The New York State Department of Education released English and math test scores for grades 3-8 last week, and once again the Rochester school district’s scores were the lowest among the state’s Big Five urban districts. Although Rochester students showed a slight improvement over last year’s scores, only about 7 percent met proficiency standards in English and math.
Even more alarming: in some schools, hardly any students in some grades made the top, “excelling” rating.
State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said during a telephone conference call with media that overall, the state is improving. But, she added, test scores in Rochester remain “a significant concern.”
A group of local education and anti-racism activists, however, had a stronger response. In a press event last week, members of three organizations – Take it Down, Faith Community Alliance, and the Movement for Anti-racist Ministry and Action – gave a sharp assessment of the school board and Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams.
And Minister Clifford Florence, Sr., an associate minister with the Central Church of Christ, drew a straight line between the district’s largely white, female teaching force and the low test scores of the district’s mostly minority students.
Some research indicates that black teachers are less likely to suspend students of color than white teachers are and are more likely to have high expectations of them.
The district has made little progress at hiring and retaining teachers of color, Florence said. “We’re protecting incompetence,” he said.
The activists said they had been told that the superintendent is “aggressively pursuing a racial justice agenda,” but they questioned that.
“We want to help her successfully take on this immense challenge through broad-based community experience, expertise, insight, and collaboration,” Florence said.
Long-time anti-racism and education activist Howard Eagle also challenged the district’s hiring procedures, calling them “deeply flawed.”
And in fact district officials haven’t made much progress at hiring more teachers of color. The issue, which has been discussed for years, surfaced again during the August 24 school board meeting.
Only 25 percent of the district’s teachers are people of color, district personnel chief Harry Kennedy told board members at the meeting. That’s an increase of 5 percent from a year ago, he said, but it’s still a small percentage in a district where only around 10 percent of students are white.
Kennedy broke the non-white staff numbers down this way: 423, or 13.1 percent of the teachers, are black; 203, or 6.3 percent, are Latino, 43, or 1.3, are Asian; eight, or .25 percent, are Native American; and two, or .1 percent, are Native Hawaiian. (Nearly 4 percent of teachers don’t specify their race, Kennedy said.)
In an effort to improve those numbers, the district has completely revised its recruitment and hiring practices for teachers, Kennedy said. Recruitment started in February this year, about six months earlier than it has in past years. District officials also visited four historically black colleges in their search for teachers of color, as well as Puerto Rico.
Hiring is still underway to fill 110 vacancies, Kennedy said, particularly in hard-to-fill areas like special education.
School board Vice President Cynthia Elliott said the vacancies present an opportunity to fill more of those positions with teachers of color. But the district also has a problem with attrition and retaining teachers, which has complicated the hiring process, Kennedy said.
Elliott did praise the efforts of Deane-Williams, who has been on the job for only a year. Many of Deane-Williams’ senior administrators are people of color, Elliott said.
“I commend the superintendent for her passion about racial equity,” Elliott said. “I don’t remember any other superintendent doing this kind of work to this extent.”
But board President Van White, who participated in the meeting via Skype, was far less celebratory.
“Her cabinet is extremely diverse in central office,” White said, “but we need to ensure the same level of diversity exists at the building level.” The school board, which vote on teacher hires, should be told why teachers of color who have applied for jobs haven’t been hired, he said.
And White went a step further, calling for the board to meet in executive session to review the pool of candidates before voting on the superintendent’s hiring recommendations, both that night and in the future. Recommendations about candidates come to the superintendent from administrators and school-based planning teams, most of whose members are usually white.
During a phone interview after the board meeting, White defended his request. In the past, he said, the board has approved 99.9 percent of the candidates that superintendents have presented, with few questions. The board has a responsibility to do more than that, he said.
“Our children won’t see that diversity if we don’t do something differently,” White said.
JUMP HEAD:
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2017.
“Our children won’t see that diversity if we don’t do something differently,” White said. Now that is a profound statement. Unfortunately he is talking about hiring more people of color to work in the district and while this would be helpful it won’t happen with fidelity and even if the ratio does change, those employees won’t stay because the bigger issue is not being corrected. The Rochester City School District is one of the worse school systems in America and it has been for many years. It is a place where leaders continue to tinker with change knowing it will not influence their power and those of us on the front lines are getting beaten down by policies, processes and procedures that are dishonest and degrading.
Why in the world would any intelligent person of color who has employment options work for a system that is so broken? It is not the type of employee that will have the greatest positive influence on student achievement, only the dismantling of the current centralized, unpredictable, out of touch Broad Street offices will do. Schools need to be run by people who have an emotional commitment to the community and they need the autonomy to determine their own path. The existing system ensures the status quo and until something radically different takes hold all of the other conversations are really wasted energy, cheap talk or both.
Very informative article. I was able to learn that it is possible, with a straight face, to talk about being interested in raising city school kids’ test scores without even once mentioning that one way to make a significant improvement is to encourage a rapid expansion of charter schools in the area. The D&C article showed the results for the local charter schools. Using a simple average (I did not have access to the number of students by school in order to calculate weighted averages), I was able to determine that the charter schools on average had 25% of their students considered to be proficient, versus 8% in the RCSD schools. Three times as likely to be proficient!! And with similar demographics. Those results were not just in Rochester. The NYT had a good article that found that the charter schools in NYC not only outperformed NYC public schools, but that they had improved at a faster rate. Neither Macaluso nor the committee thinks this is worth considering.
The second thing I learned is that not every ill in the world is to be blamed on white males. Just most of them. Minister Clifford Florence ” drew a straight line between the district’s largely white, female teaching force and the low test scores of the district’s mostly minority students.” Really?
Gotta Say It,
I hear you (kind of), but you’re all over the place — scattered. It’s vitally important to focus.
You say “those of [you] on the front lines [presumably teachers and support staff?] are getting beaten down by policies, processes and procedures that are dishonest and degrading” — really, and the most powerful institution within the larger institutions, i.e., the TEACHERS UNION is just allowing this to happen???
The reason “why [an] intelligent person of color who has employment options would work for a system that is so broken” is the same reason why an intelligent white person who has employment options would work for a system that is so broken — hopefully, in both cases (although we know it’s not always true) — because they care about children and families, and believe they can make a difference. If, in the case of employees of color, it is true that: “It is not the type of employee that will have the greatest positive influence on student achievement” — then this must also necessarily, logically, be true for white employees.
“…dismantling of the current centralized, unpredictable, out of touch Broad Street offices will do” what (exactly)???
“until something radically different takes hold all of the other conversations are really wasted energy, cheap talk or both” — “until something radically different takes hold?????” Sounds like magic. How does that work???
Luxembourg,
As soon as someone says something like: “The NYT had a good article that found that the charter schools in NYC not only outperformed NYC public schools…” — I know right away that he or she does not quite know what they’re TALKING about.
So, you thought that “every ill in the world is to be blamed on white males” — must be your conscience — working overtime. Why would you question the old, old, crystal-clear, “straight line between the district’s largely white, female teaching force and the low test scores of the district’s mostly minority students” (you do know that it’s an old, old, crystal-clear pattern that exists throughout this thoroughly racist, white-supremacist-based nation-state — in every direction — North East, South and West — don’t you)???
Luxembourg, you do know that charters out perform other schools because of selection bias, don’t you? Parents must apply for their kids to enter, (demonstrating parent interest, which we all know is key to student outcomes) AND many of the schools get to reject any students they don’t want.
Certainly, the quest to continue efforts to diversify the teaching staff in the Rochester City School District is a valuable one. But, is it necessary to denigrate one group of people to promote that mission? I dont believe so. I have taught in the RCSD and currently substitute teach, a position that allows me the opportunity to see firsthand the dedication and commitment of many teachers in various schools across the district. Most teachers have a professional and emotional investment in the success of their students. Minister Clifford Florence, Sr.s remark, which wasn’t directly quoted in this article but rather summarized, that he “drew a straight line between the district’s largely white, female teaching force and the low test scores of the district’s mostly minority students reeks of sexism. His sentiments do little to promote the necessity of teachers and the community working together on behalf of our students. Rather, these types of gross generalizations based upon gender and race could even contribute to the challenge of enlisting parents to participate more fully in their childrens education. After all, if their childs problems in school can be attributed to having a white, female teacher, well then . . .whats to discuss? Our students need us all to work together on their behalf not to point fingers at one another.
It sounds like they want segregated schools again.