How does Lindbergh approach inclusion, equity and diversity work?

Our district is committed to creating and maintaining a welcoming, equitable and inclusive environment where all students feel they belong. This is an important part of providing all students with a high-quality, personalized educational experience that reflects and celebrates our diverse student population.

What is educational equity?

Equity in education is the effort to ensure that all students have the supports they need to reach their full potential as students, citizens and human beings.

How does Lindbergh commit to building trusting relationships with families and supporting every student’s success?

Supporting our students’ success is a team effort that is fostered through supportive relationships between families, teachers and staff. At Lindbergh Schools, we commit to:

• Providing staff with meaningful resources and equipping them to use those resources to have age-appropriate conversations about inclusion, acceptance and belonging.
• Ensuring that students hear multiple perspectives and voices with regard to historical events, in order to provide an accurate, comprehensive account.
• Communicating frequently and transparently with families about student instruction, to support strong home-school relationships.
• Having open, honest conversations among staff to raise awareness about inclusion, equity, race and culture.
• Building a school community where all students belong.

How do Lindbergh’s strategic plan and districtwide success measures incorporate inclusion, equity and diversity as important components of student success?

Taking good care of our students is the first step toward helping them learn to the highest level possible. This is what our community told us in 2018, and it drives our strategic plan and our work.

Creating a culture of belonging is directly connected to the top five success measures that were defined by our Lindbergh community in 2018, and include:

• High-quality teachers
• Social and emotional well-being of students and staff
• Student mastery of the 4 C’s (critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity)
• Personalized learning for staff and students
• Student satisfaction

In addition, Lindbergh parents, teachers and students have been collaborating since 2018 to develop the Lindbergh Life Success Skills, which are the skills we want our students to be equipped with when they leave our care and enter the real world.

Working to create a culture of belonging also aligns with Missouri state standards and expectations for student learning.

Is critical race theory the same as educational equity?

No. Various media channels and members of the public sometimes use terms interchangeably when they mean two different things. The terms Critical Race Theory and educational equity are not the same. Unlike CRT, which, again, is a tool primarily used in institutions of higher education, educational equity is a K-12 term referring to federal and state policies and requirements. Specifically, the term is closely associated with “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) legislation that was led by former President George W. Bush and signed into law in 2002. This federal law established clear requirements for school districts to not only disaggregate student achievement data by race but also to close achievement gaps where they exist.

In recent years, the terms equity work or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have become commonplace in K-12 education as many districts revisit and renew their local efforts to close achievement gaps as required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). When signed into law in 2015, ESSA further advanced equity in U.S. education policy by upholding protections outlined in NCLB, including calling for comprehensive state-developed plans designed to close achievement gaps, improve the quality of instruction, and increase outcomes for all students.

The state's accreditation system, MSIP (the Missouri School Improvement Program), includes provisions to address educational equity in Missouri’s schools. These rules were reviewed by Missouri’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which is a 10-member legislative committee made up of six Republicans and four Democrats from the Missouri House and Senate. Further, the Secretary of State received comments from the public on the proposed rules and the State Board of Education considered the comments prior to final approval.