E Q U I T Y
CLOSING EQUITY GAPS
HIGHLIGHTS
Tennessee College Access and Success Network Shares 2023 Policy Scan
TCASN has partnered with New Skills Ready to release its annual policy scan for 2023. Over the course of the past year, TCASN interviewed numerous stakeholders across the NSR Nashville Network to highlight policies that create direct or indirect barriers for students and explore potential solutions. To access the report, please use the button below.
New Skills Nashville Releases Point of Departure Report on Transit Access
Transportation has emerged as a consistent equity issue on our work, particularly as a barrier preventing students from accessing postsecondary education and training and work-based learning. In the hopes of advancing this issue from a policy perspective, New Skills Ready Nashville funded Point of Departure, a report on navigating Nashville as a college commuter. The report, authored by project partner the Tennessee College Access and Success Network, includes a series of findings about transit access and a set of recommendations that would address these barriers.
Social Capital Grant Awarded to Nashville
New Skills Ready Nashville was selected to participate in the Building Social Capital Initiative by Education Strategy Group (ESG). This initiative, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aligns with our existing New Skills work around pathways and will provide our team with additional tools related to social capital best practices. Our team's participation in the project includes $100,000 in additional funding to support milestones related to social capital.
Nashville joins four other cities in this initiative. We were selected due to our "commitment to equitable student outcomes, your strong cross-sector leadership team, and your impressive work to date to strengthen career pathways, work-based learning, and career advising to put more students on a path to postsecondary success."
MNPS Equity Roadmap
Metro Nashville Public Schools released their Equity Roadmap in May 2022. This document will drive a district-wide focus on equity over the next 5-10 years. In summer of 2022, every MNPS teacher and school administrator will participate in multi-day trainings on the equity roadmap and advancing equitable practices across every school in the district.
For more information about the Roadmap, contact Ashford Hughes, Executive Officer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Metro Nashville Public Schools at Ashford.Hughes@mnps.org.
Nashville State Community College Equity Training
Nashville State Community College is investing in equipping faculty and staff to better serve students from diverse backgrounds and ensure equity informs decision-making across the institution. A variety of investments in professional learning opportunities for faculty and staff include:
Developing a training for current employees and new hires that builds on the REI Groundwater training experience with New Skills Ready but presents information within Nashville State's own institutional context. Part of the training includes By Design, a documentary produced by the Nashville Public Education Foundation about the historical forces that have shaped public education in Nashville.
Investing in a train-the-trainer structure that will allow in-house facilitation as departments and divisions across the institution grapple with issues that arise when serving one of the most diverse student populations in Tennessee.
The Teaching Center offers a Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices Certificate for the faculty of Nashville State Community College. Culturally Responsive Teaching has been defined as a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings, 1994). Through the certificate, faculty will be able to learn about CRTP, implement CRTP, and better connect with students by using CRTP in their classes.
For more information about Nashville State's investments in equity, contact Mia Sneed, HR Administrator, Employee Relations and Equity for Nashville State Community College at mia.sneed@nscc.edu.
Racial Equity Institute Training
New Skills Ready Nashville trained over 400 K12 professionals, higher education leaders, and members of the business community on racial equity. Trainers from the Racial Equity Institute conducted multiple virtual Groundwater training sessions across our project team and broader stakeholder community as we embarked on New Skills Ready so that we would have a shared understanding of systemic racial inequity. This foundational component was a critical early investment in our work to address equity gaps.
REI_Groundwater_White Paper (1).pdfGroundwater Training
Learn more about the groundwater training our team participated in.
RESOURCES
Momentum Metrics
Learn more about the metrics used by New Skills Ready Nashville to evaluate our progress in closing equity gaps.