Equity & Engagement in Education

Since 1982, Banned Books Week has been an annual event that originated in response to a surge of challenges to books in schools, bookstores, and libraries. This celebration of free and open access to information brings together members of the book community to ensure that books are included even if some people find them upsetting. [...]

As an organization, we care deeply about our students who are at-risk. Personally, Sarah and I both worry about our LGBTQ+ students and the amount of difficulties that they are navigating in their daily lives. When we learned about the staggering statistics regarding bullying, threats of violence, and attempts at suicide among this group of [...]

At CPE, one of the things we focused on this summer was ensuring that our policies and statements appropriately reflected our pedagogy and practice, as an organization. We realized that we were missing a statement on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, so we worked to rectify that. We wrote a statement that reflects our values [...]

As educators, we often have opportunities to make a change, big or small, to help our students have a stronger sense of belonging in our classrooms and buildings. These moments, when they present themselves, can sometimes feel risky for us to engage in while at other times, we don’t have a moment of hesitation. Perhaps [...]

School counselors and career coaches aren’t always given the credit they deserve in students’ success stories. They may not stand in front of a class and teach lessons, but they do teach students invaluable lessons about believing in themselves, goal setting, and taking practical steps toward post-grad success. Relationship building is at the core of [...]

As inclusive educators, we want to 1) provide opportunities to explore the cultural heritage of different groups and 2) celebrate diversity and the many ways it improves our world. Recognizing the different heritage months throughout the year is a great way to spur learning, appreciation, and recognition of the various identities that make up our [...]

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects nearly 1 in 36 children. People with autism can have differences in communication, sensory needs, executive functioning skills, perception, and gross/fine motor skills. Autism appears on a spectrum of various severities and presentations of symptoms, making each case complex and highly individual. To me, [...]

The importance of seeing ourselves in different roles or careers is paramount because a student will subconsciously limit their abilities simply because they do not see other people that look like themselves doing a job or working in a career they are interested in. My colleague, Christy Kuehn, discussed this idea a few weeks ago [...]

I am someone who has been leading conversations around equity, diversity, and inclusion for my entire adult life. I think about topics like marginalization, intersectionality, and systemic injustice regularly. I would label myself a progressive social justice educator…and I have implicit biases.  Last spring, I was out for a walk and met a neighbor who [...]

As we wrap up Women’s History Month, CPE wanted to highlight a local female educator who is a trailblazer in the field of education. One year ago, Tamara Allen-Thomas became the first ever Black female superintendent of Clairton City School District. We interviewed Allen-Thomas as part of our I Reach, I Teach interview series with [...]