Reflections of the March on Washington and Public Education

            This week our country celebrates the 50^th Anniversary of the March on Washington and the I Have A Dream Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  While there have been significant gains for African-Americans having greater access to mainstream society, there are a number of areas such as poverty, unemployment and institutional racism that still hinder progress to achieving Dr. King’s Dream of equality and social justice. 

            As I reflect on the purpose of the March on Washington and the I have a Dream Speech through the lens of an educational advocate, I wonder how Dr. King and those who participated in the March on to bring equality and social justice to our country would say about the state of public education today? 

            With a majority of the barriers from the segregation era having been removed or greatly diminished, a majority of our public schools, especially in major urban cities and suburbs remain hyper segregated.  Additionally, with the large disparities in academic achievement, funding and access to technology among African-American youth and their white counterparts growing, would Dr. King and those who participated in the March on Washington believe equality and social justice has come to public education?

            Finally, with public education struggling with student and teacher engagement and the lack of career development and workforce preparation for a global economy, would Dr. King and those who participated in the March on Washington believe equality and social justice has come to public education?

            Unfortunately, I believe Dr. King and those who participated in the March on Washington would not believe equality and social justice has come to public education.  I believe they would wonder how could public education continue to be segregated when there were laws created to end segregation are in place.  How could public education appear to still be “separate but equal” when the decision of the Supreme Court in Brown v Board of Education made it unconstitutional to educate African-American children separate from their white counterparts?

            As we celebrate the 50^th Anniversary the March on Washington and the I Have A Dream Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., these are just a few reflections about public education to remind us there are still areas in our society that have not met the expectations of Dr. King and those who participated in the March on Washington.

What Not To Wear: Marketing the Fear of Social Isolation

            The end of summer break marks the beginning of the back to school marketing campaign.  The endless commercials from all the major retailers reminding parents and children their business has all the things a child needs for the start of school at the best prices. 

            Past commercials have been fun and creative.  Probably the most memorable back to school commercial was the Staples commercial where the parent was riding down the aisle on a cart gathering school supplies while the children frowned as the song “Most Wonderful Time of the Year” played in the background.  However, this year back to school commercials have targeted back to school fashion and the consequences of coming to school out of style.

            The number of back to school commercials that have informed youth of what they should wear and the consequences of not wearing what they are being told to wear by retailers has crossed the line. 

            The messages being sent to parents and children by the retailers is of social isolation if they do not wear certain clothes.  One such commercial was pulled because the commercial actually showed a child being socially isolated from their peers because the child wore the wrong clothes. 

            Another message being sent is that school is about fashion, not learning.  There are number of commercials that portray students in school doing everything but learning.  One such commercial portrayed a classroom as a runway where a student walked from the front of class to the back of class while peers were sitting in their desk watching the student pass by in various outfits.

            As schools struggle to keep students engaged in learning and help them understand the importance of obtaining an education, messages such as these from retailers give mixed messages to impressionable youth about the purpose of school.  Having a mixed message about the purpose of school, learning and obtaining an education severely hinders the ability of teachers to effectively deliver the curriculum.

Finally, with physical and cyber-bullying being problematic for students who are perceived by their peers as different, the message of social isolation for wearing the wrong clothes places youth in danger and affects their physical health, self-esteem and mental well being.

            I would like to believe that retailers would not intentionally “prey” on impressionable school aged youth by sending mixed messages that would make youth targets for not wearing the certain clothes or encouraging youth to be “cute” instead of smart.  I would also like to believe that next years back to school commercials will be vastly different (in a positive way) than this years commercials.  Let’s hope reason, common sense and an appreciation for education will prevail in next years commercial

The Right to Become A Productive Citizen

            There was a time when the mission of public high schools was to prepare young adults to become productive citizens.  Somewhere along the line, public high schools lost their way and became more concerned about class size, test scores, and other things that distracted the mission of preparing students to become productive citizens.

            A generation ago, when a young adult graduated from high school, it meant something to employers, to his/her family, to society.  For parents and society, graduation from high school was the final rites of passage from young adulthood to adulthood.  To an employer, a high school graduate was an individual who had acquired basic skills, a strong work ethic and an understanding of their new role in society.

            Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about this generation of public high school graduates.  Public high schools are no longer concerned about preparing productive citizens.  Employers do not believe, a high school graduate has acquired the basic skills, a strong work ethic or understand their role in society.  Lastly, parents and society no longer view graduation from high school as a rite of passage from young adulthood to adulthood. 

Young adults are being robbed of their chance to move into adulthood and their opportunity to become productive citizens.  Since they are not given the proper preparation and skill development necessary to move into adulthood and into a productive citizen, the results of this lack of concern is one of the reasons for the economic downturn and recovery our country is currently experiencing.

If we want to make graduation from a public high school become meaningful again, we have to realize the education of young adults is a Civil Right.  In viewing education as a Civil Right, the rebuilding the foundation to developing productive citizens is crucial to reclaiming public school’s lost mission.

Every young adult upon graduation from a public high school should expect their education should lead them to the path to meaningful employment or continuing education.  Every young adult upon graduation from public school should expect their diploma would be viewed positively by employers and accepted for providing the preparation and skill development needed to be a productive citizen.  Finally every young adult upon graduation should expect their diploma would welcome them into the rites of adulthood and afford them the opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of their role in society.

Our nation was built and thrived on our public high schools developing productive citizens.  For generations, it has been the birth right and expectation of our young adults to take their place and continue to grow our society, why should we expect any less of this generation and from the public high schools they attend?`

Changing the Nature of Parent Engagement

                I was talking to a colleague of mine whose child attends a private school.  We were talking about how her child’s teacher has already been in contact with parents about the new school year.  My colleague also talked about how her child had received assignments in preparation for the new school year. 

                When I asked my colleague how she received this information, she stated, the teacher contacted her via Skype and e-mailed a link to a web page specifically for her child on the schools website.  This made me think about why we are not doing this for parents/caregivers of students in public schools?

As we approached the start of the new school year, I thought about how many public schools will likely struggle again with parent engagement.  I also thought about how many public schools will likely take the same approach to parent engagement and then wonder why they continue to have poor results.

It is time to for public schools to bring parent engagement into the technological age.  There are a number of free tools (many of which are on most phones and computers) that could be used to reach out to parents and increase parent engagement.  Schools no longer need to only think of parent engagement as parents coming into the school building, schools need to consider parents engagment in a virtual context.

Schools can purchase Go to Meeting and send links to parent/caregivers to have virtual conferences, or utilize free software such as Face Time, Skype and other virtual meeting programs.  Teachers can create webinars that inform parents on how their child is doing in their classes.  Teachers can also create a class list serve with parent e-mails to update them on the progress or areas of improvement, discuss a behavioral concern or give praise for an act of kindness to a fellow peer or overcoming an obstacle.  Teachers can also send work assignments to students who are sick and miss school by sending the work via an attachment or webinar.  Finally, teachers can also have “chat” conferences.

These are a few suggestions of how public schools can increase parent engagement.  With a solid plan and utilization to some of the tools previously mentioned, public schools may find themselves with greater access to parents through virtual means then by antiquated methods of trying to get parents into the building.

Preparing African-American Males for the New Jim Crow

                There are some things schools are no longer capable of teaching.  One of the things schools can no longer teach is how to prepare African-American males deal with racism and profiling.

In this post Civil Rights, desegregation era, schools have lost the ability to teach young African-American males how to handle and navigate racism and profiling.  Racial profiling has become this generations “Jim Crow.”  Unfortunately, unlike their Civil Rights elders, many of today’s administrators, teachers and other school based staff do not have the skill set or the desire to become involved in teaching beyond the classroom. 

Since most administrators and teachers do not share the life experiences of their students on a daily basis as it was during the Civil Rights era, many cannot relate to plight of young African-American males.  Additionally, the absence of a strong community, inconsistent parent engagement and a fragmented faith-based community also contributes to the lack of preparation of young African-American males.  If young African-American males cannot count on community, family and faith-based institutions to prepare them to deal with the new Jim Crow, why would they look to school for help?  The question becomes:  what can be done to prepare young African-American males to deal with the new Jim Crow?

There is no easy solution to this question.  However, a crucial piece to the solution are parents, schools, the community and schools coming together to determine how to prepare young African-American males.  Once our communities have to come together, the process of preparing young African-American males can begin.  Parents, schools and faith-based institutions must educate, model, and be on watch for threats that could trip up young African-American males.  At the same time, parents, schools and faith-based institutions need to work on the local and federal level to develop legislation that protects young African-American males from racial profiling and eliminate legislation that directly and indirectly supports racial profiling. 

If our communities come together, we can prevent young African-American males from being victims of new Jim Crow legislation that allows for the sanctioned murder of young African-American males without punishment.

Making College Affordable: Pay it Forward

            The rising costs of tuition is a concern that has threatened our core belief in education being the bridge to the American Dream.  As the number of college graduates and those applying to college has decreased over past couple of years, we now have to consider how to make college an attractive investment in the attainment of the American Dream. 

Unfortunately, the slow recovery from the global economic recession, the high unemployment rate of college graduates and fear of excessive debt from student loans has also contributed to the apprehension to apply or to attend college. 

While it appears the costs of attending college will widen the educational divide and earnings potential between college and non-college graduates, the fear that the earning potential of college graduates will be nullified due to the paying off of student loans.  At a time when a college degree is essential to entrance into the global workforce and to our future leadership in the global economy, we need solutions to make college attractive and affordable.  A potential solution may be found in Oregon.

The Oregon state legislature has unanimously approved a bill that would allow future philosophy and art history majors to attend the State’s Public Universities tuition free.  The pilot program called “Pay it Forward” would begin in 2015.  Students who participate in the Pay it Forward would upon graduation have a certain percentage of their paycheck deducted and placed in a fund for future Pay it Forward participants[i].

What is attractive about Pay it Forward is that graduates are not burdened with deductions they cannot afford.  Pay it Forward graduates will have a 1.5% to 3% deduction from their paycheck based on their gross income.  If a student does not graduate, they will have pro-rated deductions from their paychecks.  Finally, if a Pay it Forward graduate does not earn enough, no deductions will be taken from their check[ii].

If Oregon can successfully develop their Pay it Forward program, many other states will look to develop similar programs.  It has been reported that legislators from Washington, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have expressed interest exploring a Pay it Forward program.  One of the main obstacles facing Oregon’s program is the initial cost to start up the program which is estimated at 9 billion dollars[iii]. 

It is this type of out of the box thinking that could get many high school graduates to reconsider attending college.  More importantly, for minorities and youth living in economically distressed communities, a Pay it Forward type of program could make college a viable option and remove the fear exorbitant debt in a recovering global economy.  Lastly, generations of students will be able to benefit from a Pay it Forward program as the number of Pay it Forward alumni grow, the program will pay for itself.

---

[i] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/pay-it-forward-oregon-tuition-free_n_3543827.html?utm_hp_ref=@education123

[ii] ibid

[iii] ibid

Promising News for Next School Year

           There is some good news for the upcoming school year that could impact instruction and student engagement.  The first announcement came from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).  On June 19^th, LAUSD announced that it would give every student an iPad.  As the second largest school district in the country with over 640,000 students in K-12, LAUSD will utilize electronic textbooks through an app provided by Pearson, a publishing company[i].

            The second announcement came from Microsoft.  Today (June 25^th), Microsoft announced it has developed “Bing for Schools.”  Bing for Schools is a free search engine specifically designed for K-12 students.  Bing for Schools will filter out all adult content, beef up privacy protection, remove all advertisements, and add learning features that promote digital literacy.  Additionally, Bing for Schools will offer students’ hotspots to help students explore investigate and explore new topics and provide short lesson plans to encourage students to use Bing to find answers to different questions[ii]. 

            The announcement of these new educational initiatives could be the foundation to bringing public education into the digital age.  If LAUSD is successful in their move from paper textbooks to digital textbooks and they are to able to prove through data, their digital textbook program has shown gains in academic achievement, student engagement (graduation) and decreases in suspensions and school leavers, districts across the country will follow the lead of LAUSD.  Also, the barrier of costs will be removed in favor of the positive data.

            As for Bing for Schools, this search engine could revolutionize this search engine could revolutionize instruction and the motivation to complete homework.  Bing for Schools gives teachers the opportunity to provide instruction in “real” time.  Teachers would be able to discuss curriculum topics by providing web links which provide visual, auditory information via a tactile process of an electronic device.  Additionally, the additions to Bing for Schools will allow students to explore beyond the curriculum topic in a safe environment free of inappropriate content.

            It will be very interesting what the next school year will hold for these two new educational initiatives.  If these initiatives meet or exceed their potential, school districts across the country may have the blueprint to moving into the digital textbook age.

---

[i] http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130619_ap_latogiveeverystudentanipad30morder.html

[ii] http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57590713-75/microsoft-to-send-bing-to-school-this-year/