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Natick's Beloved Audit

The Natick Public Schools recently received the final report from the Beloved Audit- a resource made available to us in 2020 because of our participation in the METCO Program (THANK YOU METCO and ALL of the administrators who helped complete the audit!).  It was developed and run by The Beloved Community.  

Descriptions from the Report:

What is it?  

The Equity Audit is designed to provide comprehensive feedback on Natick Public Schools’ capacity for diversity, equity, and inclusion with all stakeholder groups.

How was it developed:  

A group of key leaders at Natick Public Schools spent hours completing this self-study and identifying relevant data sets for each area. The Equity Audit is designed with 14 sub-standards and 180+ indicators about nearly every facet of organizational work life.

Some concrete suggestions that I read in the report:

/Diversity - Ask questions like who is participating and why?
/Inclusion - Some are better than others, now is the time to make efforts for consistency across the district
/Equity - Build onramps for equity for new leaders and institutionalize disaggregated data analysis across the organization.

Different Stakeholders:
/The School Committee has established inclusive and equitable practices but without data the impact cannot be assessed.
/Establishing constructive feedback loops for faculty and staff will help culture around DEI.
/Family data and feedback could be improved.
/Student facing policies are a good start, improve data collection to see impact on strategic goals

The lowest scores we received were in:

Belonging (27%), Institutional Advancement (31%) and Parents/Guardians as Stakeholders (32%) 

The highest scores were in: 

Equitable Advancement within NPS (69%), Financial (equitable wages) (61%) and Students (strategies identified to achieve a diverse student body) (59%) 

Both the report and our administration acknowledge this audit as one step in Natick's journey of diversity, equity and inclusion and hope that it helps guides our next steps. I wonder if, included in those next steps, we should pursue a report that is not only completed by an external organization but also that includes a wider set of stakeholders within our community in the reporting and reflection.

School Committee discussion on the Beloved Audit Report: Natick Pegaus link - see minutes 52:30 - 57:00 

Full Discussion on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

May 10th School Committee:  Natick Pegaus link  

A few comments about DEI that stood out to me during the meeting:  

  • One of the major goals at the High School this year has been through a prompt asked in in the Principal Advisory Group: Do students feel that they have to check a portion of their identity at the door?  We're asking this because inclusion doesn't have to mean assimilating. 

  • The Beloved Audit helped us see that while we do some data tracking, we could do more.

  • "Nothing for us without us" - an approach to work that is grounded in empowerment within the community the work is seeking to serve. 

  • Comparisons can help normalize information but it is important that Natick pursues its own journey. We are a unique community with unique needs and desires. 

  • Promoting an inclusion culture is about creating a sense of belonging for all of our students and that conversation can be had from calculus to kindergarten. 
     
  • We have to be the type of district where diverse candidates want to come.

  • We need to resurrect the Natick Public Schools Diversity Committee with stakeholders that represent the diversity in our town and includes our Boston students.  

DEI Area Goals School Committee Presentation

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