Welcome! Here you can find information about the CES Social Justice and Equity Initiative and Platform, as well as resources to support our continuous growth and learning in relation to our individual and collective roles in creating more equity both at CES and in our member districts.
Social Justice and Equity work has always been critical to the CES mission.
We understand that all forms of oppression are damaging. As we at CES set our sights on understanding and taking action together to challenge racism and support equity.
We are doing this work proactively and purposefully, with the intent of positive outcomes, and because we need to. In doing so, we are building capacity to support and assist schools and districts responding to their educators’ and students’ needs with an increased and intentional focus on matters of bias, social justice and equity.
As an organization, we have adopted and committed to the following four principles to guide our work.
1) A Culture of Community and Care
We will look out for and support each other, celebrate each other’s successes and grieve each other’s losses. We will support each other to live healthy lives, learn from mistakes, and be challenged to do better.
We will foster speech and discourse, formal and informal, that promotes equity, justice, and understanding.
2) Equity and Inclusion
We will work to create awareness of the need to eliminate racism and other injustic and oppression, and promote inclusion and equity at CES and in our community by addressing all forms of social oppression.
Our vision of social justice is intersectional and means working to transform all types of oppression, including racism, ableism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, adultism, ageism, transgender oppression, and religious oppression.
3) Self-awareness and Growth
We will continually reflect on our own cultures and identities, and how they relate to or allocate power and privilege; and we will learn about and partner with others to challenge our own biases.
We will make a personal commitment to growth toward equity, inclusion, and a community of care; and know that learning happens when we commit to being brave.
4) Action and Transformation
We will take action, speak up, and propose solutions when we see oppression or discrimination; knowing that saying nothing means colluding with oppression.
We will be willing to make mistakes, and learn from both our mistakes and successes, in order to grow.
The CES Vision
We recognize:
- the importance of equity, equality, cultural diversity, human dignity, social justice, and individual and group self-determination in accomplishing our mission;
- that education is faced with seemingly intractable and urgent issues of disparities in educational outcomes such as graduation rates, due to unfair and unequal treatment and access to resources;
- inequality and injustices are deeply embedded in society’s political, social, educational, and economic structures and ideologies;
- oppression results in the denial of human dignity, individual and cultural diversity, and social and economic justice disproportionately for some groups and, ultimately, for everyone; and
- discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, education level, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age and disability, harms all of us on a daily basis.
This reality compromises our ability to accomplish the CES mission.
Therefore, CES launched the SJE project. Our movement includes all CES staff and begins with an internal effort to heighten awareness and understanding of what social justice and equity means to each one of us, to our collective work, and to our ability to embody our mission. We hope to then engage with our external partners in meaningful dialog and action.
Our Vision
- CES staff more closely reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.
- All staff recognizes this work as foundational to our organization.
- We model and share best practices with stakeholders, ultimately becoming a model for other organizations.
