FAQ

In 2016, OUSD launched The Office of Equity to focus on improving the system wide culture, conditions, and competencies necessary to advance equity for children and families situated furthest from opportunity.

The Office of Equity is focused on developing initiatives that address systemic inequity that is associated with race, gender, and class; and directly supporting improved outcomes for groups of students that have historically been underserved by our school system including African American, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander students.

At OUSD, equity means providing each student with the academic, social, and emotional supports they need to prepare for college, career, and community success.

The Office of Equity uses Zaretta Hammond’s definition of cultural responsiveness from her book, Cultural Responsiveness and the Brain:

“An educator’s ability to recognize students’ cultural displays of learning and meaning making and respond positively and constructively with teaching moves that use cultural knowledge as a scaffold to connect what the student knows to new concepts and content in order to promote effective information processing. All the while, the educator understands the importance of being in a relationship and having a social-emotional connection to the student in order to create a safe space for learning.”

Culturally Responsive Teaching practices value students’ cultural and linguistic resources and view this knowledge as capital to build upon rather than as a barrier to learning.

The Office of Equity energizes, inspires, and empowers staff at all levels of the district as well as students, parents, and community to join in interrupting inequity, examining biases, and creating inclusive and just conditions for all. The Office of Equity will:

• Eliminate the correlation between social or cultural factors to the probability of our students’ success.
• Interrupt and eliminate inequitable practices and biases in the pursuit of creating just conditions for all students.

Raquel Jimenez, Executive Director of Equity
Jerome Gourdine, Director of Targeted Strategies
Sara Nuño-Villa, Family & Community Empowerment
Jamal Muhammad, African American Male Achievement Targeted Specialist
Kevin Jennings, African American Male Achievement Targeted Specialist
Iminah Ahmad, African American Female Excellence Program Manager
Adrieanna Williams, African American Female Excellence Targeted Specialist
John Lauti, Asian Pacific Islander Student Achievement Targeted Specialist
Sabria Hassan, Arab American Achievement Targeted Specialist
Eve Delfin, Latino/a Student Achievement Targeted Specialist
Raul Hernandez, Latino/a Student Achievement Targeted Specialist

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