Social Justice
Nick Coon Anne Hao Mo Omar
Embedded Files
"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
School Board Meeting:
School Board Meeting:
Background information:
- For the past decade, the St. Louis school district has been under state control via a state-appointed board, which governs in place of the elected board and has helped bring the district out of academic and financial failure. On Tuesday March 13, 2018, the appointed and elected boards convened in a rare joint meeting to discuss the upcoming transition of power from the appointed to the elected board.
- Both boards are still waiting for the state board of education to decide on whether control should return to the elected board.
Objectives:
- Elected board:
- To reclaim power that was lost in the past decade.
- Wary of passing legislation proposed by the Special Administrative Board in fear that "it might do more harm than good."
- Special Administration board:
- Recommending state legislation that would create safeguards in case the district, once it is turned back over to the elected board, fails again.
- e.g. create essentially another appointed board that can take over individual low-performing St. Louis schools, rather than the whole district. The "special oversight body" would include state and city education leaders who have school turnaround experience.
- Recommending state legislation that would create safeguards in case the district, once it is turned back over to the elected board, fails again.
Outcome:
After 2 1/2 hours of discussion, the boards could not decide when the elected board should take over. Elected board member Katie Wessling suggested completing the transition by August, when the next school year begins, but Richard Gaines, a Special Administrative Board member, was hesitant to make such a quick transition.
Gaines offered to pay for board training for the elected board, and also invited elected board members to shadow the appointed board to learn how to govern a school district if the power transition was delayed.
Observations:
- Little to no change arose from this rare joint meeting.
- The Special Administrative Board was hesitant to accepting a power transition, especially within the next year (2019).
- Currently, the Elected Board is essentially powerless.
- State board standoff is currently going on; the decision on the St. Louis school board power transition is being delayed.
Connections:
- Schools in St. Louis need help such as Adams elementary school.
- If it takes a year for change to be inserted in legislation, then that change will not positively affect schools until after a couple years (lets say 3 years).
- e.g. A 3rd grader attending a poorly funded school like Adams Elementary school will not benefit from the change they need until 3 years later when they are a 6th grader.
- Result: 3 years of inefficient education for that student.
- e.g. A 3rd grader attending a poorly funded school like Adams Elementary school will not benefit from the change they need until 3 years later when they are a 6th grader.
- If it takes a year for change to be inserted in legislation, then that change will not positively affect schools until after a couple years (lets say 3 years).
- People in power are more worried about staying in power than passing legislation that will positively impact education in St. Louis.
School Board's Decision Effects ON schools within St. Louis
School Board's Decision Effects ON schools within St. Louis
ADAMS SCHOOL
ADAMS SCHOOL
The school board meeting is more about politics and less about education and school. Power is in the wrong hands, which can be seen as schools struggling to teach with the amount of resources they are able to utilize. It is difficult for schools like Adams Elementary School to learn because teachers are not able to teach because their technologies are outdated.
If power in the school board is shared equally, more tasks would be completed and schools would have the right technology needed.
The Biome School
The Biome School
Compared to other schools that we visited, Biome was much more technologically advanced even though it was smaller than the other schools. Each classroom had its own TV and each student was provided their own tablets to use during class time.
During my time at Biome, one conversation that stuck with me was when a teacher I interacted with said, "We want to keep our school small and keep the quality of the education high within the classroom". This particular conversation stuck with me because since Biome is considerably funded compared to other schools, I would have thought that they wanted to expand and share their resources with others schools. This illustrates that not every student has the opportunity to attend a properly funded school .
Community Advocates
Community Advocates
REady readers
REady readers
Ready Readers is a non-profit organization in St. Louis that sends trained volunteers to schools once a week to read to under privileged students. They recognized that kids from low-income neighborhoods are less privileged in regards to owning and reading books, and this effects each student's literacy level.
One of the employees at Ready Readers explained that according to research done, standardized testing results at the third grade level determine the likelihood of a student to graduate high school and/or attain higher education. Communities in low-income neighborhoods are at a disadvantage by not having the opportunity to have the resources that are abundant in affluent neighborhoods.
Our experiences with volunteering at public schools and non-profit organizations in St. Louis have taught us that education equity has not been achieved due to lack of acknowledgement and accountability. If we believe that everyone has the potential for greatness, then we must ensure that every child is nurtured to achieve that greatness. Education equity is the root for that greatness, and our experiences in St. Louis illustrate how we need to aid those in pursuit of equality in order to achieve education equity nationally.
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