Oval seal on OSU campus

Mollie Blackburn, professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, is part of a team that was awarded $8.25 million over five years to the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP EAC) by the U.S. Department of Education. MAP EAC is one of four EACs across the nation. It is housed at the Indiana University School of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Blackburn serves as an Equity Fellow on the project. In this role, Blackburn is one among 13 state-specific scholar experts in race, sex, national origin and religion educational equity efforts who develop research-based desegregation information and other resources to be distributed widely across the region.

The mission of the MAP EAC is to ensure equity in student access to and participation in high-quality, research-based education by expanding states’ and school systems’ capacities to provide robust, effective opportunities to learn for all students, regardless of and that is responsive to race, sex, national origin and religion, and to eliminate inequities in educational access, participation and outcome among and between groups.

The MAP EAC provides free, onsite and online technical assistance at the request of school boards, states, local school districts and other governmental agencies for the preparation, adoption and implementation of plans for the desegregation of public schools in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The three-tiered technical assistance (TA) framework incorporates activities that are simultaneously research based, data driven and outcome focused. Assistance is available to all potential public school personnel, students, families, community members and organization partners throughout Region III states.

Tier 1 TA activities relate to the development and dissemination of educational equity research, resources and information through our website and a variety of online and print formats; Tier 2 activities consist of developing and facilitating diverse stakeholder learning networks across the region; Tier 3 activities involve sustained, systemic educational equity-focused partnerships with states, districts, schools and/or other government agencies.