What is Equity?
Inequity Affects Schools
Promoting Equity in MTSS:
Following a 5-Point Guide
What Educators Can Do

Increasingly, schools are working to identify and address disproportionate academic opportunities and discipline outcomes for students, especially students from marginalized communities. Knowing that exclusionary discipline can negatively impact students’ learning and transition into adulthood, it important that we improve how we support student behavior.

Researcher Kent McIntosh and colleagues (2018) have created a five-point guide to address and prevent disproportionality in discipline. It guides users in how to implement a multi-tiered, culturally responsive behavior framework that uses data to develop structures that promote equity in schools. 

This DE-PBS Project webpage outlines the five points and related resources and tools to help schools, districts, and individual educators to realize a “durable commitment to equity” for all students.

1. Collect, Use, and Report Disaggregated Discipline Data

2. Implement a Behavior Framework that is Preventative, Multi-tiered, and Culturally Responsive

3. Use Engaging Instruction to Reduce the Opportunity (Achievement) Gap

4. Develop Policies with Accountability for Disciplinary Equity

5. Teach Strategies for Neutralizing Implicit Bias in Discipline Decisions

Related and Additional Resources

*As you navigate through this research and these resources, here are some reflection questions to keep in mind: Equity Reflection Questions

Resources for Enhancing Educational Equity

1. Collect, Use, and Report Disaggregated Discipline Data

  • Discipline Disproportionality Problem Solving: A Data Guide for School Teams
  • Centering Equity in Data-Based Decision-Making: Considerations and Recommendations for Leadership Teams
    • Recommended for State, LEA, and Bldg. MTSS Teams
    • “The focus of this guide is on supporting school, district, and state education leadership teams in centering equity in their data-using culture and data-based decision-making processes to redesign and transform systems for equitable health and learning.”
  • Instructive Videos to Collect, Use, and Report Disaggregated Discipline Data
    • Using Data (and Data Systems) to Address Discipline Disproportionality
      • Recommended for District Coaches and Teams
      • A recorded, introductory-level webinar reviewing the different types of data necessary for identifying equity issues within your school, highlighting important nuances inherent in many data systems, and providing tools and strategies for taking the next step towards more equitable outcomes. This webinar was given to School Climate Transformation Grant recipients originally (running time: 1:00:24).
    • Using PBIS to Ensure Racial Equity in School Discipline
      • This recorded webinar delves into the nationwide efforts of U.S. schools in implementing PBIS to address racial disproportionality in school discipline, while also highlighting research findings that demonstrate the benefits of faithful PBIS implementation for achieving more equitable discipline practices. The webinar further explains how eliminating disparities through standard PBIS implementation, without attention to the sociocultural context and systems that perpetuate inequities, is unlikely to produce desired outcomes. The presenters share specific strategies and free Center resources for increasing equity in PBIS systems (running time: 33:14).
  • Tools for Collecting, Using, and Reporting Disaggregated Discipline Data
    • Calculating Risk Ratios – How To
      • This document outlines the concept of risk ratios, the risk ratio equation, a calculation walkthrough example, and additional resources to explore.
    • Wisconsin RtI Center Risk Ratio Module
      • Recommended for District Coaches and Teams
      • This e-learning course helps schools define the general principle of risk ratio and explain how it can be applied to education. You’ll learn how to calculate your school’s own risk ratio and determine next steps. A free Excel-based risk ratio calculator can be downloaded here [The PPT starts with Wisconsin examples but the viewer can learn how to calculate their own risk ratios is found at the 4:37 mark].
    • Enhancing Equity in School Discipline: Identifying Vulnerable Decision Points
      • This worksheet guides educators and school staff in recognizing Vulnerable Decision Points (VDPs) influenced by implicit bias. It helps participants identify common VDP situations and personal decision states, considering student demographics. By developing and practicing neutralizing routines, educators can mitigate the impact of bias on their decision-making, fostering more equitable outcomes in the school environment.
      • Recommended for LEA and Bldg. MTSS Coaches and Teams
      • Tool for identifying when and how to use Strategies for Neutralizing Implicit Bias in Discipline Decisions. This tool was developed by Kent McIntosh for equity-centered solutions to disproportionality in exclusionary discipline.
  •  Data Analyst’s Worksheet
    • Recommended for Teams
    • A worksheet to be used by the data analyst role before a team meeting using the Team Initiated Problem Solving Framework (TIPS). Use your academic or behavior data to create a snapshot view of your school’s performance overall (e.g., by grade level, intervention status, race/ethnicity, gender). 
  • PBIS: Using Discipline Data within SWPBIS to Identify and Address Disproportionality: A Guide for School Teams (2014)
    • Recommended for Teams
    • The purpose of this guide is to provide a reference for SWPBIS school teams in the use of discipline data (e.g., office discipline referrals, suspensions) in the area of racial and ethnic disproportionality in school discipline. The guide will describe a framework and steps for identifying levels of disproportionality, analyzing data to determine solutions, and monitoring the effectiveness of action plans in addressing disproportionality.
  • PBIS: Equity in School Discipline: Enhancing Commitment Through Teacher Training (2019)
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This video is a short introduction into working with data to address specific times and locations associated with disproportionality along with an example of how a school analyzed their data and used it to make adjustments to their practices.
  • DE-PBS Major vs. Minor Behavior Resources
    • Recommended for Teams
    • This page contains a worksheet for determining major vs. minor behaviors, a behavior definition activity sheet, and an example from Harlan Elementary School.
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2. Implement a Behavior Framework that is Preventative, Multi-tiered, and Culturally Responsive

  • NEW! Restorative Practices in PBIS [MTSS for SEL and Behavioral Wellness]
    • The purpose of this webinar guide is to provide a reference for the user to understand the connections between MTSS (systems) and RP (practices) to build a welcoming and restorative community for all students and help address racial and ethnic disproportionality in school discipline. The guide provides prompts for the viewers to reflect on the video messages and identify concepts and excerpts from the video to share with others.
    • Intended Audience: District-level Teams and Coaches working to build equity and community within their MTSS expectations and guidance for schools. School-level teams and educators working to build MTSS and/or Equity in their school.
  • NEW! Leveraging Restorative Practices (RP) within Your MTSS: Looking to Deepen Your Understanding and Coordination? – We Gotcha!
    • The purpose of this 1-page overview of the connections between MTSS (systems) and RP (practices) is to provide a reference for the reader to understand how MTSS are enhanced by RP.  These systems (MTSS) and practices (RP) help students, adults, and communities to reinforce SEL skills at the preventive (Tier 1), targeted (Tier 2), and Individual (Tier 3) level.
    • Intended Audience: District-level Teams and Coaches working to build MTSS and/or Equity in schools. School-level teams and educators working to build MTSS and/or Restorative Practices in their school.
  • October 2022 – Creating a Multi-Tiered System of Support
    • Kent McIntosh’s 2022 Equity Summit PPT outlines numerous ways to ensure that your MTSS for behavior and SEL is grounded in equity for ALL students. Tier 1 equitable systems and practices are outlined in detail and these handouts help you put the evidence-based practices to use starting today.
  •  Personal Matrix Mini Module
    • Recommended for District Coaches and Teams
    • This DE-PBS mini-learning module (15 mins total) walks viewers through a brief introduction of the PBIS Cultural Responsiveness Field Guide and the role of promoting situational appropriateness in a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). The module then presents key concepts and tools found in the field guide that can help the viewer to better promote staff and student understanding and conversations regarding situational appropriateness and, more specifically, student background experiences in relationship to school-wide (SW) expectations. 
  • PBIS Cultural Responsiveness Field Guide: Resources for Trainers and Coaches (2019) 
    • Recommended for Coaches and Teams
    • This guide focuses on assisting trainers and coaches in school wide PBIS teams in implementing culturally responsive practices to enhance equity systemically.
  • NASP: A Framework for Safe and Successful Schools (2020)
    • Recommended for Coaches and Teams
    • This guide supported by educators aims to improve school safety and access to mental health supports through an interdisciplinary collaboration and a multi-tiered system of supports.
  • Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Relationships & Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools: A Guide for Educators (2014)
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This toolkit explains how restorative practices can foster healthy relationships in schools and demonstrates how to incorporate restorative strategies into curriculum, classrooms, and school culture.
  • San Francisco Unified School District (n.d.).  Restorative Practices Whole-School Implementation Guide
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This in-depth guide provides a step by step, evidence-based approach to implementing restorative practices school-wide and district-wide used by the San Francisco Unified School District. It includes various forms to gain staff, family, and community opinions, school climate surveys, and other data to determine what practices are needed.
  • PBIS: Embedding Culturally Responsive Practices in Tier 1 (2020)
    • Recommended for Teams
    • This guide expands on ways teams can examine school policies for systemic patterns of inequity as well as ways to have discussions on how schools have contributed to the devaluing of the culture of students of color, leading to disengagement.
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3. Use Engaging Instruction to Reduce the Opportunity (Achievement) Gap

  • NEW! My Name, My Identity Mini Module
    • Recommended for Coaches and Teams
    • This DE-PBS mini-learning module (13 mins total) walks viewers through a brief introduction of the PBIS Cultural Responsiveness Field Guide and the role of promoting identity in a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). The module then presents excerpts of a Gerardo Ochoa TED Talk that helps the viewer to better promote student identity in school through the use of students’ names and, therefore, culture. Lastly, the module orients viewers to the My Name, My Identity website, which has resources and ideas for prioritizing correct pronunciation of student names to promote belonging.
  • Examples of Engaging Instruction to Increase Equity in Education (2015)
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This technical brief, based on the 5-point multicomponent approach to reduce disproportionality focuses on defining key principles of evidence-based instructional practices, and describing how academic instruction is related to equity in school discipline.
  • Racial Justice in Education: Resource Guide (2017)
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This guide discusses the importance of racial equity in schools, teaches about how to create a space to talk about race in the classroom, tools for assessment, and strategic planning and action.
  • Creating the Space to Talk About Race in Your School
    • Recommended for Teachers
    • This website provides guidance on the ways an educator can create a space for staff and students to talk about race in the classroom.
  • What is Culturally Responsive Teaching?: Brief Overview (2022)
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This Education Week “explainer unpacks what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher.”
  • Effective Instruction as a Protective Factor
    • Recommended for Classroom Teachers and District Coaches
    • Teachers and District Coaches
      This pbis.org resource highlights “key considerations and resources for educators to (a) create an effective context for learning, (b) emphasize appropriate content, and (c) use data-driven instructional practices to increase the likelihood that all students experience academic, social, emotional, and behavioral benefit”
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4. Develop Policies with Accountability for Disciplinary Equity

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5. Teach Strategies for Neutralizing Implicit Bias in Discipline Decisions

  • Neutralizing Implicit Bias in School Discipline (2017)
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This presentation describes implicit bias, how it affects disproportionality in discipline, and ways to overcome implicit biases.
  • Enhancing Equity in School Discipline: Identifying Vulnerable Decision Points
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This document assists teachers and school personnel in identifying Vulnerable Decision Points (VDPs) that may be influenced by implicit bias. It aids participants in recognizing typical situations and personal decision-making states that may be affected by student demographics. Through the establishment and application of neutralizing routines, educators can reduce the impact of bias on their decision-making processes, ultimately promoting fairer outcomes within the school setting.
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Related and Additional Resources

  • Equity & Social and Emotional Learning: A Cultural Analysis. CASEL Frameworks Briefs (2018)
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This document breaks down each core competency in terms of potential concerns  and potential opportunities regarding minority and marginalized communities. It also discusses promising approaches, programs, and practices as well as the importance of adult SEL and implications for assessment.
  • CASEL: Leveraging SEL to Promote Equity: What Educators Need to Know and Do (2018)
    • Recommended for Educators
    • This video provides insight to educational equity and the ways educators can incorporate SEL strategies in order to improve equitable educational environments for all students.
  • Applying an Equity Lens to Social, Emotional, and Academic Development (2018)
    • Recommended for Coaches and Teams
    • This document breaks down barriers that contribute to inequitable access to SEL education into systemic, institutional, and individual levels. It also discusses programs, initiatives, and policies to help address this issue.
  • Expelled: Racial Inequality in School Discipline 
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This podcast by Kent McIntosh discusses the origins of disproportionality in school discipline and the interventions that should be used to reduce these disparities.
  • NASP: External Social Justice Resources (2020)
    • Recommended for Teams and Teachers
    • This website from NASP provides guides books, and podcasts for teachers, parents, students in elementary and secondary schools, discussion guides, and books to engage in learning, self-reflection and discussion around social injustice against BIPOC.
  • So You Want to Talk About Race? (2018)
    • Recommended for Teachers
    • This book, written by Ijeoma Oluo, discusses the many ways systemic race affects people of color and includes a few chapters about the negative impacts racial discrimination can have on students of color. She offers ways to have productive conversations about race.
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References

Anderson et al., (2014). Restorative Practices: Fostering healthy relationships & promoting positive discipline in schools: A guide for educators, 1-13. Retrieved from:  http://schottfoundation.org/sites/default/files/restorative-practices-guide.pdf

Chaparro, E. A., Nese, R. N. T., & McIntosh, K. (2015). Examples of engaging instruction to increase equity in education. OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. www.pbis.org.

Green, A., Nese, R. N. T., McIntosh, K., Nishioka, V., Eliason, B. M., & Canizal Delabra, A. (2015). Key elements of policies to address discipline disproportionality: A guide for district and school teams. Eugene, OR: Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. University of Oregon.

Jagers, R., Randall-Garner, P., Van Ausdal, K. (2018). Leveraging SEL to promote equity: What educators need to know and do. CASEL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2bB-08hikM&feature=youtu.be

Jagers, R. J., Rivas-Drake, D., & Borowski, T. (2018). Equity & Social and Emotional Learning: A cultural analysis. CASEL Frameworks Briefs.

Leverson, M., Smith, K., McIntosh, K., Rose, J., & Pinkerman, S. (2019). PBIS cultural responsiveness field guide: resources for trainers and coaches. OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

McIntosh, K. (2019). Equity in school discipline: Enhancing commitment through teacher training. Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. https://www.pbis.org/video/equity-in-school-discipline-enhancing-commitment-through-teacher-training 

McIntosh, K. (2017). Neutralizing implicit bias in school discipline. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

McIntosh, K. Expelled: Racial inequality in school discipline. Retrieved from: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do/id1237073374?i=1000444128374

McIntosh, K. (n.d.). Resources for enhancing the cultural responsiveness of PBIS. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

McIntosh, K., Barnes, A., Eliason, B., & Morris, K. (2014). Using discipline data within SWPBIS to identify and address disproportionality: A guide for school teams. OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. www.pbis.org.

McIntosh, K., Bastable, E., Sandomierski, T., & Hall, R. (2019). Cultivating a durable commitment to equity: Where do we start? National PBIS Leadership Forum.

McIntosh, K.., Girvan, E. J., Horner, R. H., Smolkowski, K., & Sugai, G. (2018). A 5-point intervention approach for enhancing equity in school discipline. OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

National Association of School Psychologists (2020). A framework for safe and successful schools. Retrieved from: https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-climate-safety-and-crisis/systems-level-prevention/a-framework-for-safe-and-successful-schools

National Education Association (2020). Creating the space to talk about race in your school. Edjustice. Retrieved from: https://neaedjustice.org/social-justice-issues/racial-justice/talking-about-race/ 

National Education Association. (2017). Racial justice in education – Resource guide. Retrieved from: https://neaedjustice.org/racial-justice-is-education-justice/ 

Oluo, I. (2018). So you want to talk about race? Seal Press, NY.

Rose, J., Leverson, M., & Smith, K. (2020). Embedding culturally responsive practices in Tier 1. Center on PBIS.

San Francisco Unified School District (n.d.).  Restorative Practices whole-school implementation guide. Retrieved from: https://www.healthiersf.org/RestorativePractices/Resources/documents/SFUSD%20Whole%20School%20Implementation%20Guide%20final.pdf

Simmons, D. N., Brackett, M. A., & Adler, N. (2018). Applying an equity lens to social, emotional, and academic development. Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TN7PeBRUuEVfWdrNJ4d33NQ949pqsykg/view 

The Aspen Education & Society Program and the Council of Chief State School Officers. (2017). Leading for equity: Opportunities for State Education Chiefs. Washington, D.C.

The Aspen Education & Society Program. (2018). Pursuing social and emotional development through a racial equity lens: 5 strategies for system leaders to take action. Washington, D.C.

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