Building Equity-Mindedness In An Organization

Abstract Information: The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation (FI) is an organization within the College of Education at NC State University that collaborates with partners to provide research services, evaluation services, policy services, professional learning, educational opportunities, supports and tools. The FI includes several teams that primarily work independently of each other, and many of them are responsible for securing funding for their work. In 2020, as part of the FI’s strategic planning, the organization committed to a theory of change that adopted an equity-mindedness mindset. Equity-mindedness at the FI is defined as “the mode of thinking exhibited by educational stakeholders who are willing to: 1) increase their understanding of the origins and causes of persistent and systemic barriers to student success, 2) critically assess their own biases, and 3) take responsibility for the success of all learners in order to increase equity in education.” The Equity-Mindedness Committee (EMC) was formed in 2020, and began by focusing on equity within the FI, reasoning that it was important for the FI to understand its own strengths and weaknesses with regard to equity before helping other organizations develop more equitable practices. The FI EMC created an action plan that included training for FI employees, regular communications from the committee to FI staff regarding equity and the committee’s progress, and an external equity inventory of the FI. Based on the results of the equity inventory, which indicated a lack of trust in hiring and promotion practices among employees, the EMC conducted an internal review of the hiring, job titles, pay, evaluation, and promotion processes of each unit within the FI. Members of the committee conducted focus groups with FI staff members and interviews with department directors. The committee hoped to learn what staff members knew about their departments’ procedures for hiring, job descriptions, pay, evaluation, and promotion and how that information was communicated. The committee also hoped to identify any inconsistencies in perceptions among staff members and between staff members and their supervisors. The findings indicated considerable inconsistencies across departments in hiring, job titles, pay, evaluation, and promotion practices, and in how these were communicated with staff members. There was also a great deal of difference among staff members in terms of their knowledge of these procedures. The committee provided five recommendations to the Executive Director of the FI to address these issues: 1) FI leaders should explore the possibility of adding new job titles, 2) FI leaders should increase the understanding among all employees of job titles and duties, 3) FI leaders should help to define the distinctions between employees that need to find funding and those that do not, 4) FI leaders should explore how teams include the supervision of students in their staff members’ efforts, and 5) FI leaders should facilitate organization-wide discussions.