Windsor Asamoah-Wade took to teaching immediately. He had a full schedule in the Rochester City School District and jumped at every opportunity to coach. He was visible in the neighborhood, too; his students often called out his name when they saw him walking his dog or riding his bike.

But Asamoah-Wade wasn’t certain in those early years if teaching was the career he wanted; he wondered if a more lucrative field would be better in the long run.

But then something happened that changed his mind, he says.

“I moved from the school I was at to School Without Walls, and it was the end of the day when the office called me,” he says. “They said, ‘Mr. Wade, there’s a whole bunch of kids here who asked to see you. You better come down here.'”

It was a group of 15 to 20 students from his former school.

“They said, ‘Mr. Wade, why did you leave us?'” he says. “I didn’t realize until then what I meant to the kids. That was my ‘aha’ moment and I never looked back.”

He calls it the day that teaching chose him. Asamoah-Wade has been teaching in the Rochester school district for more than 30 years now, 27 of them at School Without Walls.

He says that the secret to being an effective teacher is to show students that you care about them.

“Some of them have even called me ‘dad,'” he says. “Maybe it’s because I talk to them the way I talked to my own children.”

Windsor Asamoah-Wade has been teaching at School Without Walls for nearly 30 years. Credit: PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN

Asamoah-Wade is one of a relatively small core of black teachers in Rochester city schools, where about 80 percent of the district’s 28,000 students are black or Latino.

Many educators, especially those working in urban school districts, stress the importance of having teachers of color in the classroom. But the reasons vary and can be controversial.

Some say that it’s simply a matter of diversity and that the teacher’s race is irrelevant when it comes to achievement for students of color. Even many of the Rochester school district’s former superintendents, including Manuel Rivera and Bolgen Vargas, said that a teacher’s race doesn’t determine whether that teacher will be effective.

Good teachers build relationships with their students and it grows from genuinely caring about them and wanting them to succeed in all areas of their lives, these educators say.

But other teachers, administrators, and school officials say that while that’s true, it’s also a politically correct response. To say otherwise would insult and alienate more than half of the city’s teaching staff, they say.

Teachers of color can provide a distinct level of understanding and cultural competency that inspires black and brown students and boosts them socially and academically, they say.

And they say that the Rochester school district, like many mid-size and large urban school districts, is mired in institutional racism. They cite disproportionately high suspension rates for African-American students; extremely low graduation rates for same, particularly black boys; and security checkpoints inside schools that they say create a prison-like environment.

Some of the educators are convinced that if black teachers made up at least 45 to 50 percent of the workforce in city schools that test scores and graduation rates would go up dramatically. Attendance would be higher, too, and suspensions would be lower, they say.

But the city school district is nowhere near that range. Out of a workforce of 3,209 teachers, 806 or 25 percent are teachers of color. And of the 219 new hires since July of this year, 42 or 19 percent are teachers of color.

Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association, acknowledged the need for more teachers of color in an interview last year with the Minority Reporter.

“We recognize these mostly female, mostly middle class, mostly suburban teachers come here, and they are totally clueless as far as knowing anything about the students,” he said.

The Rochester school district isn’t unique. A major report from the Albert Shanker Institute released last year shows that gains in teacher diversity are modest in some urban school districts and that the ranks are declining in others, nationwide. Numerous explanations exist.

For example, while the report shows that teacher diversity grew during the 1980’s and ’90’s, the minority student population grew at a much faster pace, particularly in urban school districts.

But more significant is the impact of reform measures. Even as minority children were integrated into largely white school systems under Brown v. Board of Education, minority teachers didn’t always follow them. And more recent efforts to turn around or close low-performing schools have in many cases left fewer minority teachers in those school systems.

The Shanker Institute report, which was commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers, examined teacher diversity in nine cities: New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

The number of black teachers declined in all nine cities from 2002 to 2012. And even though there were some slight increases in the number of Latino teachers, the population of Latino students has increased nationwide, limiting a gain in representation, the report says.

Educators’ views on teacher diversity are in some respects a microcosm of the general public’s. There’s even a wide spectrum of ideas among black teachers about its importance, why it’s important, and how exactly it impacts all students, but especially students of color.

Asamoah-Wade views learning as a relationship-oriented process and puts less emphasis on a teacher’s race.

“I don’t know about this whole thing and whether the color of the teacher has an overwhelming influence on the performance behavior of a child,” he says. “I had one black teacher from K through 12th grade. I can honestly say that one of the main reasons I even thought of becoming a teacher was from the examples I had from teachers who happened to be white. It was what they impressed upon me.”

Asamoah-Wade grew up in rural Orleans County. His parents stressed the importance of education and taught him not to judge anyone based on race, ethnicity, or religion, he says.

“I was taught that the teacher has knowledge and training and wisdom that I should respect,” he says. “My dad was a Teamster and my mom earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing. They were part of the black migration North. They understood Jim Crow; they experienced it. They didn’t want us to have the same educational restrictions that they did. We were expected to behave and to do the best work we could in school.”

Donnell Johnson and Mark Morrison are African-American teachers with more than 20 years of experience. Their colleague, Dan Dunne, is white and is also a veteran teacher. The three men call themselves “Monrovians,” since they all teach at Monroe High School.

They don’t dismiss the value of teacher diversity, but say that other factors that influence student performance are just as important. And that includes teacher training, they say.

Few new teachers are fully prepared to walk into an urban school district and be effective, Johnson says.

“I realized I didn’t have the skill set when I first started out,” he says. “Many colleges and universities have a one-size-fits-all teacher preparation program, and they’re not equipping new teachers entering the field for work in urban school districts.”

Teamwork between teachers is essential to help make up for the lack of preparation, Johnson says. More experienced teachers need to guide new teachers who don’t know the students, their home lives, their culture, or even when students are cursing at them in front the class, he says.

“You have to want to be here in this school,” Dunne says. “Our kids have challenges, but our cultural diversity is a strength that suburban schools don’t have.”

The three are passionate about seeing Monroe removed from the state’s list of receivership schools, which means that they are among the lowest performing in the state. And they say that Monroe is undergoing a transformation, which they credit to the school’s new principal.

If relationship-building is a pillar of good teaching, then communication is critical, says Shaun Nelms, superintendent of East High School. It’s important to understand that the way teachers communicate with students and vice-versa is shaded to some extent by past experiences, he says.

Shaun Nelms is superintendent of East High School. Credit: PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN

“If I have received information that I have deemed or perceived to be racist, I’m much more likely to view other similar experiences through that same lens,” Nelms says. “If you approach me based on past experiences, the way you treat me will be dictated accordingly. If being a 6’3″ black male that weighs 250 pounds is from your experience intimidating, then you will approach me timidly.”

Nelms says that he can’t control that experience and that people should consider how black students feel. As children they become masters at code-switching: adjusting their behavior and demeanor depending on the social context, he says.

“We often view [black] students through the eyes of poverty and underappreciate some of their soft skills – the resilience and the ability to adjust to complex situations, code-switching, and being able to adapt,” he says. “I would say that’s a strength.”

Focusing on whether white teachers are racist or whether they can teach black youth misses the point, Nelms says.

“The question is how we change the perspective of the adults in ways that allow them to view kids as individuals,” he says. “And how do we help students understand that the adults they interact with are individuals, too, and not the same as the teacher they may have dealt with five years earlier – a teacher who may not have shown themselves to be culturally competent?”

It takes a lot of positive experiences to reset the mind after a negative one, Nelms says. Changing attitudes takes time, and understanding the insidious nature of racism is not the sole responsibility of teachers; children interact with lots of people with the wrong attitude, he says.

“Often the focus is on teachers because they interface with students and parents most, but within the school system there are many adults who control the first interaction with kids and parents that are not teachers,” Nelms says.

That includes school security, bus drivers, and food servers, he says.

“There are so many other adults who are non-teaching staff that paint a picture of schooling for our kids that focusing on one subgroup becomes unfair,” he says.

Nelms cringes when he hears people say that they want to hire black male teachers because they can better discipline black students, he says. A Washington Post article written by US Education Secretary John King earlier this year referred to this as the “invisible tax” on black male teachers.

That’s just as racist as saying a black male isn’t smart enough for the job, Nelms says.

“Black men are not given the respect as the intellectual leaders that they are and that they don’t have more to offer than just being a social connection to the kids,” he says. “Some of the most prominent educational leaders have been black men and they did it not by being physical, but by being smart men.”

Brandon White and Banke Awopetu McCullough are younger black teachers and they take a strong stance on the need for more black teachers in Rochester.

They say that they often see white teachers treat white and black students differently.

Banke Awopetu McCullough, who last taught at All City High, told her students that being black is synonymous with excellence. Credit: PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN

“I’ve encountered blatant racism to kids and I’ve encountered coded racism on an interpersonal level,” says White, who teaches seventh and eighth grade in the Rochester school district.

He has seen children of color who misbehave receive harsher punishment than white kids who do essentially the same thing, he says. And white students frequently don’t receive the same social-emotional diagnoses as black children when they have learning problems, White says.

There’s a well-documented history of what experts refer to as “overprescribing” in schools with large numbers of minority children: disproportionate numbers of black and brown children are pipelined into special education programs and receive harsher punishment for misbehaving than white children.

White recalls a rambunctious white male student who exemplified this difference, he says.

“He was a good kid, a good spirit,” he says. “But boys, we can be knuckleheaded. We can be easily distracted. He was just all boy. But I looked at him no differently than the other boys who had the same disposition. That couldn’t have been said for one or two white teachers. If a black or brown kid did the same things as this white kid, there would have been consequences.”

A recent Mother Jones article refers to a London School of Economics study that shows that white teachers grade black and Latino children more harshly for the same performance, accounting for as much as 22 percent of the achievement gap between white students and students of color.

A Vanderbilt University study shows that white students are roughly twice as likely to be placed on gifted tracks as black students, even when the test scores are comparable. But the advantage for white students fades when black students are evaluated by black educators, the study says.

And a recent study from Johns Hopkins University shows that black teachers are much more likely than white teachers to think that black students will complete high school and go on to earn a college degree, especially a black male student.

Awopetu McCullough last taught at All City High. She is resolute in her belief that the district needs more black teachers.

“Just seeing a person in the classroom that is the same race, culture, gender, or where you’re from, that type of relatability allows you to dream for yourself,” she says. “‘This is what’s possible.'”

But it goes beyond that, she says.

“I’m very explicit and unapologetic about what black students need, and they need black teachers who have a particular awareness about black history and intentionality about what they do,” she says. “I believe black is synonymous with excellence. Anything short of that is unacceptable.”

It’s heartbreaking when she meets black students who have developed a negative self-image so early in life, but it’s understandable, because the negative messaging, especially from news media, is all around them, she says.

“I’ve had kids tell me, ‘Oh, come on, Miss, we black,'” she says. “I’ll tell them, ‘Exactly, which is why you’re going to do it again and get it right this time. I have expectations of you because I know what you’re capable of. Any teacher that’s giving you easy work either thinks you’re stupid or doesn’t care about you.'”

McCullough has little tolerance for people who use language like “unrelenting poverty” when describing the lives of city students. It’s a benevolent way of saying that society should have low expectations for them, she says.

You can’t teach in the city school district and not talk about racism, she says; it’s irresponsible.

“I could puke when any person tells me they’re colorblind,” she says. “You need to see a doctor about that because you do see color. Let’s be serious.”

Racism in the city school district isn’t talked about because it makes people uncomfortable, says McCullough’s former colleague, Brandon White.

“First, you have to agree that it’s real and then you have to find ways to communicate it to a 5 year old who has to suffer through it,” White says. “If 5 year olds are old enough to understand stranger danger, they’re old enough to understand racism. It’s an abstraction, but it happens just like child abduction.”

Joy DeGruy, a nationally-known speaker, educator, and author, came to Rochester this summer to help teachers in the city school district have a long-overdue conversation about institutional racism in the schools, she says.

She doesn’t mince words. Abysmally low graduation rates, especially for black males, and a bureaucracy that lacks accountability and is extremely resistant to change make the Rochester school district one of the worst she’s seen, she says. She asks why more parents and community leaders aren’t demanding change.

“It’s horrific what’s going on in Rochester, horrific,” DeGruy says.

What’s happening in Rochester is victim-blaming aimed at black and Latino students and their parents, she says.

“‘They’re just dysfunctional. They’re poor. They’re incapable of learning. It’s the parents’ fault. They’re violent,’ and on and on,” DeGruy says.

DeGruy has held conversations and seminars with black parents across the US, and says that one finding stands out: Black children with mostly or all white teachers often come home and say that their teacher doesn’t like them.

“That’s not a normal thing for most children to say,” she says. “And it doesn’t matter whether it’s perceived or real — they don’t feel liked. And here’s the answer; often they aren’t liked. Their teachers are afraid of them. Their teachers are impacted by implicit bias from media and from everything that gets promoted about children of color in this country. We want to believe that for some reason when we go into a classroom it all just floats away, and it doesn’t. Our children can feel it.”

DeGruy is convinced that increasing the number of teachers of color in the nation’s classrooms will not only counter some of these attitudes and experiences, but will result in better test scores for students of color and go a long way to close the achievement gap between white students and students of color. Everything else has been tried, she says, including creating a parallel public education system with non-union charter schools. But little has changed, she says.

“There’s this feeling of futility in school districts like Rochester because what we won’t look at is the systemic problem of institutional racism,” DeGruy says. “These systems are deeply entrenched, but if the keys to the kingdom are so strongly protected, nothing is going to change.”

Howard Eagle is a retired teacher and longtime Rochester education activist. Credit: PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN

Howard Eagle, a longtime education activist and former teacher, and Cynthia Elliott, vice president of the Rochester school board, are fiercely outspoken about the need for more black teachers in city schools, and have been for years. It’s not that white teachers can’t teach black children, or that most white teachers in the district are racist, they say.

But many white teachers and some black teachers, too, don’t understand what slavery has done to generations of black families; they have a hard time appreciating the collateral damage caused by white supremacy and white privileges, they say.

“When you look through the history books in a classroom and almost all of the accomplishments are by white people and few by black people, there’s a disconnect,” Elliott says.

Eagle s says that educators must have a real conversation about racism.

“Many teachers feel they have a right not to talk about it, that they shouldn’t be compelled to talk about it, but they should,” he says.

Idonia Owens, principal at School Without Walls, says that more teachers of color are needed in the classroom. Credit: PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN

Idonia Owens, principal at School Without Walls, says that white teachers need to do “the work” to understand the deeper issues faced by African-American children.

“They need to take a deep look into themselves and recognize the internalized racism, recognize the advantages, and recognize that there is something going on with these kids that they didn’t ask for,” she says. “I have to see that 6’2″ black boy not as a criminal, but as a whole child that has experienced trauma, who can’t walk down the street without being suspected of something terrible, who probably in his lifetime will be stopped by a police officer more than once for doing nothing.”

Recognition is growing in the city school district of the need for more teachers of color. The district has a “grow your own” program for high school and college students interested in working in urban school districts — the hope is that they’ll stay in Rochester — and it has a teacher career training program at East High School.

The district also partners with Uncommon Schools, a charter schools network, on a teaching fellow program where black and Latino college juniors teach in summer programs. The fellows may receive job offers in either the city schools or in the charter network before they complete their senior year.

Cynthia Elliott is vice president of the Rochester school board. Credit: PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN

But there are obstacles to employing more teachers of color, says Harry Kennedy, the district’s chief of human resources. A serious one is the union contract which says that the last teachers hired are the first to go in the event of layoffs. Also: convincing candidates from another state to uproot their families and come to Rochester is difficult, Kennedy says.

Still, the bar must be raised, says Elliott, the vice president of the school board. Some of the district’s previous hires, white and black, haven’t impressed her in terms of their understanding of the reality of teaching in an urban setting, she says.

“Just because you’re certified doesn’t mean you’re qualified,” she says. “And just because you’re my skin folk doesn’t mean you’re kin folk.”

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This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2016.

I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education,...

31 replies on “The case for more black teachers in Rochester and everywhere”

  2. “Some of them have even called me ‘dad,'” he says. “Maybe it’s because I talk to them the way I talked to my own children.”

    Or because they’re in the demographic that includes 75% single parent households? aka They have no father figure to begin with.

  4. Johnny — “big push”??? You’re kidding — right??? Maybe 200 children in a program that’s more than 50 years old (one of the nation’s oldest of its kind). You call that a “big push”???

  5. “DeGruy has held conversations and seminars with black parents across the US, and says that one finding stands out: Black children with mostly or all white teachers often come home and say that their teacher doesn’t like them.”

    Is it possible that the reason they feel this way is that it is exactly the opposite?

    The students don’t like their teachers.

    Of course it is. This whole article is about just that.

  6. johnny — WHAT??? Try this: “That’s not a normal thing for most children to say,” she says. “And it doesn’t matter whether it’s perceived or real — they don’t feel liked. And here’s the answer; often they aren’t liked. Their teachers are afraid of them. Their teachers are impacted by implicit bias from media and from everything that gets promoted about children of color in this country. We want to believe that for some reason when we go into a classroom it all just floats away, and it doesn’t. Our children can feel it.” http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015…

  7. Most white teachers are arrogant and come across as snakes in the grass that assume that they know what’s best for black children far beyond the classroom but would never send their own children to the very district that pays them a fair salary bi-weekly. Most rely on their “union” to protect them and give them a platform to display their arrogance… Most black parents and black employees that work in the RSCD are kidding themselves if they actually believe that most white teachers in the RCSD are emotionally balanced and culturally competent enough to offer black children the core essentials that they need (self-knowledge and racial pride) to compete spiritually and intellectually on the international stage of life. White arrogance and black ignorance, another episode of unnecessary confusion in Rochester, NY.

  8. “Most white teachers are arrogant and come across as snakes in the grass … ” etc etc

    That’s a blatantly racist posting if I ever saw one.

  9. As a black teacher I think this is BS. I have seen both good black and good white teachers. I think painting a broad stroke of only black teachers can teach black children is absurd.

  10. Gosh, Howard, that was a pretty lame link you provided. I think reality blows it away. It’s pretty much making an issue that city schools have more of a discipline than suburban schools. White suburban schools are much better behaved. EVERYONE would grade the same way.

    Look at what happened at Gates-Chili HS a couple years ago. You can’t argue with facts Howard. If blacks want more respect in school, then the first thing to do is GIVE more respect.

  12. 50 years of easy to get welfare benefits has added greatly to the problems in City schools. Having to work does several beneficial things. It is inconsistent with addictions that get you fired, makes you learn how to socialize with other people, and makes parents consider finances before deciding to have children .
    Assistance should be short term. Lifetime assistance such as SSI destroys any incentive to work and should be given only to people that are severely disabled.

  14. One thing I just can’t grasp is that there’s this huge world out there, ripe for ANYONE to conquer and people like Howard want to hold back the people they profess to care about in a winless blame game. Whether you have a grievance or not, you’re only holding yourself back when you blame others.

    I’ll leave you with a few thoughts, Howard
    The first slave owner in America was black
    Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves was a Republican
    MLK and Fredrick Douglas were Republicans
    The KKK is a Democrat organization. Remember Senator Byrd?

    Why do blacks vote for Democrats 90% of the time?

  15. Fgf : You want to go back to the time when there was FULL EMPLOYMENT — for ALL Black folks — don’t you?

  16. johnny:
    “… people like Howard want to hold back the people they profess to care about in a winless blame game.” WHAT???….. WHAT??? STOP MAKING STUFF UP.

    Of course we ALL KNOW that no one is to “blame” for the situation outlined at the following link: http://www.africanholocaust.net/html_ah/ho…

    I’ll leave you with a few thoughts, johnny:

    __”The first slave owner in America was black” (IN YOUR COTTON-PICKING, FABRICATED DREAMS).

    __ “Abraham Lincoln, who [DID NOT] free the [SO-CALLED] slaves” WROTE: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.” THERE YOU HAVE IT — FROM THE RACIST HORSE’S OWN MOUTH.

    __I AM AWARE OF THE FACT THAT “MLK and Fredrick Douglas were Republicans.” WHAT IN THE HECK DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE DESPERATE NEED FOR MANY, MANY-MORE BLACK TEACHERS IN THE RCSD, AND WITHIN OVERWHELMINGLY, PREDOMINANTLY, BLACK, AND BROWN SCHOOL DISTRICTS THROUGHOUT THIS THOROUGHLY RACIST, WHITE-SUPREMACIST-BASED NATION-STATE (IN EVERY DIRECTION — NORTH, EAST SOUTH, AND WEST)???

    WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THE FACT THAT “The KKK is a Democrat [AND REPUBLICAN] organization” HAVE TO DO WITH THE DESPERATE NEED FOR MANY, MANY-MORE BLACK TEACHERS IN THE RCSD, AND WITHIN OVERWHELMINGLY, PREDOMINANTLY, BLACK, AND BROWN SCHOOL DISTRICTS THROUGHOUT THIS THOROUGHLY RACIST, WHITE-SUPREMACIST-BASED NATION-STATE (IN EVERY DIRECTION — NORTH, EAST SOUTH, AND WEST)???

    WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THE ALLEGATION THAT “blacks vote for Democrats 90% of the time” HAVE TO DO WITH THE DESPERATE NEED FOR MANY, MANY-MORE BLACK TEACHERS IN THE RCSD, AND WITHIN OVERWHELMINGLY, PREDOMINANTLY, BLACK, AND BROWN SCHOOL DISTRICTS THROUGHOUT THIS THOROUGHLY RACIST, WHITE-SUPREMACIST-BASED NATION-STATE (IN EVERY DIRECTION — NORTH, EAST SOUTH, AND WEST)???

    STAY ON TOPIC!!!

    http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation…

    http://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article…

    http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Arti…

  17. johnny:
    I can’t respond (intelligently) to your strange assertion that… “that was a pretty lame link [I] provided” — since I have no idea which of the numerous links that I provided — you’re referring to.

    I also have absolutely no idea of what you’re referring to — regarding your request for me to “Look at what happened at Gates-Chili HS a couple years ago.” Thus,, again, I am unable to respond (intelligently).

    If you had any understanding of, and/or respect for those who have always borne the greatest weight of the tripartite beast , and illness of individual, institutional, and structural racism, which are thoroughly bound up together, totally intertwined, and completely inseparable from one another, i.e., there can be no continued structural and/or institutional racism — without continued, individual racists (by the millions) — You would NEVER make BROAD, GENERAL, SWEEPING statements such as: ” If blacks want more respect in school, then the first thing to do is GIVE more respect.”

    http://www.rawstory.com/2014/11/racism-wit…

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/27/opinions/hil…

  18. Scorsese93,

    First of all, in my humble, but staunch view — “As [an alleged] black teacher” — you ought to come out of the shadows of anonymity, and reveal your identity. Hopefully, you are proud, and unashamed to stand on your knowledge, and beliefs.

    You “think [what, specifically] is BS?”

    Any educator who has worked in the RCSD, and/or I imagine any other school district — for any substantial length of time — has “seen both good [and bad] black, and good [and bad] white [,Hispanic,and perhaps Asian] teachers..” It’s very, very important to acknowledge that we don’t ALL necessarily mean the same thing regarding usage of the terms “good” and/or “bad” to refer to teachers. What I have found is that often when people use the labels “good,” and/or “bad” — they are referring to whether or not teachers are LIKABLE (from one’s own perspective). When I use the terms, what I’m referring to is good=EFFECTIVE, and bad=INEFFECTIVE (no matter how likable one may or may not be).

    Over the 23 years that I taught in the RCSD, I can honestly say (without any hesitation what so ever) that I observed much, much, much higher percentages of good (as defined above) Black teachers vis-a-vis white ones — period. By the way, my overall experience was pretty broad (5 different schools, two years at Central Office, and one on special assignment).

    I think it would be difficult to find a credible educator who would disagree with your assertion that “painting a broad stroke of only black teachers can teach black children is absurd.” THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT SUGGEST OR ADVOCATE SUCH NONSENSE (IN ANY WAY). SO, WHAT’S YOUR POINT??? http://eus.sagepub.com/content/37/3/243.ab…

  19. Howard I made no reference to race in my comments. Unless you know something I don’t there are people of all races that have been receiving generational benefits.

  22. BROTHER AVERY T. BLACKMAN — YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN. NO, LET ME SAY IT FOR YOU:

    “Most white teachers are arrogant and come across as snakes in the grass that assume that they know what’s best for black children far beyond the classroom but would never send their own children to the very district that pays them a fair salary bi-weekly. Most rely on their “union” to protect them and give them a platform to display their arrogance… Most black parents and black employees that work in the RSCD are kidding themselves if they actually believe that most white teachers in the RCSD are emotionally balanced and culturally competent enough to offer black children the core essentials that they need (self-knowledge and racial pride) to compete spiritually and intellectually on the international stage of life. White arrogance and black ignorance, another episode of unnecessary confusion in Rochester, NY.”

  23. I’ll put it as simply as I can, Howard. You can dwell on your grievances of the past or you can focus on the future……Onward and Upward.

    Yesterday is gone.

    What you and others make of TODAY is all that matters.

  24. I will not argue a single point of this article, but it misses one CRITICAL fact: If the Rochester City School District hired every single person of color who applied for a teaching position in our city, we STILL would not have enough black teachers. In a school district where black students form the single largest racial group, very few of them return to our district to teach.

  26. Howard
    Last posting for me here.
    It’s a bigger world than Rochester and there are underperforming school districts Statewide. My comments apply to all these schools.

  27. Fgf,

    Not only “are there [so-called] underperforming school districts Statewide,” but they exist throughout this thoroughly racist, white-supremacist-based nation-state (in every direction — North, East, South, and West), and the overwhelming majority of them are filled with predominantly Black, and brown students, and predominantly white faculties, and administrations. Surely you don’t think that WE believe this is just ONE, BIG, COINCIDENT, AND/OR SOME TYPE OF “NATURAL” FLUKE OF NATURE — DO YOU??? If so, the joke is on you — because MANY OF US understand clearly, and thoroughly that overall, current conditions represent a direct result of very skillful, historic, socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and sociocultural MANIPULATION OR ENGINEERING, which is largely responsible, not only for creation of current. overall conditions, but also ongoing perpetuation, and maintenance of current, overall conditions.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

    http://www.ebony.com/news-views/sixty-year…

    http://kulturekritic.com/2014/11/latest-po…

    http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation…

    http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archiv…

    http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Arti…

    http://www.epi.org/publication/brown-at-60…

    http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/20…

    http://www.wvgazettemail.com/News/BrownvBo…

    ETC…ETC…ETC…

  29. Damon Diehl,

    On the contrary, the article does NOT “miss [the] CRITICAL fact [that] If the Rochester City School District hired every single person of color who applied for a teaching position in our city, we STILL would not have enough black teachers. In a school district where black students form the single largest racial group.” THAT’S A GIVEN. There are reasons why ” very few of them return to our district to teach” — with one of the most CRITICALLY IMPORTANT reasons being that “our district” does VERY LITTLE (ALMOST NOTHING) to attract them back, as well as attract those from other places. CHECK THIS OUT — THEN CALL 546-2681, and ask them what happened? QUOTES FROM THE LOCAL EDUCATION GURU: “I remember, years ago, we were full partners with the district in recruiting teachers through Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs), to increase the proportion,” he said. “But, recently, the district has dropped that. I think they need to pick it up again, and/or develop a metropolitan school system.” (the latter idea will NEVER, EVER happen — so, don’t even waste time even thinking about it). ““I am going to redouble our efforts to persuade the district they should resume what we’ve done in the past, to aggressively pursue affirmative action to diversify the teacher force, so we can have an even better shot of effectively knowing our students, and teaching our students,” Urbanski stated. “Honestly, I believe it’s a strategy long overdue.”
    http://minorityreporter.net/rta-president-…

  30. I’ll put it as simply as I can, johhny. People such as yourself, who seem to be very shallow, and mired in simplistic thought regarding old, old, complex, historical, issues, and problems — constantly attempt to create false dichotomies, such as the idea of so-called “dwelling on [our] grievances of the past or focusing on the future.”

    When it comes to historical issues, and problems that impact Black people — folks like you, as well as (interestingly enough) many so-called educators, are constantly attempting to convince us to just completely forget about the past, and “move on.” I always find it most interesting that folks like you would not dare tell certain groups, such as Jewish people for example — that “Yesterday is gone.”

    You see johnny, it is NOT a SIMPLE MATTER of “dwelling on [our] grievances of the past.” Instead, it is about the importance of STUDYING carefully, and thoroughly the objectively accurate, as opposed to distorted, often libelous, inaccurate, white-washed versions of historical records — in order to gain clear, comprehensive knowledge, and understanding regarding the way overall socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and sociocultural conditions came to be as they are. You didn’t think overall, current conditions were just natural, i.e., that they fell from the sky; grew from the ground, or rolled in from the sea — did you??? Johnny, how did overall conditions come to be as they are??? Crystal-clarity regarding answers to the latter questions helps, and enables us to “focus [EFFECTIVELY, AND SUCCESSFULLY] on the future.” Do you see how it all fits together johnny?

    Since you like dwelling on dichotomies — one that is much more likely than the false one that you presented is that either those of us who have been working for decades to build a deadly serious sociopolitical movement will be successful, OR YOU WILL EXPERIENCE THE FIRE NEXT TIME. With regard to the latter possibility — let’s hope not.

    https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/spe…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IVnyItqie…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g39PaNW-5k…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ZC5JaK0d…

    ETC… ETC…ETC… GO STUDY!!!

  31. “Joy DeGruy, a nationally-known speaker, educator, and author, came to Rochester this summer to help teachers in the city school district have a long-overdue conversation about institutional racism in the schools, she says.

    She doesn’t mince words. Abysmally low graduation rates, especially for black males, and a bureaucracy that lacks accountability and is extremely resistant to change make the Rochester school district one of the worst she’s seen, she says. She asks why more parents and community leaders aren’t demanding change.

    “It’s horrific what’s going on in Rochester, horrific,” DeGruy says.

    What’s happening in Rochester is victim-blaming aimed at black and Latino students and their parents, she says.

    “‘They’re just dysfunctional. They’re poor. They’re incapable of learning. It’s the parents’ fault. They’re violent,’ and on and on,” DeGruy says.

    DeGruy is convinced that increasing the number of teachers of color in the nation’s classrooms will not only counter some of these attitudes and experiences, but will result in better test scores for students of color and go a long way to close the achievement gap between white students and students of color. Everything else has been tried, she says, including creating a parallel public education system with non-union charter schools. But little has changed, she says.

    “There’s this feeling of futility in school districts like Rochester because what we won’t look at is the systemic problem of institutional racism,” DeGruy says. “These systems are deeply entrenched, but if the keys to the kingdom are so strongly protected, nothing is going to change.”
    ———————————————–

    Jerome Underwood

    May 2016

    Come Unity. We can change the World. Know that. We give thanks for you Dr. DeGruy for your work with us this week. #BetheHealing

    ——————————————————————————————–

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10…

    This is a beautiful beginning. However, we MUST remain grounded in objective reality, and objective reality includes the fact that if this critically important effort is to be successful, it will necessarily require real, concrete, help, and support from the broader community, and particularly from the sectors whose children are most negatively impacted, and suffering the most (under old, old, ongoing, status-quo-conditions).

    We need to be crystal clear as to the purpose and intent of this work. It is vital for us to clearly understand the old, old, entrenched, underlying, conditions, and realities that give rise to the need for the work, which can be summed up via a single quote:

    “Race and racism is the elephant in the room. We don’t look at the huge process that produced the problem. Instead, we look at the end result. Unless we believe that children in the Rochester City School District are inherently incapable, we have to change the way we look at the problem.” __ Dr. Joy DeGruy (May 16, 2016)

    Again, it is vital for us to understand that a calculated attack to undermine, and derail the work that Dr, DeGruy is doing with the RCSD — has already begun. The attack was launched, as I predicted it would be, during her session at RCSD Central Office on May 17th — when Adam Urbanski actually demonstrated the unmitigated gall, raw audacity, and intestinal fortitude to confront Dr. DeGruy, and to question the validity of her research, and the effectiveness of her Model (before even hearing details about the Model). He was so disrespectful that, after launching his unprincipled, racist, attack, he walked out of the meeting — without giving Dr, DeGruy an opportunity to respond.

    As we move forward, in my humble, but staunch, and informed view, Urbanski’s recent, unacceptable, and insulting behavior toward Dr. DeGruy is clearly indicative of what we can expect from him, and the top leadership of the Rochester Teachers Association (RTA), in conjunction, and with support of the vast majority of RTA’s white, rank and file membership — relative to their old, old, calculated, obstruction regarding much needed fundamental change, and improvement within the RCSD, especially, and particularly as it relates to the ‘forbidden fruit’ issue of individual, institutional, and structural racism. Urbanski, and other top, RTA leaders, are working, as usual, to guarantee that deep, deep-seated, cognitive-dissonance-based, White Fragility (as defined by Dr. Robin D’Angelo — see link below) on the part of MOST of RTA’s overwhelmingly white teacher-majority (about 78%) is NOT interrupted. The overwhelming majority of them feel that they have a right NOT to receive mandatory, anti-racist education and development. They believe EVERYONE (students,, parents, families, the broader, Black and brown communities — EVERYONE) — EXCEPT THEM needs to change. The work that Dr. DeGruy is doing with the Rochester City School District (via her Relationship Model of Educational Intervention) absolutely, potentially represents a fundamental, game-changer, BUT I’M TELLING Y’ALL NOW — IF THE BROADER COMMUNITY DOES NOT GET BEHIND THIS — THEN LIKE SO MANY OTHER POTENTIAL GAME-CHANGERS IN THE PAST — ADAM URBANSKI, AND THE RTA WILL ABSOLUTELY UNDERMINE, DERAIL, AND/OR CO-OPT THIS EFFORT, AND IT WILL GO NO WHERE.

    It is critical for the community to understand the relevance, and importance of the latter points above, i.e., Urbanski is NOT operating in a bubble, or in isolation. Instead, he is doing exactly what is, and always has been expected, and supported by the vast majority of the teachers whom he represents. He is operating in conjunction with, and in accordance to the white majority’s expectations, which is why he has remained so popular among them for so long.

    We (as a community) are presented with a golden opportunity to finally break up the grossly imbalanced, and grossly disproportionate POWER that Adam Urbanski, and the white majority within the RTA has wielded in the RCSD (corruptly-so) for far too long.

    It is my deepest hope, and desire that we (COLLECTIVELY) will finally UNITE and do something concrete, and measurable relative to advancing the objective, best interests of ALL RCSD students and families, i.e., whatever it takes to implement Dr. DeGruy’s Relationship Model of Educational Intervention.

    The Struggle Continues…
    Howard

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JX7tHUTC…

    http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/…

    http://minorityreporter.net/dr-joy-degruy-…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeGFk780bH…

    http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/vi…

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