(C) El Paso Matters.org
This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
El Paso ISD equity student survey raises concerns over questions of identity [1]
['Claudia Lorena Silva', 'More Claudia Lorena Silva', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']
Date: 2024-10-31
An El Paso Independent School District student survey meant to assess student needs and policies that impact them has raised concerns over questions related to gender identity and sexual orientation.
The EPISD Equity Assessment is part of an ongoing audit that aims to identify potential barriers preventing students from succeeding and is required as part of a 2020 lawsuit spurred when the district previously closed elementary schools in Central El Paso.
The survey includes questions about student demographics and school climate, which district administrators say will help identify areas where students may need more support and determine if the district’s policies and programs are equitable for all students. Including questions about gender identity and sexual orientation will help the district examine if it is meeting the needs of all students, EPISD said in a statement.
Once the audit is completed, a nonprofit hired to conduct it will work with the district to design an action plan to develop ways to close any gaps, according to EPISD’s website.
But some parents, community members and politicians have taken to social media to denounce the survey; arguing the questions related to gender identity and sexuality are inappropriate. Some have incorrectly claimed that surveys for students as young as 8 years old will include those questions.
The student survey will be given to district students in grades 4-12. Questions about gender identity and sexual orientation will be reserved for middle and high schoolers.
Students will also have the option to skip questions they are not comfortable answering.
Parents can also opt their children out of taking the survey.
EPISD initially set the opt-out deadline for Oct. 25, but has extended that to a later date. The district has yet to announce the new deadline or the date the student survey will be conducted. Parents can fill out an opt-out form online on the district’s website.
“As the opt-out deadline approached some parents raised concerns or had further questions about the survey process; in order to receive parent insights and address questions we have pushed back the opt-out deadline,” EPISD said in a statement.
The equity audit is being conducted as EPISD plans to close 10 elementary schools and make improvements to the ones that remain open as part of a process the district calls Destination District Redesign.
Some parents have called for the district to hold off on any school closures until the audit and survey have been completed to ensure they are being done equitably.
Sayavedra has said that waiting for the audit would hold back the school closures and consolidation process up to a year.
Here’s what to know about the assessment, what’s in the survey, why it’s being conducted and more:
What is in the student survey?
The student survey will collect demographic information, including race and ethnicity, language spoken at home and military-connected status. Middle and high school students will also be asked about their gender identity, sexual orientation, birth location and legal guardian’s birth location.
The survey will also ask students how often they learn about the experiences of people and leaders from their racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, what they think about the quality of their school’s facilities, and their feelings about their school’s climate.
Elementary school students will be asked 14 questions and middle and high school students will be asked 19.
The district’s website states it will not share the specific questions before the survey is administered.
“Maintaining confidentiality around the questions allows students to approach the survey without preconceived ideas or external influences, leading to more reliable and valid results,” the website states.
EPISD published a rationale explaining its reasoning for withholding the questions.
Why has it become so controversial?
EPISD’s equity assessment comes over a year after Texas lawmakers passed several laws during the 2023 legislative session that would affect the lives of LGBTQ people living in the state. This includes banning transition-related care for minors and banning transgender college athletes from joining sports teams that match their gender identity.
Republican lawmakers also introduced bills that would ban teaching gender identity and sexual orientation in schools.
State Republican Executive Committeewoman Christin Bentley has vowed to reintroduce legislation that would restrict discussions related to sexual orientation in schools and require parents to opt-in to any instruction related to risk avoidance or sexuality.
An El Paso ISD community member has sounded the alarms about an Equity Assessment Survey that will be given to students as young as 8 years old that will allegedly include questions about sexual orientation.
An opt-out form was sent to parents last week via email. The opt-out… pic.twitter.com/fnatq7ZTtR — Christin Bentley SD-1 SREC (@Bentley4Texas) October 23, 2024
Critics of opt-in policies, which require parents to give written consent for their children to participate in certain activities, have argued they could prevent students from missing out on instruction that could benefit them, even if parents are ok with it.
Some El Paso parents on social media said they felt the district was not providing enough information on the survey or that it was intrusive and inappropriate for minors. Others felt it would help the district ensure all student’s needs are met.
Who’s conducting the survey?
EPISD’s Equity Assessment Student Survey is being conducted by the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, a nonprofit funded by the U.S. Department of Education with the goal of “increasing access to a high-quality education for culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse learners.”
The survey was designed by MAEC, to identify and address any barriers to equity that may exist within its schools, EPISD said in its statement.
Students, staff, teachers, parents and community organizations in EPISD’s Equity Assessment Advisory Committee also gave input to help create the survey, committee member and parent Diana Ramirez said.
“Including LGBTQ students in this survey helps identify gaps in policies, practices and resources that may be affecting them at school now,” Ramirez told El Paso Matters. “The reason it’s important to include LGBTQ students is to uncover patterns of bullying, harassment, maybe some feelings of exclusion, and we need to get that with the data.”
Is the survey private and safe?
Some have raised privacy concerns about who will have access to the survey responses.
The survey is anonymous and does not collect any personally identifiable information, according to the district’s website. EPISD says it does not have access to survey data and all information gathered goes directly to MAEC.
Some parents shared frustration that they did not know about the survey and the opt-out process.
Others like Maria Lozano Ramirez, a parent to two EPISD middle school students, said the process was easy for her.
“Even though I do not agree with the school asking these questions because of my religious beliefs, I can acknowledge that these questions can be good for gathering a demographic that could really need support,” Lozano Ramirez told El Paso Matters.
Why is the survey being conducted?
The EPISD Equity Assessment is part of an ongoing audit, which is the result of a lawsuit that was spurred when the district previously closed elementary schools in Central El Paso.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020 by Familias Unidas del Chamizal por la Educación, alleged EPISD had discriminated against poor, Hispanic and Mexican-American families when it closed Alta-Vista, Beall and Burleson elementary schools in 2019 and 2020.
A U.S. District Court judge found that Familias Unidas had enough evidence to show EPISD may have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act when it closed the schools, according to a memorandum opinion filed in October 2022.
EPISD and Familias Unidas reached a settlement agreement in November 2022 requiring the district to hire a third party to conduct an equity audit, costing no more than $350,000.
The settlement also prevents the district from selling Beall and Burleson until EPISD holds a bond election to improve facilities or in late 2026, four years after the settlement.
EPISD Superintendent Diana Sayavedra, who joined the district in January 2022, has said she was already planning to conduct an equity audit before it was required under the settlement with Familias Unidas.
“When I came to the school district, I expressed to the board that it was going to be critical and important for us to consider an equity audit,” Sayavedra told El Paso Matters in September. “During the settlement conversations, we shared with them that that had already been discussed with the board, and we fully intended to engage in an equity audit.”
In February, the EPISD School Board voted unanimously to contract MAEC and Amplify Equity, an Austin-based organization that specializes in equity, to conduct the audit.
The district also previously sent surveys to EPISD employees and parents as part of the audit.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://elpasomatters.org/2024/10/31/episd-equity-survey-student-lgbtq-questions/
Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/
