Equity
Our Mission
Lawrence USD 497 is a learning community committed to ensuring educational equity and excellence so that students of all races and backgrounds achieve at high levels and graduate prepared for success in college, careers, and life in a diverse and rapidly changing world.
Our Vision
The school board, administration, teachers, and staff build positive relationships, seek multiple perspectives, set high expectations, and hold each other accountable for ensuring that through equitable access to rigorous, culturally relevant, and seamlessly aligned curriculum and effective, research-based instruction; all students achieve at high levels, graduate on time, and are well prepared for their future.
We believe:
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All students can learn and achieve at high levels.
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The knowledge and skills to effectively educate all students already exist in the field of education.
As a school community, we must:
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Demonstrate courageous leadership to enact systems change and successfully educate all students.
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Ensure all decisions are data-driven and align our actions to achieve educational equity and excellence for all students.
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Identify and correct district and school policies, procedures, and practices that perpetuate racial achievement disparities.
Expectations
To fulfill our mission and achieve our vision of educational equity and excellence, we will:
- Teach all students using culturally relevant, rigorous and research-based instructional strategies, curriculum, materials and assessments.
- Establish annual educational equity and excellence goals to improve the achievement of all students and eliminate racial achievement disparities.
- Disaggregate and convert multiple sources of data into meaningful information to identify strengths and needs of individual students as well as groups of students to inform instructional practices and decision making.
- Enact a system of accountability and support at all levels – board, administration, teachers, staff and students.
- Monitor and report to the USD 497 school community progress toward the elimination of racial achievement disparities.
(Approved by the Lawrence Board of Education June 2011.)
