What Systemic Racism Can Look Like

 

I love attending seminars and talks (even virtual ones) to hear administrators share what they do that works. I see frequent articles about gifted programs, talent development programs, and accelerated programs that are disappearing because of "equity". Equity seems to be a scapegoat for laziness. When I started working at a small liberal arts college almost 20 years ago, I worked with students who came from both public and private schools. I quickly noticed the public school students liked to talk about their honors programs and AP courses as well as getting to take Calculus in high school. They talked about their accelerated course work and talent development programs. I also had students from small schools that did not have tracks. One student professed to going to her school after not getting into the gifted public school. She boasted 4s and 5s on her 3 AP tests even though she never took an “AP” course. The students weren’t labeled at those private schools, each year teachers had high rigorous expectations for ALL students. Algebra was simply the math that all 8th graders had to take and the curriculum K-8 prepared all students to take it.

 

I attended a seminar where an elementary principal shared study gains for African American and Hispanic students over the past 5 years. The achievement gap at her Title 1 school was non-existent when students who met criteria in a racial “sub group” category and the special education category were removed from the analysis. So, what did she do?

 

When she took her leadership position 6 years prior, she took over a school that had a gifted kindergarten program. Parents touted the program. The make-up of the class was predominately Asian and White students each year. It was a program taught by a phenomenal kindergarten teacher who did not have a gifted education certification. When faced with an enrollment that required her to hire a new kindergarten teacher and replace a retiring kindergarten teacher, the principal moved the gifted education kindergarten teacher to one of the “regular” kindergarten sections, hired another phenomenal kindergarten teacher who boasted a 90 percent reading success rate and hired a new gifted kindergarten teacher with a gifted certification. This allowed her to have three kindergarten classes of 13-15 students each and keep the “gifted” program. She then found out the teachers that the “high fliers” got each year (1^st-3^rd) and made sure that the neediest students got that teacher instead. She ruffled parent feathers, but she made sure to tell them that programs for the “gifted” students were intact.

 

Well, we all know what happened. Her “gifted” students scored proficient or better though she did admit the number of advanced students did lose some ground, but her percentage of basic students which was at 40% (all Black, Hispanic, and special education students) fell to below 10% in 5 years. I am all for keeping your gifted programs, accelerated programs, AP classes, honors classes etc. But if to do this, you are denying your neediest students access to the more skilled teachers year after year, you are creating disparate impact and it’s wrong to tell those parents that it’s a culture problem. It’s a systemic racism problem.