"Closing the Achievement Gap for African-American Students" Draws Educators to Sacramento

February 19, 2010

Some 350 educators gathered in Sacramento on Wednesday (February 17) to focus on “Closing the Achievement Gap for African-American Students: Best Practices for Student Success.”

The all-day institute – offered by Total School Solutions (TSS), the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and the California Association of African American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA) – featured 12 presentations, held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel and the Sacramento Convention Center.

Elois Brooks, former Chief Academic Officer for the San Francisco and St. Louis school districts, and former Deputy Superintendent for the Washington DC school district, spoke during the opening session. Brooks – who now advises the San Bernardino City Unified School District in California on behalf of TSS, as well as the Philadelphia school district on the East Coast, told EdBrief that she focused on three topics:

—“First, there is a renewed sense of urgency when we don’t educate kids – we rob them of hope and they fall easy prey to drug dealers and gangs . . . we also hurt our own security,” Brooks said.

—“Second, we need to examine our priorities . . . we need to stop blaming the students (for the achievement gap). We’re the only profession that blames the product. If you go out for dinner, and get a bad meal, you’re not going to blame the farmer in Idaho that grew the potatoes, or the rancher in Texas that raised the beef, or the grower in the Central Valley that grew the vegetables. You’re going to blame the guy in the kitchen! Yet in education, we have a myriad of reasons why we can’t teach (the kids),” Brooks said.

—“Third, we’ve got to raise the bar with higher expectations for the children and ourselves,” Brooks said, adding that when educators say that the achievement gap affects African-Americans, Latinos, English Learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged and special education students, “that’s like 50 percent of our people. We can’t afford to lose that much brain power. Jobs are going out of the country, because we don’t have enough educated people to fill those jobs.”

Another presenter – Gary Smuts, Superintendent of the ABC Unified School District – described the wide-ranging efforts in his district to close the achievement gap for both African-American and Latino students.

Smuts said that one key strategy is to get everyone involved in addressing the achievement gap, including teachers, the teachers’ union, parents, and others. “I want people to have a piece of the action and be part of the solution. I don’t just want compliance. I want people to ‘own it,’ to be dedicated to it because they have contributed to the answer,” Smuts said.

Smuts said his district has a Strategic Plan Board Advisory Committee that annually surveys thousands of people in “every attendance area (in the district), every school, to help evaluate “how well we are doing.”

Smuts pointed to Gahr High School in his district, where Principal Gina Zietlow and her staff work with a student body that is 17.3% African American, 18.8% Asian, 13.5% Filipino, 29.3% Hispanic, 6.8% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 1.2% Pacific Islander, and 13.2% White. Gahr was recognized in 2007 by the California Department of Education as a Distinguished School. The school also received the Equity Achievement Award for narrowing the test gap for African American students. “We closed (the gap), but we did not eliminate it,” Smuts said, adding that there is still work to be done.

“And I don’t think that being timid, or failing to deal with the problem, will do any good,” Smuts advised.

In another session, Principal Felisberto Cedros and Assistant Principal Kal Phan of Kennedy High School (in the Sacramento City Unified School District) discussed strategies for improving student performance. Phan stressed that it’s important for administrators to get into classrooms on a daily basis for unannounced “walkthroughs,” to see what’s going on between teachers and their students. “If you don’t do that, I can guarantee you’re going to fail,” Phan said. “Ten minutes, every day. That’s all it takes. And you’re there for eight hours, or more. Ten minutes.”

Kenneth Magdaleno, Assistant Professor at CSU Fresno and former California Middle School Principal of the Year, shared thoughts about working with students of color – and suggested that everyone needs to think in those terms. “Is White a color? It is in a box of crayons,” Magdaleno offered personal stories about his children and grandchildren, some of whom have lighter skin tone or darker skin tone, which has led to different experiences at school. Magdaleno quoted from a California P-16 Council study that concluded “it is time to move past the illusion that we live in a colorblind society.”

Adonai Mack and Brett McFadden of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) also offered a timely discussion highlighting the latest information regarding the federal Race to the Top program, including provisions that will identify schools that fall into the “lowest five percent” in terms of achievement – schools that will then be subject to required interventions, some of which involve replacing the principal, converting the campus to a charter school, or closing the school.  “These aspects of RTTT were not widely covered in news reports when the program was established, but are gradually becoming clear as the program goes into effect,” McFadden said.

McFadden and Mack also offered an overview of recently enacted California laws that include open enrollment provisions and parent triggers, which could have far-reaching affects for local school districts.

Almost every presentation drew a capacity audience, which pleased institute organizer Tim McClure of Total School Solutions. “People focused on effective strategies for African American students. The responses were positive, people asked a lot of questions, and there was a lot of sharing of ideas, and interaction between the participants and the presenters,” McClure said.

The institute will be repeated on Wednesday, April 28 in Del Mar (San Diego County).

A related conference – focusing on strategies to improve the performance of Latino students and students who are English Learners – will be held on March 25 in Ontario (California), sponsored by Total School Solutions, the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), and the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators (CALSA). For information about that conference, click here.

Editor's Note:  Jeff Hudson is the editor of EdBrief and an award-winning education reporter and writer in print, radio and television media.