All of the practices listed below have worked for some groups, under some conditions, to support safe, respectful communities, free of bias. Try any that appeal to you, and reach out to the contributing organization to find out more.
Youth Facing
- Invite kids to tell a story about something they love in their ethnic background, and/or a way they have dealt with bias against them to become stronger. Ripple Effects
- Ask your young people what it would feel like to know that they belonged at this school. Beloved Community
- Create safe spaces for young people to meet others who are different from them. Braven
- Hang a banner (roll paper) along with markers in a highly-trafficked area. Label it “The Strengths of Our Families” and ask all to contribute drawings and words that best represent the family cultures who make up the school community. Confident Kids Confident Parents
- Start by examining your own narrative and then you can begin to understand outside perspectives. Global Nomads Group
- Encourage students to notice, label and track their emotions, and when and why they feel them. HopeLab/MoodMeter
- Empower youth to lead campaigns with adult support. Plan together to advance youth-identified concerns. IntegrateNYC4Me
- Invite students to share how they choose kindness in their daily lives–kindness for self, kindness for others. iThrive Games
- In a conflict situation, encourage students to “think” about what they are doing by asking, “How do you feel about what just happened?”, and then ask, “Can either of you think of a way to solve this problem so you won’t feel that way?” I Can Problem Solve
- Encourage students to describe how they’re feeling by using one word and a movement at the start of the school day. Move This World
- Once young people identify challenges to inclusion and equity in their schools, engage them to create the action plans that address them. NCCJ, St. Louis
- Think about and share the story of your name, such as your name’s meaning, where it comes from, if you’re named after someone. Open Circle
- Help students to really see one another is by ensuring that recess is a safe and healthy time during the school day. Playworks
- Invite students to create their own character development plan with 1-3 virtues they’d like to improve, monitoring their own progress weekly. Rutgers SECDLab
- Give youth of all ages time and space to draw/map out their feelings before discussing them with peers or adults. Teaching Tolerance
- Have students make bracelet BANDs to remind them how to calm themselves: B Breathe A Attention to breath N Notice and name feelings D Direct attention back to breath. Urban Tech
- Encourage students to step into the shoes of others to experience how they feel. WINGS for Kids
Adult Facing
- When you are accused of biased language or behavior, take a moment to acknowledge your feelings and those of the accuser. ADL
- Encourage parents and members of the community to join or start an SEL or equity group to facilitate respect both in and outside the school. Big EQ
- Conduct an audit of your parent engagement programs. Is your school building one-way transactional relationships or two-way relationships with shared power? CADRE
- When collecting contact information for the school directory, ask for one attribute of each family that is a source of strength or pride to list with contact information. Confident Kids Confident Parents
- Incorporate promising practices to reduce school discipline like: invest in high-quality social emotional learning programs. Discipline Revolution Project
- Take a moment to look around your home, office, or classroom. What kinds of objects, words, and images surround you? Notice whether there are any empty walls or shelves where you could add new objects or reminders related to social connectedness. Greater Good In Action
- Bring academic classes to a close by inviting students to appreciate each other’s contributions to their learning that day. Institute for SEL
- Provide transparency about student performance levels and progress. Disaggregate data to allow leadership team to identify trends and build systemic responses to them. iNACOL
- Create expectations and accountability for teachers to contact every parent with positive news about their child’s school experience. Innovate Schools
- Create a committee of stakeholders who commit to designing, monitoring and updating the school’s diversity and inclusion actions. Intercultural Development Research Association
- Ask. Assess. Act. Consider the stories behind “negative” student behaviors. IWES/ In That Number
- Audit the images that your youngest learners see daily for stereotypical representation of gender and ethnicity. Or, use asset or strengths-based language when discussing student needs and designing interventions. Kirwan Institute
- Encourage people to self-monitor and determine when it’s appropriate to “step up” or “step back.” This practice is meant to support the growth of others and avoid harmful power dynamics. Leading Educators
- Give your students an opportunity to learn and serve. Service-learning experiences reinforce the social and emotional skills of empathy, appreciation for diversity and respecting others. Lions Quest
- Have youth and adults serve as equal members on your planning committees. This provides an opportunity for them to plan and lead next steps workshops together. NCCJ, St. Louis
- Engage children and youth as active partners in creating and maintaining a safe and humane school climate by conducting regular class meetings or student circle discussions. Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
- Have students teach a family partner what they are learning in school as a way of both reinforcing their content knowledge and engaging their families in classroom learning. Power My Learning
- Measure your bias(es) about race, gender and more. Right now. For free. Project Implicit: Implicit Association Tests
- Provide live interactive sessions for all faculty and staff on the existence and potential impact of implicit bias. Project Implicit: In-Person Sessions
- Organize a school-wide day to start age-appropriate conversations across your campus. Race Project (Understanding Race)
- Build an anti-bias social justice curriculum with the same academic rigor as traditional subjects. Teaching Tolerance
- Anti-bias work is not a one-time training. Training reminders must be integrated into regular processes to build the muscle memory to be able to recognize and adjust bias actions real time. Give educators anti-bias tools and resources through out the year. TNTP
- Build community and student voice by inviting students to sit in a circle and share using one of these prompts. Tribes Learning Communities