Glenn Singleton- Courageous Conversations about Race:
A powerful book focused to open one's eyes to race and systemic racism throughout education and society and introduces the reader to a set of protocols to use at all times going forward when talking about race. Book is activity and discussion based while looking at data with race, or addressing concerns of systemic bias throughout the school. Courageous Conversations about Race Explorations district-wide PD is based on this book and work of Glenn Singleton.
Bettina Love- We want to do more than survive:
Written through the lens of her personal experience with years of being an educator, Dr. Love focuses on the premise of "if education does not work for all students, it doesn't work for any students." She asks the reader to reflect on ways we all engage in spirit murdering in our schools and how we can flip the narrative and embrace more freedom dreaming with the students we are educating.
Dr. Bettina Love- Punished for Dreaming
Looks at the impact of the last 40 years of educational reform has had on generations of Black families. Policies throughout the years have punished schools and families in the name of reform and progress as private interests infiltrated the public system. Stories focus on specific examples of impact and policies throughout the country. Time is spent on how a larger understanding of edcuational form can lead to growth and progress in education going forward.
Looking specifically at the criminalization and discipline of Black girls in schools and the disproportionality of discipline Black females face across the country compared to their White peers. Looks at the policies, practices and cultural illiteracy that are causes of these unequitable outcomes for Black girls and the effects this discipline has on the girls.
Ibram X Kendi- How to be an antiracist:
Ibram X Kendi writes a narrative of his life starting as a child through his recent experiences with cancer and his reflection on racism, systemic racism and becoming an antiracist throughout his journey. Looking at changing the policies, practices, systems and institutions that promote racism and unequitable outcomes.
Explore the hidden (and not hidden) biases everyone carries daily from a lifetime of exposure in society about age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexuality, disability status, and nationality. Time is spent to look specifically how our mind builds these biases and how our mind works to hide them from our own consciousness. The authors ask you to reflect on how these biases affect your likes and dislikes, your judgements, your relationships, you day to day interactions at work and home, and other aspects of our lives we take for granted.
James Nelsen- Educating Milwaukee
Written by an MPS educator, the book traces the history and origins of the school chice, open enrollment Milwaukee and MPS segregation and artifacts of those historical pieces remain. James Nelsen aims to provide a historical lens for the environment in which MPS finds themselves today.
Richard Milner- These kids are out of control: why we must reimagine classroom management for equity:
Details specific practices, tools, beliefs, dispositions, and mindsets that are essential to better serving the complex needs of our diverse learners, especially our marginalized students. What it means to be culturally responsive, how to decide what to teach, build relationships, assess student development, and four best practices for building classroom culture that is both nurturing and rigorous where all students are seen hear, and respected.
Shane Safir- Street Data: A next generation model for equity, pedagogy and school transformation:
Analyzing how we gather and analyze data in education. Typically, big picture, or satellite data, is used and is often used as a tool of oppression. How can schools and staff members gather more street data including student and family voice to transform educational outcomes for learners?
Chapter 1 & 2:
P. 13 - “The Crisis in Black Education,” “The Problem with Black Boys,” and “Addressing a Poverty Mindset.” These types of workshops White-splain Black Folx’ challenges to White folx…” What does Dr. Love mean by this? Do we see similar workshops and professional development here?
What are ways we all can show that we truly “love all children.”
What does she mean by “spirit murdering?” Do you have any examples of how you have seen that occur?
“As a nation, we have been counting on education to solve the problem of unemployment, joblessness, and poverty for many years. But education did not cause these problems, and education cannot solve them.” Authentically react to this quote.
Chapter 3 & 4
Dr. Love uses the phrase “give them hell.” What does that mean for you within your role in education?
What are ways we can provide more opportunities in our schools to “Love Blackness” as Dr. Love calls it?
Do you agree, disagree, or need more information with Dr. Love’s thoughts on Social Emotional Learning/grit vs Civics Education?
What is something you can do to protect childrens’ potential?
Chapter 5
Do you agree or disagree with Dr. Love’s statement of “education cannot save us, we must save education.”
What is freedom dreaming? What are ways in which we all can encourage more freedom dreaming?
What is the difference between being a co-conspirator and not an ally? In what ways does performative allyship center whiteness, forestalling the progress necessary for transformational change in education? What are ways you can become a co-conspirator in your role?
Chapter 6 & 7
What is the teacher education gap? What are ways we can address that as an institution or you individually in your role?
Which of the six types of cultural capital spoke to you the most? Why?
Where do you see invisible Whiteness in your day to day work?
How can teachers/staff/schools see teaching for survival vs. thriving, how do you, in your role, teach students to thrive?
What actionable step can you take to become an abolitionist teacher/educator/parent/citizen/etc?
Bettina Love toolkit website: https://bettinalove.com/toolkit/
Session 1: Chapters 1 & 2
Discussion Prompts
Watch trailer video: https://youtu.be/e5kOyLOiryE
Introductions, where are you coming in on the Courageous Conversations Compass
Round: share a little about your educational experience as a student
Watch video on Zook: https://youtu.be/duWxVlrFhpc
What’s coming up for you as you reflect on the experience of Zook?
Resources:
Articles
Why some people live where they do, in segregated metropolitan Milwaukee
Report: Metro Milwaukee's Black students are the most hypersegregated in the nation
Racially restrictive covenants: the making of all-White suburbs in Milwaukee County (UW-M)
Redlining, racial covenants, and suburbia: How Milwaukee became a hyper-segregated city
Videos/webinars
How did Milwaukee become the United States' most segregated city? (with Reggie Jackson and Joshua Garoon)
Busing, desegregation & charter schools in Milwaukee
1965: Lloyd Barbee starts lawsuit charging MPS has engaged in unconstitutional practices to create & maintain a segregated school system
1976: State legislature funds program “Chapter 220” to provide state aid for minority and nonminority students to be bussed across district lines to promote racial integration (phased out in 2015)
1976-1979: MPS settles to desegregate 3/4ths of its students
1984: MPS sues suburban districts for working to making structure more difficult for families of color to integrate to suburbs
1989: Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP)
1993: Charter School Law (230 schools/ 51,158 students in 2022)
1998: Religious schools added to MPCP
2011: Governor Walker removes all MPCP enrollment caps
Session 2
Chapters 3-4-5
Discussion Prompts:
Check-in: where are you coming in on the Courageous Conversation compass from reading these chapters?
Ch 3 prompt: how does your school culture and/or policies encourage or make more difficult engaging parents/caregivers as partners in students’ educational journeys?
Ch 4 prompt: Reflecting on a school/classroom that shows “what the best get”-
What does it look, smell, feel and sound like?
Who or what is there? Who or what is not there?
What makes it worth of “the best”
How can you ensure your students receive “what the best get: given your resources and context?
Ch 5 prompt: What has been the impact of the targeted attack on diversity, equity and inclusion in education? How have you been impacted? How have you seen others impacted?
Resources
WI DPI list of charter schools: https://dpi.wi.gov/parental-education-options/charter-schools/current
City Milwaukee owned charter schools: https://city.milwaukee.gov/csrc/City-Charter-Schools
UW-Milwaukee charter schools: https://uwm.edu/education/community/charter-schools/
Milwaukee parental choice program information: https://schoolchoicewi.org/programs/milwaukee-parental-choice-program/
WI DPI list of schools offering school choice enrollment: https://dpi.wi.gov/parental-education-options/choice-programs/student-applications
What’s the difference? Voucher schools, charter schools, Milwaukee Public Schools: https://www.aclu-wi.org/sites/default/files/document-library/TheDifference.pdf
Podcast: Practical strategies for engaging families in education (from Leading Equity podcast) https://www.leadingequitycenter.com/330
Heather McGhee “the sum of us” podcast (also available for free on Spotify app) https://open.spotify.com/show/19VMtc487rqmrb6GC8eRvd
Article “voucher, charter schools receive major state funding boost, while school districts likely to get less” https://www.wuwm.com/2023-06-22/voucher-charter-schools-receive-major-state-funding-boost-while-school-districts-likely-to-get-less
Article “Governor signs bills increasing low-revenue ceiling, voucher payments, shared revenue” https://weac.org/weac-opposes-bill-to-expand-per-pupil-voucher-payments-as-much-as-41-percent/
Article “Wisconsin Republican leaders blocks pay raises in continuation of DEI fight” https://apnews.com/article/university-wisconsin-dei-diversity-funding
Article “Campus diversity programs targeted as legal and political battles escalate” https://www.wpr.org/education/uw-system-diversity-inclusion-dei-programs-political-battles-escalate
Article “70 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, public schools still segregated” https://www.the74million.org/article/70-years-after-brown-vs-board-of-education-public-schools-still-segregated/
Article “40 years after ‘A nation at risk’ assessing the impact of whole-child reforms on America’s schools” https://www.the74million.org/article/40-years-after-a-nation-at-risk-assessing-the-impact-of-whole-child-reforms-on-americas-schools/
Books
Ari Gerzon-Kessler: “on the same team: bringing educators and underrepresented families together https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202513457-on-the-same-team
James Nelsen: “educating milwaukee: how one city’s history of segregation and struggle shaped its schools” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25757781-educating-milwaukee?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_19
Heather McGhee “the sum of us” https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53231851
Videos/Webinars
WBUR News “The surprising history behind charter schools” https://youtu.be/-HwX2H8Z4hY?si=r2HpYmsnhvTsN20H
Amber Ruffin Show “Critical Race Theory” https://youtu.be/oCya-XjjBsc
PBS “Why Americans are so divided over teaching critical race theory” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-americans-are-so-divided-over-teaching-critical-race-theory
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver “Charter Schools” https://youtu.be/l_htSPGAY7I?si=IR2xvcgXgSlALVh_
CNBC “Why charter schools make Americans so angry” https://youtu.be/M3eXfx4GpJc?si=-eAOwwx9lrTtRKJg
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “What you need to know about charter schools in Wisconsin”
Video “Creator of term Critical Race Theory Kimberle Crenshaw explains what it really is” https://youtu.be/n4TAQF6ocLU
Webinar “What is Critical Race Theory and why is it under attack with Kimerle Crenshaw and Devon Carbano” https://youtu.be/0yHuCjQ5pUA
Webinar “Parents skeptical of Critical Race Theory talk to experts” https://youtu.be/mmRO3J6IJC8?si=qTbh7U67lleI_8_3
Heather McGhee Ted Talk “racism has a cost for everyone” https://www.ted.com/talks/heather_c_mcghee_racism_has_a_cost_for_everyone?language=en
Session 3
Chapters 6-7-8
Discussion Prompts
Video on Johnnie https://youtu.be/jh62j5A5Dv8
Watching the video on Johnnie- where are you on the Compass? Why?
Policing in schools: https://youtu.be/QZsgk9acYbo?si=rW9h_FheK-4GlV4U
How does carcerality show up in your school?
What non-assessment related system of affirmation, celebration and feedback are in place or could be built in our educational spaces?
Resources
Articles:
Students of color with disabilities are being pushed into the school-to-prison pipeline, study finds
How school suspensions push black students behind (The Atlantic)
One school district is fighting decades of 'punishment culture'
From preschool to prison: the criminialization of Black girls
How schools are 'spirit murdering' Black and Brown students (Bettina Love) (PDF)
'Dads on duty' prove parent-led initiatives are effective alternatives to police in schools
Why, really, are so many Black kids suspended? No, it's not because they misbehave more
New documents prove Tennessee County disproportionately jails Black children, and it's getting worse
In a California Desert, Sheriff's Deputies Settle Schoolyard Disputes. Black Teens Bear the Brunt.
Handcuffs in hallways: hundreds of elementary students arrested at U.S. schools
Black students feel less welcome at schools with excessive suspensions
New data: over 100 elementary-aged children arrested in U.S. schools
Book: Derecka Purnell “Becoming abolitionists: police, protests and the pursuit of freedom”
Videos:
Why police aren't protecting our kids in school (Samantha Bee)
A system not made for me (RaiseUp winner Jonny Triumph)
How zero tolerance blurred the lines between schools and criminal justice
The school to prison pipeline with Rudy Bankston (PBS Wisconsin Why Race Matters)
Andrea Joseph-McCatty- Black girls are 4.19 times more likely to get suspended than white girls
How schools are funneling Black students into the prison system
Documentary: Crack: cocaine, corruption, conspiracy (Netflix)
Documentary: 13th (Netflix) also available on Youtube
Documentary: Love them first (Amazon Prime) also available on Youtube
Session 4
Chapters 9-10-11-12
Discussion Prompts
Read quote on page 215 “In practice, the work of DEI and anti-racism amounts to attempting to help white people learn to be less racist. In prioritizing this as the goal, the work of changing policy is put on hold.” And page 216 “in the current environment, however, equity work relies heavily on the ingenuity and brilliance of Black people to “fix” problems of racial inequality with limited to no financial or material resources, institutional power, and/or commitment beyond buzzwords and their superiors’ savor complex and desire to be perceived as a social justice ally.” What quadrant does that quote have you in?
Resources:
Articles
Aspects of white culture (Judith Katz)
Paying attention to white culture and privilege: a missing link to advancing racial equity
1.3M teachers, 100,000 professors now under “educational gag orders”
The real danger of the right-wing attacks on antiracist education
Two-thirds of teachers censor themselves even when they don’t have to
Diversity in Wisconsin’s high schools and the future of DEI in higher education
Podcasts:
Nice White Parents (This American Life)
Leading Equity- focuses on supporting educators with tools and resources towards equity in school
Videos
Example courageous conversation (sports radio call-in)
Documentary: Love them first (Amazon Prime) also available on Youtube
White people must take action against the racists amongst them
Webinar: Dr. Gholdy Muhammad talks transformative teaching, joy in the classroom
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools- Mini Documentary
Monique Morris TED Talk: why Black girls are targeted for punishment at school
Pushout: A discussion about the criminalization of Black girls in schools
Cult of Pedagogy Podcast: Black girls and school: we can do better
Harry Grammer TED Talk: incarcerated children are still children
Jen Hatmaker Podcast: education is freedom work: Dr. Monique Morris on investing in Black students
Grow Kinder Podcast: Educating & Supporting Girls of Color with Dr. Monique Morris
Good Girls and Bad Girls
On page 19, Monique Morris describes a variety of adjectives used to describe young Black girls and how the meanings of these descriptors can be "weaponized" in school. How do you see Black girls described in school? How can you work to change the narrative in the spaces you work?
Page 21 goes through a list of data around Black women in society compared to their White and/or male peers. What struck you the most out of this data? How do you see the role of using data in conversations with others? How can data help to engage others in this work and how could it serve and how could it be used as confirmation bias if we are not careful?
Claudette Colvin: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/25/claudette-colvin-the-woman-who-refused-to-give-up-her-bus-seat-nine-months-before-rosa-parks
Richard Sherman on the term ‘thug’ https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/richard-sherman-thug-is-accepted-way-of-calling-someone-n-word/
Racially coded language used in education: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/coded-language-race-education
Black and..... Female and......
What is the importance of acknowledging one's WHOLE self, especially when we are working with students within schools?
How do you see young women navigating their own intersectionality? How could we help support students in this?
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrW4F-Ua510
What is intersectionality: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination
Intersectionality podcast: https://soundcloud.com/intersectionality-matters
As the pandemic and police brutality bring inequities into sharp relief, Black girls find themselves forced to confront both racial and gender bias: https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-as-the-pandemic-and-police-brutality-bring-inequities-into-sharp-relief-black-girls-find-themselves-forced-to-confront-both-racial-and-gender-bias/
Culture, Conforming, and Context
How would you define quality instruction? How do you think the majority of teachers at your school might define quality instruction? How might students?
How can we work to engage all voices in defining instruction within MPS?
Antiracist math education: https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2021/03/opinion-antiracist-math-education-adds-up-to-better-results-for-students.html
What is culturally responsive teaching? https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/culturally-responsive-teaching/understanding-culturally-responsive-teaching/
Black student voices: what we need from our schools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ke3TURO2Q8
Abolitionist Teaching Webinar with Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad and Dena Simmons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJZ3RPJ2rNc
Bad Girls Do Cry
What resonated with you about Portia's story?
What does the phrase "there is no hierarchy of oppressions" (page 29) mean to you?
Brain scans revealed how racism weights on Black women’s health: https://theconversation.com/brain-scans-of-black-women-who-experience-racism-show-trauma-like-effects-putting-them-at-higher-risk-for-future-health-problems-165511
At least four Black women and girls were murdered per day in the US last year: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/06/black-women-girls-murder-rate-us
We need to talk about Black women and high-functioning depression: https://thegrio.com/2022/02/03/black-women-high-functioning-depression/
Triple Consciousness in the Ghetto
What do you know about the hyper-segregation of Milwaukee? History of redlining and racial housing covenants?
What role do you think the hyper-segregation of a city like Milwaukee has on the experiences of youth in schools and out in the community?
US Racial Dot Map: http://racialdotmap.demographics.coopercenter.org/
MPS schools Black enrollment map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1fMQ0jRoPHZlDTeoHRLrt-oDNpljlI7Cm&usp=sharing
Milwaukee redlining and racial covenants: https://shepherdexpress.com/news/features/redlining-racial-covenants-and-suburbia-how-milwaukee-became/#/questions
Ghettoized Opportunity
Have you heard Black female students voice phrases like "School's not for me" or "I was never good at school" or similar phrases? How can we support girls and respond to those phrases?
Page 34-35 discusses various "caricatures" or stereotypes of Black femininity including female dominance, loose morals, hypersexual, conniving, loud, sassy, among others. How have you seen these manifested in beliefs and practices in schools? How can we interrupt these?
How does a student's perception of the school affect their engagement within the school? How can we work to improve the students' perception of school?
A history of Milwaukee school segregation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubUGz0xDzAI
Adultification bias: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Xc08anZAE
MPS High School graduation rates: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FlMPnTKLjKGIf-bXAkrjMy2TKwQdVSPv&authuser=0
Believing the Hype
How do you see Black girls ignored in school? What affect does this have on the young girls being ignored?
Who typically takes responsibility for dealing with Black girls who act out in the classroom? (page 41)
Has your school defined large and small (major and minor or classroom and office managed) behaviors? Are they consistent across classrooms and across all students?
How would you describe teacher relationships with Black girls? How might students describe those relationships?
Page 46 discusses that many in education argue that girls who get into trouble in school "bring it on themselves." Do you think that belief is present in your school? Within MPS in general?
Page 47 discusses that oftentimes staff members are afraid of Black girls. Do you think this occurs at your school or in MPS?
Page 48 argues that Black parents have the same expectations for their children as White parents do. Do you feel like staff at your school or in MPS believe that?
How do you see Black girls struggling to meet the perceived expectations others/society have of them?
Black self/white wolrd, lessons on internalized racism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF5K3J_Z8nk
Internalized racism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK0vpdVVoGk
How public schools fail Black prodigies: https://news.osu.edu/how-public-schools-fail-to-recognize-black-prodigies/
Learning for Justice- family & community engagement resources: https://www.learningforjustice.org/professional-development/engagement
Bias in family engagement: https://www.teachingforchange.org/tackling-bias-family-engagement-2019
All teachers should be trained to overcome bias: https://time.com/3705454/teachers-biases-girls-education/
Permission to Fail & Asking the Tough Questions
In what ways do our schools provide Black females "permission to fail?"
In what ways is school in opposition to many young Black girls' self worth?
What are some of the tough questions our schools should be asking in terms of supporting Black females in school?
Leading Equity Podcast: A Conversation around Supporting our Black Girls in School with Nyree Clark https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/le-213-a-conversation-around-supporting-our-black/id1419821427?i=1000539704162
Have you experienced or seen Black girls’ appearance being criminalized or disciplined absent any actions that threaten safety of staff or students?
Georgia 6-year-old student handcuffed in school: https://www.cnn.com/2012/04/17/justice/georgia-student-handcuffed/index.html
8-year-old student handcuffed at school: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl2thh0HAeI
Department of Education 2013-2014 Civil Rights Data Collection: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/2013-14-first-look.pdf
What are zero tolerance policies: https://supportiveschooldiscipline.org/zero-tolerance-policy
What can be done to stop the criminalization of Black girls? https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2019/05/14/black-girls-school-discipline-racism-disparities-pushout-solutions/1121061001/
Black student voices: Security and police presence in schools: https://youtu.be/we1AR98iFfo
They're not Docile
Do you see students co-creating their learning environments in collaboration with the teacher?
What does the quote “Their biggest academic hurdle is self-esteem” mean to you? Have you seen this manifest itself in school?
Do you feel there are staff that believe “frequent punishments helped improve behavior.”
Trump and ‘angry Black woman’ trope: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/trump-deploys-angry-black-woman-trope-against-kamala-harris-n1236975
The angry Black woman stereotypes: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24188294/
The roots of the angry Black woman stereotype: https://www.localmemphis.com/article/news/local/what-are-roots-of-the-angry-black-woman-stereotype/522-a2d3d354-8c3e-43f2-9434-b8a3101bc8ad
PBS Learning Let’s talk bias resources: https://wisconsin.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/cb19-ss-letstalkbias/lets-talk-bias/
The impact of disciplinary exclusion from school: https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/upcoming-ccrr-research
Standing their ground: zero tolerance, willful defiance and surveillance
What do you know about any zero tolerance policies in MPS?
The chapter discusses a few statistics of MPS and Black girls with truancy. Do you know/think if any of this data has improved since 2013-2014?
Does MPS use “willful defiance” within their code of conduct? Are there are other similar subjective behaviors in the code of conduct?
What is zero tolerance: https://supportiveschooldiscipline.org/zero-tolerance-policy
How zero tolerance blurred the lines between schools and criminal justice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icaOYLaRBdc
Zero tolerance policy in schools can have life-long consequences for misbehaving students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9eQmNKges
Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun-Free_School_Zones_Act_of_1990
Unlocking opportunity for African American Girls- a call to action for educational equity: https://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/unlocking_opportunity_for_african_american_girls_final.pdf
Black Girls Matter: http://schottfoundation.org/resources/black-girls-matter-pushed-out-overpoliced-and-underprotected
MPS Rights & Responsibilities Handbook: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/Families/Education-Resources/Handbooks-Discipline.htm
The 74: When schools have more cops than counselors: https://youtu.be/h8paKeQSpjY
Black student voices: Security and police presence in schools: https://youtu.be/we1AR98iFfo
Police brutally strip-search Black schoolgirl for ‘smelling like weed’ https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/55689/1/met-police-brutal-child-q-london-schoolgirl-teen-black-stripsearch-racism?
Chicago, then and now
How might high school students in Milwaukee describe their experiences in school? Would these descriptions be much different than the descriptions by Chicago Public School students?
Do you see students who struggle in school getting less attention from staff members as a few students mentioned here?
How have you seen some behaviors that are misinterpreted by adults as disruptive?
Chicago Public Schools demographic data: https://www.cps.edu/about/district-data/demographics/
As school discipline disparities worsen, Illinois has yet to require reforms: https://www.chicagoreporter.com/as-school-discipline-disparities-worsen-illinois-has-yet-to-require-reforms/
Discipline practices in Chicago schools: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/discipline-practices-chicago-schools-trends-use-suspensions-and-arrests
Chicago schools- trends in the use of suspensions and arrests: https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/CCSR%20Discipline%20Report.pdf
Samantha Bee- why police aren’t protecting our kids in school: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUhb9mMDsbA
MPS votes to end contract with police in schools: https://www.wisn.com/article/mps-school-board-votes-to-end-contract-with-milwaukee-police/32911094#
MPS Admin Procedure: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/MPS-English/OBG/Clerk-Services/MPS-Rules-and-Policies/Administrative-Procedures/Chapter-04/Administrative_Procedure_04_07.pdf
MPS Admin Procedure: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/MPS-English/OBG/Clerk-Services/MPS-Rules-and-Policies/Administrative-Procedures/Chapter-07/Administrative_Procedure_07_07.pdf
Smart mouths and fighting words
What was meant when Francine said “If you’re going to be a teacher, be a teacher.”
Which story of events triggering an “attitude” from one of the Black girls discussed resonated the most with you and your experience in education?
Louisiana Recovery School District: https://www.louisianabelieves.com/schools/recovery-school-district/
Caring for Black girlhood in the classroom: http://www.buffalo.edu/how/articles.host.html/content/shared/www/eub/here-is-how/cultural-affirmation.detail.html
Disciplining discipline
When MPS started talking about implementing uniforms, do you remember if the conversation was ever racialized or discussed in terms of race?
What do you see as the importance of cultivating a positive student teacher relationship for handling behaviors in the classroom?
Tulsa student sent home because of dreadlocks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pce6jdOJ6IY
School backs of threats to expel student: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75oEM7XWCcc
History of Black hair discrimination: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/a-brief-history-of-black-hair-politics-and-discrimination
How natural Black hair has become a civil rights issue: https://daily.jstor.org/how-natural-black-hair-at-work-became-a-civil-rights-issue/
When dress codes discriminate: https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/when-school-dress-codes-discriminate
MPS uniforms: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/Students/Uniforms.htm
Dress code discrimination: https://kappanonline.org/pavlakis-roegman-dress-codes-gender-race-discrimination/
Racial and gender disparities in dress code discipline point to need for new approaches in schools: https://www.idra.org/resource-center/racial-and-gender-disparities-in-dress-code-discipline-point-to-need-for-new-approaches-in-schools/
Have you ever witnessed or talked to a student being involved in sex trafficking?
Have you worked with a student who has voiced the pull of needing money now versus staying in school for greater economic opportunities later?
The sexual abuse to prison pipeline: the girls’ story: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/poverty-inequality-center/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2019/02/The-Sexual-Abuse-To-Prison-Pipeline-The-Girls%E2%80%99-Story.pdf
Milwaukee & human trafficking: https://www.fox6now.com/news/spot-the-signs-mitchell-int-brings-awareness-to-human-trafficking
Milwaukee Human Trafficking Task Force: https://city.milwaukee.gov/Health/Services-and-Programs/staysafe/HTTFGM
Why is Milwaukee a hub of human trafficking? https://shepherdexpress.com/news/features/why-is-milwaukee-a-hub-of-human-trafficking/#/questions
The pullout: sexually exploited children
Do you know of any services and supports offered within MPS for girls who have engaged in sex trafficking? Students in foster care? Students who have experienced homelessness.
What could the school system or individual schools do more of to engage or re-engage students in school who have begun to engage in sex trafficking?
MPS Admin Policy: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/MPS-English/OBG/Clerk-Services/MPS-Rules-and-Policies/Administrative-Policies/Chapter-08/Administrative_Policy_08_50.pdf
Foster Care Statistics 2018: https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/foster.pdf
THORN-Child trafficking statistics: https://www.thorn.org/child-trafficking-statistics/
Human trafficking infographics: https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/ncvrw/2017/images/en_artwork/Fact_Sheets/2017NCVRW_HumanTrafficking_508.pdf
Online resources for human trafficking: https://ovc.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh226/files/ncvrw2019/info_flyers/resources/eng/2019NCVRW_OnlineResources_508.pdf
Going back to school
How can you in your role or schools in general help student “make them care more about their education?” Or answer “what is education going to do for me?”
What does it mean to you when Diamond said “I just need somebody that is not there just to listen, but who actually feels me…. Who knows where I’m coming from and really understands?”
Average hours spent on homework: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012026/tables/table_35.asp
Rita Pierson TED Talk- https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion/transcript?language=en
Going back in time
What role do you see social media playing in perpetuating the stigma of “jezebel” on young Black girls?
The Jezebel stereotype: https://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/jezebel/
Fannie Barrier Williams: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Barrier_Williams
3 Black female stereotypes that need to die: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQO7XoANYb8
What Beyonce taught me about racism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDzj9vRw5yM
The real
How can schools increase knowledge of the dangers and warning signs of sex trafficking with young Black girls?
How can schools work to increase the body images of young Black girls that doesn’t include sexual exploitation?
Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting & Serving Sexually Exploited Youth: https://misssey.org/
Labor Force Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpsee_e16.htm
Milwaukee unemployment disparity: https://www.wuwm.com/post/wisconsins-unemployment-disparity-between-blacks-whites-worst-united-states#stream/0
Milwaukee unemployment rates: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WIMILW5URN
Too sexy for school
What role do see social media and media in general having on the perceived sexuality of young Black girls?
Have you seen Black girls’ sexuality being disciplined in schools? How could this be handled instead?
MPS Admin Procedure: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/MPS-English/OBG/Clerk-Services/MPS-Rules-and-Policies/Administrative-Procedures/Chapter-08/Administrative_Procedure_08_20.pdf
MPS Admin Procedure: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/MPS-English/OBG/Clerk-Services/MPS-Rules-and-Policies/Administrative-Policies/Chapter-08/Administrative_Policy_08_201.pdf
The race problem- an autobiography: a southern colored woman: https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/voices/social_history/18race_problem.cfm
3 Black female stereotypes that need to die: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQO7XoANYb8
The sexualization of Black women and children in media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9VLN7RM2YQ
Chicago- a national hub for human trafficking: https://jjie.org/2014/01/22/chicago-a-national-hub-for-human-trafficking/
Victims of sexual violence: statistics: https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence
Transitions
What support services do you think schools could provide young Black girls?
MPS Admin Policy: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/MPS-English/OBG/Clerk-Services/MPS-Rules-and-Policies/Administrative-Policies/Chapter-08/Administrative_Policy_08_02.pdf
What do you know about the juvenile justice system in Milwaukee?
Have you worked with any young Black girls who have been incarcerated? What have you found they needed most to feel supported?
Gender injustice: system-level juvenile justice reforms for girls: https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1987&context=lsfp
The dangers of detention: http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/06-11_rep_dangersofdetention_jj.pdf
Flourishing blossoms society for girls: https://www.theflourishingblossoms.org/
Caught Podcast on youth incarcerated: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/caught/episodes/caught-podcast-i-want-someone-to-love-me-even-for-a-second
Inside juvenile detention: https://youtu.be/C-0bURq6wBo
Incarcerated children are still children TED Talk Harry Grammar: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jjlEpkQYqSw
Black girls in trouble with the law: a historical perspective
What was the most shocking about the history of Black girls being incarcerated?
What connections between our current prison industrial complex and slavery are you aware of?
Delinquent girls need to farm: https://www.prisonpublicmemory.org/blog/2014/delinquent-girls-need-to-farm
Black women in history: http://www.pbs.org/black-culture/explore/black-women-in-history/
Representation of incarcerated Black women: https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-representation-of-incarcerated-black-women/
5 Black women who are fighting criminal justice reform: https://blavity.com/5-black-women-whove-been-fighting-for-criminal-justice-reform-long-before-kim-kardashian?category1=politics&category2=news
13th Documentary (also available on Netflix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8
America’s Juvenile Injustice System- Marsha Levick TED Talk: https://youtu.be/8cPRB9XxOlI
Criminalized education
Have you ever found yourself viewing Black female student older than they are?
What can educators do to interrupt this adultification bias?
Black female incarceration- why aren’t we talking about it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-qwn7yP8vY
Black girls and adultification bias: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/5/16/18624683/black-girls-racism-bias-adultification-discipline-georgetown
Voices of youth in juvenile hall: https://witnessla.com/the-voices-of-youth-locked-in-san-franciscos-soon-to-be-shuttered-juvenile-hall/
More discipline, more problems
Have you seen or talked to any students who were kicked out of class for inappropriate reasons? How did you handle it or how could you have handled it?
Do you think oftentimes it is just a teacher is overwhelmed? How can we support each other when we feel overwhelmed?
Teachers are anxious and overwhelmed. They need SEL now more than ever: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-04-07-teachers-are-anxious-and-overwhelmed-they-need-sel-now-more-than-ever#:~:text=Chronic%20stress%20among%20teachers%20is,their%20students%20and%20their%20families
Teacher stress resources: https://www.weareteachers.com/teacher-stress/
Stress management tips for teachers: https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/9-stress-management-strategies-every-teacher-needs-know1612.html
Teacher Stress A Crisis Ignored TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBhQy12ANrc
More credit is due
What do you know about MPS’ credit recovery program?
No child left behind: https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml
MPS Credit recovery: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/Programs/Alternative-Education-Programs/Credit-Recovery-.htm
MPS alternative education programs: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/Programs/Alternative-Education-Programs.htm
Well enough to learn
Monique Morris says “schools’ punitive response to girls’ truancy, experience with bullying, and learning disabilities reinforces relationships that further marginalize girls who are struggling to survive.” What does this quote mean to you? What is your reaction to this?
Do you think most students know the graduation requirements and their pathway towards graduation? How could we improve that as a district or school?
In MPS, one of the top 3 behaviors that lead to suspension is “Chronic Disruption.” How does that fit into the messaging of this chapter around students being excluded from the learning environment for issues that are not a threat to safety?
Teachers have lower expectations for Black students: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/teachers-lower-expectations-for-black-students-may-become-self-fulfilling-prophecies-study-finds/2017/10
Teachers with differing expectations for Black and White students: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/24/study-finds-high-school-teachers-have-differing-expectations-black-and-white
Power of teacher expectations: https://www.educationnext.org/power-of-teacher-expectations-racial-bias-hinders-student-attainment/
Academic potential among African American adolescents in juvenile detention centers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3108448/#:~:text=Findings%20revealed%20that%20youth%20were,events%2C%20and%20less%20delinquent%20activity
We're inmates, but we're still kids
Monique Morris says “Hurt people hurt people.” React genuinely to this quote.
Racial trauma and the brain: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-racial-trauma-does-body-brain_l_5efa43b1c5b6acab28459220
Daily Show- Black community mental health crisis: https://www.cc.com/video/udmubd/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-if-you-don-t-know-now-you-know-the-black-community-s-mental-health-treatment-crisis
Women and barriers after incarceration podcast: https://pbswisconsin.org/webisode/why-race-matters/women-and-barriers-after-incarceration/podcast/
Carmella Glenn- issues facing Black women leaving incarceration: https://pbswisconsin.org/webisode/why-race-matters/women-and-barriers-after-incarceration/video/
PBIS Wisconsin resources “women and barriers after incarceration” https://pbswisconsin.org/webisode/why-race-matters/women-and-barriers-after-incarceration/resources/
I'm not retarded, I have a learning disability
How can MPS support Black females that have been in juvenile halls as they transition back into traditional schooling?
Stop bullying resources: https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources/facts#listing
Unmasking female centered bullying: https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/unmasking-female-centered-bullying-schools/
Teacher relationships with students of color: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/teachers-report-weaker-relationships-with-students-of-color-immigrants/2017/09
Have you noticed examples in society or in schools where “the pain of Black females are an afterthought to the pain of Black males?”
Which of the six themes for cultivating quality learning environments for Black girls speaks to you the most:
1. The protection of girls from violence and victimization in school
2. Proactive discussions in schools about healthy intimate relationships
3. Strong student-teacher relationships
4. School-based wraparound services
5. An increased focus on student learning coupled with a reduced emphasis on discipline and surveillance
6. Consistent school credit recovery processes between alternative schools and traditional schools
Interview with Marcia Chatelain: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/women-black-lives-matter-interview-marcia-chatelain
Black Lives Matter: the three women who founded a global movement: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-55123050
Black women are divine: https://vimeo.com/469556901
Our bodies back music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKN2Fq_mcAA
Envisioning schools designed to achieve equity
Have you (or colleagues) ever reflected on your school rules and examined whether these rules are rooted in oppression (racial, patriarchal, or other)? Reflecting while reading, do you see any connection?
How do you see the difference between criminalization vs incarceration?
Criminalization and discrimination in schools: https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/aisthesis/article/download/1216/1159/
From preschool to prison: the criminalization of Black girls: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2017/12/08/443972/preschool-prison-criminalization-black-girls/
The consequences of school surveillance: https://www.nasbe.org/school-surveillance-the-consequences-for-equity-and-privacy/
Angela Davis- ‘the shifting concept of the prison industrial complex’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwBuA2ZKpSo
Race, poverty, and exclusionary school security: https://ed.buffalo.edu/content/dam/ed/safety-conference/Kupchik%20and%20Ward%20YVJJ%202014.pdf
Angela Davis likens abolishing the prison system to end of slavery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6XlXN1HUo4
A rare conscious gender analysis
Have you or colleagues reflected on school outcome data, rules, procedures, and interventions through a lens of race AND gender? How could you hold space for those reflections with colleagues?
What we should really mean by "respect"
Reflect on the questions Monique Morris poses:
1. What assumptions are being made about the conditions of Black girls?
2. How might Black girls be uniquely impacted by school and other disciplinary policies?
3. How are organizations, systems, and policies creating an environment that is conducive or not conducive to the healthy development of Black girls?
A centered response to victimization
Are there opportunities to center the voices of Black students in schools and the district?
Prevent and disallow "permission to fail"
What professional development could be beneficial at the school and district level?
MPS does not have “willful defiance” as a behavior category. Are there other behavior categories that could be problematic?
What voice do students have in rules, responses, and interventions in schools or across the district?
Train staff on cultural awareness and implicit biases- https://preventexpulsion.org/1g-provide-professional-development-and-ongoing-support-for-all-program-staff-on-culturally-responsive-practices-and-implicit-bias/
Black girls are viewed as less innocent than White girls starting at age 5: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/young-black-girls-less-innocent-study_n_59526e51e4b05c37bb7982d2
Critical practices for anti-bias education: https://www.learningforjustice.org/professional-development/critical-practices-for-antibias-education-teacher-leadership
Defining ‘defiance’ https://www.pbisapps.org/community/Pages/Putting-a-Definition-Back-in-Defiance.aspx
Understand and examine the impact of dress codes
Who usually creates dress code policies? What role does student or family voice play in creation of dress code policies?
MPS Admin Policy: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/MPS-English/OBG/Clerk-Services/MPS-Rules-and-Policies/Administrative-Policies/Chapter-08/Administrative_Policy_08_201.pdf
Black girls are fighting back against discriminatory school dress codes: https://prismreports.org/2021/09/14/bipoc-girls-are-fighting-back-against-discriminatory-school-dress-codes/
Engage in practices that facilitate healing opportunities for Black girls
What opportunities for leadership exist for Black females in our schools and district?
Have you reflected on implementing trauma informed practices through a lens of supporting Black females specifically?
MPS Trauma Informed Care: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/Families/Family-Services/SEL-Supports/Trauma-Informed-Care.htm
MPS PBIS & Trauma: https://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/Families/Family-Services/Intervention---PBIS/Trauma.htm
Trauma informed care and racial equity: https://www.cfchildren.org/blog/2020/08/why-trauma-informed-approaches-help-advance-racial-equity/
Addressing race and trauma in the classroom resources: https://www.nctsn.org/resources/addressing-race-and-trauma-classroom-resource-educators
Understanding racial trauma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIyp8AZV1vs
Have the talk with girls, not just boys
Is there any space within our schools and district to have “the talk” with Black female students?
Maya Angelou ‘equality’ poem: https://www.poetryverse.com/maya-angelou-poems/equality
Proctor & Gamble ‘the talk’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovY6yjTe1LE
Equality and I will be free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI7S6AcSunU
From punishment to transformation
27 Black women activists everyone should know: http://www.forharriet.com/2014/02/27-black-women-activists-everyone.html
Many social justice movements have been started by Black women: https://www.wellandgood.com/black-women-activists/
Ibram X Kendi on Stephen Colbert Late Show: https://youtu.be/dCUOX3NMd4U
Ibram X Kendi introduction to book: https://youtu.be/_OXMgA0Fwsk
America’s racist history explains what happened in 2020: https://youtu.be/6gso0vfY4VU
racism is “metastatic” in America: https://youtu.be/mG1tlZoSdZI
How do we know if something is racist: https://youtu.be/fu2WTWPEmFI
Ibram X Kendi Be Antiracist: https://www.ibramxkendi.com/be-antiracist-podcast
Brene Brown: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-ibram-x-kendi-on-how-to-be-an-antiracist/
Armchair Expert with Dax Shephard: https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/ibram-x-kendi
Ezra Klein show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ibram-x-kendi-on-what-conservatives-liberals-get-wrong/id1548604447?i=1000529064676
Discussion Slide Decks
My Racist Introduction:
“Racist ideas make people of color think less of themselves, which makes them more vulnerable to racist ideas. Racist ideas make White people think more of themselves, which further attracts them to racist ideas.” (pg 6)
How could these ideas play out in school or the educational system? Have you seen these ideas play out in a school setting?
“Denial is the heartbeat of racism, beating across ideologies, races and nations.
Looking in your personal or professional life, do you notice times when you have used denial of racism as a strategy? How do you see the larger educational system here using denial of racism?” (pg 9)
“The good news is that racist and antiracists are not fixed identities. We can be racist one minute and an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what-not who- we are.” (pg 10)
Do you believe this quote? Do you think individuals can be racist one minute and antiracist the next moment? Why do you believe this?
Chapter 1:Definitions
“To be an antiracist is to set lucid definitions of racism/antiracism, racist/antiracist policies, racist/antiracist ideas, and racist/antiracist people. To be racist is to constantly redefine racist in a way that exonerates one’s changing policies, ideas and personhood.” (pg 17)
Have you seen yourself changing your own personal definition of racism over the years? How about the educational system in which we work? The state/country as a whole? Why do you think that is?
“There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution, in every community, in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.” (pg 18)
Do you believe this, that there is no race-neutral policy? Why do you believe that?
Page 22 discussed Wisconsin voter ID laws as racist policies. Did you previously view those policies as racist? Has your view changed? Can you think of any other local or national policies that you now see as being racist?
Chapter 2: Dueling Consciousness
“Americans have long been trained to see the deficiencies of people rather than policy. We are particularly poor at seeing the policies lurking behind the struggles of people.” (pg 28)
Why do you think that is? Why do so many individuals go right to looking at deficiencies of individuals instead of policies? How can we change that?
Ibram X. Kendi discusses the faulty logic of “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps.” How can you have a conversation/discussion with someone who strongly believes anyone can “pull themselves up by the bootstraps.”
Ibram X. Kendi defines assimilationist, segregationist, and antiracist (pg 24). How have you seen each of those definitions within the educational system or in your personal life and work in education?
Chapter 3: Power
“We are what we see ourselves as, whether what we see exists or not. We are what people see us as, whether what they see exists or not. What people see in themselves and others has meaning and manifests itself in ideas and actions and policies, even if what they are seeing is an illusion. Race is a mirage but one that we do well to see, while never forgetting it is a mirage, never forgetting that it’s the powerful light of racist power that makes the mirage.” (pg 37)
What race do you identify as? How do you see that as a mirage or not?
“Some White people do not identify as White for the same reason they identify as not-racist: to avoid reckoning with the ways that Whiteness- even as a construction and mirage- has informer their notions of America and identity and offered them privilege.” (pg 38)
Has there been a time when you were ashamed, scared or avoided identifying as your race? Why? Or why do you think you have never had this experience?
Do you remember the first time you were aware of your race and the race of others? Why do you think you remember this or why do you think you do not remember the first time?
Chapter 4: Biology
“We often see and remember the race and not the individual. This is racist categorizing, this is stuffing of our experiences with individuals into color marked social closets. An antiracist treats and remembers individuals as individuals.” (pg 44)
How might this racist categorizing manifest itself in a classroom, school, or larger school system?
“Only racists shy away from the ‘R-word’- racism is steeped in denial.” (pg 47)
How does Ibram X. Kendi differentiate between the terms microaggressions and racist abuse?
“With racist teachers misbehaving kids of color do not receive inquiry and empathy and legitimacy. We receive orders and punishments and ‘no excuses’ as if we are adults. The Black child is ill-treated like an adult, and the Black adult is ill treated like a child.” (pg 48)
Reflecting genuinely on your experiences in education, can you recall a situation you were involved in or were aware of that fits within this quote? How do you now look back and view that situation differently?
Chapter 5: Ethnicity
How do you see ethnicity and race for yourself being separate and yet unionized together as Ibram X. Kendi speaks about?
“Ethnic racism points to group behavior, instead of policies as the cause of disparities between groups.” (pg 63)
How do policies within education cause disparities that are often pinned on group behavior?
“To be antiracist is to challenge the racist policies that plague racialized ethnic groups across the world. To be antiracist is to view the inequities between all racialized ehtnic groups as a problem of policy.” (pg 64)
In your role within education, how can you start to challenge any racist policies at your school or in the educational system as a whole?
Chapter 6: Body
Have you ever been made to fear the skin you’re living in as Ibram X. Kendi described? ~OR~ What do you think it is like to live in a world and system created to have people fear the skin you live in?
“But crime bills have never correlated to crime any more than fear has correlated to actual violence. We are not meant to fear suits with policies that kill. We are not meant to fear good White males with AR-15s. No, we are to fear the weary, unarmed Latinx body from Latin America. The Arab body kneeling to Allah is to be feared. The Black body from hell is to be feared. Adept politicians and crime entrepreneurs manufacture fear and stand before voters to deliver them-messiahs who will liberate them from fear of these other bodies.” (pg 76)
How do you see this misdirected fear play itself out in the educational system?
“There is no such thing as a dangerous racial group. But there are, of course, dangerous individuals. There is the violence of racism - manifest in policy and policing - that fears the Black body. And there is the nonviolence of antiracism that does not fear the Black body, that fears, if anything, the violence of the racism that has been set on the Black body.” (pg 80)
How can you help to fight the stigma of dangerous racial groups within education?
Chapter 7: Culture
Ibram X. Kendi speaks about Ebonics and how it is viewed as broken English whereas English is not viewed as broken Latin or broken German. Based on what you have been reading so far, why do you think that is?
“Whoever makes the cultural standard makes the cultural hierarchy. The act of making cultural standards and hierarchy is what creates cultural racism.” (pg 83)
Who all makes the cultural standard and hierarchy within the educational system? WHy do you think that is? How does that create cultural racism within schooling?
“To be antiracist is to see all cultures in all their differences as on the same level, as equals. When we see cultural difference, we are seeing cultural difference - nothing more, nothing less.” (pg 91)
How can you be antiracist when it comes to identifying cultural differences in the classroom, school and educational system?
Chapter 8: Behavior
“Behavioral Racist: one who is making individuals responsible for the perceived behavior of racial groups and making racial groups responsible for the behavior of individuals.
Behavioral antiracist: one who is making racial group behavior fictional and individual behavior real.” (pg 92)
How do you see or have you seen both of these terms play themselves out in the school setting? How can you work to have yourself and others you work with become behavioral antiracists?
“......Black person who is asked to be exceptional just to survive- and even worse, the Black screwup who faces the abyss after one error, while the White screwup is handed second chances and empathy.” (pg 93)
How does this scenario play itself out in school discipline? How do you see Black students needing to be exceptional to avoid discipline whereas White students can screwup and be given second chances and empathy? Or do you not agree this statement correlates to school discipline?
“The use of standardized tests to measure aptitude and intelligence is one of the most effective racist policies ever devised to degrade Black minds and legally exclude Black bodies. We degrade Black minds every time we speak of an academic achievement gap based on these numbers. The acceptance of an academic-achievement gap is just the latest method of reinforcing the oldest racist ideea: Black intellectual inferiority. …… From the beginning, the tests, not the people, have always been the racial problem.” (pg 101-102)
What role do you see standardized testing in education? Do you see them being able to serve any purpose or should they be removed? Changes? Why?
“To be antiracist is to think nothing is behaviorally wrong or right- inferior or superior- with any of the racial groups. Whenever the antiracist sees individuals behavior positively or negatively, the antiracist sees exactly that: individuals behavior positively or negatively, not representative of whole races. To be antiracist is to deracialize behavior, to remove the tattooed stereotype from every racialized body. Behavior is something humans do, not races do.” (pg 105)
Have you ever yourself, or seen someone else, attaching behavior to a race instead of an individual? Have you been part of a conversation around behaviors of a racial group? (Black students in the cafeteria are using aggressive language, etc). How might you interrupt those conversations going forward and move the conversation to individual behaviors and shine light on becoming antiracist in how we talk about behavior?
Chapter 9: Color
Ibram X. Kendi talks about color racism within races. How familiar are you with this concept? Did he speak on anything that spoke true to you and your experiences or was new to you?
Considering the race you identify as, is there anything you can do to become a color antiracist?
Chapter 10: White
“White people showed me they did not actually care about national unity or democracy, only unity among and democracy for White people!” (pg 127)
If you can recall the 2000 election of George W. Bush, did your mind immediately go to the role of race in the results? Why or why not? What did your mind go to?
“To be antiracist is to never mistake the global march of White racism for the global march of White people. To be antiracist is to never mistake the antiracist hate of White racism for the racist hate of White people. To be antiracist is to never conflate racist people with White people, knowing there are antiracist White and racist non-Whites.” (pg 129)
How do you view the difference between the march of White racism and the march of White people? What does that mean to you?
“Donald Trump’s economic policies are geared toward enriching White male power- but at the expense of most of his White male followers, along with the rest of us.” (pg. 129)
How have you seen this play itself out in the 2016 or 2020 election cycle? Did you find yourself or someone you know falling into the trap? What could be said to someone who doesn’t see through those tactics by various campaigns?
“Racist ideas also suppress the resistance to policies that are detrimental to White people, by convincing the average White people that inequity is rooted in ‘personal failure’ and is unrelated to policies. Racist power manipulates ordinary White people into resisting equalizing policies by drilling them on what they are losing with equalizing policies and how those equalizing policies are anti-White.”” (pg 130)
~OR~
“Ordinary White racists function as soldiers of racist power. Dealing each day with these ground troops shelling out racist abuse, it is hard for people of color not to hate ordinary White people……..And yet racist power thrives on anti-White racist ideas- more hatred only makes their power greater. When Black people recoil from White racism and concentrate their hatred on everyday White people, they are not fighting racist power or racist policymakers. In losing focus on racist power, they fail to challenge anti-Black racist policies, which means those policies are more likely to flourish.” (pg 131)
Choose which of those two quotes speaks to you the most and authentically reflect on the quote and how you may have experienced it in your life.
Chapter 11: Black
“Black people can’t be racist, because Black people don’t have power.’ Quietly though, this defense shields people of color in positions of power from doing the work of antiracism, since they are apparently powerless, since White people have all the power. This means that people of color are powerless to roll back racist policies and close racial inequities even in their own spheres of influence, the places where they actually do have some power to effect change. The powerless defense shields people of color from charges of racism even when they are reproducing racist policies and justifying them with the same racist ideas as the White people they call racist. The powerless defense shields its believers from the history of White people empowering people of color to oppress people of color and of people of color using their limited power to oppress people of color for their own personal gain.” (pg 140)
Centering your own race in your reflection, how are you reflecting on this quote? How do you agree or disagree with it?
"The truth is: Black people can be racist because Black people do have power, even if limited. If we accept the idea that we have no power, we are falling under the sort of mind control that will, in fact, rob us of any power to resist.” (pg 142)
In your role in education, what power do you have, even if limited? How could you use this power to resist?
Reviewing pages 142-143 and the story of Ken Blackwell in Ohio with the 2004 election, why do you think this story did not get as much attention in the national media? How do you think similar Black racism occurs throughout our country?
Chapter 12: Class
“Poor Blacks in metropolitan Chicago are ten times more likely than poor Whites to live in high-poverty areas. With Black poverty dense and White poverty scattered, Black poverty is visible and surrounds its victims. White poverty blends in.” (pg 158)
Do you see this play out in metro Milwaukee? How? What could be some side affects of this visibility vs blending in?
On page 161 Ibram X Kendi goes through how he views conservative defenders of capitalism and how they define capitalism. How would you define capitalism in terms of how it currently exists in America? How would you like to see it defined in America?
“To love capitalism is to end up loving racism. To love racism is to end up loving capitalism.” (pg 163)
Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
Chapter 13: Space
“Racist Americans stigmatize entire Black neighborhoods as places of homicide and mortal violence but don’t similarly connect White neighborhoods to the disproportionate number of White males who engage in mass shootings. And they don’t even see the daily violence that unfolds on the highways that deliver most White suburbanites to their homes. In 1986, during the violent crack epidemic, 3,860 more Americans died from alcohol-related traffic deaths than from homicides.” (pg 169)
What role does media and social media play in this perception of Black spaces being far more violent and dangerous that possibly the data would indicate? Why do you think that is?
“To be antiracist is to support the voluntary integration of bodies attracted by cultural difference, a shared humanity. Integration: resources rather than bodies. TO be an antiracist is to champion resource equity by challenging the racist policies that produce resource inequity. Racial solidarity: openly identifying, supporting, and protecting integrated racial spaces. To be antiracist is to equate and nurture difference among racial groups.” (pg 180).
Considering your role and your race, what can you do to be push for antiracist spaces for our students of Milwaukee?
Framing your race in your reflection, do you see any value or strength in having all Black or all Brown spaces for students? Why?
Chapter 14: Gender
What was your initial reaction to reading the terms gender racism and gender anti-racism on page 181?
“The increasing percentage of Black babies born into single-parent households was not due to single Black mothers having more children but to married Black women having fewer children over the course of the twentieth century.” (pg 185)
Why do you think the narrative around single Black women and having so many children gains such momentum in this country?
Black women having to earn advanced degrees before they earn more than White women with bachelor’s degrees; and the median wealth of single White women being $42,000 compared to $100 for single Black women, Native women and Black women experience poverty at a higher rate than any other race-gender group. Black and Latinx women still earn the least, while White and Asian men earn the most. Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than are White women. A Black woman with an advanced degree is more likely to lose her baby than a White woman with less than an eighth-grade education. Black women remain twice as likely to be incarcerated as White women.” (pg. 189)
What is most alarming about that data to you? Why?
Chapter 15: Sexuality
“Queer racims produces inequities between race-sexualities. Queer racism produces a sitatuion where 32% of childrne raised by Black male same-sex douples live in poverty, compared to14% of children being raised by White male same-sex couples, 13% of children being raised by Black heteroseuals, and 7 percent of children raised by White hetererosexuals.” (pg 193)
Do these numbers surprise you? Why or why not?
“To be queer antiracist is to understand the priviliges of my cisgender, of my masculintiy, of my heterosexuality, of their intersections. To be queer antiracist is to serve as an ally to transgender people, to intersex people. To women, to the non-gender-conforming, to homosexuals, to their intersections, meaning listening, learning, and being led by their equalizing ideas, by their equalizing policy campaigns, by their power struggle for equal opportunity.” (pg 197)
How does sexuality influence your daily life? Do you see any privilege you have in your sexuality or any hardship from your sexuality?
Through the lens of your role in the district, how can you become more queer antiracist?
Chapter 16: Failure
“Terms and saying ike I’m not racist and race neutral and post-racial and color-blind and only one race, the human race and only racists speak about race and Black people can’t be racist and White people are evil are bound to fail in identifying and eliminating racist power and policy.”
Looking back in your personal or work life have you ever used these terms or similar terms? Have you had anyone in your close circle of friends and family use these terms? What can you do to interrupt these phrases and conversations in your journey to be antiracist?
Centering your own race have you ever experienced or seen a situation like he describes on pages 203-205 regarding the White man at the restaurant? Have you ever felt like you are representing your entire race or judged someone else as their entire race? Why?
“Moral and educational suasion breathes the assumption that racist minds must be changed before racist policy, ignoring history that says otherwise. …. Racist policy makers drum up fear of antiracist policies through racist ideas, knowing if the policies are implemented, the fears they circulate will never come to pass. Once the fears do not come to pass, people will let down their guards as they enjoy the benefits, most Americans will support and become the defenders of the antiracist policies they once feared.” (pg 208)
Is there any example of this you have seen in national politics or in education? Policy makers drumming up fear of policies through racist ideas? Even if subtly? Why do you think this is a common strategy?
“We arrive at demonstrations excited, as if our favorite musician is playing on the speakers’ stage. We convince ourselves we are doing something to solve the racial problem when we are really doing something to satisfy our feelings. We go home fulfilled, like we dined at our favorite restaurant. And this fulfillment is fleeting, like a drug high. The problems of inequity and injustice persist. They persistently make us feel bad and guilty. We persistently do something to make ourselves feel better as we convince ourselves we are making society better, as we never make society better. What if instead of a feelings advocacy we had an outcome advocacy that put equitable outcomes before our guilt and anguish? What if we focused our human and fiscal resources on changing power and policy to actually make society, not just our feelings, better?” (pg 210)
Have you ever participated in a demonstration, rally, petition, etc with the goal being appeasing your own feelings and less focused on overall outcomes for society? Maybe you didn’t view it like that at the time but in hindsight you now see it through this lens.
“When in fact, if all my words were sounding radical, then those words were not radical at all. What if we measure the radicalism of speech by how radically it transforms open-minded people, by how the speech linterates the antiracist power within? What if we measure the conservatism of speech by how intensely it keeps people the same, keeps people enslaved by their racist ideas and fears, conserving their inequitable society?” (pg 212)
How can we use this idea in education? How can we better use our radical words and radical ideas to include others when oftentimes these radical words and ideas keep people from becoming involved?
“We do not have to be fearless like Harriet Tubman to be antiracist. We have to be courageous to be antiracist. Courage is the strength to do what is right in the face of fear, as the anonymous philosopher tells us. I gain insight into what’s right from antiracist ideas. I gain strength from fear. While many people are fearful of what could happen if they resist, I am fearful of what could happen if I don’t resist. I am fearful of cowardice. Cowardice is the inability to amass the strength to do what is right in the face of fear. And racist power has been terrorizing cowardice into us for generations.” (pg 212)
How do you see the difference between being fearless vs being courageous? In terms of your role in education how can you become more courageous in the path of having the entire district become antiracist?
When we fail to open the closed-minded consumers of racist ideas, we blame their closed-mindedness instead of our foolish decision to waste time reviving closed minds from the dead. When our vicious attacks on open-minded consumers of racist ideas fail to transform them, we blame their hate rather than our impatient and alienating hate of them. When people fail to consumer our convoluted antiracist ideas, we blame their stupidity rather than our stupid lack of vlarity. When we transform people and do not show them an avenue of support, we blame their lack of commitment rather than our lack of defiance. When the politician we supported does not change racist policy, we blame the intractability of racism rather than our support of the wrong politician. When we fail to gain support for a protest, we blame the fearful rather than our alienating presentation. When the protest fails, we blame racist power rather than our flawed protest. WHen our policy does not produce racial equity, we blame the people for not taking advantage of the new opportunity, not our flawed policy solution. THe failure doctrine avoids the mirror of self-blame. The failure doctrine begets failure. The failure doctrine begets racism.” (pg 213-214)
What are specific things you can do personally to internalize your own role in antiracist work?
“The most effective demonstrations (like the most effective educational efforts) help people find the antiracist power within. The antiracist power within is the ability to view my own racism in the mirror of my past and present, view my own antiracism in the mirror of my future, view my own racial groups as equal to other racial groups, view the world of racial inequity as abnormal, view my own power to resist and overtake racist power and policy. The most effective demonstrations (like the most effective educational efforts) provide methods for people to give their antiracist power, to give their human and financial resources, channeling attendees and their funds into organizations and protest and power-seizing campaigns…...The most effective protests create an environment whereby changing the racist policy becomes in power’s self-interest, like desegregating businesses because the sit-ins are driving away customers, like increasing wages to restart production, like giving teachers raises to resume school, like passing a law to attract a well-organized force of donors or voters. But it is difficult to create that environment, since racist power makes laws that illegalize most protest threats. Organizing and protesting are much harder and more impactful than mobilizing and demonstrating. Seizing power is much harder than protesting power and demonstrating its excesses.” (pg 215-216)
What are specific action steps you can take to bring others into this work? To inspire others to find the antiracist power within themselves?
Chapter 17: Success
“Neither failure nor success is written. The story of our generation will be based on what we are willing to do. Are we willing to endure the grueling fight against racist power and policy? Are we willing to transform the antiracist power we gather within us to antiracist power in our society?” (pg. 218)
What are you willing to do and to endure to bring more antiracist power into your school, district, the city or society as a whole?
“Asking antiracists to change their perspective on racism can be as destabilizing as asking racists to change their perspective on the races. Antiracists can be as doctrinaire in their view of racism as racists cab be in their view of not-racism. How can antiracists ask racists to open their minds and change when we are closed-minded and unwilling to change?” (pg 219)
How can you work to keep your mind open to change at all times and help those around you in your locus of control to keep their minds open to change?
“But what if the atmosphere of racism has been polluting most White people, too? And what if racism has been working in the opposite way for a handful of Black individuals, who find the fresh air of wealth and power in racist atmospheres? Framing institutional racism as acts by the “total White community against the total Black community” accounts for the ways White people benefit from racist policies when compared to their racial peers. But this framing of White people versus Black people does not take into account that all White people do not benefit equally from racism. It does not take into account that Black people are not harmed equally by racism or that some Black individuals exploit racism to boost their own wealth and power.” (pg 220)
Framing your race, what in your reaction to this quote? Have you seen this? Do you believe this? Why or why not?
“The construct of covert institutional racism opens American eyes to racism and, ironically, closes them, too. Separating the overt individual from the covert institutional veils the specific policy choices that cause racial inequities, policies made by specific people. Covering up the specific policies and policymakers prevents us from identifying and replacing the specific policies and policymakers. We become unconscious to racist policymakers and policies as we lash out angrily at the abstract bogeyman of ‘the system.” (pg 221)
Can you think of an example of this in society or in education of a focus on the overt racist individual and ignoring the more covert racist system or policy? Why does this occur? How can we interrupt that?
Chapter 18: Survival
“The history of racist ideas is the history of powerful policy-makers erecting racist policies out of self-interest, then producing racist ideas to defend and rationalize the inequitable effects of their policies, while everyday people consume those racist ideas, which in turn sparks ignorance and hate. Treating ignorance and hate and expecting racism to shrink suddenly seemed like treating a cancer patient’s symptoms and expecting the tumors to shrink. The body politic might feel better momentarily from the treatment- from trying to eradicate hate and ignorance- but as long as the underlying cause remains, the tumors grow, the symptoms return, and inequities spread like cancer cells, threatening the life of the body politic. Educational and more suasion is not only a failed strategy. It is a suicidal strategy.” (pg 230)
What does this quote mean to you in relationship to your race, your role in education, and your journey with antiracism? What can you do to genuinely affect racism in education and not just treat the symptoms as he says in his analogy?
“Our world is suffering from metastatic cancer. Stage 4. Racism has spread to nearly every part of the body politic, intersecting with bigotry of all kinds, justifying all kinds of inequities by victim blaming; heightening exploitation and misplaced hate; spurring mass shootings, arms races, and demagogues who polarize nations; shutting down essential organs of democracy; and threatening the life of human society with nuclear war and climate change. In the United States, the metastatic cancer has been spreading, contracting, and threatening to kill the American body as it nearly did before its birth, as it nearly did during its Civil War. But how many people stare inside the body of their nations’ racial inequities, their neighborhoods’ racial inequities, their occupations' racial inequities, their institutions’ racial inequities, and flatly deny that their policies are racist? They flatly deny that racial inequity is the signpost of racist policy. They flatly deny the racist policy as they use racist ideas to justify the racial inequity. They flatly deny the cancer of racism as the cancer cells spread and literally threaten their own lives and the lives of the people and spaces and places they hold dear. The popular conception is denial- like the popular strategy of suasion- is suicidal.” (pg 234-235)
If you were to stare inside your own body, your neighborhood, your occupation, the education field in general; what would you see? What racist inequities do you see? What policies do you now see behind those inequities?
Ibram X. Kendi leaves his final thoughts on fighting racism in a similar method as fighting cancer on pages 237-238. What are concrete action steps you can take to continue to engage in this fight against racism? How can you engage others in this work? How can you continue these conversations with others? What are concrete action steps you can take?
Intro ~ 10 minutes
Norms:
Please mute when you are not talking so others can hear
Courageous Conversations Four Agreements
Stay engaged
Experience discomfort
Speak your truth
Expect and accept nonclosure
Respectfully utilize the chat and what is said here, stays here
Check In-
Name, school, why did you choose to participate in this book study?
Discussion
About 1-2 minutes for each indivshare
What stuck out most to you in the preface and chapters 1 + 2? What was your big aha/take away? ~ 15 minutes
How does this connect to the current state of events in our city and country? Any other general feelings? ~ 15 minutes
Closing
“Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice and a PROFOUND tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there.”
What is one way you are going to analyze your bias and challenge those biases?
Mention that in next section we read will reference the IAT at Harvard (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html) please be sure to take 20 minutes prior to our next meeting to take that assessment.
Intro ~ 10 minutes
Norms:
Please mute when you are not talking so others can hear
Courageous Conversations Four Agreements
Stay engaged
Experience discomfort
Speak your truth
Expect and accept nonclosure
Respectfully utilize the chat and what is said here, stays here
Check In -
Name, school, what is one thing you are grateful for today/ this week?
Discussion
Chapter 3 --How did you react to the IAT test with Harvard? Did you discover any new biases? How does this connect to the world we live in now (media, advertisements, news coverage)?
“The ultimate measure of a person is not where one stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where one stands in times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
In our community, there was an incident that many felt was challenging and controversial (when a white woman spit on an African American high school student during a peaceful protest). Reflect on this event, what role do you see race and bias taking in this incident?
Chapter 4 -- How are you going to find ways to understand hidden biases and (if desired) to neutralize them before they translate into hidden behavior?
Closing
We’d like to challenge you in the next week to have a conversation around bias with someone not in this book study. Reflect on how you might address this conversation with someone this next week.
In our check in next week, we’d love to hear how it went.
Intro ~ 10 minutes
Norms:
Please mute when you are not talking so others can hear
Courageous Conversations Four Agreements
Stay engaged
Experience discomfort
Speak your truth
Expect and accept nonclosure
Respectfully utilize the chat and what is said here, stays here
Check In-
Name, school, what’s your favorite fun activity to do on a weekend?
Discussion
Last week, we challenged you to have a conversation around bias with someone not in this book study. How did it go?
These chapters addressed stereotyping and categorizing. What’s the difference between them? What are the benefits and harms of each?
Referring to the IAT test mentioned in Chapter 6, what is the cost of the stereotype that American = White if at the same time Black = weapon?
What is something in the last few weeks that is giving you hope?
Closing
In the chat respond to this quote: “Privilege is not knowing that you’re hurting others and not listening when they tell you.”
-Dashanne Stokes
Intro ~ 10 minutes
Norms:
Please mute when you are not talking so others can hear
Courageous Conversations Four Agreements
Stay engaged
Experience discomfort
Speak your truth
Expect and accept nonclosure
Respectfully utilize the chat and what is said here, stays here
Check In-
Name, school, if you didn’t work in education, what career would you have?
Discussion
In Carla’s story in Chapter 8, we saw an incidence of someone receiving different treatment based on us/them discrimination. Have you ever seen this in your personal or professional life? What happened?
Now that you’ve read this book, can you reflect on your blindspots (personal or professional)? How did you act/react to them?
What are some ways we can help each other avoid blindspots? How can we “outsmart the machine”?
Closing
Any final thoughts or “aha” moments from reading or discussions?
Any books/websites/resources that you’ve been inspired by?
Introduction:
In what way does the author’s definition of “school choice” differ from the common notion of school choice?
What are the distinctive characteristics of the three eras of Milwaukee school choice?
Why is the Milwaukee story important in understanding the national school choice movement?
Chapter 1:
To what extent and in what ways does geography affect history? Include examples from the nineteenth century and the twentieth century.
To what extent and in what ways does geography affect social interaction?
What do you see as the single most important factor in the promotion of segregation?
What responsibilities do schools have to fix community problems? Or should schools stick to educating children?
In what ways is Milwaukee similar to the community from which you come?
In what ways is Milwaukee different from the community from which you come?
Reflect on your own exposure to Milwaukee, its neighborhoods, and its schools, if you have any exposure. To what extent and in what ways is chapter 1 relevant to contemporary Milwaukee?
Chapter 2:
The school board majority was concerned that integration might cause white flight. Should they have done the “right thing” and integrated students? Or should they have continued their conservative approach and hoped for natural integration over the course of a generation or more? Did they even have a choice?
Was the planning process flawed?
Given the context of Milwaukee in the 1960s and 1970s, did integration have a chance?
Reflect on your own background. Would your parents have put you on a bus to take you to a school across the city that may have been in a high-crime neighborhood to attend a magnet school?
Given your exposure to Milwaukee so far, is metropolitan integration the answer or would it cause more problems than what it solves?
Chapter 3:
What were the greatest strengths about the integration plan?
What were the greatest problems with the integration plan?
Chapter 4:
How does this chapter show that real, lasting change is hard to impose on people? How does it show that people have to want change?
Did the white parents have any legitimate arguments?
Identify key groups of African Americans. What were their arguments for or against the plan? Looking at school choice today, how does history repeat itself?
Chapter 5:
In what ways is the voucher movement beyond MPS’s control?
In what ways was the voucher movement within MPS’s control?
What lessons can today’s school leaders learn from this chapter?
Chapter 6:
Are the non-MPS choices offered good choices? How could those choices affect MPS in good ways and in bad ways?
Are the MPS choices offered good choices?
Reflect on your own personal experiences. Which of the five options would you have been more likely to pursue for yourself or your own children?
Do the systems of education in Milwaukee reflect choice and opportunity, or do they represent education in a state of chaos?
Go back and reread the introduction. Do you agree with the author’s thesis in the last paragraph? Why or why not?
Chapter 7:
In what ways are MPS’s options limited in the modern era?
To what degree and in what ways do students have choice in Milwaukee?
Overarching question: How is your notion of school different than the notions of schools as presented in Educating Milwaukee? How could your own experiences with schools influence your work? How might those experiences impede your work?
Chapter 1:
In chapter 1 of “These Kids are Out of Control” Milner, Cunningham, Delale-O’Connor and Kestenberg stress the importance of understanding the “pervasive themes of the research literature on classroom management.” According to the authors, these themes include (a) the disproportionate office referrals of students of color, those with learning differences, and those who live below the poverty line; (b) the disproportionate suspension and expulsion of these students; (c) the lack of effective educational and learning experiences for teachers to understand and respond to the needs of their students; (d) the low percentage of Black and Brown students referred to gifted and talented programs; and (e) the over-referral of Black and Brown students and those living below the poverty line to special education. How have your experiences as an educator or an educator in preparation aligned or misaligned with the literature the authors provided?
On pages 25-27, the authors outline six tenets that shape culturally responsive teaching according to Geneva Gay. These six areas are: (1) culturally responsive teaching is validating, (2) culturally responsive teaching is comprehensive; (3) culturally responsive teaching is multidimensional, (4) culturally responsive teaching is empowering, (5) culturally responsive teaching is transformative, and (6) culturally responsive teaching is emancipatory.
Define, reflect on, and discuss each tenet. How might each be implemented within your lesson designs?
How might these tenets of culturally responsive teaching need to be applied differently based on the ages of students (e.g., from elementary to high school aged)?
A central component to “These Kids are Out of Control” is acknowledging the differences between “discipline” and “punishment” practices. Based on your schooling experience(s), what are some examples of student outcomes related to each of these concepts? In other words, how do “discipline practices” and “punishment practices” differentially affect students in schools?
On pages 18-22, the authors describe the “centrality of relationships between teachers and students” as being a key component to promoting student learning. Think of an important relationship you formed with a teacher during your own time as a student in prek-12 school(s). How did this relationship affect the way you learned, developed and engaged in this teacher’s classes and/or in other classes?
What school-level norms and expectations, such as rules and consequences for students when they use profanity, fight, or cheat, can you identify that could unintentionally result in problematic outcomes when it comes to teacher/student relationships?
Chapter 2
Based on your experiences in schools (as an educator or student), what are some examples of how you have observed the cradle-to-prison pipeline (CTPP) manifest itself?
In chapter two on page 36, the authors provide a table of “outside-of-school” and “inside-of-school” factors that underlie the CTPP. What are your general reactions to the factors that are outlined? Do you agree or disagree with any factors? Why or why not? What other factors do you believe are missing from these lists that should be included?
Did/do any of the schools you’ve worked in or attended have school resource officers (SROs)? Describe your and students’ relationship with these individuals. What were the resource officers’ overall impact on, and reputation in, the school?
On pages 49-50 of chapter two, the authors provide the story of “Marcus” to highlight possible ways a student may experience the CTPP. How did this story resonate with your schooling experience(s) either as an educator or student?
At the end of chapter two, the authors advise readers to “think about the ways students can play an active role in thinking about and disrupting the CTPP.” What might some of these ways look like in your professional/academic contexts? What particular activities, assignments and actions could engage students in examining and working to dismantle the CTPP?
Chapter 3
In the beginning of chapter 3, the authors provide four elements of “effective instruction:” (1) critical reflective practices, (2) high engagement with course content, (3) replacement of deficit mindsets with positive framing, and (4) development of a vibrant classroom community. Provide a concrete example of each of the four that you believe could be implemented in your classroom or school?
Miss Thomas (pages 68-69) wondered if differences in her cultural practices and values from those of her students shaped the disconnect between her expectations and student behavior. How might Miss Thomas find out the answer to her “wonder?
The authors explained that high student engagement is promoted through thoughtful lesson design and lesson delivery. Think of a time when you did not receive (as a student) or when you did not provide students with thoughtful lesson design and delivery as an educator. What changes to the design and delivery could have improved the learning opportunity?
What can educators do to build student interests as discussed in chapter 3?
Read through the twelve identified student behaviors provided on pages 75-76. Provide concrete and specific examples for at least six of these behaviors as they relate to ways you have or could implement them within your classroom. What might the outcomes to these behaviors be in terms of teacher/student relationships and academic success in your class?
The authors offered the analogy of a party to show how optimistic and enthusiastic mindsets, beliefs, and outlooks can be contagious on page 80. Do you believe you, as an educator, should be the “party-starter” in your school or classroom? Why or Why not? If so, what would be necessary for you to be a “party-starter” in your school or classroom?
For elementary school teachers – how might you build a classroom community with students? For middle/high school teachers, how can you foster a collaborative and communal environment in your classroom with students who may not engage socially outside of school? For all teachers – what barriers have you experienced in seeking to create classroom communities in the past? How could you work through those barriers?
Chapter 4
Think about your current classroom space, or the last classroom in which you spent time. Would you consider it a “student-centered” classroom? What features were student centered? What could you do to make it even more student centered?
What role can school administrators play in the creation of student-centered classrooms and schools?
Describe and discuss the case of Mr. Jefferies (page 100). How might Mr. Jefferies (page 100) have avoided the situation presented with Ori and Sally?
Consider your own experiences in education. Have you used or participated in a classroom where teachers used any of the twelve strategies provided on page 102 to co-create classroom norms with students? If so, how have these experiences with students differed from those where teachers did not engage in these practices? Describe some outcomes seen related to classroom management and student learning in each sort of environment.
On page 106, the authors provide nine reflective questions for teachers to think about in relation to their students. Choose two or three of these and apply them to your current or past classrooms with specific examples to describe how you have done each as well as the impact they had.
On pages 112-113, the authors use Milner’s previous work to discuss how teachers might cultivate relationships with their students. Critique each based on your perception of their feasibility. If you believe some are unfeasible, what is the basis of your belief? What might need to change about your environment (school or classroom) to make them more feasible? How might you adapt them?
How might aspects of your identity (race, age, gender, religion, etc.) affect the ways in which you engage in partnering with families and communities? In what ways have you tried to include students’ caregivers in your classroom in the past? What were the outcomes of your efforts in terms of student engagement and academic success?
Chapter 5
Define the term “restorative discipline” in your own words and provide three concrete examples of how restorative discipline might be implemented within your classroom and school. Use the authors’ “five goals” provided on page 134 to guide your response.
How is “restorative discipline” different from “punitive discipline”?
Think about the punitive discipline practices enacted in classrooms where you have been a teacher or a student. What connections can you make to outcomes in terms of student success?
What are some ways teachers might collaborate to create the sort of “school community” the authors describe as essential to establishing restorative discipline practices school-wide?
Review and discuss the “affective statements” and “affective questions” on pages 139 and 141. What are your overall impressions of these statements and questions? Be specific. What might be some barriers to facilitating these statements and questions with students? How could you address and work through these challenges?
How might “circle processes” be normalized in your school/classroom context(s)? Is this process applicable to your school context? Why/why not? What sort of changes need to be, or were made, to make circle processes a reality?
Concluding Question:
Overall – identify, reflect on and discuss ten major recommendations from the book. What lessons do you find most transferrable to your classroom and school? What others might you adapt to better make them transferrable? Describe concrete steps you will take in your classroom and school connected to this book. What else do you want and need to know in order to be more effective in your school and/or classroom?