Bay Village Citizens for Transparency
The Equity Audit
After the Board's Equity Resolution in August of 2020, the creation of Diversity and Equity Committees and the Diversity Champion Program in November of 2020, the Board decided to do an equity audit.
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To our knowledge, the Board has not provided any examples of the problems the equity audit seeks to solve.
The Purpose
The Proposal stated the purpose of the audit is as follows:
"Leadership is seeking consultant services skilled in the work of equity and diversity..." Further, the proposal stated: "Leadership desires development to support its developing strategic initiative surrounding academic equity and social justice."
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To review the full draft proposal, please click here.
The Objectives
The objectives were stated in the proposal, see below:
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Among the results to be achieved are these key objectives:
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1. Establish key metrics for evaluation and implementation of the District's strategic initiative on equity and diversity.
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2. Raise awareness on the impact of implicit bias on student engagement and academic achievement.
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3. Increase instructional outcomes for all student groups, including learners with special needs.
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4. Confront stakeholders' implicit bias.
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5. Develop stakeholders' cultural sensitivity.
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To review the full draft proposal, please click here.
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The Agreement
The BVSD entered into a 3-way agreement with Ohio School Board and A.L. Berry Consulting. The strange thing is that the "Ohio School Board" is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization).
Click on the PDF to review the agreement.
The Auditor
The district hired consultant AL Berry to conduct an Equity Audit. Below is the auditor's landing page, click to go to her website.
The Audit Procedures
The audit consisted of 3 surveys given to BVSD district employees ONLY. The District Says: "One Community, Many Voices."
What About Parent's Voices?
The Auditor's Independence
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The ability for A.L. Berry to perform an unbiased, objective audit is questionable.
Traditionally when an audit is performed, the auditor must be independent. They can’t have a preconceived opinion or the results of the audit itself will be bias. According to WikiAccounting:
“Auditor’s independence refers to the independent working style of the auditor being unbiased, unfettered, uninfluenced, and being fully objective in performing audit responsibilities.”
The below quotes are from the owner’s personal blog posts on the A.L. Berry Inc. website. Please see her blog posts to determine if they were original quotes or quotes from other authors.
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“This nation has a 400-year history of oppression and systemic racism. The old, white, male guard have a vested interest in continuing the practices that have oppressed people of color and suppressed their right to exercise their freedoms.”
“Men who’ve enjoyed lives of white privilege, never having been harassed by police for the color of their skin, nor thrown out of a K-12 classroom because they looked at the white teacher funny, should steer clear of using words like “wokeness” because they have no clue. Period.”
“The white privilege inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by those with skin of Black or Brown.”
”We have been socialized into our biases which we may either name (explicit bias), or show through our words, actions, microaggressions without being conscious of doing so. That would be implicit or unconscious bias. Disconnecting people from those biases is not like unplugging or rebooting a computer. There is no control-alt-delete for implicit bias.”
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“If you think systemic racism and implicit bias don’t play a role in numbers (referring to student scores) like these, you are wrong!”
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Audit Results
A review of the audit results from Phase 1A do not reveal an "equity" problem [1]:
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About 90% of respondents somewhat or strongly agree that students have access to all the resources they need to be successful in the classroom.
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No concern found that equity issues are not already being addressed.
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About 15% of respondents somewhat disagree or strongly disagree that transparency is a district core value.
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[1] The district provided the Phase 1A audit report results, please click here to view Part 1 and here to view Part 2.
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Equity Audit Documents
Draft Proposal Phase 1A Equity Audit
Phase 1A Service Agreement - OSBA, AL Berry, and BVSD
