The IEAC provides a broad range of educational equity services for schools, school districts, and state and tribal education agencies in the areas of race, gender, national origin and English language acquisition. The following list provides an overview of the types of service we provide free of charge.

• Curriculum alignment with state standards
• American Indian education outreach
• School violence/bullying prevention
• Sexual/racial harassment prevention
• School climate assessment
• English language development for second language learners
• Infusing women's history into the curriculum
• Engaging students in math and science
• Promoting educational leadership for school improvement
• Equity and how students learn
• Connections between test scores and equity
• Increasing parental involvement
• The inclusive classroom
• Using data for comprehensive school reform
• Collaboration and coordination in developing training programs
• Assistnace in meeting civil rights compliance efforts
• Working with charter and magnet schools
• Materials development
• Conference presentations
• Research studies
• Consultation

GESA Works

Most exciting and consistent findings:

• All students gain
• The students identified with the greatest need are the students who gain the most; consequently, the learning gap between specific groups narrows

Persistent problem areas:

• Issues pertaining to education equity are still not perceived to be of critical concern to large numbers of educators, researchers, and policy makers
• There is a lack of willingness to invest the time, money, and effort needed to implement an effective approach to achieving success for all students

GESA is based on the following assumptions about professional development:

• Changing deep seated attitudes is difficult
• Doing is more effective than talking about
• Teachers can reinforce each other in the change process
• Teachers can learn from observing and being observed by their peers

Essential elements of the GESA approach:

• GESA is designed to extend over 6 workshop sessions
• GESA is basic classroom action research
• GESA focuses on specific, observable teaching behaviors
• Observations are a major component

GESA consists of 3 strands:

• Strand 1: Identifies the area of disparity (differential treatment)
• Strand 2: Includes specific behaviors used by teachers
• Strand 3: Identifies equity issues in instructional materials and curriculum

GESA format:

Attend a 3 hour workshop for each of the 5 units (each unit covers areas of disparities, specific behaviors , and curriculum) and the wrap up session.

The Olweus [pronounced Ol-VEY-us] Bullying Prevention Program is a comprehensive, school-wide program designed for use in elementary, middle, or junior high schools. Its goals are to reduce and prevent bullying problems among school children and to improve peer relations at school. The program has been found to reduce bullying among children, improve the social climate of classrooms, and reduce related antisocial behaviors, such as vandalism and truancy. The Olweus Program has been implemented in more than one dozen countries around the world.

The OBPP has been recognized by:

The Office of Juvinile Justice and Delinquency Prevention & the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (University of Colorado), as one of only 11 Blueprints for Violence Prevention.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as an Exemplary Program.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, as a proven program for prevention of bullying.

U.S. Department of Education, in its televised show, "News Parents Can Use".

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2004) was developed to provide teachers with a well articulated, practical model of sheltered instruction. The SIOP Model is currently used in most of the 50 states and in hundreds of schools across the U.S. as well as in several other countries. The intent of the model is to facilitate high quality instruction for ELLs in content area teaching.

The model is based on current knowledge and research-based practices for promoting learning with ELLs.  Critical features of high quality instruction for ELLs are embedded within the SIOP Model.

The SIOP Model can be viewed as an umbrella under which other programs developed for improving instruction can reside.  Administrators and teachers alike are bombarded with new approaches to instruction, reform efforts, and practices that sometimes seem to be in competition with one another. Often what is lacking in schools is coherence, or a plan for pulling together sound practices (Goldenberg, 2004). The SIOP Model is not another "add on" program but rather it is a framework that can bring together a school's instructional program by organizing methods and techniques, and ensuring that effective practices are implemented -- and can be quantified.

Comments about Distance Learning Support
“As I look back in my participation in these seminars, they provided an opportunity to reflect on our educational history and its effect on today. They helped me understand the foundations and educational provisions embedded in tribal laws and treaties with the United States. In the seminars, I had the opportunity to dialog with fellow Native educators who are passionately making a difference, and with leaders of successful programs and seasoned Native Scholars. And lastly, I learned about best practices, the shared excitement of new approaches and the part I (we) can play to right the wrongs that will effect generations to come.” Calvin C. Pohawpatchoko Jr., PhD Candidate ATLAS Program, University of Colorado

Comments about the American Indian Education Professional Development Workshop
“The American Indian Education Professional Development Workshop put on by Interwest Equity Assistance Program and taught by Dr. Martin Reinhardt is the most comprehensive workshops on Indian Education and Indian law that I’ve ever attended. I believe that this workshop is necessary for not only people within Indian Education, but any educator who has contact with American Indian students or teaches about American Indian people. The information I gleaned from this workshop helped me become a better educator as well as a more knowledgeable resource on Indian Education and Indian law for my school district.”  Jason Firestone, Indian Education Program Coordinator, Jefferson County Public Schools