Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion: Our Call to Action for Partners
Updated 3/27/25
We believe partners play an important role in making schools feel more welcoming to students (Guardrail 1) and supporting antiracism work in school buildings (Guardrail 4). Partners help our schools and students flourish by highlighting and developing the strengths of our students, schools, and communities.
The District is advancing equity by cultivating prosperity and liberation for students and staff, starting with historically marginalized populations, by removing barriers, increasing access and inclusion, building trusting relationships, and creating a shared culture of social responsibility and organizational accountability.
We believe:
- All students achieve when our system works to ameliorate academic, social, and psychological barriers, and provides access to the resources that support academic learning and student led innovation.
- The best kind of programming cultivates a sense of belonging through engaging culturally-relevant activities and instruction that embrace different ways of knowing and understanding.
- It is our collective responsibility to build a learning environment that is supportive and inclusive of the most marginalized groups within the school community.
- Engaging our parents, families, and communities in authentic interactions where their suggestions and concerns are seen and heard, is central to developing a framework of shared decision-making that amplifies their voices.
- In the distribution of funding, programs, and resources based on community need.
We recommend partners:
- Design programs based on perceptions of our students that are rooted in their potential and strengths, as opposed to stereotypes.
- Provide regular training and support to staff on the topics including managing unconscious bias, recognizing privilege, identifying microaggressions, combatting saviorism, anti-racism etc.
- Ensure that voices of those who are marginalized (e.g. racially minoritized , LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, etc.) are sought out and heard within your organization/program.
- Hire historically marginalized people and ensure they are not only employed in direct-service positions, but also leadership and decision-making positions within your organization.
- Establish and maintain a diverse board that reflects the community you serve.
- Connect with our office to share your strategies and resources!
Supporting Marginalized Students
LGBTQIA+ Students, Students with Disabilities, and English Language Learners
No matter your organization or program, LGBTQIA+ folks, people with disabilities, people of color, multilingual speakers, and so many others will be a part of your community. It is important to acknowledge and support the multitude of interlocking identities that exist within your program and student population.
While OSP’s guidance documents have been separated into distinct resources to help partners conceptualize strategies for supporting different groups, it is crucial to understand that students contain a wide variety of multifaceted identities. To support students in their total personhood, we need to use an intersectional framework. An intersectional view of identity holds that aspects of identity, such as gender and race, do not just stack on top of each other; they mix.
The concept of Intersectionality was coined by legal scholar, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, in her 1989 work “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex” Her original concept was about how society and the law are not equipped to protect black women because anti-discrimination laws separated out race and gender in a way that does not account for discrimination against specifically women of color (Crenshaw, 1989). Where society often silos away different characteristics, treating them like building blocks, discrete ingredients to a whole person, an intersectional view sees the multiple facets as melded together, inextricably linked to one another, producing a person with a unique perspective on each of their identities. For example, a gay white man will experience queerness differently than a Latino transgender gay man, despite both being gay men.
Philadelphia is an incredibly diverse city, and that extends to our youth. Students’ identities are often minimized due to their age, but supporting them in respecting their peers’ and their own identities is key to creating healthy relationships and views of self (Bonsu & Smith, 2023). Regardless of grade level, students are always growing and learning more about themselves and the world around them. Creating a space where students can feel respected and connected while embracing all aspects of themselves is critical to creating solid foundations of self and society into adulthood.
Antiracist
One who is expressing the idea that racial groups are equals and none needs developing, and is supporting policy that reduces inequity.
Source: Ibram X. Kendi, How to be an Antiracist, Random House, 2019
Code-switching (MLL)
Switching between different languages, dialects, or styles of communication depending on context.
Example: Students may transition between Standard American English and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or Spanglish when communicating different ideas or to different people.
Source: Castellano, A. (2022, July 10). Words matter: language-affirming classrooms for code-switching students. Cult of Pedagogy.
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/language-affirming-classrooms/
Identity Salience
Different facets of a person’s identity may be more or less of a factor in how they see themselves and how they move through society. This can also change depending on context and environment.
Example: Two students who are both ethnically Italian may have different levels of connection with that as a source of identity. It could be incredibly important to them, not really a factor in how they view themselves, or somewhere in the middle. Additionally, it may be more important to them during certain times such as winter holidays or discussion of family traditions.
Source: Morris, R. (2013). Identity Salience and Identity Importance in Identity Theory. In Current Research in Psychology. University of Iowa.
https://crisp.org.uiowa.edu/sites/crisp.org.uiowa.edu/files/2020-04/art12.1.13_2.pdf
Microaggressions
Microaggressions are defined as the everyday, subtle, intentional — and oftentimes unintentional — interactions or behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups.
Example: Having one student consistently have to be the voice of their community or assuming they are an expert just because they hold a certain identity
Source: Limbong, A., & Nadal, K. (2020, June 9). Microaggressions Are A Big Deal: How To Talk Them Out And When To Walk Away : Life Kit. NPR.
Racism
When a racial group’s collective prejudice is backed by the power of legal authority and institutional control, it is transformed into racism, a far-reaching system that functions independently from the intentions or self-images of individual actors.
Racist
One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea.
Source: Ibram X. Kendi, How to be an Antiracist, Random House, 2019
Unconscious Bias
“Unconscious bias operates outside of the person’s awareness and can be in direct contradiction to a person’s espoused beliefs and values.” from Kimberly Papillon Esq. (2019). This may also be referred to as “Implicit Bias.”
Example: Automatically placing a disproportionate amount of boys in leadership roles over the girls in your program.
Source: Papillon, K. (2012). Bias and Well-Meaning People. National Center for Cultural Competence; Georgetown University.
White Privilege
An unacknowledged system of favoritism and advantage granted to white people as the beneficiaries of historical conquest. Benefits include preferential treatment, exemption from group oppression and immunity from perpetuating social inequity.
White Supremacy
A system of exploitation to maintain wealth, power and white privilege.
See a glossary of equity-related terminology here
District's DEI Office
- Review the SDP Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Learning Pathways.
- Listen to the DEI Office Podcast.
- Sign up for our Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Training Series for Partners. There are two tracks: one for admin/leadership and another for school-based staff. See our 1-pager and sign up here.
- Visit the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Books & Articles
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- Racing To Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society by john a. powell
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
- Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
- 106 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice by Corinne Shutack