Pronouns:
It is best teaching practice to create an inclusive space by asking students and staff to share their pronouns during introductions, on name tags, on email signature lines, etc.. Including pronouns is a simple way to show respect towards people’s gender identity. Asking for pronouns helps us to avoid assuming a person’s gender identity based on their appearance. Always give students the opportunity to opt out of sharing pronouns if they choose. Read more about why pronouns are important here: PRONOUNS: A RESOURCE
The Vermont Agency of Education Best Practices for School Regarding Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students states that students should be addressed by school staff by the name and pronoun corresponding to their gender identity. If a student has been known previously at school for their birth name, the school administrator should direct school personnel to use the student’s chosen/preferred name and gender identity.
Dear teachers…is a message from the heart from the students of the Summer Racial Justice Academy, 2021
Burlington School District Equity Statement
In the Burlington School District, equity means meeting the needs of ALL students. Educational equity is a districtwide and individual commitment to an assets-based approach defined by personalized support and equitable access to opportunity. In the BSD, we strive to ensure that all members of the educational community receive this support to develop academic, social and emotional growth inclusive of race, class, ability, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, language, culture and creed. Equity involves actively working to remove the predictability of success or failure that currently correlates with any social, racial or cultural factors. Equity in education means creating a culture that actively works to ensure access by acknowledging and addressing bias and discrimination that negatively affect our students, their families, and our staff and working to dismantle systems of oppression and White supremacy culture in schools.
The means to achieve the goal of educational equity in our schools includes:
- Interrupting and dismantling inequitable systems, practices, policies, and procedures; continually examining and re-examining biases
- Replacing inequitable systems, practices, policies and procedures with just and equitable systems, practices, policies and procedures,
- Creating inclusive, anti-racist, culturally relevant curriculum and school environments for adults and children;
- Redistributing District resources based on academic, social and economic data to better serve our most marginalized students and families;
- Collaborating and including students, families and community members to build a truly inclusive community where all voices are valued
