USD259 provides funding for the Director of Equity and Accountability position

Earlier this year, USD259 voted to end busing for desegregation. We (the Wichita Branch NAACP) participated in the district meetings to discuss the end and alternatives to busing and we agreed with the proposal with some caveats. In February of this year, we made a presentation to the Board of Education wherein we outlined our recommendations for maintaining diversity and equity in the district post-busing.

The first of these recommendation was that the district would create a Director level position who would oversee diversity and equity issues within the district. This position was also referenced in the 4-point plan to eliminate the achievement gap that we presented to the district sometime earlier.

The District has since voted to create a new Director of Equity and Accountability position. And we are very pleased to report that they have now proposed to fully fund the position with a $300,000.00 line item in the budget that would cover the Director's salary, the hiring of an assistant, and the services of a consultant who will help them draft the job description and will advise on how to properly manage the transition from busing to a new system.

We sincerely applaud the district's effort, and we thank them for listening and being responsive to the concerns of the community. We believe that this position will prove to be a great benefit to the district in a number of areas. Beyond the racial diversity issues, this position can help the district deal with *compliance issues on Board Policies, and objectives. It can refocus the board on *resource management and the equitable allocation of funds and projects throughout the district. It can even initiate a real discussion on the *allocation of Human Resources; namely the distribution of experienced versus inexperienced teachers.

We look forward to strengthening our relationship with the district as we continue to work on the critical issues of diversity and equity. And as always, we'll keep you posted...

Tech Tags: Education Diversity Busing NAACP Equity

Your Presence is needed to show support for diversity and ensure equity in our schools

Please Plan to Attend:

To show your support, please attend the:

Board of Education Meeting: Monday, February 11, 2008
Time: 6:00 p.m. - Arrive by 5:40 p.m. for parking & seating.
Place: North High School - 1437 Rochester (by 13th & N. Waco)

Last week, USD259 voted to end it's busing for desegregation program. The plan had been in effect since 1971 and was implemented as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Wichita Branch NAACP under the leadership of then President Chester Lewis. Local Wichitan's and longtime readers of this blog know that the administration of USD259 had sought for a number of years to end the program, and that each year, the Branch would mount a strategic 'counter-campaign' to save it.

Many of you outside of Wichita may be surprised to learn that our program had survived this long, but that was a testament to the hard work and efforts of the volunteer members of our local branch. Over the last few years, our Branch (particularly the members of the Education committee) held forums, attended community meetings, passed out flyers, bought and supplied books and resource materials, gave radio and television interviews to support and maintain our districts desegregation efforts. We worked very hard for the cause of maintaining diversity within our schools, and each year, though our district's administration made clear their intent to end the program, we were able to rally public support and keep it in place.

This year was different. Bolstered by the recent decision of the Supreme Court, the district approached the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) once more, seeking to be released from our busing for desegregation program. We contacted OCR as we had in years past to state our position as representatives of the original plaintiffs in the suit that led to the creation of the plan. But while our fierce support of diversity in education never waivered, this campaign coupled with the recent Supreme Court decisions gave us a good opportunity to re-examine our strategy.

In reassessing our strategy it became clear that somehow along the way, we had allowed ourselves to slip into the role of defending the status quo. That was a tragic and inappropriate role for a watchdog/advocacy group because we were often placed in a position of defending a status quo that was in many respects inadequate. Our children have many educational issues and needs, but our ability to effectively advocate on their behalf was muted; it was difficult at times to fight for what we needed when we were fighting so hard to maintain what little we had. Like midshipmen aboard a leaky boat, so much of our time was devoted to fixing leaks, bailing water, and reassuring dissatisfied passengers, that little time was left for us to recognize or address the fact that our Sail was actually too small, our maps were outdated, and our Captain was asleep at the wheel. If for no other reason that this, we as a Branch needed to reposition ourselves so that we could become more effective in our role as advocates.

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We had made it clear all along that we were never 'married' to busing; we viewed busing as a strategy, not a goal. But we were and remain completely committed to Diversity in Education, Educational Equity, High Expectations for all students, Challenging Curriculums, and having experienced highly qualified teachers for our children. We addressed the Board of Education during the 06 and 07 school years and acknowledged that we would be open to alternative plans as long as they provided for these things.

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When the District voted to end busing, a plan was put forth that would (at least initially) address these issues. Additionally, a number of promises and commitments were made by members of the Board and the Administration regarding diversity and equity. However, while we believe the members of the Board to be sincere in their intent, we want to see these promises and commitments codified into district policy.

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The district has proposed that an Oversight Committee be formed to monitor the district's performance on the issues of diversity and equity. We believe the oversight committee is a great idea, however we know that a oversight advisory committee alone will be vastly insufficient to shape the district's responses to the challenges that lie ahead. A group of volunteers with no real power to affect policy or make change can not be held accountable for the condition of our schools. The District and administration may, at their discretion, delegate some degree of oversight and authority to an advisory committee, but they can NOT delegate their responsibility or their accountability.

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In taking that vote to end the existing program they each, personally assumed responsibility for the outcomes. However, the issues of diversity and equity are so important to our children, that we can not simply allow them to defer the issue to just another advisory committee. Ending Busing will only be the first of a series of very difficult decisions this Board must now face.

• The District I Board of Education (BOE) member, Betty Arnold is recommending that in addition to having an oversight committee, a paid staff position should be created to oversee diversity, quality education, etc. We wholeheartedly support this recommendation and will ask the other Board members for their support as well. We made a similar recommendation in the 4-point plan to eliminate the Achievement Gap which the Board adopted, but never fully implemented.

• We will also restate our position that if we are to ensure diversity and equity, then we need to go back to the map and redraw our neighborhood school boundaries. The AAA neighborhood for student assignment purposes was defined by residential segregated housing patterns. To truly move beyond race in education, we should abandon the old 'Negro district' and develop new school boundaries using the same growth and capacity formula that we would use anywhere else in the city. We believe that if we all work together to reexamine school boundaries and determine how best to assign students, we can maintain diversity without forced busing.

• We will ask that the District draft policy that speaks directly to the issue of equity in teachers, resources, and facilities. The number of highly qualified teachers and the average levels of experience within each school should be monitored and there should be some safeguards against any school falling behind the others in these categories.

• And we will also speak to the District's proposed $350,000,000.00 bond issue.

On Tuesday morning, following the Board meeting, I will post my comments to the board and their questions and reactions here on the blog. But in the interim, we asking that all who are able plan to attend and show your support for these efforts...

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See you Monday!

Tech Tags: Busing, Desegregation, USD259, NAACP, Wichita+NAACP, Education, School, Youth

Diversity post Deseg: Our position on the District's plan to end busing...

Wichita School District USD259 is looking at ways to end it's busing for desegregation program. We have argued for the last few years that we [Wichita NAACP] as an organization are committed to diversity and integrated schools, however, we are not 'married' to busing as the method. We have argued that if the district wants to end its busing for desegregation program, than it should first make a plan that would show how we would maintain diversity, access to quality teachers and materials, while providing academic rigor, high standards and high expectations for all students.

This year, the Superintendent assembled a task force to study recommendations and make suggestions for such a plan that would be a suitable alternative to busing. I served on that task force and made suggestions that were incorporated into the final presentation that the Superintendent made to the Board of Education.

Yesterday I was interviewed by the Wichita Eagle (our local newspaper) to gather community reactions to the presentation. While my comments were rather lengthy, the article itself focused on showing diverse opinions, therefore my comments were truncated and our position was not conveyed.

As the plaintiff organization in the original lawsuit that led to the creation of USD259's desegregation plan, I feel it is important that we clearly communicate our position to the community. I have since pieced together my own notes from the interview, and I will now share my reassembled notes from that interview with you all, in their entirety...
~~~~~~

Wichita Eagle:
What was your reaction to the superintendent's proposal?

KM:
I was pleased we were able to reach a compromise. The plan recognizes the fact that we need to sit down and do the hard work of figuring out how to deal with capacity issues and student assignments. But, in the interim, this plan offers acceptable choices to children in the AAA area.
____________

Wichita Eagle:
Are you concerned about the district possibly returning to more segregated schools?

KM:
Certainly. Most of the districts who have abandoned their desegregation programs have become increasingly segregated and we have seen a return to an unequal distribution of resources. If we are going to avoid that fate, then we as a community will have to be active, vocal and vigilant and we will have to hold our elected representatives on the school board, along with our superintendent and administration accountable for the condition of those schools.

But we can not solve this issue without going back to the map and redrawing school boundaries. The AAA neighborhood for student assignment purposes was defined by residential segregated housing patterns. To truly move beyond race in education, we should abandon the old 'Negro district' and develop new school boundaries using the same growth and capacity formula that we would use anywhere else in the city.
____________

Wichita Eagle:
How could we re-draw those boundaries? What would that look like?

KM:
What we [the Wichita NAACP] envision as an ideal scenario would be an all magnet, open enrollment district. Short of that, any new boundaries drawn would require constant vigilance on the part of parents, community organizations and concerned citizens.

We need to consider redrawing school boundary lines to reflect locations of students and capacities of surrounding schools, and get away from old maps based upon segregated housing patterns.

We believe that if we all work together to reexamine school boundaries and and determine how best to assign students, we may be able to provide diversity without forced busing.
____________

Wichita Eagle:
Some people have expressed a concern about how the district would ensure that there were equitable resources for all schools. And the District has talked about possibly building more schools in central northeast Wichita. What are your thoughts?

KM:
We are for building enough schools to address district capacity issues, however, the location of those schools should be based upon student population and needs. We should not focus on creating seats specifically for Black children or seats for specifically for Latino children solely for the purposes [of vacating] a court order. That is actually a step in the wrong direction.

If all we do is replace a few schools in the old Negro district, then we will have simply returned to the same segregated pattern and formula that led to the original lawsuit brought by Chester Lewis and the Wichita Branch. But if we capitalize on this moment, this envisioning process really gives us an opportunity to do something truly visionary and progressive.
____________

Wichita Eagle:
Are you concerned that this could be a very prolonged process and how would that effect children in the AAA area?

KM:
According to the plan as submitted, kids in the AAA area get preference in placement to magnet schools for however long it takes.
____________

Wichita Eagle:
There seem to be some generational differences of viewpoints, with some in the older generation who fought to end segregation in schools are saying we need to keep busing for deseg, but some younger people in the community are saying we should end it. How do we reach a common ground? And IS there a common ground?

KM:
Among those of us who are most affected, I think we have to work for that common ground.

Let me go on record as saying: We, as the NAACP, are in favor of maintaining diverse, integrated schools. And we will oppose any plan we see as a harbinger to more segregated school assignments. However, we believe by collectively reexamining school boundaries and plans for student assignments it is possible to achieve diverse and integrated schools without forced busing. All of our efforts are focused to that end.
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Leave us a comment and share your thoughts on this issue...

Tech Tags: Busing desegregation integration resegregation schools current+events current+affairs NAACP Wichita USD259

Bush reappoints Peter Kirsanow to civil rights post - "What happened to the Civil Rights Commission?"

Yesterday, President Bush reappointed attorney Peter Kirsanow to the US Commission on Civil Rights.



This is tragic... But before I "go there", first some background...




The US Commission on Civil Rights was created in 1957 under President Eisenhower. It is a Federal investigative agency whose stated mission is:

• To investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of fraudulent practices.


• To study and collect information relating to discrimination or a denial of equal protection of the laws under the Constitution because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice.


• To appraise federal laws and policies with respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice.


• To serve as a national clearinghouse for information in respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin. To submit reports, findings, and recommendations to the President and Congress.


• To issue public service announcements to discourage discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws.

The US Civil Rights Commission was once a powerful agency that significantly influenced groundbreaking legislation. Its 1961 report was considered by the Congress and the Supreme Court as the intellectual and factual grounding for the provisions of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. Its hearings on the disenfranchisement of African Americans in southern precincts and parishes formed the basis of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1978 a Commission report challenging law enforcement agencies to recognize domestic violence as a crime put the issue on the national agenda. By the late 1980s Congress mandated the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration to focus on the “role of the criminal justice system in preventing and controlling violence and abusive behavior in the home.” Moreover, Congress relied on a 1983 Civil Rights Commission report on the challenges disabled persons faced in their daily lives in enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act.

However, despite its history and noble goals, the Commission has since been transformed into an extension of conservative policy making. In its current composition, it serves as little more than a rubber stamp, one which provides the necessary illusion of validation for conservative efforts to eliminate Civil Rights era and racially progressive policies and laws.

While it is intended to serve as a "fact-finding" agency, according to the data listed on their website, they investigated only two (2) complaints of racial employment discrimination between 2002 and 2005, both investigations took nearly a year, and neither was found for the complainants nor resulted in any action on the part of the commission. In fact, the table shows that there were actually 5 pending cases at the start of 2002 and additional cases that were filed with each succeeding year, yet by the end of the report only 3 had been processed (1 age related and 2 race related)

So given the extremely low levels of activity in the area of investigating discrimination, you may be wondering what exactly has the Commission on Civil Rights been doing these past few years...

• They've investigated whether or not HBCU's are effective
• They've presented a position paper urging the Legislature to vote against SB310 the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007 which would have extended the rights of of self-governance and self-determination to Native Hawaiians in a manner parallel to that of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
• They've issued a position paper stating that voting rights issues "have virtually disappeared" (tell that to the residents of Florida, Ohio, or New Orleans)
• They've issued a report on school desegregation that lists as one of it recommendations that The Department of Justice should continue to provide guidance to assist small or moderately-sized school districts to qualify for and obtain unitary status (thereby releasing them from any court ordered deseg programs and dismantling Brown vs Board) Interestingly enough, their next recommendation was that Social scientists, academics, and relevant government agencies should pursue underlying explanations for differences in measured desegregation among the states. By way of example, researchers might explore whether state differences arise from district autonomy; state law, policy, and guidance; or federal processing of unitary status matters. (So the DOJ should help districts achieve unitary status, then afterwards, Social Scientists should study whether the levels of segregation in public education were the result of having done so)
• and they've issued a position paper stating that Affirmative Action programs may be hurting minority law students by "setting them up for failure".

It is a tragic irony that the 8 member "civil rights commission" is now populated by 6 members who are ideological opposed to virtually all of the programs and policies that came out of the Civil Rights movement. While they each espouse the 'ideals' of the movement, ideals without action or implementation amount to nothing more than thoughts and words. These 'thoughts and words' are then liberally sprinkled throughout reports and recommendations that are in fact designed to eliminate the very policies and programs intended to bring about their realization.

Commissioners Melendez and Yaki jointly dissented the approval of the commission's position on affirmative action in Law programs and described the functioning of the commission as follows:

We respectfully, but vehemently, disagree with the findings, recommendations, and focus of this report issued by the Commission’s conservative majority and (misleadingly) entitled Affirmative Action in American Law Schools.

In a misguided attempt to regain influence in civil rights policy, the Commission majority, for the past two years, has ceased holding formal investigative hearings in favor of informal briefings. Their apparent goal is to influence decision making, free of the pesky quality control procedures and thorough background research that hearing reports require. Agency reports have focused on affirmative action programs and education, reactively advocating an end to all race-conscious policies.

Briefing reports like this one are typical, containing predetermined findings and recommendations that target a particular policy while turning a blind eye to scientific and legal evidence that contradict that policy. This report is a sterling example of the lack of serious scholarship that marks these new briefing reports.

No attempt was made by the Commission to assess the consensus positions of the scientific or legal community on these issues. No independent research was done by the Commission on these issues, nor did they perform a comprehensive review of others’ research. This report does not even fairly reflect the testimony of the informal briefing that is the only basis of this report—the statements of two of the four speakers appear to have been ignored in developing these findings and recommendations.

The agency’s process for drafting reports is fundamentally broken. In place of scholarship, the Commission has gamesmanship. In an unprecedented act, after having voted to publish this report with all dissenting and concurring opinions submitted by May 29, 2007, the Commission majority reopened the record on this report at its May 1, 2007 meeting. Upon motions by Commissioners Taylor and Heriot, the Commission majority postponed publishing this report for two months and allowed all Commissioners to resubmit new opinions. Why?

Commissioner Heriot, after first stating she had an unspecified ethics issue that she wanted a chance to look into and change her comments, tacitly admitted that she wanted a chance to add to her comments in response to our dissent. As with so many votes on our nominally bipartisan Commission, procedures were set aside on a 6-2 vote to allow the six Republican-appointed Commissioners an opportunity to write or rewrite their concurrences to attack our dissent. Such is the integrity and respect for basic procedures at work in generating the agency’s reports.

Now to the reappointment of Commissioner Kirsanow. I find the reappointment of Commissioner Kirsanow particularly troubling and revealing considering that he outwardly opposes affirmative action programs, supports voucher programs for public and private schools and believes that Ronald Reagan should be on Mount Rushmore. He also testified in support of the nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. In short, he is far from an advocate; he is a political ideologue.

Commissioner Kirsanow was chosen to serve as a federal Civil Rights watchdog, not because of his Civil Rights background or work in the field, in fact, quite the opposite is true. Kirsanow was a partner with the Cleveland, Ohio law firm of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan, and Aronoff LLP which focused on representing management in employment-related litigation. Placing Kirsanow on the Civil rights Commission is analogous to placing a tobacco lobbyist in the Office of the Surgeon General.

Put simply, Kirsanow was chosen, and now reappointed, specifically because he is a black face willing to give voice to anti-black/neo-negro policy. Not merit, not experience, and not opportunity; this is promotion based on ideology, and that's the only kind of affirmative action that gets a pass...

The Rise of the "Neo-Negro"

This post is from a Special guest contributer to the Blog; My Dad! It's a powerful post, hope you enjoy...

~~~~~~

When you’re called a nigger you look at your father because you think your father can rule the world—every kid thinks that—and then you discover that your father cannot do anything about it. So you begin to despise your father and you realize, oh, that’s what a nigger is.

-James Baldwin (1924–87), U.S. author. A Dialogue (1973; with Nikki Giovanni), from a conversation, 4 Nov. 1971, in London.

The Neo-Negro

Neo-Negroes are Americans of African or mixed African descent who show a marked preference for far right wing neo-conservative ideologies and are opposed to efforts to continue affirmative legal action against racism and discrimination. This designation is particularly applicable to those who, having benefited from affirmative civil rights legislation in the past, now wish to reverse such legislation and deny those benefits to the generations to come.

Not wishing to be all closely associated with Blacks, they tend to seek out friends and long term relationships with non-African Americans, and while it is not unusual for them, like other closet reactionaries, to hide their true motivations behind the convenient cloak of “libertarianism,” their compulsive preoccupation with race becomes all the more obvious by their obsessive focus on ignoring, changing or eliminating racial classifications and reversing civil rights legislation; matters that are of little urgency to true race neutral libertarians.

Their ultimate goal, if carried to its logical conclusions would, in fact, eliminate the black race as a legal entity. It would actually end racial discrimination as a matter of 'law' while leaving racial discrimination as a matter of 'fact', free to spread like a virus with no cure. That is why they are so coveted by the neocon movement. They would end the problem of racism by fiat; eliminate the crime by simply legalizing the act. (One might wonder if they feel equally as libertarian in their position on illegal drug usage…) In any event, they truly live in a fool’s paradise; which is probably amusing to many of their neocon “friends.”

The Neo-Negro solution to racism is the “Unilateral Fiat” used, most infamously, by GW Bush in his “Mission Accomplished” speech to declare unilateral victory over one problem while blithely ignoring the far greater emerging dangers in the ensuing situation.

In similar fashion, from their high towered house of cards, propped up by neocon puppet masters and paid for by civil rights battles of the past, modern self-congratulating Neo-Negroes, can only secure their own prominent positions by declaring mission accomplished and turning a blind eye to the deteriorating situation outside of their own immediate environment. This is the hallmark of the Neo-Negro, who under no circumstances should be confused with the many hard working successful African Americans who openly acknowledge their debt to the civil rights sacrifices of the past and who are still willing to take positive steps to insure that the fruit of that bloody labor is passed on to succeeding generations.

While genuinely concerned African Americans may rightly assert that affirmative action legislation is neither a substitute for positive action on the part of individuals nor a valid excuse for persistent failure in its absence, Neo-Negroes are those who openly declare the problems of racism solved and deny the need for continued affirmative action while the situational effects of racial discrimination persist and in some cases worsen. Try as they may to rationalize their behavior, actively working to weaken or circumvent affirmative action legislation is the Neo-Negro’s ultimate act of betrayal.

African Americans must be made to recognize, rise up and ostracize this insidious enemy from within and declare to the world that the deep seated and pervasively institutionalized effects of racism cannot be eliminated by declaration of the privileged few but must be whittled away by constant vigilance, exposure, determination and positive action.

In that any form of racial discrimination without the power of enforcement is a paper tiger that cannot influence events to any significant degree, accusations of so-called “reverse discrimination” can easily be seen as just another in a long line of tired old strawman maneuvers, covertly financed and directed by entrenched right wing extremists to impede harmonious racial progress. These wily old-school ultra conservatives, after generations of exploiting racial animosity and profiteering from racial discord, were threatened by new understandings, coalitions, open communication, and above all, the affirmative action legislation of the sixties. So they began financing and developing a new strain of neocons to deal with liberals and Neo-Negroes to deal with Blacks.

Like their “Askari” predecessors from around the globe, the Neo-Negroes are rewarded for their willingness to stifle dissent, belittle civil rights activities, openly oppose affirmative action, and make “Negro problems” appear to disappear while leaving the underlying unrest of African American situations essentially unchanged, unchallenged, and unassisted. Sweeping the problem under the rug, as Neo-Negroes would have us do, provides cosmetic improvement to the surface, while the hidden but ever deteriorating foundation is allowed to fester and grow.

Neo-Negroes would have you to believe that those who stand up and fight to address America's racial problems ARE the problem. Traditional Organizations that work for Social Justice are 'Relics', 'useless' or 'unnecessary' because in the Neo-Negro's brave new world, race problems will cease to exist as soon as you stop discussing them. New foundation-funded organizations are created which borrow heavily from the vocabulary and imagery of the Civil Rights Movement, and with Neo-Negroes at the helm, they operate merely as storefronts for the same status-quo that the movement sought to overturn.

Make no mistake about it, these Neo-Negroes are willing to bargain away the civil rights that their ancestors were willing to suffer and die for. They are the arrogant and ungrateful sons and daughters of those whose blood and sweat are the mortar and pestle of roads built over the rocky terrain of racial terrorism, and to their everlasting shame, they have chosen to take the personally profitable path offered to them by the residue of the very forces that fought most fiercely against emancipation, integration and equal opportunity in the past, and now would engage their services as front men in the battle against affirmation action.

Having passed through the narrow corridors of legally mandated equal opportunities opened up to them only through the trials and tribulations of the civil rights movement, these Neo-Negroes now seek to close the doors behind them and give the keys to those who would see them locked once again. They have declared open warfare in well-funded and orchestrated efforts to betray the very acts of positive civil rights legislation that gave them the opportunity to give voice to their treachery. And for this, as long as they behave, they are very well compensated by right wing reactionaries who might otherwise drive them out of their fool’s paradise for a deed undone or misspoken word.

It is precisely because of the precariousness of their positions, over which they have no autonomous control, that they struggle all the harder to overturn the gains of the past and thus keep other African Americans from rising to levels from which they can see into the sham and the hypocrisy of their false bravado. The Neo-Negro house of cards can ill afford the additional weight of their brothers and sisters.

For all of that, the real victim of the Neo-Negro is not the black man or woman who must be better and brighter to be treated as equal. The true victim is the black child, born or yet unborn, coming into this world with no more to guide them than the tools, the system, the laws and legacy we leave behind. Unless we can pass the rights, the liberties, and the opportunities won in the civil rights struggle on to our children and our children’s children then we won nothing; it was all for nothing. That is what the Neo-Negro seems to have forgotten. That’s whose future they would trade for their present self-indulgence.

Claiming that civil rights laws are no longer needed and therefore should be reversed or circumvented makes no more sense than arguing to repeal the Thirteenth Amendment because legal slavery has ended. An important question for us to consider is why are human rights and civil rights laws kept on the books long after the urgent need for them is ended? What is their purpose? The Neo-Negro says we should do away with them. Feeling confident that their problems are apparently solved for their lifetime, they see no need for the continued existence of such laws to protect others. After having received their comfortable foundation funded offices, hand-picked appointments, and fast-tracked promotions on the basis of their special talent they can no longer see the need for such laws not only to undo wrongs of the past and protect us in the present, but even more importantly, to secure our future and the future of our children.

RMyles

The Neo-Negro Show
By light of day he is confident enough to need no big show of confidence
He swaggers just a bit, not too much, just the right amount
In dark of night he prays that no one will see through his false bravado
Not just yet. Not just yet. He is not yet ready for such exposure
-RM

Tech Tags: Neo-Negro Race Discrimination Affirmative+Action Steele Thomas Meyers Connerly Current+Affairs Social+Commentary

Diversity and Achievement Post-Deseg: pt.1 (The Role of the Schools)

Too often when the discussion of segregation or re-segregation comes up, we focus on whether or not African American children ‘need to be in the company of White children to learn’. Many people believe those who advocate against re-segregation (like myself) have some romantic notion about the power of proximity. That is not what this issue is about. To be clear, Black children can learn in any environment, under any circumstances, in any era. It is not necessary for us to be paired with any other ethnic group for the function of learning to take place.

However, in this current climate of re-segregation we see an alarming pattern. All around the country and even here in Wichita, when desegregation programs end, there are predictable outcomes. First some schools become almost exclusively Black. The experienced teachers in those schools begin to transfer out and they are replaced with newer and more inexperienced teachers. Then the test scores fall even further. Then we go back to square one demanding equity.

For an example, we can look right here in USD259 at Spaght Elementary. Just last year the district held up Spaght, an predominantly Black School as an example of how our children could thrive in a single-race setting. When they released the test scores This year they’d fallen significantly. When asked specifically to explain this drop in test scores, the drop was attributed to turnover... Simply put, they'd lost a number of their experienced teachers who had either retired or were transferred out, and they were replaced with new, inexperienced teachers and para-professionals.

Bear in mind that these weren't the young, bright, caring Black teachers from our romanticized segregated past... These are kids from western Kansas who have little if any experience dealing with our culture or our children. And current patterns and practices tell us that as soon as they’ve got enough time under their belt to transfer out, they’ll likely be replaced with new kids from the class of 2012. And until we get more Black children in that educational pipeline to become teachers, this is a reality we’ll simply have to face.

As our schools become increasingly segregated, we must demand that our children are placed with experienced and competent teachers.

The Education Trust, a DC Think-Tank made of Educators and Policy makers who deal specifically with the subject of achievement and eliminating the gap, has identified 3 key indicators which foretell academic success or failure. These three evidence-based solutions, when addressed aggressively and persistently have been proven across the country to result in significant educational gains for Black children. And they also happen to be three things which the most successful schools share nationwide, regardless of the student demographics. They are:

(1) Teacher Quality – In fact the Ed Trust’s research has shown that if a group of children is placed with 3 inexperienced or ineffectual teachers in a row, by the end of that third year, their level of education attainment doesn’t remain constant but it actually falls!

(2) Challenging Curriculum and Courses - For example, only 32% of African-American students complete advanced math courses in high school, compared with 47% of White students and 69% of Asian students. “Studies have shown that when students are placed in challenging classes in middle and high school, they learn more and fail less often. Even the students who haven’t done well in school in the past do better when they are put in the tougher courses.” – Ed Trust’s Guide for African American Parents

(3) Funding – Nationally, schools with the most minority students receive, on average, $797 less per student in state and local money than the schools with the fewest. This was partially addressed by Deseg (moving students to the money). But with the confluence of re-seg, the State’s reluctance to adequately fund education, proposed changes to the At-Risk definition, which would allow districts to redistribute Title 1 funds, and a declining tax base, we’ve got to keep on top of this.

A couple years back, we invited Dr. Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust, to come and speak to a group of parents and educators here in Wichita. At our forum, Amy Wilkins was asked by a teacher in 259 why she was talking about making changes in the school instead of dealing with the parents. I offer her response here for our consideration as activists.

She said because realistically, as an organization, they can’t fix the inside of people’s homes, but they can fix policy. –
And that’s where I am…

I know that we can come up with a hundred things that we as a community could and probably should do differently. But as an organization, we can’t directly impact people’s home lives, but we must aggressively impact all of the things that we can to effect change. Our goal is to increase the educational outcomes for our children, and there is clear and convincing evidence (from my perspective) that addressing these areas will help bring about the desired effect.

There are schools across the country with predominantly African American enrollments where the students are thriving. Now these aren’t a different stock of Black people. These aren’t clusters of Black people with a different history. These are children who are being educated in environments where focused and deliberate changes were made to counter the negative influences and ensure their success. We can do the same; we can use their strategies, and adopt their models, but first we must demand that our respective districts become intentional about taking some action steps.

Those of you who are local will remember that in 2005 we invited Dr. Marva Collins to come to Wichita and speak. But Dr. Collins did more than “talk” while she was here. The day she arrived, a group of us took her over to TOPS, where she walked to the front of a class, sat down and immediately started working with kids. Within 10 minutes she identified a couple of the kids who were developing attitudes and she talked about how they would have to be addressed to bring those children up to their full potential.

She saw potential disciplinary problems and was able to discern what steps would need to be taken to prevent those children from stunting their own growth. Now, how was she able to do that? …her experience. Experience allowed her to reach beyond the attitudes and teach the children the skills and tools they’d need to succeed.

If children come to school with disciplinary or behavioral problems, do we throw them away and blame the parents, or do we design strategies to break through their issues and equip them with those skills and tools? An inexperienced teacher is not necessarily equipped to do that… It takes time to develop those skills. So those children when taught by a first or second year teacher are disproportionately suspended or expelled. Discipline problems aren’t seen as challenges, they are insurmountable obstacles and those children are removed.

Teacher quality and experience are key. We need to take affirmative steps and hold our districts feet to the fire to ensure that our children are taught by experienced teachers. We also need to take affirmative steps and hold our districts feet to the fire to ensure that our children are exposed to challenging coursework and that teachers and administrators have and communicate high standards and expectations.

So Where to from Here?

First and foremost, get involved with the fight for quality education. We are all busy and we all have our respective issues and organizations to contend with, but the children we lose in the educational system become the people who fill the jails, join the gangs, commit the crimes, and harm the community. So please, host and attend community meetings on education related issues, go to the school board meetings, partner and work with the organizations who champion these issues. This is a fight we can’t afford to lose.

Second, we would ask all of you to examine, adapt, and adopt the four-point plan that we developed to end the achievement gap. The plan contains specific strategies to recruit more Black teachers, increase accountability, rebuild and redesign teacher diversity training programs, increase community dialogue and involvement and a host of other things. This plan was developed through 2 years of monthly meetings between the Wichita Branch NAACP Education committee, the Wichita Alliance of Black School Educators, and even some members of the African American Council of Elders.

Third, I would ask that we as NAACP Branches and/or as concerned community members, hold our respective district’s feet to the fire on the issue of equity, specifically with regard to the availability of experienced teachers. The Superintendent of USD259 has already publicly announced that he will try to end the desegregation plan in 2008. But we need to insist that the administration put forth an actual plan to ensure that our children will have high quality and experienced teachers. We can not allow ourselves to fall for any "We all care about Children", "Trust me, we wouldn't let that happen" type rhetoric. The way to prevent it from happening is to understand the mechanisms that lead to inequities and to develop a concrete plan to address and ensure that all children are taught by highly qualified and experienced teachers.

We should demand that before any changes are made with regard to student assignments, the district should take affirmative steps to make sure that our children aren’t shortchanged. We want our children’s educational outcomes to be a district priority; not an afterthought, so the plan must precede the action. Our children, having the greatest need, should not be given teachers having the least experience and ability.

Fourth, I’d ask that those who are here locally offer vocal and visible support to the new Elementary-IB school that will be built in the Northeast community. This school is a ‘model’ of how we can achieve our goals without busing. The IB program is academically rigorous and it requires the teachers to obtain a special certification (this should guarantee us a certain level of quality). And by placing a top-of-the-line high quality program in our community, we will have direct access to plentiful resources and opportunities. This will be the only Elementary IB program in the State so all eyes will be on us.

We’ve got the opportunity, we’ve have to make the best of it. We will start a generation of children off in Kindergarten in the most academically challenging program the State of Kansas has to offer. It will be in a neighborhood setting in a brand new state-of-the- art facility. There can be no excuses and we can not fail... From day one, we all need to be there.

It also bears mention that this is truly a step in the right direction. Rather than "protecting" our children from failure by lowering academic standards, this school will raise the standards higher. It is not enough to have high expectations for our children, we must also act on those expectations. Wherever we set the bar, our children will rise or fall to meet it, so we must continue to push for policy that reflects our faith in our children's ability...

And lastly, as our local district (USD259), bolstered by the decision of the Supreme Court, continues it's multi-year effort to try and end our deseg program, we will put forth an alternative plan that will allow us to maintain diversity in our schools while meeting the court's strict scrutiny requirements. But no plan will be successful unless and until we deal honestly and unapologetically with the Role of the community and the family. More on this in pt. 2

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naacp

Interesting Education Statistics...

Last week, the new Kansas Education Commissioner (Alexa Posny) addressed the Board and administration of USD259. In her remarks she gave some very interesting statistics that I'd like to share...

She reported that in a family of Professionals, by the time their child enters Kindergarden at 5 years old, they will have heard 2,153 words. On average, they will hear 32 words of affirmation on a daily basis, and only 5 prohibitions.

In a working class family, by the time their child enters Kindergarden at 5 years old, they will have heard 1,251 words. On average, they will hear 12 words of affirmation on a daily basis, and 7 prohibitions.

For a family in poverty, their child enters Kindergarden at 5 years old having heard only 616 words. On average, they will hear 5 words of affirmation on a daily basis and 11 prohibitions.

Click below on the comment link and let me know what you think about that?