Running head: 1 PAGE 3 Culturally Conscious and Competent Equity Plan Culture embodies the sentiment of belonging to a specific group of people. Humans define, and are defined by, asking who, what, where, when, and why. They seek what they know and who can comprehensively share that understanding. The above reasons are exactly why embracing diverse identities is essential to creating a culturally responsive team of educators in schools. Columbia Heights Public Schools (CHPS) will be adopting a culturally responsive action plan to create a more equitable system for behavior referrals. Specifically, Valley View Elementary will be the school within CHPS piloting the action plan. By implementing this plan, educators will be provided with the knowledge, training and tools to approach behavior referrals under a multicultural and equitable lens. Columbia Heights Public School district is a grade Pre K-12 system that consists of five main school buildings, one administrative building, and one family center. CHPS has an overall annual enrollment of approximately 3,200 students. There are three elementary schools with an approximate annual enrollment of 540 students per school, one middle school with an approximate annual enrollment of 750 students per school, and one high school with an approximate annual enrollment of 900 students. In the district there are over forty different recorded home languages. During the 2016-2017 school year, an average of 78.9% of Columbia Heights students qualified for free and reduced lunch. District wide the diversity during the 2016-2017 year was recorded as 35.7% black, 34% Hispanic, 21.2% White, 5.4% Asian (Pacific Islander), and 3.7% American Indian, which are reflective of Valley View’s demographics as well, (“Columbia Heights Public Schools,” n.d.). Valley View is a Title 1 school with an average of 85% of Valley View students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Cultural diversity is a norm among staff and students alike at CHPS. While Columbia Heights Public Schools has a high degree of diversity, the behavior referrals by teachers do not reflect the demographics. African American students have a significantly higher referral rate than any other demographic in the school. During the 2016-2017 school year, the following behavior referrals were made in respect to student demographics throughout the district as a whole. The following is a breakdown of referrals based on a total 723 referrals; 6 American Indian student referrals, 6 Asian/Pacific Islander student referrals, 76 Hispanic student referrals, 90 White student referrals, 75 multiracial referrals, and 470 African American referrals (Data Reports and Analytics., n.d.). Data shows that 65% of behavior referrals were African American students despite the fact that African American students made up less than 36% of the population. Because of this overwhelmingly skewed behavior referral statistic, it is essential for change to be made in order to ensur.

1. Running head:
1
PAGE
3
Culturally Conscious and Competent Equity Plan
Culture embodies the sentiment of belonging to a specific group
of people. Humans define, and are defined by, asking who,
what, where, when, and why. They seek what they know and
who can comprehensively share that understanding. The above
reasons are exactly why embracing diverse identities is essential
to creating a culturally responsive team of educators in schools.
Columbia Heights Public Schools (CHPS) will be adopting a
culturally responsive action plan to create a more equitable
system for behavior referrals. Specifically, Valley View
Elementary will be the school within CHPS piloting the action
plan. By implementing this plan, educators will be provided
with the knowledge, training and tools to approach behavior
referrals under a multicultural and equitable lens.
Columbia Heights Public School district is a grade Pre K-12
system that consists of five main school buildings, one
administrative building, and one family center. CHPS has an
overall annual enrollment of approximately 3,200 students.
There are three elementary schools with an approximate annual
enrollment of 540 students per school, one middle school with
an approximate annual enrollment of 750 students per school,
and one high school with an approximate annual enrollment of
900 students. In the district there are over forty different
recorded home languages. During the 2016-2017 school year, an
average of 78.9% of Columbia Heights students qualified for
free and reduced lunch. District wide the diversity during the

2. 2016-2017 year was recorded as 35.7% black, 34% Hispanic,
21.2% White, 5.4% Asian (Pacific Islander), and 3.7%
American Indian, which are reflective of Valley View’s
demographics as well, (“Columbia Heights Public Schools,”
n.d.). Valley View is a Title 1 school with an average of 85% of
Valley View students qualifying for free and reduced lunch.
Cultural diversity is a norm among staff and students alike at
CHPS.
While Columbia Heights Public Schools has a high degree of
diversity, the behavior referrals by teachers do not reflect the
demographics. African American students have a significantly
higher referral rate than any other demographic in the school.
During the 2016-2017 school year, the following behavior
referrals were made in respect to student demographics
throughout the district as a whole. The following is a
breakdown of referrals based on a total 723 referrals; 6
American Indian student referrals, 6 Asian/Pacific Islander
student referrals, 76 Hispanic student referrals, 90 White
student referrals, 75 multiracial referrals, and 470 African
American referrals (Data Reports and Analytics., n.d.). Data
shows that 65% of behavior referrals were African American
students despite the fact that African American students made
up less than 36% of the population. Because of this
overwhelmingly skewed behavior referral statistic, it is
essential for change to be made in order to ensure an equitable
education for all students. Valley View Elementary will pilot an
action plan to create awareness and launch change within the
foundation of the district.
In order to initiate and apply change within a system, Kurt
Lewin created a three step change management model. In this
model Lewin proposes three phases called unfreeze, change, and
refreeze.

3. Figure 1. An Adaptation from Lewin, K., Lewin's Change
Management Model: Understanding
the Three Stages of Change. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2018,
from
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm
During the three phases educators will be presented with the
idea of change and given rationale for the need for change,
shown a comprehensive plan for the change given time to accept
and begin implementation, and given time to adequately
implement the plan with fidelity across the organization. This
follows the specifics detailed in Lewin’s aforementioned
unfreeze, change, refreeze concept (Lewin's Change
Management Model: Understanding the Three Stages of
Change., n.d.). This process will be utilized to create change
leading to an equitable and culturally responsive behavior
management and referral plan.
Valley View Elementary currently has a behavior plan in place
where teachers can send students down to a Time to Think
(TTT) room. This room is for students who cannot remain in
class because of various behaviors or lack of self-control.
Currently, students are sent to the same room for minor
behaviors as well as major behaviors. Minor behaviors can
range from defiant actions to lack of self-control and being a
distraction. Major behaviors are categorized as physical
altercations, offensive actions, damage to property, and/or
inappropriate behavior. Students are sent to the TTT room with
a written referral from the teacher and a behavioral educational
assistant takes over at that point in monitoring the referred
student in the TTT room. The principal may or may not be

4. notified of the behavior and the student is sent back to class at
the discretion of the educational assistant. There are no formal
guidelines for which behaviors merit a TTT referral in turn
allowing the teacher to subjectively make the decision. The plan
for change will be to create a referral process establishing a
dichotomy between behavior and self-control referrals while
also working with professional development to receive
culturally responsive pedagogical training. The first phase of
the change model would be to dissolve the current protocol and
create a more effective plan, phase two will consist of designing
a referral plan that is equitable for all students, followed by
phase three which is implementation and assessment.
The first phase of change, Lewin’s unfreeze stage, will take
place during in-service professional development at the
beginning of the year in order to roll out the behavior referral
plan with fidelity from day one with students. To initiate
change, the unfreeze phase will consist of examining the current
referral plan and inventory which practices are effective and
which need improvement. Educators will be presented with data
showing the high rate of African American student referrals
supporting the need for change. As a staff, teachers and
administrators will be given the opportunity to examine the data
of 2016-2017 referrals, both overall as a district and specific to
Valley View Elementary. This will also include details
specifying the reason for the referral sans teacher and student
names. This data will show concrete evidence of a need for
change and will prove to resistant educators that the change is
an essential movement. The data will show that referrals are
subjective, inconsistent, and inequitable which should resonate
a sentiment of concurrence towards the need for change.
Teachers will examine past referrals and also ask themselves if
the behavior is linked to culture or is actually a behavior
infraction. This will begin the conversation surrounding the
difficult topic of the reasons teachers are sending students to
TTT and examining if the behavior truly merits a punitive

5. measure.
The second phase of the change plan is to work with staff the
establish a comprehensive change to the foundation of referrals,
identify and examine preexisting prejudices in staff, and
provide staff with culturally responsive training. In order
initiate a shift towards a cognizant change in cultural
competence, teachers will be asked to complete the Intercultural
Development Inventory (IDI). The IDI is a cultural competency
assessment which allows users to become aware of where they
are on the intercultural development continuum and how they
can shift from where they are towards adaptation which is
defined as, “Shifting cultural perspective and changing behavior
in culturally appropriate and authentic ways,” (The Intercultural
Development Inventory (IDI), 2018).
Figure 2. Intercultural Development Continuum scale as cited in
The Intercultural Development
Inventory (IDI). (2018, February 26). Retrieved June 17, 2018,
from
https://idiinventory.com/products/the-intercultural-
development-inventory-idi/
The assessment provides individual results as well as group
results by school. The assessment also provides information and
strategies on how to shift towards culturally competent. By
recognizing where educators are individually, as well as
comprehensively as an entire staff, institutions can begin the
essential move in the direction of a more culturally competent
ideology. This mindset will help to create a firm set of
circumstances for student referrals and develop a clearer
understanding of student behavior. It will also help support the
need for examining past referrals and sorting them into those

6. which may be seen as disruptions but may just be cultural
responses to stimulus. In order to combat these negative
referrals, educators will be provided with culturally responsive
pedagogy training from an outside source. This will help create
a framework for not only incorporating culture and improving
instruction by integrating multicultural approaches, but also
assisting in educating instructors on what behaviors justify
referrals and what behaviors are cultural. Knowing and
accepting this, teachers can begin to create a flowchart of
behaviors which constitute punitive intervention and which
behaviors warrant other interventions such as sensory breaks,
quiet reflection rooms, and various non-punitive strategies. This
will be consistent among all staff eliminating subjective
referrals and establishing which behaviors are truly deserving of
the TTT room. Teachers will be held accountable in
implementing this flowchart with fidelity as they need to fill out
the rationale for sending students to TTT with a description of
behavior. These referrals will then be reexamined quarterly with
the administrator to ensure the appropriate use of referrals,
TTT, and the flowchart.
The final phase, the refreeze stage, will consist of implementing
the flowchart with fidelity to the point that it is embedded in
classroom management in all classes consistently. At this stage,
the staff will have accepted the change in the referral process as
well as implementing a multicultural education approach as part
of the institution. At the end of the year, staff will examine the
number of referrals to see if the flowchart has created more
equitable referral data. The plan will be revised annually to
continually strive towards an increasingly equitable school for
all students. Teachers will also be given the IDI again to show
movement towards adapting on culturally competent scale.
By implementing this action plan, educators will understand the
need for change by strategically examining previous year’s data,
be aware individually and institutionally where they lie on the

7. Intercultural Development Continuum. This awareness will also
help set how educators can grow towards culturally competent
as well as provide teachers with given strategies to incorporate
multicultural strategies in the classroom. All of these
developments lead to the overarching goal of becoming a more
equitable institution in all areas.