Our Approach
In our work, we think about curriculum and instruction services and practices within the larger context of social justice, equity and trauma-engaged practice, and to support schools in responding to learners’ and families’ lived experience. CES consultants listen to schools’ and educators’ needs; learn about their current initiatives; and then tailor services that respond to needs and leverage initiatives.
Experience
Districts and schools are required to comply with DESE mandates regarding program design, implementation and evaluation, and must demonstrate this compliance through scheduled monitoring reviews. In addition, MCAS data and other important indicators of student performance compel districts and schools to seek assistance with improving student outcomes. We know that district curriculum directors and school-based curriculum and instruction specialists and coaches at times have lean availability to assume these tasks. For instance, supporting the Chelsea Public Schools with professional development, technical assistance and coaching for leaders, teachers and instructional coaches in the district’s three middle schools to improve student outcomes. This project’s year one success in one middle school inspired an expansion to serve all three middle schools in the second year.
Services
Equity Teams
Addressing inequities in schools requires that adults and young people work together to explore, assess, and transform school culture. CES provides a highly skilled and racially diverse co-facilitation team to walk your equity team through this important, complex, and intersectional work.
Student-Centered Work-Intergroup Dialogues
This program seeks to integrate social justice and equity focused philosophy and practice into district schools and classrooms through the research-based practice of Intergroup Dialogue.
Intergroup Dialogues are a series of small group, co-facilitated, carefully structured experiences that encourage relational dialogue rather than debate while exploring social group identity, conflict, community, and equity.
Customized Professional Development
We offer a range of tailored professional development, team and individualized coaching, and technical assistance related to equity, district and building leadership. These are designed for educators seeking to enhance their knowledge, perspective, and skills, and we can bring those development experiences on site to your location. We recommend beginning district-wide or school-wide equity work with building a relational foundation and then exploring historical legacies of oppression that are impacting our schools today.
Anti-racism Practices and Teaching
Including technical assistance for implementing anti-racism curriculum.
Equity and Inclusion Assessments
School Climate Audits, surveys, focus groups, interviews
Featured Resource
Leading for Equity Framework: National Equity Project
Free Resources
Please visit our growing list of free resource links for your social justice and equity programs and questions.
Safire DeJong, Ed.D.
CES Social Justice and Equity in Schools Specialist
Safire leads social justice focused consulting and PD for PK-12 schools with an array of talented and experienced co-facilitators and consultants. Her decades of training in social justice education, co-leading intergroup dialogues, training intergroup dialogue facilitators, and her research on young people’s experiences with status and power in schools and communities have enabled her to develop a broad set of tools and skills.
Sabine Jacques, Ed.D.
CES Social Justice and Equity in Schools Specialist
Sabine Jacques is a First Generation Haitian-American woman from Everett, MA. She is a social justice facilitator, theater practitioner, actress, and Fulbright Scholar. She holds a BA in African-American studies, a Multicultural Theater cerificate, and her Masters in International Education with a certificate in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Sabine is passionate about arts activism within Black & Brown communities, and believes in the power of storytelling and its ability to provide space for vulnerability, healing, & joy.
Tom Chang, M.Ed.
CES Social Justice and Equity Specialist
Tom has been advocating for students, families, and their schools for over twenty years. He has spent fifteen years in elementary schools as a classroom teacher and math
Mariah Lapiroff
CES Social Justice and Equity Specialist
Originally from Berkeley, CA, Mariah Lapiroff grew up in a Chinese and Jewish family with parents who taught in local public schools. She has several years experience working at K-12 and university levels. Her work in education began at a youth choir and an elementary school on the West Coast. After coming to the Valley to complete her M.A.T. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she taught high school Latin for several years in East Longmeadow, where she infused social justice into her work at the classroom and district-wide levels. More recently at UMass Amherst, she has worked in new teacher education. She has also facilitated courses, workshops and dialogues on the topics of identity, race, social justice and education for students and educators and is currently completing her Education Specialist degree in Social Justice Education.