Over the past year and a half, people have grown more aware of racial inequalities in their community, country and worldwide. Understanding these inequalities is crucial for being able to build a more equitable society, where all lives are valued and respected equally. 

Montgomery County Public Schools has enacted a “Race & Equity ” position within clubs and groups in schools to ensure that students, staff, and families are held accountable for microaggressions and societally detrimental ignorance. MCPS has “committed to addressing disparities in student outcomes by closing gaps in opportunity and achievement.”

The position is designed to inform and update the members’ designated group about current racial tensions, take action to ensure their group is being actively anti-racist, host community circles where people feel comfortable openly speaking about inequities and more. 

Senior Jonah Geisner, Race & Equity committee member representing Wootton Wellness Warriors, said that “the race and equity student committee is a new, student-run committee working to create a more understanding and empathetic high school environment. Our goal is to provide a platform for more students to share out and receive support on race and equity issues.”

Teachers Lindsey Vance, Evva Starr and others had begun work regarding race and equity over a year and a half ago, significantly before MCPS implemented their policies this past summer. This made the school’s transition to race and equity work smoother, whereas other schools had little to no concept of where to begin. With that, the school still has work to do with improving the committee and further setting and achieving goals.

Pieces of the “MCPS Equity Journey” include policy changes, “Anti-Racist” audits, and an Equity Initiatives Unit. The Nondiscrimination, Equity and Cultural Proficiency is a major, newly implemented policy. MCPS recognizes differences in backgrounds that can affect a student’s academic performance, especially when learning materials are withheld from a student and ultimately do not set them up for success the same way one of their white peers may be. MCPS said while students achieve highly, “not all have had opportunities, support and resources needed to meet their full potential.”

The district-wide “Anti-Racist” audit is in its beginning stages, and as outlined on the MCPS website, is designed to promote workforce diversity, work conditions and progress barriers, equitable curriculum review, achievement framework processing, community relations and engagement and evaluation/understanding of varying cultures within schools. 

The goal of the “Equity Initiates Unit” is to “advance racial justice and cultural proficiency by interrupting systems of bias (implicit and explicit), oppression and inequity in our policies, practices and procedures by challenging every MCPS employee to be courageous, persistent and effective in confronting and resolving racial and cultural issues that impact everyone but disproportionately impact the academic and social emotional success of students of color.”

Although less active than it will be in coming weeks, months, and years, the implementation of a Race & Equity role will be crucial to building a safer, more accepting learning environment. 

Student committee members have said that they like being a part of it because they are able to “learn new perspectives on issues and educate [themselves] to help promote equality and inclusion,” said an anonymous committee member.