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MEMO

Date: June 27, 2005

To: Mialisa Hubbard

From: Marjie Collins, Shanda Spears, Emily Frye, Martha Claire Mealy

Subject: Proposal to Further Research in the Field of Biracial Awareness in the Lubbock Independent School District

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this proposal is to introduce an effective way to reduce the bias against biracial children in the Lubbock Independent School District.

Summary

This proposal recommends that the Lubbock Independent School District become aware of the increasing number of biracial students and that the identities of these children be known. The problem is that there is a lack of awareness about biracial children, as well as no opportunity for these children to declare themselves as biracial in the LISD. We have compiled a list of strategies and solutions to further research on this topic in order to benefit these children.

We have divided the proposed program of research into four tasks. First, collect surveys to determine the number of biracial children who are currently enrolled in the Lubbock Independent School District. This might be difficult because there is no existing option for parents and students to establish a biracial profile; instead, they must choose only one category (African American, Anglo, Hispanic, or Other) when enrolling for school. Second, establish the current level of awareness that LISD teachers have regarding biracial children and request teacher recommendations. After collecting teacher’s findings, the third task would be to research curriculums about biracial children that might be available to the LISD school board. The fourth and final task would be to provide the Lubbock Independent School District with a complete report of suggestions and recommendations for reducing racial bias in their school system.

Our group has many different qualifications and experiences that relate to the topic of this proposal. Shanda Spears has a degree in Social Work and has worked with biracial children and families during her employment at the Texas Tech Early Head Start Program. She is also the mother of a biracial child. Martha Claire Mealy is a Human Development and Family Studies major who has worked with biracial children through mission work in foreign countries. Emily Frye has had diversity training in coursework related to her major. She has also worked with biracial children in an after school program at Wheatley Elementary. Marjie Collins is the mother of two biracial children and five biracial and multiracial grandchildren. She is a Human Development and Family Studies major who works with biracial people at Texas Tech Early Head Start Program.

We will begin our program research on June 27th, 2005 and will have our research and recommendations completed by December 12th, 2005. Our estimated cost to ensure positive results for our proposed plan will amount to around $107,000.

Introduction

The number of biracial children is rapidly increasing in the Lubbock Independent School District, but there is currently no way to track this. We would like to suggest ways to reduce the bias against biracial children, along with furthering the research and awareness about these children in the Lubbock Independent School District. We have divided our proposed course of action into four tasks: surveying the current number of biracial students in the LISD, finding the existing awareness level of the LISD teachers about biracial children, researching available training and curriculums for teachers, and providing the LISD school board with a complete report of recommendations to improve the problem.

The number of biracial or multiracial babies has increased in the United States by 260 percent since 1970. In 2000, for the first time, the forms distributed by the Bureau Census to millions of households across America, gave biracial and multiracial individuals the option of marking more than one category under the section marked “race”. The latest US census reported that two percent of the population in Lubbock is of two or more races. The Lubbock Independent School District does not show awareness to the growing population of biracial children, and does not allow parents and students to check more than one race when enrolling for school.

Most of our information comes from internet websites. We reviewed the history of racial bias within our country, so that we might have a good understanding of what the country and state governments have done to address these problems. We found statistics about the LISD enrollment forms and the options that the forms included. We interviewed several LISD teachers and found that there was a lack of information and curriculum for teachers about biracial students. The internet-provided US, state, and local information about the history of biracial children, as well as the teacher interviews, gave us extended knowledge about the topic of our proposal.

The context of our proposal consists within the boundaries of the Lubbock Independent School District. While it was important for us to understand background information about biracial children in other areas, our suggested program of research targets only young students in Lubbock. We are concentrating on what the school board, teachers, and parents in Lubbock can do to make a difference in the lives of biracial children enrolled in the Lubbock Independent School District.

In the following sections, we will outline the proposed procedure for our research, our qualifications to perform the research, the budget needed to allow for an effective assessment of our possible solutions, and the estimated task schedule or timeline for our proposal. To understand the following proposal, it is important to know the definition of “biracial”. Someone who is described as biracial is an individual who is biologically or culturally from two races, ethnicities, or cultures.

Proposed Program of Research

We will perform four major tasks to be reviewed in order to determine whether the Lubbock Independent School District should consider addressing the biracial issue faced everyday by children and their families in this area. The tasks include the following:

1.  compile a survey- finding the number of biracial children in schools and geographically where they are

2.  Find current awareness systems with teachers in the LISD and find what celebrations/materials they have available for the students

3.  Research available curriculum and training for teachers and staff to reduce racial bias

4.  Provide complete report showing our findings and recommend change to reduce racial bias

Task 1: Compile strategies to determine the number of biracial students enrolled in the Lubbock Independent School District.

We performed extensive internet research in order to broaden our horizons on this topic. We found that the existing enrollment form used by the Lubbock ISD does not accurately represent the biracial population of currently enrolled students. The present form gives four ethnicity choices: Anglo, African American, Hispanic, or “Other”. This forces parents to choose one race for their children when filling out these forms. For this reason, people are not able to see an accurate representation of the biracial population. We feel that our survey would help us to visualize a better picture of the actual number of biracial students enrolled in the LISD. Once the data is compiled we would look at the schools with the highest enrollment of biracial children and begin our efforts of spreading training and outreach programs to the faculty and families in the area.

Task 2: Find current awareness systems with teachers in the LISD and find what celebrations/materials they have available for the students.

We interviewed three teachers and one principal from schools inside the Lubbock Independent School District. First we talked to Anita Coy about the biracial awareness programs that were currently available in the LISD. We asked her about what the school board and the teachers did now as an effort to spread biracial awareness throughout each school. She responded by saying that, “as of now we do not have any specific programs aimed at spreading the awareness; however, we do celebrate holidays and cover a brief history.” We found similar responses about biracial awareness in the LISD system when speaking with Samuel Hernandez. He mentioned the cowboy symposium as one of the activities that the school participates in. However, we feel that this is not a true effort to spread biracial awareness, but instead, it focuses mainly on the white history that is typically always taught to students in independent school districts throughout the country. We saw almost an identical pattern when reviewing the responses from all our interviewees. It is evident that because of the lack of knowledge and effort to include biracial children in LISD, the school system needs to adapt to the broader culture system that is being taught around our country. Some schools in other parts of the nation have been able to incorporate recent statistics about biracial children into their teaching, and we believe that it is time for Lubbock schools to do the same.

Task 3: Research available curriculum and training for teachers and staff to reduce racial bias.

We performed extensive web research to find available curriculum that we might offer the faculty when presenting our proposal. Because biracial awareness is a new field that people are recently (but quickly) becoming aware of, we found there to be a lack of teaching materials available. We believe that teachers will need to be innovative in designing curriculum for their students. Content of curriculum material for schools should include the history and contribution of multiracial Americans since colonial times. This would help children to see the struggles that our Nation has gone through to become racially mixed. They should know that families were not allowed in stores because of the one-drop rule (whereby if a person had one drop of African-American blood, he or she would be labeled African-American). Children should also learn that mixed race couples were not allowed to marry until the late 1960’s because antimiscegenation laws were viewed immoral and unlawful.

Task 4: Provide a complete report showing our findings and recommend changes to reduce racial bias.

After the completion of our research, we will submit to you a report of our findings and recommendations. We will explain what areas should receive the training first and show programs that we feel would be beneficial for the schools and their families. In this last area we will reflect on our findings and provide information that we feel is vital for further research in this field. This report has a completion date set for December 12th and should be turned into the school board at that time for their review.

Qualifications and Experience

We bring to the project the following qualifications:

Shanda Spears, Post-Bac Teaching Certification Major

·  Degree in Social Work

·  Courses related to diversity issues – Inequality in America, Current Social Problems, Understanding Multicultural America, and Human Behavior in Society

·  Experience working with bi-racial children and families through employment at the Texas Tech Early Head Start Program

·  Mother of a bi-racial child.

Martha Claire Mealy, Human Development and Family Studies major

·  Courses related to diversity – Development of Cross Cultural Perspectives

·  Volunteer mission work in foreign countries allowing direct observation of other cultures

Marjie Collins, Human Development and Family Studies major

·  Relevant courses in diversity – Development of Cross Cultural Perspectives

·  Worked with biracial children and families at the Texas Tech Early Head Start Program

·  Mother of two bi-racial children and five bi-racial grandchildren.

Emily Frye, Marketing Management major

·  Relevant course work in diversity training - Development of Cross Cultural Perspectives, International Retailing class which raised the issues of cultural diversity

·  Worked with biracial children and families in an after school program at Wheatley Elementary.

All four team members have access to computer labs which are well equipped to prepare and input the survey data. Knowledge gained from classes on research methods will also provide the team with resources for conducting the survey and reading the results. Contacts in the College of Human Sciences are available to share past relevant research results and help the team in efforts to further their research in this important area of Human Development.

Budget

The following budget reflects the cost of the proposed research. The research team will consist of four members. The team will be conducting research using both the Texas Tech University library and the Internet. We will also be performing case studies, observations, and field research. In addition to research, the team will be surveying each parent in the Lubbock Independent School District. The printing fee for the surveys as well as the postage to mail them is listed below.

Details / Cost
Research Consultant Fee-
$ 125/ hour x 32 hours week x 25 weeks / $ 100,000
Survey Printing Fee
$ .05 x 29,020 Surveys / $ 1,451
Survey Postage Fee
$ .20 x 29,020 Surveys / $ 5,804
Total / $ 107,255

Fab 4 Page 11 of 11

Tasks / 7/4-7/15 / 7/18-7/29 / 8/1-8/12 / 8/15-8/26 / 8/29- 9/9 / 9/12-9/ 23 / 9/26- 10/7 / 10/10-10/21 / 10/24-11/4 / 11/7-11/18 / 11/21- 12/2 / 12/5-12/12
Survey to Printer
Library Research/ Case Studies Complete
Survey/ Labels Back From Printer
Internet Research Complete
Send Surveys Home with Students
Return Date of Surveys
Observations Complete
Field Research Complete
Compile Data/ Analyze Info/ Write Research Report
Report Due Date

This graph shows the timeline for our research project. The project will be completed by December 12, 2005.