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MIDDLETOWN — Thirty-three.

Marla Marsh will always remember that number — the number of black students in her Akron high school.

"I will never forget that number because we literally felt like we had to band together and support each other," she said.

Educators like Marsh in the Middletown, Fairfield, Talawanda, Butler Tech and Mason have now banded together in a consortium aimed at breaking down the conditions in education that create atmospheres like the one that has permanently imprinted the number 33 in her mind.

"I had a wonderful high school experience," she said. "Those (racial inequity) experiences were minor."

And yet, after nearly three decades, she can still recall the number of black students in her high school and that there was only one Asian family at East High School.

Marla and her twin sister, Monica Marsh, assistant principal at Butler Technology and Career Development Schools, are both actively involved in the Consortium on Race and Equity in K-12 Education.

The work of the consortium focuses on asking educators to examine how their own backgrounds affect their classrooms and eliminate the racial inequities that exist in education.

It gives teachers a new lens to view the world through — an equity lens.

When educators use an equity lens, they look at where their students come from, invoke multiple perspectives and make sure each activity has enough information for all kids to connect to their learning, said Marsh.

"Looking through the equity lens, I feel like we've been liberated to tell the whole picture," she said."

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2805 or mgildow@coxohio.com.

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