Addendum, addendum

Now that I have completed my district's two-day introductory racial equity in education training, I have more thoughts. So, here goes part 2 of my reflection on the training. (Here is the link for Part 1.)

I feel that my biggest challenge lies in the chasm between my grasp of the systemic reality as well as interpersonal manifestations of racism and my practice in the classroom. In other words, I have been studying how racism works and impacts people for some time now, but am not necessarily sure how this knowledge translates into practical, effective teaching strategies resulting in equity and success for all my students.

The authors of the book Courageous Conversations identify the elements key to anti-racist leadership in the field of education. They write:

To be equity centered is to internally convert personal racism to anti-racist leadership. In the absence of this conversion, the individual will be left with a persisting dilemma of a transformed conceptual framework with little practical application and tangible results. . . Anti-racist leadership is not just playing a role; it is a deeply transforming personal experience. This work impacts everything an educator is and all she or he does. . .

To not be involved and engaged in equity work is to perpetuate institutionalized racism. There is no non-racist place--you are either anti-racist or perpetuating the racism that already exists. All potential anti-racist leaders must find within themselves how racism is affecting them, personally, on a daily basis. They must then create their own personal and internal strategy that provides instruction on how to address their own individual racism. Having satisfied these prerequisites, they can engage with colleagues in discovering strategies to examine and eradicate inequities and racism in the classroom, school, district, and institutionalized levels.

Finding passion for equity, developing equitable classroom practices, and being persistent in this work are the key components of and guiding strategy for anti-racist leaders.

I would argue that the process described above is not necessarily consecutive or linear. If we wait until we think we have become experts on how racism affects us and others, we may never make it to the phase that requires us to take action, so I believe our own development continues as we step up into leadership in our own lives.

Also, our own personal anti-racist strategy will continue to change and evolve with time and circumstance. And most importantly, we have to practice kindness and trust with each other and ourselves, allowing for missteps and honest dialogue to keep each other accountable. What if we keep reminding ourselves and each other to do this work from a place of love, care and trust? Now, wouldn't that be something?

The experience that haunts me most from the equity training this week, is something a colleague said to me during our discussion when I mentioned that I have noticed that much of the discourse centered around the achievement and experiences of students of color seemed negative and based on a deficiency model.

My coworker said that too often there is a need to alleviate everyone's discomfort. She shared her frustration, expressly naming this as a frustration other people of color feel as well with white denial, which often translates into the wish for white people to feel the pain of racism and for them to linger in that experience for a while, at least during these race-focused trainings.

Because we, the workshop participants, had more opportunities to talk through ideas and share our thinking with each other on the second day, I realized that for many of the white educators in the room this was one of the first times they ever encountered some of the ideas and terminology dealing with racism. I find that hard to believe, but that's the reality of living in a majority white state and in a supposedly progressive city with one of the highest white populations. White privilege in such an environment makes it easy for white people to not have to think about issues of race and to face their own racism.

I don't want to sound uppity, because there is so much I am still grappling with myself, but I do share some of my colleague's frustration about white people's denial and lack of insight into the experience of people of color in this society.

The best part about the training was what happened during breaks, which was networking. I took the time to approach several seasoned professionals. Our conversations were cordial and fruitful. These relationships are what I need to grow and feel supported and sustained as a professional.

Breaking Bread or Teeth on Equity in Education?

OK. Here is my beef. I have just spent one of two full days in a district-wide educator training focused on bringing about racial equity in our schools. I'm hip to issues of racial equity. After all, I devote much of my time on and off the clock to studying and acting on my knowledge of racial and social justice issues in the classroom and out in the community (though, of course, I never feel that I am doing enough).

I was actually looking forward to having an opportunity to delve into these complex issues with experienced guidance and seasoned colleagues from the field of education. But pretty quickly into the training, I realized the workshop would leave a lot to be desired.

What I was hoping for was some time to examine and discuss best practices ensuring students of color thrive in the high school classroom and in educational settings beyond. What I got were two trainers, both veteran teachers, forgetting all about using effective teaching techniques and talking at their audience of educators almost the entire day without giving us much of a chance to process or utilize in the ways useful to us the materials presented. Much time was spent in large group discussion on elementary topics, which with more than two-hundred participants can get frustrating, to say the least.

The instructors talked down to us, lingering on simple concepts and weaving elaborate examples of situations which could have easily and quickly been grasped by six-year-olds. Worse yet, the trainers never took the time to pre-assess their audience and their prior knowledge or needs. We could have easily been grouped by prior knowledge and focus or at least been given more time in pairs and groups to maximize our time as participants, grappling with issues pertinent to us and our practice.

Mind you, I am not one to shirk from my responsibility as a white educator very conscious of my role in the educational system. I am someone who doesn't withdraw from this work easily, but rather seeks out and engages in difficult conversations about racism despite my own discomfort. I have done so for my own growth, for those whom I love, and out of my desire for the betterment of my community. However, this workshop has so far been less than productive.

Something else I noticed there and in several other workshops I have attended lately on education and racial equity was a divisive tone which seemed to emerge, if not dominate the conversation.

To illustrate, one of the trainers, uttered these pronouncements as she addressed the entire congregation of attendees:

"We all know who the teachers in our building are who are hurting our babies (of color)."

And: "The people who think they know (or think they have racial consciousness) when they don't, are the most toxic kind."

Now, tell me if that sounds like a good way to open up discussion and help people engage, or a good way to shut down the predominantly white participants, many of whom were already evidently feeling uncomfortable and less than qualified to contribute to a dialogue on issues of race and racism.

In my mind, finger pointing is not an effective way to get people on board or to build trust for the work that needs to be done in our district and all across the country. The authors of the book, Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, on which the training is based, make the following statement: "We suspect most educators already believe that racism is morally wrong. The challenge for us is to advance our shared moral position into a realizable and comprehensive foundation for challenging institutional racism."

They also write, "The key to. . . successful friendship and collaboration is our willingness to communicate openly, honestly, and respectfully about race. And in believing and trusting each other across racial categories, we can begin addressing the issue of race within our schools."

Evaluating my experience as a participant in a myriad of anti-racist and diversity trainings, I made a note in my notebook about the approach to racial justice work that I believe we ought to take:

We, as educators and community members at large, must acknowledge the painful reality and historical legacy of racism and our place within this history, but we need to start operating from a place of hope and possibility, seeing each other across perceivable differences as allies in this work. The glass must be half-full. We must get away from the deficiency models and switch to identifying and drawing on best practices and drawing out the strengths of those who have been traditionally perceived as "underachievers." Let's utilize the richness of all of our experiences (including the students' and the families'). The resources are already there.

This quote by Asa G. Hilliard, an educator cited in today's training materials, is what should set the tone of any and all future racial equity in education workshops:

The knowledge and skills to educate all children already exist. Because we have lived in a historically oppressive society, educational issues tend to be framed as technical issues, which denies their political origin and meaning. . . There are no pedagogical barriers to teaching and learning when willing people are prepared and made available to children.

So, let's study those best practices instead of using guilt trips and some pseudo-psychological techniques to take us all on self-examination journeys. Yes, we need to examine our own biases, but we as teachers also need some modeling, mentoring and guidance with effective, hands-on, culturally-specific, anti-racist practice. Where is effective teaching already happening? Who's doing it? What does it look like in practice?

Finally, something I want to set straight for the record is that I am of the opinion that the entire premise of the book and the training having to do with closing the achievement gap, as measured by standardized tests, is bogus. Standardized test scores have not been shown to effectively indicate anything but students' race and socioeconomic status. They have been correlated with shallow, not deep or critical thinking, and their history is less than rosy. Read Standardized Minds by Peter Sacks, for instance, to learn that the modern-day standardized testing is firmly rooted in the eugenics-driven concept of weeding out "undesirable" populations from the military and institutions of higher education.

I, in fact, feel that standardized tests are one of the most destructive tools of oppression, which demoralizes non-mainstream students (including students like me, a European immigrant) and their teachers while perpetuating institutional racism.

When dealing with equity issues on a systemic level, which is what this training purports to emphasize, we must be willing to challenge the basic tenets of what is accepted as the norm. It may sound naive, but why not push for authentic, multifaceted assessment rather than accepting, resigned, standardized test scores as the only measure of student success? I understand that issues of school funding are tied to test scores, but that should not prevent us from thinking outside the box and for striving for a vision of a learning environment that is workable, sustainable and equitable for all.

Part 2 of my reflection on the equity training: here.

Noted: A New Report on the Black Male Student Experience in Public Schools

Black male students . . . are more than twice as likely to be classified as Mentally Retarded as White male students, in spite of research demonstrating that the percentages of students from all groups are approximately the same at each intelligence level. . . More than twice as many Black male students as White male students receive out of school suspensions and three times as many Black male students as White male students are expelled.

That's according to a new study, NPR reported on today, showing an alarming racial disparity in high school graduation rates and treatment of Black male students in secondary schools around the country.

The study, entitled “Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education,” also found that the overall 2007/8 graduation rate for Black males in the U.S. was only 47 percent, compared to a 78 rate for white males.

"Out of the 48 states reporting," states the Schott Foundation for Public Education report, "Black males are the least likely to graduate from high school in 33 states."

"To add insult to injury," the report finds, "Black male students are punished more severely for similar infractions than their White peers. They are not given the same opportunities to participate in classes with enriched educational offerings."

As a high school teacher with many students who are Black males, I am concerned about these findings, and consider it my responsibility to do everything in my power to try to reverse the negative trends described in the study.

According to the report summary:

Good schools are fully resourced, with talented, caring teachers, well-trained and numerous support staff, and protective and supportive administrators — and poorly performing schools are not. Good schools have challenging curricula, high expectations for all students, and an expectation of success. Poor schools do not. Good schools have libraries, an adequate supply of textbooks and computers, art and music programs, and science labs. Most schools with majority Black enrollments do not.

Of course, I am most interested in what constitutes the conditions for success. The report lists them as these:

• Equitable resources to support students to master rigorous, content standards-based education
• Universal, well-planned, and high quality preschool education for all three- and four- year-olds
• Programs to address student and school needs attributable to high-poverty, including intensive early literacy, small class size, after-school and summer programming, and social and health services
• New and rehabilitated facilities to adequately house all programs, relieve overcrowding, and eliminate health and safety violations
• State accountability to ensure progress in improving student achievement

It is also worthwhile to examine the conditions for failure. Especially of importance to me as a classroom teacher are these performance hindering circumstances to avoid:

• Watered-down curriculum for disadvantaged students in schools inadequately supported by funding far below that in successful suburban schools
• Little intensive early literacy instruction, large class sizes, short school days, no weekend and summer programs, and few social and health services
• Inexperienced and ill-trained teachers
• Lack of educationally sound living and learning environments
• Lack of parent and community engagement in the reform process

I start teaching tomorrow, a week into the school year, because I was just hired a few days ago after teaching in a different district last year. I have vowed to uphold high expectations for my students, to provide an engaging, creative and rigorous curriculum, to make my process transparent and to keep an open line of communication with the students' families, involving them as much as possible in what our learning community does.

With all these responsibilities comes advocating for my students as I pay attention to policy making, on the regional and national level, because political decisions obviously affect what goes on in the classroom and beyond.

It is crucial, as the report proclaims, for me as a teacher, to help "ensure that all students have a right to an opportunity to learn, not as a matter of competition or location, but as a civil and human right."

Fortunately, I have an excellent mentor and a whole community of brilliant educators and social justice activists to help keep me in check and to collaborate with. As my mentor and veteran high school teacher, Linda Christensen, writes:

Teaching for joy and justice isn't an individual endeavor. We can't do this work alone. . . I attempt to keep my vision--and hope--alive by continuing to participate in critical teaching groups. . . To use Toni Morrison's words, these 'friends of my mind' help me think more carefully about social justice issues inside as well as outside of the classroom, from literacy practices to top-down curricular policies. . . I carry these voices . . . like a Greek chorus in my mind. They remind me to question and sometimes to defy those in authority when I'm told to participate in practices that harm children. . . They help me choose the more courageous path because I know I'm not alone.

my first day mingling, a.k.a. dress rehearsal

Last night I got the call from the Vice Principal that the school district has officially cleared me to begin teaching. The security check took several days to complete, and each day I waited to hear back was yet another day my students spent with a substitute instead of me. I had hoped to be there with them from day one, wanting as much consistency for my kids, but now I will step in at the beginning of week two. It's okay. I can't wait to start.

Today, I briefly met most of my students and also spent a large portion of my morning sitting down with my mentor, an educator I have long admired, plotting out the curriculum for the first several weeks of the school year. There was so much excitement in the room. Linda Christensen and I are kindred spirits, passionate about the power of writing, working with youth, and teaching for social justice.

I feel very lucky indeed to begin this journey at this new school, alongside one of the most inspiring educators there is.

refocusing this blog, starting over

This blog, one of many I have kept on and off, has been in existence for several years.

Originally, it was a random collection of excerpts from news stories that I found important, along with reflections on the issues that I cared about. I have deleted most of the older posts, wanting to keep this blog strictly focused on my experience as an educator.

Now that I am going to be spending most of my time teaching again, I want to have a place to post and share my thoughts and discoveries in the field of education. So, here we go. Teachergirl's blog is reborn.

question standardized tests

Just read an Interesting Washington Post article on school choice. I am frustrated by the fact that the discourse in the media usually centers on comparing test-based achievement among schools and groups of students while the whole premise of judging student achievement according to test scores is rarely questioned. In this article Schulte attempts to show that test scores need to be interpreted correctly to be understood, but doesn’t really challenge the very premise of determining the quality of education on test scores.

I was insulted by this:

“For middle-class kids — regardless of racial and ethnic background — schools tend to matter relatively less (than for poor students), because parental influence matters so much more. To take the two extremes, it is hardly surprising that a middle-class child who has been read to often, taken on trips to museums and is surrounded by books and talk of college from an early age will score better on tests than a child living in a crowded apartment with non-English-speaking parents who work multiple jobs, or a child experiencing the often chaotic and hopeless environment of intergenerational poverty.”

Yikes! As if the achievement of poor students had everything to do with “poor” or absent parenting!

In her piece Standardized Tests: A Clear and Pleasant Danger, published in Rethinking Schools: An Agenda for Change, Dr. Terri Meier, professor at Wheelock College specializing in cross-cultural communication and language development, discusses language socialization among different groups of children. Meier’s point is that white middle-class children are primed from day one to do well on standardized tests, which reflect the very values taught to these children via communication styles prevalent in their circles. She writes:

“Numerous studies of language socialization in white middle-class communities indicate that the largest percentage of questions addressed to preschoolers by mothers and other primary caregivers consists of simply structured questions to which the questioner already has the answer (e.g., . . . ‘How many fingers is mommy holding up?’). The purpose of such questions is not for the questioner to gain information, but for the child to display information, for which she is typically rewarded with extensive verbal and non-verbal praise.

“When reading stories to preschool children, many middle-class parents often intersperse their reading with questions that focus the child’s attention on noting and recalling specific details of the text.

“. . . Research indicates that many working-class and minority children come to school with very different values and assumptions about what constitutes meaningful communication. In a 1983 study, Shirley Brice Heath found that in the working-class black community where she spent eleven years studying language socialization, children were almost never asked questions to which the adult or older child already knew the answer. . . ., the assumption being, why would you ask someone something you already know the answer to?

“Reading was also often perceived differently, according to Heath. It tended to be a social event in which listeners, young and old, were free to throw in comments or to elaborate on some connection with their personal experience, rather than a context for testing children’s reading comprehension or teaching appropriate school behaviors. People in this community were admired for their ability to tell a good story, draw insightful analogies, or present an interesting and unique point of view, rather than for their ability to display information or show off knowledge for its own sake.”

So, Schulte doesn’t have it quite right. She makes a whole lot of messed up assumptions about the white middle class vs. the working class home culture.

In one respect she is right - schools do have a huge impact on academic achievement of poor students. If students feel alienated by the values and expectations of the institution they’re in, this will likely reflect on their achievement. If they experience racism or are otherwise treated like crap by the teachers or administrators, likewise.

The status quo definition of academic success (high test scores & GPA…) requires that one buy into the system and play the game in order to be viewed as successful. Standardized tests are modeled on intelligence tests, which were created to screen out “undesirables”, as is well documented (see the book Standardized Minds, for example). What makes people believe these tests have any meaningful value whatsoever? They are all about separating the elite from the masses and lining the pockets of the fat cats (corporations).

When I was a teacher and teacher assistant at a public alternative school, serving predominantly students of color, many low-income and most first generation US-born immigrants, I saw firsthand the clash of the values students were supposed to subscribe to and their own. During a standardized testing session, I saw students filling in bubble sheets randomly – all d answers, for example. Because they didn’t care. Because they didn’t buy into the status quo.

My point is that it’s important to keep going deeper with our questions, keep on challenging what is accepted as true.