Supportive Policies

Our students, staff and stakeholders bring their personal backgrounds into our schools and the District is richer for it. Each of them has a legitimate expectation to have a barrier-free learning environment counteracting the contemporary and historical impact of bias, prejudice and discrimination which for generations has produced a predictability of learning outcomes based on race, class, socioeconomics, gender, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, cognitive/physical ability, diverse language fluency, and religion.

It is the obligation of the District to embrace the diversity within our District while actively eliminating practices that perpetuate the disparities among our students so that all students have the opportunity to benefit equally. These disparities are unacceptable and are directly at odds with the Board's Vision that Cincinnati Public Schools "is a community that ensures equitable access to a world class education unleashing the potential of every student."

In order to secure this vision, the District will focus on the individual and unique needs of each student. Therefore, the Board established the following course of action:

Foster the universal values as expressed and adopted in Board Resolution – Adopting Working Definitions for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Excellence in Education so that these values are shared across the District by a wide range of students, staff and stakeholders who are committed to act on these values without bias, prejudice, or discrimination.
Commit to ensuring that fairness, equity and inclusion are essential principles of our school system fully integrating these principles into all of our policies, programs, operations and practices.
Adopt a teaching and learning culture that includes high expectations of students and staff, varied teaching and learning styles, and individualized as well as systemic supports for teachers and students.
Create multiple learning pathways that widen access to educational opportunities and lifelong success.
Provide high quality, culturally relevant and responsive curricula for all students and teachers regardless of learning sites.
Eliminate District policies, structures, and practices that perpetuate inequities and contribute to disproportionality of access and outcomes.
Identify, develop and apply best instructional practices that have demonstrably made a positive difference for students and groups of students in order to reduce prevalent and persistent learning outcome gaps.
Allocate annually the District's many financial, capital and human resources equitably.
Facilitate equitable access to co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, social services, tutoring, and enrichment opportunities.
Engage, include and collaborate with our families, students, residents, communities, and stakeholders as this Board recognizes that their active involvement is essential to the Board's own responsibility for effective and equitable governance.

To that end, the Board holds itself and all District and school site decision makers, faculty, support staff and participants accountable for building a District-wide culture of equity.

The Board directs the Superintendent and Treasurer together to develop a plan with clear and measurable accountability standards and procedures that can be assessed and reported transparently to the public. The Cincinnati Public Schools Equity Plan will be submitted annually to the Board for approval and its subsequent implementation by all departments and school sites will be reviewed by the Board at least semi-annually.

BoardDocs - Board Policies

Anti-Racism Policy

The Cincinnati Board of Education (“Board”) and the Cincinnati City School District (“District”) reject all forms of racism as destructive to the District’s mission, vision, values, and goals. The Board is committed to the following principles:

Establishing and sustaining a school community that shares the collective responsibility to confront, eliminate, and prevent actions, decisions, and outcomes that result from and perpetuate racism.
Embracing the racial diversity within our District while actively eliminating practices that perpetuate the racial disparities among our students so that all students have the opportunity to benefit equally referenced in the District’s Board Policy 2255 - Equity and Excellence in Education.
Acknowledging that racism is often compounded by other forms of discrimination, including, but not limited to, those protective classes referenced in the District’s Board Policy - 2260 Nondiscrimination and Access to Equal Educational Opportunity.

Definitions*

Racism: defined as a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (which is what we call “race”), that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources. (Dr. Camara Jones)
Anti-racism: the practice of identifying, challenging, and changing the values, structures, and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism.
Individual racism: pre-judgment, bias, or discrimination by an individual based on race. This includes both privately held beliefs, conscious and unconscious, and external behaviors and actions towards others.
Systemic racism: encompasses the history and current reality of institutional racism across all institutions and society. It refers to the history, culture, ideology, and interactions of institutions and policies that perpetuate a system of inequity that is detrimental to communities of color.
Racist and race-based misconduct: actions, on and off school grounds, including but is not limited to inappropriate racial comments, intended slurs, jokes, pictures, objects, threats, physical assaults, intimidation, unequal application of policies, and unequal or biased grading. This encompasses offensiveness and misconduct that does not reach the level of racism, and misconduct that is sufficiently severe and pervasive that it rises to the level of racial harassment or discrimination.

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to create processes that identify any form of racism, work to counter its effects and work to eliminate racist practices and policies from the District in conjunction with related Board policies. As the State Board of Education has stated in their Resolution to Condemn Racism and to Advance Equity and Opportunity for Black Students, Indigenous Students, and Students of Color, we also condemn, "in the strongest possible terms, white supremacy culture, hate speech, hate crimes, and violence in the service of hatred."

Therefore, educators must play an active and ongoing role in reducing racism and inequity by recognizing the manifestations of racism; creating culturally inclusive learning and working environments, and dismantling educational systems that directly or indirectly perpetuate racism and privilege through teaching, policy, and practice.

In this District, there are significant differences between racial groups in student academic performance, co and extracurricular programs, family engagement and partnership support. These include, but are not limited to, disparities in discipline rates, economic advantages, students with Disabilities Identification and access to Advanced Placement, college credit plus and career technical programs, gifted, enrichment and counseling services, athletics, arts, and electives.

These racial disparities exist because of historical inequitable access to choices and opportunities that have significant intergenerational effects and perpetuate economic, social, and educational inequity on communities of color. However, racial inequities were created and perpetuated over time and can be eliminated. Similarly, personal prejudice is learned and can be unlearned.

This policy ensures the understanding that racial misconduct is unacceptable and prohibited. All District employees are encouraged to reflect upon the issue of racial misconduct and how it may impact their professional standing, as racial misconduct directly affects the lives and conducts of others.

The District recognizes that racism is evident and embedded within societal norms. We will be a district actively working to end inequities among racial groups.

The Board holds itself and all District and school site decision makers, faculty, support staff and participants accountable for building a District-wide culture of respect for diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is free of racism.

To that end, the Board is committed to annual self-evaluation, on-going training, and professional development.

Anti-Racism Policy Directives

These directives are designed to dismantle the individual and systemic racism that exists in the District. The Board directs the Superintendent, Treasurer, General Counsel and the Internal Auditor to lead the District in the following actions:

Communication

Each of District schools and buildings shall post the District’s Anti-Racism Vision statement that highlights the District’s commitment to building an Anti-Racist district that includes a clear goal.

An ongoing school site committee in each school regarding anti-racism efforts and accountability should be a subset of the LSDMC that includes students, employees, administration, families and community members. This committee’s work must also be a part of each school’s One Plan or equivalent.

This policy shall be included in student handbooks provided to students and families.

The District will identify key benchmarks that demonstrate growth in each area outlined in this policy and to develop a plan with clear and measurable accountability standards and procedures that can be assessed and reported transparently to the public. The Cincinnati Public Schools Anti-Racism Plan will be submitted annually to the Board for approval and the Board will hear quarterly reports from the Superintendent regarding each school and the District’s efforts in anti-racism.

Administration shall also develop a system that surveys employees, student and family sentiment related to racial inclusion as a tool to evaluate the success of this policy.

Leadership and Administration

The Board shall direct the Superintendent, Treasurer, General Counsel and Internal Auditor to address systemic racism as follows:

Develop and conduct an annual Racial Disparities Assessment and Audit to identify processes and practices that cause inequitable outcomes based on race.

Direct the District’s Curriculum department and Curriculum Councils to review current curricula and create new curricula and authentic sequencing cognizant of the District’s Anti-racism commitments.

Direct the school instructional and counseling leaders to create equal access and equitable support for students interested in or qualified for advanced coursework regardless of their home school assignment or choice.

Identify the needed financial and human resources to achieve the goals of the Board’s Anti-Racism policy and designate a cross-functional staff person to serve as the District’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion officer.

Direct the District’s Student Services, Counseling, and Talent Development departments to assess and adjust practices that pertain to positive school site culture and individual behavior in order to address racial disparities in student discipline, employee professionalism, and student special needs identification.

To imbed within existing employee discipline processes, the capacity to address racist and race-based misconduct by authorizing appropriately trained supervisors to hold members of the school community accountable.

Curriculum and Instruction

As noted under Leadership and Administration, the Board and District shall implement an anti-racist curriculum and provide educational resources for students at every grade level.

Curriculum and instructional materials for all grades shall be relevant and represent the racial diversity of the student population and include a range of perspectives and experiences, particularly those of historically underrepresented groups of color, in a way that is age appropriate.

All curriculum materials shall be examined for racial bias by the District’s Curriculum Department and students should be given the opportunity to provide input.

Student in-class and extra-curricular programs and activities shall be designed, with student input, to provide opportunities for cross-cultural, cross-racial, and intergenerational interactions to foster respect for cultural and racial diversity. The Board shall support interschool activities that will allow students to experience the diversity within the District.

Staff shall incorporate these programs and activities beyond specific dedicated months and days.

Training and Professional Development

All Board and District employees shall be trained in this anti-racism policy.

All District employees shall be trained in a District-approved program about anti-racism and about how racism produces inequitable practices and outcomes in education within their first year of being hired. Anti-racism training shall be revisited annually for all employees.

Hiring Practices

The District shall include in its hiring practices and systems the opportunity to share information with applicants regarding the District’s anti-racism stance.

Hiring data shall be aggregated by race to identify areas of improvement, strengths and weaknesses as related to the potential biases in the hiring process. This data should be reported by school and level.

Recruitment practices and data shall be review by the Board to revise and reassess the need of anti-racist practices in recruitment and determine benchmarks.

Policy Enforcement

To ensure consistency in student discipline, each school shall collect and report data on all disciplinary actions. Schools shall review data, regularly, with the goal of reducing racial discipline disparities and reducing severity of corrective action by race.

When it is determined that a student, teacher, or staff member has committed a racist act, the person will be provided the opportunity to learn about the impact of their actions on others through such practices as restorative practices, mediation, role play or other explicit policies or training resources.

The District shall ensure there are various, including anonymous, means for students and employees to report racism and other forms of discrimination. Complaints of racial misconduct should be reported and resolved in accordance with the District’s Board Policy 2260.02 - Prohibition Against Harassment of Students And Staff.

*Definitions are adapted from various sources including the Government Alliance on Race and Equity at www.racialequityalliance.org