System Indicators for Equity

NNIP co-hosted a moderated panel with team members from the StriveTogether's Racial and Ethnic Equity Action Team to discuss their guide and implementation process on systems indicators.The webinar began with Sonia Torres Rodríguez, research analyst at the Urban Institute, describing the creation, process, and implementation for the network-wide NNIP Racial Equity Goals. Ritika Sharma Kurup, Senior Director of Learning and Activation, provided a summary of StriveTogether's peer learning network and their Racial and Ethnic Equity Action Team. Dr. Delia Kimbrel, Director of Research and Analysis at ImpactTulsa, spoke about the local impact incorporating systems-level indicators has had. Recognizing the data gap on factors outside of school that may be impacting student outcomes, ImpactTulsa created the Child Equity Index in 2018. A strategy Dr. Kimbrel spoke about was the importance of investing in partnership development around data-based strategies. For example, their work on the internet access systems indicator led them to create task forces with school partners and internet service providers, and study opportunities for new system funding opportunities in CARES Act and ARPA funding. Michael Applegate, Partnership Manager at Bright Futures Education Partnership of Monterey County (CA), shared how meaningful shining a spotlight on inequitable school funding distribution has been to generating productive systems change conversations. Without the influence of their systems indicator framing, they would not have been able to shift the focus from deficit-based framing of the academic outcomes of BIPOC students to a focus of disparate school funding and teacher diversity.