Why Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Dignity (DEIBD)?
DEIBD improves school climate and safety by ensuring every student has a sense of belonging, dignity, and collective responsibility. This allows students to focus on acquiring valuable academic and social skills and knowledge. Students directly benefit from DEIBD efforts as it increases their engagement by helping them feel connected to a culturally responsive curriculum and environment that honors them, their stories, and their lived experiences. Building an environment where all students feel like they belong requires a systemwide commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and dignity. Equity initiatives are not another box to mark off of a checklist. Rather, they represent a perspective through which we should continually strive to operate. DEIBD leaders must actively work to recognize bias and privilege in school policies and practices, learn and implement techniques to mitigate and eliminate them and apply that work to all aspects of our school system.
Many DEIBD efforts fail because they approach systemic problems with isolated “quick” fixes. Our approach to DEIBD is introspective, reflective, life-long, and iterative. We believe, and research supports, that building a shared vision, investing stakeholders in their individual and collective “why,” and creating a collaborative effort is fundamental to DEIBD.
Who We Are:
Each member of the Synergy Education Consulting team believes that every student deserves the best education, in the power of teachers and schools to accomplish this, and in the humanity of each stakeholder.
Further, each team member holds a doctoral degree in Psychological Sciences, Sociology, or Education. Our team has a diverse skillset with a variety of experiences and expertise that allows us to accommodate a wide range of needs and deliver content at variable levels rooted in evidence and lived experiences. We value student-centered teaching, data-driven decision- making, and innovative educational approaches.
What We Do:
Our team at Synergy Education Consulting is a one-stop hub shop for your professional development needs. We deliver a customized plan for your organization to increase cultural responsiveness, increase equity knowledge and skill level, and reform practices, policies, and procedures to build and sustain DEIBD-informed schools and classrooms where educators and students alike feel valued, seen, and included.
All new collaborators undergo an intake process to guide our joint professional development work. The intake process aims to identify the organization’s desired goals, review previous professional development work, and learn from/give voice to each active stakeholder to understand their perceived strengths, goals, and needs. This is essential in developing proper decisions and constructing a professional development plan to serve best the organization where they are currently. The process includes data collection in the form of:
- Document review
- Brief survey
- Focus group(s) to collectively identify goals
After the intake, we will present a personalized proposal with a plan to meet needs and goals within the given time and budgetary parameters. Below you can find a list of professional development services that we offer:
- Design all preparatory materials
- Collect, analyze, and report both quantitative and qualitative data
- Faculty/Staff orientation introductory session
- Plan and facilitate professional development workshop training sessions, whole group and/or in small groups, with teachers and/or administrators and/or staff, depending on needs/goals
- Plan and facilitate professional development retreats for teachers and/or administrators
- Produce a final professional development report with data analysis and recommendations
- Conduct a concluding meeting to review the final report
- Provide certificates of completion
Synergy Education Consulting is a flexible and dynamic group. Our listed services are not exhaustive, and we adapt to meet our collaborators’ needs. If services are desired but not listed, we can still support your organization on its DEIBD journey. Contact us today!