February 15, 2016
HISTORY
Black History
Month includes
student celebrations and
classroom lessons focusing on
remarkable African
Americans who
have achieved
extraordinary
feats and overcome obstacles
in their quest for
the equality of all
people of color.
Continued from page 1
people were – and still are – portrayed as a
result of ugly hatred and misunderstanding
that has been fundamentally rooted in the
fabric of our society.
As history has unfolded, the mistruths of
African Americans have been passed down
from generation to generation, and most
specifically, within the school system. In
history books and classroom lessons across
the nation for centuries, lessons on African
American history have neglected to include
the rich culture and traditions that began
long before the forced immigration of West
Africans for the express purpose of labor
exploitation.
Between the middle passage experience
and modern times, African history was
rarely acknowledged, and essentially eliminated through hard punishment for use of
cultural norms rooted in language, learning, dance, music and family connections.
The travesty of this fact is that African
American students have never had a legacy
of learning about their own native culture at
home or in schools.
For example, although African American
students’ native tongue traces back generations to thousands of African dialects, most
do not connect to this. Thus, we often
see African American students struggle,
as other English language learners do, in
acquiring the broad range of disciplines
within the English language while also
navigating the aspects of Black dialect in
America. Teachers of African American
students often find difficulty in helping
them reach mastery of content standards,
primarily due to the fact that they also are
products of an educational system where
native African dialect is not recognized nor
understood.
Black History Month can spark an
opportunity to recognize these gaps and
change our perspective when teaching
African American students. It is crucial that
our leaders and educators become aware of
the reality that we operate in a system that
was simply not designed to serve all students of diverse backgrounds.
In 1779, one of our respected forefathers,
Thomas Jefferson, proposed a two-track
educational system, with different expectations for, in his words, “the laboring and the
learned.” Scholarships would allow a select
few of the laboring class to advance by “raking a few geniuses from the rubbish.”
While we must believe that there were
some positive intentions behind this idea,
we must also realize there were some detrimental consequences that came out of it.
We can identify some current educational
tracks that exist representing this two-track
thinking: college or career pathways, special
education or general education, and many
more that lead to disproportionate numbers
of African American students being suspended, dropping out and going to prison.
This unfortunate system of inequity and
CPSEL Standard 5:
Ethics and Integrity
Education leaders make decisions,
model and behave in ways that demonstrate professionalism, ethics, integrity,
justice and equity, and hold staff to the
same standard.
We must remind ourselves of this ugly
truth in order to build and infuse compassion and empathy within our current educational communities and society alike.
With this being said, we must remember
that knowledge is truly powerful. As educators, we all have some level of cultural power
that we can responsibly use to become
advocates for African American students
who consistently are underserved by an
tional, physical, and economic assets and
needs and promote equitable practices and
access appropriate resources.
• Continuously improve cultural proficiency and competency in curriculum,
instruction, and assessment for all learners.
EDCAL 5
ize and experience high quality educational
outcomes. We have great examples within
our own ranks who have been champions
for African American students within the
public education system. We have leaders
such as superintendents, principals, school
boards and parents who have advocated and
ensured that African American students are
served equitably.
Within current educational initiatives
in California, the Local Control Funding
Formula’s spirit and intention is to provide
equitable outcomes for students, specifically English learners, foster youth and students living in poverty. And while African
American students are not specifically
named, districts have the opportunity to utilize their Local Control and Accountability
Plans to fundamentally change the outcomes for African American students.
It will require education leaders to
address their belief systems and look at their
journey as culturally proficient leaders in
order to act with an equity lens. Leaders can
use the leadership standard in California
Professional Standards for Educational
Leaders No. 5 to focus o n support through
professional development, as well as evaluation for optimal equity leadership.
During Black History Month, and
• Commit to making difficult decisions in service of equitable outcomes for
students, staff and the school community.
Reflective Practice
Leaders act upon a personal code of
ethics that requires continuous reflection
and learning:
• Examine personal assumptions, values, and beliefs to address students’ various
academic, linguistic, cultural, social-emo-
Ethical Decision-Making
Leaders guide and support personal
and collective actions that use relevant evidence and available research to make fair
and ethical decisions:
• Review multiple measures of data on
effective teaching and learning, leadership,
management practices, equity and other
pertinent areas to inform decision making.
Ethical Action
Leaders recognize and use their professional influence with staff and the community to develop a climate of trust, mutual
respect and honest communication necessary to consistently make fair and equitable
decisions on behalf of all students:
• Communicate expectations and support for professional behavior reflecting
ethics, integrity, justice and equity.
Excerpted from CTC document adopted
February 2014: www.ctc.ca.gov.
inequality has led us to the reality of educational gaps throughout our state and
nation. These include achievement, access,
opportunity, service, and even acknowledgement gaps.
And with all of the educational initiatives that have supported the advancement
of opportunities for African Americans
throughout the course of history, it is
still very apparent that even our African
American babies come into the world with
foreseeable hardships based on their ethnicity alone.
educational system that wasn’t designed to
serve them in the first place.
When looking through a historical lens,
we know that African American students
have been targets of oppression that has
manifested itself to this very day. As educators, who are products of this system, we
often are agents of oppression, where we
perpetuate inequities daily; when we often
don’t fundamentally agree.
When we recognize our own agency, we
can become advocates who will empower
African American students to self actual-
throughout the year, let’s empower ourselves
to become advocates for African American
students through learning more about their
culture and empowering them to be agents
of change for themselves and others.
As educational leaders, we can close the
educational gaps that exist in our schools,
but we must first close the ones in our
minds.
Nicole Anderson is a former principal, assis
tant principal/dean and teacher in Vallejo City
USD, serving as an advocate for equity and
civil rights for all students of color.
professional
development calendar
WWW.ACSA.ORG • 800.608.ACSA
february
16 Having Hard Conversations 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Burlingame
17 Having Hard Conversations 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Burlingame
22 LCAP Urban Team Development begins . . . . . . . . . Vallejo City USD
23 Meetings Master. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . San Diego
24-25 Coaching Leaders to Attain Student Success. . . . . . . . . . Bakersfield
25-26 Classified Educational Leaders Institute . . . . . . . . . . Redondo Beach
http://www.acsa.org/Conferences.html#Page-Item
march
1
9
14
15
24
Meetings Master. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ontario
Co-Administrators Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tustin
Having Hard Conversations 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ontario
Having Hard Conversations 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ontario
Co-Administrators Workshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fairfield
Register Today!
Register
Now!
april
14-16 Leadership 3.0 Symposium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Redondo Beach
may
14 Aspiring CA Educators (CPACE prep) Workshop 1. . . . . . Sacramento
21 Aspiring CA Educators (CPACE prep) Workshop 2. . . . . . Sacramento
28 Aspiring CA Educators (CPACE prep) Workshop 1. . . . . . . . . Ontario
june
4 Aspiring CA Educators (CPACE prep) Workshop 2. . . . . . . . . Ontario
25 Innovative Technology Academy begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fullerton
April 14-16, 2016
Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach Hotel
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