The Problem We All Live With
June 24, 2018
Nikole Hannah Jones argues that the one strategy that has led to successful closure of the achievement gap is integration, a reform that is not even considered by modern day politicians, educators and school board administrators. Instead, new ideas, or may I suggest, "experiments," are continuously being proposed and implemented to improve the achievement gap that persists between predominantly minority populated schools and the more affluent white, middle and upper-class school districts.
This process of implementing new programs and trying new strategies is commonly replicated in school districts around the country. As time goes by, only incremental improvements in scores are seen, and the closure of the achievement gap seems unattainable. Sadly, the students enrolled in these school districts do not have the luxury of time and end up graduating, if they are fortunate enough, with an education as weak as the latest new reform.
Jones writes, only one strategy has proven to significantly close the gap, and that is integration. It was demonstrated during the height of the desegregation movement in the 1980's and again more recently in 2013 when an unplanned integration process occurred in Missouri. Jones was following the news footage of the death of Michael Brown when she became curious about where Michael had attended school following his mother's grief filled statement, " Do you know how hard it was to keep him in school for him to graduate?" Do you know how many black men graduate?"
As it turns out, Michael had graduated from the dismally performing Normandy High School. This is a school that was in jeopardy of losing its accreditation for 15 years! For 15 long years this school was in warning status, yet continued to operate and the young people of Normandy had no other choice but to attend this school, that is until the state finally acted and accreditation status was officially revoked. This opened the doors for students to transfer to higher performing schools in the area.
Jones' sought out and interviewed a family, Nedra and daughter Mah' Ria Pruitt-Martin. Hearing their perspective was very helpful to me to better understand the experience of being a student, or a mom of a student, in a school like Normandy. It was described as disappointing, frustrating, sad, a place where teachers were too busy to call parents, a placed that continually screwed up "even the good things" like an assembly to recognized high achievers and then failed to call Mah 'Ria to the stage, the last straw for this family.
Teachers hold the power in the educational setting according to Delpit, Power and Pedagogy yet chose to do nothing to resolve the matter. The mom, Nedra described her desperation to find an affordable alternative for her daughter. I was able to appreciate the joy of how it might feel to suddenly have a much better opportunity at a high performing school only to realize the heart break of being forced to return to the newly named/disguised poor performing school.
I wish I had more insight into a situation I experienced as a very young child and will seek to understand my parents perspective on this at my earliest opportunity. I lived in Alabama for a few years from kindergarten to 5th grade, having moved from Massachusetts. I do recall some vague details, but will attempt to fill in the blanks of my memory. We resided in a neighborhood that was predominantly white, I believe. Over the next few years, black families did begin to move into the neighborhood, and the white families began moving out. I recall being in a school of mostly black children, and the reason I remember this was because I was given quite a bit of attention as one of the few white children enrolled. I recall that several little girls used to like to play with my long hair during recess. After a few years, my family moved to a larger home in a different neighborhood in the same town, Montgomery. My question for my parents will be, "Why did we move from Greenleaf Drive?" I really hope it was to move to a larger home to accommodate our growing family, but I intend to find out.
Jones investigative reporting on the educational system in Normandy, MO has increased my awareness of the inequality that exists between school districts and the real desperation families face when they don't have the same access and opportunities needed to attain an excellent education in our public schools. As Armstrong & Wildman would suggest, looking through the lens of white privilege, I was unable to see the struggle of others. I will need to pay closer attention to these issues going forward.
6/26/18 Addendum :
Hi All, I have the additional information I needed from my parents regarding the years we lived in Montgomery, Alabama. At the risk of shocking you all with my true age.... we moved from the Boston area (Lynn) to Montgomery in 1969 when I was 4, my youngest sister was an infant. We moved into a community of small 2-3 bedroom brick ranches, and the school yard could be accessed from our back yard fence gate. Mom has less details so I'll go with Dad's account. Dad says the reason there were many minorities at the school, despite the white neighborhood we lived in was due to cross-city busing. This was going on in Montgomery, and according to Dad, "without a lot of fan-fare. Some people didn't like it, but they accepted it." In contrast he pointed to the protests in the streets of Boston, and mentioned the name Louise Day Hicks, the school committee chairperson who strongly opposed integration through busing. Dad stated that the southern states, and in particular Alabama, had a reputation of being very discriminatory, yet busing was happening peacefully "and it was working" The northern Bostonian's were anything but accepting or peaceful.
With regard to the white flight question, both parents explained the reason we moved was need for bigger home (went from 3 bedroom to 5 bedroom) to accommodate 4 kids plus grandfather who moved in with us to recover from a botched back surgery.) While researching the school department I attended, I came across the "failing school" policy, Montgomery School Dept Accountability Act and found something very interesting. Please read the options given and let's discuss in class.
The Problem We All Live With
Nikole Hannah Jones argues that the one strategy that has led to successful closure of the achievement gap is integration, a reform that is not even considered by modern day politicians, educators and school board administrators. Instead, new ideas, or may I suggest, "experiments," are continuously being proposed and implemented to improve the achievement gap that persists between predominantly minority populated schools and the more affluent white, middle and upper-class school districts.
This process of implementing new programs and trying new strategies is commonly replicated in school districts around the country. As time goes by, only incremental improvements in scores are seen, and the closure of the achievement gap seems unattainable. Sadly, the students enrolled in these school districts do not have the luxury of time and end up graduating, if they are fortunate enough, with an education as weak as the latest new reform.
Jones writes, only one strategy has proven to significantly close the gap, and that is integration. It was demonstrated during the height of the desegregation movement in the 1980's and again more recently in 2013 when an unplanned integration process occurred in Missouri. Jones was following the news footage of the death of Michael Brown when she became curious about where Michael had attended school following his mother's grief filled statement, " Do you know how hard it was to keep him in school for him to graduate?" Do you know how many black men graduate?"
As it turns out, Michael had graduated from the dismally performing Normandy High School. This is a school that was in jeopardy of losing its accreditation for 15 years! For 15 long years this school was in warning status, yet continued to operate and the young people of Normandy had no other choice but to attend this school, that is until the state finally acted and accreditation status was officially revoked. This opened the doors for students to transfer to higher performing schools in the area.
Jones' sought out and interviewed a family, Nedra and daughter Mah' Ria Pruitt-Martin. Hearing their perspective was very helpful to me to better understand the experience of being a student, or a mom of a student, in a school like Normandy. It was described as disappointing, frustrating, sad, a place where teachers were too busy to call parents, a placed that continually screwed up "even the good things" like an assembly to recognized high achievers and then failed to call Mah 'Ria to the stage, the last straw for this family.
Teachers hold the power in the educational setting according to Delpit, Power and Pedagogy yet chose to do nothing to resolve the matter. The mom, Nedra described her desperation to find an affordable alternative for her daughter. I was able to appreciate the joy of how it might feel to suddenly have a much better opportunity at a high performing school only to realize the heart break of being forced to return to the newly named/disguised poor performing school.
I wish I had more insight into a situation I experienced as a very young child and will seek to understand my parents perspective on this at my earliest opportunity. I lived in Alabama for a few years from kindergarten to 5th grade, having moved from Massachusetts. I do recall some vague details, but will attempt to fill in the blanks of my memory. We resided in a neighborhood that was predominantly white, I believe. Over the next few years, black families did begin to move into the neighborhood, and the white families began moving out. I recall being in a school of mostly black children, and the reason I remember this was because I was given quite a bit of attention as one of the few white children enrolled. I recall that several little girls used to like to play with my long hair during recess. After a few years, my family moved to a larger home in a different neighborhood in the same town, Montgomery. My question for my parents will be, "Why did we move from Greenleaf Drive?" I really hope it was to move to a larger home to accommodate our growing family, but I intend to find out.
Jones investigative reporting on the educational system in Normandy, MO has increased my awareness of the inequality that exists between school districts and the real desperation families face when they don't have the same access and opportunities needed to attain an excellent education in our public schools. As Armstrong & Wildman would suggest, looking through the lens of white privilege, I was unable to see the struggle of others. I will need to pay closer attention to these issues going forward.
6/26/18 Addendum :
Hi All, I have the additional information I needed from my parents regarding the years we lived in Montgomery, Alabama. At the risk of shocking you all with my true age.... we moved from the Boston area (Lynn) to Montgomery in 1969 when I was 4, my youngest sister was an infant. We moved into a community of small 2-3 bedroom brick ranches, and the school yard could be accessed from our back yard fence gate. Mom has less details so I'll go with Dad's account. Dad says the reason there were many minorities at the school, despite the white neighborhood we lived in was due to cross-city busing. This was going on in Montgomery, and according to Dad, "without a lot of fan-fare. Some people didn't like it, but they accepted it." In contrast he pointed to the protests in the streets of Boston, and mentioned the name Louise Day Hicks, the school committee chairperson who strongly opposed integration through busing. Dad stated that the southern states, and in particular Alabama, had a reputation of being very discriminatory, yet busing was happening peacefully "and it was working" The northern Bostonian's were anything but accepting or peaceful.
With regard to the white flight question, both parents explained the reason we moved was need for bigger home (went from 3 bedroom to 5 bedroom) to accommodate 4 kids plus grandfather who moved in with us to recover from a botched back surgery.) While researching the school department I attended, I came across the "failing school" policy, Montgomery School Dept Accountability Act and found something very interesting. Please read the options given and let's discuss in class.
Hearing the interview with Nedra and Mah'Ria made the experience both more emotional and realistic. The connection you made to Delpit and the "culture of power" with teachers holding the power was insightful yet in Mah'Ria's situation; it was useless because as you stated a simple awards ceremony was "screwed up." The thoughts on your childhood days in Alabama made me curious as it did you to find out more of the details as to why you did move and what was really happening in the schools in that area at that time.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing about your family's move when you lived in Alabama. It certainly sounds like the influx of black families in the community happened fast if you went from being in a predominantly white school where you didn't necessarily notice your race to one where you stuck out because of your race. I certainly don't think ill of your parents but I'm wondering what other factors or pressures were influencing their decision. I think it's likely realtor's had some sort of part in the influx of people of color in your first neighborhood. If your parents also used a realtor they may have only been shown certain neighborhoods as well. Nowadays you can find a home online and your search is as broad as you would like. Without the internet and modern day search engines, people relied on realtors more and realtors had (not to say that they don't still have) a large impact on the make up of a neighborhood. Just another thought. That's the thing about systemic issues, they never stand alone.
ReplyDeleteI think the word experiments accurately sums up what these students are being put through. When these decisions are being made, they are often done by people in power that sit in offices and board rooms and are very disconnected for students. They are not going out into the community and seeking voice from stakeholders about what they think is best. Because of this, I have a very hard time referring to these people as leaders because they are not representing the constituency they work for, at all. The decisions they make have unknown outcomes, and they surely don't use the data discussed in this interview on desegregation that has shown to be successful.
ReplyDeleteReally great writing and thoughts on this -- I enjoyed reading.
Hi All, I have the additional information I needed from my parents regarding the years we lived in Montgomery, Alabama. At the risk of shocking you all with my true age.... we moved from the Boston area (Lynn) to Montgomery in 1969 when I was 4, my youngest sister was an infant. We moved into a community of small 2-3 bedroom brick ranches, and the school yard could be accessed from our back yard fence gate. Mom has less details so I'll go with Dad's account. Dad says the reason there were many minorities at the school, despite the white neighborhood we lived in was due to cross-city busing. This was going on in Montgomery, and according to Dad, "without alot of fan-fare. Some people didn't like it, but they accepted it." In contrast he pointed to the protests in the streets of Boston, and mentioned the name Louise Day Hicks, the school committee chairperson who strongly opposed integration through busing. Dad stated that the southern states, and in particular Alabama, had a reputation of being very discriminatory, yet busing was happening peacefully "and it was working" The northern Bostonian were anything but accepting or peaceful.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the white flight question, both parents explained the reason we moved was need for bigger home (went from 3 bedroom to 5 bedroom) to accommodate 4 kids plus grandfather who moved in with us to recover from a botched back surgery.) While researching the school department I attended, I came across the "failing school" policy and found something very interesting. Unfortunately not sure how to link to the video of Louise Day Hicks or the form from this comment section. Will work on....
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing all of this family history with us!!
ReplyDelete