The Equity Literacy Institute (ELI) is a for-profit left-of-center corporation that is primarily run by its founder, Paul Gorski, to espouse that critical race theory-aligned “equity” should be the center of all education curriculum. ELI espouses looking for bias and inequity in everything and challenges it by promoting paid seminars, consulting, books, and anything that can be sold. ELI supports and promotes other left-of-center organizations that are run by him and other groups. ¹

History

Equity Literacy Institute was founded in 2016 by Paul Gorski as part of his overall EdChange equity initiative. ² EdChange is an umbrella group of all of Gorski’s projects and ELI is the professional teaching division. ³ ELI was originally incorporated in Virginia in 2017, but moved to North Carolina in 2018. ⁴ ELI has a staff of six lead equity specialists around the country. ⁵

Equity Literacy

The Equity Literacy Institute describes equity literacy as a combination of using multicultural curriculum in schools and going further to create equitable classrooms. ⁶ The idea is to place the critical race theory-aligned notion of equity, rather than understanding of culture, at the center of teachers’ understandings of diversity. ⁷ Equity literacy is to replace “a list of facts or historical figures that everyone should know” with an assessment of what makes these equitable or inequitable and examine what inequalities still exist. ⁸ The idea of equity literacy espouses teaching about equity through a lens in all subject areas including math. ⁹ Equity literacy requires everyone look at every little thing to see if there is a bias whether overt or not. ¹⁰

Programs

Equity Literacy Institute provides paid in-person or online training workshops, equity coaching, consulting, equity facilitator training, curriculum analysis, audits and assessments, and policy analysis. ¹¹ They offer per-hour services to schools or may be put on retainer. ¹² For web-based events, tickets to all-day online live conferences cost $270-$300 per person. ¹³ Smaller live online webinars cost $100 to participate to receive a certificate. ¹⁴ ELI does have other smaller courses that are free to watch. ¹⁵ Additionally, ELI has several books and guides available for purchase. ¹⁶ Gorski’s EdChange website also has a shop selling everything from shirts and hats to other accessories. ¹⁷

In 2017 Katy Swalwell, a lead equity specialist at ELI, was hired through her own consulting firm by the Ames, Iowa, school district to construct a three year “Critical Consciousness” training for teachers on implicit bias, LBGTQ professional development training, and culminated in creating the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. ¹⁸ Paul Gorski was brought in as the keynote speaker to begin the training. ¹⁹ The Ames School District paid over $232,000 for the three-year contract. ²⁰

Affiliated Groups

In addition to Equity Literacy Institute, the other divisions of EdChange run by Gorski include SoJust, a site that provides a history of social justice through essays, songs, poetry, speeches, literature, and action; ²¹ the Critical Multicultural Pavilion, a site that combines the work of EdChange, ELI, SoJust, and other left-leaning links for educators; ²² and the Equity Learning Institute, the online portal for streaming educational material from ELI. ²³

ELI recommends several left-leaning groups including Teachers for Social Justice, New York Collective of Radical Educators, Education for Liberation Lab, SoJust, Zinn Education Project, the Matrix Center, Teachers 4 Social Justice, Radical Math, Teaching Economics as if People Mattered, GLSEN, and Teaching for Change. ²⁴

Leadership

Paul Gorski is the founder of EdChange and ELI. Gorski is also an associate professor at George Mason University where he founded and manages an undergraduate degree concentration in social justice. ²⁵ He is an affiliate faculty member in the women and gender studies department and has taught courses in social justice education, animal rights, equity and diversity in education, queer justice, and narratives of identity. ²⁶ Gorski holds a B.A., M.Ed., and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. ²⁷

Katy Swalwell is a lead equity specialist at ELI. ²⁸ From 2013-2014, Swalwell was a Fellow at the Zinn Education Project, an organization that promoted campaigns such as “Abolish Columbus Day” among other left-of-center topics. ²⁹ Swalwell has deemed the 1619 Project as “celebrated anti-oppressive curriculum.” ³⁰ Swalwell has also criticized Republicans in the Iowa General Assembly for attempting to require cursive handwriting be taught in schools and providing new rules for using student pronoun preferences. ³¹ In 2021, Swalwell began a new additional business in Iowa to provide consulting services named Past, Present, and Future Consulting & Media, LLC. ³² Swalwell has a B.S. from the University of Northern Iowa and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. ³³

1. “About Equity Literacy.” Equity Literacy Institute, Accessed February 26, 2024. https://www.equityliteracy.org/equity-literacy
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3. Gamblin, Hillary. “Equity Literacy with Dr. Paul Gorski [podcast].” The Teacher Education Podcast. May 26, 2020. Accessed November 4, 2021. https://blog.goreact.com/equity-literacy-paul-gorski-podcast/.
4. North Carolina Secretary of State website. Equity Literacy Institute LLC. ID 1755644. Accessed November 8, 2021. https://www.sosnc.gov/online_services/search/Business_Registration_Results; Virginia Secretary of State website. Equity Literacy Institute LLC. ID S7016241. Accessed November 8, 2021. https://cis.scc.virginia.gov/EntitySearch/BusinessInformation?businessId=964227&source=FromEntityResult&isSeries%20=%20false.
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