Building Just Education Standards
The Ethnic and Social Equity Standards Advisory Working Group was created by Act 1 of 2019 to review standards for student performance adopted by the State Board of Education and recommend to the State Board updates and additional standards to recognize the history, contributions and perspectives of ethnic and social groups.
Act 1 Update - February 2024
While the EQS passed the initial phase of the state board in the spring of 2023, it is now in the rulemaking process. During the rulemaking process the EQS subcommittee was working to ensure that the independent school rules (Rule 2200) mirrors and includes the EQS updates. In Vermont many students are funded through public voucher money to attend independent schools so these schools have to follow public rules. During this process, the lawyer hired to review the independent school rules challenged the updated definition of discrimination and asked to not include specific protected classes for fear that schools might get sued. This initially proposed discrimination definition was agreed upon by the full Act 1 Working group and passed the initial 8 months of public comment at the VT State Board, why change it now for private schools?
Now the VT State Board of Education is watering down the definition of discrimination to exclude discrimination based on socioeconomic class. We say keep the definition of discrimination inclusive to protect all students! See actions you can take to support EQS here.
Revised Vermont Education Quality Standards
The Vermont Education Quality Standards act as a broad guide, highlighting important values for our schools and giving direction to school districts as they develop their own curricula and choose their materials. You can see the newly revised EQS standards here and a plain language version here.
We are doing work to support the implementation of these newly updated through our EQS Teaching Practices Toolkit and study group we have planned for fall of 2023. Our study groups will be a facilitated, hybrid learning opportunity for educators to connect and build on their existing practices to better serve all students. To receive info about our study groups, please sign up for our general listserv!
History of this work
The Ethnic Studies and Social Equity Working Group bill, H.3, became a law, Act 1, on March 29th, 2019. This is a historic bill with the potential to transform our educational system. The bill established an Advisory Working Group to review state education standards and recommended updates and additional standards to the State Board that fully recognize the history, contributions and perspectives of ethnic groups and social groups. This bill was passed by a broad intersectional coalition of organizations and individuals who helped start the Education Justice Coalition.
See the EQS Two-Page Overview:
Help implement the Inclusive EQS (Education Quality Standards) in your school!
This fall and winter we had 60 amazing educators participate in a course to learn how to apply the new EQS Teaching Practices. This course is called Applying Inclusive and Equitable Teaching Practices. Now we want to partner with school districts and schools to bring this PD (Professional Development) curriculum to their district/school next year. Supporting educators to shift their teaching practice is a crucial step in implementing the updated EQS standards.
We are hoping to offer a train-the-trainer model at no or low cost so district PD leaders can get trained up to help educators in their district/school shift their practice. We may also be able to provide trainers to lead the PD to educators in your district. If your school or district is interested in bringing this PD curriculum to your school or wants to learn more about this project please fill out this brief form so we can be in touch.
Advisory Working Group
The Advisory Working Group is composed community members that represent various social and ethnic groups and state stakeholders. The group holds public meetings on a monthly basis.
Click here to learn more about the Advisory Working Group and to attend future meetings
Working Group Members
Addie Lentzner – EdJ Coalition Appointee
Amanda Garces (Chair) – Vermont Human Rights Commission
Amanda Rohdenburg – EdJ Coalition Appointee
Barbra Marden – EdJ Coalition Appointee
Celilo Bauman-Swain – EdJ Coalition Appointee (Student Representative)
Chelsea Myers – Vermont Superintendents Association Appointee
Cynthia Reyes – EdJ Coalition Appointee
Heather Bouchey – The Secretary of Education Appointee
Heather Lynn – Vermont School Boards Association Appointee
Hiba Ali – EdJ Coalition Appointee (Student Representative)
Infinite Culcleasure – EdJ Coalition Appointee
Julie Hansen – Vermont Independent Schools Association Appointee
Joyce Lee – EdJ Coalition Appointee (Student Representative)
Lynn Murphy – EdJ Coalition (Abenaki Representative)
Mark Hage (co-chair) – EdJ Coalition Appointee
Maxwell Barrows – EdJ Coalition Appointee
Miakoda Schultz – EdJ Coalition Appointee
Michael Martin – Vermont Curriculum Leaders Association Appointee
Mike McGraith – Vermont Principals Association Appointee
Natasha Eckart Baning – The Vermont-National Education Association Appointee
Vera Sheehan – EdJ Coalition (Abenaki Representative)
Xusana Davis – Executive Director of Racial Equity