By Ron Rice, Senior Director, Government Relations at the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools
I have been a Black student, education policymaker, and now an advocate for providing the best educational opportunities for all our children. One reality that I’ve had to face and embrace through each of these stages in my life and career is that the prevalence of leaders of color like me is a major contributor to educational success and whose lack thereof stifles that potential. As a student of color, those examples helped me thrive; and today they inform my advocacy.
This month, my organization, the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools released its highly-anticipated report, “Identity and Charter School Leadership: Profiles of Leaders of Color Building an Effective Staff” which examined the ways that school leaders of color’s experiences and perspectives influence how they build school culture, parent and community relationships, and effective staff. This needed report affirmed what I and many fellow school leaders of color have witnessed first-hand in schools from New Jersey (where I advised the state Department of Education) to Massachusetts, California, Louisiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, where school leaders of color were studied. The report’s finding is clear: our children of color thrive with diverse and experienced teachers who understand their challenges and have a personal, unwavering dedication to their success.
Most importantly, our report is instructive as well because it sheds light — through the profiles of three public charter school leaders of color from Louisiana, North Carolina, and California — on the principles that can help match our best current and future teachers with our nation’s students. Three of those principles that resonated with my two decades in education policy are:
First, fill our school leadership pipeline with talented educators of color who come from nontraditional backgrounds and fields of study. But how do we dispel the myth that there are not enough qualified and passionate people of color who can and want to fill this educational pipeline? One way to do this comes from Eric Sanchez, co-founder of Henderson Collegiate — a network of three schools serving elementary, middle and high school in Henderson, North Carolina. Instead of only recruiting future educators from traditional education programs, Eric also recruits graduates from university programs focusing on social justice and ethnic studies. And this encouragement doesn’t end once the teachers reach the classroom — we must provide clear pathways for these teachers to pursue school leadership.
Second, school leaders and education policymakers of all colors must be committed to seeing and promoting diversity as an asset, not a deficit; an opportunity, not an obstacle. Imagine how better prepared our children will be for the world of tomorrow if they have been taught the history behind their identity, the language behind their culture, and the geography behind their journey. While nearly all schools struggle with activating this principle for the benefit of our students, our report demonstrates that public charter schools are making substantial progress where traditional public schools haven’t.
Third, achievement and demonstrated success — not myths, preconceptions, and inherited political biases — must be the basis upon which we support the best educational opportunities for all our children. For example, by their design, public charter schools have the flexibility to create and finetune curricula, teaching methods, and optimal outcomes that traditional public schools do not. So, why would we ever consider putting obstacles in any educational paths that are showing real achievement?
Race and identity of both our educators and students is only one factor in the holistic successes we are all working towards. However, it’s also true that all schools across our country in every community have historically not valued students’ diversity and identity as assets to enrich the education they receive. Public charter schools are making real progress to expose this blind spot and make the needed course corrections to ensure the success we’ve seen for some students are the norm for all.
Ron Rice Jr. is a former two term Newark, NJ city councilman, chief advisor to the New Jersey Department of Education, and is currently Senior Director, Government Relations at the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools.
On any given day, you can find Sarah Carpenter organizing parents in the Memphis area. A single mother of four daughters and 13 grandchildren, Carpenter was an advocate long before becoming co-founder and CEO of The Memphis Lift, which she describes as “a parent organization run by parents, for parents.”
Born and raised in North Memphis, Carpenter says her experience as a single parent prepared her to lead The Memphis Lift. “I have always been an advocate for my daughters and for other’s kids,” she says. “I started in 1995 when I was asked to help open a Family Resource Center in a high school and students without involved parents in their lives took to me. Parents would stop me and say, ‘They are passing my son on to High School and he can’t even read.”
Carpenter and her fellow co-founders met during the training component of a public advocate fellowship funded by the Memphis Education Fund, which educated parents about the landscape in Shelby County Schools (SCS). At the time, SCS had the highest number of “priority schools” –those in which student scores on state exams ranked in the bottom five percent – in Tennessee.
Carpenter and her colleagues have since visited more than 10,000 homes to educate others on the state of Memphis’s schools. SCS students can attend four categories of schools: traditional neighborhood schools, charter schools, charter schools in the state-run Achievement Schools District, and schools in the district’s Innovation Zone.
For Carpenter and her organization, ensuring that all parents – regardless of income – have access to all the options SCS has to offer is paramount. In January 2018, the district launched a scorecard to help parents compare schools based on student achievement, growth, attendance, and suspension rates. The Memphis Lift helps parents interpret the scorecard and navigate their options, so they can make the best choices for their children.
Carpenter is intimately acquainted with the many options parents have: all of her daughters attended neighborhood schools, yet all but one of her grandchildren attend charter schools.
Charter schools are public schools operated by independent organizations—mostly nonprofits—typically on five-year “charters,” or performance contracts. They are free from many of the bureaucratic rules that stifle innovation in district schools, but in return they are accountable for their performance: if their students are falling too far behind grade level, their charters are not renewed and they must close.
Carpenter’s granddaughters are not unusual. Charter enrollment in SCS has increased every year for the past four years; currently, 15,200 students—15 percent of the district–[1]are enrolled in 51 charter schools. In spite of the increased enrollment, enrolling in charter schools in SCS is no easy feat, even for the most engaged parent. Enrolling in the highest performing charters, which use lotteries to select their students because so many apply, is even more difficult. First families must[2]visit their zoned school or approved school choice location to get a PowerSchool account, then they must register online, then visit charters they are interested in, then apply and hope they win the lottery. For parents with multiple children in multiple schools, the process can be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming.
The topic of charter schools in SCS was highlighted in The Memphis Lift’s Annual Parents Summit, last October. This year’s summit was done in collaboration with the Memphis Education Fund and the Progressive Policy Institute’s Reinventing America’s Schools project.
Charters in Tennessee are authorized either by districts or by the state Board of Education. In cities and states where authorizers close failing charters, their performance is usually far better than that of district schools. Where authorizers fail to close lagging schools, charter performance is far less impressive. Unfortunately, Shelby County Schools has not been rigorous about closing its charters, and their quality varies.
In the most recent SCS scorecard[3], SCS secondary charter schools perform better than K-8 charter schools when compared to district-managed schools. SCS secondary charter schools outperformed district-managed secondary schools, with 54 percent rated as “good” or “excellent,” compared to only 46 percent of district-managed schools.” District-managed K-8 schools outperformed K-8 charter schools with 41 percent rated as “good” or “excellent,” compared to only 33 percent of K-8 charter schools.
Parents attending the summit supported replacing underperforming charter anddistrict schools with stronger operators, both charters and district school leaders. This can usually be done without disruption to the students, who remain in the school under new leadership.
But for parents at the summit, a quality charter school didn’t mean much without access to it. So The Memphis Lift’s highest priority is a universal enrollment system for all Memphis public schools, through which parents can use a single application to rank their top choice schools. The system then uses a lottery algorithm to match students to schools based on availability and preference. For low-income parents, universal enrollment systems help ensure equal access to quality schools. New Orleans, Denver, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., Newark, and several other cities have adopted such systems, which include virtually all traditional and charter schools.
The third priority summit participants chose was improving transportation to schools, because many families simply cannot get their children to quality schools
Carpenter is excited about the future of The Memphis Lift, but she understands how much work still needs to be done. “We have made an impact on waking parents up about how this system is run…but we haven’t moved the needle enough,” she says.
Meanwhile, Carpenter has received multiple requests for advice on how to replicate The Memphis Lift model in other cities. Currently the organization is mentoring parent groups in St. Louis, Nashville, Atlanta, and Newark.
Despite her national notoriety and popularity with those in the education reform community, Carpenter is quick to remind us that, “Before I heard the term ‘ed reform,’ I was already advocating for kids in my community and my own kids, too!”
Her advice to parents with children in underperforming school districts is to first “get educated on the landscape of education…You can’t fight for anything if you don’t know what you’re fighting for.”
Follow Carpenter and The Memphis Lift on their website www.memphislift.orgor on Twitter @memphis_lift.
Six educators will be honored as Pioneers in Education on Monday, July 30, for their commitment and contributions to public education in Missouri.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will recognize the 2018 Pioneers during the 57th Annual Cooperative Conference for School Administrators at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach. The ceremony will take place during a luncheon where more than 600 school district leaders are expected to be in attendance.
The following individuals will be honored:
Joe Aull, Lexington, attended Lexington schools from kindergarten through high school. Upon graduating from Westminster University, he became a math teacher and basketball coach in Slater. As his career progressed, Aull served as a school principal in Lexington and Fulton, and he was named superintendent in Lexington and Marshall. He also served in the Missouri House of Representatives, was vice president of academics at Wentworth Military Academy and College, served as Lexington city administrator, and hosted a radio sports show.
Hugh Dunn, Macon, may be best known for his four-decade tenure as head football coach at Macon High School, home of Hugh Dunn Field. He attended Missouri Valley College and was a member of the football and track teams. Upon graduation, he began teaching and coaching in Macon. His teams won six league titles and made the state playoffs four times. Dunn was inducted into both the Missouri Coaches Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He is a decorated World War II veteran who earned a Purple Heart with Cluster and a Silver Star. Despite having lost an eye to infection as a child, he memorized the eye chart so he could enlist.
Ina Claire Lister, Bedford, Iowa, grew up in Iowa and entered Northwest Missouri Teachers College, returning to Iowa to begin her teaching career. When her family moved to Missouri, Lister taught in Hannibal and Savannah, eventually earning her Master of Science from Northwest Missouri State University. She served as a principal and became one of the first female superintendents in Missouri when she took the position in North Nodaway in 1986. Lister earned her doctorate in 1994. She has served as an adjunct instructor at Northwest Missouri State and as facilitator with DESE’s Northwest Regional Leadership Academy.
John Martin, Kansas City, was born in St. Joseph and grew up in St. Louis. He graduated from Harris Teachers College and began his career as an elementary social studies, math and physical education teacher in St. Louis. He became the first black principal of Flynn Park Elementary School in University City in 1980, where he was promoted to assistant superintendent of personnel. Martin and his family moved to Virginia for several years, and in that time, he earned his doctorate at Virginia Tech. Upon the family’s return to Missouri, Martin became superintendent in Grandview, where he retired after 10 years. He has since served assignments as assistant superintendent in St. Louis Public Schools and superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools. Martin was appointed to the State Board of Education in 2014 and served until 2017.
Carol Reimann, Cape Girardeau, was born in Cairo, Ill., but spent her entire life in Cape Girardeau. She earned her Bachelor of Science in elementary education from Southeast Missouri State College (SEMO) and began teaching first grade. Reimann later received her master’s degree from SEMO. In 1997, she was named the Missouri Teacher of the Year. One of her first-grade students grew up to become Missouri’s 2018 Teacher of the Year, the first time in Missouri that a Teacher of the Year has been taught by a Teacher of the Year. Reimann left the classroom and began working at DESE’s Southeast Regional Professional Development Center, where she stayed for 17 years. She retired on July 1, 2018, after a 50-year career in education.
Laurel Rosenthal, Carthage, said she wanted to be a teacher since kindergarten, when she was chosen to be in charge of handing out pencils. Rosenthal graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City and earned her degree in education from the University of Missouri. She taught kindergarten for 21 years. In 1988, Rosenthal became principal at Mark Twain Elementary School in Carthage, which was the first school in Missouri to become a No Excuses school. No Excuses is a program that stresses college and career readiness among students from a young age. Rosenthal was named Carthage citizen of the year in 2009.
“These Pioneers are role models for educators everywhere,” interim Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Roger Dorson said. “They have dedicated their lives to promoting excellence in education, and we are proud to honor them with this well-deserved recognition.”
This marks the 44th consecutive year that state education officials have presented
By Lynette Monroe (Program Assistant, NNPA ESSA Public Awareness Campaign)
Jarren Small, a 28 year-old, Missouri City native and community activist, stopped asking, “Why not?” and became the answer that he was looking for when he launched the non-profit organization LegendsDoLive.
In 2014, without any major partners, Small founded LegendsDoLive, an organization committed to funding and coordinating community-based programs for disadvantaged youth.
As a charismatic adolescent, Small was active in various extracurricular activities. He attended Hightower High School, played basketball and earned awards through the Media and Broadcasting Academy. In 2008, Jarren became an Eagle Scout. He credits his accomplishments to the positive impact of his parents’ consistent engagement and strategic exposure to diverse environments.
Shrugging his shoulders, Small downplayed his impressive list of academic and extracurricular accolades.
“Yeah, I guess I was kind of a cool kid in certain aspects,” Small said.
Ironically, Small’s many accomplishments were nearly overshadowed by his difficulty with standardized testing.
“Everyone thought I had it all together, but I failed to pass the math portion of the state standardized test,” called the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), Small said. “I passed the Math TAKS by one point—my fourth time. I felt like [God] was giving me one final chance to get it together.”
After high school, Small attended Prairie View A & M University in Prairie View, Texas, an hour’s drive to northwest of Missouri City.
“I did very well at [Prairie View A & M University],” Small said. “It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.”
And once again, Small was quite the standout student. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in mass communication with a minor in marketing. As an undergraduate, he led a movement to bring the first panther statue to campus in reverence of the university’s founding fathers. Small served as the student government association president from 2011 to 2012.
Small’s collegiate career was a stark contrast to the challenges he had faced just a few years earlier as a graduating senior.
When asked if his difficulty with testing was a defining moment, Small responded: “I feel like my entire life has led to this point, like everything I’ve been through and all the experiences I’ve had have been preparation for what I am doing right now.”
Fortunately, for other future leaders like Jarren Small, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), national education law signed by President Barack Obama, seeks to alleviate the burden of ineffective testing. ESSA gives states more flexibility to decide what type of assessments they issue. ESSA also allows states to develop “innovative” assessments or to use other nationally recognized tests like the SAT or ACT.
Small said that children are the nucleus of communities and that the success of our schools is the key to community sustainability.
Smiling, Small explained that, “Kids are not the future; they are the right now.”
The development of positive resources to support children offers a tangible solution to many concerns facing inner-city communities, Small said.
Small emphasized that his methods and approach to education are resources that all students can benefit from.
Likewise, ESSA requires states to prioritize stakeholder engagement in an attempt to better meet the educational needs of local populations in lieu of the national one-size-fits all academic standards promoted by its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush.
Currently, LegendsDoLive works primarily with high school students. This year, their widely anticipated annual “Senior Fest” included an all-star basketball game between Hightower High School and Ridge Point High School, followed by an empowerment forum and concert.
“This concert is happening during school. Something like this has never been done before,” Small explained, as he expounded on the innovation required to engage today’s youth.”
More than 600 students participated in the event. Small said getting students to participate in positive, educational events is not as difficult, as some people might think.
“It’s easy,” Small explained. “You just have to listen to them and then give them what they ask for.”
Small said that he’s applying this same attitude to his newest education focus: literacy. In May, LegendsDoLive launched a hip-hop curriculum called “Reading With a Rapper” to promote reading and writing proficiency. This program is a response to Small’s educational approach of listening to children first and then responding to their needs.
Let’s hope that Small’s enthusiasm about innovative approaches to education radiates throughout the nation as it has in the Houston-metropolitan area.
For more information about the Every Student Succeeds Act, visit nnpa.org/essa.
Lynette Monroe is the program assistant for the NNPA’s Every Student Succeeds Act Public Awareness Campaign and a master’s student at Howard University. Her research areas are public policy and national development. Follow Lynette on Twitter @_monroedoctrine.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is approving plans that fly in the face of the Every Student Succeeds Act’s protections for vulnerable children, according to more than a dozen civil rights groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The groups sent a letter Tuesday to Democratic and Republican leaders on the House and Senate education committees asking them to tell DeVos to stop approving “unlawful” plans.
“We call on you to fulfill your role in ESSA’s implementation and to correct the Department of Education’s flawed approval of state plans that do not comply core equity provisions of the law,” the groups wrote to Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., as well as Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Bobby Scott, D-Va.
This is far from the first time that the civil rights community—and Democratic lawmakers—have questioned DeVos’ approach to plan approval. The Alliance for Excellent Education, one of the 17 groups that signed off on the letter, put together a legal brief questioning whether some of the plans that DeVos has approved meet ESSA’s requirements. And both Murray and Scott have written letters to DeVos saying she is flouting the law.
One thing we’ll keep stressing again and again this week: how far federal policy has moved since the days of the No Child Left Behind Act (ESSA’s predecessor). Read on.
So, what kinds of goals are states setting?
Some states chose fixed goals that aim for all students, and all subgroups of vulnerable students, such as those qualifying for subsidized school lunches or English-language learners, to reach the same target (such as 80 percent proficiency). What’s nice about this kind of goal is that it sets the same endpoint, making it easier to see over time how achievement gaps are expected to close. States in this category include: Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Mississippi, (grades 3-8 only), Ohio, Minnesota, New York, Rhode island, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
KANSAS CITY CALL — The Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City will host its annual Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration beginning Saturday, Jan. 6, and ending on Wednesday, Jan. 17.
The celebration begins on Saturday at 7 p.m, with the Gospel Artist Tribute held at Victorious Life Church, 3400 The Paseo. Artists will include Stellar award winner Bishop Jason Nelson, Isaac Cates and Ordained, Eric Ashby and VP3. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and are available online at the SCLC website @www.sclcgkc.org
On Sunday, Jan. 7 at 3:30 p.m., an Interfaith Service will be held at the Community Christian church, 4601 Main St. The keynote address will be given by Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., one of America’s most influential religious leaders.
A litany of those involved in the Interfaith service will represent Protestant, Muslim, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian, Baha’I, and Sikh faiths. Music will feature The Soulful Phase Ensemble, music from the Jewish Tradition, The Kansas City Girls & Boys Choirs, Tim Whitmer and Millie Edwards.
This event will also honor Melissa Robinson, president of the Black Health Care Coalition and Board President of the Kansas City Public Schools, who will receive the 2018 Evelyn Wasserstrom award. This event is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please visit www.sclcgkc.org
On Sunday, Jan. 7 at 3:30 p.m., an Interfaith Service will be held at the Community Christian church, 4601 Main St. The keynote add
or contact Arlana Coleman (913) 522-7526.
The MLK celebration continues Tuesday, Jan. 9, with the Rev. Dr. Nelson “Fuzzy” Thompson Community Luncheon at the Sheraton Crown center, 2345 McGee.
Keynote speaker will be Leonard Pitts Jr. renown newspaper columnist, and author who also will host a book signing.
Also during the luncheon, The President’s award will be presented to Phil Glynn, president of Travois and The Community Service award will be awarded to Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, former Jackson County Executive and current 4th District City Councilwoman. Tickets for the luncheon are $60 and are available online at www.sclcgkc.org
On Sunday, Jan. 7 at 3:30 p.m., an Interfaith Service will be held at the Community Christian church, 4601 Main St. The keynote add
On Friday, Jan. 12, at 8 a.m. at the Kauffman Conference center, 4801 Rockhill Road, high school students from the Greater Kansas City area will gather for a Youth Leadership Development workshop. This “invitation only” event will feature Rahiel Tesfamariam, Founder and Publisher of Urban Cusp and District Attorney Mark Dupree.
On Saturday, Jan. 13, at 9 a.m., the celebration continues with the annual scholarship prayer breakfast, hosted at the College Basketball Experience, 1401 Grand Blvd.
St. Louis — State education chiefs are scrambling staff duties and outsourcing tasks such as data collection and school improvement efforts as they prepare for new responsibilities under the Every Student Succeeds Act—at the same time they cope with continued funding and staffing pressures.
ESSA, which goes into effect for accountability purposes next fall, is a mixed blessing in the view of state superintendents who have long asked for more flexibility to figure out on their own how best to improve student outcomes.
One big challenge: Budget cuts in recent years have left large swaths of state education departments squeezed on the capacity to carry out the training, data collecting, and innovation necessary to fully exploit that flexibility.
That tension was top of mind this month as the Council of Chief State School Officers gathered here for its annual policy forum…
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
St. Louis — State education chiefs are scrambling staff duties and outsourcing tasks such as data collection and school improvement efforts as they prepare for new responsibilities under the Every Student Succeeds Act—at the same time they cope with continued funding and staffing pressures.
ESSA, which goes into effect for accountability purposes next fall, is a mixed blessing in the view of state superintendents who have long asked for more flexibility to figure out on their own how best to improve student outcomes.
One big challenge: Budget cuts in recent years have left large swaths of state education departments squeezed on the capacity to carry out the training, data collecting, and innovation necessary to fully exploit that flexibility.
That tension was top of mind this month as the Council of Chief State School Officers gathered here for its annual policy forum.
With all their ESSA accountability plans now submitted to the U.S. Department of Education for approval, state education agencies in the coming months move into the implementation phase, which has the potential to be more arduous and politically contentious than the planning phase that took place over the previous two years…
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is designed to ensure that all students have a significant opportunity to have a fair and equitable high-quality education and to close educational achievement gaps. These programs provide assistance to rural- and low-income schools and services to students who are migrants, at-risk (including neglected and delinquent), homeless and English learners. In addition, the programs provide assistance to 21st Century Learning Centers and professional development for teachers and leaders.
By design, Missouri’s ESSA plan outlines only a portion of the state’s system for school improvement. The Missouri School Improvement Plan (MSIP) is the accountability measure of school improvement in the state, and ESSA is a component of that effort. Missouri is well-positioned to lead the nation on student success through our own homegrown systems. By taking additional time to gather feedback and establish our vision for education in Missouri, we hope to create a high-quality plan that meets the needs of all children.
The timeline for the state ESSA plan is as follows:
Public Comment: Through July 15, 2017
Reaction and Revision as necessary: July 15 – August 1, 2017
Gubernatorial Consultation: August 1 – September 1, 2017
In September and October, the department held Regional Meetings on Education to discuss what matters most in public education. Please click the link above to read what feedback meeting attendees and post-meeting survey recipients marked as what matters most to them in education.
Waiver Notice Request for Comments
Continue “Right Test, Right Time” Administration of End-of-Course Assessments
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is approving plans that fly in the face of the Every Student Succeeds Act’s protections for vulnerable children, according to more than a dozen civil rights groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
