Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2015 - Evaluating Education

The old history teacher in me just wants you to watch this, first. :)

Now, as far as my commentary...

Whenever I think about the legacy of Dr. King in my own profession, I immediately reflect on where we are as far as education equality for young people of color (African-American and Hispanic). I'd like to say that most people in America can agree that simply legislatively desegregating schools was not enough. For 30 years kids have been bussed in and out of poor, predominately black schools to more affluent schools in the suburbs because it was evident that a "desegregated" school is only in name if the conditions in that school persist.

Attempting to meet this goal of educational civil rights for continues in 2015. You only need look at a map of the St. Louis region to find see the practical segregation of our schools. 

map via http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html

Is the region doing work to combat this practical segregation? Sort of. The Missouri Supreme Court ruling that allowed students in unaccredited schools like Normandy (where I live) and Riverview Gardens opened up opportunity for hundreds of kids to a "better" education. But is it "better" to have to ride more than an hour to school everyday? Kids in St. Louis Public Schools do this everyday to escape the neighborhood, unspecialized (mostly black) school and attend a lottery-based magnet school (of which some are very good). I don't like the busing approach because it assumes that some kids "don't deserve" a better education because their families did not or could not get them enrolled in the new district (because "they don't care."). 

I view the educational inequity of our city (and in America) as a problem of resources: economic, intellectual, and of time. Just 2 days ago I had a friend ask me, "Is math education on the computer and digital now, or is it mostly still on paper and with a book?" I told him that in my district (and other schools in the green section of that map above), math class is largely still VERY traditional. 

Kids get their expensive, hardbound math textbook, and the majority of the learning activities center around performing exercises out of that book or from worksheets. That's not altogether bad (kids DO need practice), but from my experience, that model only works for the kids that are buying into "school" and have a cultural/family support that going to school and getting good grades will get you into a good school and you'll get a good job and you'll have a good life. This doesn't work in impoverished schools because instead of graduating and moving on with that degree, because fewer people in these communities go to college, even fewer are successful in college, and even fewer get good jobs with those degrees (okay, so I don't have data to link on this right now, but I promise, I've seen some.)

What's the answer? "You have to give more relevant work. Give your students project-based learning units. There are a ton on BIE." This is a great idea, IF you have technology in your school to allow kids to research and work on these projects. So schools start to push PBL and get devices in all of their kids' backpacks, and create maker spaces in their schools to encourage students to explore their interests. 

What's the problem with implementing PBL? You need those devices and spaces available to students. High-poverty schools struggling to keep accreditation don't often have the extra capital around or the community support to raise funds to finance that technology. Extra money they do have is spent on tutoring, Saturday programs, and credit recovery classes so they can keep up their graduation rates. 

A school district doesn't need to be affluent to give their students technology rich environments, but they are forced to make choices. 

What do you need to make those choices? Dynamic leadership, community support, wiggle room on test scores (in case there's an intentional drop while teachers and students adjust to the change), capacity for change amongst the staff, lots of professional development, and probably a little bit of luck. That's a lot of pieces to fall into place for schools. Local district Maplewood-Richmond Heights was able to do that, but its been a 10 year (and continuing) process. 

As long as children of color have to wait on miracle grants to come and save their schools or rely on 5 or 6 variables of school improvement to all fall in line, we'll have a system that lacks equity for ALL children, and we'll have work to do.

"I Have a Dream Because..."

I cannot bear the thought of self-righteous contentment.

When I started school at Townsend Elementary in the Hazelwood School District, every year to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr Day our teachers would have us write an essay with this title, presumably to enter into some regional or national contest. I hope there were different grade levels, because when a 1st grader tries to sit down writing about the dream of MLK, one of two things was bound to happen: (1) said 1st grader would probably write about the dream he had last week while snug in his bed about monsters, lollipops, dinosaurs, sports, or racecars, or (2) said 1st grader would go about plagerizing a report about Martin Luther King lifted primarily from the first encyclopedia he found at the library.

By the time I was in 4th grade, now at Commons Lane in Ferg-Flor, the MLK essays were gone, and instead our class did extensive (for 4th graders) poster board projects during February for Black History Month. Although our class was doing projects on a wide range of historical black figures, from politicians to athletes, to doctors and soldiers, I wound up with another project on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Beyond the photocopy of a picture the office secretary made for my poster, the only thing I really remember about my project is that my father made a point to note that I was doing "another Martin Luther King project." As a nine year old, my impression of "another MLK project" was that it was a perfectly natural thing to study yearly - the same way grade school students study the pilgrims every year. Looking back now as an adult, I still don't completely know what to make of my father's words.

Did they mean nothing?
Were they similar in rhetoric to the crowd that questions why there is not a "White History Month?"
Did he wish I could study a different black historical figure?

I guess I've spent fifteen years questioning my father's racial prejudices (or lack thereof). I noticed when we stopped going to some restaurants because "they weren't as clean anymore." I heard my mother say that a certain place was too "dark." On the other hand, I saw him build a new house in Florissant several years ago when it would have been easier to flee to O'Fallon or St. Peters like so many others this decade. Even the fact that we settled in North County in 1987 when we moved here instead of whiter, south county could account for something.

However, a man's questioning of his father and his youth is not what's really important today - its much too insignificant and of much too small a scale. Tomorrow morning at 11am Central Time, Barack Obama will be sworn in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building, looking back in the direction directly opposite where King gave his "I Have a Dream..." speech in 1963. I hope that the historical poetry of that is not lost on him tomorrow. But how did we get here, and why was this day so long in coming?

"We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Many people have evaluated the 2008 election and judged that Obama getting more than 90% of the black vote was his key to success. That is a true statement. Kind of. The significance, however, is not in what percentage of the votes he obtained, but in the number of votes he created. Democratic candidates have historically gotten about that percentage of the black vote in elections, so that is nothing new. The difference, I believe, is in the words from King's speech. The Voting Rights Act of 1964 guaranteed that "Negro in Mississippi" federal protection to vote, but perhaps that "Negro in New York" did not believe he had anything to vote for until 2008.

It's important, also, to not confuse the increase in voting from black communities with the mere presence of a black candidate. If merely inserting a black candidate onto the ballot were the answer, then the Rev. Jesse Jackson's efforts in the 1980s would have been more successful. I think the difference was Obama's ability to inspire. President-elect Obama was able to inspire the public's belief in vision and dreams similar to the way Dr. King inspired in the 50s and 60s. It's also worth noting that Obama and Dr. King both have also been criticized as radicals and socialists. The lessons of history also show that it is never the moderate who changes thoughts and actions, but the revolutionary, or the radical.

My final hope for President Obama is the same that King had for the civil rights movement. For so many buying into the hope that Obama represents, 2008 is not the end, but rather, the beginning.