4th Annual Racial Equity Summit Registration

Join us for the 4th Annual Racial Equity Summit on Saturday, March 18, 2023, at Martin University! This year’s theme is “Driving Equity in Education: What’s your role?”. Together, we can create a community where student outcomes cannot be predicted by race or ethnicity. Following the keynote address, attendees will be able to participate in a number of workshops designed around this year’s theme. Please register below to attend! The summit is open to IPS high school students, parents and staff, university students and staff, and community members.

IPS employees can receive professional learning credits for attendance. Please register on the professional learning site prior to the event to ensure you receive these credits.

WORKSHOPS

Description: This powerful keynote will cognitively engage the attendees to reassess their current thinking as it pertains to race, ethnicity and equity. The program participants will leave this component with an understanding of how their thinking in these terms has a direct correlation to racial disproportionality and disparities.

George Middleton, Mental Health Counselor, CSAYC, Author. Musician, Mentor

Description: This session counters the prevailing deficit-based narratives of Black youth in schools by illuminating the teaching practices of Black mother educators. This session makes a case for centering the voices and experiences of Black women in the protection and educational uplift of Black children. Participants will hear a collection of autoethnographic narratives from Black mother educators who work at the intersections of their personal and professional identities to protect Black children in PK-12 contexts.

Dr. Tambra O. Jackson, Ph.D., Dean, IU School of Education at IUPUI, Professor, Urban Teacher Education. Adjunct Professor, Africana Studies

Description: What might it mean to create classrooms that resist the carcerality of Black bodies and freedom? How might centering Black joy and Black love serve as antidote to outdated narratives, curricula, and pedagogical practices? This session will explore the ways in which attention to Black love and joy serves the interest and performance of Black students as a critical pedagogical intervention, while promoting what theorists call “full participation” for all students.

Dr. Joseph Tucker Edmonds, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Religious Studies, Associate Director, IUPUI; The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture Scholar in Residence, Indiana Humanities

Description: The term “language justice” is a powerful way to describe individuals’ fundamental right to have their voices heard. This presentation is the product of the collective work of individuals and organizations who share a commitment to “multilingual spaces” – that is, spaces intentionally created to incorporate two or more languages and cultures in all aspects of the Indianapolis Public Schools learning community. The participants will leave this workshop with an understanding that multilingual spaces are essential and equitable rights for student learning and building strong parent engagement.

Dr. Arturo Rodriguez, IPS Senior ENL Coordinator

Description: ACT OUT, an Indianapolis-based, social-issue theatre ensemble, will present a live, interactive, dramatic experience. The focus will be on issues of equity, discrimination in schools, the workplace and other emotionally charged situations that emerge while working together as a community. The goal is to create an inclusive learning environment and a positive workplace culture in our schools.

Claude McNeal Productions

Description – In this workshop, we’ll focus on the history of public schools in Indianapolis, segregation, redlining, expansion, the impact of UniGov, bussing and how these factors have impacted present-day Indianapolis.

Sampson Levingston (Through2Eyes), Historian, Storyteller, Teacher

Description: The Indianapolis Foundation is proud to present our newest racial equity tool, The Movement of 10,000 (or MVMT10K for short). This tool consists of anti-racism learning pathways, a self-assessment, a Community Events Calendar, and more. We launched the MVMT10K in October of 2022 and we are ready to get the community signed up and involved in the movement, today!

Kayla S. Knox, M.A., Equitable Initiatives Officer at the Indianapolis Foundation and Project Manager of the MVMT10K

Danae Freeman, MVMT10K Engagement Associate and AmeriCorps Public Ally