Putting Race on the Table

Posted by Pamela Wong

The sessions that feature 2010 Baldrige Award winner Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS/Maryland) are well attended here at Quest for Excellence.® MCPS representatives have used the phrase  “putting race on the table” in discussing the district’s desire to achieve equity for its students, that is, to demonstrate through its results that  “success is not determined by race.”

MCPS says that “putting race on the table” means being willing to talk about race data and teaching and learning. Through its Equity Initiatives Unit, the district created equity teams in schools that communicated its vision, which comprises 1) high expectations, 2) caring relationships, and 3) cultural competence.

To this end, the Unit provided 750 hours of professional development to more than 1,000 employees, and staff developed strategic tools to raise, for example, algebra 2 achievement without lowering standards. The district also arranged meetings for high-performing schools to share their best practices.

The results to these processes? Steady and favorable trends in results for African American and Latino students for kindergarten through grade 12; following are just a handful:

• Those reading simple text (level 6) by the end of kindergarten increased from 50–72% for African American students and 38–56% for Latino students from 2006–2010.
• The percentage of students scoring advanced on the grade 4 Maryland State Assessment for math increased for African American and Latino students from 14% to 29% between 2004 and 2010.
• The percentage of 8^th-grade students completing algebra 1 with a “C” or higher increased from 19–45% for African Americans and from 14–44% for Latino students between 2001 and 2010.
• The percentage of advanced placement exam scores of 3 or higher increased from 627 to 1,527 for African American students and from 605 to 1,708 for Latino students from 2003–2010.  MCPS alone represents 2% of African Americans in the U.S. scoring a 3 or higher on APs and 1% of all Latinos in the U.S. 

Thanks to MCPS for leading the way. 

Comments

[Texian]

It is about time someone had the COURAGE to bring this to the forefront. Please do not let this be squashed out like previous attempts to confront the endemic racism in and around education is done. Kuddos Ms. Wong!

[William M. Hayden Jr.]

When will we come to realize that gender, race, and class are social constructs designed and maintained by those inside the influence lines of power? Socio-cultural anthropologists have learned that grouping people under such labels was, and continues to be, used most often to categorically stereotype images at ‘face value;’ thereby systemically de-powering their potential in industry, education, and government.

[Chris]

My girlfriend is a teacher and I was surprised to hear how few school boards share best practices with each other. There has to be considerable opportunity for learning and codifying the approaches to education that have yielded the best results.

Cheers!