Challenge Day Reflections: Education, LT'20
Education Challenge Day
November 14, 2019
By: Gary Cooper, LT'18
To keep you connected to LT and the current issues and topics discussed in the curriculum, LT shares highlights and resources from the recent Challenge Day. We hope you enjoy these monthly updates!
Youth Voices
Erin H. 7th/8th Grade Social Studies/Ethnic Studies Teacher, Showalter Middle School; Maelisa L., 8th gr., SMS EPIC, Showalter Middle School; Jada N., 7th gr., AVID, Showalter Middle School; Tyris O., 8th gr., District Race and Equity team, Showalter Middle School; Na'Tavia R., 8th gr., Showalter Middle School; Mary Fertakis, Curriculum Committee
During my LT'18 Education Challenge Day, it felt as though there was a voice missing. We surfaced new perspectives and learned together, but we were missing the voice of the student.
To have that voice as part of this Challenge Day was a great evolution from LT's Curriculum Committee. During this panel, we heard that young people want honesty. They see and feel what is going on, and they feel disconnected when teachers do not prioritize cultural competency over traditional ways of teaching. They feel the weight of a mental and emotional war being waged in their schools -- one that finds roots in a white-washed version of history that often stereotypes their communities.
It should not be the work of young people of color, but it was clear these students are elevating the cultural competency of the school's teachers. It's another definitive signal that we (white folks) need to be doing more of our own work.
Resources:
Read chapters "We Face Racial Bias: Unpacking Racial Bias in School Discipline" and "We Know School Climate Matters: How Black Students Experience Schools" (pages 16-23) here.
Watch this video about work being done at Rainier Scholars.
Site Visits
LT'20 had the opportunity to visit seven schools that are taking unique approaches to closing the opportunity gap. For the full list of schools, please refer to the agenda.
I was fortunate to tag along with the group that visited Tyee High School. This school is highly diverse, has a high percentage of free and reduced lunch, and has historically struggled with traditional academic stats.
This school has two Co-Principals who are working to leverage the resiliency of the community to improve academic outcomes. Their motto is every student, by name, strength, and need. This means they tailor the solution or approach based on students' individual needs.
There are trades and college career pathways at the school, engagement with BAM (becoming a man, specific to young men of color), Ignite (a peer-to-peer tutoring and mentoring program), the highest percentage of teachers of color in the district, and a mounted effort to build family engagement in the building.
Is it working? Test scores have risen steadily over the last three years and, in 2018, Tyee High hit 80% graduation rate for the first time in its history.
Resources:
Educational Equity: What does it mean? How do we know when we reach it? Read this report produced by the Center for Public Education.
Read through partial timelines of public education and educational oppression in the U.S. here and here.
Understanding Education Funding and Budgets, Part 1
Understanding Inequities in Education Funding, Part 2
Sharonne Navas, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Equity in Education Coalition; Mary Fertakis, Curriculum Committee
There was so much to unpack during this portion of the day, but the biggest takeaway for me: achieving equity in our schools is not possible without dismantling two systems - whiteness and adulthood; in particular, the intersection of the two.
Our schools have an adult problem. The structure is set up to prioritize adults' needs versus the needs of young people and certainly not young people of color. As an example, we often penalize young people of color who speak two languages, indicating that they are not advancing according to our traditional testing measures. And yet, we'll reward white students who learn a second language when they are in high school.
Education is 52% of the state's budget. It's not about how much money we have to spend; it's about deciding where the money goes. We have a confusing funding formula that does not prioritize the needs of young people.
Resources:
What is resource equity? Read ERS' working paper here.
Watch Lindsay Hill's TED Talk "Rebuilding the Inequitable Foundation of American Education."
Racial Caucus Discussions & Reports
At the outset of the day, this section caught my eye. Our class (LT'18) caucused prior to the Mid-Year Retreat because we wanted it to be as effective as possible. That meant doing work within the white community and building safety among the people of color. The LT'19 cohort also built a similar structure during the program and continues to meet.
It was wonderful to see this model built into the programming for the Challenge Day, and my hope is the caucuses continue throughout the year. I appreciated the effort to drive commitments to one another during the caucus for white people. We need to be having more frank, honest, and difficult conversations with one another. We (white people) need to feel the burden of abolishing whiteness and ending racism.
Resources:
Read Racial Identity Caucusing: A Strategy for Building Antiracist Collectives.
Watch Seattle Times' Under our Skin segments on the idea of white fragility.
Takeaways and Personal Reflections
I miss these days. I miss the challenge of being in a room with people I wouldn't typically connect with during my day-to-day work. As the day ended and feedback was given, many members of LT'20 commented that they wanted more time to process with one another, to slow the pace down and go deeper. I remember those critiques well.
However, I sat in the back thinking of how much the content and design have evolved. The day was less of a data-dump and was more critically challenging; it went deeper and engaged the room more than I recall from my Challenge Day. It made me smile. The LT Curriculum Committee is listening and evolving and deepening the challenge. And, we must always continue striving to get better.
