October 9, 2020—In the seventh video of the Shaker Rising Video Project, Shaker Heights community member and Equity Policy Implementation Team member Vicki Elder answers the question, "What are your concerns about detracking and how can we address them?"
Click on the image below to watch the video on the District’s YouTube channel.
The Shaker Rising Video Project features District administrators, teachers and community members—all of whom will answer questions related to detracking at Shaker Heights Schools. Shaker Rising videos will be released in the coming weeks every Tuesday and Friday by email, in the District newsletter and on social media.
We hope these videos help our school community better understand why detracking is important, how it will be implemented at our schools and how it will positively impact our students’ success.
Thank you for your continued support of our schools and our students in this year of Shaker Rising.
Video transcript and translations are below:
Translations: Arabic | Bengali | Chinese | French | Spanish
My primary concern is with the resistance to actualizing the equity policy the District adopted some three years ago.
I'm concerned that fear will win out the way it has for more than 60 years here in Shaker and that educational equity will be in name only. I think we can address the issue by moving forward in a real, tangible, measurable way with our equity policy.
Paragraph 8F of that policy calls out targeted universalism as the methodology the district has committed to use to ensure that every student in Shaker can enjoy and participate in the benefits of a robust and meaningful education that will set each individual up for success.
Detracking is just one step. It's not easy to change, but it's also not an unusual expectation. Good teachers do it all the time and they do it well for the benefit of their students. And I think Shaker has good teachers.