Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jason Finley, who is the work-based learning coordinator at Randolph Technical Career Center and a member of the 2009 Cohort of Fellows of the Rowland Foundation on whose website this was first published.
[I]n Vermont we are actively working as a state to adopt a number of exciting and meaningful school transformation initiatives. One of these involves creating Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs) for each student, starting this year in the seventh grade, that will be a dynamic process to help guide students through multiple pathways towards their post-secondary aspirations.
PLPs are an opportunity to bring together data from interest inventories and aptitude tests, the structured efforts of educators guiding students through advisories, post-secondary guidance counseling, family input, community members as mentors, and most importantly the students’ visions of themselves and their futures.
PLPs have the potential to be an amazing tool to engage, inspire, and support all of Vermont’s students. I strongly believe that this is the direction Vermont should head in transforming education. If, however, we head in this direction without being fully cognizant of the implications of every individual involved in the PLP planning process bringing unconscious biases, perceptions and expectations, I fear that we as educators, and as a state, may fall into a series of equity traps.
Being unconscious of mental models is in fact only part of the problem. Worse yet, might be our belief that we are immune to these deeply embedded biases. The research shows that not only are we unaware of our own biases, but “our conscious or stated attitudes may conflict with them.” This is suggested by data that shows, while we in Vermont make great outwardly efforts to be socially conscious and progressive around ensuring equity in guiding students towards post-secondary pathways, we may lag behind other states in the results our actual efforts.
If we do not accept this reality, we may be creating an academic planning process which systemically tracks students into pathways towards post-secondary aspirations which are based not only on our unconscious mental models and biases, but also misguided student self-assessments (where perceptions of societal expectations of competence control for an individual’s actual competence), prejudiced gender-based parental expectations, students‘ own fixed-mindsets in relation to gender/racial/socioeconomic identity, and the very strong evidence of stereotyped guidance among school counselors.
Helping students believe in themselves and their abilities, regardless of the beliefs of society or other individuals, is imperative to putting students on the pathway that is best for them.
Simply put, the elements and the planning processes which underpin PLPs are fraught with equity traps that could lead to the systemic integration of academic tracking and post-secondary counseling that is based on a student’s gender/race/socioeconomic identity rather than their true potential, interests, abilities and inherent aptitudes.
There are opportunities to overcome these equity traps. Two of which that have the greatest potential benefits are 1) educator training around our own mental models and unconscious biases, and 2) around instilling growth mindsets and promoting self-esteem in students. The first of these could be supported through the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) and the second through the work done with growth-mindset and social emotional learning by Vermont educators like Mike McRaith.
The director of special projects at NAPE, Ben Williams, believes that educator professional development could help ameliorate these equity traps though a “research-grounded process to assist educators in transforming their practice to increase the participation and persistence of students in nontraditional occupational programs and pathways. Through a process of examination, reflection, and action … prepare educators to reach, teach, and maximize the success of every student.”
The second is a piece, focused around growth-mindsets and social-emotional learning, is one that many Vermont schools and educators are already addressing. Perhaps, however, educating students (and educators) about these areas should be the foundation for designing PLPs. Helping students believe in themselves and their abilities, regardless of the beliefs of society or other individuals, is imperative to putting students on the pathway that is best for them.
It is a complicated issue, but the solution is simple. We need to be aware of these equity traps and also of the need to learn about how we can best avoid them in the process of developing student pathways.
I have little doubt that my concerns will be questioned by those more educated and experienced in this area than I might be. I welcome it. It is, in fact, my hope and intent that these concerns be questioned. If we as a state are to successfully implement PLPs, in ways that allow for their full potential, we must at least consider the presence of equity traps in PLPs.
In sharing these concerns with members of the Rowland PLN, Jeanie Phillips had questions about what other educators might suggest we do, or are doing, to address bias and inequity in the PLP process. She wondered what role professional development could play in uncovering bias and making safe spaces for educators to talk about practices that contribute to inequity. And, she believes we need to collectively consider what PLP best practices could eliminate, or at least reduce, implicit (and explicit) bias.
Read the documents below and then consider what questions you have about the potential for equity traps in PLPs.
How Elementary School Teachers’ Biases Can Discourage Girls From Math and Science
Brain Shows Unconscious Prejudices
Gender and the Career Choice Process: The Role of Biased Self‐Assessments
The Legal Implications of Gender Bias in Standardized Testing
Five Stereotypes about Poor Families and Education
The Myth of the Culture of Poverty
Equity & Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students & Schools
