Equity and Diversity

Beyond a rhetorical commitment to educating all students lies a host of challenges for educators, administrators, and policymakers. How can we ensure that all students have equal access to the best possible education, regardless of race, class, gender, abilities, or disabilities? EDC produces a range of tools and resources designed to help schools and districts identify and remove barriers that contribute to gaps in achievement for different groups of students.

Redefining Gender Roles to Stop HIV

Unsafe school settings can put girls at risk for HIV.

For years, EDC trained African teachers on the basics of HIV prevention—consistently using a condom, for example, or asserting oneself in relationships. Yet teachers would return to environments where traditional gender roles did not support these behaviors.

Mind the Gap

Like many school districts across the nation, Rochester, Minnesota, struggles to address the disparities in academic achievement among its students. Helping this city of 100,000 identify and address these gaps is the focus of new research conducted by EDC.

“We needed the school and community to see that addressing the gaps in education was important for all children, not just those of color and with disabilities,” says EDC’s David Riley.

Guardando Sexo para Después

While pregnancy rates among teens in the United States have declined over the past decade, they continue to remain higher among Latinas than any other ethnic group. An innovative EDC teen pregnancy program, shown to be successful among English-speaking families, is now being tailored for Spanish-speaking communities.

Classroom Connections—A Teacher Quality Initiative

In response to the pressing need in the Boston metropolitan area for access and opportunity for Latina early childhood educators, CC&F and its partners are designing and implementing a professional development model that (1) advances the knowledge, skills, and career status of entry-level Latinas working in Head Start programs, particularly through support for the attainment of a college degree; and (2) increases the cultural and linguistic responsiveness of Head Start programs to better support and integrate the strengths of Latino families and staff.

Children and Mentors Partnership (CAMP)

CC&F, in partnership with Aid to Incarcerated Mothers (AIM), is training a cadre of mentors who will support children in Massachusetts, ages 4 to 14, who have a parent in a state or federal prison. CAMP’s goal is to minimize the impact of separation and incarceration on the child, and to improve the bonds between the children and their parent who is incarcerated. CC&F designed and is delivering a comprehensive training series that informs and supports mentors in their work with children.

EQUIP3/Afghanistan Literacy and Community Empowerment Program (LCEP)

Literacy and Community Empowerment Program (LCEP) is an integrated community development initiative that includes components in literacy, capacity building for income generation, and local governance in Afghanistan. Within the literacy component of LCEP, EDC is responsible for two interrelated subcomponents: the establishment and ongoing development of a Women’s Teacher Training Institute in Kabul and the implementation of the Afghan Literacy Initiative.

Girls Communicating Career Connections (GC3)

EDC in collaboration with partners in education, youth media and business, is creating a youth-produced, Web-based media series and companion educator materials on science and engineering careers, targeting girls from underserved groups (minority populations, youth of low socioeconomic status and those with disabilities). The Girls Communicating Career Connections (GC3) project’s media series—short video segments produced by middle school aged girls—will capture the inquiry-based learning experiences of girls, as they investigate what it means to be a scientist or engineer.

Evaluation of the Migrant Education Even Start (MEES)

The primary goal of this project is to improve the language and literacy skills of at-risk children and their families though four mechanisms: (1) Early Childhood Education: A specific language and literacy curriculum, Building Language for Literacy, will be added to the Head Start preschool classrooms;

Exploring the American Past Project Evaluation

CCT is evaluating the implementation of a three-year project to provide at-risk middle and high school students with in-depth experiences in traditional American history, funded by a U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History grant.

Girls Flip for Science and Engineering

An EDC-sponsored after-school project where girls produce videos about careers in science and engineering recently received a donation of “flip cameras.” The cameras will enable the girls to produce Web-based personal vignettes in which they explore their dream careers.