BEHAVIORAL STRAND UPDATE: Desegregation in Schools: How Can We Have an Effect on Change?

9/28/2016

In the midst of all schools trying to cut the achievement gap by half, we often forget what it takes to do this work. A podcast from This American Life, titled “The Problem We All Live With”, includes an interesting discussion about the achievement gap and the desegregation that happens when trying give access to students of color so that everyone is on the same leveling playing field.

“Racial segregation has come back to public education with a vengeance.” - Jonathan Kozol

After listening to this podcast, I hope it has evoked some type of feeling around this topic and are willing to share. What are your thoughts? Leave a comment to start the conversation about desegregation in your life and in our schools.

Blog post written by:
Darrell Burns, Assistant Director of Behavioral Intervention

11 Comments

Veronica

10/5/2016 03:57:49 pm

This was really interesting to listen to. What stood out to me in the beginning is when Nikole Hannah-Jones is talking about how there is a lack of access to the same quality of teachers, instruction, and environment. Growing up I went to a private elementary/middle school where my class was extremely diverse: in a class of about 30 we had a variety of racial and gender identities (white was a minority). I always knew that my experience was different in school compared to the public school that was also in my town; I was always so proud of my school's diversity and inclusion. What I came to realize later in life was the amount of funding my school had compared to that public school, and due to the fact that my school was private, we were provided more access to basic resources. Remember though, we were in suburbia. Looking back now, I am coming to understand even more about how school districts and funding work.

Imagine my shock when a coworker at my current school (I am a student support assistant) just told me about how his department had blown through 60% of their yearly budget in the first month of school. I was blown away. I asked him about what had been purchased, and he explained that the basic equipment in each of the three classrooms had consumed over half of the budget. I asked him what he was going to do for the rest of the year and he just shrugged and said he was going to make it stretch and invest some of his own money. Now I understand more of his frustrations when kids ask him for pencils every class and somehow manage to lose them from day to day.

There are some allstars at my work, but it makes me wonder what could happen if there were more resources, if the teachers got paid better, if these kids had the basics like pencils to succeed in that class... This podcast delves into a lot more which is needed to be discussed. This is just what I have picked up recently at work and have been mulling over.

Darrell Burns link

10/7/2016 10:41:27 am

I agree that this is a bigger issue but I wonder how this can be fixed? I am wondering if people believe that things are reverting back to when schools were separated?

Jessie

10/7/2016 05:08:57 pm

I thought that this conversation was really interesting. In college I took a class about the history of education in the U.S. and we had to interview someone who was a part of the integration process in California. The woman who I interviewed was African-American and felt that there pros to having schools segregated. She also recalled how amazing it was to learn about African-American history from someone with that shared identity. We also talked about the ways that wealthier folks we able to re-segregate schools. Piedmont is a good example of this. We also talked about how districts were divided in Oakland and how people who lived in the Oakland hills and people who lived in "The Flats" attended the same schools until people complained.

This also made me think about the book "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Beverly Tatum. Even schools that are integrated end up being segregated. I went to a school that prided itself on diversity and the only person who I keep in touch with after 8 years is Black. In middle school and high school my main friend group was POC. "Diversity Day" was later coined "White Guilt Day" and people's parents would call saying they were sick. I think to truly desegregate schools a lot of work has to be done to educate kids with privilege whether that be financial or racial. I think we have to figure out a way combat "othering."

Erica

10/12/2016 04:02:30 pm

In the beginning of the podcast where the speakers talked about closing the achievement gap, I was reminded of a video I watched for my MSW program about the Harlem Children's Zone. The whole idea behind the HCZ was providing additional resources for a population that was already under-served and disadvantaged. It just so happened that a majority of the children living in that zone belonged to minority sub groups. By providing ample resources in terms of supportive health programs, teachers, classroom materials, education curriculum, etc, the HCZ was able to increase test scores among grades for their students by 50%. Along similar line, as Nikole mentioned, the reason why integration worked was not because of some magic that occurs when white and black kids sit down together, but because it allowed black kids to access the same resources as white kids. I do believe that we live in a world where there is systematic racism and prejudice. I don't know that the school systems are reverting all the way back to when schools were separate, however I do believe there are macro level and system wide inequalities that greatly affect education of those who belong to already marginalized populations.

Bria Lee

10/17/2016 12:41:43 pm

The story of Brown v. Board of Education, which was supposed to end legal segregation in public schools, is one of hope and courage. People of color were finally granted access to the same schools as their Caucasian counterparts. They were allotted the same education and the same opportunities to which they were previously denied. Within this blog Nikole Hannah-Jones not only sheds light on the fact that schools are still segregated but justified due to the community to which one belongs. Nikole did a great job of explaining that if things were truly inclusive then people of color would not have to fight to receive the same education as others because they would already have it.

Yajaira Cuapio

10/17/2016 03:48:03 pm

This was a great podcast, although very upsetting, to listen to. My initial thought is that this is why education is a civil rights issue. All children in America, especially children of color, are not receiving the same level of education. This is clearly a larger systemic issue that affects every school district or learning education agency (LEA) differently. However, some initial interventions that come to mind are providing folks with the proper definitions of what implicit bias means. In the podcast, parents from the Francis Howell District were worried and upset that "violence" would flood into their schools. Although the Normandy school district did not lose accreditation due to violence, this was somehow the point of discussion. Even when a parent from the Normandy school district expressed this being a race issue, a white mother responded by calling out her “prejudice” against her “white skin.” While the Francis Howell parents were not bluntly saying they didn’t want the Normandy students because they were mostly black, their use of language demonstrated the bias they had regarding these students. What was upsetting to me was that the Normandy students were being judged on outcomes they had no control over. The parents in Francis Howell were clearly biased and did not even realize it.

Ana

10/19/2016 10:37:59 am

I remember hearing this podcast near the time I started working with Seneca and it was great hearing it again. For me, listening to it was both very upsetting and also motivating. Honestly, the most impactful part for me to hear was probably the first 10 minutes of the podcast when the journalist shares her observation about Michael Brown’s mother’s comments about how difficult it was to get her son to graduate. I think it impacted me the most because I was surprised to hear that, of alllll the things she could have said (and I know she definitely has said more than just that sound bite) she mentioned his education. If I died or got killed, I don’t know if my educational achievement and the loss of it would have been something my mother would lament and that’s probably because of the privileges I had growing up. Neither I nor my parents had to “fight” for my education while I was growing up. My parents definitely had to fight for THEIR education, but by the time I came around, my family was stable, in a safe neighborhood with great schools, and I had no major obstacles within myself that was keeping me from accessing that education. It’s heartbreaking that oppressed communities have to spend so much of their life fighting for basic things and are also more likely to have it all stripped away in such a painful way. I don’t think I’m adequately expressing exactly what I want to express, but I wish more people heard specifically that soundbite because I think it really hits at how much of a battle navigating the education system is for people of color and historically oppressed communities.

I think the main question that the podcast presents is this: If racial (and subsequently socio-economic) integration of schools has proven to be a successful way to close the achievement gap between specifically African American and White students, why aren’t we using it? I think it’s clear from the podcast and touches on Yajaira’s comments: Bias. Racism. Prejudice. Ignorance. Misconceptions. Specifically that people have about people of color. This was clearly seen in the clips taken from the community forum where parents voiced their concerns about the busing of students from the Normandy district. I think partly a way to address this would be education about the history of racism, specifically institutional racism, in the US. And I wish the government did a better job of acknowledging this part of our history and giving it the weight it deserves. For example, in Germany and places that had been taken over by the Nazi’s back in the day, it is ILLEGAL to Deny the Holocaust happened. Illegal. Boom. Done. Now is this the most effective thing? I’m not totally sure, and I definitely believe that freedom of speech is important, but what I want to point to is that these kinds of policies, or memorializing the lives lost and making it a point to tell the stories of the victims really drives home to the people the gravity of what happened and how people need to be intentional about not letting something like that happen again. Of course, these countries still have issues of racism and prejudice, but at least the general public is, I assume, being educated about what happened and how such an atrocity could actually occur.

Also (random), I watched a documentary recently (on Netflix!) called "The 13th" which is about the history of the criminalization of African Americans, starting with slavery and up to the present day. Definitely recommend it.

Karen Johnson

10/19/2016 01:57:47 pm

I remember listening to this podcast in October of last year and having a conversation about this with my co-worker on our commute to work. Listening to the staggering numbers of how the children of color in Normady are falling behind is extremely depressing. Working in the education field I already knew the racial differences amongst students, however I never thought of it as segregation. This also frames a question as to why is this even allowed and if we are trying to close the achievement gap, all factors need to be accounted for that affects students and families.

Ana M

10/19/2016 02:17:35 pm

I could not think about much else other than one thought through this whole podcast. There has always been an issues in predominately white community with transfers of new students. Since I was working in a similar community last year I did get to witness the reactions of administration and of special education staff when they found out student's background or they talk about previous students and that they were transferred out of the school. It was frustrating to listen to the podcast because it sounded very similar to the parent's opinions of the changes. The issue was that every time they would say the student racial background either at a low whisper or trying to justify why they cannot support the incoming student's needs.

When the issue about athletic transfers occurred coaches and certain admin would get excited if they found out the student was a talent athlete of color. Interesting?! I would hear about how much those students were helped to get transferred and having their credits count when entering the school. This school in particular received recognition for it's student athletes and the high rate of commits that occur within the sports programs.

This send a message that student of color are welcomed if they are gifted athletes and that their academics are not emphasized as being the most important aspect. For every athlete your career will end either by age, injury or choice. Their career ends and regardless their knowledge and learning ability do not have limits.

Connor Crabb

10/19/2016 02:23:15 pm

What struck me most about this story was the different ways that a parents desire to get their children the best education manifests. On one hand you had the mother who worked tirelessly for her African American daughter to go to a better school in a better county, spending countless hours, lunch breaks and after work to try and get the best for her daughter. However on the other side, you have the white families of the county that was to be integrated, fighting equally as hard to have their school not integrated because they felt it would decrease their kids education. This dichotomy between these two groups of people with the same desire for their children exemplifies how individualistic nature of the education system is. There is a lack of compassion and empathy for groups of people who are not provided with the same resources of education. Parents think as long as their own children get educated it does not really matter what happens to all the other kids. I think this way of thinking about education is completely flawed. We are all connected to each other, and all the students of today will be the citizens of our society tomorrow. If one group of people is continually deprived of education, our society as a whole will never grow to the potential that it can be. If our society is struggling because a whole population group is uneducated, than those who are educated will be effected as well. I think desegregation is so important today, all children deserve a chance to succeed, and we are only as strong as a society, as the sum of all our parts.
-Connor

Ashley Crittendon

10/19/2016 03:42:52 pm

This was REALLY painful to listen to. I always knees there was an inequality in the education system, but it didn't click until now that this was considered segregation. This made made me think back to when I was in school. I was told that I couldn't do to another school in Daly City due to me not living in that district's area, but the school that I was told that I would have to go to was a majority black and the test scores were really low. I'm blessed that my mom fought for me to attend another school out of that district. This goes far and beyond education. Without a good education, job freedom is rare, which results to crime, etc. This is a never ending cycle and the biggest and most important thing is for "this" discussion to happen and more often among more and more people. We can sit here and pretend that there's nothing wrong, but the kids will continue to suffer and that's just really depressing.

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BEHAVIORAL STRAND UPDATE: Desegregation in Schools: How Can We Have an Effect on Change?

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