Casey

Fries
EDL 675
Diversity Action Plan
6/21/13

Introduction
At Lincoln High School, our mission states, Lincoln High School is committed to
preparing each student to use multiple perspectives and individual talents to live,
learn, and work in a diverse society.

My first year at Lincoln High School was in 2010. That year I had seven different
languages spoken in my classroom and that number has increased every year. I
came from a school that had little to no ethnic diversity, so this was all a new
experience for me. After my first month of teaching I could tell that I had found a
home, and that Lincoln High School was someplace special.

My Current Understanding of Diversity
My understanding of multicultural education was minimal until I got involved in
education. I grew up in Cairo, NE where everyone looked like me, dressed like me,
and talked like me. We considered diversity city folks and farmers. My best friend
for most of my childhood was Mike Campos. Mike was a Hispanic student who
moved to our town in fifth grade. I was considered by many to be the multicultural
expert since my best friend was not white. At that point in my life I honestly
thought that I understood diversity. I remember taking a class in college about
multicultural education. The second day of class I got kicked out for debating with a

guest speaker. To this day I still believe I had many valid points, but what I did not
understand at the time was how offensive it was to have a young white male arguing
about a culture he knew little to nothing about.

After college I took a job with Recruits Unlimited, LLC. I traveled the country to do
performance testing on high school football players. It was during this job that I got
my first real opportunity to experience diversity. I traveled all over the country and
got to see many different lifestyles. I remember the first time I traveled to a
southern state. It was a whole new world for me. Many of the athletes came from
extreme poverty. It was difficult for me to understand what they were saying and to
pronounce their names correctly. I actually recall becoming frustrated during
check-in because it was taking so long. No matter what was said to those athletes,
their response was always a polite Yes Sir. This was obviously a world that I had
never been exposed to, and it helped to open my eyes to how sheltered my life had
been. The next week I had to travel to Los Angeles for a camp at UCLA. Once again I
thought I knew everything. I had just come from a camp where the participants
were predominately African American, and I figured UCLA would be more of the
same. I was right in the fact that most of the athletes were African American, but the
similarities stopped there. These athletes came from well to do families. They were
cocky, rude, and entitled. I left that camp thinking how different my last two weeks
had been. Did I really think diversity was all about race? That is the point in my life
where I realized that race is only one aspect of diversity.

My knowledge of diversity was expanded by my work with Recruits Unlimited, but it

really started to grow when I arrived at Lincoln High School. As a student in college
I viewed multicultural education as something on a checklist; something I needed to
complete in order to graduate. But today, I see it as a vital piece of the entire school
experience. Multicultural education describes a system of instruction that attempts
to acknowledge the differences between races, cultures, sexual orientation, gender,
and upbringing. For this to happen, it is simply not enough for me to show a video
about Mathematicians from different countries, I need to create a culture where the
students are comfortable to be themselves and live out their culture everyday.
When we are surrounded by individuals who feel comfortable enough to share their
culture and experiences, authentic multicultural education can take place. Being
engulfed by other cultures is the best form of multicultural education. This happens
at Lincoln High School every day.

My Current School Setting
Lincoln High School in a unique place. One of my students said that our Advisory
class looked like a United Nations meeting. While our diversity goes a lot deeper
than racial make-up, I think that is a great way of describing our school.

Lincoln High Schools 1650+ students come from all over the world. According to
our most recent school profile, Lincoln High Schools students are roughly 47%
White/Other, 17% Hispanic, 15% African American, 12% Asian, 2% Native
American, and 7% two or more races. So that is about a 53% minority student

population. We have about 65% of our students that qualify for free/reduced lunch.
We are also one of two high schools in our district that offer ELL services and 13%
of our students receive those services. We have 18% of our students who are
labeled as Gifted and 20% of our students that receive Special Education services.
We also have the highest mobility rate in the city at just under 28%, and a daily
attendance rate of just under 90%.

Looking at those statistics you can begin to understand that Lincoln High School is a
very diverse place, but those figures do not tell the whole story. First, there is not a
section that differentiates between White/Other and students from Middle
Eastern countries. We have many students from places like Iraq, Iran, and Turkey
that are counted as White/Other. We also have many students from Russia and
other surrounding countries that are white, but were not born in America. One
thing I have learned in math is that statistics can be deceiving. Another thing that
statistics cannot show is how well all of those cultures get along. This is not to say
that we never have our problems, but as you walk around our school is not
uncommon to see students from many different backgrounds or ethnicities
socializing together. Finally, the statistics cannot show the respect each culture has
for one another. With so much diversity there is not one dominant culture. Our
students grow up learning that all cultures are to be appreciated and respected as
equal. They do not learn this through a daily lesson or at an all school assembly.
Their time at Lincoln High School is its own four-year course on understanding
diversity.


When I look at the Diversity Wheel I see other examples of diversity that are present
at Lincoln High School. We have students who are highly-gifted in academics.
Lincoln High School is one of only three schools in the state to have an International
Baccalaureate Programme. The GLBTSA Club at Lincoln High School is very active
and represents another part of our school culture that would not be present at many
other locations. Our school is one of the furthest schools to the west in Lincoln, so
we also have a fair amount of students who drive in from the country because we
are the closest school to them. While this is not a large portion of our student body,
our rural students are still very visible when you walk the halls.

Lincoln High School has been reaching out to the community for help. We have
formed partnerships with the Lighthouse, HUB, Food Bank, and SCC. Through the
high school improvement grant we have been able to offer after school tutoring and
snacks for those students who need the additional help. These programs are
available to all of our students, but are most often used by our students who live in
poverty. These are just a few of the examples of the things we are trying to do to
meet the needs of our diverse student body.

My Action Plan
I believe I am at a good place in my understanding of diversity and multicultural
education. This does not mean my learning in these areas is ever done. There are
definitely some things that I need to learn to become a more effective teacher and

school leader. I feel comfortable with my understanding of different cultures

because I teach a math course that is predominantly made up of ELL students. This
class has been an absolute blessing for my growth as a person, educator, and leader.
I have taken the time to learn about their backgrounds, and they have been kind
enough to share the details of their lives.

My goal that I would like to set for myself would be to become more of a leader in
our cultural proficiency development. Last year we began our journey of looking
into our on personal biases and how they might cloud our beliefs. This year we will
be diving more into some practical applications of how we can improve cultural
proficiency in our classroom. Our cultural proficiency groups are made up of 10-15
teachers and one administrator. Typically the administrator is the one to lead our
meetings. They will present the lesson, guide us through a series of discussion
questions, and offer some closing insights. I would like to ask my group
administrator if I can become the leader of our group. This will force me to dive
deeper into my own development, as well as give me the opportunity to share some
of my experiences with the rest of the group. I would also like to be involved in the
lesson development. Chandra Diaz-Debose develops our lessons, and I think she
would be more than willing to let me be involved in the creation process. She uses a
wide variety of resources, but one publication she uses a lot is Rethinking Schools. I
will use this magazine as a guide to help me think of different ways we can approach
cultural proficiency. All of these tasks require me to step outside my comfort zone.
While I feel comfortable in my own personal knowledge of diversity, that does not

mean I am comfortable leading a session on cultural proficiency. This will be

excellent practice for my development in all the EDL outcomes.

The biggest risk I will face in working with cultural proficiency is shortchanging my
group. The point of these meetings is to help develop our own beliefs on cultural
proficiency, and if I do a poor job of leading then I have done everyone a disservice.
Another risk could be getting buy-in from all the members of our group. A few of
our members view this process as another pointless district mandate. I will do my
best to make it personal for them and try to make the lessons applicable for their
classrooms.

Conclusion
Overall, I am very excited about the possibility of stretching myself into an area
where I am not naturally comfortable. There will be bumps in the road, but I believe
the process will help me to become a better servant leader.