Equity in Graduate Education Consortium (EGE) brings together change-ready leaders to align policies and practices with commitments to equity and inclusion. The Consortium reimagines, refines, and institutionalizes more equitable practices through:
- Training on evidence-based, equity-minded admissions, recruitment, and mentoring practices
- Coaching and learning communities for graduate programs to bring about institutional change
- Developing infrastructure for faculty development in graduate schools and other organizations
EQUITABLE SELECTION SYSTEMS
In collaboration with the Sloan Centers for Systemic Change initiative, the Equity in Graduate Education Consortium will host three workshops in the Equitable Selection Systems track.
The goal of this workshop series is to enable individuals and organizations to rethink their selection systems with an eye to alignment with their values and the law. Each interactive workshop presents the opportunity to assess current research and theory about the design and implementation of one or more elements of a typical selection process. The curriculum purposefully addresses issues in academic selection contexts so that lessons learned will be widely applicable.
Designing, Implementing, and Refining Evaluation Rubrics
September 30, 2024, 1:00pm ET
Rubrics are an evidence-based tool for bringing structure, clarity, and fairness to evaluations for admissions, hiring, grading, fellowship and awards. Like all tools, though, how they are designed and put to use matters much for the outcomes that can be expected. As part of developing equity-minded selection systems, this workshop offers an opportunity to delve into best practices for developing rubrics, how to avoid symbolic adoption when implementing them, and ways to refine rubrics that may be already in use. Activities are designed to aid departments in ensuring alignment with both the current legal landscape and organizational values, and connect to other elements of selection processes such as the application. Participants are asked to bring existing rubrics for review, improvement, and discussion. Participants without an existing rubric will work to imagine what a rubric for their program can look like.
Writing and Reviewing Letters of Recommendation for Equity
October 21, 2024, 1:00pm ET
Letters of recommendation are used in the admissions and faculty search processes to glean information and qualities which may go unnoticed in the review of an applicant’s file. However, they are also one of the most common places that bias is written into applicant records– sometimes in subtle ways. Toward the goal of equity-minded evaluation, this workshop 1) situates letters of recommendation as key components in holistic evaluations of faculty job applicants 2) Reviews key research studies on bias in letters of recommendation 3) Enables participants to recognize gender and racial biases in existing letters 4) Provides practice in reviewing letters from an equity-minded perspective. Activities are specifically designed to help attendees develop knowledge, skills, and language to manage common equity dilemmas inherent in how we review, solicit, and write letters of recommendation.
Rethinking Applicant Statements and Interviews
November 15 and November 18, 2024, 1:00pm ET
Intentionally designed applicant statements and interview processes can provide admission and other selection committees opportunities to gather important insights into a candidate's skills, experiences, academic interests, and professional background. Yet, the highly subjective nature of assessing what constitutes ‘quality’ in statements and interviews may invite bias into the selection process that disadvantages minoritized groups. In this workshop, admission committees, hiring managers, and fellowship selection committees will have the opportunity to explore how they might redesign prompts and review processes for personal/academic statements as well as interviews. We will focus on how to mitigate bias and affirm and value the identities, lived experiences, and knowledge of groups who have been marginalized in higher education. Through discussions and reflective exercises, participants will 1) articulate the purposes of applicant statements and interviews in their selection processes; 2) examine how these processes may contribute to or reproduce inequities; 3) redesign application statement prompts and interviews in ways that are aligned with current law and institutional equity and diversity goals, and 4) gain practice in leveraging equity-minded assessment practices of statements and interviews.
For more information or to attend these workshops, please contact [email protected].