Building a Racially Just School System

by Michelle Williams/PoorNewsNetwork

"What now?" I thought. I was getting three to four calls a month from the school my youngest son attended. Ricky was talking in class, him and another student were playing around or having some words. Rickey was late to class. It was always something, no matter how small, I always seemed to receive a phone call. The calls would inevitably lead to suspensions of my son from school. I always felt that many of these situations could have been dealt with another way.

After doing some research online I found the series of Racial Justice Report Cards on education policy-makers released by Justice Matters, a non-profit policy institute that addresses inequity in education. After reviewing the report cards I started recognizing that these calls and suspensions stemmed from an institutionalized practice of targeting children of color in our education system.

The Racial Justice Report Cards, which include a grade on the Governors council on education excellence and the state superintendent of instruction's recommendations, critique the current polices and how these policies are not addressing the racism that exists in our schools.

"Our future success requires us to close the achievement gap that exists between our white students and our students of color, as well as gaps with our English learners, poor students, and students with disabilities," said State Superintendent of Instruction Jack O'Connell in a recent address on the state of education in California. O'Connell's recommendations received a C- report card.

O'Connell's words struck a chord in me considering that my son and most of the kids of color at the school he used to attend, were racially targeted and ultimately were deprived of their education.

At El Camino High School where my sone attended school, there were no African-American teachers that I was aware of. Many educators fail to address the importance of cultural understanding and their students' backgrounds. Discrimination against students of color as well as a lack of cultural awareness set up a pattern of failure. As Justice Matters says, "Until we develop an accountability system that measures student learning in ways that support high quality teaching methods that are effective with students of color, we limit how far we can go in building a racially just school system."

In the Justice Matters Report Cards they specifically cite the lack of recruitment of teachers from demographic backgrounds that reflect the diversity of their students community. Had this recruitment existed and had there been teachers of color I’m quite sure most these calls and suspensions would not have been made and that my son would have been dealt with differently.

Every call I received from the school I looked on not as a sign of the school's concern for my son’s education but only to further remove him from being a successful student. These calls made to myself and other parents were recorded in the students' files. As this continued to happen, I became uncomfortable with my son being there. Sadly I expected and waited for the next ring to come. What would be next, a suspension for disrupting the class, a dispute gone bad, police intervention of some kind or an expulsion from high school that might totally ruin his chances of later attending college if he chose to.

I can say honestly that I am not the kind of person who upholds wrong doing of any sort but I know my son and I know that he has no been doing nothing more or less like the average teenager who needs to be acknowledged by his peers. The schools say they have a zero tolerance policy but tell me who can walk a straight and narrow path without trial and error. This is unrealistic for anyone, let alone children who are still growing and learning. What has happened to the school districts, our children's home away from home?

Perhaps our local and state education policy makers need to read their report cards and institute racially just education policies for students of color and their families in California.

To view all of the Racial Justice Report Cards on Education Policy-Makers released by Justice Matters go on-line to www.justicematters.org

Michele Williams, a Parent,Race and Disability Scholar, just graduated from POOR Magazine's Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute's Poverty Scholars in Media Program and will graduate from Skyline College this year with an AA degree

Her 27 year old son graduated high school and is working in real estate and her 17 year old son is graduating in June from Independence High. He has been able to excel in the independent study model of education.