Milton Public Schools

On July 8, 2020, Superintendent Gormley announced the formation of the Milton Public Schools Anti-Racism Action Team, which is charged with developing an Anti-Racism Action Plan to present to the School Committee and the community for feedback, adoption, and implementation. The Action Team will lead oversight and monitoring to ensure accountability at all levels for successful implementation of the plan.

The Action Team’s initial work will be guided by the MPS Reform Platform that the Milton Anti-Racist Coalition (MARC) submitted to the School Committee and Superintendent. The platform proposes a variety of measures to promote an anti-racism school district in policy, practice, pedagogy, programs, curriculum, resources, and more. In her statement announcing the Action Team and Action Plan, Superintendent Gormley said:

“I am deeply grateful to MARC and Citizens for a Diverse Milton, both consisting of parents and community members who have come forward not only to highlight what is broken, but also to offer constructive ideas for reform. MARC has challenged us – all of us – to proceed with a greater sense of urgency, determination, and accountability in becoming an ‘excellence-with-equity, anti-racist educational system … one that ‘raises the bar and closes gaps.’”

Additional details about the composition of the Action Team and the specific charge for development of the Action Plan will be announced shortly.

Milton Public Schools will issue a Request for Proposals to select an external consultant to conduct an Equity Audit of the entire district. District leaders are finalizing the details of the RFP, incorporating feedback provided by the community on an earlier draft.

MPS is seeking an organization with deep experience in anti-racism work to help us assess our current strengths and challenges in diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and anti-racism work and chart a course for reform moving forward. 

Superintendent Gormley has recommended to the Milton School Committee the creation of a new senior leadership position, Director of Educational Equity, to help advance the district’s anti-racism work. Read the July 28, 2020 press release here.

The MPS Anti-Racism work is aligned with one of the six central goals of the District Strategic Plan. Goal 4 focuses on Equity and Cultural Competency. For this goal, the Strategic Plan outlines four key objectives and a series of activities under each objective designed to advance the goal. For additional details, see “Goal 4: Cultural Competency” beginning on page 36 of the Strategic Plan.

The District Strategic Plan addresses issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in the objectives for other goals as well – particularly Goal 1: Curriculum & Instruction and Goal 5: Social Emotional Learning.

To ensure that the expanded anti-racism work is fully aligned with and part of the District Strategic Plan, the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee is in the process of reviewing and updating Goal 4, and potentially other sections of the plan. Any proposed changes will be presented to the School Committee and the community for final review and approval.

As part of its our ongoing review of assessment results, other student achievement outcomes, and other indicators of student success from pre-school through high school, MPS examines some data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and other student subgroups. However, it is clear that the district must be more intentional and comprehensive in monitoring, reporting, and addressing persistent access and achievement gaps across a broad range of indicators.

In particular, the district will be more systematic in devising strategies to measure and rectify disparities by race, ethnicity, gender, language, income, and other factors in student performance, disciplinary actions, special education placements, an inequitable access to opportunities and distribution of resources.

The upcoming district-wide Equity Audit referenced above will provide critical data and insights related to these issues. Additional reports, information, and action steps related to closing access and achievement gaps will be posted here.

Milton Public Schools has prioritized the recruitment and hiring of more educators of color. While students of color represent about 30 percent of the district’s enrollment, and three of the six school leaders are educators of color, the overall percentage of educators of color has remained around 9 percent for the past three years.

Therefore, the district has launched a concerted effort to attract more educators of color to teach in the Milton Public Schools, and that objective is included in the District Strategic Plan (Objective 4.1).

In recent years, the district has consistently increased the percentage of new teacher hires who are people of color, from 16% in the 2016-2017 school year to 23% in 2019-2020. See an excerpt from the 2018-19 Strategic Data Dashboard presentation to the School Committee (December 2019) for additional details.

The school district engages teachers, administrators, and other staff at all levels in professional development about cultural competency, diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and related issues, and will deepen and expand these training and discussion opportunities in the 2020-21 school year. 

Here are a few recent and upcoming examples:

• During the 2019-20 school year, the entire MPS leadership team (Superintendent, Assistant Superintendents, and all principals, assistant principals, curriculum coordinators, and directors) participated in ongoing professional development facilitated by cultural diversity coach Dr. Kalise Wornum. Dr. Wornum helps “make authentic connections by exploring race and culture, helping organizations become culturally proficient.” Using a case study approach, the team examined the definition of cultural proficiency, hidden biases, and the barriers to doing this important work. Leaders deepened their knowledge and skills in identifying and responding to biases and racial injustice, engaged in difficult conversations about race, and discussed ways in which they can eradicate racism. 

• The first group of 50 Milton Public Schools teachers participated in a similar workshop series with Dr. Wornum at the end of the 2019-20 school year. The teachers reported that Dr. Wornum created a safe space in which they could gain the language and tools needed to continue the work as an anti-racist educator. The next group of 50 MPS educators will take the course in August 2020. By late winter, every MPS educator will have participated in this mandatory professional development experience. Equipped with shared language and knowledge, the district will shift into the next phase of this important anti-racism work.

• Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite, cultural and clinical consultant, is partnering with the Milton Public Schools to facilitate ongoing, mandatory professional development for all staff. Dr. Christian-Brathwaite led a session for MPS in June 2020 that examined trauma and its impact on the developing brain and introduced the concept of racism as an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE). In August and September 2020, all staff will participate in two additional sessions, one by level and one as a full staff. These sessions will dig more deeply into the intersection of racism and trauma. Dr. Christian-Brathwaite will present the history of racism and the psychological toll it takes on children, as well as the impact of racism in education. Future sessions will bridge our work with Dr. Wornum and Dr. Christian-Brathwaite by focusing on institutional and individual bias, discussions about implicit and explicit bias, and a deep dive into our district’s discipline data and possible root causes of disproportionality. Ultimately, educators will be empowered to create safe spaces for students by incorporating trauma-informed practices into their work.

• In August 2020, MPS central office leaders, principals, and assistant principals will participate in a virtual workshop hosted by the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color (COSEBOC). The session will focus on family and community engagement in the context of Covid-19, led by Dr. Karen Mapp, Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Faculty Director of the Education Policy and Management Master's Program.

• For more than 20 years, MPS has partnered with Primary Source to advance global and cultural learning in our schools. Primary Source works with MPS teachers to foster students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions for thoughtful and engaged citizenship. The program helps teachers cultivate students’ civic-mindedness, cultural awareness, and global competence, preparing them for an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.

MPS has committed to reviewing and updating the district curriculum, from pre-kindergarten through high school, to ensure that teachers and students are engaged with age-appropriate content about race and racism, in both an historical and present-day context. The district will construct a process to identify relevant instructional resources and provide teachers with professional development in teaching about these topics, in order to strengthen students’ knowledge and critical thinking skills. 

Coming soon…. Information about additional programs and activities in the Milton Public Schools that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and anti-racism…

Visit the Milton School Committee Policies page, which includes numerous policies pertaining to preventing, reporting, investigating, and addressing incidents and allegations of discrimination, bullying, harassment, and related issues.

Section A: Foundations and Basic Commitments includes the following relevant policies:

• Policy AC: Non-discrimination
• Policy ACA: Non-discrimination on the Basis of Gender
• Policy ACAA: Sexual Harassment
• Policy ACE: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Identity
• Policy ACG: Complaint Procedure, Resolution of Discrimination Complaints
• Policy ACH: Bullying Prevention

The Policy Subcommittee of the School Committee is also in the process of drafting a new Anti-Racism Policy for the district.

The Milton Public School system does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, gender identity, transgender status, gender transitioning, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, pregnancy/parenting status, marital status, sexual orientation, homelessness, or military status, in any of its programs, activities or operations. These include, but are not limited to, admissions, equal access to programs and activities, hiring and firing of staff, provision of and access to programs and services, as well as selection of volunteers, vendors and employers recruiting at the Milton Public Schools. 

We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, students, volunteers, subcontractors, and vendors. 

If you have a question or concern related to MPS non-discrimination policies, please contact the principal of your student’s school or:

Dr. Karen L. Spaulding

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Human Resources

kspaulding@miltonps.org

617-696-4812

The following is a partial list of organizations whose websites include resources for educators, families, and others about anti-racism:

Anti-Defamation League

EmbraceRace

Facing History and Ourselves

National Equity Project

New York Times: The 1619 Project

Pulitzer Center: The 1619 Project Curriculum

Reimagining Integration: Diverse & Equitable Schools (RIDES) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Rethinking Schools

School Reform Initiative

Southern Poverty Law Center

Teaching Tolerance