For the second time this month, school board members will hear a report on the district’s work toward achieving a more equitable environment for students and staff.

The presentation delivered at the Oct. 10 meeting focused specifically on efforts to recruit, hire and retain more staff of color in Lawrence schools. Monday’s meeting will outline a more holistic summary of the district’s “equity journey” thus far, said Angelique Nedved, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.

That journey began in 2005, when Lawrence Public Schools began a series of book-study discussions meant to explore issues of racial achievement disparities in the district, including graduation rates. Those numbers have, generally speaking, improved over the years.

“I can say that confidently,” said Nedved, who co-authored the new report with Kevin Harrell, the district’s executive director of student services and special education. “But I think it’s more important than just listing a number.”

There are other, more intangible figures at play that contribute to the achievement gap between white students and their peers of color, Nedved said, though she acknowledges that the district’s climbing graduate rate is a quantifiable example of schools’ progress.

For the record, graduation rates overall have risen from 85 percent in 2011 to just more than 92 percent in 2015. White students graduated at roughly 87 percent in 2011, hovering around 91 percent for three years before reaching nearly 93 percent in 2015.

Graduation rates for black students, however, have risen and fallen during that time frame, starting at about 83 percent in 2011 before climbing to 88.5 percent in 2012, dipping to 81.7 percent in 2013, climbing back up to 86.7 percent in 2014 and finally settling at 85.2 percent in 2015.

Multiracial students perhaps made the most dramatic gains, shooting up from less than 48 percent in 2011 to just more than 90 percent in 2015. American Indian students experienced a similar climb, graduating at 74 percent in 2011 and 96 percent in 2015, rising and falling in between, as did Hispanic students, with an ascent from 60 percent in 2011 to nearly 88 percent in 2015. Asian students saw a 100 percent graduation rate in 2015.

These numbers are reassuring, Nedved said, but moving forward, she’d like to see the district expand its efforts to introduce culturally relevant curriculums in classrooms, among other measures. It’s important that the district’s African-American students, for example, see their culture represented in history lessons — and not just in mentions of slavery.

“I think one of the biggest ones to consider is that our instruction is culturally relevant to our students,” Nedved said. “And a good way to define that is, do our students see themselves in the curriculum and the resources? So you don’t have a homogeneous view of education from one racial perspective.”

Having teachers of color as well as allies in the classroom is a part of that bigger picture, too, she said.

Looking to the future, Nedved hopes to integrate culturally relevant teaching strategies into the district’s already existing equity-focused professional development. Conversations are still in the early stages, but the goal is to offer some sort of training workshop between January and April of next year.

To date, more than 1,500 school board members, administrators, both certified and classified staff, and community members have attended the district’s Beyond Diversity seminars, which were introduced in Lawrence in 2009.

In other business, the board will:

• Hear an update on a districtwide study of classified employees by Anna Stubblefield, assistant superintendent of educational support, and David Cunningham, the district’s executive director of human resources and legal counsel.

• Hear an update on the district’s “Learning Forward, Future Ready” initiative from Jerri Kemble, assistant superintendent of innovation and technology.

• Host a work session for the district’s master plan for secondary school improvements. The session will be from 5 to 6:15 p.m.

The school board will begin its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.