Courageous Conversations and Equity
Supports for Difficult Conversations & Dialogues
Based on acts of violence and terror across our nation and world, we are often in need of support systems to engage in difficult dialogues with family, friends, colleagues, and most importantly, students. This site will go through multiple iterations and changes, but it is designed to provide resources to assist educators, students, and families with difficult conversations, processing, and modalities for healing.
Learn how San Lorenzo Unified supports courageous conversations to improve outcomes for all students.
SLZUSD Equity Mission Statement
Equity in the San Lorenzo Unified School district is acknowledging historical biases and changing the way they are addressed in terms of closing achievement and opportunity gaps. We define our approach to the work of equity as providing for each student the academic, emotional and social supports needed to increase the achievement of underserved subgroups at an accelerated rate while additionally increasing overall student performance.
San Lorenzo Unified Anti-Bias Guiding Principles
This document was co-created by administrators and staff and approved by the School Board. The goal of the document is to provide guidance and best practices for beginning to rectify the historical exclusion of underserved students from the education they so richly deserve.
The preamble states: We, the educators of the San Lorenzo Unified School District, are committed to working daily to interrupt, disrupt, and dismantle systems that act to replicate historical inequalities and commit to examining systemic, institutional, and individual biases that make us complicit in that replication. As a result, students will become creative, collaborative, compassionate, resilient, well-informed and socially responsible advocates for equity and social justice as a result of their education, experience, and support from educators, families and the community.
Read the complete San Lorenzo Unified Anti-Bias Guiding Principles
Courageous Conversations
San Lorenzo Unified has been working with Glenn Singleton and Courageous Conversations since the 2018-19 school year. This work trains staff in a protocol to support the work of self-reflection and participation in dialogues about race.
Learn about these courageous conversations
Resources for Conversational Supports & Healing
2017-2018
- Resources for Educators to Use in the Wake of Charlottesville
- The Statue at the Center of Charlottesville's Storm
- What U. Va. Students Saw in Charlottesville
- White Nationalists March on the University of Virginia
- A Collection of Resources for Teaching Social Justice
- Resources for Educators Focusing on Anti-Racist Learning and Teaching
- A Call to Action for the Public Education ALL California's Students Deserve
- There Is No Apolitical Classroom: Resources for Teaching in These Times
- How Am I Supposed to Confront White Supremacy and Racism on the First Day of School?
2016-2017
- The Benefits of Bringing Controversial Issues into the Classroom (Dr. Judith Pace, University of San Francisco)
- AT&T CEO Calls for Dialogue on Racial Tensions: "Tolerance is for Cowards"
- Black and Brown Boys Don't Need to Learn Grit; They Need Schools to Stop Being Racist
- Here We Go Again (Cecile Jones, Teaching Tolerance)
- Race and Overreaction: On the Streets and in Schools
- What the Data Really Says About Police & Racial Bias
- Bias Isn't Just a Police Problem, It's a Pre-school Problem
- The School-to-Prison Pipeline
- Teaching About Race, Racism, and Police Violence: Resources for Educators and Parents (Valerie Strauss)
- Teaching About Police Brutality in the Classroom: From Pain to Poetry
- Teaching About Race, Racism & Police Violence
- The Ferguson Master Post: How to Argue Eloquently & Back Yourself Up with Facts (Aida Manduley, MSW )
- Redefining Race Relations: It Begins At Home
- Black Boys Viewed As Older, Less Innocent Than Whites, Research Finds
- 20 Tips to Help De-escalate Interactions with Anxious or Defiant Teens
- White Noise in the "Conversation" About Race (Donovan X. Ramsey)
- Resources for Coping with Police Shooting, Terrorism, Anxiety (American Psychological Association)
- How Much News Coverage Is OK for Children?
- Is Punishment Still the Name of the Game?
- Chicago (Jabari Parker, #12, NBA Forward for the Milwaukee Bucks)
- How White Americans' Hatred of Racism Actually Supports Racism Instead of Solves It
- Dear America: Meet My White Boss That Talks About Race
- My White Boss Talked About Race in America and This Is What Happened
- The Building Blocks of Learning
- How Kids Learn Resilience
- The Real Reason White People Say "All Lives Matter"
- Talking About Race, Learning About Racism: "The Application of" Racial Identity Development in the Classroom
- 49ers' Colin Kaepernick Sat During National Anthem and Sparked National Debate; Whats Your Contribution? (Marcus Thompson II)
- Futures Without Violence
- Teaching To and Through Cultural Diversity (Dr. Geneva Gay)
Videos
- Cracking the Codes: Joy DeGruy, A Trip to the Grocery Store
- Mirrors of Privilege: Transracial Adoption ("The Power of Silence")
- Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible Part 3
- Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible Part 4
- Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings)
- Courageous Conversations About Race (Glenn Singleton)
- How Do Schools Promote Equity Among Students? (Pedro Noguera)
- Embracing Vulnerability (Brené Brown)
- Criticav
- The Consciousness Gap in Education: An Equity Imperative (Dorinda Carter Andrews)
- Creating a Culturally Responsive Community with Dr. Sharroky Hollie
- Reality Pedagogy (Christopher Emdin)
- Race Forward Website & Resources
- Paide (Dr. Cornel West)
- On Intersectionality (Keynote) (Dr. Kimberlé W. Crenshaw)