Adjusted Equity Solutions (Adjusted) is a critical race theory-aligned consulting organization that conducts school equity audits leveraging an online tool called School Equity Pro. The equity audits include data collection, surveys, analysis of results, and recommendations on how school leaders can reduce perceived systematic oppression in the schools. 1
Adjusted has a sister company, Culturally Responsive School Leadership Institute (CRSLI) that provides in-person and online training to educators on being more culturally responsive. The training leverages the CRSL framework found in the book Culturally Responsive School Leadership, written by Adjusted founder Muhammad Khalifa. 2
Equity Audits
An Adjusted Equity Solutions equity audit typically takes four to six months and consists of three steps. The first step is data collection of academic performance trends and discipline trends based on race, gender, and income. The second step involves surveys to students, teachers, administrators, staff, and parents. The third step is to consolidate the results, analyze existing school policies, and provide recommendations meant to reduce systematic oppression and improve equity in the schools. 3
CRSL Institute
CRSLI (Culturally Responsive School Leadership Institute) is a sister company of Adjusted. It was founded in 2019 and offers online learning modules and in-person training using the Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL) framework developed by founder Muhammad Khalifa and published in Khalifa’s book Culturally Responsive School Leadership. 4
CRSL is a set of leadership behaviors and practices for educators that focus on the cultural identities of all students and leverage a four-step framework of self-reflection, instruction on how to be culturally responsive, promoting inclusive and anti-oppressive environments, and engaging students, parents, and the community. 5
The CRSL Institute training is based on the assumptions that schools are systems of privilege and oppression, and that school structures and policies are naturally exclusionary toward minority students. 6
CRSL is one of the recommended solutions from an Adjusted equity audit. Many of the same individuals work in both Adjusted and CRSL. 7 8
Leadership
Muhammad Khalifa is founder, president and CEO of Adjusted. 9 He is a professor at Ohio State University and president of Culturally Responsive School Leadership Institute (CRSLI), a sister organization to Adjusted. 10 Khalifa published the book Culturally Responsive School Leadership in 2018. 11
Sherief Elabbady is chief operating officer. 12 Elabbady earned his MBA from the University of Minnesota in 2017, then joined Adjusted as COO. In 2021, he became a member of the board. 13
Bodunrin Banwo is lead research and technology consultant. 14 He started his career in the Peace Corps and with Project Vote in Arizona. After earning a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota with a focus on how alternative systems of education can help oppressed groups, he became an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston and an adjunct professor in the Department of Ethnic and Religious Studies at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. 15
Mary Yeboah is a consultant. 16 She has a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and is the director of graduate student life at Wheaton College. 17 She is a member of the Illinois State Board of Education Diverse and Learner Ready Teachers Network and she is on the District 200 Equity Task Force and Citizens Advisory Committee. 18 In her role on the District 200 Equity Task Force, Yeboah challenged including Columbus Day as a holiday in the school calendar, arguing that Columbus Day represented “extreme violence, theft, genocide and dehumanization” and that recognizing it undermines efforts to create inclusive cultures. 19
References
- “About Equity Audits.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://ajusted.org/
- “Our Sister Company.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://ajusted.org/
- “About Equity Audits.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://ajusted.org/
- “Our Sister Company.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://ajusted.org/
- Darin A. Thompson. “How My School Is Fighting the Surge in Chronic Absenteeism.” Education Week. April 20, 2022. Accessed May 20, 2022. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-how-my-school-is-fighting-the-surge-in-chronic-absenteeism/2022/04
- “Learning Modules.” CRSL Institute. Accessed May 20, 2022. https://www.crsli.org/?modules
- “Our Team.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed June 13, 2022. Available at: https://ajusted.org/
- “Our Expert Team.” Culturally Responsive School Leadership. Accessed June 13, 2022. Available at: https://www.crsli.org/?about
- “Our Team.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://ajusted.org/
- [1] LinkedIn – Muhammad Khalifa. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/muhammad-khalifa-45b2a29/
- “Culturally Responsive School Leadership.” Amazon. Accessed May 21, 2022. https://www.amazon.com/Culturally-Responsive-School-Leadership-Education/dp/1682532070/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1343603773483916&hvadid=83975306813613&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=85915&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=p&hvtargid=kwd-83975580431083%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=20183_10555131&keywords=culturally+responsive+school+leadership&qid=1653162149&sr=8-1
- “Our Team.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://ajusted.org/
- LinkedIn – Sherief Elabbady. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherief-elabbady/
- “Our Team.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://ajusted.org/
- LinkedIn – Bodunrin Banwo. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bbanwo/details/experience/
- “Our Team.” Adjusted Equity Solutions. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://ajusted.org/
- LinkedIn – Mary (Slinger) Yeboah. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-yeboah-200/
- “Mary Yeboah, PhD.” CRSL Institute – About Us. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://www.crsli.org/?bio=4
- “Yeboah: ‘Could maintaining this District 200 calendar event unintentionally support a myth of U.S. exceptionalism?’” DuPage Policy Journal. November 12, 2021. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://dupagepolicyjournal.com/stories/612312751-yeboah-could-maintaining-this-district-200-calendar-event-unintentionally-support-a-myth-of-u-s-exceptionalism