Patton College's Jennifer Ottley uses grant to further equity in education

Dr. Jennifer Ottley received $75,000 in grant funding through the University of Cincinnati’s Ohio Deans Compact on Exceptional Children for a two-year study, “Project Equity: Culturally Relevant Interactions and Behavioral Supports.”

Research indicates that Black students are disciplined at an inequitable rate relative to White students and students of other racial and ethnic groups. In fact, they are two to three times more likely to be suspended or expelled.

“There’s something going on in the field of education that is contributing to that,” said Ottley, Teacher Education associate professor, “and I want to find out what it is.”

The Ohio Deans Compact, which is committed to equity and social justice, hopes for exactly that. The Compact promotes shared understanding and collective action to improve learning and results for all children, especially those from marginalized groups, including students with disabilities and students who are economically disadvantaged. It seeks to bridge theory to practice by fostering meaningful P20 partnerships and identifying and responding to critical issues that limit learning opportunities for students.

“For my entire career, I’ve focused on the research-to-practice gap,” said Ottley. “I believe there are evidence-based practices that exist and work, and I try to provide professional development and support teachers to use those practices now that we have strong evidence behind them. But in this case, I found there to be a practice-to-research gap. A lot of the culturally relevant practices are general practices that are universal that you would think teachers would be using with all kids, but there is a disconnect.”

Ottley spent more than a year researching and investigating that disconnect with Clinical Psychology Visiting Assistant Professor Dr. Darcey Allan, College of Arts & Sciences, while Teacher Education Associate Professor Dr. Lisa Harrison and Teacher Education Assistant Professor Dr. Theda Gibbs-Grey served as consultants on the project. Together, they theorized that any number of factors could be contributing to this unfavorable educational trend, from lack of culturally relevant evidence-based practices to implicit bias.

“We went into the project in a very exploratory fashion,” said Ottley. “We wanted to find out what the research literature says about culturally relevant practices, what we can do to support Black students, and how can we use that literature to develop a curriculum that Ohio teachers can use to improve interactions with Black students and their instruction of Black students.”

To that end, Ottley and Allan developed a three-pronged curriculum that could create more equitable outcomes for Black students. As part of the curriculum, teachers would: (1) create a classroom community, including partnering with families in the community to improve education (2) address implicit bias through self-reflection, and (3) use culturally informed guidance and discipline practices.

“Including aspects of the family was important for our curriculum,” said Ottley. “There are also things teachers can do when setting up their classroom and while interacting with students to make sure that they’re engaging with students and with curriculum materials in a respectful way. There are things they can do to give all students a voice.”

One of those things may involve addressing implicit bias, which requires honesty and reflection. Ottley and Allan also found that teachers are more likely to use and embrace culturally relevant practices when their administration makes it a priority.

This can require difficult conversations between and among staff.

“It took a lot of emotional effort to develop these practices,” said Ottley, “and we anticipate the same thing for teachers who go through this as they reflect on what they are doing to break inequity and support the learning of all of their students.”

Which is why Ottley and Allan intend to involve teachers in their research. They plan to present their theoretical curriculum to select teachers and parents and gather feedback to inform best practices. They will conduct focus groups with local teachers to get a rural perspective, as well as teachers from the greater Columbus area to get an urban perspective.

“There is not a lot of racial diversity in the Athens area, but we do want the curriculum to be something that teachers all across the state can use,” said Ottley. “We want to work with teachers and partner with them so we can change outcomes for Black students so they can have just as many positive interactions with teachers as White students.”

Ottley described this particular research topic as “emotionally demanding.”

“Learning about the reality of what’s happening and the inequities that are occurring is hard,” she said. “It’s forced me to reflect on how I operate as an educator and acknowledge that I may have fallen short in the past or see that I need to do things differently, even with students at OHIO. It’s made me very cognizant of who I am as an educator and making sure that I practice what I preach. That requires me to be very introspective about who I am, what I believe, and what I’m doing to break the inequities that exist to truly support all learners.”