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Equity

MISD Vision Values and Mission

MISD: Education with Equity and Inclusion -
Guidance & Directives:  Federal, State OSPI, and MISD Board

Mercer Island School District is a public learning organization. Creating an equitable learning experience for all students and professionally developing the requisite knowledge, skills, fluency, and dispositions needed as adults is a legal mandate and the foundation of public education. Equity-focused programs and resources evolve as our school sizes and demographics change, and as we set our district and school improvement goals based on State Requirements.

What is Equity?

The term “equity” refers to fairness and justice, and is distinguished from equality.  Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances, at both the classroom (ie, accommodations for diagnosed learning differences) and institutional level (ie, removing systemic barriers like lack of translated services for families).  

Each student has a right to a learning environment in which they can receive services and participate in our learning community regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, ability/disability, gender, sexual identity/preference, or other expressed identity. Mercer Island School District commits to fostering learning settings that allow students to fully participate to achieve successful academic, social and emotional, and physical development, to reach their full potential.

The District is dedicated to proactively identifying and correcting practices and policies that perpetuate disparate treatment among children and their families.  We achieve this by supporting students based on their needs, and not by creating new barriers to achievement for any student group. All students are entitled to the opportunity to succeed and feel valued and respected. 

The District is committed to promoting and providing equitable distribution of resources, opportunities, facilities and services, even when this means allocating resources on the basis of student needs. Equitable does not mean equal, as, for example, is reflected in the difference in mandated per pupil state funding for students with special needs.  Regardless, no resources will be restricted in ways that exclude any student based on race, ethnicity, religion, ability/disability, gender, sexual identity/preference, or other expressed identity, with the exception of federally mandated compliance for Special Education resources.

Federal and State Laws:  Inclusion, Accessibility, Equal Opportunity

OSPI Guidance:

AP Comp Government and Politics teacher Dino Annest speaking to students

MIHS AP Comp Government and Politics teacher Dino Annest speaking to students 

The Mercer Island School District's Board of Directors monitors and evaluates the District's attainment of Board Policy 1800 OE-1: Student Focused Fundamentals. The Board monitors these five Fundamentals (goals) both quantitatively and qualitatively. Monitoring the Fundamentals allows the Board and the community to contextualize how our educational programs are “benchmarking” progress toward these Student-Focused Fundamentals and the District’s Values, Vision and Mission contained in Board Policy 0001.

This includes Fundamental 5: "Foster and embrace diversity, inclusiveness, and equity with a focus on respect and acceptance of every student."

  • Supporting the whole child
  • Creating inclusive and equitable learning settings
  • Ensuring our school communities are safe and supportive
  • Providing rigorous and challenging learning
     

Mercer Island School Board Policies regarding Equity

Mercer Island Board Policy 1610 establishes a framework for the elimination of bias; particularly race, religion, national origin, gender, and culture. These student identities are often factors affecting student achievement and other learning experiences. The Mercer Island School District promotes learning and work environments that welcome, respect and value equity and diversity.

As a requirement of Board Policy 1610, Equity and Diversity, the District is committed to hiring a staff that resembles our students and community. The District has an Affirmative Action Plan as required by OSPI, detailing the goals for achieving a diverse staff reflective of the community and student population. The District tracks the progress of the district plan by analyzing the diversity data each year and how the District has progressed over the previous five years. 

Mercer Island Board Policy 3210 is a nondiscrimination policy providing equal educational opportunity and treatment for all students across their academic, co-curricular, and extra-curricular day. The policy states that discriminatory conduct by any person against any student will not be tolerated. The policy further requires action by a district employee to end the harassment, prevent recurrence and provide remedy when the employee knows, or reasonably should know, that such discriminatory harassment is occurring or has occurred.

Mercer Island Fundamental 5 directs the District to "Foster and embrace diversity, inclusiveness, and equity with a focus on respect and acceptance of every student." Annual monitoring reports based on the Superintendent’s interpretation measure quantitative key performance indicators and qualitative indicators showing efforts related to the three themes of diversity, inclusiveness, and equity.  

Beginning in 2020, the monitoring reports are based on the revised Superintendent's Interpretation approved by the Board on May 23, 2019.