Equal Opportunity and Best Practices
Every child deserves equal access to a high-quality education.
Our schools should feel warm and welcoming to all of our students, families, and school staff, including people who have disabilities, people of every income level, gender identity, country of origin, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, immigration status, and home language. Education research shows that students do best when the teaching staff reflects the diversity of the student body, and we should continue to try to recruit and retain teachers who reflect the diversity of our students and community.
Our school district has lots of wonderful teachers. Different teachers are good at different things. We have some teachers who are extremely effective at something unit 4 as a whole struggles with: teaching low-income and black students effectively. We have teachers whose black students’ average math growth during the school year put them in the 99th percentile for growth in comparisons to same-age students of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds nationwide. These teachers move the average black student and the average low-SES student ahead substantially more than one grade level during just one school year. Unit 4 has access to this MAP data for elementary teachers of 1st through 5th grades. The school district should dig into this data and find out how these educators are teaching so effectively, and they should disseminate the knowledge, because many teachers are always searching out ways to improve. Instead of pressing for one-size-fits-all professional development, we need to create space for exemplar teachers to share how they achieve specific results and help their colleagues to do the same.
You often hear that it’s unfair to expect schools to succeed with students who live in poverty and who are disadvantaged by the wider society. But in fact there are many high-performing, high-poverty schools in the U.S. And although as a school system our outcomes for low-income and black students leave a lot to be desired, we have classrooms where these students are thriving. We can make this excellence systemic rather than sporadic.
Several things characterize an equitable environment in which low income and black students consistently accomplish great learning:
Safe and Welcoming Schools
Our schools need to be safe and orderly. It is crucially important that children feel safe, so that they can focus on learning. Educators need to be safe at school, too. We need to have an approach to discipline issues that is just and that aims to help students work together as a community. We must recognize that students have a right to an education and shouldn’t have to deal with chronic disruptions. Class sizes should be reasonable and kids shouldn’t feel overcrowded in their classrooms. We recognize that more and more of our students are coping with a history of trauma. We need more social workers.
We should make sure that children get enough time to move around. In elementary age children, more frequent exercise improves their executive function, cognition, academic achievement, and ability to regulate their behavior. Our kids also need enough time to eat lunch. Right now, children toward the end of the lunch line often end up with less than 10 minutes to eat.
Responsible Governance
We need to recognize that taxpayers have worked hard for the money that goes to our schools, and we must make sure our school district uses that money wisely. We need to plan for the future, including plans for facilities and staffing to keep up with population increases. Our district is top-heavy when it comes to highly-paid administrators who have little or no student contact, and our administrator to student ratio is too high. Teachers shouldn’t have to work a second job during the school year to make ends meet. We should encourage more transparency and community input in the ways that are schools are run.
Every child deserves equal access to a high-quality education.
Our schools should feel warm and welcoming to all of our students, families, and school staff, including people who have disabilities, people of every income level, gender identity, country of origin, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, immigration status, and home language. Education research shows that students do best when the teaching staff reflects the diversity of the student body, and we should continue to try to recruit and retain teachers who reflect the diversity of our students and community.
Our school district has lots of wonderful teachers. Different teachers are good at different things. We have some teachers who are extremely effective at something unit 4 as a whole struggles with: teaching low-income and black students effectively. We have teachers whose black students’ average math growth during the school year put them in the 99th percentile for growth in comparisons to same-age students of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds nationwide. These teachers move the average black student and the average low-SES student ahead substantially more than one grade level during just one school year. Unit 4 has access to this MAP data for elementary teachers of 1st through 5th grades. The school district should dig into this data and find out how these educators are teaching so effectively, and they should disseminate the knowledge, because many teachers are always searching out ways to improve. Instead of pressing for one-size-fits-all professional development, we need to create space for exemplar teachers to share how they achieve specific results and help their colleagues to do the same.
You often hear that it’s unfair to expect schools to succeed with students who live in poverty and who are disadvantaged by the wider society. But in fact there are many high-performing, high-poverty schools in the U.S. And although as a school system our outcomes for low-income and black students leave a lot to be desired, we have classrooms where these students are thriving. We can make this excellence systemic rather than sporadic.
Several things characterize an equitable environment in which low income and black students consistently accomplish great learning:
- A well-managed classroom that feels safe to every child
- A teacher who is a no-nonsense nurturer, both very warm and very intellectually demanding
- Respect for children’s thinking
- A deeply held belief in the great intellectual capacity of children, including black children, children who live in poverty and children who start the year below grade level in their knowledge
- The teacher gives hard problems that demand deep thinking
- It feels safe to make mistakes, and mistakes are encouraged as a necessary step on the way to mastery of new material
- Growth mindset messages
Safe and Welcoming Schools
Our schools need to be safe and orderly. It is crucially important that children feel safe, so that they can focus on learning. Educators need to be safe at school, too. We need to have an approach to discipline issues that is just and that aims to help students work together as a community. We must recognize that students have a right to an education and shouldn’t have to deal with chronic disruptions. Class sizes should be reasonable and kids shouldn’t feel overcrowded in their classrooms. We recognize that more and more of our students are coping with a history of trauma. We need more social workers.
We should make sure that children get enough time to move around. In elementary age children, more frequent exercise improves their executive function, cognition, academic achievement, and ability to regulate their behavior. Our kids also need enough time to eat lunch. Right now, children toward the end of the lunch line often end up with less than 10 minutes to eat.
Responsible Governance
We need to recognize that taxpayers have worked hard for the money that goes to our schools, and we must make sure our school district uses that money wisely. We need to plan for the future, including plans for facilities and staffing to keep up with population increases. Our district is top-heavy when it comes to highly-paid administrators who have little or no student contact, and our administrator to student ratio is too high. Teachers shouldn’t have to work a second job during the school year to make ends meet. We should encourage more transparency and community input in the ways that are schools are run.
