Guest Blog: Brooke Frarck, CSI School Improvement & Equity Specialist
With the Fall 2021 rollout of the newly updated Colorado Charter School Institute (CSI) Equity Screener, numerous schools are fully immersed in their data and are holding equity discussions and goal-setting sessions.
The Equity Screener process involves three components:
- Data Release: Six data indicators (enrollment, completion, attendance, discipline, stability, and growth) are released at various intervals throughout the school year. These staggered data release dates make the data-dig and goal-setting process more manageable. The Equity Screener dashboard is interactive and provides a diagnostic to zoom in on the specific data points for a school.
- Tiers of Support: Along with the data indicator release, tiers of support tailored to the needs and requests of each school are also released at various times throughout the school year.
- Tier 1 supports are available year long and include supports like: EL Program Plan development templates, home language survey documentation, and professional development opportunities open to all educators and school leaders.
- Tier 2 and tier 3 supports, which are staggered throughout the year, include supports like individualized professional development offerings, action plan data dig partnerships, and individual mentorship and supports.
- School Meetings: Lastly, the school meetings led by CSI’s Equity Specialist, Brooke Frarck, allow for authentic conversation and data review. School leaders can gain insight into the data found within the screener and ask questions. And, importantly, school leaders have the autonomy to set their own equity-related goals and can elect to align these goals with other processes such as the UIP.
CSI staff provide expertise and resources to help schools reach their unique goals.
One such example of the individualized support via the Equity Screener tool is the work currently taking place at Colorado Early Colleges Colorado Springs. The school’s staff have been fully immersed in English language development and support for their multi-lingual learners. With the school’s growing number of English Language Learners (ELL), CEC-Colorado Springs recognizes the need to expand professional development offerings for its entire staff. Through partnership with CSI, CEC-Colorado Springs has embarked on a three-part English Language Development (ELD) series of trainings for their middle and high school teaching staff.
“I have really enjoyed working with Dr. Mia Allen and Ms. Brooke Frarck. They are both extremely knowledgeable in teaching Multilingual Learners and genuinely interested and supportive in the specific needs of our school in this area. They have engaged our staff in high quality professional development and have also supported and built capacity in our ELL Coordinator.”
Similarly, the Equity Screener tool has helped Tina Jajdelski at Community Leadership Academy/Victory Preparatory Academy (CLA/VPA) in Commerce City when examining enrollment numbers. She is currently partnering with CSI to further examine enrollment data for students who qualify for both Special Education and English Language services. This work will not only help support the students within their schools, but also to provide additional insight into data that is used for CSI’s authorization processes.
To schedule an Equity Screener session, reach out to Brooke Frarck, CSI’s School Improvement and Equity Specialist. CSI is here to partner with and support schools with their equity-related needs.