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Pierott: Equity offers challenges, opportunities for success

Diversity initiatives take aim at hurdles to quality education

By DEENA PIEROTT
Published: January 21, 2016, 5:00am

Providing every student access to an adequate education is at the heart of the quest to make every child a graduate. However, 49 years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling struck down discrimination in education, many students are still receiving inadequate and inequitable educations.

We have fallen short on achieving our ideals of equity not only in education but also in the workplace. Equity is a difficult ideal to maintain, and many strategies attempting to maintain it have fallen far short in their implementation.

The most obvious and horrendous case in point is the federal No Child Left Behind Act. A 2013 report called “For Each and Every Child,” written by the federal Equity and Excellence Commission, concluded that “some young Americans — most of them white and affluent — are getting a world-class education” while those who “attend schools in high poverty neighborhoods are getting an education that more closely approximates schools in developing nations.”

In other words, the problem of ensuring that every child in the United States receives a quality education remains quite a substantial one. This basic hurdle of access to such education has not even been overcome.

I’d like to see more dialogue and action in Southwest Washington on equity and education challenges.

On workplace issues, Mosaic Blueprint is increasing the conversations around equity with interactive panel discussions that focus on unconscious biases and micro-aggressions, things that we’re all guilty of at some point or another. These intimate conversations, in a safe environment where participants can speak honestly, are key to advancing diversity and inclusion.

On equity in education, I feel that we’re getting there. I love the diversity initiatives and programs that Clark College has launched over the past several years. Clark College and Washington State University Vancouver continue to create a thriving learning environment for their students, and both schools are intentional and authentic with this work.

Looking forward into the new year, I’d like to grow iUrban Teen Tech more in Southwest Washington, ensuring that our youth from diverse backgrounds and our low-income youth have the latest cutting edge exposure to STEM+Arts and career pathways. This focus and strategy will create more economic stability here in our community.


Deena Pierott is owner of Mosaic Blueprint, a diversity consulting firm, and founder of iUrban Teen Tech, a program that exposes underserved teens to science and technology careers.

2016 Economic Forecast

Find more information from the speakers at the annual event, along with videos of the keynote speakers and each of the breakout sessions at www.columbian.com/economicforecast. (Videos will be available Friday morning)
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