For the Public Good-
Academically Engaging African-American Students and Students in Poverty in the Life of Their Schools
Blue Ribbon Schools Blue Print for Educational Excellence
National Institute
Reading Public Schools, Massachusetts
Superintendent, Patrick A. Schettini, Jr., J.D.
April 16 & 17, 2009
Dr. Gary L. Burgess, Sr.
C.O.O. Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence
Superintendent- Retired
Objectives of this session are
• To re-state that public education is an effort to democratize the populace for the public good
• To engage in an open and frank dialogue suggesting how schools might academically engage African-American students and students in poverty
• To discuss possible reasons why African-American students and students in poverty are not achieving at higher academic levels
• To suggest some strategies that might academically engage African-American students and students in poverty in their school’s academic culture
• To develop preliminary action steps to take in participants’ schools to facilitate the successful academic engagement of African-American students and students in poverty
• Expectations• Parameters• Procedures
• Some Theories• Some Research
• Some Effective School/Classroom Practices• District/School Action Planning
Sections
My Expectations-
I expect professional dialogue! I expect professional engagement! I expect to be challenged! (Make a note of
something I say that bothers you!)No blame, no victimization- frank,
professional dialogue!
Your Expectations-
• What do you expect to get from this session?
Parameters of Exchange:
• We will be respectful of each others ideas.• We will be frank in our discussion.• We will focus on what we can do to continue to make a positive difference
academically for African-American students and students in poverty.
• We will leave this session as we entered, as professional colleagues.
Let me say it up front-
• It’s difficult to discuss race (black/white), socio-economic status, gender and religion
in America!!!Why?
We want to believe we live in a colorblind, classless, genderless, religiously free
society.
Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence
is dedicated to improving academic excellence for all children and celebrating
the successes of schools.
Caution-• Statements made are
of a general nature and do not apply to all
African-American students and students
in poverty, but to these students as
distinct disaggregate groups.
• Not all African-students are poor.
• Not all poor students are African-American.
• Not all African-American students are underperforming.
• Not all poor students are underperforming.
Procedure-
• We will divide into random groups and district/school groups during this session• Each group will assign a recorder and
spokesperson• Each spokesperson will report at the end
of group dialogue
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Preamble
W.E.B. Dubois states-Of all the civil rights for which the world has
struggled and fought for 5000 years, the right to learn, is undoubtedly the most
fundamental…whatever we may think of the curtailment of other civil rights, we
should fight to the last ditch to keep open the right to learn…. We must insist upon this to give our children the fairness of a start which will equip them with such an
array of facts and such an attitude toward truth that they can have a real chance…
Some Theories
Random Group-List five reasons why public schools might not be effectively engaging
African-American students and students in poverty academically in their schools.
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
Random Group-List five reasons (characteristics/coping strategies) why
African-American students and students in poverty might not be effectively engaging academically in their schools.
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
Theories
• Why might a theoretical frame be helpful?
Critical Social Theory-
Resistance and Reproduction• Ogbu’s Research • Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces• Non-Synchrony• Stereotype Threat• The Tical Factor
Ogbu’s Research Reveals
• Involuntary/transplanted immigrant groups (African Americans) usually perceive cultural differences as barriers and markers of group identity; therefore, when such groups cross cultural lines (becoming educated), it’s seen as a loss of identity.
• Voluntary immigrant groups (Africans, Europeans, Asians, South Americans, Indians, etc) usually perceive cultural differences as barriers to be overcome; therefore, are more likely to be successful in crossing cultural boundaries (becoming educated).
Steele’s Work-Stereotype Threat
Negative stereotypes about disaggregate groups might depress academic performance, particularly with members of
disaggregate groups that have historically been discriminated against. Therefore, for members of these groups who
identified with domains in which these stereotypes apply, the threat of these stereotypes can be sharply felt and, in several
ways, hamper academic achievement.
Centripetal & Centrifugal ForcesDuBois
• Centripetal Forces- forces that tend to draw members of a minority group toward that minority group.
• Centrifugal Forces- forces that tend to draw members of a minority group toward the life styles of the
dominant culture.
Non-Synchrony
The interface of gender, race, and class are linked in a non-synchronized arrangement. One affects the other, with all having some effect on the other’s acceptance, with regard to society’s
emphasis, expression, and interest in that construct at certain historical intersections.
The Tical Factor
• The feeling of being trapped in one’s current life-circumstances, not perceiving a means of escape or power over one’s
situation, believing something to be deficient about self; therefore, getting
what one deserves.Burgess, Distorted, 2009
Does Race/Culture Matter?
Often educators express their ability to ignore the color of children, however, race does matter
in addressing the needs of African-American children; to ignore the presence of race in the
fabric of American culture contributes to the fact that African-American children are oftentimes
academic underachievers.
A Color-blind/Classless/Genderless Society
How might this assumed social reality affect African-American students and students in poverty?
How might this assumed social reality affect the school as an institution in dealing with African-
American students and students in poverty?
Centuries of negative psychological and social
conditioning• Transatlantic Slave Trade
Seasoning Process
• Paranoia of wealth whites- slave owners
• Miseducation of slaves
• Education seen as an asset of the white male landed gentry
• The Constitution-o Article I, Section 2,
Paragraph 3: Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States…which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons.
• Jim Crow codes• Separate but Equal
Some Research
How is the achievement gap defined in the U.S.?
Public Schools systematically exclude African-American students and students in poverty from
exposure to high-level-quality academiccurriculum and instruction. Currently exclusion is
achieved throughreadiness measures administered to children prior to
their entranceinto the public school system and “objective”
screening criteria, suchas standardized tests in upper grades.
Burgess, 2009- Distorted, p.32.
“Tested into Remediation”
Framing Vs. Expanding
Skills’ Deficit vs. Intellectual Deficit
The Trap-
• Schools with large numbers of students in poverty and/or large numbers of African-
American students and students in poverty value control more than learning!
Local Research
• Did students who scored Below Basic or Basic on the ELA and/or math portion of PACT score at the Proficient or Advance levels on the science and social studies portion of PACT?
• Did students who scored at the Proficient or Advance levels on the science and social studies portion on PACT score at the Below Basic or Basic level on the ELA and/or math portion of PACT?
Research Generalization Regarding Practice
• The actions of the district and the school can have a powerful effect on individual student achievement.
(School District educatorship that Works, The College of William & Mary Superintendents’ Retreat, Feb. 2007)
Meta-analyses involving:
• 4,500 studies• 2,714 school districts (14,000)
• 3.4 million student scores
Focus of School-Level Leadership: Influences on
Student LearningSchool Practices
1. Guaranteed & Viable Curriculum2. Challenging Goals & Effective Feedback3. Parent & Community Involvement4. Safe & Orderly Environment5. Collegiality & Professionalism
Teacher/Classroom Practices6. Instructional Strategies7. Classroom Management8. Classroom Curriculum Design
Student Characteristics9. Home Environment10.Learned Intelligence/Background Knowledge11.Motivation
Consider this …
The general assumption is that the school’s job is to see to it that students learn rather than merely being taught, and to hold the expectation that all students can and should learn at high levels.
Black Immigrants, An Invisible 'Model Minority'
March 19, 2007
• WASHINGTON-Do African immigrants make the smartest Americans? The question may sound outlandish, but if you were judging by statistics alone, you could find plenty of
evidence to back it up.• In a side-by-side comparison of 2000 census data by
sociologist John R. Logan at the Mumford Center, State University of New York at Albany, black immigrants from Africa average the highest educational attainment of any
population group in the country, including whites and Asians.• For example, 43.8 percent of African immigrants had
achieved a college degree, compared to 42.5 of Asian Americans, 28.9 percent for immigrants from Europe, Russia
and Canada, and 23.1 percent of the U.S. population as a whole.
By Clarence Page is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist specializing in urban
issues.
• Some Effective School/Classroom Practices
Outstanding Educators Invite Students to
Learn!!!!!Levels of Invitation
I. Unintentionally Uninviting I wonder why these kids don’t like my class?
II. Intentionally Uninviting (replicate)
My classroom is not a place for kids to have fun, it’s a place to learn!
III.Unintentionally Inviting I wonder why these kids are having fun learning in my class.
IV. Intentionally Inviting (replicate)
I take responsibility for my students’ learning.
I understand my students as individuals, as members of distinct ethnic, racial and social economic groups, and as members of the student body at-
large.
Invitational Educators Believe it to be Their
Moral and Civic Responsibility to Create Inviting
Classroom Environments in which Learners Learn and a Culture of Learning is
Developed – A Learning Community!
Intentionally Inviting Educators Understand the How and Why of School
Improvement?
Aligned classroom practices with outcome indicators (test -
qualitative/quantitative) for all members and groups within their classroom. Particularly, student
growth measured against outcome indicators.
LUCKY
High Results, low understanding of
antecedents
Replication of success unlikely
LOSING
Low Results, low understanding of
antecedents
Replication of failure likely
LEADING
High Results, high understanding of
antecedents
Replication of success likely
LEARNING
Low Results, high understanding of
antecedents
Replication of success likely
Ach
ieve
men
t o
f R
esu
lts
Antecedents of Excellence
Source: The Learning Leader
The Teaching for Learning Framework
The Six Elements of the Explicit Teaching Model
• Review• Presentation
• Guided Practice• Correction and feedback
• Independent practice• Daily, weekly and monthly reviews
Invitational Educators do not
lower their expectations or
support of African-
American children or children in
poverty.
Some Effective Classroom/School Strategies for Academically Engaging African American Students and
Students in Poverty
• Helping students understand the power they possess to determine their ideological position within their schools
• Invitational teaching• Provide an adult (older person/student) reading to/with every child in grades
pre-K – 2 on a daily basis• The invitational hunt to include African-American students and students in
poverty in high quality, rigorous and relevant academic work• High academic expectations of children coupled with unparalleled
school/educator support of students• African-American students’ academic success seen as the rule and not the
exception• Multiple entry points into high level-high quality curriculum programs• Celebration of Learning• Teaching opposed to covering material• Mastery Learning• Use of the Explicit Teaching Model• Inclusion teaching model• Correlating classroom practices, school practices, and teacher practices with
student achievement (how students are measured academically)• Adopting varied and diverse instructional methodologies that allow for a wide
range of learning styles that exist within a multiracial and multiethnic student population
Continued- Some Effective Classroom/School Strategies for Academically Engaging African American Students and Students in Poverty
• Scaffolding without lower academic expectations• Ensuring classroom observations are conducted systematically
and frequently• Focusing on nonfiction reading• Focusing on reading, writing and ciphering at every grade level• Teachers becoming reading and writing instructors in their
content area• Peer teaching and tutoring• Advisory Programs• Mentoring Programs (School/Community based)• Community Volunteer Programs• Rethinking assessment, particularly K-4 - 2nd grade• Assessment vs. Grading• Help African American students and students in poverty
understand the values of the middle class without demeaning the students’ culture
• Start with the end in mind
Yes, We Can!!!
We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need,
in order to do this. Whether we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't
done it so far…
Ron Edmunds
District/School Action Planning
Cowardice asked the question, is this safe? Expendeniecy asked the question, is this politic? Vanity ask the question, is it popular? But conscience ask the question, is it right? There comes a time when one must take a position that’s
neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but right!
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Emergency Academic Action Team (EAAT)
Stop the regular business of school to assess which curriculum and instruction programs are having a
positive academic impact for these students-------------------------------------------------------------------
Replicate and strengthen those programs that are working
Adopt programs that have a proven record of success
Immediately abandon those programs that have been in place two or more years that are not
working
Results of Strategies Used in Your District/School
Successful Strategies
Why? Non-Successful Strategies
Why?
District/School GroupList immediate action steps you can take to engage African-
American students and students in poverty in the academic culture of their schools/classrooms.
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
Action Steps(one sheet per goal)
Goal to be accomplished-
How does this goal tie into your district’s/school’s mission?
Who? What? When? Where? Cost?
• Remember-
Invitational educators Help Learners Understand that Learning is-
• A Journey• A Process• Continuous• Near Chaotic• Risky but required to survive
& thrive
Invitational educators See
Learning...
Organized Around the Future
Instead of the Past
Ends
Purposes
Results
Outcomes
Goals
Learning
Achievement
Performance
Standards
Competence
LifeLife
Means
Procedures
Resources
Processes
Roles
Teaching
Programs
Curriculum
Time
Content
School
Objectives of this session were-
• To suggest that public education is an effort to democratize the populace for the public good
• To engage in an open and frank dialogue suggesting how schools might academically engage African-American students and students in poverty
• To discuss possible reasons why African-American students and students in poverty are not achieving at higher academic levels
• To suggest some strategies that might successfully engage African-American students and students in poverty in their school’s academic culture
• To develop preliminary action steps to take in participants’ schools to facilitate the successful academic engagement of African-American students and students in poverty
Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence- Invitationally Leading the charge for academic excellence for the Public Good!
Research and works in progress by Dr. Burgess-
• College Start: Smooth Transitions for Minority Students, NASSP,
Bulletin, May 1988.• Successfully Navigating the Main
Stream: The perceptions of working class African-American males to academic barriers in
their own school’s culture (Dissertation)
• Are Pride and Persistence Attributes Needed to Make
Successful Progress Against Great Societal Odds? (Monograph)
• Distorted- Three-fifths of a Pupil, Restoring the Intellectual Image of Students of American Slave Descent: Together and Still Unequal! Publish America,
Baltimore, MD 2009• Work in progress- Tested Into
Remediation: Framing Not Expanding
My Contact Information
• 864.760.3656• [email protected]
• 202 Sweetheart Nook• Pendleton, South Carolina 29670
ReferencesReferences
Brandt, R. S. (2000). Education in a new era.
Burgess, G.L. (2006). Are pride and persistence attributes to make successful progress against great societal odds?
Burgess, G.L. (2009). Distorted: Restoring the intellectual image of students of american slave descent, together and still unequal
Burgess, G. L. (1999). Navigating the mainstream: The perceptions of working class african-american males to barriers of academic success in their local school cultures’.
The Center for High Performance- A division of the North Carolina Partnership for Excellence
Covey, S. T. (1989). Seven habits of highly effective people.
English, F. (2000). Deciding what to teach and test.
Fullan, M. G. (1991). The new meaning of educational change.
Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities.
Meek, A. (1999). Communicating with the public: A guide for school educators.
Milken, L. (2000). A matter of quality: A strategy for assuring the high caliber of America’s educators.
References ContinuedReferences Continued
Molnar, A. (1987). Social issues and education: Challenge and responsibility.
National Study of School Evaluation (1997). School improvement: Focusing on student performance.
National Study of School Evaluation (1997). Indicators of schools of quality.
Page, C (March 19, 2007) Real Clear Politics. Black Immigrants an ‘Invisible Model Minority’
Patterson, J. L., Purkey, S. C., and Parker, J. V. (1986). Productive school systems for a nonrational world.
Popham, J. W. (2001). The Truth About Testing: An educators call to action.
Purkey, W. W. (1978). Inviting school success.
Schwahn, C.J. & Spady, W.G. (1998). Total educators: Applying the best future-focused change strategies to education.
Schmoker, M. (2006). Results Now.
Sergiovanni, T. J. (1992). Moral educatorship: Getting to the heart of school improvement.
Shujaa, M.J. (1994). Too much schooling to little education.
Steele, (2006). The stereotype threat.
Tomlinson, C.A. & Allan, S.D. (2000). educatorship for differentiating schools & Classrooms
Waters, J.T. (2006). School District educatorship that WorksSchool District educatorship that Works . The College of William & Mary . The College of William & Mary Superintendents’ Retreat, Feb. 2007Superintendents’ Retreat, Feb. 2007
