CUE’s Racial Equity Tools
Each tool prompts reflection on the racialized characteristics of everyday practices, setting the foundation for change.
The tools are organized into four flexible phases.
Laying the Groundwork
Where is your team starting from? Have racism and equity been part of your dialogue for a while, or are they new? The readings and activities in this phase will help you build a new vocabulary and a deeper understanding of racism and equity together.
In this phase, you will:
Learn how to define and more deeply understand racial equity, and see why a focus on racial equity specifically is critical to education
Explore what equity-mindedness looks like in action and how it differs from deficit-mindedness
Understand how to build a high-functioning team
Take part in activities to build equity-minded competence and a new shared vocabulary across your team
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Phase One Tools
CORE CONCEPTS OF RACIAL EQUITY
Familiarize yourself with a glossary of terms that will become core to your discussions.
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GUIDE FOR COMPOSING A CAMPUS RACIAL EQUITY TEAM
Learn about the key roles on an equity team and how to best fill them.
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CONCEPTS & ACTIVITIES FOR RACIAL EQUITY WORK
Dive into the imperative for this work and what equity-mindedness looks like, then get started with insight-sparking activities.
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PHASE ONE
“It’s been very enlightening on many levels … I've learned to be more aware of my demographic in my classroom and … I've really learned the faultiness in the color-blind approach.”
A reflection on engaging with the tools
in this phase from a white male instructor
with 20+ years teaching experience
Defining the Problem
Disaggregated data is key to this process: it spotlights where racial equity gaps exist, offers a sense of the magnitude of those gaps, and provides a baseline from which progress can be measured. The tools in this phase help practitioners begin measure their efforts by applying a critical race perspective to disaggregated data, which we call “vital signs.”
In this phase, you will:
Learn why disaggregating data by race and ethnicity is critical to increasing equity
Learn how to interpret data showing differences in outcomes by race/ethnicity as indicators of racialized institutional performance
Avoid “data paralysis” by narrowing the scope to the level of the division, department, program, course, or practitioner
Deploy data sense-making strategies and set goals
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Phase Two Tools
DATA TOOLS
Learn how disaggregated student outcomes data can be an effective tool for addressing racial equity, deploy strategies to identify racial equity gaps, and discuss actions to close those gaps. The PDF includes a brief reading plus four activities with formulas and worksheets that help make data actionable:
Identifying Vital Signs
Measuring Racial Equity
Making Sense of Racial Equity Gaps
Setting Racial Equity Goals
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ASSET MAPPING
College campuses have abundant resources, but they are not always leveraged on behalf of racial equity. With these two activities, borrowed from an Equity Scorecard workbook that CUE used to deploy, you’ll identify a focal effort then list and prioritize associated assets, posing the question: “Do minoritized students experience these as enablers or inhibitors of success?” What inquiry should we conduct using CUE’s Racial Equity Tools to help answer this question?
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PHASE TWO