Getting There is Half the Battle: How the College Advising Corps is Bridging the College Access Divide
Executive Summary
Underrepresented minority, low-income, and first-generation high school students face unique challenges when applying for college and financial aid. With a current average caseload of nearly 500 students, however, school counselors are unable to provide them with the necessary support. In order to help school counselors guide more students through the complex journey to college, the National College Advising Corps (CAC) places recent college graduates–most of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds themselves–in public high schools across the country. CAC not only addresses the class and racial disparities in college access, but also builds a pipeline of future leaders in school counseling and higher education administration. CAC’S meticulous program design and thoughtful branding make it an instructive model for other college access programs and advocates.
Introduction
At the beginning of each school year ask almost any high school senior what causes them the most stress, and more often than not the response will be “applying to college.” With increasingly competitive admissions rates and seemingly boundless sticker prices on higher education, the college application cycle has come to instill fear in high school students and their families. After all, the stakes are high. Economists and policymakers consistently cite a college degree as the key to better employment prospects and higher wages. For instance, a Pew Research Center study recently found that college-educated millennials earn $17,500 more on average than their peers with only a high school diploma (“The Rising Cost of Not Going to College,” 2014). The economic premium of a college education is even greater for low-income students. According to a report by the Brookings Institution, without a college degree children born in the bottom fifth of the income distribution have a 5% chance of reaching the top fifth of the income ladder as adults. With a college degree, their chance of significant upward mobility more than triples to 19% (Isaacs, Sawhill, & Haskins, 2008).
The drive for more students to obtain a college degree, however, overlooks the immense difficulty of getting to college in the first place. There are several moving parts of the application process that are difficult for students to juggle all by themselves. From writing personal statements, securing letters of recommendation and identifying colleges with the proper fit, to applying for financial aid, student loans and scholarships, preparing for and applying to college are daunting to say the least.
Applying to college is especially daunting for minority, low-income, and first-generation students, who may not have the resources or support outside of school to navigate the complex application process. They often must rely on in-school supports such as their school guidance counselors. But with the average student-to-school-counselor ratio in our nation’s public schools fast approaching 500-to-1, counselors are stretched too thin to provide the necessary college advising to students struggling to map out their postsecondary plans. Additionally, school counselors consistently report that they receive inadequate training in college and career admissions and college affordability (National Office of School Counselor Advocacy, 2012). The sobering result is the underenrollment of qualified students from underrepresented backgrounds in four-year colleges and universities. Currently only 45% of students in the bottom income quartile enroll in postsecondary education, compared with 81% of students in the top quartile (Cahalan & Perna, 2015).
Several programs have started to address this college access gap by offering robust mentoring services and scholarships to high-achieving low-income, minority, and first-generation students. Prominent examples include QuestBridge, Matriculate, the Gates Millennium Scholarship and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. These programs represent noble efforts to ensure that the most promising students receive a college education, but their “cream-skimming” practices largely disregard the majority of academically weaker but equally disadvantaged students. In light of the severe school counselor shortage, many of these students resort to facing the college application process alone.
This report is a case study of a national nonprofit aiming to help those who have been left behind. Founded in 2005, the National College Advising Corps (CAC) sends recent college graduates, many of whom are minority, low-income or first-generation themselves, into public high schools across the country to provide school counselors with additional college counseling support. CAC serves a dual purpose of 1) fostering a college-going culture among all students, regardless of circumstance, and 2) giving its college advisers the experience to become future leaders in school counseling and higher education administration. This report will first situate CAC within the current landscape of school counseling in America’s public high schools. It will then analyze the program’s impact, distinctive features, limitations and potential for expansion in order to highlight CAC’s instructive value to other college access programs and advocates.
Knowledge is Power: The role of college counseling in closing the information gap
A critical determinant of whether students apply to and enroll in college is adequate information about the application process. Students from wealthy families usually face few barriers to obtaining such information. Not only do they frequently attend schools with strong college-going cultures and support networks, but they also have the means to afford private counselors to supplement their in-school counseling services (Avery, Howell, & Page, 2014). High-income students with friends and family members who attended college themselves are thus at a significant advantage in the college application process.
Underrepresented student populations tend to be less well-informed for a variety of reasons. Both low-income and first-generation students face the additional challenge of applying for financial aid and understanding which colleges offer sufficiently generous packages (Kuh et al., 2006). They are also more likely to attend schools and live in neighborhoods where the college-going culture and recruitment efforts are not as strong (Hoxby & Avery, 2012). In addition, first-generation students do not have parents who attended college to guide them through the process. Instead they rely on easily accessible information such as online rankings since traveling to visit college campuses for information sessions and interviews is cost-prohibitive (McDonough et al. 1998). Unfortunately these sources of information are extremely blunt instruments that cause students to misperceive the academic, socioemotional, and financial fit of a college. Educators may also be less supportive of underrepresented students throughout the college admissions process due to their race, as research shows that teachers systematically expect lower academic achievement from students of color (Gershenson, Holt, & Papageorge, 2016).
School counselors are uniquely positioned to ensure that students, particularly those belonging to underrepresented groups, are fully informed about college admissions and affordability. One study shows that visiting a school counselor significantly predicts increased college application rates for high school students. Furthermore, according to a study based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Schools and Staffing Survey, an additional high school counselor is associated with a 10% increase in 4-year college enrollment (Hurwitz & Howell, 2014).
Overextended and underutilized: Why school counselors are falling short
Counselors are enthusiastic about promoting college-and-career-readiness within their schools. Nearly three-quarters of school counselors believe they should prioritize giving students an “early understanding of application and admissions processes” (Bridgeland & Bruce, 2011). Even though school counselors can and want to play an important role in closing the information gap and improving college access for disadvantaged students, however, many fail to do so.
The first and foremost reason why is that school counselors, on average, face caseloads of over 450 students per counselor. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a student-to-school-counselor ratio of no more than 250-to-1 (“The Role of the School Counselor). This presents an enormous challenge for counselors to develop meaningful one-on-one relationships with students and help guide each student through the college admissions process. Even though school districts would like to expand their counseling staffs, financial constraints prevent administrations from remedying counselor shortages (Karp, 2017).
It is also striking to note how students of color and low-income students bear the greatest costs of counseling understaffing:
School counselors are also unable to provide the proper support for students applying to college because their school administrators require them to perform extraneous tasks unrelated to college counseling, such as creating the master class schedule and administering standardized tests. On average, counselors at public high schools devote less than a quarter of their time to “postsecondary admission counseling” (“School Counselors: Literature and Landscape Review,” 2011). In a recent survey of high school counselors, 58% expressed the desire for more time dedicated to “helping students navigate the college application and financial aid processes” (The College Board 2012 National Survey of School Counselors and Administrators, 2012).
School counselors are often the primary college advising resource for underrepresented students and have the potential to play a crucial role in improving their postsecondary outcomes. Currently, however, they are stretched too thin and over-burdened with other responsibilities. Given that understaffing of school counselors is largely a funding problem, how do we increase access to college counseling services for underrepresented students in the short-run?
Killing Two Birds with One Stone: The National College Advising Corps
Founded in 2005 by CEO Dr. Nicole Hurd, the National College Advising Corps (CAC) is a unique college access initiative that provides widespread access to college counseling services for minority, low-income, and first-generation students. CAC places recent college graduates from 24 partner universities into public high schools across the country. These college graduates are tasked with fostering a college-going culture within their school communities and acting as advisers to students navigating the complex process of college admissions, financial aid, and matriculation (College Advising Corps). CAC advisers must attend an intensive four- to six-week summer training program before they begin working, where they learn from experts about the nuances of the college application process, such as SAT/ACT fee waivers and FAFSA. Advisers commit a maximum of two years to serving in their assigned schools. There are currently over 500 advisers serving high school students in 15 different states (March 2016 Member Spotlight: College Advising Corps, 2016).

States where CAC Advisers work
Since its conception, CAC has served over 600,000 students in both rural and urban high schools. An independent study conducted by researchers at Stanford University analyzed the effectiveness of CAC advisers in Texas and found positive results across several performance indicators (Bettinger et al., 2010):
CAC has also recently added a supplemental program to their in-school college counseling model called College Point eAdvising, which mimics other virtual advising models by providing remote support to high-achieving, low-income students. While the Stanford report only verified the benefits of CAC advisers on the ground, this eAdvising feature clearly allows CAC to cast an even wider net and guide more students through the college application and financial aid process.
Furthermore, Dr. Nicole Hurd envisions CAC as “a double bottom line program” that creates a new generation of education leaders (Hurd, 2016). Key higher education policy debates surrounding financial aid reform, student debt management and loan forgiveness, and the academic and social experiences of first-generation and undocumented students in college have much to gain from school and college counselors who have worked with students on the ground. CAC is thus able to kill two birds with one stone: 1) helping underrepresented students gain access to postsecondary education opportunities, and 2) creating a pipeline of school counselors and leaders into education.
Recipe for Success: What sets CAC apart from the crowd
In addition to achieving impressive results and encouraging more college graduates to consider a career in education, CAC has several features in its design that distinguish it from other college access programs.
First of all, CAC is non-selective with regards to academic achievement. In other words, it does not only provide college counseling services to high-achieving underrepresented students. While programs that do so presumably narrow their focus in order to concentrate its efforts on a smaller demographic, CAC recognizes the value of every student regardless of circumstance and realizes that there are equally valuable alternatives to prestigious four-year universities, such as community college and professional training programs. The fact that CAC has managed to maintain high-quality college advising services at such a large scale is arguably its greatest asset.
CAC’s near-peer mentoring model also gives it a distinct advantage over solely virtual advising platforms. Living within their school communities allows advisers to establish more trust and sustained relations with not only their students, but also their students’ families. In fact, in New York and Detroit, CAC has begun piloting initiatives focused on increasing parent engagement in their child’s journey to college. The power of near-peer mentoring is greatly enhanced by CAC’s prioritization of a diverse advising corps. Over two-thirds of CAC advisers were either low-income or first-generation themselves when they applied to college (Hurd, 2016). It is especially important for college counselors to share a similar background with their advisees because it allows advisers to understand which postsecondary opportunities will best allow their students to thrive academically, socially, culturally, and financially.
Lastly, CAC incorporates details in its design that sometimes go ignored by other college access programs. For instance, whereas education policy is largely biased toward urban schools, advisers serve in both urban and rural settings. CAC also includes college persistence among its performance indicators, which refers to the proportion of students who continue their college education beyond the first year. College persistence is often overlooked but is becoming an increasingly important statistic because policymakers realized that focusing only on matriculation was insufficient if students later dropped out of school. The Stanford evaluation of CAC concluded that 74% of students who met with a CAC adviser and enrolled in college persisted through to their second year (College Advising Corps).
Counseling for America? Potential shortcomings of CAC
CAC is one of several initiatives that replicates Teach for America (TFA), the nonprofit organization founded in 1989 by Wendy Kopp that places recent college graduates in schools for two years. TFA has come under fire for diverging from its original mission of addressing the nationwide teacher shortage and instead sending corps members to schools with adequate staffing, thereby causing competition with and even displacing veteran district teachers (Brewer, 2016). Critics of TFA also point to the detrimental effects of teacher turnover and insufficient training at the expense of student outcomes (Blanchard, 2013). Furthermore, more experienced educators and policymakers lament the proliferation of alternative certification pathways like TFA because they believe they de-professionalize teaching even further (Milner, 2013).
While CAC mirrors TFA’s two-year placement model, it differentiates itself from TFA in two important ways. In terms of program design, CAC is the formal employer of its advisers, meaning its partnering school districts do not need to allocate funds for an additional staff member. Moreover, CAC does not brand itself as a corps of lone saviors. CAC emphasizes that advisers supplement, rather than supplant, existing high school counseling staff, thus helping the school assist more students (“March 2016 Member Spotlight: College Advising Corps,” 2016).
That said, CAC must be careful about contributing to the de-professionalization of school counseling and make greater efforts to explicitly recognize the opportunity costs of forgoing traditional certification. If advisers aim to become a career counselor, CAC needs to acknowledge that earning an accredited degree is necessary for counselors to understand their students’ holistic development and to craft more personalized and beneficial postsecondary education plans.
Conclusion
CAC has several opportunities to expand the scope of its impact in the short term. The organization should continue partnering with more colleges and universities to incentivize a larger pool of college graduates to pay it forward to high school seniors. CAC might also consider broadening its advising services to middle school students, as problems such as low academic performance and financial need arise much earlier than high school. CAC should also extend its performance indicators to include student debt and college persistence rates beyond the second year, which are necessary to understand students’ longer-term postsecondary success. In all, though, over the past decade CAC has made strides toward the goal of helping more underrepresented high school students across the nation apply to and enroll in college.
The college access divide is a multifaceted issue that will require more than one solution in order to fix. CAC represents one such solution that allows more disadvantaged students to reap the lifelong economic and personal benefits of attending college. Looking ahead, however, independent non-profit organizations such as CAC cannot close the college access gap by themselves. College access advocates need to develop long-term structural solutions to these disparities such as equitable school finance laws and more generous financial aid policies.
It is also imperative that educators, postsecondary institutions, and policymakers look beyond college completion as the ultimate goal. College completion is a worthy goal to strive for, but we as a nation must realize that underrepresented minority, low-income, and first-generation students face several barriers to entry. Fortunately, although getting to college is half the battle, each year more and more students can count on the College Advising Corps for support every step of the way.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Professor Mira Debs and Clare Kambhu for their mentorship this semester, and to Elijah Mas, Sara Harris, and Emily Patton for their insightful edits.
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Understanding the dyslexic drop-out: why students with learning disabilities graduate at a lower rate than their peers
Executive Summary
There are mixed messages about dyslexia. It is simultaneously true that 50% of NASA employees (Dyslexia Awareness) and 85% of prison inmates (Coalition for Literacy) are dyslexic. And, while researchers estimate that 1 in 5 Americans has a form of the learning disability (Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity), it does not play a prominent role in discussions of education policy or practice. Recent waves of activism in the learning disability (LD) community has promoted the message of untapped success for students with disabilities like dyslexia. They have heralded Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Leonardo da Vinci as their proof, identifying known traits which indicate some level of dyslexia. Many modern-day celebrities, including Steven Spielberg, Anderson Cooper, and Keira Knightley, have also advocated for the rights of students with learning disabilities by talking about their struggles in the education system. In 2012, The New York Times published an article titled “The Upside of Dyslexia,” which advocated for research that found “people with dyslexia have skills that are superior to those of typical readers.” (Paul, 2012) However, while the research she references provides promising knowledge to those with the disability, it does not incorporate the attached social and educational challenges. Having dyslexia, or another learning disability, is still stigmatized and misunderstood in many school districts, and many public schools do not have the resources or knowledge to educate students that require additional accommodations adequately. These combined forces have contributed to a staggering drop-out rate for students with special educational needs. However, little attention is given to accurately understanding and attacking the problem. While other research has identified the reasons why students of color and students from low-income backgrounds are susceptible to dropping out of high school, this paper will contribute information about the difficulties of students with learning disabilities and the reasons why they are prone to join the drop-out epidemic.
Background
In 2013, data from the Department of Education indicated that students with disabilities only graduated from high school at a rate of 62% compared to the national average of 81%. (Diplomas Count, 2015) This data encompasses a broad range of disabilities, not just dyslexia, but it is an important starting point for understanding the linkage between disabilities and dropout rates.[1] Dyslexia is exceptionally common – around half of individuals with learning disabilities have dyslexia – and is related to other forms of learning and behavioral difficulties. There are known links between ADHD and dyslexia, as well as issues with executive functioning, slow processing, auditory processing and visual processing (Dyslexia Research Institute). The National Center for Education Statistics states that, in the 2012-2013 graduation year (the same year examined in the data above), students with registered disabilities made up 12.9% of total enrollment (NCES, 2016). 14.8% of these disabilities could be identified as physical disabilities, whereas the other 85.2% incorporate a learning difficulty. (NCES, 2016)
Figure 1, Data from U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics (2016). Digest of Education Statistics, 2015 (NCES 2016-014). Chapter 2.
In the data set provided to the NCES, the categories of disability are broad. Even this refined data set does not provide much more information about the number of students experiencing learning disabilities in high school, nor does it indicate whether or not health complications and physical disabilities contribute to the dropout statistics. The lack of answers here should provoke more research. But, given the lack of students with disabilities in higher education – researchers predict only 34% of students with dyslexia will graduate from college within eight years (NLTS2, 2011) – there have been few people who have been paying enough attention to notice and ask questions. Therefore, the study of dropout rates for students with disabilities must proceed with insufficient data.
Even without complete data, there is still striking evidence that students with disabilities, especially learning disabilities, are dropping out of school at much higher rates than other demographic subgroups. Figure 2 shows that, except students with limited English proficiency, students with disabilities graduate at the lowest rate.
Figure 2, Diplomas Count 2015
Much attention is given to the disparities between race when it comes to drop-out rates, and it is evident from Figure 2 why this would be the case. This research can be beneficial in understanding the dropout rate for students with disabilities, for two particular reasons. First, the theories about why students drop out of high school point to trends which exist for students with learning disabilities as well, even in the manifest differently. Second, low-income students and students of color are referred to behavioral and learning specialists at a much higher rate than their peers. These two reasons can help form a greater understanding of why the dropout rate for students with learning disabilities continues to be high even when there is improvement elsewhere. The data from which this graph was created also divides by state, indicating state disparities in the education of students with disabilities. In all states, the graduation rate for students with disabilities was lower than the state-wide graduation rate. Rural states tended to have the greatest difference between graduation rates. Most notably, in Mississippi, students with disabilities only graduated at a rate of 23%, compared to a state-wide rate of nearly 80% (Diplomas Count 2015). Furthermore, the states with greater gaps in graduation rates already are known for their under-resourced public school systems, which would also imply that their resources for students with learning disabilities are likely also below par. These hypotheses require further research but are certainly worth considering.
Figure 3, Diplomas Count 2015
Before delving into some of the reasons why these students may be experiencing this dropout rate more than their peers, one must clarify the definition of a learning disability. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the term “specific learning disability” is used to identify a disorder with the following description.
A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. (20 U.S.C. § 1401 (30))
Specific learning disorders also appear in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), which was last revised in 2013. The DSM-V description provides another way to identify the disabilities.
Current academic skills must be well below the average range of scores in culturally and linguistically appropriate tests of reading, writing, or mathematics. The individual’s difficulties must not be better explained by developmental, neurological, sensory (vision or hearing), or motor disorders and must significantly interfere with academic achievement, occupational performance, or activities of daily living. Specific learning disorder is diagnosed through a clinical review of the individual’s developmental, medical, educational, and family history, reports of test scores and teacher observations, and response to academic interventions. (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
As these descriptions determine, experiencing a learning disability is neither a choice nor a sure indicator of intelligence. However, not much is known about their origin. Progress has been made in determining specific genetic factors which can contribute to learning disabilities, explaining similarities among members of the same family. Other research suggests prenatal or maternal injury can be a contributing factor, as can traumatic injuries, nutritional deprivation, and exposure to substances like lead (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2014). Inadequate teaching cannot cause learning disabilities, nor are learning disabilities a prescription for a negative schooling experience. The research proves exactly the opposite.
Learning disabilities are not a prescription for failure. With the right kinds of instruction, guidance, and support, there are no limits to what individuals with LD can achieve. (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2014)
Despite this message, students with learning disabilities continue to drop out of high school and struggle in the public-school system.
Evidence: Why students with disabilities drop out
It is not necessarily the learning disability itself that causes the high drop out rate. As Annie Paul argued in her New York Times opinion article, “The Upside of Dyslexia,” many gifts come from the dyslexic brain. However, the issue comes when teachers do not know how to hone these gifts. New York City public school teacher Mary Beth Crosby Carroll wrote a letter to The New York Times in response to “The Upside of Dyslexia.” In her letter, she pondered, “it makes you wonder how many scientists, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and writers we have lost because they failed early on in school and no one knew how to tap into their talents and teach them how to read.” This is the unfortunate reality for many students with dyslexia. They drop out before they can realize their potential. Dr. Robert Balfanz, in his research at John Hopkins University and coiner of the term “dropout factories,” identified four main reasons why students drop out of high school. His research incorporates all students and focuses more on race than on students with learning disabilities, but his framework can be used in this case as well.
- Life Events
- Fade Outs – those who stop seeing a reason for coming to school
- Push Outs – those who are encouraged, some more subtly than others, to withdraw from school. This can be for a myriad of reasons, but more often than not, it’s because a child is perceived to be “difficult, dangerous or detrimental.”
- Failing to Succeed
These reasons interact and overlap, and are not designed to be prescriptive. The written and researched experiences of students with dyslexia indicate that they fall into the latter three categories. This next portion of the paper will look at these three categories and examine why students with learning disabilities find themselves in these categories, and determine whether there is anything that can be done to solve these problems.
Fade Outs
Diagnosis, or the lack of it, in public schools remains a major problem, and is a primary contributor to students “fading out.” The Dyslexia Research Institute estimates that although 1 in 5 Americans likely has dyslexia, only 5% are diagnosed. Even fewer are diagnosed during their elementary education years. So, by the time students reach high school, they have learned poor coping mechanisms for their dyslexia and struggle in silence, or they continue to struggle academically and incur low self-esteem as a result. In Family Education, a blog site for parents, Betsy Van Dorn provides tips for parents of high school students with dyslexia. She writes that one of the biggest problems for getting students diagnosed with dyslexia is that “distractibility, dreaminess and lack of motivation are age-typical behaviors, [and] it’s not always easy to separate real learning problems from adolescent angst.” (Van Dorn) The challenge of not being recognized and appropriately diagnosed can build up stress within a student that can lead to apathy towards their education and thus cause them to fade out. This is not an issue of schools being ill-intentioned or intentionally bias towards students with learning disabilities. The lack of diagnosis can occur for lots of reasons.
Most schools are not able to administer a complete language processing evaluation, and outsourcing it can be expensive. Therefore, referring someone to a testing center requires confidence from the part of the teacher, or the parent. Teachers need to be sure that they can accurately discern the difference between a student with a learning disability and a student who is struggling to keep up, or a student who will learn in time. It is not always the case that the dyslexic student will be the one at the bottom of the class, as their academic challenges may manifest in different ways. Schools that do provide some form of evaluation are not always able to formalize a diagnosis. Sandie Blackley, speech-language pathologists and co-founder of Lexercise, wrote in a blog post some of the reasons why these forms of evaluation are insufficient. She writes that the lack of diagnosis can make it difficult for teachers, parents and the student themselves to understand what their specific differences are, and how to move forward. The standard measure of evaluation in public schools, from the psychoeducational perspective, is to measure IQ and academic achievement and determine if there is a gap. The difference is interpreted as a learning disability, for it indicates a difficulty in expressing one’s IQ in achievement. However, the evaluation will not provide a course of study, and may not even identify all students. This process is lengthy and demands a lot on the student. It is unsurprising, therefore, that some students would choose to drop out of school or remain undiagnosed.
The “fade out” phenomenon can be linked to lack of diagnosis because of the challenging experience it creates for a student in the classroom. In an article published by the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, teacher and mother Kyle Redford explained how the dyslexia diagnosis helped her son embrace his education.
My son’s reaction to the dyslexic label convinced me that my reservations were a form of educational elitism. He was delighted with the new word; it helped to contain his condition. His learning challenges could no longer be confused with generalized stupidity. (Redford)
Redford’s story is not unique. Other stories cite newfound confidence after a diagnosis, better performance in school and a better self-awareness (Pearce). Even in those to whom the diagnosis evokes a false sense of shame, the ability to form a strategy of their own with the knowledge of their dyslexia allows for success. The absence of this knowledge can be demoralizing and prevents students from understanding their potential, especially when it may look different from their peers.
Push Outs
The issue of students being forced out of the public-school system is most frequently discussed in regards to issues of racism. Black students are suspended from K-12 public schools are a much higher rate than their peers, indicating a longstanding pervading problem of institutional racism in many school districts across the United States. (Smith & Harper, 2015) While the issue of suspensions and disproportionate discipline to racial minorities remains relevant, similar tactics are used in pushing out students with learning disabilities, a topic which continues to be relatively under-discussed. However, while racism is the driving factor between the disproportionate expulsion of Black and Latino students, a lack of understanding drives out many students who have a learning disability. They may ‘act out’ more frequently than their peers, but the underlying cause is certainly more than just a tendency towards truancy.
Students with learning disabilities often become frustrated with their inability to learn in school. Some become behavior problems to divert attention from their academic performance; others try to behave perfectly and hope that adults won’t notice them.” (Levine & Osbourne, 1989)
In some instances, as in Levine and Osbourne’s example, there is a choice made. Truant activity is a way to get attention and be noticed by members of staff; it is a way to present the image of not caring about one’s education. For, as high school social environments would dictate, it is easier to be failing if you give off the impression that you don’t care. In other instances, resisting instruction is a defense mechanism to avoid the embarrassment of being unable to read or partake in ordinary academic activities. But, for other students, acting differently from the rest of the class isn’t necessarily a choice. For students with ADHD, behavioral problems may stem from the inability to focus in the classroom. Genuine curiosity may be construed as rude or intrusive behavior. Even in dyslexia, which does not have any obvious behavioral symptoms, there is evidence of truant behavior. Dahle and Knivsberg conducted a study of behavioral issues in children with dyslexia against children without dyslexia. In their study, teachers reported more instances of aggression, hyperactivity, and delinquency in the dyslexic students, “indicating that children with dyslexia may use overt behaviors as an avoidance or coping strategy when faced with difficult tasks in public environments.” (Dahle & Knivsberg, 2014).
Regardless of the reason, however, suspension rates for students with disabilities is high. Research from The Civil Rights Project at the University of California found that “for all racial groups combined, more than 13% of students with disabilities were suspended. This is approximately twice the rate of their non-disabled peers.” (Losen & Gillespie, 2012) For students of color, this number is even higher. These students were also more likely to be suspended multiple times instead of just once, with one out of every four Black K-12 students suspended at least once in the 2009-2010 academic year. The interaction between race and disabilities is sobering, especially in light of federal legislation which is designed to protect students with disabilities from this kind of disciplinary discrimination. The study from The Civil Rights Project asked the important question: are the suspensions justified due to misbehavior, or are they discrimination? This question is particularly hard to answer in regards to students with disabilities because often their natural behavior, as determined by their disability, conflicts with the disciplinary standards of the school.
For students who have not been diagnosed, disciplinary action becomes difficult to understand and comprehend. Especially in students who are making less conscious choices about their activity, the act of being reprimanded or suspended devalues education. In line with the students who fade out without disciplinary action, the value of education is reduced when students feel like they are being disciplined for who they are, instead of actions they did wrong. This does not excuse dangerous or harmful behavior but poses a Band-Aid solution to something that could be better addressed with more information about learning differences and disabilities.
Failing to Succeed
Academic failure is the most stereotypical problem of the dyslexic student within the public-school system, especially in the last decade, and has been measured with more scrutiny since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. The law, signed into law by President George W. Bush, demanded higher standards of all students before they graduated high school. According to the Act, all students should pass the same benchmark of academic standards. Given the size of states and the discrepancy of education systems across one state, the standards were determined and measured by performance on standardized tests. The importance of these tests developed a high-stakes testing culture, as schools with insufficient test scores were threatened with closure. For schools with high numbers of students with disabilities, this posed a problem. Students with learning disabilities were supposed to take the same test and meet the same standard as the other students in the school. In the 2009 reading assessment for twelfth graders, 64 percent of students with disabilities tested below basic proficiency compared to 24 percent of students without disabilities. (NCES, 2009). The rate of success is consistently much lower for students with learning disabilities, especially dyslexia.
Many children and adults with dyslexia and other learning disabilities report their schooling experience as incredibly difficult, as they often felt “deeply humiliated when asked to read. They reported being ridiculed and bullied because of their reading difficulties.” (Rose, 2009). Boyes et. al, in 2017, published an article outlining the relationship between learning disabilities and mental health problems, many of which emerged from this feeling of shame. Given the intensity of high-stakes testing, the pressure to do well can feel all-encompassing to a student with a disability. Lacking self-esteem can remain a barrier for other disciplines as well. Even if a student with dyslexia shows promise elsewhere, their experiences in other classrooms may hinder their belief that they can succeed. As Richard Dowson writes, “failure in school can result in depression and a fear of school. The student dreads going to school. Who can blame him? Except for a chance to clown around with friends, school is a hostile place where the dyslexic does not experience academic success.” (Dowson) Psychological research finds that these kinds of experience normalize negative self-worth and self-esteem, so much so that dropping out becomes an attractive alternative to continued negative experiences. When the failure to succeed is combined with disciplinary action or a feeling of being misunderstood by peers and teachers, it is unsurprising that many students with learning disabilities drop out of school.
Conclusion: The Answer?
As the evidence above shows, there are many significant problems for students with learning disabilities in the public school education system. Not all of them can be solved overnight or with federal policy. The major shift that needs to occur is one of greater understanding of learning disabilities. Educators need to be able to have the means and knowledge to recognize a learning disability in an individual, or at least be able to discern when a student should be referred for further testing. It is possible that the limited access to comprehensive evaluations is blocking a lot of this understanding, and therefore measures need to be taken to create a better system for evaluating and diagnosing students. These tests need to be inexpensive or subsidized by governing authorities as opposed to the school so that teachers and parents can provide comprehensive care to their students with learning disabilities. This care should be specific to the needs of the children and altered from the traditional route if necessary. Having a greater understanding of learning disabilities through better training and continual support will allow teachers to be able to handle the difference in education and help the student better. However, while better understanding from the standpoint of an educator may help a student with a learning disability, more research still needs to be done about the specifics of dyslexia before a full solution can be determined. There is a dearth of literature on the experience of dyslexic students at school, and even less literature which talks about the experience of people with dyslexia outside of the education system. It is well known that students who drop out of school are more likely to be incarcerated and more likely to be unemployed, but little attention is given to how learning disabilities factor into these issues.
But, while this paper has outlined many of the logical reasons why a student may choose to drop out of school, the real problem that will likely continue is the feelings of shame and humiliation that pervade the school experiences of students with learning disabilities. These moments often do come from a lack of understanding from peers and educators, but also from an educational system that has narrowed its focus to standardized testing and proficiency in reading and math. Until these systems begin to become more flexible in their measurements of intelligence, students with learning disabilities will continue to be put to one side and the epidemic of the dyslexic dropout will only just continue.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Professor Debs for allowing me to write a paper that allowed me to learn so much more about what it means to be dyslexic, and for making me all the more grateful for my teachers and family members who allowed me to thrive in the education system instead of drop out. And, thanks to my fiancé Andrew Bean for the M&Ms. I needed them all. Thank you to Alison Levosky, Brian Pok and Julie Zhu for putting up with me and my GIFs, and to Julie (again) and Emily Patton for their edits.
Works Cited
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Boyes, Mark. E.; Leitao, Suze; Dzidic, Peta; Claessen, Mary; Gordon, Joanne; Howard, Kate; Nayton, Mandy. “Exploring the impact of living with dyslexia: The perspectives of children and their parents.” International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, (2017). DOI. 10.1080/17549507.2017.1309068.
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Levine, Sarah L.; Osbourne, Sally. “Living and Learning with Dyslexia.” Phi Delta Kappan. V70 n8 p594-98. April 1989.
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Redford, Kyle. “My Son’s Dyslexia Diagnosis.” Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity. Accessed: http://dyslexia.yale.edu/DyslexiaDiagnosis.html
Paul, Annie Murray, “The Upside of Dyslexia.” The New York Times. February 4, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-upside-of-dyslexia.html
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[1] Some states provide more specific data, whereas others do not, making it difficult to get an accurate picture of the specific breakdown of this data nationwide.
The Boys Are Back: All-Boys Education in New Haven and Beyond
Otis Baker Professor Mira Debs EDST 245: Public Schools and Public Policy 5/3/2017
Introduction
People often attribute the achievement gap between boys and girls to learning differences between the sexes [1]. One way educators address these differences is by placing boys into single gender classrooms. An all-boys school is seen as a way to tailor education to the specific learning needs of boys. According to the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools, all-boys schools do provide advantages. They make boys less competitive, and more collaborative. The report also concludes that all-boys schools are better at providing same gender role models and makes for a less distracting learning environment [2]. All-boys schools have the ability to reverse educational trends for males, especially in environments where they may have more distractions or fewer role models.
In New Haven, Dr. Boise Kimber believes so. Dr. Kimber believes that such an environment could help young Black boys in New Haven achieve more than the current education statistics show. He has recently proposed an all-boys school, focused on young men of color in New Haven. There are now strong factions in support of Dr. Kimber and his plan as well as factions in opposition. After analyzing his plan to help these students and then evaluating his model, I believe Dr. Kimber’s plan is certainly noble and deserves its desired funding. However, based on the results of its model schools any future plan should include strong measures for accountability of the academy.
The State of Current Affairs
In 2013, the state of Connecticut published a report boasting about the current status of education in Connecticut. It highlighted that higher percentages of students were graduating high school than in years past.
Figure 1: Chart compares state vs. district graduation rates for specific groups
The report boasted an 84% graduation rate for all students, a 2.1% increase from 2011. The rate of graduation for Black students in Connecticut was 73%, a 1.3% increase [3]. This report was encouraging but misleading. The city of New Haven fell significantly short of the rest of the state. In the fine print (a link to the rest of the data) the survey provided the graduation rate for students in New Haven. In the Elm City, 70% of all students graduated, 14% lower than Connecticut at large. While the rest of the state might be improving, New Haven is falling behind. The discrepancy between the district and the state was not even across all student student groups. There were small reductions in the rates of graduation for Asian and white students, but the largest change was in male students vs. female students. The state graduation for males in Connecticut is nearly 82%. In New Haven, that rate for males drops to 63%, an alarming 19% decrease [4]. The drop for females in New Haven is only 10% below females statewide. In terms of Black males, the graduation rate in the state of Connecticut is 53% [5]. The datas show two trends. New Haven is significantly behind the state in education. And, the ones suffering the most are Black males.
There are several possible explanations for why male students in New Haven are suffering. One of the principal explanations is that Black males are poorly represented in the teacher force. In 2013, of 1,883 teachers in the New Haven school district, only 56 of them were Black males. The New Haven district students are 42% Black and 41% Hispanic [6]. There is a mismatch between the number of minority male students in New Haven and the number of minority male teachers. The potential implications of this gap extend beyond simply having a diverse workforce. Young Black and Hispanic males have fewer teachers that they can view as role models who look like them. A Johns Hopkins report found that young Black boys that have at least one black teacher from grades 3-5 have a 39% lower chance of dropping out of high school. The study also discovered that these same boys have a 29% increase in college matriculation.[7] Black students, especially young Black males benefit immensely from having Black teachers as role models. One teacher interviewed for Through Our Eyes, a study on Black teachers, offers an explanation: “I think we don’t have the trust barrier sometimes that other teachers of a different ethnicity may” [8]. Black students, especially males, benefit from having a trusted advisor with shared experiences. This trust translates to students being more willing to engage in and out of the classroom as well. In New Haven, there is a substantial shortage of Black Male teachers, which is likely a primary contributor to the lower graduation rates of Black male students.
Violence is a contributor to the lower graduation rates of Black males. In 2013, of the 20 homicides that occurred in New Haven, 9 of the victims were between 18-23 years old.[9] Of these 20 homicides, 17 of the victims were Black. Though these victims were just beyond the age of high school graduation, the evidence shows that violence is prevalent around young males in New Haven. Gun Violence in these urban areas distracts students from their studies. Obviously, gun violence can result in traumatic experiences. But it can also create an atmosphere of hyper alertness, making students stress about details like their route to school [10]. This violence can lead many away from school and often into destructive behaviors and pursuits. Spending time in juvenile detention lowers the rate of high school graduation by 13% according to a study by MIT [11]. The prevalence of violence and crime in New Haven magnifies the need for more guidance, structure, and mentorship to keep young males away from crime and in school.
Dr. Kimber’s Proposed Solution
Dr. Boise Kimber, a pastor at the First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven, first envisioned an all-boys school for young Black men in New Haven in 2007. He had become extremely concerned with the opportunities and paths laid out for young men of color in his larger community [12]. He knew that as the achievement gap between Blacks and Whites in New Haven schools grew, too many Black boys were being left behind, dropping out of school, and turning to lives of crime or unemployment. He saw that there was a lack of mentorship for boys of color and a dearth of educators who looked like them. Dr. Kimber felt that these factors were all intertwined. So, he decided that he wanted to create a school that could do something about it. He told an interviewer that he, “wanted to create an environment where boys of color in New Haven could participate in a structured environment where they could learn to become young men. Young men with a purpose. Young men being men in this 21st century.” Kimber’s vision manifested itself into what he called C.M. Cofield Academy [13].
Kimber envisioned C.M. Cofield Academy as a school that would serve at-risk boys of color in New Haven. He wanted to model the school after the mission of Morehouse College, the historically Black Men’s college in Atlanta: “to develop men with disciplined minds to lead lives of leadership and service by emphasizing the intellectual and character development of its students and by assuming a special responsibility for teaching the history and culture of black people.”[14] The all-boys school would have a strict uniform policy, and it would focus on teaching both academics and values like responsibility and discipline. Kimber’s school would also have predominantly Black male teachers, providing an image of role models who are positive contributors to their community and beyond. When Kimber originally proposed the school, he wanted to make it a state-funded charter school. The New Haven Board of Education (BOE) rejected his original proposal citing “too many charters” as the reason for its failure. Kimber has now returned to the BOE several times with different elements to the proposal. He has achieved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the New Haven division of the American Federation of Teachers to build the school and has now proposed it as an inter-district charter run by the New Haven BOE, the first of its kind in New Haven. Kimber is modeling the structure of the school on Eagle Academy, which operates six all-boys schools of predominantly boys of color in and around New York City. These schools focus on mentorship for at-risk youth and work to achieve many of Kimber’s same goals [15].
Many of the modifications Kimber has made to his proposal are specifically to gain Board approval and move forward. He plans to start with approximately 60-80 students, divided into just 4 classrooms. He claims that the school will not require the construction of any new building, but rather will utilize rented space. This means that the school would likely not require any “new” funding. Instead, Kimber and his supporters propose that the district redirect existing education dollars to fund the school. Ultimately, Kimber hopes that the board will approve his proposal and hire an outside consultant to formalize a partnership between C.M. Cofield and the Eagle Academy Network. This would finally grant him a contract of education, making the C.M. Cofield Academy official [16]. There are several members of the BOE currently in opposition to Dr. Kimber’s proposal. The biggest obstacle for the plan is a question of per student funding. Because C.M. Cofield plans on being an inter-district charter, monitored by the New Haven BOE, it cannot receive per student state funding. Instead, the New Haven school district must pay for each student. This would be a smaller problem if Kimber didn’t insist on the policy of accepting students from other districts. The BOE is hesitant to accept a proposal for where the New Haven taxpayers would have to pay for other district’s students [17]. However, Kimber still contends that opposition from the BOE is personal, not because board members believe that the plan fails to help close the achievement gap in New Haven. However, Kimber also has some supporters for the school. Mayor Toni Harp has endorsed the idea. She believes that the BOE should have an open mind on different ways of addressing the achievement gap.[18] Kimber expects that with the election of two new BOE members, the proposal will finally be approved in January of 2018.
Eagle Academies and the Model
The original Eagle Academy was founded in 2004 in the South Bronx. The school was founded by the 100 Black Men of America group and David Banks, who now serves as the president of the Eagle Academy Foundation. The group’s mission is to improve conditions for young Black men in their communities with the motto “what they see is what they’ll be” [19]. Banks and the group set up the school with the belief that boys learn differently than girls and need more guidance and mentorship, especially in at-risk communities. The original Eagle Academy then spawned the creation of several other Eagle Academies around New York City, as well as one in Newark, New Jersey.
The schools have several general practices that push these goals forward. The Eagle Academies aim to create a strong sense of brotherhood through unique traditions and rituals. The students at Eagle Academies attend town hall meetings each morning where they discuss current issues in their community and beyond. They close each of these meetings with “libations” where boys water a tree and give thanks to people in their life. Finally they all recite William Ernest Henley’s Invictus before the start of classes.[20] The students also compete in academics and service through a “house” system. Students earn points for their house by achievement in and out of the classroom. These all contribute to the school’s goal of creating brotherhood.
Eagle Academies also work to foster significant parent involvement with schooling. Each school has a parent liaison that is a full time employee dedicated to helping parents understand what is going on at school and explaining how they can help their sons. Two other key elements to the Eagle Academies’ approach are early college preparation and Black male teachers who come from the business world. Early college preparation for Eagle Academy students sets forth goals to work towards. Having these specific goals makes it more likely that the students continue their education after high school. But arguably the most important feature at Eagle Academies is the presence of strong black male role models for the students. The Eagle Academies believe that the young men of color need to see the world of possibilities through strong Black male mentors. These mentors inspire the students to believe that these positions in society and in their community are not just possible for them, but expected of them [21].
The mission of Eagle Academies is rosy, but in practice many of the results of the school are not as inspiring. In a survey provided to all parents and teachers in the New York Public School system, Eagle Academy often scored lower than its surrounding borough, the Bronx, and the citywide average. Eagle Academy received only a 70% positive rating for rigorous instruction while the borough and city averages were 79% and 81%, respectively [22]. Eagle Academy’s reviews on providing a supportive environment were even more concerning than their ratings academic for rigor. Supposedly a key component of the school, only 63% of survey respondents believed the school provided an adequately supportive environment in which its students could achieve. This number was also lower than the borough and city averages. Graduation rate was the one area where the school had more success. Eagle Academy was able to graduate 79% of students compared with a 70% graduation rate of schools in similar environments. Eagle Academy also beat the borough and city graduation rate averages. A concerning corollary to this graduation rate statistic is that of the Eagle Academy graduates, only 12% passed a college preparedness examination. Surrounding schools serving similar demographics averaged 25% [23].
Figure 2: Eagle Academy statistics compared to NYC counterparts
The primary conclusion that this data suggests is that Eagle Academies are not academically rigorous. This could be a result of prioritizing keeping students in school rather than discouraging students by having them fail. The other troubling conclusion is that the reviews of the school environment were not overwhelmingly positive. This might not be a structural problem with Eagle Academies and their mission, but rather a problem of leadership and personnel. Regardless, it is concerning that the school is not able to definitively achieve one of the initiatives that it cites as a primary goal.
Conclusion
It is impossible to argue that Dr. Kimber’s vision is not a noble one. He believes in young Black men, and he believes in creating a system through which they are placed on a better path to succeed. However, it is still unclear whether the C.M. Cofield Academy, as proposed, is the best way to achieve that. The potential pitfalls of Kimber’s plan are many. The Eagle Academy model shows that while Kimber’s school could succeed in its goal of engaging young men of color and keeping them in school, it is possible that the students remain unprepared for college or other secondary education. Kimber also could have difficulty attracting Black men from the business world, an essential element of the mentorship component in the Eagle Academy model.
C.M. Cofield Academy has many advantages over its intended model, the Eagle Academies. Kimber’s school, as it is currently proposed, aims to serve a small group of students. Therefore, Kimber would have to find fewer exemplary Black male teachers. The smaller scale would also make it easier for administrators and the Board of Education in New Haven to monitor the school. C.M. Cofield could be accountable for its smaller number of students and work at a micro level to make a strong impact on the at-risk young men of New Haven.
To close, I would make the following policy recommendation: I would approve Dr. Kimber’s plan for C.M. Cofield Academy. However, I would place strict accountability policies on the school for academic rigor. I would also place the school on a trial program that grants them a conditional contract for education for 4-5 years, at which point the Board of Education re-evaluates the school’s contract. I think Kimber’s plan could make a significant impact on a the young males of New Haven, but it needs to proceed with the proper accountability measures placed on both academic achievement and on C.M. Cofield Academy’s adherence to Eagle Academy’s focus on mentorship for at-risk boys.
Footnotes:
- National Education Association.Research spotlight on single-gender education
- Yayang Xiong, C.Single sex education.
- CT Department of Ed. (2015). Connecticut 2014 cohort graduation rate
- Ibid.
- John, P. (2015). The schott 50 state report on public education and black males.
- Bailey, M. (2013, ). Out of 1,883 teachers, 56 black males. New Haven Independent
- Rosen, J. (2017). Black students who have at least one black teacher are more likely to graduate.
- Griffin, Ashley and Hilary Tackie. 2016. Through Our Eyes: Perspectives and Reflections From Black Teachers. Education Trust.
- Ortiz, J. (2016, ).New haven homicides and shooting down in 2016. New Haven Register
- Quick, K. (2016).Gun violence puts education under fire, stifling achievement. Retrieved fromhttps://tcf.org/content/commentary/gun-violence-puts-education-under-fire-stifling-achievement/
- Dizikes, P. (2015). Study: Juvenile incarceration yields less schooling, more crime.
- Baker, O. (2017). Interview with Dr. Boise Kimber
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Bass, P. (2017, ). Kimber swings back at school critics.New Haven Independent
- Baker, O. (2017). Interview with Dr. Boise Kimber
- 100 black men of america. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.100blackmen.org/
- Eagle Academy Bronx. (2016). Traditions. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/eaglebronx.org/eagle/about-eagle/traditions
- Ibid.
- NYC Dept. of Education. (2016). 2015-16 school quality snapshot.().NYC DOE.
- Ibid.
References
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What can we learn from the Perkins Act?: Assessing vocational schools’ performance standards and accountability measures
Executive Summary / Introduction
The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act was signed into law in 2006. As a reauthorization of the original 1984 Perkins Act, the purpose of this law was to promote the further development of career and technical education and to create accountability system to understand state and school performance. While other reports have detailed many elements of Perkins accountability, this report is the first to assess them alongside broader accountability trends in education policy. In this report, we examine this accountability system in the context of vocational education and current accountability measures. Ultimately, we make two large-scale recommendations: first, we recommend that the model used for Perkins performance standards be adopted for all public schools; second, we propose a fused model of Perkins accountability and No Child Left Behind accountability measures in response to these performance standards.
Background
Vocational schools
Vocational schools in the United States refer almost exclusively to secondary and postsecondary institutions designed to provide students with a skilled trade, as opposed to the academic-focused programs of traditional high schools and universities. While some high schools and universities incorporate vocational training, true vocational schools are generally distinguished from traditional four-year colleges. The primary difference (other than career paths and opportunities) between vocational schools and traditional colleges is the time and investment it takes to complete the education. Traditional universities generally take at least four years to complete and can cost upwards of $200,000 dollars for tuition alone. Vocational institutions will take usually take one to two years and only cost about $33,000 on average. A huge reason for the time and investment disparities is that universities require students to enroll in a broad range of classes that may not have to do with the student’s intended field of study. Vocational schools will focus exclusively on the student’s intended field of study dealing with her particular trade. Effective vocational schools can propel a student into a rewarding career path, while ineffective ones can severely limit a student’s post-secondary career/educational options. Vocational schools at the secondary level are similar in purpose to post-secondary institutions, but function within the school district system. Consequently, they are subject to state/federal funding and regulations.
There are over 11,000 vocational secondary schools and 2,600 post-secondary vocational schools with over 14 million students enrolled at the institutions across the country. Critics of vocational schools often point to the absence of academics and an overfocus of programs on simply getting people to work. Particularly at the secondary level, when the students are not adults in need of a carer and just high school students, this can have some negative implications. One negative implication is tracking. Tracking is a major criticism of secondary vocational programs. Putting students, especially low income students, on a certain path can steer kids away from opportunities, such as a traditional university, in education in favor of their learned trade. This can lead to increases in educational inequality and discourage future generations of low income students from pursuing a traditional university education. Vocational schools are also sometimes viewed as institutions where low income students are pushed who cannot succeed in traditional academic settings. As a result of administrative neglect, students who become victims of tacking can become outpaced by their peers career-wise and financial-wise. Additionally, because of the increased demand for vocational schools, for-profit vocational programs have entered the educational market. These schools are potentially more expensive and unaccredited, which poses a financial risk to low-income students on federal loans that may be targets for these predatory programs.
Advocates of vocational schools point to the extensive on-paper benefits of vocational schools. The cost of investment is certainly lower, and advocates may even argue that this presents a better situation for low income students who would otherwise be unable to afford a traditional education. An absence of college debt and an increased likelihood of finding a job outweighs any negatives that are found with tracking students. It is no secret that some college graduates are in higher demands than others, and not all majors are going to guarantee a high paying job, or any job, upon graduation. The more pessimistic statistics point to as much as 50% of college graduates being unemployed or underemployed.
It is important to note there is a distinction between secondary and post-secondary vocational institutions. Secondary vocational schools are public high schools that may offer the same advantages of any traditional high school – AP classes, the opportunity to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities. There exists opportunity for both technical and and academic training, where students get to test the theory behind the academics that they are studying. Additionally students still have the opportunity to attend college upon graduation. Advocates will additionally point to students being able to explore different fields of study as an opportunity to make a more informed decision regarding their college endeavors.
Accountability standards
With any allocation of funding from the federal level, there is some attempted measure of accountability, that comes with it. Accountability in secondary education in the United States can come from many levels, from the school to federal mandates. The most obvious example of a recent push for (and against) accountability can be found in the implementation and removal of Common Core into and from curriculums across the country. While Common Core had national implications, it started out as a movement at the state and local levels. It was proposed partially in response to different educational standards and benchmarks across state lines that resulted from No Child Left Behind, which allowed different states to set their own metrics for accountability. Consequently, some states set higher standards for education than others. This resulted in a number of issues, one of which is the discrepancy in performance based funding. The intent of performance based funding involves tying a positive correlation of student performance with funding to these schools. The purpose is to more efficiently allocate funding to schools with key student performance benchmarks to incentivize continued, improved measurable performance of students and schools. Performance based funding empowers individual schools and school administrators to more effectively allocate state funding in areas that they deem most impactful to student performance. These investments would ideally result in continued success and more desired results. Incentivizing schools by offering them monetary awards can potentially promote school growth, competition, and ultimately lead to better schools.
However, when the roads of individualized state standards and performance based funding cross, issues can arise. Currently, there are 35 states that are instituting some kind of performance based funding. With a system involving so many states, it is going to have national implications. The idea of performance based funding is generally an easy sell to most people and politicians, given its relatively simple theory. The better you do, the better your schools is funded, the better you keep doing. The benefits of school competition can be highlighted, and this will overall improve education in the United States. Unfortunately, the situation is much more complicated than it appears at the surface. A report from the Century Foundation indicates that despite the intentions of performance based funding, such practices failed to yield long-term benefits to schools that received this funding. Perhaps performance based funding can have an impact in issues where the problem facing a school is not multi-faceted, but this is rarely the case. Issues that impede school progress and development are likely highly complex and require a variety of different practices and policies to result in sustained high performance. They can exacerbate inequality when already high-achieving and well-funded schools are judged based on this system, leaving behind lower-performing schools that that will have a harder time adapting to new standards. They do not address issues of inequality and do not take into account the relative starting points for each school. Under No Child Left Behind, they also provided state and school administrators the opportunity to set their own standards, which caused some states to lower standards to seemingly increase their performance (see Figure 1). Performance based funding can certainly play a role in incentivizing school performance, but its success will be limited if it fully takes over the role of accountability for public schools.
Figure 1. State performance standards under No Child Left Behind, 2005.
The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act
There has been increased support from the federal government for vocational education at the secondary level in the United States, particularly with the authorization of the Perkins Act in 1984 and its reauthorization in 1998 and 2006. Carl D. Perkins was a Democrat from Kentucky who served in the House of Representatives. He was a strong support of technical education, and his legacy can be found in both the Perkins Loan and the Perkins Act. While colloquially referred to as vocational education, new wording in the law changes the vernacular from “vocational” to “career and technical education”.
Perhaps the most impactful aspect of the law makes federal funding available for career and technical education to high school students and adults. The federal government allocates almost $1.3 billion to the Perkins Act every year, which is administered under the Department of Education’s Department of Vocational and Adult Education. These grants are allocated to the states and are intended to develop state and local career and technical education. Perkins Basic State Grants are given directly to the states that determine their own method for funding to school districts and postsecondary vocational schools. States are allowed complete discrepancy in allocation of funds between these secondary and postsecondary institutions. Further delegation of funding occurs when states are required by law to distribute a minimum of 85% of their federal funding to local programs and districts.
The federal government does require that the method of resource allocation be advantageous to disadvantaged schools and low income students. This needs-based allocation method must be explicitly stated in the law. The most flexible aspect of the law comes from the remaining 15%, which are earmarked for “leadership” and “administrative” activities. This funding is not required to be distributed to the local level. Overall, however, the newest reauthorization of the Perkins law enables more local flexibility than previous versions. It also requires states to set specific and reliable accountability standards. It requires secondary schools to be accountable to the “Perkins Core Indicators of Performance”. These include standard academic achievement in traditional subjects such as reading and mathematics, their technical school attainment, graduation, and post-secondary vocational school placement.
Accountability under the Perkins Act
An essential element of the Perkins Act is its set of accountability measures, which are used to ensure that recipients of federal funding from Perkins grants produce quality educational outcomes for students.
High school programs are held accountable to three criteria: academic achievement and high school graduation rates, technical skill attainment, and transitions to college, employment or the military. States are required to use their No Child Left Behind accountability standards, focusing on achievement in math and English, and high school graduate rates.
Technical skill attainment is measured via industry-recognized standards to ensure that they are rigorous and are translatable to skills used in post-graduation employment. Virginia’s Department of Education, for example, uses a High School Industry Credentialing initiative that requires students to complete a recognized industry certification or receive a state-issued professional license in order to graduate high school. Where industry-standards are not available, states are required to justify the validity and reliability of their chosen assessment system.
Beyond this, states have the authority to determine their own performance indicators and yearly targets. These targets are established at the state level, and then again at the local level. If states or schools do not meet their performance target, they are required by law to develop a plan of action as to how it will improve its performance. However, the federal government is not required to impose sanctions on any career or technical program on the basis of not meeting its yearly performance targets. Rather, the Perkins Act requires the federal government to provide “technical assistance” to allow schools to better their programs. The terms of this assistance are left to the federal government and individual schools.
Reporting of accountability data occurs at both the local and state level. The data is separated by categories established in the No Child Left Behind Act. The data is analyzed at the state and local levels based on performance gaps across student subpopulations. However, neither local schools nor states are held accountable for student performance according to subgroup categories.
There are many benefits to the design of the most recent authorization of the Perkins Act. First, its performance indicators are relevant to its mission — it uses industry standards and postgraduate pathways to determine whether students have been prepared for college and/or career. It also is focused on alignment between state and school accountability.
At the same time, there exist several drawbacks to the implementation of this act. First, states have experienced difficulty in collecting accurate data on performance indicators. The requirement to track post-employment plans in particular presents an obstacle, in that it can only collect data via surveys so as to not violate FERPA privacy protections for students. Second, CTE’s lack of consequences for performance gaps in subpopulations present an issue for issues of access and inclusion. Such relaxed accountability is beneficial to schools where performance gaps are inevitable and not likely at the sole expense of the school’s instructional quality. However, if schools are not held accountable to performance gaps among subgroups, it is difficult to ensure equity for disadvantaged groups in career and technical education. Given that women and people of color are underrepresented in many CTE programs in math and science, holding schools accountable to access and inclusion is of paramount importance.
What can be learned from Perkins accountability?
As evidenced in this report, the Perkins Act’s accountability structure has marked differences from traditional accountability measures as laid out in the No Child Left Behind Act. In this section, we assess the benefits and drawbacks of both programs on two key differences, and make recommendations as to how elements of both accountability structures can be fused to make a more just accountability system for the future.
Perhaps the most salient of differences is in the extent which states are able to set their own standards. According to the No Child Left Behind Act, states have the power to lower or raise their performance targets – which often leads to unfocused and misaligned standards of rigor that vary from state to state. However, many of the performance indicators embedded in the Perkins Act do not allow for states to make their curriculum or standards less rigorous – rather, they must be aligned to industry-defined standards that ensure that students deemed proficient are actually prepared to enter the workforce. We find the Perkins Act to be far superior in this regard. The accountability structure of No Child Left Behind places too much autonomy on states to create their own standards with no regard for whether they mark legitimate proficiency of students. Students from state to state should not be held to different standards based on the leniency of policy-makers, especially when those who set standards are rewarded for setting low standards for students. The accountability standards detailed in the Perkins Act, however, have clear links to the mission of vocational schooling – to be prepared for a career out of high school. Standards are created by an independent body in industry rather than officials within state departments, and thus have a vested interest in students meeting high standards so as to actually be skilled in their trade when they plan to enter the workforce.
Recommendation 1: Preserve the performance standards of the Perkins Act, and expand them to all public schools. Require states to better align their performance standards to a common set of standards that is proven to be college and career ready. Have an independent body – perhaps out of a university or other independent institution — create these academic standards and maintain them to keep up with the changing academic expectations of post-graduates. Develop reliable systems for reporting performance data accurately and consistently.
Yet another key difference lies in the ways in which schools and states are actually held accountable towards their performance. Under NCLB, states and schools are punished severely for not achieving their Adequate Yearly Progress. Schools face heavy restructuring, or worse, complete closures, for failing to meet their yearly performance standards. These extreme measures have been shown to target schools with predominantly students of color enrolled, and have negative effects on learning outcomes on the most at-risk students. Meanwhile, the Perkins Act offers little consequence for not meeting performance standards, and thus does not hold schools or states accountable to high performance. Seeing as there is a large amount of underrepresented and at-risk students in CTE programs, we believe that there must be some form of accountability that ensures that they are given a high-quality education. Without stricter accountability measures, it is impossible to ensure access and equity for all students.
Recommendation 2: Abolish the accountability measures of both the NCLB/ESSA and the Perkins Act. Instead, create accountability measures that promote meeting performance targets without sanctioning schools in ways that affect learning outcomes for students. Provide extra resources to schools who do not meet their performance targets rather than punish them for not doing well.
Conclusion
The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act plays an essential role in offering what Labaree considers a fundamental purpose of education: social efficiency. Under this model for education, which aims to ensure that every role in the economy is filled by skilled workers, career and technical education is of great importance. The Perkins Act provides greater attention and resources towards vocational education, and creates a uniquely standardized yet loose system of accountability to accompany it. In this report, we assessed this accountability system as it relates to pre-existing systems of accountability measures, and made two recommendations of how to expand this system. First, we propose toe expand the attributes of Perkins performance standards such that all public schools must adhere to them. Second, we recommend a combined model of both Perkins and No Child Left Behind/Elementary and Secondary Education Act accountability measures to incentivize meeting these standards. We find that such recommendations will help hold states and schools accountable to providing quality vocational education to students across the United States. Without them, we may lose sight of one of the most important purposes of American education.
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End notes:
[1] Information Literacy in Vocational Education: A Course Model. Web. 03 May 2017.
[2] “Trade School vs Traditional College.” Trade School vs College | What You Want (and Don’t Want) to Hear. Web. 03 May 2017.
[3] “Career and Technical Education: Perkins Act Reauthorization.”Career and Technical Education: Perkins Act Reauthorization. Mar. 2006. Web. 03 May 2017.
[4] Hanford, Emily. “The Troubled History of Vocational Education.”American RadioWorks. N.p., 9 Sept. 2014. Web. 03 May 2017.
[5] Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis. Schooling in capitalist America. Vol. 57. New York: Basic Books, 1976.
[6] Watson, Bruce. “Why College May Not Be the Best Choice for Your Education Dollar.” AOL.com. AOL, 14 July 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.
[7] Yen, Hope. “1 in 2 New Graduates Are Jobless or Underemployed.”Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 23 Apr. 2012. Web. 03 May 2017.
[8] Bidwell, Allie. “Vocational High Schools: Career Path or Kiss of Death?”Usnews.com. US News, 2 May 2014. Web. 3 May 2017.
[9] Gewertz, Catherine. “The Common Core Explained.” Education Week. N.p., 03 May 2017. Web. 03 May 2017.
[10] Strauss, Valerie. “Everything You Need to Know about Common Core — Ravitch.” The Washington Post. WP Company, 18 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 May 2017.
[11] Klein, Alyson. “No Child Left Behind Overview: Definitions, Requirements, Criticisms, and More.” Education Week. N.p., 10 Apr. 2017. Web. 03 May 2017.
[12] Hillman, Nicholas. “Why Performance-Based College Funding Doesn’t Work.” The Century Foundation. N.p., 01 June 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.
[13] Fain, Paul. “Critique of Performance-Based Funding.”Insidehighered.com. Inside Higher Ed, 25 May 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.
[14] Hillman.
[15] M. Steinberg and L. Sartain, “Does Teacher Evaluation Improve School Performance? Experimental Evidence from Chicago’s Excellence in Teaching Project,” Education Finance and Policy 10.4 (2015): 535–72.
[16] Debs, Mira. “Accountability as Education Policy.” Public Schools and Public Policy. Yale University, New Haven. 20 Feb 2017. Lecture.
[17] “Reauthorization of Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act.” Home. US Department of Education (ED), 16 Mar. 2007. Web. 03 May 2017.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Threeton, Mark D. “At issue-the Carl D. Perkins career and technical education (CTE) act of 2006 and the roles and responsibilities of CTE teachers and faculty.” (2007).
[21] Meeder, Hans. “The Perkins Act of 2006: Connecting Career and Technical Education with the College and Career Readiness Agenda. Achieve Policy Brief.” Achieve, Inc. (2008).
[22] Hoachlander, E. Gareth. “Designing a Plan to Measure Vocational Education Results, Developing Accountability Systems to Meet Perkins Act Requirements.” Vocational Education Journal 66.2 (1991).
[23] American Vocational Association. “The official guide to the Perkins Act of 1998: the authoritative guide to federal legislation for vocational-technical education.” Alexandria, VA: AVA (1998).
[24] McDermott, Kathryn A. “What causes variation in states’ accountability policies?.” Peabody Journal of Education 78.4 (2003): 153-176.
[25] Dee, Thomas S., and Brian Jacob. “The impact of No Child Left Behind on student achievement.” Journal of Policy Analysis and management 30.3 (2011): 418-446.
How Housing Policies Serve as Education Policies
Jake Fender
Tran Le
How Housing Policies Serve as Education Policies
I. Executive Summary
This policy memo describes the historical and contemporary mechanisms by which government and individual action maintain both housing segregation and school segregation, as the two forms are inextricably linked. We first explicate how government action, private actions based explicitly on race, government inaction, and private, neutral choices with racial impacts all normalized racism that led to housing segregation. We then examine how school funding and school quality is affected by the wealth inequality resulting from housing segregation. Lastly, we investigate the exclusionary zoning laws that perpetuate housing inequality, and suggest interventions that may alleviate the current dependency of school quality on housing.
II. Introduction
Schools are at the heart of the democratic ideals so loved by the United States of America. Scholars from a variety of time periods have emphasized how education can foster critical thinking and dialogue, and give citizens the tools they need to live flourishing lives in a well-functioning democracy (Gutmann). However, an education system can only be considered a boon to democracy if it, in the spirit of the democratic tradition, is provided to each and every citizen regardless of their background. This is not the case in the United States today: a history of racialized housing segregation combined with varied funding formulae and exclusionary zoning laws have contributed to a vastly unequal educational landscape, resulting in differing degrees of economic success for children from different backgrounds that have potentially exacerbated existing economic inequalities of minority racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Our policy memo aims to explore what has caused this problem and to identify its constituent parts so that we can devise a solution in the pursuit of a truly equal education for every child.
III. Historical Background of Housing Segregation
Housing segregation in the United States has a disturbing history of continued oppression of minority groups, specifically African Americans, by maintaining racialized patterns of housing throughout the nation. Spatial inequality, or segregation by race, is one of the most defining features of American history. The history and current situation of spatial isolation have been crafted, in historical order, by government action, private actions based explicitly on race, government inaction, and private choices based on non-racial factors that nonetheless have a racialized impact. It is important to note that these are often happening simultaneously, and they are only grouped in this historical faction because they have been the dominant force driving racial segregation at the time listed relative to the other events (i.e. government action is listed first, not because it is over but because it was the most significant force shaping early housing segregation).
Government Action
The United States federal government played a crucial role in the formation and solidification of racial segregation. In the same sense that the growing wealth inequality has been a stretching away of the upper crust and not simply a widening of the income distribution, the federal government exacerbated existing wealth inequalities by giving certain families (white families) a significant boost in the form of loans for suburban housing. Federal government action, the prototype of which is the lending practices of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, consistently invested in white homeowners, and therefore promoted white flight and invested in the formation of white communities, at the expense of their black counterparts (Massey, p. 51). This public endeavor was the beginning of a long history of racial housing segregation which persists to this day.
Private Action with Racialized Intent
Another way in which racial segregation has been cemented in the American housing landscape is through private preferences based explicitly on race. These insidious, racist perceptions range from intimidation and harassment of blacks moving into white neighborhoods in the 1950s to the usage of racial covenants to ensure that neighborhoods would remain white, to the common practice of “white flight” in which white residents will flee from a neighborhood they fear is “becoming black” (Massey, p. 38). Modern-day sensibilities allow us to see this type of behavior in the past and condemn it, but the truly insidious nature of this aspect of the issue is its deceptive nature: because of the social desirability effect – essentially, a reporting bias in which people do not disclose truly racist motivations because we collectively repudiate racism as a concept, at least in name – people today would most likely not admit to moving out of a neighborhood due to an increase in its black population even if that were the reason. This should not blind us to the fact that it could very well still be a motivating factor in affluent whites’ decisions to move, and continues to shape the housing and educational landscape to this day.
Government Inaction
Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson theorize about “policy drift,” which is “the politically driven failure of public policies to adapt to the shifting realities of a dynamic economy and society” (p. 170). Although they use the idea to discuss issues related to economic inequality, the concept can also be applied to housing inequality. By allowing segregation to persist and not taking an active role in addressing the underlying causes of spatial inequality (an intense history of racial isolation and disinvestment in communities of color), the federal government has a role in sustaining the current regime of segregation.
Private Action with “Neutral” Intent
The fourth area impacting residential segregation, and the one proving hardest to combat, is the exacerbation of spatial inequality by the choices of private citizens that are not motivated by race, but by other factors that are often correlated with race; these factors have racialized consequences when acted upon. In “Shopping for Schools: How Public Education and Private Housing Shaped Suburban Connecticut,” Jack Dougherty demonstrates how “the connection between private housing and public schools has helped increase the region’s racial and economic stratification,” (p. 219).
In this example, white citizens based their decision about where to live on the school districts that served the area, using test scores to select school districts in which they wanted their children, and therefore which neighborhoods to which they wanted to move. A combination of two factors – 1) that black students, on average, perform at a lower level than their white peers on standardized tests (Jencks and Phillips), and 2) that school funding is often based on local property taxes – meant that these decisions by white parents, though based on something as facially neutral as a school’s average test scores, actually ended up increasing racial stratification in the area.
What does this mean for education?
In the sections below, we will explore how varying funding formulae and tax bases (based on a history of housing segregation and concentrated poverty) have provided an unequal financial footing for schools, but first, it bears mentioning how low-income status and mobility affects the individual student, independently of their schools’ funding sources. In the United States, residential mobility, or the frequency of changes in residence, is higher for both racial minorities and for low income families (Ihrke and Faber). This, combined with the fact that there is a directly negative relationship between residential mobility and student academic performance, particularly for students in low-income or single-parent families (Scanlon and Devine), shows how mobility patterns based on a long history of housing segregation can have direct impacts on individual students before they even affect institutional matters like funding.
IV. Disparities in School Funding
The Dougherty article, discussed above, is a prime example of how housing markets and schools interact, but even moreso, how the funding formulae for schools can disproportionately favor students from higher property-value areas as opposed to their counterparts in schools located in areas where property is worth less.
We have included a chart below, detailing interstate differences in per-pupil spending during 2014. We obtained the data from a publication titled “Governing”; the original data source is the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of School Systems (“Education Spending”). The reality of the situation, however, is that spending differences are not just dollar amounts – spending $100 on a child in rural Alabama will probably go a lot further than $100 in Manhattan because purchasing power changes depending on where you’re at in the United States. To account for this, we used a metric to convert the 2014 per pupil spending amounts to amounts adjusted for how far money goes, varying on a state by state basis. We were able to do this by using a figure called the liveable wage – a product of a 2007 project by Dr. Amy Glasmeier at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called the Living Wage Calculator (Glasmeier). The living wage for a state is the lowest per hour wage a worker would have to earn (assuming a forty-hour work week) in order to make ends meet. It is useful for measuring purchasing power variance between states because as the amount of purchasing power changes by state, so will the minimum living wage – if the cost of living is higher, then people will need higher wages.
Of course, interstate variance isn’t the only inequity in school funding. The chart below displays, district by district, how funding per pupil differed from the national average in 2016.
Challenging the Existing Funding Framework for Disadvantaged Students
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is a program designed to funnel money into schools serving significant proportions of students in poverty (“Improving Basic Programs”). This federal program was designed as a way to ensure that students in poverty had access to resources to help them meet state standards, and progress at a similar rate to their non-poverty classmates. Unfortunately, however, Title I falls short: a report from the Brookings Institution highlights the problems with the funding formulae: money is indeed going to high-poverty schools, but not necessarily to students living in poverty; once a school receives a funding designation, that money can be used across the board for any student, and the allocation is often based on performance. Thus, if a student in poverty is performing well, they may never see the effects of funds intended to combat their poverty. (Dynarski and Kainz).
In order to combat economic and, in turn, school inequality, the federal government could mandate that school funding be linked to individual children rather than schools, such that a child could apply to multiple public schools in his or her area (Whitehurst). Because of the circumstances we have described already, the ability for families to leave school districts with which they are dissatisfied is largely constrained for low-income populations that are, ironically and unfortunately, most likely served by low-performing schools. Our current system leaves the poor and immobile to inferior schools and gives school choice to those who benefit most from the status quo. If school funding followed students instead, then local property taxes would not dictate the number of resources and quality of a school, and this new competitive nature would compel schools to be more productive in order to retain students, and thus, funding (Fordham Institute).
However, we must acknowledge that a few steps must be taken before this possible solution would even be able to occur, and that even if per-pupil funding were to occur, it would not guarantee all students an equal quality education, due to the many factors that constitute school quality. The federal or state governments would have to first level the current playing field to compensate for historical under-investments in some schools compared to others. Policymakers would also have to incentivize high-quality teachers to work in high-poverty schools; maybe this could be accomplished by higher salaries or improved working conditions (Clotfelter, Charles, Ladd, Vigdor, and Wheeler). The transition to a new education finance system would be difficult in practice of course, but in the long term, a more equitable approach to how schools receive funding may bring about a more equitable education system as a whole (Baker, Bruce, and Green).
V. School Test-Score Gaps, Housing-Cost Gaps, and Restrictive Zoning
Knowing what we do about the historical background of housing segregation along with the impact of funding on school quality, it is clear that, across income and racial or ethnic groups, the access to high-scoring schools is severely unequal. While parents of disadvantaged students do attempt to enroll their children in higher-scoring schools (when knowledgeable about the data) (Hastings, Justine, and Weinstein), middle and upper-class parents are often more successful because they are not confined by local governmental laws that block low-income students and their families from living near or attending these schools.
In 2012, the Brookings Institution did a study using data from the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., and found that housing costs an average of 2.4 times as much, or nearly $11,000 more per year, near a high-scoring public school (based on state test scores) than near a low-scoring public school (pg. 14). The “housing cost gap” refers to the difference in median housing costs (rental or mortgage payments) between neighborhoods with the highest-scoring and lowest-scoring elementary schools.
Additionally, because wealthy residents of major metropolitan areas typically live in municipal jurisdictions or zoning districts (homogeneously zoned areas within a jurisdiction) that discourage or even overtly block the construction of less expensive housing units (Fischel), low-income residents who wish to send their children to better schools in those areas are unable to do so. We can see how pervasive zoning restrictions are in the U.S. by how, for example, 84% of jurisdictions impose minimum lot size requirements to some degree (the average jurisdiction with zoning power has a minimum lot size of .4 acres), and 22% of jurisdictions have laws that forbid housing units on lots smaller than 1 acre (Gyourko, Joseph, Saiz, and Summers).
Zoning regimes are a crucial factor in the cost gap within large metro areas between housing in neighborhoods with high-scoring and low-scoring schools: the Brookings Institution found that areas with the least restrictive zoning have housing cost gaps that are 40 to 63 percentage points lower than areas with the most exclusionary zoning (pg. 16).
Thus, school test-score gaps, housing-cost gaps, and levels of restrictive zoning are all interrelated. Similar to how explicitly race-based policies (such as covenants) and discriminatory lending and real estate practices we previously discussed kept blacks out of white neighborhoods, restrictive zoning in the present day keeps low-income families out of wealthy neighborhoods, which contributes greatly to the school test-score gap between low-income children and their peers. So long as test scores are used as an indicator of school quality, parents will choose schools with better test scores – and of course, since middle to upper-class parents are more able to have their children attend their desired schools, and zoning laws better enable housing segregation by class, then school segregation is a function of housing segregation.
Challenging the Existing Zoning Policies
At the national scale, the most radical reform to combat housing segregation on a policy level would be to abolish exclusionary zoning. The justification for zoning is superficially in terms of controlling externalities, but zoning is frequently put in place due to other motivations – the two main ones being a) fiscal zoning, which is intended to improve a local jurisdiction’s tax base by attracting occupants whose tax contributions surpass their use of public services, and b) exclusionary zoning, which is meant to exclude or restrict a member of a racial, ethnic, or social class from occupying a jurisdiction (Pogodzinski, pg. 145). While exclusionary zoning is commonly regarded as illegitimate and fiscal zoning sometimes considered benign, fiscal zoning can still operate in an exclusionary fashion. Typically, the class that is excluded consists of the poor, whose use of public services is expected to exceed their tax payments, and because a disproportionate number of minority households are poor, fiscal zoning serves as an exclusionary filter. If the federal government were able to prohibit local governments from discriminating on the superficial basis of housing type (i.e. single-family attached or multi-family) or size (i.e. lot, floor, or frontage size) that underlyingly denies admittance to the poor, then low-income and minority children and their families would benefit educationally and economically from better schools and neighborhoods.
On a state level, housing and land use legislation could be enacted to generally increase economic integration, and more particularly ensure low and moderate income housing in the suburbs. In New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, enforceable “rights” to develop affordable housing in towns that are not providing their fair share were created for developers to challenge denials in court in an expedited manner (Von Hoffman). It is also possible to mandate that new construction include a certain portion of affordable units; in California, municipalities are required to include planning for affordable housing in their zoning laws. However, if states do not wish to force affordable units to that extent, they can incentivize it rat: in New York, developers are rewarded with a “density bonus” if they include more affordable housing (Center for Housing Policy).
On a regional level, improved zoning coordination could promote a higher density of people where the space is already available. Portland, Oregon, has enacted such a regional planning method by limiting the number of developments in outer suburban areas, resulting in a decrease in segregation, which may have also contributed to Portland’s low test score gap (Nelson, Arthur, Sanchez, and Dawkins). In this way, zoning laws can be written with the intention of inclining people to move to currently low-dense, but convenient areas that are located near job centers or have public transportation routes. Alternatively, but in a similar manner, zoning laws can prevent people from constructing further developments in the suburbs, as this would exacerbate segregation since only people who can afford to move to new, and presumably more expensive, homes will do so. As long as homeowners in affluent suburbs are allowed to benefit from the high density of cities (where they tend to work or find business and social networks) without accounting for the higher costs of public services to support it, they will continue to be barriers to inexpensive housing in their jurisdictions.
VI. Conclusion
The relationship between housing and traditional public schooling has long been evident: the neighborhood a student lives in will determine the school he or she will attend, and to the extent that school quality varies by location either due to differing tax bases or other location-specific variables, the neighborhood one lives in will determine the quality of education one receives. As long as American citizens value neighborhood schools, discussions of school desegregation policies must be rooted in data about residential segregation. A long history of housing segregation and concentrated poverty has also affected school financing, with certain schools benefiting more from local taxes than others affected by lower property values. Consequently, housing policies are de facto education policies, and vice versa.
Because of the many factors involved in the intersection of housing and schooling, it is a tremendous challenge to extensively improve the quality of education available to low-income children. However, there is promise in reforms to funding, housing, and land use policies that may be implemented at all levels of government in order to make educational opportunity more equal. Inclusionary zoning and other laws in favor of affordable housing must be enacted in conjunction with more sweeping laws that inhibit affordable housing, or even prospective inexpensive housing, where it is most needed. Overall, while other research regarding housing and school segregation focuses on their effects – specifically, detrimental ones on children’s social and academic development (Jencks) – our policy memo rather examines how housing policies in particular can tackle housing and school segregation, and thus, act as education policies.
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The “New” NYC Renewal Schools Program
Jorge Lema – Final Policy Project
May 3, 2017
Executive Summary
The New York City Renewal Schools Program was enacted to save 94 of the city’s lowest performing public schools. The program has failed because, although “Renewal” schools received a lot of funding and resources, their enrollments and teacher quality have decreased. Families and professionals are skeptical of Renewal Schools because the schools close if they do not meet program benchmarks in areas such as graduation and attendance rates or other more holistic expectations. School climates of mistrust and frustration have led to administrative manipulation of data to meet aforementioned benchmarks. New York City can reform this program by making it permanent, removing the threat of school closures and incentivizing people to work, and believe in, Renewal Schools.
Introduction
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s Renewal Schools Program was enacted in 2014. It provides Renewal schools with funding and resources that traditional public schools do not have. Originally the schools were required to meet benchmarks in three years to avoid closures or mergers with other schools, but many have not. Students and school staff are leaving Renewal Schools in fear of losing their jobs because of school closures. NYC must reform the program if it wants to improve the lowest performing schools in the city which disproportionately serve low-income, students of color. While other research has focused on the Renewal Schools Program’s flaws, I recommend that the program continue indefinitely. New York City must create long-term partnerships with schools and communities to provide permanent support and resources for Renewal Schools, cementing the belief that schools do not fail.
Background
The Renewal Schools Program was created to improve 94 NYC public schools considered among the 144 lowest performing schools in the state (Cheney, 2015). Schools were selected using three criteria: those identified as “priority” or “focus” schools by the State Education Department, elementary and middle schools in the bottom 25 percent in math and English language arts proficiency in the past three years and high schools in the bottom 25 percent in four-year graduation rates in the past three years, and schools that scored proficient or below in their most recent School Quality Review (Cheney, 2015). These schools were resource deficient and did not properly service their students. East Harlem’s Coalition School for Social Change, for example, had classrooms that were “starved for supplies and qualified teachers, with unlicensed interns leading one class and the kids in others left to learn from videos” (Gonen, 2017). Intervention was necessary to combat similar issues at all 94 schools.
Students at Renewal Schools are low-income, students of color, and severely disadvantaged.
Data Source: New York State Department of Education. Students at Boys and Girls High School (Brooklyn Renewal School) are predominately Black or African American and “economically disadvantaged,” meaning they qualify for free or reduced lunch (Reportcard Comparison – Boys and Girls High School, 2017).
At another Renewal School, Public School 298 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, many students live in temporary housing, with another family, or with different parents during the week and weekend (Taylor). Close to one in five children is homeless and the school’s neighborhood has the highest rate of gun violence in Brooklyn (Kolodner, 2017). Thus, Renewal Schools not only must improve academic performance, but also tackle external conditions, such as deep poverty, that inhibit student achievement.
Under the program, Renewal Schools must add an hour to their school days, receive couching for school administrators, and are paired with community organizations that provide services, such as counseling (Taylor, 2016). In 2014, schools were given three years to meet benchmarks in areas like attendance, graduation rate, and for elementary and middle schools, performance on state reading and math exams (Taylor, 2017). More holistic factors, however, such as enrollment, leadership, and staffing issues were considered before a school was shut down or merged with another school (Taylor, 2016). Originally, the program was set to end on June 2017 with with a two-year $150 million budget and variable third year amount, but is now projected to continue for a total of five years and cost $839 million (Wall, 2016).
Although Renewal Schools received additional support, many have closed. So far, 17 Renewal Schools have closed or merged with other schools because the Department of Education believed that they failed beyond rescue (Taylor, 2017). The threat of school closures has transformed Renewal School culture to the point where enrollments have decreased, school administrators have quit, and schools have tweaked data to meet benchmarks and avoid closures. The program has not helped the schools it was set to aid.
Why the Renewal Schools Program Fails:
Threat of school closures discourages professionals and families from working with Renewal Schools.
Renewal schools are stigmatized. Parents will not enroll their children at schools considered “failing” and in risk of closing. For high schools, because students choose where to apply, the Renewal School label discourages them from applying. At 11 Renewal high schools alone, enrollment fell 15 percent after the first year of the initiative (Taylor, 2016). Incoming classes had 30 students, far below levels city education officials deem necessary for viable schools (Taylor, 2016). As enrollments decreased, math and reading proficiency levels at these high schools also fell, indicating that the highest performing students left Renewal Schools (Taylor, 2016). In addition, attendance and graduate rates have declined such that only six of the remaining 11 high schools met the attendance targets set for 2015 and only three met their graduate rate targets for 2015 while three saw them decline (Taylor, 2016). The lowest performing students are left behind, many of whom barely attend school. Not only do fewer students attend Renewal Schools, but fewer succeed academically and graduate. There is a clearly an issue when fewer students want to attend schools with additional resources and support.
Data Source: New York State Department of Education. Enrollments at Boys and Girls High School decreased for every grade level from 2014 to 2015 (Reportcard Comparison- Boys and Girls High School, 2017)
The program does not combat the problem it says exists.
In 2015, more than half of teachers at Banana Kelly and Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology in the Bronx did not return after the school required that all teachers reapply to their jobs (Taylor, 2016). Teachers who leave or are not rehired, deemed unqualified to work at Renewal Schools, still remain in the system and can teach elsewhere. This is a problem because if former teachers are now unqualified to work at Renewal Schools, there is no reason they should qualify to work elsewhere. They were fired for a reason. The fact that Renewal Schools receive money, resources, and support makes it easier to cite teachers as the problem as well. They presumably have everything they need such that if students do not reach benchmarks, then teachers have failed. This obsession with teacher-blame does not address the structural forces that disadvantage Renewal Schools.
Fewer professionals want to work at Renewal Schools. At Automotive High School, many teachers asked to reapply to their jobs did not (Taylor, 2016). With fewer applicants, it is easier for schools to hire the poorly qualified candidates. Nearly 14% of teachers at Junior High School 145, a Renewal School in the Bronx, for example, were teaching subjects in which they were not trained (Donohue, 2017). Although disappointing, this makes sense. It is also difficult to attract candidates with the experience or expertise to work at Renewal Schools when the schools are in danger of closing and viewed as challenging to work at.
Data Source: New York State Department of Education. Between the 2014-2015 and 2015- 2016 academic years, the percentages of teachers with no valid teaching certificate, teachers teaching out of certification, teachers with fewer than three years of experience, students not taught by highly qualified teachers, and students taught by teachers without appropriate certification increased. The percentage of teachers with Masters Degrees plus 30 Hours or Doctorate also decreased. This all happened one year after the program began. Teacher quality decreased while the number of teachers remained the same. The staff must have changed. (Reportcard Comparison – Holcombe L. Rucker School of Community Research)
Climate of mistrust.
Teachers fear losing their jobs and fall back on unions. At one troubled Brooklyn high school, for example, the principal stepped down after clashing with teachers’ unions, claiming that it was for her “own sanity” (Taylor, 2016). The threat of school closures does not guarantee teachers their jobs, frustrating school leaders when negotiating with unions because teaching positions may only exist temporarily. This damages principal-teacher relationships because teachers and unions cannot trust administrator promises regarding job permanence.
Frustration with the short time span schools to demonstrate improvement.
Megan Hester, principal associate at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, said “There’s no school improvement initiative in the country that shows long-term success that showed improvement within two or three years” (Taylor, 2016). At Leaders of Tomorrow, a Renewal middle school in the Bronx, 75 percent of a sixth grade class with over one hundred students received a 1 at their elementary school, the lowest level on the four-level scoring system (Taylor, 2017). It is possible to jump from a 1 to a 3, the score considered proficient, the principal proclaimed, but it is a process and takes time (Taylor, 2017). At East Harlem’s Coalition School for Social Change, teachers have even been pressured to pass students to boost the graduation rate (Taylor, 2017). In June 2016, Michael Wiltshire, principal of Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, resigned to take “an easier job” in Long Island, where schools are better resourced and funded than those in NYC (Taylor, 2016, June 23). Constant pressure and expectations fatigue school leaders.
Attempts to manipulate school data to reach benchmarks.
Although Eric Aston, the executive director for school performance at New York City’s Education Department, said “the department wouldn’t decide whether to close a school solely based on test scores,” no school wants to risk a closing (Taylor, 2017, March 28). Dr. Wiltshire, former principal of Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, admitted to having encouraged some students to transfer, but “that it was in their best interest because they had little chance of graduating” (Taylor, 2016, June 23). As a result, graduation rates increased, but only because the most vulnerable students left. Because these students leave, the program is helping the students it was meant to serve. They are pushed out of Renewal Schools, cementing a belief that it is impossible to help them.
Although a greater percentage of students passed the Integrated Algebra Regents exam in 2015 (102 students at 60%), more students actually passed the exam in 2014 (115 students), yet represented a smaller percentage of all students (34%) because enrollments decreased from 341 students in 2014 to 170 students in 2015. Big numbers only represent improvement relative to enrollment. Fewer students pass this exam, but data does not reflect this. (Reportcard Comparison- Boys and Girls High School)
Graduation Rates
Only 3,371 students graduated from Renewal schools in 2016, 18 percent fewer than the 4,121 who graduated in 2014 (Zimmerman, 2017) Yet, the city’s 31 Renewal high schools’ graduation rates have increased 7 percent since 2014 (Zimmerman, 2017). Current data does not demonstrate that fewer students graduate from Renewal Schools than in 2014.
^Although the Coalition (Renewal) School for Social Change increased graduation rates, the number of students who graduate actually decreased (Reportcard Comparison – Coalition School for Social Change).
Program does not measure growth.
The Renewal Schools Program sets standards that seem “too modest” and do not measure growth (Taylor, 2017). Public (Renewal) School 67 is supposed to increase its average math proficiency by only a hundredth of a percentage point this year, leaving it at a much lower rate than other NYC public schools (Taylor, 2017). Although this improvement seems miniscule, it can be tremendous because students at Renewal Schools are in need of tremendous growth. Facing deep poverty, many Renewal School students are several reading/math levels behind and cannot become proficient immediately, but they can grow. A focus on proficiency also disregards student improvement and teacher success. Schools should measure growth to understand student improvement.
Policy Recommendations
Do not close schools. Create permanent partnerships with schools.
The threat of school closures discourages teachers from working at Renewal Schools and families from sending their children there. NYC needs permanent partnerships with Renewal Schools to provide them with support indefinitely. Renewal schools serve disadvantaged populations whom traditional public schools do not adequately service. Unless populations and their needs change, the resources they require will not. NYC cannot take away the resources it provides and expect them to perform as well.
Permanent partnerships remove negative stigmas and attract more people to Renewal Schools. No one will invest in Renewal Schools if will failing and inevitably close. Permanence attracts teachers to schools because their job loss fear will disappear. Parents become confident in Renewal Schools. More collaborative school environments ensue when everyone can focus on helping students rather than avoiding job loss.
Data source: NYC DOE. Students from Renewal Schools that close, such as Foundations Academy, attend schools that underperform city averages in attendance and chronic absenteeism rates where most have higher concentrations of poverty (Zimmerman, 2017). Closing schools does not solve the problem.
Implementation: Market a program that does not allow schools to fail because only systems fail, not schools.
Cement partnerships with community organizations. Implementation:
Enact permanent partnerships with community organizations that service student needs. Automotive High School, for example, purchased glasses for students who did not own and could not afford to buy them (Brown, 2016). Despite assurance that the glasses would arrive in September 2016, they did not arrive until February 2017 (Brown, 2016). This could have been avoided if schools purchase goods from organizations within communities with incentives to service children who live with them. Stakes are also higher with permanent relationships.
Include a college preparation component to the program.
Today, fewer Renewal School students pass Advance Placement exams, college level courses that prepare students for undergraduate study (Chapman, 2017). There has also been little progress in the percentage of kids at Renewal Schools taking the SAT entrance test; too few students consider college (Chapman, 2017). This makes sense when so few kids succeed academically. City data also shows that drop-out rates at Renewal Schools have lurched from 18.1% in 2014 down to 17.8% in 2015, but back up to 18.6% in 2016 (Chapman, 2017). Too few students complete high school and envision themselves at post-secondary schools. While it makes sense why this happens, students should understand why academic work is important for their success. This is not to say that students are to blame for low scores or rates, but rather that it is impossible to hold students accountable for their school work when many see no point in academic success. A college prep and access program offers post-secondary opportunities to students.
Implementation: Use additional funds to create/update college offices. Offer college standardized test prep, discussions on education and college, college application assistance. Invest in guidance counselors who understand students and communities. Partner with community youth centers, school graduates at college, or college students who live in communities to work with Renewal School students.
Heavier screening of Renewal School workers.
Too much is spent on bureaucrats who are not properly screened. Gregory Hodge is a leadership coach for the principal at Leaders of Tomorrow School and the Young Scholars Academy despite an official recommendation that he be fired and barred from ever working for the DOE (Golding & Edelman, 2017). He makes $660 a day which is small compared to the $1400 a day spent on other coaches and the $40 million spent each year on all coaches (Golding & Edelman, 2017). Despite this, Young Scholars will merge with other schools in September 2017 because it failed to “show meaningful progress” toward “sustainable improvements” (Golding & Edelman, 2017). Another school with a $660-a-day couch, Channel High School, closed in 2014 due to “a dismal graduation rate of 46 percent and ‘widespread dissatisfaction’ among parents, students, and teachers” (Golding & Edelman, 2017). Too much money is spent on professionals whose work fails.
Implementation: Listen to DOE hiring recommendations. Involve community leaders, teachers, and families in hiring. Host community events like town halls and Q&A forums for communities to evaluate candidates.
Offer professional development opportunities for teachers and principals before firing.
Help school administrators before firing or requiring that everyone reapply. Provide indefinite support because collaborative environments will attract better staff members. Firings should become last resorts.
Implementation: Offer veteran teachers at Renewal Schools opportunities to mentor newer teachers and supervise clusters of teachers. Create discussion groups for teachers to examine issues with students. Use funds to make classrooms smaller so teachers work with less students.
Measure growth
Growth rates measure student improvement more accurately. Allow schools to draft long-term plans for students to ensure that they reach proficiency levels with time. It is impossible to measure student improvement with only proficiency rates.
Policy Concerns
Funding
Funds are limited. Renewal Schools funds consist of $180 from NYC, $79 million from the state, $143 million from the federal government, and $7 million from other sources (Wall, 2016). Because President Trump favors school choice federal funding of the Renewal Schools Program will decrease. New federal budgets spend $20 billion a year for vouchers and expansion of charter schools alone (Bendix, 2017). NYC should enact budget cuts in other areas or curtail funds for positions such as leadership coaches. Carmen Farina, NYC School Chancellor, has stated that Renewal School support will continue for years “no matter what” (Brown, 2016). She wants to continue this program. With one of the largest tax bases and property values in the country, NYC can find money (Chan, 2007).
Too many people want to attend Renewal Schools
If Renewal Schools become are seen positively, too many students may want to enroll. Few families, however, will move to poverty-stricken neighborhoods when district schools in wealthier neighborhoods are not failing. Moreover, NYC should aim for this to happen because it means that the program succeeded.
Voices
Too many voices may want a say if procedures become egalitarian. Communities should create leadership boards that represent a diversity of voices. This may also get offset by the fact that families in poverty-stricken neighborhoods are less likely to have time to engage in school politics.
Growth
While growth measures improvement, it hurts students who never reach proficiency because they are behind their peers at other schools. It becomes more difficult to attend and succeed in college. People who draft long-term growth goals should work with college centers and school leaders to set realistic expectations.
Long-term
Short-term programs succeed because momentum increases accountability. A long-term program risks losing momentum. Constant accountability should be enforced by the NYC DOE such that schools meet benchmarks even without the threat of school closures.
Politics of Current election
Mayor De Blasio will run for re-election in November 2017. Because De Blasio overturned former mayor Michael Bloomberg’s education preferences for closing “failing” public schools, a new mayor can terminate any program we produce. NYC must act fast to enact this program and ensure some version of success before 2017.
Conclusion
The New York City Department of Education must provide Renewal Schools with indefinite support. Temporary assistance results in a cycle of failure. The threat of school closures discourages professionals and families from working with Renewal Schools, decreasing enrollments and teacher retention. Data is manipulated to make it seem that schools improve, when, in reality, they serve less students with few benchmark improvements. Without permanence, nothing is guaranteed. Even if Renewal School resources and support improve schools, they eventually disappear under the current program. Every method and discovery that Renewal Schools make are in vain. They become applicable under situations that will never be duplicated. Permanence terminates the problems that the current program faces because it does not permit Renewal Schools to fail. In fact, schools never fail – only systems do. Realistically, however, the “New” Renewal Schools Program cannot address the housing, food insecurity, and discrimination (which impact education) that students at Renewal Schools face, indicating that the city must also address larger institutional issues when truly reforming education policy.
Works Cited
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REPORTCARD COMPARISON – Boys and Girls High School| NYSED Data Site. (n.d.). RetrievedMay 03, 2017, from https://data.nysed.gov/comparison.php?type=reportcard&comparison%5B%5D=800000043520_2014_School&createreport=1&enrollment=1&38ELA=1&38MATH=1&48SCI=1®ents=1&gradrate=1
REPORTCARD COMPARISON – Coalition School for Social Change| NYSED Data Site. (n.d.).Retrieved May 03, 2017, from https://data.nysed.gov/comparison.php?type=reportcard&comparison%5B%5D=800000046821_2015_School&createreport=1&enrollment=1&gradrate=1
REPORTCARD COMPARISON – Holcombe L. Rucker School of Community Research | NYSED DataSite. (n.d.). Retrieved May 03, 2017, from https://data.nysed.gov/comparison.php?type=reportcard&comparison%5B%5D=800000059629_2015_School&createreport=1&enrollment=1&avgclasssize=1&freelunch=1&attendance=1&suspensions=1&teacherqual=1&teacherturnover=1&staffcounts=1&hscompleters=1&hsnoncompleters=1&postgradcompleters=1&38ELA=1&38MATH=1&48SCI=1&lep=1&naep=1&cohort=1®ents=1&rct=1&nysaa=1&nyseslat=1&elemELA=1&elemMATH=1&elemSci=1&secondELA=1&secondMATH=1&unweighted=1&gradrate=1
The Manhood Development Program
Akintunde Ahmad
African American Male Achievement
Welcome to Oakland, California, the most diverse city in the United States. In Oakland, you can find it all. Every ethnicity, every language, every religion. From artists and athletes and academics, to bikers and dancers and teachers, this city truly captures the beauty that encompasses all forms of humanity. Oakland is a special place. On one hand the success of the city’s sports teams, growth in job markets, and unique culture are to be praised and celebrated. On the other hand, the city’s criminal justice system and socio-economic education inequalities are in desperate need of fixing. While some demographic groups can live in Oakland and reap all of the benefits that this amazing city has offer, other marginalized groups are being forgotten and left to deal with the burden of being on the receiving end of the city’s economic and social inequality. To be blunt, the African-American community in Oakland is in need of healing. Specifically, African-American males are consistently getting the short end of the stick when it comes down to what cities like Oakland have to offer. Black males are the lowest achieving pupils in our nation’s schools, the most likely to be arrested and incarcerated, and the most likely to fall victim to gun violence. These issues are intersectional, with education, incarceration, and economic inequality being the main issues that need fixing. These problems have persisted throughout history, and while there has been much talk about the problems, there haven’t been many effective solutions. However, the Manhood Development Program in Oakland, CA is taking on the challenge to change the narrative for black men by infiltrating Oakland Unified School District’s classrooms and implementing strategies and programming that target the city’s most troubled demographic group.
Why African-American Males?
So why exactly do cities need programs targeting and assisting African-American males? Lets look at the statistics. A Pew Research study tells us that across the United States, “black children were almost four times as likely as white or Asian children to be living in poverty in 2013, and significantly more likely than Hispanic children” (Patten and Krogstad, 2015).
Graphic Taken From Pew Research Study, 2015
A report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education states that in the 2012-13 school year, the national graduation rate was 59% for Black males, 65% for Latino males, and 80% for White males (Schott Foundation, 2015). According to a report done by the Sentencing Project, if current trends continue, one of every three black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime (Sentencing Project, 2013). Now, lets shift the focus to Oakland specifically. When it comes to incarceration, a 2013 report stated that 73.5 percent of juvenile arrests in Oakland are black males, even though they make up only 29.3% of the Oakland Youth population (Black Organizing Project, 2013). When it comes to education, black males have consistently had the lowest graduation rates in Oakland’s public school district. In 2011-2012, African-American males graduation rate was 52.4%, compared to a district graduation rate of 66.8% (Oakland Unified School District, 2014). When observing overall inequality, a report by the Alameda County Public Health Department stated that compared to a white child born in the Oakland Hills, a black child born in West Oakland is 13 times as likely to be poor and a four times less likely to be reading at grade level in the fourth grade (Brown, 2016).
Graphic Taken From The Community Assessment, Planning, Education, and Evaluation Unit of the Alameda County Public Health Department, 2015.
Introducing the African-American Male Achievement Program
The evidence is clear. In cities like Oakland, African-American boys need help, and in more ways than one. In order to effectively change the narrative for African-American males, programs must attempt to combat not only issues that exist on school campuses and in the classroom, but also account for the economic inequality, mass incarceration, and disparate rates of violence that effect young black men. Thankfully, in Oakland, CA, the Office of African-American Male Achievement is doing something to change that. By bringing in African-American male teachers to the classroom, teaching curriculum focused on African-American history, and building personal mentorship relationships, the Manhood Development Program has been a model for other urban districts to look to to successfully uplift its black males with the hopes of having them graduate college ready. In 2010 the Oakland Unified School District created the Office of African-American Male Achievement, spearheaded by Chris Chatmon, with the vision of stopping “the epidemic failure of African-American male students in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)”, and the mission of creating “the systems, structures, and spaces that guarantee success for all African-American male students in OUSD” (OUSD, 2017). The Oakland Unified School District is the first school district in the United States to create a department dedicated to addressing the specific needs of African-American male students. While there had many initiatives in the past that tried to combat the issues that African-American males in the district faced, Oakland’s Board of Education, Urban Strategies Council, and the East Bay Community Foundation came to the conclusion that in reality, these past efforts had done little to nothing to actually impact the experience of the district’s black males (OUSD, 2017).
Following the inception of the Office of African-American Male Achievement, or AAMA, the Manhood Development Program (MDP) was then initiated in 2010. This was the flagship program of the newly created department, aimed at implementing the change they wanted to see on the ground level. The program functioned as such: African-American male instructors were handpicked based on their cultural competency and ability to relate to youth, in addition to their past teaching experiences. Each instructor taught an elective course that was offered five days a week during the school day. Class sizes ranged from 20-25 students, with classes mixed up based on student achievement level. One third of the class was high achieving, one third was average, and the other third was under-achieving. The program was originally instilled in only three schools in OUSD, but currently functions in twenty-four schools throughout the district, existing in elementary, middle, and high schools (Wisely, 2016).
The Manhood Development Program revolved around three central goals:
1) Decrease suspensions and increase attendance. 2) Decrease incarceration and increase graduation rates. 3) Decrease the opportunity/achievement gap and increase literacy. One of the first steps at achieving these goals is getting a commitment from the students to standards of the Office of African-American Male Achievement (Watson, 2014).
The Standards of Brotherhood
- Respect for ourselves and each other.
- Keep it 100 (Tell the truth)
- Lift Ups, No Put Downs
- Look out for each other
- Play Hard, but Also Work Hard
- Represent Your Best Self At All Times
- Be On Time
- Be responsible for your own actions
- Build the Brotherhood
- Trust yourself and others in the brotherhood
With these agreements made, the instructors then work on building a family environment in the classroom and across all students in the district. Students refer to one another as “Brother ____” or “king”, terms that reinforce the value that each individual has, and the familial community the program wishes to instill amongst its members. A district leadership council exists amongst the students with representatives from each school, making sure that program ideals and values line up across the different schools. Students attend leadership conferences together, and travel as far as New York City to learn about what it means to be a black man (Brown, 2016). Students also participate in the annual African-American Male Achievement Symposium, where each school’s class showcases what they have learned about black manhood at Oakland’s historic Fox Theater. And the instructor’s serve as much more than just teachers. They act as mentors and vouch for their students, often serving as the intermediaries between their students and the other teachers in the school when issues arise.
In the classroom, the curriculum is structured around studying black history, building self-esteem, and learning professionalism. It’s much more than just academics. Students are also learning life readiness skills. Younger students learn about the narratives and images of historically significant black people. The high school students go even deeper, covering everything from ancient African civilizations to the Civil Rights movement to current issues like Black Lives Matter. But it doesn’t stop here. Students learn skills like how to tie a necktie, dress professionally, or how to present themselves in public. They talk about the struggles that they face on a day-to-day basis as black men, with issues ranging from gun violence in their communities to how to deal with police brutality (Lee, 14). These are issues that most black male students are not often afforded the opportunity to openly discuss, rather it be amongst peers or structured in a classroom. By having an older black male that has experienced similar situations, Manhood Development Program teachers are able to facilitate dialogue that stimulates emotional and mental growth out of black male students that other instructors just would not be able to achieve.
The Change
Now, lets examine some of the statistics of the district since the founding of AAMA and the instillation of the Manhood Development Program. The graduation rate for African-American males increased from 51% in 2011-12 to 61% in 2014-15, a major 10% jump. The number of African-American males on the honor roll rose from 20% in 2013-14 to 32% in 2015-16, a 12% increase. The suspension rate fell from 22% in 2010-11 to 10% in 2014-15, a 12% decline. The chronic absence rate fell from 19.7% in the 2011-2012 school year to 18% in 2013-2014. The number of students in the juvenile justice system fell 40%, from 273 in 2010-11 to 164 in 2014-15 (Wisely, 2016).
Graphs obtained from the OUSD District Data Website
Based on these charts, it is easy to see that since the founding of the Office of African American in 2010, the district’s African-American males are making improvements. To give more statistics, grade point averages are now 25 percent higher for Manhood Development Program students than for Black male students who haven’t taken the course. District-wide, the Black male graduation rate has improved from 42 to 57 percent since the course was introduced. The number of Black male high school seniors who qualify for admission to the University of California (UC) or California State University is 6 percent higher among the Manhood Development Program participants than for non-participants (OUSD, 2017).
And while these metrics on academics, behavior, and attendance are important, there is even more data pertaining to how the Manhood Development Programs have affected students attitudes and approach in school. Look at these statistics. 43% of students report that their teachers respect them versus 77% for the MDP participants. 44% of students report that their other teachers want them to get good grades versus 85% for MDP. 65% of students report that their other teachers expect them to succeed versus 92% for MDP (Watson, 2014). Clearly, the instructors in MDP are having an impact on student’s lives that exceeds just their academic performance.
Why Does It Work?
Representation matters. According to a 2017 study by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, “exposure to a black teacher during elementary school raises long-run educational attainment for black male students, especially among those from low-income households” In addition, estimates suggest that exposure to a black teacher in primary school cuts high school dropout rates by 39%, and also raises college aspirations along with the probability of taking a college entrance exam (IZA, 2017). In a report on reflections from black teachers, the educator’s experiences in the classroom reflect what research has proven. “Teachers of color bring benefits to classrooms beyond content knowledge and pedagogy. As role models, parental figures, and advocates, they can build relations with students of color that help those students feel connected to their schools. And they are more likely to be able to enhance cultural understanding among white colleagues, teachers, and students”. The report went on to say “Black teachers in our sample, much like in other research, felt they had an easier time building connections with students, especially Black students, because of perceived cultural and experiential similarities. They said this immediate, surface-level connection with many Black students helped those students trust them and feel safe in their care” (Griffin and Tackie, 2016). So, just by having a black male teacher that they can relate to on campus, student’s learning experiences are transformed. The feeling that they have somebody that they can trust and turn to with their issues subsequently affects their viewpoints towards their overall learning experience.
In addition to the students being able to see themselves in their teachers, the culturally relevant topics that they study also help with garnering interest in academics. While so many of the schools that have the highest percentages of students of color are teaching to standardized tests, and neglecting relevant social studies, the Manhood Development Program’s curriculum actually engages its students in topics that they can relate to. One Huffington Post article reads “we should be preparing these students for the challenges of race in America with a broader knowledge base and more elective courses. Instead, we are robbing a generation of students of ownership over their identity by turning the social sciences into collections of reading quizzes” (Hartmann, 2017). The intersectional academic skills of black male students in Manhood Development Program are improved by using engaging topics to gauge student interests. The language used in the program also adds so much value. The use of the N-word is prohibited, and as previously stated, students refer to each other as king or brother in order to reinforce the ideal that each student has immense value, and should be respected and treated as such.
The Future of the Program: Oakland and Beyond
While the Manhood Development Program has had a significant impact on district achievement scores for black males, in reality, the amount of black males who are actually enrolled in these programs is but a fraction of the African-American males in the district. An MSNBC article reported that in 2014, the program was only reaching about 400 students a year, roughly 4% of black males in the district (Lee, 2014). In 2016, the program existed in 24 schools and served over 800 students (Wisely, 2016). Each year, the Office of African-American Male Achievement strives to scale up this program to reach more of its young black males by instilling the MDP in more of the district’s schools. The effects of this program have proved to be nothing but positive, however at the end of the day it takes a lot of money for these kinds of programs to function over long periods of time. The program currently has an annual operating budget of $3.5 million, with half funded by the district and the other half funded by private donors (Wisely, 2016). In a district that has recently called for $25.1 million in cuts over the next 18 months, the future of the Manhood Development Program could be in jeopardy (Tsai, 2017). Without increased funding, realistically there is no way for the program to reach more of the black male students in need in Oakland.
The Office of African American Male Achievement has been transparent about its process of coming to existence, and has made its curriculum and operating methods open for other districts to replicate. There are plenty of districts across the United States that could benefit from implementing a Manhood Development Program, and the hope is that other district’s administrators and officials will recognize the impact this program has had in Oakland and bring a program like it to their respective city’s. In 2014, Minneapolis Public Schools launched their own Office of Black Male Student Achievement, which has already showed promise in improving the academic achievement of its students (Wisely, 2016).
What’s Next?
In 2016, Oakland founded its Department of Equity, with the mission of “eliminating the predictability of success and failure that currently correlates with any social or cultural factor, interrupting inequitable practices, examine biases and create inclusive and just conditions for all students, discovering and cultivating the unique gifts, talents and interests that every student possesses, understanding that we must first ensure EQUITY before we can enjoy EQUALITY” (OUSD, 2017). As a result of the foundation of this department, three new programs have been developed to target the city’s other demographic groups in need. There are programs for African American Girls and Young Women Achievement, Latinx and Indigenous Student Achievement, and Asian Pacific Islander Student Achievement. These programs will be launched in the 2017-2018 school year, so there is no data on their effectiveness yet, but the hope is that they can replicate the successes of the Office of African American Male Achievement.
Conclusion
Many cities across the United States have struggled with finding effective methods of combating the inequalities of society. Far too often, African-American males are the demographic group that is impacted most by this inequality. In 2010, the Office of African-American Male Achievement was founded in the Oakland Unified School District. Its flagship program, the Manhood Development Program, implemented an Afro-Centric academic curriculum with self-esteem building techniques taught by African-American male teachers into classrooms throughout the district. Graduation rates increased, alongside grade point averages and attendance rates. School suspensions declined, while attitudes towards Manhood Development teachers were reported to be far more favorable than that of other teachers. The successes of this program are clear, and the hope is that this program is able to expand in the Oakland Unified School District, and be replicated across the United States in urban cities like Oakland.
Works Cited
The Black Organizing Project, Public Counsel, and ACLU of Northern California. “From Report Card to Criminal Record: The Impact of Policing Oakland Youth.” US Human Rights Network. N.p., 08 Jan. 2014. Web. 03 May 2017.
Brown, Patricia Leigh. “Lessons in Manhood for African-American Boys.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.
The Community Assessment, Planning, Education, and Evaluation Unit of the Alameda County Public Health Department. “How Place, Racism, and Poverty Matter for Health in Alameda County – Documents.” The, 25 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.
Gershenson, Seth, Cassandra M. D. Hart, Constance A. Lindsay, and Nicholas W. Papageorge. “The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers.” IZA. EconPapers. N.p., 21 Mar. 2017. Web. 03 May 2017.
Griffin, Ashley, and Hilary Tackie. “Through Our Eyes: Perspectives and Reflections From Black Teachers.” The Education Trust. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017.
Hartmann, Jennifer. “Teaching Black History to Our Students of Color.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 03 Feb. 2017. Web. 03 May 2017.
Howard, Tyrone C. “Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.” Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education. 2011. Print.
Klein, Rebecca. “These Schools Made A Commitment To Black Boys And Are Now Seeing Big Results.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 03 May 2017.
Lee, Trymaine. “How Oakland’s Public Schools Are Fighting to save Black Boys.” MSNBC. NBCUniversal News Group, 15 July 2014. Web. 03 May 2017.
Oakland Unified School District. “African American Male Achievement.” Oakland Unified School District / About Us. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017. Retrieved from www.ousd.org/Domain/78
Oakland Unified School District. “African American Male Achievement.” Oakland Unified School District / District Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017. Retrieved from www.ousd.org/Domain/78
Oakland Unified School District. “African American Male Achievement.” Oakland Unified School District / Events. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017. Retrieved from www.ousd.org/Domain/78
Oakland Unified School District. “African American Male Achievement.” Oakland Unified School District / Frequently Asked Questions. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017. Retrieved from www.ousd.org/Domain/78
Oakland Unified School District. “African American Male Achievement.” Oakland Unified School District / Programs and Services. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017. Retrieved from www.ousd.org/Domain/78
Oakland Unified School District. “Office of Equity.” Oakland Unified School District / Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017. Retrieved from www.ousd.org/Page/15687
Oakley, Doug. “State and National School Districts Copying Oakland’s Black Male Achievement Office.” East Bay Times. East Bay Times, 15 Aug. 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.
Patten, Eileen, and Jens Manuel Krogstad. “Black Child Poverty Rate Holds Steady, Even as Other Groups See Declines.” Pew Research Center. N.p., 14 July 2015. Web. 03 May 2017.
The Schott Foundation for Public Education. “Black Lives Matter: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males.” Schott Foundation for Public Education. The Schott Foundation for Public Education, 01 Feb. 2015. Web. 03 May 2017.
Tsai, Joyce. “Oakland: School Superintendent Calls for $25.1 Million in Cuts, Orders Hiring Freeze.” East Bay Times. East Bay Times, 12 Jan. 2017. Web. 03 May 2017.
Watson, V. The Black Sonrise: Oakland Unified School District’s Commitment to Address and Eliminate Institutionalized Racism, an evaluation report prepared for the Office of African American Male Achievement, Oakland Unified School District, Oakland: CA. December 2014.
Whitney, Spencer. “75 Percent of Juvenile Arrests in Oakland Are Black Males, Says Report.” Oakland Local. N.p., 11 Oct. 2013. Web. 03 May 2017.
Wisely, John. “First-in-the Nation School Program Turns Boys into Strong Black Men.” Detroit Free Press. N.p., 27 Nov. 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.
Legislating School Climate: Examining LAUSD’s Suspension Ban
Legislating School Climate
Examining Los Angeles Unified School District’s Ban of Suspension for “Willful Defiance”
Introduction
In January 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights issued a joint federal guidance stating that school discipline was discriminatory based on race and ethnicity and that exclusionary discipline “creates the potential for significant, negative educational and long-term outcomes, and can contribute to what has been termed the ‘school to prison pipeline’” (Joint “Dear Colleague Letter”, 2014). The guidance reminded schools of their obligation to serve students in a non-discriminatory manner and offered recommendations for making discipline more equitable (Joint “Dear Colleague Letter”, 2014). This guidance was recognition on a national level that unjust school discipline practices are a civil rights issue for students of color. More locally, parents and students have understood this reality for years, and worked to change it. Educators across the country understand that traditional exclusionary discipline practices just aren’t effective. Alternatives to suspension, such as restorative justice, are being implemented in schools and districts that recognize that students who misbehave often need more support rather than less time in class.
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has been working to reform their discipline culture for over a decade, moving away from “zero tolerance” and actually implementing a district-wide policy that limits schools’ ability to suspend students and requires implementation of alternative discipline practices. What does it look like when a district recognizes the injustice and ineffectiveness of suspensions, and tries to ban them? Can districts or states use legislation to reform negative discipline culture? Overall, the “School Climate Bill of Rights” adopted by the Los Angeles Unified School Board has successfully decreased suspensions in the district, and driven change in the state of California. LAUSD can be seen as a model of what districts can do to reform discipline. However, while district policy is critical, discipline reform is most important at the school level, as discipline culture is the product of daily interactions between students, teachers, and administrators.
Policy Background: Local Initiatives and State Laws
In May 2013, the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) voted to end schools’ ability to suspend students for “willful defiance.” Willful defiance is described in the California Education Code as: “Disrupted school activities or otherwise willfully defied the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, administrators, school officials, or other school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties” (Cal. Education Code, 2009). Parents pushed for the ban, as “willful defiance” suspensions are disproportionately applied to at-risk students, such as students of color, english language learners, and students with disabilities (ACLU, 2015). As part of the long list of violations that could lead to a student’s suspension in LAUSD schools before 2013, “willful defiance” was targeted as the most vague and subjective reason for taking a student out of class. Statewide, “Willful defiance accounts for 43% of suspensions issued to California students, and is the suspension offense category with the most significant racial disparities” (ACLU, 2015). Current proponents of best practices in discipline say that out-of-school suspension should only be a last resort, rather than an answer to some of the minor behaviors that can full under “willful defiance” (Losen and Martinez, 2013, p. 2).
The suspension ban in L.A. was passed as part of a larger “School Climate Bill of Rights” that mandated implementation of restorative justice programs, disaggregated data collection tracking school discipline, and a system to file formal complaints regarding discipline (School Climate Bill of Rights, 2013). When the bill passed, NPR reported that “Hundreds of students gathered downtown to testify about the problem of zero tolerance and to celebrate the end of willful defiance.” (Rott, 2013). Parents’ opposition to suspensions was voiced by CADRE, a parent organizing group that had been tracking suspension data and arguing that suspensions can lead students to drop out of high school (Rott, 2013).
The next year, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued the federal guidance regarding discipline and the State of California followed with legislation passed in September 2014 that banned suspension for “willful defiance” in grades K-3, and expulsion for “willful defiance” in all grades (ACLU, 2015). California was the first state to pass such a law and the signing of AB 420 was an important step towards re-thinking discipline in this country’s public schools (ACLU, 2015). Los Angeles Public Schools are are at the forefront of the California’s move away from exclusionary discipline, as the board had adopted a plan that was more comprehensive than the state before the state law was even passed.
Research on Suspensions
Why is reducing suspensions such an important goal? Suspensions are exclusionary and punitive practices that can harm students. Research supports the idea that suspensions do more harm than good for students. At the secondary level, students who have been suspended are more likely to have lower standardized testing outcomes and a higher risk of dropping out of high school (Wood, 2016, p. 11). In fact, “being suspended even once in ninth grade is associated with a twofold increase in the likelihood of dropping out” (Losen and Martinez, 2013, p. 1). Heavy use of exclusionary discipline has negative consequences for individual students as well as schools. Schools with “high rates of exclusionary discipline” are shown to have lower scores on state achievement tests, even when controlling for factors such as poverty, race, school size, and school location (Wood, 2016, p. 11).
Research shows that suspensions are bad for all students, but also that suspensions are disproportionately applied to students based on race, gender, and ability. Nationally in the 2011-2012 school year, “32–42% of Black/African American students were suspended or expelled,” while “Black/African American students represented 16% of the student population” (Wood, 2016, p. 2). On the whole, male students are suspended more frequently than female students (Wood, 2016, p. 9). However, black female students are suspended are higher rates than white or hispanic female students (Wood, 2016, p. 5). Looking at the exact same behavior, a study in 2011 found that “African American and Latino students were more likely than their White peers to receive expulsions or OSS as consequences for the same or similar problem behaviors. (Wood, 2016, p. 5) This type of bias for similar behaviors is why banning suspension for vague categories such as “willful defiance” is so important. According to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, “students diagnosed with an educational disability were more than twice as likely to receive an OSS (13%) than their non-disabled peers (6%)” (Joint “Dear Colleague” Letter, 2014). In their study for the UCLA Civil Rights project, Losen and Martinez point out that intersections of these categories can demonstrate immense inequalities: “36% of all Black middle school males with disabilities were suspended one or more times” in the 2009-10 school year (2013, p. 3). School discipline as it currently operates is discriminatory, as students of color and students with disability are especially vulnerable to suspension.
This discrimination in discipline contributes to the “school-to-prison pipeline” in the United States (Graham, 2016). “Zero-tolerance” discipline policies of the late 80s and early 90s and the high-stakes accountability of NCLB in the 2000s have provided schools with the tools, and actually incentivized them, to exclude students (Graham, 2016). Consequently, “Standardized testing and increased suspensions have the effect of pushing students, especially students of color and students with disabilities, out of schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems” (Graham, 2016, p. 2) Once students internalize negative perceptions of themselves as “troublemakers” or come in contact with the criminal justice system, the effects can be devastating (Graham, 2016).
Suspensions are not only harmful to students in the long run, but they are missed opportunities for positive intervention. Pedro Noguera argues that exclusionary discipline practices “effectively deny targeted students access to instruction and the opportunity to learn and do little to enable students to learn from their mistakes and develop a sense of responsibility for their behavior” (2008, p. 133). Disruptive behavior that could fall under the umbrella of “willful defiance” should be interpreted as a signal that a student needs more support. Noguera continues, “When we locate discipline problems exclusively in the students and ignore the school and local contexts in which problematic behavior occurs, we ignore the most important factors that give rise to problematic behavior” (2008, p. 136). The idea of locating discipline problems in areas beyond the individual student, such as trouble at home, conflicts with peers, or disengagement from academics, is critical to improving school culture.
Many opponents of exclusionary discipline are doing more than exposing a problem, they are offering solutions that will make discipline culture more positive and fair. Restorative Justice is one alternative to exclusionary discipline that involves holding an offender accountable for their actions, “often by requiring the offender to face the victim and engage in restoration of what was lost” (Owen, et. al, 2015, p. 10). Typically, restorative justice is carried out by trained outside groups or peer juries that facilitate restorative circles to repair relationships between students (Owen, et. al, 2015, p. 10). Another strategy is professional development and support for teachers, which also requires time and resources (Owen, et. al, 2015, p. 9). A variety of programs are in place around the country, but the underlying principles should emphasize re-engagement with the classroom, rather than exclusion. Noguera writes, “By relying on alternative discipline strategies rooted in ethics and a determination to reconnect students to learning, schools can reduce the likelihood that the neediest and most disengaged students, who are frequently children of color, will be targeted for repeated punishment” (2008, p. 136). Alternatives to suspension can decrease race-based discrimination in discipline that disproportionately harms students of color.
Effects of Discipline Reform in Los Angeles
Though the School Climate Bill of Rights was passed in 2013, discipline policy reform has been in the works in Los Angeles for over a decade. For instance, the LAUSD “passed the Discipline Foundation Policy in 2005, thereby becoming a national leader through the District-wide adoption of the proven, evidenced based whole-school alternative discipline strategy, positive behavior intervention and supports” (Special Board Meeting, 2012). These sustained efforts have contributed to significant change at the district level: suspension rates in the district have decreased from 9% in 2004-05 to 1% in 2014-15 (students not duplicated) (DataQuest, 2013). The racial gap in discipline rates has also decreased, though Black students and American Indian students are still suspended at disproportionately high rates compared to other racial/ethnic groups (Losen and Martinez, 2013, p. 14). Importantly, state and national policies have followed the district’s lead, rather than the other way around. LAUSD’s action on discipline, guided by parents, teachers, administrators, and students, has been effective at reducing suspensions.
The state of California as a whole has also demonstrated steady declines in suspension rates. From 2012 to 2104, statewide suspension rates dropped by over three percentage points. In fact, “77% of this reduction in total suspensions is attributable to fewer suspensions in the category of disruption or willful defiance,” demonstrating the impact of legislation like AB 420 and district policies that ban suspension for willful defiance (Losen, et al., 2015, p. 4). Losen, et al. comment, “The local efforts of members of many school communities in districts across the state not only inspired the state to act but also contributed to the patterns” of statewide decrease in suspension rates (2015, p. ii). District-level action, in places such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Berkeley, and Alameda, has been instrumental in decreasing state-level suspension rates (Losen, et. al, 2015).
Figure 1. State and district rates have decreased over time. Los Angeles Public Schools have been working since 2005 to reform discipline, showing that this issue requires sustained effort.
Across all of LAUSD’s almost 1,000 schools, the average suspension rate in 2014-15 was 0.9%. Most of the district’s schools are clustered around this average, which is quite low compared to the national suspension rate of 10.1% for secondary schools (data from 2011-12) (Nationwide Suspension Rates). However, there are significant outliers within the district. Fourteen schools in the district have suspension rates higher than 10%, meaning one in ten children at those schools was suspended at least once in the 2014-15 school year (Figure 2). Of those fourteen schools, twelve are charters, one is a magnet, and one is a regular public school. Based off this short list of the schools with the highest suspension rates, charter schools are not making the same improvements in decreasing suspensions that district schools have shown. Charter schools have received backlash in cities across the country for their tendency to employ strict discipline techniques, resulting in higher suspension rates. The California NAACP recently proposed a moratorium on expansion of the charter sector, citing discipline as a major concern (Nix, 2016).
Figure 2. Each point represents a school in LAUSD. Points in red show schools with suspension rates above 10%. Points in green show schools with suspension rates below 10% and above 5%. Points in blue show schools with suspension rates below 5%.
When it comes to discipline, district-level action has been critical, but perhaps the most important level for students is school-level change. Suspension rates are not just numbers, but signals of school climate that affect every student in the classroom, not just the students who face suspension. Garfield High School in L.A. is an example of one school’s efforts to shift discipline culture. When Jose Huerta became principal in 2010, his mission was to “enhance and improve the instruction” at Garfield High School (NPR Staff, 2013). Reducing suspensions, which he and his team of teachers have done significantly, was only one component, or perhaps a result, of that mission. Huerta sees suspensions as reactionary and assumes that problems outside of class are causing disruptive behavior (NPR Staff, 2013). When a student exhibits problematic behavior, Huerta says that “teachers act quickly with counselors or the student support team to ‘find out what the real deal is” (NPR Staff, 2013). With limited funds to spend on additionally school counselors or supports, Huerta reached out to community groups (NPR Staff, 2013). He claims that “connecting with kids and having a strong instructional program” are the keys to lower rates of exclusionary discipline (NPR Staff, 2013).
Garfield High School did not suspend any of its 2,500+ students in the 2014-15 school year (DataQuest, 2013). To decrease, and eventually eliminate, suspensions at Garfield, it took determined administrators and teachers with a comprehensive view of positive school culture that emphasized student engagement, community involvement, and the social-emotional needs of students. However, not every teacher and administrator shares Huerta’s views. Furthermore, there are barriers in place currently that make improving discipline culture more difficult than it needs to be.
Challenges to Implementing a Suspension Ban
Not all educators are supportive of the suspension ban. A common criticism from opponents of the ban is that well-behaved students will suffer if disruptive students are not removed from the school. One Los Angeles teacher said “If I see the classroom environment is suffering, that the students are getting scared, I will remove the problem student because my other students have rights, too” (NPR Staff, 2013). However, quantitative studies have tentatively shown that “in California, lower district suspension rates are correlated with higher district achievement” (Losen, et. al, 2015, p. ii). Additionally, a 2014 study of Kentucky secondary schools found that “higher levels of exclusionary discipline within schools over time generate collateral damage, negatively affecting the academic achievement of non-suspended students in punitive contexts” (Perry and Morris, 2014, 1). These findings suggest that excessive use of exclusionary discipline affects the entire climate of the school, making it an environment less conducive to learning for all students.
Discipline reform is not impeding academic achievement, as some opponents have suggested, but the real experiences and concerns of educators should not be ignored. Taking away schools’ abilities to suspend without offering resources or training for suspension alternatives is a halfhearted solution to the problem of exclusionary discipline. Isabel J. Morales, a high school social studies teacher in L.A., supported the school board’s initiative but expressed that some of her colleagues felt “powerless” LA teachers says some feel powerless (Anderson, 2015). Morales points out a disconnect between district policy and teachers’ attitudes or resources, saying, teachers “still have their same biases, and now they’re extra angry because their one method was to kick [insubordinate students] out, and there’s just extra hostility” (Anderson, 2015).
In schools where the policy may have felt like an unwelcome imposition from the school board, there have been unintended consequences. Assistant Principal at L.A.’s Markham Middle School admitted, “students were at times sent home without being officially suspended because the behavior does not meet legal grounds for suspension” (Watanabe, 2014). Several African-American parents at Markham have claimed that the predominantly Latino administration has treated their students unfairly. Parent Talia Slone said “When it’s Hispanic kids, [administrators] take the time and call parents but do not take the time with African Americans” (Watanabe, 2014). Organizers from CADRE, the same parent group that rallied for the suspension ban, have alleged that schools are now working around formal suspensions to send students home (Watanabe, 2014).
Another school under scrutiny for such practices, Gompers middle school, has recognized the problem and taken steps to improve. Gompers Principal Traci Gholar used to use suspensions as a way “to drive home to families that she was intent on building a safe, orderly and positive school climate” (Watanabe, 2014). Gholar’s sentiment represents a challenge to discipline reform- that different administrators have different ideas on how to create a positive school climate. Charged by higher ups with the task of reducing suspensions, Gholar requested resources and was able to get her school “a conflict resolution specialist, a restorative justice coordinator, more campus aides, performing arts events and other activities” (Watanabe, 2014). The first years of the suspension ban’s implementation show that schools need resources and support, whether that comes from the district or community organizations.
Conclusion
In many respects, Los Angeles Unified Public Schools have provided a model for reducing suspensions in large urban districts. The district’s “School Climate Bill of Rights” was the product of years of discipline reform and advocacy from parents, teachers, and students. The state of California followed suit with legislation that has begun to have statewide effects, showing that districts, especially a large urban district like LAUSD, have power to drive large-scale change. While state legislation is promising, discipline is an issue that is extremely close to students and teachers. Even in Los Angeles, an exemplar of a large urban district with low suspension rates, schools are still struggling to implement a more positive discipline culture. Anecdotal evidence suggests that for schools to embrace the suspension ban, they need administrators and teachers that believe in it and/or additional resources to implement restorative justice practices, train teachers, and provide additional support to students. LAUSD should focus on supporting schools that are struggling to implement the ban as well as strengthen mechanisms for families to report instances where students are sent home, but not technically suspended. Racial disparities in discipline remain (Figure 3). In the current school year, as of mid-April, African-American students in L.A. public schools had lost 1,171 days of instruction due to suspension. While African-American students make up 8.3 % of the district’s total enrollment, they accounted for 34% of lost instructional days (Student Discipline Reports, 2017). In sum, banning suspension for “willful defiance” is effective and worthwhile. However, much of that effectiveness comes from the local support of educators and communities, rather than the power of the legislation itself. Furthermore, even in districts with the lowest suspension rates, racial disparities in discipline and schools with high rates of exclusionary discipline are still present.
Figure 3. Hispanic students have lost the most instructional days due to suspension this school year, followed by African-American students.
Works Cited
ACLU. California Enacts First-in-the-Nation Law to Eliminate Student Suspensions for Minor Misbehavior. (2015, September 27). Retrieved from https://www.aclunc.org/news/california-enacts-first-nation-law-eliminate-student-suspensions-minor-misbehavior
Anderson, Melinda D. (2015, September 14). Will School-Discipline Reform Actually Change Anything? The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/09/will-school-discipline-reform-actually-change-anything/405157/
DataQuest. (2013, November 8). California Department of Education. Retrieved from http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/.
Graham, J. (2016). Race, Resegregation and the School to Prison Pipeline in Mecklenburg County (Order No. 10239026). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1864760225). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1864760225?accountid=15172
Joint “Dear Colleague” Letter. (2014, January 8). U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201401-title-vi.html
Losen, D.J., Keith, M.A. II, Hodson, C,L., Martinez, T.E., & Belway, S. (2015). Closing the School Discipline Gap in California: Signs of Progress. K-12 Racial Disparities in School Discipline. UCLA: The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/65w0k9tm
Losen, Daniel J; & Martinez, Tia E. (2013). Out of School and Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools. K-12 Racial Disparities in School Discipline. UCLA: The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8pd0s08z
Nationwide Suspension Rates at U.S. Schools (2011-12). The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Retrieved from http://www.schooldisciplinedata.org/ccrr/index.php
Nix, Naomi. (2016, August 4). California NAACP proposes moratorium on new public charter schools, sparking backlash from other civil rights advocates. LA School Report. Retrieved from http://laschoolreport.com/naacp-may-double-down-on-charter-school-opposition-as-civil-rights-allies-strongly-disagree/
Noguera, Pedro. (2008) What Discipline is For: Connecting Students to the Benefits of Learning. In Pollack, M. (ed.), Every Day Anti-Racism: Getting real about race in school. New York, NY: The New Press.
NPR Staff. (2013, June 2). Why Some Schools Want to Expel Suspensions. NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2013/06/02/188125079/why-some-schools-want-to-expel-suspensions.
Owen, J., Wettach, J., Hoffman, K.C. (2015). Instead of Suspension: Alternative Strategies for Effective School Discipline. Duke Center for Child and Family Policy and Duke Children’s Law Clinic. Retrieved from https://law.duke.edu/childedlaw/schooldiscipline/downloads/instead_of_suspension.pdf
Perry, Brea L. & Morris, Edward W. (2014, November 5). Suspending Progress: Collateral Consequences of Exclusionary Punishment in Public Schools. American Sociological Review Vol 79, Issue 6, pp. 1067 – 1087. Retrieved from 10.1177/0003122414556308.
Rott, Nathan. (2013, May 15). LA Schools Throw Out Suspensions For ‘Willful Defiance.’ NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2013/05/15/184195877/l-a-schools-throw-out-suspensions-for-willful-defiance
School Climate Bill of Rights. (2013, May 14). Los Angeles Unified School District. Retrieved from http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/docs/PAGE/CA_LAUSD/FLDR_ORGANIZATIONS/FLDR_OFFICE_OF_SUPE/ATTACHMENT%20C-2_0.PDF
Special Board Meeting Order of Business (2012, June 28). Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles. Retrieved from https://boe.lausd.net/sites/default/files/06-28-12OrderofBusiness_0.pdf.
Student Discipline Data Reports- Suspension: 2016-2017 School Year. (2017, April 11). Los Angeles Unified School District. http://schoolinfosheet.lausd.net/budgetreports/getdrpdf?reporttype=LAUSDSummary&schoolyear=20162017&district=&school_name=&school_code=&prop=TCIBCfwDEq8ZVcVy%2B845cmjEOCtnQngVISEUc%2B5MvswgVMpNQihYChXSu8LHkJ7r1zjjIZslYyAm%0D%0AIlROOwZFKwcM5dEt4BbNebFz6qJtR7PGruvrrs6NCrZygMDcuzirYLDkqqnAbHX9IUUkRZvJlCE%2F%0D%0AOOAhqmqUM9QEiUoQZ%2FBNUYuE4TUCjHnVANkYRkQ%2F
Suspension or Expulsion, Cal. Education Code § 48900. (2009). Retrieved From https://www.gusd.net/cms/lib/CA01000648/Centricity/Domain/58/EC_%C2%A748900.pdf.
Watanabe, Teresa. (2014, May 31). L.A. Unified suspension rates fall but some question figures’ accuracy. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lausd-suspend-20140601-story.html
Watanabe, Teresa. (2014, May 21). Watts school officials are targeting black students, some parents say. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-watts-students-suspend-20140521-story.html.
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Recruiting and Retaining Asian American Teachers
By George Huynh
Executive Summary:
Nowadays, Asian Americans are vastly underrepresented in the media and in the public sphere. The same phenomenon seems to exist in the education world, whereby there are very few Asian American K-12 teachers and administrators. This policy brief recommends (1) implementing more teacher recruitment programs and scholarships that target Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), (2) increasing positive representation of AAPI in the education sphere, and (3) improving the respectability of careers in teaching. If we are committed to diversifying the workforce, we ought to look harder at our current teacher diversity initiatives.
Introduction:
There was a time over two decades ago when teacher diversity was a topic of serious discussion and concern throughout the United States (NEA, 2014). However, those conversations have been overshadowed almost completely by discussions about school choice, standardized testing, curriculum content, and order and discipline (Education World, 2017). While the biggest priority for our country’s students and parents, of course, ought to be to recruit as many qualified teachers as possible into the teaching profession to ameliorate the teacher shortage crisis, it’s apparent that there exists an extreme lack of Asian American teachers.
Some Asian Americans like Michelle Rhee and Tommy Chang, both products of the illustrative Teach For America program, have been able to rise to stardom as exemplary superintendents in their respective cities. However, they are but exceptions in a system that has failed to elevate Asian American faces and voices.
So why exactly are there not more Asian American figures in the public realm, and specifically public education? Hopefully, the research below will present why this is currently the case, and what can be done to correct it. The feasibility of creating more teacher recruitment programs aimed at AAPI and increasing positive images of Asian American teachers in the workforce will be explored in this policy brief.
Background:
As America continues to diversify, the diversity within public school teachers has been unable to reflect that trend. Joseph Williams (2015) writes, “While the diversity of the nation’s public school student body has exploded in the last few decades, the number of African American, Latino, and Asian teachers hasn’t kept pace—despite state and federal programs designed to draw more minorities into the profession.” A Center for American Progress Survey revealed that a whopping 82 percent of public school teachers are white, in contrast to 17 percent composed of African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans (Dilworth & Coleman, 2014).
As reflected in the graph above, the gap between the racial makeup of America’s public schools and the people who lead their classrooms has reached unprecedented levels (Kardish, 2015). In the 2010 U.S. Census, 5.6 percent of respondents noted that they were of Asian descent (U.S. Census, 2010), whereas only 1.5 percent of American teachers are Asian today (TFA, 2017). Given that it’s been over seven years since this census data was taken, and Asians continue to be the fastest growing population in the country, it can be assumed that Asian Americans are underrepresented by more than four times their national proportion.
Retrieved from the 2010 U.S. Census
The Asian American Achievement Paradox written by Jennifer Lee and Margaret Zhou (2015) does a great job of diagnosing the problem of Asian American teacher recruitment, by supplying information about the historical sociocultural reasons for why Asian Americans as a conglomerate do not find teaching attractive. Suspected barriers to entry in the teacher profession include the sociocultural expectations that Asian Americans face, including but not limited to the model minority myth, long-standing legacies of exclusion (from not only the country but also citizenship) based on racism, and tendencies to enter STEM-related fields. The paradox here, lies in the fact that while Asian Americans value receiving a strong education, they are very rarely on the other side educating the next generation of students and leaders (United Nation, 2001).
Although minority teacher recruitment has steadily improved over the years, retention has been less than stellar (NEA, 2017). This research attempts to answer why there are not more Asian Americans in the public education sphere in situating the current teacher climate for Asian Americans in the U.S., which has been on the decline since the early 1990s (Rong and Preissle, 1997). It is concerning that the proportion of teachers who are Asian American still does not match the population of Asian American students in this country today, even with this problem identified two decades ago. It is a shame that Asian Americans do not compose more of the education workforce, but fortunately there are rather simple actions that can be taken to change this downward trend.
Evidence, Data, and Proposals:
On their website, Teach For America lists the Asian American and Pacific Island Initiative under a tab labeled “Our Initiatives,” with the following information:
“Less than 1.5 percent of our nation’s teachers identify as AAPI – a number that does not reflect the percentage of AAPI students or the changing student demographics in our schools. More than 4 percent of our student population identify as AAPI. The AAPI community is also the fastest-growing racial group in the United States—representing more than 48 ethnicities, over 300 spoken languages, varied socioeconomic status, and distinctions across immigration history, generational status, culture, and religion.”
Even more striking, according to a National Education Association report by Dilworth and Coleman (2014), is the fact that about 0.5% of America’s teachers—about one-third of all Asian teachers—are male.
Below the aforementioned description is a video of Kaycee Gerhart, an AAPI TFA alumna, reflecting on her experience as an AAPI teacher:
Retrieved from teachforamerica.org
This video’s purpose is quite valuable, in presenting a personal account from an alum who has experienced firsthand positive student reactions from learning in a classroom with a teacher who identified as AAPI. Right above the video on their website are images of a diverse group of AAPI TFA fellows who look much different from Gerhart.Retrieved from teachforamerica.org
TFA’s mission is to be fully representative of Asian Americans, as they attempt to encompass a smaller subset of AAPI, specifically Amerasians. Since Gerhart does appear partially white, this video really might in fact help dismantle many of the harmful stereotypes and perceptions of Asian Americans that currently exist in the mainstream. considering that as of 2010, about 14.7 million people identified as Asian alone in the census, whereas 2.6 million Asian Americans identified as Asian in combination, or mixed with another race (U.S. Census, 2010). Having more accurate, positive representation of all Asian Americans would help American citizens embrace this group of individuals and their diverse backgrounds more readily, and more importantly, encourage other Asian Americans to join the teaching force.
This cause, launched in 2014 by TFA, could be emulated by other teacher recruitment programs such as the Office of Human Capital (OHC) at Boston Public Schools (BPS). They boast on the BPS Website (2017), “The OHC Recruitment team works to attract a qualified and diverse pool of candidates from which principals can hire. Their efforts range from participating in career fairs to developing a number of pathways to teaching with local universities.” I absolutely think that even a small, simple message like this ought to be stressed during the teacher search process, and acts as encouragement for teachers of color to pursue a career in education, especially as a teacher. A simple nudge like this would increase the amount of minority teachers overall, in turn lifting up the amount of Asian American teachers. Although there are many programs that declare a commitment to diversity on paper but diverge from their stated mission in practice, even a small mission statement such as the aforementioned one can be extremely valuable. Although the Boston Public Schools district does a relatively good job of recruiting teachers of color, they are not necessarily experts at retaining them, as attrition rates are rather high. For example, in 2015, BPS “filled over 40% of their vacancies with candidates of color, while at the national level, teachers of color comprise just 17% of the total workforce” (Maffai, 2015). Even in a progressive city like Boston are teachers of color leaving the education workforce at an alarming rate (Gleason, 2014). While Gleason focuses on the struggles of black teachers, some of the problems they face are relevant to Asian American teachers—particularly that their high attrition rates result from feeling isolated and furthermore, stereotyped by white teachers and their students. Many minority teachers cite poor working conditions and low pay as two of the biggest reasons why they leave the teaching profession (Ingersoll & May, 2016). In order for them to stay, states should invest more into their human capital systems and truly make diversity in the public school classrooms a priority (Konoske-Graf et al., 2015). The teachers of color recruited by the various programs that do exist would benefit tremendously coupled with mentorship programs (Ingersoll & May, 2004). Instead of a simple electronic message on a website, Asian American teachers would thrive under consistent guidance from colleagues their age as well as more experienced teachers.
With so little representation of AAPI folks in the media, it would be beneficial to have more accurate visuals of AAPI in the mainstream. Although Asian Americans are quite visible in STEM fields, they are hardly seen in Hollywood or on television (Hess, 2016). On the other hand, when they are presented on screen, there tend to be restrictive and unbalanced portrayals of Asians (MANAA, 2017). They are often represented as dragon ladies, Kung Fu masters, effeminate geeks, foreigners, and prostitutes, despite the good intentions of individual producers and filmmakers (Nittle, 2016). In order to expand what it means to be an Asian American in the United States, a massive media campaign should be launched in order to place Asian Americans, in advertisements on the television screen and on highway billboards, dressed as teachers, construction workers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, politicians, professors, writers, poets, musicians, athletes, and everything in between.
Beyond just increasing favorable representation of AAPI in the media, establishments should seek to increase the prestige and respectability of the teaching profession. Some steps that could be taken include the creation of a national teaching university (Chu & Roberts, 2017). This would bolster the idea that teaching is a specialization that requires more than just a few weeks of training to do. For example, an alternative certification program such as TFA mandates only five weeks of training before entering the workforce as a full-time teacher, overwhelming often times the unprepared recent college graduate with no previous teaching experience (Ahmad & Boser, 2014). Creating this university would place the status of teachers closer to those of doctors and lawyers, which require years of postgraduate education to obtain. Specific to Asian Americans, who particularly enjoy bragging to their friends about the professional careers of their children, boosting not only the reputation, but also the salary of teachers would trickle in many more Asian Americans interested in teaching (Lee & Zhou, 2015). Perhaps this would be effective in breaking the minority myth and stereotype double threat/promise which work in conjunction to limit Asian Americans’ perceptions of what they are capable of doing and ought to do for a living.
Conclusion:
One alternative to recruiting Asian American teachers is implementing teacher programs predicated towards the new trend in diversity & inclusion that attempt to educate teachers from different backgrounds about what to expect about the environment that they live in (Feng, 1994). Although this mutual cultural understanding will help ameliorate some of the struggles Asian American students face, it won’t place role models who look like them in the classroom, and allow them to smash the “bamboo ceiling” that has limited them to mild success in their respective careers (Lee and Zhou, 2015). Current teaching programs in place ought to expand their underrepresented minority recruitment and retention initiatives in order to help bring teachers into the classroom and help struggling Asian American students excel in the classroom by providing a role model to whom they can relate. Besides building a pipeline to teaching, they should be supported along the way with scholarship money and strong mentorship programs that will provide incentives for them to enter and remain in the teacher profession. While it will take a lot of funding and a multidimensional effort to address an issue that has become so ingrained in America’s infrastructure, it’s worth the time and energy because the future of America’s children matters, and all students deserve to learn from teachers who reflect their population.
Acknowledgements:
I’d like to thank my friends Emma Dinh and Thanh Tran for keeping me company, my roommate Jacob Mitchell, for supporting me during my struggles, and all my colleagues who have heard me rant about things concerning education policy and also things completely unrelated to education policy. Last but not least, I would also like to thank Professor Mira Debs for her engagement and support throughout an awesome semester in her Public Schools and Public Policy course.
Word Count: 2574
Works Cited
Ahmad, F. Z. & Boser, U. (May 2014). Retrieved April 28, 2017, from https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TeachersOfColor-report.pdf
Chu, T. & Roberts, W. (2017, May 3). The Opposite of TFA: A National Teacher University to Build the Teaching Profession. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from debsedstudies.org
Dilworth, M. and Coleman, M. (May 2014). Time for a Change in Diversity in Teaching Revisited. Retrieved April 28, 2017, from www.nea.org/assets/docs/Time_for_a_Change_Diversity_in_Teaching_Revisited_(web).pdf
Education World. (2017, May 3). Teachers Talk About Public Education Today. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr035.shtml
Feng, J. (June 1994). Asian American Children: What Teachers Should Know. Retrieved April 29, 2017, from https://www.ericdigests.org/1994/teachers.htm
Hess, A. (2016, May 29). Asian-American Actors Are Fighting for Visibility. They Will Not Be Ignored. Retrieved April 28, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/movies/asian-american-actors-are-fighting-for-visibility-they-will-not-be-ignored.html
Ingersoll, R. M. & May, H. (2004, March 1). Do Teacher Induction and Mentoring Matter? Retrieved April 26, 2017, from http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1134&context=gse_pubs
Ingersoll, R. M. & May, H. (September 2011). The minority teacher shortage: Fact or fable? Retrieved April 17, 2017, from Public Schools & Public Policy Canvas file page.
Ingersoll, R. M. & May, H. (2016, September 15). Minority Teacher Recruitment, Employment, and Retention: 1987 to 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2017, from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/minority-teacher-recruitment-brief
Kardish, C. (March 2015). The Classroom Racial Gap Hits An All-Time High. Retrieved April 27, 2017, from http://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-racial-gap-teacher-students.html
Konoske-Graf, A., Partelow, L. & Benner, M. (2016, December 22). To Attract Great Teachers, School Districts Must Improve Their Human Capital Systems. Retrieved April 27, 2017, from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/reports/2016/12/22/295574/to-attract-great-teachers-school-districts-must-improve-their-human-capital-systems/
Lee, J. & Zhou, M. (February 2015). Asian American Achievement Paradox. Retrieved April 17, 2017, from Public Schools & Public Policy Canvas file page.
Maffai, T. (2015, October 21). How Do We Build a Truly Diverse Teacher Workforce?Retrieved April 28, 2017 from https://brightreads.com/how-do-we-build-a-truly-diverse-teacher-workforce-20d77956f3f9
Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA). (2017). Retrieved April 28, 2017, from www.ntac.hawaii.edu/AAPIcourse/downloads/pdf/readings/AsianAmericaStereotypes.pdf
National Center for Educational Statistics. (2012). Number and percentage distribution of teachers in public and private elementary schools and secondary schools, by selected teacher characteristics. Retrieved May 2, 2017, from https://www.nea.org/home/65429.htm
National Education Association. (2017). Retrieved April 28, 2017, from http://www.nea.org/home/29031.htm
Neason, A. (2014, December 17). Retrieved April 27, 2017 from http://www.slate.com/blogs/schooled/2014/12/17/teacher_diversity_accomplishing_it_is_not_just_about_recruitment_it_s_about.html
Nittle, N. (2016, March 1). Why These 5 Asian American Stereotypes in TV and Film Need to Die. Retrieved May 1, 2017, from https://www.thoughtco.com/asian-american-stereotypes-in-t-film-2834652
Teach For America. (2017) Retrieved April 27, 2017 from https://www.teachforamerica.org/about-us/our-initiatives/asian-american-pacific-islander-initiative
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Williams, J. (2015, March 3). America’s Kids Are Getting More Diverse But Not Its Teachers. Retrieved April 27, 2017 from http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/03/03/americas-kids-getting-more-diverse-but-not-its-teachers
A Framework for Creating an Effective Afterschool Program for Social and Behavioral Skills
Sydney Babiak
Edgar Aviña
PLSC 240/EDST 245 Public Schools & Public Policy
Introduction
Estimates suggest that more than 7 million children in the United States are without adult supervision for at least some period of time after school. 800,000 elementary school and 2.2 million middle school students are on their own when they leave school (“Taking a Deeper Dive” 4). This unsupervised time puts children at risk for negative outcomes such as academic and behavioral problems, drug use and other types of risky behavior, yet schools with a need to slash costs in an era of constrained budgets often choose to scrap their afterschool programming. Many schools and districts rationalize these cuts by arguing that afterschool programs just do not generate enough payoffs to justify the costs of programming and personnel.
Contrary to this logic, hundreds of studies have documented the positive and statistically significant effects of afterschool programming on academic achievement (“Taking a Deeper Dive” 4) . However, the effects of afterschool programming on social and behavioral skills have received much less attention, in part because measuring progress on social and behavioral skills is more difficult, but also because it has just been relatively under-discussed among most scholars until recently.
This paper argues that afterschool programs that focus on social and behavioral skills are more beneficial to students than those that focus on academics. We will also highlight one framework for structuring afterschool programming that will successfully help children cultivate strong social and behavioral skills, which we are defining as “the cognitive, affective, and behavioral competencies necessary for a young person to be successful in school, work, and life” (“Supporting Social and Emotional Development Through Quality Afterschool Programs” 2). We hope that this paper will help contribute to the conversation about what well-designed afterschool programming focusing on social and behavioral skills might look like. While other studies have examined the positive outcomes of programs that focuses on social and behavioral skills, this report is the first to connect these successes to a specific framework of instruction and curriculum. The need for afterschool programming is ubiquitous, and we must work diligently to create quality programs that genuinely help advance student social and behavioral skills.
Methods
For this report, we researched current strategies in afterschool programming and chose a particular design that we wanted to highlight as potentially impactful. We then used data from studies at various universities and organizations. Many of the projects we pulled from did not answer our questions or implement the CASEL structure exactly, but usually had information on some component of either the effectiveness of afterschool programs, social and behavioral curriculum, or active engagement with students that we could then conceptually connect with the model we were highlighting. We then chose two afterschool programs we found details about within a few of our more comprehensive sources and analyzed their engagement with our the CASEL framework. We designed a few graphics using Google Sheets and the SmartArt functionality in Microsoft Word in order to better illustrate some of our points.
The CASEL Framework of Instruction and Curriculum
CASEL has analyzed dozens of afterschool programs over the past two decades, and has developed their own proposal for how to structure an afterschool program that meaningfully enhances social and behavioral skills. This framework has two parts: SAFE, the methods by which instruction should be given, and the CASEL competency clusters, which are the recommended focus points for the instruction. Each will be presented in turn below.
Figure 1 is a visual representation of how the framework is supposed to operate. All afterschool programs using the CASEL frameworks should have the same instructional strategies (the SAFE method), but each might focus on one or more CASEL competency in particular.
Figure 1
A visual representation of the CASEL Framework of afterschool programming
SAFE
In 2004, CASEL analyzed 73 afterschool programs and found a series of four structural qualities that effective afterschool programming requires to achieve substantive gains in social and behavioral skills. An effective program must be Sequential, Active, Focused, and Explicit.
Programs must be Sequential because new social and behavioral skills cannot be acquired instantaneously (Durlak and Weissberg, “The Impact of Afterschool” 28). Social and behavioral skills are complex, which means that they have to be broken down into smaller components that can be taught sequentially with an ultimately cumulative end goal. Teaching must be linear, and follow a logical progression.
Programs must be Active because students are entering afterschool programs after a full day of regular school, which can mean they will be easily antsy, bored, and distracted. To ensure student engagement, the teaching must be active and involved; students should not be sitting in a room being lectured to when they have already endured a full day of schooling. Moreover, evidence indicates that youth learn best from active engagement where they have chances to practice new behaviors and receive feedback on their performance (Protheroe 3), such as practicing social and behavioral skills through “role playing and other types of behavioral rehearsal strategies” (Durlak and Weissberg, “The Impact of Afterschool” 26), for example. A sequence of practice and feedback should continue until mastery is achieved. Hands-on forms of learning are much preferred over exclusively didactic instruction, which rarely translates into long-term learning (Durlak and Weissberg, “The Impact of Afterschool” 28).
Afterschool programming must be also be Focused on social and behavioral skills—teaching on the development of these skills cannot be merely interspersed sporadically in the program. Many afterschool programs fail to inculcate students with valuable skills precisely because they do not develop focused programming that addresses specific growth areas for students, but rather just operate without any particular direction or goals. Moreover, the content of the programming must be Explicit in communicating to students clearly what the learning objective is. If the goal is to improve self-esteem, that goal must be communicated clearly to students.
SAFE has proven particularly effective in increasing self-esteem, self-efficacy , improved attitudes toward self and school, and social and communication skills. Figure 2 shows data collected by CASEL on the observed positive benefits of programs that used the SAFE methods and those that did not.
Figure 2
Average percentile gains on selected outcomes for participants in SAFE and Other Afterschool Programs
CASEL Competencies
In their research brief titled Supporting Social and Emotional Development Through Quality Afterschool Programs, CASEL defines five competency clusters that they found critical for young people’s success in school, work, and life (Devaney 2):
- Self-awareness: the ability to understand one’s emotions, and how these emotions influence behavior
- Self-management: the ability to calm down when upset, set and work towards goals, and to manage/control emotions
- Social awareness: the ability to recognize what’s appropriate in certain settings, and to empathize with others
- Responsible decision making: the ability to make decisions that account for social standards, consequences, and context
- Relationship skills: the ability to communicate well, listen and respond appropriately, and to negotiate conflict
CASEL believes these competencies can be taught through explicit curricula or school/classroom-wide interventions that integrate them into every aspect of the school day, such as through collaborative projects in class or facilitated activities at recess. The research brief emphasizes that afterschool programs can do either, and that the best of these programs will teach these use this framework to instill grit, self-control, and growth in its participants (Devaney 4). CASEL’s study also found that consistent participation in programs using SAFE and the CASEL framework led to improvements in peer relationships, sense of self-worth, altruism, prosocial behavior, and decreased problematic behavior (Devaney 5).
Other analyses of afterschool programs with similar frameworks (that emphasize the same competencies but do not explicitly associate with CASEL) also found overwhelmingly positive results with regards to social and behavioral outcomes. Several studies at the School of Education at UC Irvine, like their peers at CASEL, also saw improvements in peer relationships and prosocial behavior, in addition to progress in engagement, intrinsic motivation, concentrated effort, and positive mindsets (Devaney 5).
The Youth Development Research Project at the University of Illinois also reported impressive effort and engagement in their analyses:
…youth report building skills in motivation and effort from participating in youth programs– in particular, youth voluntarily engage in challenging work in youth programs, are committed to completing the work, and therefore put in the effort and make the connection between hard work and results. Youth then learn these behaviors and can engage in strategic thinking and persistent behavior outside the youth program. (Devaney 5)
Collectively, these studies all provide evidence of how concerted focus on key non-academic characteristics in an afterschool program can lead to the development of crucial skills for not only a student’s academics, but for their life to come. This dual benefit is largely what makes afterschool programs that center around social and behavioral learning more fruitful and efficient than their counterparts.
Data
Recent studies provide quantitative evidence that participation in programs that focus on the CASEL competency clusters and use the SAFE method of instruction– rather than just focusing on academics– yield improvements in social and behavioral skills. As discussed previously, these skills are critical for a young person’s success in school, work, and life.
A study of 73 afterschool programs that targeted personal and social skills found that “solid” training approaches included sequenced activities to achieve skill objectives, active learning, and explicit focus on personal or social skills. According to the study, “These programs showed significant positive benefits in terms of student self-confidence, positive social behaviors, and achievement test scores” (David 84). Other observed programs that did not use these same approaches did not produce improvement in any of these outcomes (David 84). The researchers in this study maintain that, “…programs without an academic component can nevertheless demonstrate increases in student achievement, whereas many programs focused on achievement fail to do so” (David 85). Therein we see why afterschool programs must begin to shift their focus towards developing fundamental social and behavioral skills first before approaching academics: building the blocks of sustainable interpersonal aptitudes in young children will set the stage for success in school both immediately and for the rest of a student’s academic career.
A report from Joseph A. Durlak and Roger P. Weissberg reviewed 68 studies on afterschool programs with specific goals of fostering personal and social development (CASEL competencies) compared to control groups of non-participating youth (“Afterschool Programs” 2). Table 1 compares the mean effect sizes of the experimental (SAFE-modeled programs focused on social and behavioral development) and these control groups (Durlak and Weissberg, “Afterschool Programs” 3). The data shows significant positive outcomes for students in afterschool programs that use the CASEL framework compared to those that do not, with particular advantages in school bonding, self-perceptions, and positive social behaviors.
Table 1
The mean effect size of student behaviors in experimental and control groups (Durlak and Weissberg 3)
Mean effect size of SAFE Programming | Mean effect size of control | |
Drug use | .16 | .03 |
Positive social behaviors | .29 | .06 |
Reduction in problem behaviors | .30 | .08 |
School attendance | .14 | .07 |
School bonding | .25 | .03 |
School grades | .22 | .05 |
Self-perceptions | .37 | .13 |
Academic achievement (test scores) | .20 | .02 |
Table 2 shows the value-added benefit of afterschool programs that focused on one or more personal or social skills, measuring how many more youth would benefit from participation in these programs compared to participation in other, nonfocused programs. It is calculated by dividing the difference between the improvement rates of participating and control youth by the control improvement rate ((A-B)/B). The data was collected by Joseph A. Dorlak and Roger P. Weissberg for their report, The Impact of After-School Programs That Promote
Personal and Social Skills.
Table 2
The Value-Added Benefits of Effective Afterschool Programs (Durlak and Weissberg, “The Impact of Afterschool” 18)
Outcomes | % of Program Participants Improving (A) | % of Controls Improving (B) | Value-Added % Benefit |
Feelings and Attitudes (child self perceptions, school bonding) | 58.75, 56.5 | 41, 43.5 | 42.6, 29.8 |
Indicators of Behavioral Adjustment (positive social behaviors, problem behaviors, drug use) | 57.5, 56.5, 55.5 | 42.5, 43.5, 44.5 | 35.2, 29.8, 24.7 |
School Performance (achievement tests, school grades) | 57.75, 56 | 42.25, 44 | 36.6, 27 |
This data provides more evidence that participation in programs focused on social and behavioral development can lead to improvements in three key areas of a child’s education: attitude, behavior, and academic performance.
Examples
This section presents two successful afterschool programs that focus on social and behavioral skills instead of academic performance. It also demonstrates how their adherence to the CASEL framework of the SAFE method of instruction in coordination with a focus on one or more of the CASEL competency clusters has enabled their success.
Woodrock Youth Development Program
The Woodrock Youth Development Program is a highly-structured afterschool program in Kensington, Philadelphia—a long-struggling neighborhood that harbors over 40% of the drug trade in the whole city (“A Profile]”)— that has improved student social and behavioral skills by adhering to the CASEL framework.
The core of the program is a series of weekly human relations classes. Each class is conducted by a team of two youth advocates, who represent different racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds. Classroom activities focus on raising awareness about the dangers of substance abuse, “fostering self-esteem through enhancing images of racial membership groups,” and developing an appreciation of other ethnic and cultural traditions (“A Profile”). The curriculum is sequenced and active, with periods for open discussion and role-playing exercises weaved into every lesson. The programming is also focused, in that every class very explicitly addresses a certain kind of skill that it wants its students to develop (LoScutio).
The program has improved student outcomes along several dimensions, as shown by the data in the table below, which measures how much participating students improved over non-participating students. Participants were very similar to non-participants in terms of race, socioeconomic status, and achievement.
Table 3
Woodrock Youth Development Program – Standard deviations in student outcomes for participating and non-participating youth in social and behavioral skills (“A Profile”)
Skill | Effect Size (in standard deviations) |
School Attendance Rates | .22 |
Drug Use Reduction | .19 |
Increased Racial Tolerance | .22 |
Self-esteem | .13 |
Reduction in Aggression | .19 (not statistically significant, p = .09) |
The Woodrock Youth Development Program does not explicitly align itself with the CASEL framework, but its teaching and structure strongly model it. The results from this program, which works with some of the most troubled students in the country, are promising, and hint at the potential power of rolling out a full-fledged SAFE programming with CASEL competency clusters.
Maryland After-School Community Grant Program
The Maryland After-School Community Grant Program is an afterschool program in Baltimore, Maryland, funded by the Maryland Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention with additional federal funds from the U.S. Department of Justice (Zief et al. 43). The program is run by school teachers, the principal, a guidance counselor, a police officer, and student volunteers, and lists two major goals: to lower delinquency and drug use among its students (Zief et al. 44). The program coordinators also report a minor focus on other tangential qualities, such as decreasing negative peer influence and improving social skills (Zief et al. 44).
The Maryland After-School Community Grant Program does not claim to follow the CASEL framework of programming, but nonetheless fits the model in many ways. The program provides academic and social skills instruction, which are presumably focused and explicit, along with additional recreational offerings such as board and video games, pool and ping-pong, and organized sports; these activities account for the “active” component of the SAFE method (Zief et al. 45). Our source does not mention any sequential element to the program’s instruction, which means we can neither confirm nor deny if it employs this last component of SAFE.
The positive results (with significance of p<0.5) seen when studying this program included more time spent with positive peer groups, a decrease in negative peer influences, and increased involvement in constructive activities (Zief et al. 49). However, participants also spent less time in self-care (Zief et al. 47). We speculate that this may be a result of constant instruction and activities in addition to the regular school day– students may not feel the need or feel entitled to take personal times for themselves and their overall happiness.
While the Maryland After-School Community Grant Program is not perfect, it provides an example of some positive results that can come from afterschool programs with directed focus and active engagement. There are many areas where the program could improve, such as with more explicit focus on the CASEL recommended competencies, but nonetheless, their structure has seen solid outcomes in important areas that will benefit these kids far beyond their lives as students.
Discussion
Overall, we see the CASEL framework often creates positive change in students that consistently participate in afterschool programs, even if some programs do not know they are necessarily adhering by the guidelines of this particular structure. The important characteristics extracted from the data and examples show that programs with concise focus on social and behavioral abilities, coupled with active and sequential activities to engage with these skills, can enact positive change that gives kids tools to succeed not only in school, but also for the rest of their lives.
Research has shown that afterschool programs that focus on social and behavioral development yield positive benefits not only in the targeted skills, but also in academic success, which proves why more programs should begin shifting their goals to revolve around these characteristics rather than just improved academics. While success in school is important, it can often be fleeting and unsustainable, whereas characteristics such as persistence and self-control are crucial qualities that have been proven to aid classroom achievement as well (in many cases more successfully than programs that only focus on academics).
For this reason, we believe that afterschool programs should abide by the CASEL framework: structured and operated according to the SAFE model, with emphasis on at least one component of the CASEL competency clusters of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision-making, or relationship skills. While not much research has been done on programs with this structure (mostly because not many yet exist), we maintain that if all afterschool programs can establish strong building blocks in these core areas, success in academics, social situations, and their future life endeavors will come far easier.
Addressing Challenges: Embedded Influence and Attendance
It is important to recognize that even the best-planned program aligned perfectly with the CASEL Framework can still face challenges. The most salient challenge is the issue of student retention: how do you ensure that students maintain continuous attendance? Scholar Ingrid Nelson develops a theory of embedded influence that posits that there are many overlapping and evolving contexts of students’ homes, schools, and communities that can inhibit student attendance (160). Nelson recognizes that participants’ and their social situations change over time, and thus acknowledges that afterschool programming will affect the same student in different ways depending on their situation at home and in their personal lives. For example, a middle school student that is an avid participant in middle school of afterschool programming may drop it all together once she needs to work a job in high school.
The issue of attendance is difficult to solve because of embedded influence and other systems that influence student behavior, but all programs must be conscious of this challenge as they structure their program. A possible method of addressing this challenge would be to mandate attendance, as the Woodrock Youth Development Program does. Tackling logistical challenges can also help increase consistent attendance. For example, something as simple as providing car rides or bus rides to students who struggle to get home after afterschool programming could play a huge role in increasing long-term participation.
We did not address attendance in our outlining of the CASEL framework, because data on attendance was not relayed in our sources. Had we been able to collect our own data, we would have measured attendance patterns against the successes of afterschool programs to identify any possible causal relationships. The issue of attendance is a huge gap in the research that is ripe for more exploration.
Conclusion
Overall, we believe that an afterschool program that is structured according to the CASEL Framework SAFE method and centers around one or more of CASEL competencies is the best design for students. We came to this conclusion after an analysis of the early research and data obtained on this relatively under-studied topic, along with some hypothesizing on our own end. We see the CASEL competencies as fundamental characteristics necessary for a child’s imminent success in school, relationships, and life, and the SAFE design of instruction gives programs a structure to follow that has seen quantified success.
Works Cited
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