Conversation on Race

A few days a go I had a conversation with someone on the topic of race. In this person's opinion, there was far too great of an emphasis on race on the part of the superintendent and other administrators. They cited several things that have been done in the last year or so as evidence that race has entered into the conversation of education far too often. I would like to personally address this concern so that my views on the subject can be understood publicly.

First of all, let me say that I am personally tired of race. As a black man who has lived through the 50's, 60's and up to now, I was hoping that it would no longer be my constant companion. As a child I was hoping that some day I could grow up in a society where race truly did not matter, or have an impact on any aspect of my life. I am sure that this was the hope of many black people of my generation. I am sure, given the conversations that I have had with many colleagues of the lighter persuasion, that they have been able to move on and transcend something as mundane and trivial as the impact of race on this society. After all, we have a black President who was elected by a large number of white people, so aren't we now officially past race? I want to share a few experiences and some data that might make you question whether that assumption is true or not.

Earlier this year, I attended the gathering of the Wisconsin School District Administrators, Business Officials and School Board Members. There were well over a thousand people in attendance. At one point during a keynote address, I surveyed the room. It was a large ballroom at the Midwest Center in downtown Milwaukee. Out of all of the people in that room I noticed that there were not more than a handful (less than 10) people of color. The dearth of superintendents of color did not surprise me. Until the hiring of the new superintendent of Kenosha, I was one of only two black superintendents in the state of Wisconsin. I was the only one in attendance. The sparse number that were there represented all of the current board members and business officials of color in the state. I may be a little sensitive about this but tell me, how does this depict a color blind society that has moved beyond race, when the representation of those who impact education in the highest positions is so lacking in diverse presence? I am a lifelong resident of the state of Wisconsin, having grown up in Racine. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that at 56 years old I would be one of only two black people running a school district in the state of Wisconsin. What an absolute disappointment, given all of the assistant principals and principals of color that I have known, who labored before me and aspired to have the chance of being a superintendent. The only conclusion that I can come to is that none of them must of been qualified (sarcasm).

The other issue that screams out against our colorblind society is that of student achievement. As I constantly examine the data of my school district the data is inescapable. Students of color have the lowest graduation rates. Their ACT scores, as a group, are at least 5 points lower in each category. They are the fewest in the AP classes but, among the few of those who take those classes, they represent an inordinate amount of D's and F's. These, by the way, are the best of that sub-population. Among freshmen at the high school they rank first in F's. The state of Wisconsin ranks last in the graduation rate of black males. That distinction used to be the domicile of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. When it comes to placement in special education, rate of expulsion and disciplinary statistics, students of color rank first. Again, I can sympathize with those who are tired of an emphasis on race in discussing these facts, but what is the common factor in all of this. For some reason, race will not relinquish its death grip as a factor on the lives of people of color in the United States. Keep in mind that I am writing this from the perspective of one who is a "success story". I am black and have made it. Not a day goes by when I have the luxury of taking a vacation from race. In some places that I travel I am assessed by it. Even in our colorblind society people talk about someone being 'light skinned' and not talking with the usual 'black dialect', as a qualification to be elected to the highest office of the land (see Harry Reid).

You might think that because I am writing these things that I see racists around every corner. I don't. I don't play upon the guilt of liberal people to try to gain some kind of emotional leverage on my viewpoint either. I try to judge people by the content of their character, rather than by the color of their skin. I have friends of every race and ethnicity. All of that doesn't change either the sad personal experiences that I have due to race or the data that seems to endlessly point to the fact that it is far better to grow up white in the United States, than to be either black or hispanic. It greatly increases your likelihood of success. This is not lost on young people as they scan the landscape looking for a representation of role models in their local sphere that give enough evidence of the possibility of success. They have to believe that it is possible. If I had been a high school student attending the conference at the Midwest Center and saw that there was only one black superintendent in attendance out of the hundreds of superintendents there, what would I have believed that my chances were? I guess that when we have colorblind experiences and data, we can move on to a colorblind society.

What Is Learning and How Do You Catch It?

I had a wonderful discussion with an intelligent group of people last night that started on the subject of grading practices but drifted into a discussion on deeper issues.  We were trying to determine how you assess student learning in a manner that indicates growth, improvement and mastery.  When the discussion was concluded, I was left with pondering several questions.  The first is what is the mark of true intelligence?  The second is how do you set up a system of assessing student learning and progress that allows them to intellectually grow during the learning process, and then give them credit for growth?

On the first question there was some concern about establishing a grading system that could penalize the current students who are at the top of their class,  This could be an unintended consequence of giving students more opportunities to learn material by changing all learning variables except level of rigor and demand. If these formerly low performing students could attain high levels of performance, through making them redo, retest and resubmit work until it reflected excellence (and perhaps their true potential), wouldn't that cheat the others?  This discussion began to explore the nature of how we define learning and intelligence. 

For years there has been debate over what intelligence is.  Many of our IQ tests have focused on verbal intelligence so that students who come to school from vocabulary rich environments have greatly benefited from this emphasis on knowing the meaning of words.  Conversely, students who come from poor or second language backgrounds have rarely been identified as intelligent under this definition.  Howard Gardner expanded the discussion of intelligence with his approach of Multiple Intelligences.  He said that there are multiple indicators of intelligence and not all of them can be assessed by a student putting pencil to paper.  Some are performance based. The educational community has been slow to expand its thinking on this issue.  Instead our grading systems reward those who quickly grasp the knowledge that the teacher presents to them.  To borrow from Aesop, if you are the hare you always win the race, if you are the tortoise you get a C or worse.  Apparently, it isn't really about demonstrating high levels of learning and excellence.  It really is about the ability to meet fixed (and some times arbitrary) deadlines. 

If the goal was to master predetermined, essential learning outcomes what would it matter if it takes one student a little more time to attain to the same level of excellence.  Two geniuses from America's past would certainly be failures under this limited definition of learning and intelligence: Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.  Einstein was considered 'slow' in school.  Thomas Edison is well known for his multiple attempts at trying to figure out the problem of the best filament for the electric light bulb.  The fact that he had to try time and time again to attain to mastery is admired. They were tortoises, not hares.  Why doesn't that kind of persistence in the pursuit of learning get valued and rewarded in our classrooms?  If a student takes a test and fails it they are not given the opportunity to study harder and retake it.  Even worse is the example of a student who is assigned a paper that is due on Friday, or else.  If it is an 'A' paper, but is handed in on Monday, depending upon the teacher, it is now a 'B' paper or worse.  Same paper.  Somehow the quality was devalued on the weekend.  What if instead we focused on the quality of learning and performance and set deadlines that are not completely arbitrary and set by fiat. 

The second question is much the same as the first.  What if students are made to redo work that does not reach the level of rigor and excellence that we say that we demand?  What if we won't default by giving them a low grade?  What if the response to poor work is the demand for them to give more effort and to do better?  What if true learning is what happens when they have to rethink an idea or edit their first attempt?  What if the mark of an intelligent person is that they learn while learning?  What if the process of learning and interacting with knowledge is what produces what we call 'intelligence'?  In the so called 'real world' that we are preparing students for, problem-solving is said to be treasured.  If though, we only reward the student who knows the right answer but didn't have to process knowledge through trial and error to find it, are we preparing them for the real, real world?  The discussion from last night boils down to this: Is learning and intelligence the gift of a few talented students or is it gained through percolating and interacting with knowledge. 

Amazing Partnerships

Guest Blogger: Melissa Badger, Community & School Relations

Kudos to the Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce for an absolutely spectacular dinner event last week! I have to admit, I’m not much of a trekkie, but the Star Trek theme was undeniably ingenious and irresistibly fun. That kind of creativity, along with the obvious appreciation guests had for others, and the motivation to keep reinventing our image are all reasons our community is the vibrant place to learn, work, live and play that it is.

Dr. Scott Bierman, Beloit College President, gave the keynote speech, and one key message he kept returning to stuck with me: partnerships. Beloit has always been a huge supporter of Beloit College, as well as for our schools. Dr. Bierman, you were absolutely right in quoting a wise proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Our students need to feel valued and an important part of this whole community – from their families, to city residents, to the businesses and organizations that run this fine city.

I can say with strong certainty that Beloit does care! I have the honor of being part of several community committees such as Visit Beloit, United Way, and the Greater Beloit Economic Development Corporation Business-Education Partnership. The amazing activities going on from Lunch-N-Learn and First Impressions to grants that provide the extras that enhance the educational process for our students, and individual acts of goodwill being done every day are such very important contributions to our students.

Of course, our staff and students are excited to take part in opportunities to give back to the community as well: Pennies for Patients, food drives for Caritas, environmental stewardship, volunteerism in city events, and support for United Way….I’m proud of these efforts, and know we’re working with families on preparing another generation of community leaders with vision to keep driving our city towards even more success while caring for others.


This all confirms what I’ve learned through years of kindness from family, schools and this wonderful city I’ve grown up in: relationships are what truly matter. We’ll do our best to live up to the trust given to us by families to help them teach their children by maintaining those relationships and striving to continuously improve.


As noted last night, you can only coast by going downhill. With our strategic planning, research, and cycles of important staff professional development, we plan to keep in step with fellow organizations to keep moving in a positive direction.

What Do You Truly Believe?

In the movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", a Nazi sympathizer shoots Dr. Jones' father (Sean Connery). He challenges Indiana to go through a series of impossible tests to get the Holy Grail with the statement, "It's time Dr. Jones to ask yourself what you truly believe?" It is a great line and the subject of today's blog.

There is a lot of dissonance between what many of us say we beleive and what we practice. This is true in most areas of a person's life. We call it hypocrisy when our beliefs and practices are in opposition to each other.  In education, it is common for our practices and beliefs to be in opposition to each other. For example, if I ask a room full of high school teachers, "How many of you believe that it is possible for all of your students to earn an A", few hands will go up. Some of these teachers are older teachers, baby boomers. You know, the generation that was committed to changing things and not engaging in old practices that were indefensible. Yet they grade using a practice that seeks to make the normal distribution, otherwise known as the bell curve, a picture of the grade distribution of their classes.

The question that I would ask: "If all students knew what was expected of them and this was clearly laid out in a syllabus and they worked up to the level of high expectation, why couldn't all students earn an 'A'?" The other question that I have is:  "When is knowledge valuable and when should mastery be rewarded?"  In the current system, prevalent in most of the country, knowledge is only valuable on the due date of a particular assignment.  If it is attained a few days later, it is no longer as valuable, depending upon the whims of a particular teacher. It could lose 10% of its value each day.  In some classes, it is not worth anything if it's late. From this I would infer that knowledge and mastery have a mysterious 'shelf life'.

If however, it is important to learn something within a more unlimited period of time (a semester perhaps), then it doesn't matter if the assignment is turned in on a particular date. If it shows high levels of mastery the work should receive the same value, since knowledge does not diminish in value. At least that is the message that I think that we want to send to our students, isn't it? What is my point? It is simply that we need to remove artifical systems that have evolved over time and impaired students from attaining true excellence. If a student doesn't do a particular assignment that is necessary to attaining knowledge of the water cycle and the teacher accepts non-performance as a viable outcome, doesn't that cheapen the value of knowledge to the student? What if students' knew that all necessary work had to be completed within a defined period of time (a semester, perhaps) and that it received full value within that period of time? Might they be motivated to complete it? What if non-completed work never went away? What if you still had to complete it in summer school if it was not completed during the school year, and students knew that this was the consequence? No F.  No Zero. Work completion alone is acceptable.

Back to my point on a syllabus. A syllabus is a road map to success. All assignments are spelled out with clear directions on how they are to be done.  Rubrics that indicate all of the components necessary for excellence would be in the syllabus. Maybe even an exemple or two of what excellent looks like. What if we actually expected students to edit their writing until it became good? What if we expected them to correct their mistakes as an avenue of accurate learning? I think that this is why many of us became teachers.  We didn't want to participate in the same 'sort and separate' system that we grew up in. We wanted something more.  Are we boomers and non-boomers radical enough to implement this? It's time to ask yourself Dr. (Ms. or Mr.) __________, what you truly believe!

One thing about being the age that I am is that I have seen some very significant historical events during the course of my life time. I have seen the first space flight, the invention of the microchip, 9-11 and the election of the first African-American President, just to name a few events. There have been many innovations and changes that would have been unimaginable just a generation ago. The one event that I was privileged to witness as a 10 year old was the March on Washington that culminated with Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his "I Have A Dream Speech". You have to understand that this speech was set in the context of a lot of activity that was focused on African-Americans having the rights that were guaranteed to them by the 14th and 15th Amendment of the Constitution, passed 100 years ago. There were marches, sit-ins, strikes and other non-violent demonstrations that were occurring in the South over the four or so years prior to his speech. Progress toward equality was very slow and there were acts of violence against African-Americans that included shootings, lynching and beatings. Things that we take for granted, such as the right to vote and the right to buy a house wherever you can afford to buy it, were not a reality in most of the country, especially for the majority of African-Americans who lived in the South. It was a very turbulent time.

Though I grew up in Wisconsin, I had experienced some of the same discrimination. My parents could not purchase a house in a neighborhood that they really wanted to move to in Racine. The issue was not being able to afford it; it was their being the wrong color to live in that neighborhood. When I would visit relatives in the South, I saw first hand the open prejudice and discrimination that was a part of their everyday lives. I would visit their segregated schools, drink from their segregated fountains and use their segregated bathrooms. There are young people today who cannot even imagine the amount of progress from those days until now. For the change to happen, it took heroic people to step forward and protest against the wrongs that were being done. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most visible leader on the national level. There were many leaders in a variety of cities and towns. In Beloit, there were people like Reverend Prude and others who stood up and refused to allow discrimination to continue. Not all of the heroes were black. Some of them were white Americans, of good will , whose consciences could not tolerate the continuance of the moral evil of hatred and prejudice. On one occasion, a house wife from Detroit, who joined the protest in the South, was brutally murdered. Events like this eventually awakened many average Americans who had quieted their own consciences with denial and disbelief at what they were watching on the news. It reached a point where the majority could tolerate it no longer.

As a 10 year old, I wish that I could tell you that I realized the import of what I was watching. Of course, I was watching it through 10 year old eyes. In the decades that have passed, I have had many opportunities to reassess that speech and event. I believe that it was the tipping point in the civil rights movement. I think that it was the beginning of the message of equality reaching into the homes of all Americans. Who couldn’t be moved by the words of that speech? A few years ago, I would have placed that speech in 2nd place behind only the Gettysburg Address in American History. Recently, I heard a group of High School students, from Beloit and Janesville, recite the entire speech, not just the "I Have A Dream" portion. It is now in first place. The words and terminology are second to none and the picture that it paints in the minds and hearts of people are unparalleled in the history of this country. I cry every time that I hear it.
I will forever be indebted to Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Prude and the many known and unknown heroes of the civil rights movement who have paved a path for me to follow. I am grateful for their sacrifice and will take the freedom and opportunities that exist now and use them to the fullest. Every day, I will commit myself to ensure that young people in Beloit, of every race and economic status, will have adults who work to open the doors to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for them, in the same way that others have opened the door for us.

What's The Goal

I have been reading Thomas Guskey's book, Developing Grading and Reporting Systems For Student Learning. It is about practices for grading and reporting student performance. In it he discusses the specifics of various practices used for grading students. He talks about letter grades, percentage grades, rubrics, etc. As I am reading through his book I have come to a startling realization. As educators we have figured out what grade we are going to mark on a paper or on a report card. I am wondering however, whether or not we have figured out what our real goal of instruction is. Let me explain.

If the goal of learning is to demonstrate high levels of mastery and performance, then we are going about it the wrong way. If mastery is the goal, then other things that are currently included in the process must become variables that can be manipulated. Time, for example, is not a fixed variable if you want mastery. The reality is that different people require different amounts of time and practice in order to arrive at the point of learning to mastery. Practice, the amount of repetition necessary to demonstrate mastery, is also a flexible variable. Different students require varying amounts of practice and demonstration of a skill or concept. Imperfect practice or understanding should be treated differently if mastery is the goal.

Formative or imperfect practice, with necessary correction, is assumed in this kind of Mastery Learning and Grading. In fact, many formative assessments are not graded or even figured into a summative grade in this process. This 'rubs the cat's fur the wrong way' for people who believe that grading is a function of Darwinism: separating the strongest in the herd from those that are decidedly weak. Most grading that goes on in high schools is Grading Darwinism and the separating of the 'wheat from the chaff'. If the goal is learning at a high degree of mastery and performance, this mentality on the part of educators is counterproductive. If you think about it, it is an impediment that keeps us from high performance for as many students as possible.

At this point someone is thinking, "You are just watering down the level of performance so that all students can 'succeed'! On the contrary. I am not advocating a lowering of standards of excellence at all. I am just saying that if the goal is mastery then why can't a student take a formative assessment after sufficient instruction. Then, if the student does poorly on the formative assessment, why can't they receive corrective instruction, in a different form of presentation then the initial instruction in order to correct their errors in thinking or practice. They could then take a formative assessment similar to the first one that they took initially, and if they reach the 90% or whatever the standard is, congratulate them for reaching mastery. Some teachers would do this but then destroy the positive impact on student performance by averaging the grade from the intial formative assessment with the second. Again, if the goal is mastery and getting the best performance possible, why average an initial practice with a more precise one. Some would say that it is only mastery if you reach it on the first try. Let me use an analogy from non-academic life. Many adults who have driver's licenses would not be on the road if that was the practice of the motor vehicle department. They set a standard that does not bend or change. They do give you multiple chances to reach mastery. I will write more about this topic in future blogs.

It is imperative that we get assessment right from now on. If the goal is learning then how we assess student learning has to match what we say our outcomes are. If students retake exams, how does that not help more precise practice and mastery? Vince Lombardi spoke about mastery and high performance when he said, "Practice makes permanent, perfect practice makes perfect". Students learn things incorrectly and because we are imprecise and confusing in our correction techniques, they cannot learn and give us the mastery that we desire. Some teachers have made the transition. They give formative assessments often enough and far enough into the instruction of a particular concept as to find students close to mastery. They also use assessments the same way that a dipstick functions in a car. We use the dipstick to tell us how much oil we have. Some teachers use the oil light function. The oil light only comes on if you are close to serious trouble. This is not the function of assessment. We first evaluate initial practice and understanding and then when we believe that student practice is more precise we use a more summative assessment that is entered in the grade book.

One last thing. This will call into question the number of essential concepts that we teach. You cannot use any of what I am suggesting if you need to have students master 100 concepts in a semester. This is the major difference between the American educational system and the educational systems of higher performing countries. They teach less to higher levels of mastery. We cover our many concepts a "mile wide and an inch deep". Suffice it to say that how we grade is missing the target if high levels of mastery is the goal.

A Total Commitment to the Future

I was watching a presentation of "60 Minutes" about a neighborhood transformation in Harlem. It highlighted Geoffrey Canada and what he is doing to try to transform the lives of thousands of children in Harlem.

Mr. Canada grew up poor and through opportunities that opened for him was able to go to college and graduate school. He has been successful at various endeavors throughout his life. Instead of wallowing in the fruit of his success he has taken his connections and developed a vision of how to transform an entire neighborhood in Harlem. This neighborhood has thousands of young people in a matter of several city blocks. This vision of transformation includes a school, medical and dental services, and other support services for familes. He believes that if you are going to change the lives of the poor it will take a comprehensive approach that touches every aspect of their lives.

I was impressed by the whole presentation. When they showed the school in the neighborhood I was filled with both excitement and sadness. Excitement because they set the goal that all children will go to college. They are on track to fulfilling this promise to the kids at this school. This school has higher achievement than those of the schools in the New York Public Schools system. There is no achievement gap between the mostly African-American and Hispanic students in his school and the achievement of European-American students, even in more affluent schools. That is exciting! My sadness came when I watched the lottery for the 215 slots in next years kindergarten. The school has a little over 1000 students. Parents were visibly angry when their child was not selected. They wondered what was going to happen to their child when this school seemed to be their best hope for academic and career success. Their child would be relegated to the low quality of the local public school. What a statement that makes about the perceived quality of the neighborhood schools in poor neighborhoods in many large cities.

It made me think about the commitment that those of us who have dedicated our careers to the betterment of the lives of children. Would we dare to proclaim and make that drop dead commitment that all of our students will go to college? I know there are people who say, "Not all students should go to college!" Upon more careful examination, what they mean is that it is all right for everyone else's child not to go to college. They however, started their child out in the best preschool, moved into the neighborhood that they perceived had the best school in town, and carted their child off to every enrichment experience that they could find. For the underserved, especially African-American and Hispanic students, it is imperative that they go to college. This is an absolute necessity, not only for their well being but also for the sake of breaking the cycle of poverty, underemployment and permanent residence in the underclass. In a generation or two, their grandchildren will have the luxury of deciding whether or not they want to become a lawyer like mom or dad.

The reason that I am so emotional about this is because you have to realize the correlation between poverty and race in the U.S. It is amazing, for instance, that if you examine the percentage of students of color that are on free and reduced lunch compared to the percent of white students you will see a much larger percent of students of color are considered poor. In my former district it was something like 7 to 8 out of every 10 students of color were poor. Less than 1/3 of the European-American students were considered poor. Since the majority of students were European-American it was like pulling teeth to get people to care about the other kids. Even when you used the argument that, in time, these students would represent the majority of the future citizens of that town, it fell on deaf ears. It wasn't their children so it didn't have the same immediate impact on them.

Let's dream for a minute. What if everyone in the city felt ownership for all of the kids. What if they encouraged them and extended hope for their future to the kids. What if no one looked upon a child with disdain because they are poor, wear their pants low or look different? What if people walked up to some teen in the grocery store and said, "I am counting on you to keep the prosperity of our community going by doing well in school. I believe in you!" It sounds like something from Pollyanna, doesn't it?

Geoffrey Canada is doing this in Harlem on a scale that many would have considered impossible. He uses public and private funds and support to make this happen. Could a whole community simulate what he is doing? Could they embrace that vision and do the same thing by making a complete commitment to its young people? The greatness of a city is proportionate to what it does for those who are considered the "least" of its citizens. How great does Beloit want to be?