JET Staff Attends The Education Trust Boot Camp
On April 26, Jazmine Benoit, our JET Mentor Program Coordinator attended a three-day bootcamp in Washington D.C. hosted by The Education Trust, a national organization that is dedicated to advocating for education equity from PreK through college graduation. The Boot Camp gathered educational leaders together for discussions that drew upon multiple perspectives on several topics throughout the various sessions. This included a mix of higher education and k-12 advocacy and policy-related sessions.
During the first day, the agenda included a welcoming reception which provided time for informal conversation. Jazmine was able to meet, network, and convene with other leaders attending the bootcamp workshop. She connected with some fellows from the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership (MEEP). The next day, Jazmine attended two of the break-out sessions on topics that she thought would benefit JET and its constituents. The first session she selected was about Advocating for an Equitable Transition from ESSER, and the second session was about State Equity Audits: Identifying Policy Change Opportunities. On the final day, Jazmine attended her last session which discussed SCOTUS Affirmative Action & Student Debt Cancellation Cases.
After reflecting on and critically thinking about the practical exercises at the bootcamp, Jazmine shared the invaluable knowledge that she has gained from it. She came to realize that “we do not have a full picture or understanding of how our districts are allocating ESSER funds and how they are using the community and families to determine how these funds are used.” This made her think about the ways in which districts might use these funds and how leaders can invite the communities to contribute their voices for the allocation of these funds. Additionally, this also made her think about how she could apply this perspective when determining policies for JET.
Jazmine shared, “The Holyoke school district was highlighted in this presentation as a district that did well with inviting the communitys’ voice when allocating funds. Using this knowledge of Holyoke will help us to leverage our partnership with them or learn from their work with engaging the community. It was insightful to see how state districts are and aren't using the ESSER funds and the implications of those findings. My main takeaway is really opening my eyes to policy and equity and how I can engage my community who are districts, mentors and paras in our work at JET.”
In the second session, Jazmine was able to learn the components of equity audits and workshop them for a scenario in Massachusetts. This activity occurred after hearing a talk on how other states audit their policies and programs to address racial equity for higher education, and how officials identify gaps to support college students’ basic needs. This led Jazmine to think more carefully about how well college affordability policies work in higher education.
In the last session, Jazmine joined DC-based legal experts for a deeper examination of these cases and to learn about the broader role of the courts in U.S. education, which has implications for the former and future population of college students. Overall, Jazmine found the array of sessions to be very informative as she heard about the different perspectives from speakers on each topic. This has broadened and deepened her knowledge and understanding of education equity, which Jazmine can now bring to her work with mentors and scholars in JET.