I want to thank Adam Ortiz and the other leaders from MRN
and CMA who took time to talk with me, Kathy Obear, Chris Moody, and Eleanor
Mower earlier this week about their concerns (http://multiracialnetwork.wordpress.com/).
ACPA is an organization that truly
values social justice and strives to be inclusive in all ways, and it is
incredibly helpful to have members and leaders willing to share with us and
problem solve with us when we can do better. How we ask our members about
themselves via surveys and assessment instruments is one area where we can do
better. I appreciate that the leadership
of MRN and CMA are catalysts for change.
This change will result in our Association being stronger, and our
policies and practices being more aligned with our espoused values.
The activity of revising how we ask member demographic
questions has been underway since June of 2011, but is still not complete. Identifying
a standard set of questions is incredibly challenging as we do not believe one
“best” practice exists. We have and
continue to review standards from other Associations, campuses, and even
federal and state guidelines. That being
said, the ACPA Governing Board is committed to completing this work in the
coming months, so that going forward we are in agreement about how to best ask
these questions of our diverse membership.
Specifically, here are the “next steps” we will take:
·
The subcommittee working on the standard
questions document will continue to collect input from Association leaders and
entity groups (May-June)
·
A final document will be brought before the
Governing Board for review and approval
·
Once approved:
o
A senior staff member in the ACPA International
Office will be identified to review all centrally distributed surveys and
assessment instruments to make sure that they consistently adhere to the
approved standards.
o
Other Association leaders, International Office
staff members, and Convention Planning Team members will be made aware of the
adopted standards and expectations for their use.
o
ACPA membership will be informed of the adopted
standard questions, including the importance, value, and context of this work
via an article in Developments.
o
Entity groups that distribute surveys
independent of the International Office will be provided with the standard
questions, applicable contexts, and their rationale.
Again
thanks to the leaders of the MRN for helping us move forward with this very
important work!
-Kathleen
kkerr@udel.edu
