Bite-Sized Courses Explore District Budgeting, Indigenous Pathways, and More
Posted on
The Western Educational Equity Assistance Center (WEEAC) at WestEd has released three self-paced microcourses that address issues related to advancing equity in education. Designed to be completed in just 15 minutes, the three microcourses, listed below, were created in alignment with WEEAC objectives to support diverse audiences with making education more equitable.
Strategic Budgeting: Allocating Resources to Improve Student Outcomes
Strategic resource allocation is essential to advancing equity, as defined by WestEd’s Equity Framework. Developing policies, practices, and procedures that will have a positive impact requires strategic planning and resource allocation. This microcourse harnessed WestEd’s expertise in this area to provide course takers with strategies for allocating resources so that they improve student outcomes.
Audience: Academic advisors; teachers; tribal education directors; and school, district, county office of education, and state education agency personnel
WEEAC Objectives: This course is designed to help meet the WEEAC objectives: improve high school graduation rates, reduce chronic absence, reduce bullying and harassment, improve discipline equity, and increase high school course enrollment.
Indigenous Pathways in Planning for College, Career, and Community
There are few published resources on supportive pathways for American Indian and Alaska Native students on their journey to college, career, and community life. This microcourse adds to that knowledge base, providing learners with resources that can inform their planning for college, career, and community life.
Audience: Academic advisors; teachers; tribal education directors; high school students; and school, district, county office of education, and state education agency personnel
WEEAC Objectives: This course is designed to help meet the WEEAC objectives: improve high school graduation rates and increase high school course enrollment.
Indicators of High School Success: Improving Graduation Rates
This microcourse identifies proven approaches for data analysis and collaboration to inform student support that results in improved high school graduation rates.
Audience: School, district, county office of education, and state education agency personnel and tribal education directors
WEEAC Objective: This course is designed to help meet the WEEAC objective of improving high school graduation rates.
The WEEAC adopted a short-form model for these courses in an effort to engage busy professionals and students in continuous learning.
“We know that in today’s fast-paced media climate, administrative leaders, educators, and students have a lot of options for consuming information,” said Niki Sandoval, WEEAC co-director. “These courses deliver insights about equity in education in a format that can accommodate a variety of schedules.”
Authorized under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the WEEAC at WestEd is one of four Equity Assistance Centers (EACs) funded by the U.S. Department of Education to provide technical assistance and training—upon request from school districts and tribal and state education agencies—to promote equitable education opportunities and resources. To date, those resources have included a variety of briefs, live webinars, and other traditional print publications such as guides and toolkits.
To learn more about the WEEAC, visit https://weeac.wested.org/.