness to white supremacy culture is these characteristics that we point out-- they point out how organizations which unconsciously use these characteristics as their norms and standards to make difficult, if not possible, to open the door to other cultural norms and standards.

And as a result, many of our organizations, while saying we want to be multicultural, really only allow other people and cultures to come in if they adapt or conform to already existing cultural norms. Being able to identify and name the cultural norms and standards you want is a first step in making room for a truly multicultural organization.

And so I want to bring an awareness to a few of them. We won't cover all 14, but just a few of them and some of the ones that I have been personally reflecting on. So one of them being sense of urgency. And that is frequently results in sacrificing potential allies for quick or highly visible results. For example, sacrificing the interests of communities of color in order to win victories for white people, seen as a default or a norm in the community.

So always wanting-- everything has to be done yesterday. Everything has to be done in a hurry. But are we truly taking the time to truly understand what it is that we are even doing, whether it be pushing out data or meeting this particular deadline? But again, not taking into consideration what it is that we're sacrificing as we are having this sense of urgency.

The second one-- quantity over quantity. So that's little or no value attached to process. If it can't be measured, it has no value. So this tenet is focused on-- in my opinion, when we focus on the number of students served in, for example, payment points versus the quality of education provided and ensuring that our program demographics are represented across all race and ethnicities, this is how we could be upholding white supremacy culture, this tenet, quantity over quality.

And then paternalism-- those with power often don't think it is important or necessary to understand the viewpoint or experience of those for whom they are making decisions. And so when I think of paternalism, I think about our learners. So for example, not taking into consideration the unique experiences of diverse learners when decisions are made or not including diverse learners in the decision-making process.

So when you think about the structure of our decision-making process, are adult learners at the table? When they are the ones who are most impacted by the programs and services that we provide to them, are they included in our decision-making process? So when you think about paternalism and you think about that, are we including our adult learners in our decision-making process? Or are we unconsciously upholding white supremacy culture?

The next one-- fear of open conflict. So people in power are scared of conflict and try to ignore it or run from it. And for me, when we avoid talking about race in adult education programs or racism or systemic racism, to me, that is upholding fear of open conflict because we shield ourselves from this conversation because we fear conflict. And again, this is just my opinion, not saying that anyone is intentionally doing this.

Individualism-- so people in organization believe they are responsible for solving problems alone. And this one has definitely been one that I have been grappling with because of my want or desire to solve the problems by myself, knowing that there is a team available to me that is able to help me solve these problems. So in that way, I've had to check myself on upholding this particular white supremacy culture tenet. Again, not calling anyone white supremacists, but just saying that these are cultural norms that we may or may not experience on a day-to-day basis in our organization and could be a reason why our adult learners may not be coming to our programs.