Dignity, Belonging & Community

The Mission

Honoring Dignity, Fostering Belonging, Creating Community

Goals and Key Priorities

Developing inclusive curriculum, instruction, and assessment K-12.
Strengthening and creating opportunities, access, and educational experiences for all students in our schools.
Prioritizing student and community input to develop fair and inclusive policies that empower all stakeholders.

Steps

Listen to and acknowledge stakeholders' shared experiences.
Describe our students' varied educational experiences.
Identify and implement strategies that address and mitigate disparities that result from systemic barriers.
Dismantle the systems that result in marginalization, injustice, and educational disparities.
Rebuild systems to reflect culturally responsive-sustaining education standards.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Jenny Rodriguez, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

jrodriguez@mamkschools.org/(914) 220-3045

Ms. Rodriguez joined the administrative team at Mamaroneck High School in 2016. During her time at Mamaroneck High School, Ms. Rodriguez has engaged in equity work on various levels, including her current role as the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging for the district. In this capacity, she works to ensure that the tenets of the District Equity Plan and District Equity Policy permeate throughout the district.

Before joining Mamaroneck High School, Ms. Rodriguez spent several years as an instructional leader and assistant principal at the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) in New York City. She provided professional development, coaching, and teacher observations while working to ensure that all students were not only on track to graduate but also accepted into their colleges of choice. WHEELS opened its doors in 2006 and, since graduating its first senior class in 2012, 100% of its graduates have been accepted to two- and four-year colleges.

“My focus is on high standards for students, parents, and teachers,” says Ms. Rodriguez. “Most importantly, I consider myself a strategic problem solver, with the never-ending goal of strengthening school culture, student motivation, and academic achievement.”

Upon graduating from Syracuse University, Ms. Rodriguez began her career as a Spanish teacher through Teach for America. She also has extensive experience in college counseling. While at Bronx Preparatory Charter School, Ms. Rodriguez served as a senior college counselor.

She earned her undergraduate degree in International Relations and Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture and holds master's degrees in Comparative International Education from Teachers College at Columbia University and in School Building Leadership from Mercy College. Ms. Rodriguez speaks fluent Spanish and lives with her daughter in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Mamaroneck Equity in Education Leaders

The Mamaroneck Equity in Education Leaders (MEELs) will work collaboratively with the District Equity Team (DET) to ensure equitable access, inclusion, and treatment of all students by helping to develop an equitable environment within their school. MEEL representatives will serve as equity leaders within their school community for staff, students, and families supporting opportunities for growth and development for all stakeholders.

Bonnie Sloofman, MEEL & DET Co-Chair

bsloofman@mamkschools.org

Leon Whyte, MEEL & DET Co-Chair

lwhyte@mamkschools.org

Click here to read about the Mamaroneck School District's Equity in Education leaders.

Equity Task Force Application

The Work

Taking On Anti-Racist Work

It is not just enough for one to say he/she is not racist. Our actions must show that we are elevating historically marginalized voices and empowering all students as agents of change. Building on the District’s racial literacy work conducted with students and staff in recent years, the District is committed to doing more — making equity and access a top priority during the 2020-2021 academic year and beyond.

Previous Work

2023-2024

2022-2023

2021-2022

2020-2021

Equity Team Met in Summer, 2020, to Develop Strategic Plan
The District Equity Team (DET) met in mid-July, 2020, for the first of three virtual workshops to reconnect with the NYSED Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Framework and collaborate in smaller subcommittee groups for deeper analysis. As one DET member described it, discussion revolved around “making bold moves and taking action” related to the District’s anti-racism work. An advisory committee and subcommittees were formed, and the strategic plan was developed. See timeline for the Team’s work here and PowerPoint from the group’s professional learning and strategic planning work here.

2020-2021 equity work plan

SPOTLIGHT ON EQUITY:
Special February, 2021 Edition of Tiger Tracks

A series of virtual Community Forums were held inf Fall, 2020 on the District's Multi-Year Strategic Equity Plan goals and outcomes. More info here.

View the Equity Team’s presentation

Vea la presentación del Equipo de Equidad en español

2019-2020

View the Equity Team’s presentation

Vea la presentación del Equipo de Equidad en español

Identifying, Acknowledging and Dismantling Racism

Identify the ways in which Black and Brown students in our district experience inequities in education
Acknowledge the voices of students and/or parents who have shared their experiences with racism in our district
Formulate strategies and take action to address racial issues, disparities and system barriers

Prior to 2019

Initiatives Across the Decade

Read about initiatives across the decade

The Mamaroneck School District sees its diverse student body as one of its greatest assets. The partnerships we have formed with outside organizations over the past 10 years, many of them involving professional development (some on Superintendent’s Conference Days), have had a profound influence on our curriculum. Several key initiatives to confront racism and bias have created impact, including:

Co-op Summer Enrichment: Co-Op is a Mamaroneck School District summer slide intervention program that works to provide equal access to summer learning for all children. MUFSD is dedicated to providing learning opportunities that help reduce the achievement gap between low income students and higher income students. Co-Op serves 72% Hispanic campers, 5% Black, 5% White and 5% Multi-Racial/Other and 13% undeclared. Led by the STEM Alliance with a strong focus on hands-on STEM education, Co-Op does not take a deficit approach to the needs of the campers. Rather, the program offers highly enriching project-based learning to ensure that all Mamaroneck students have the opportunity to participate in high quality summer programming.

Facing History and Ourselves
The Mamaroneck School District has had a 15-year relationship with Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO), an international non-profit organization that for 40 years has “empowered young people to confront bigotry and antisemitism”. Watch video about the partnership between MUFSD and FHAO and its mission to use teaching as a vehicle for making the world a better place, for helping students gain more voice, and assisting them in being better members of their community. The work with FHAO led to a 9th grade Mamaroneck High School four-week curriculum in English and Social Studies classes focused on identity, bias, the danger of a single story and discrimination. This curriculum infused many concepts of FHAO and culminated with a visit by contemporary civil rights activist and playwright, Spirit Trickey (daughter of Minnijean Brown Trickey, member of the Little Rock Nine).

Library Audits
Audits have been conducted in classroom libraries and curricula; we have continually infused new titles to ensure all students have access to high-quality texts that reflect authors and characters of diverse genders, races, ethnicities, cultures, sexual orientations, abilities.

Courageous Conversations
The District engaged 80+ administrators, faculty members, and parents in a two-day Beyond Diversity seminar with Courageous Conversation, an organization founded by Glen Singleton.

Equity Audit

The Data

Our staff and Board of Education are committed to ensuring that every adult and child feels appreciated, validated, accepted and treated fairly. This commitment is based on our steadfast belief that belonging is integral to ensuring that all students and staff achieve to their fullest potential.

To this end, in the fall of 2022 we continued our ongoing collaboration with “Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity” co-authors Dr. Floyd Cobb and John Krownapple, whose research is helping to guide us as we work to promote welcoming school environments. Our faculty and staff have participated in professional development with Dignity Consulting, and we have been strategizing on our efforts around elevating belonging in our school community.

In the winter of 2024, all students in grades 4-12 were asked to participate in our Student Belonging and School Climate Survey. School-based Belonging Teams, comprised of administrators and staff, analyzed student belonging data and are working to implement strategies to improve students’ sense of belonging as a means to optimize the conditions for learning.

Why Survey Our Youth?

It has been well established by educational research that students who feel a greater sense of school belonging experience many positive outcomes, including greater academic achievement. A recent study published in the School Psychology International stated,

“Regardless of the term, school belonging, engagement, connectedness, and bonding have been linked with academic persistence and effort (Tinto, 1997), better educational outcomes (Goodenow, 1993), prosocial behaviors (Solomon, Battistich, Kim, & Watson, 1996), fewer mental health problems (Gaete, Rojas- Barahona, Olivares, & Araya, 2016), reduced bullying victimization (Bosworth, Espelage, & Simon, 1999), gratitude (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008), and lower rates of delinquency and dropout (Finn & Rock, 1997).”

By surveying our students, we hope to gather more information about their experiences and perceptions so that we can learn how to better meet their needs.

Works Cited:

Wagle, R., Dowdy, E., Yang, C., Palikara, O., Castro, S., Nylund-Gibson, K., & Furlong, M. J. (2018). Preliminary investigation of the psychological sense of school membership scale with primary school students in a cross-cultural context. School Psychology International, 39(6), 568–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034318803670

2023-2024 Student Survey

Mamaroneck Schools