Wednesday was my first official full day as a student teacher. As luck would have it, there was an all day speaker that day, which meant that I could slouch somewhat anonymously in the auditorium for the most part. Not completely, though, as there were opportunities for introductions, at which time my cooperating teacher said to me, “Don’t worry, I got you”, then, louder, “This is my brilliant, dynamic, excellent student teacher.” It was equal parts embarrassing and awesome.
The speaker was Principal Baruti K. Kafele, a principal from Newark, New Jersey. He spoke mostly about the achievement gap, especially as it relates to Black and Latino students. The school I’m student teaching at actually has a large African American and Hmong population, but I think overall the message is the same: educators need to tailor their curriculum to their students, to let them know who they are via their rich history in order to allow them to fully realize their potential.
Kafele is a dynamic speaker, and it was truly an honor to spend the day learning from him. What sticks with me most from his presentation is his reference of a recent L.A. times article which reports that, in California (and we’re kidding ourselves if we think this to be anything but a national trend), poor white and Asian students are outperforming middle class Black and Latino students.
From the article:
Jack O’Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, turned heads in education circles last week with the message that race, not poverty, helped explain why African American and Latino students lagged behind their white and Asian counterparts.
It wasn’t what he said that was remarkable. It was the fact that he said it at all.
“These are not just economic achievement gaps, they are racial achievement gaps,” O’Connell said after his annual release of California’s standardized test scores. “We cannot afford to excuse them; they simply must be addressed.”
Thankfully, the article also addressed the probability that some will take this data and run with it, affirming their own bigotry:
But some cautioned that there were dangers in beginning such a conversation — and that, in any case, talk about race was useless without carefully calibrated action to encourage higher achievement by black and Latino students.
“It’s tricky to figure out how to introduce it in public,” said Ron Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University and author of a forthcoming book on the subject. He said he worried that such discussions could lead not to constructive changes but to “blame and responsibility and maybe even genetics.”
Jeannie Oakes, a professor in the graduate school of education at UCLA who has sometimes been critical of O’Connell, praised him for raising the issue. “It’s a new level of candor, I think, about the combination of factors that seem to relate to low achievement,” she said.
But Oakes added: “When you go down this path, then we have to be very careful about what we choose to talk about and examine, because it’s very easy to fall into stereotypical views, and historical views, of people with darker skin being less intelligent . . . or people from immigrant families and African Americans not valuing education.”
And, readers, while I trust that you can read the entire article for yourselves if you so choose, allow the superintendent of L.A. Unified School District to sound in, won’t you? His candor in holding all involved adults responsible is refreshing:
David L. Brewer, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said he welcomed O’Connell’s heightened attention to the issue, and said that he, too, has been looking for ways to raise the performance of African American and Latino students.
There are strategies that are known to be effective, and schools, some in his district, can be used as case studies of what works, he said.
“The key is personalized instruction and teachers who don’t allow students to fail,” he said. “And then you get the results you expect to get. We know what works; it’s making everybody do what works.”
In that respect, he said, he’ll talk to employee unions about modifying work rules to allow for longer school days and more flexible schedules within the school day.
Brewer said that although L.A. Unified had made strides in academic achievement at elementary schools, “after the fourth grade, something is happening with African American and Latino students.”
And the solution does not entirely lie in the schools, Brewer said. Responsibility also lies with the family: “We’re going to have to make sure parents understand this is a problem,” he said. “Our black and brown children can do math and science: We want that message loud and clear in your homes. We want parents to make sure they’re holding their children accountable.”
Back to Kafele. He referred at one point to what he does as his “ministry.” Perhaps it should not be surprising, then, when he talks at length about helping boys to become men. He told a story about his stock graduation address, in which he asks the graduating men to stand up, turn around, and face the crowd. Then he asks the men in the crowd to stand up, and promise to take a young man under their wing. I have no problem with mentorship, but I couldn’t help noticing their was no mention of helping young ladies become women, or young people to become adult citizens. It felt rather Promise Keepers to me, kind of lopsided.
I understand that I am coming from a very caucasian two-parent background, and certainly issues of men abandoning their posts as fathers, etc. are more pronounced in some minority communities, yet it still feels like a partial measure to me. If we are teaching students about their rich histories, legacies, and limitless possibilities, why would we do so in a way that makes half of them feel subservient?
Having said that, Principal Kafele is a brilliant man with a strong commitment to education, and I really am grateful for the opportunity to learn from him.
* * * * *
Finally, during a breakout session with the English department, the chair of the department was heard to say this in reference to a reading list Kafele had suggested:
“I’m not much of a reader.”
