Why ames actually matters

It seems to be some of us — not all of us — are on different pages in terms of 'What is equity? That's not to say the entire experience has not left some relationships to be mended, especially with some of the churches in the area.

He said, "Some people defined it as a political hot button issue. I agree to disagree with that," because "Black lives matter" talks about real people and their experiences, not an ideology. The district tracked student participation during the week, and of the district's approximately 4, students, only 97 opted out, Jones said. He said opting out meant doing so for a single class, a whole day or even the entire week's worth of activities, and students who opted out went to a library or office and worked on other assignments.

Jones said people's questions about why the district was sponsoring the week were valid, and some changed their minds against opting their child out after speaking with administrators and learning more what had been planned.

Staff feedback about the week mostly amounted to a desire for more time to prepare. Jones said that, from his office's perspective, teachers had about a month to prepare, although some teachers, along with much of the public, only started to pay closer attention to the district's plans in late January, when administrators shared their plans during a school board meeting.

He also said the district will continue to audit its learning materials, and earlier in the year gave teachers a document to get them to look at how they create their lesson plans, and how inclusive those lesson plans, learning materials and language are for all of their students. Even though there's a new presidential administration at the helm of the U.

Department of Education that may be more favorable to such efforts, Jones isn't sure that that will mean more systematic support, which is complicated by the different levels of federal, state and local control of schools.

For example, similar to other states, some Iowa lawmakers have pushed back against the use of "the Project" or "any similarly developed curriculum" in schools' U. For years, community groups have requested we improve the educational experiences of our Black students.

For years, Ames CSD staff have been working on deepening their critical consciousness. Now is the time for us to take action. Spikes and Swalwell to train staff in critical consciousness, and providing additional support for staff to further their knowledge through building-level professional development and district level opportunities.

The thirteen principles and their descriptions can be found below. Early childhood and elementary descriptions can be found in the resources. The Black Lives Matter Movement is guided by the following principles. Leading into the BLM at School Week of Action, we provided links to nationally curated resources that teachers could utilize and pull from. Since that week, we have pulled together example lessons that were actually used in Ames classrooms.

We have removed the links to those national resources and are highlighting the work of our teachers and staff on our website. You can access a Google Folder full of Ames examples at the link below.

He added that the material Kaufmann referenced on voter suppression was online but not necessarily used in classrooms. Hawkins, more broadly, said, "There were resources posted on our website that may or may not represent what actually happened in our classrooms. Yes, posting all of the materials was confusing to parents.

She also said there could have been more time for people to review and give feedback on the materials: "our timeline did not give the adequate time that we would have really liked. We do that, too. For subscribers: 'Look how far we've come': Ames schools' equity director reflects on the district's Black Lives Matter at School week. Some of the House committee members raised concerns that students, families or teachers who opted out of learning or teaching materials during the Week of Action faced retaliation.

The Tribune requested but did not immediately receive copies of those communications to lawmakers from Brink or Kaufmann. Behnken said every parent who asked if their child could opt out of part or all of the curriculum was accommodated. Hawkins also said there were no instances he had been told of from administrators where parents asked to opt their child out and were told they could not, or situations in which a parent expressed concern about what happened in classrooms. Seven teachers in the district opted not to teach using some of the materials provided for the week of action, Hawkins said.

We are a community school district.