By Daryl Camp
Since joining the Lodi Unified School District in 2005, I have been impressed with the district’s ability to do what Jim Collins says is an essential for organizations to go from good to great: confront the brutal facts. The district was inspired to take this uncomfortable and controversial step by a white male superintendent as well as community pressure to improve the achievement of Latino and African American students.
After interviewing several outside entities, the district decided to work in partnership with Glenn Singleton’s Pacific Educational Group to facilitate efforts to narrow, and eventually eliminate, the achievement gap. Lodi USD was attracted to PEG because of its emphasis on looking at the effects of personal and institutional racism on educational outcomes.
Systemic approach
During the 2004-05 school year, site- and district-level administrators and the Board of Trustees went through the PEG’s foundational two-day Beyond Diversity training. Beyond Diversity provides participants with agreements and conditions for having courageous conversations about race. Participants are exposed to PEG’s goals of:
• raising the achievement of all students,
• eliminating the achievement gap between groups of students, and
• lessening the predictability of who is achieving and who is represented in various classes and clubs.
After training site and district leaders, various sites were encouraged to create equity teams comprising the principal and certificated leaders. The site leadership teams went through Beyond Diversity and then received ongoing training with PEG over a three-year period. Site equity teams were expected to lead their sites in having courageous conversations about race and student achievement.
The Beyond Diversity trainings continued twice a year for classified employees and administrators new to the district. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Bear Creek High School offered the Beyond Diversity training to department heads during the 2007 and 2008 school years.
A District Equity Leadership Team, created by the superintendent in order to give direction to the effort, met regularly with PEG representatives during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years. The superintendent also wrote a call to action for educators in the district. In order to provide additional support for site administrators, PEG participated in the district’s leadership retreats in 2005 and 2006.
Site-level outcomes
The efforts to increase conversations about race and student achievement have varied. Site principals and their equity teams have been encouraged to use their PEG training to provide professional development at their sites. During a professional development day in 2007, many site equity teams guided their staffs through discussions around a video or book involving race.
Additionally, virtually all sites have been much more aware of disaggregated site data. Teachers have been encouraged to select focal students who reflect students in the lower end of the achievement gap. Teachers are then asked to design lessons and instructional strategies to support focal students.
Recognizing the importance of community involvement, sites have increased efforts to work with parents and local organizations. Bear Creek High School hosted a one-day NAACP forum that engaged students and adults in problem-solving strategies to address the relatively low academic performance of African American students in three school districts.
Additionally, several elementary schools in the north Stockton area have partnered to create an African American parent support group. A school board member facilitates the quarterly meetings with the support group. Ronald McNair High School has partnered with the Lao Family Organization to provide support for Southeast Asian students.
District educators have indicated an increased level of awareness regarding the impact of race on student achievement. One high school principal has been collecting participation data with respect to enrollment in Advanced Placement courses, special education programs and extra-curricular clubs. After sharing this data with teachers, the site intends to develop strategic plans to address participation gaps.
Over the last six years, all student ethnic groups have demonstrated academic achievement gains at Bear Creek High School. During the initial years of this period all student groups were improving, but the achievement gap was widening.
Over the last couple of years, the site equity team led faculty discussions focused on race and student achievement. Staff realized that African American students were not experiencing the same gains as other student groups. Bear Creek staff began to focus on instructional approaches to benefit all students, but especially African American students.
Additionally, a male mentoring program with Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity was formed in order to provide students with direction and successful role models. As a result, Bear Creek’s API improved by 20 points in 2008. The API of African American students improved by 66 points.
Conversations about race pose challenges
Lodi Unified School District’s efforts to engage in practices to eliminate the achievement gap have not been fully embraced by the community or school employees. One local newspaper was particularly critical of how the school district allocated resources to support having conversations about race.
Many teachers have expressed feelings of guilt and anger. Some teachers felt like they were being accused of being racist. Requiring teachers to select focal students based on race, language acquisition and academic status was questioned. Teachers wondered if focusing on a few students was fair to other students in the class.
The District Equity Leadership Team has struggled with providing site administrators and equity teams the needed support to engage in the equity work. PEG provided training and reading materials for site equity teams. However, while many administrators felt that the resources were sufficient, many administrators believed more direction on how to use the resources was needed. Some administrators and teachers felt that a trusting environment was not established to engage in candid conversations during the trainings.
Considerations
Addressing personal and institutional racism in schools is a confusing, non-linear process. There is no guarantee that educators will be exposed to anti-racist thinking within teaching development programs. Furthermore, many people are taught not to think about life through a racial lens. It is not taught in most schools and many families consider racial dialogue to be a taboo subject. Educators will need to be able to have productive and open conversations about race and student achievement if students are to realize their potential.
One of the great challenges for educators is to have open minds with respect to defining racism. Many think of racism as overt acts of hate. While this is one definition, I prefer to use the definition that is used in Beverly Daniel Tatum’s “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race.” She describes racism as a system of advantage based on race.
Her book also suggests that racism in the United States is like being on a moving walkway in an airport. Those who are just standing on the walkway are moving along with a racist system. Since European Americans benefit from the system, they do not have to actively participate in racism in order to receive the benefits of the system.
She indicates that in order to be anti-racist, one has to consciously move in the opposite direction of the walkway. If schools are going to experience greater academic success for the students on the lower end of the achievement gap, then educators must make a conscious decision to challenge the status quo.
To challenge the status quo on a personal and institutional level, begin by asking the following questions:
The personal level
• Do you discuss race and student achievement with someone who is ethnically different from you?
• Can you identify your prejudiced thoughts about all students?
• Do you feel as comfortable talking with a parent of color as you do talking with a parent of European decent?
• Do you read books, journals or newspaper from people of color?
The institutional level
• Does the school have an academic achievement gap?
• What data supports the fact that there is an achievement gap? How frequently is the data reviewed?
• Is there a participation gap in school programs, such as Advanced Placement courses, athletic teams or special education programs?
• Does the school regularly talk about race and student achievement?
• Does the school and district have a strategic plan to address passive racism?
Addressing personal and institutional racism in schools is the challenge of the 21st century. Many educators are now calling the achievement gap the civil rights issue of today. Progress will be made only if educators are committed to continuing the conversation that focuses on race and student achievement.
Addressing personal and institutional racism will not be without conflict, as described by Frederick Douglass: “Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.”
With California becoming a state where students of color are becoming the majority, it is necessary for the social and economic well-being of the state to have educated citizens. The state cannot afford to lose Latino, Southeast Asian and African American students.
Educators must have the desire and courage to talk about race. District and site administrators must continue to take the lead in providing a context for educators to talk about the intersection of race and education. The conversation will be uncomfortable at times, but the conversation must happen because the conversation is progress.
References
Collins, Jim. (2001). Good to Great. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.
Daniels-Tatum (1997). Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race. New York: HarperCollins.
Singleton, Glenn & Linton, Curtis. (2006). Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, Inc.
Daryl F. Camp is the principal at Bear Creek High School in the Lodi Unified School District.