What will propel our educational systems into systemic change? How might one person be the change?

By Don Allen, M.A. Ed./MAT

Response to professor for 2022 Summer - GED 8101-1 - Human Relations in Organizations (Hamline University School of Education - Superintendent Licensure)

Now that we know, now that our data is hanging out there for everyone to see and talk about (during and post-pandemic), what will propel our educational systems in the Twin Cities into systemic change?

Malcolm X, MLK, Jr., John F. and Robert Kennedy, Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, and the late Ronald A. Edwards (a local civil rights activist that wrote the book, “The Minneapolis Story” parts 1 & 2, and died broke) were all individuals that pushed systems into change for the benefit of the whole. The unfortunate thing is each one of these men (and many women) lost their lives horribly by zealots that didn’t want change. I mean look at Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX; it’s not gun control we need, it’s people and society control which has been ineffective for generations. I’m not talking about the big brother piece, it's all about how people are educated in a system that has denied people a shade darker than khaki the right to grow, prosper, and live the American Dream simply because of how they look. Today with all of the available data that can be aggregated to show malicious and heinous malfeasance for certain ethnic groups in education, one might think that this is protest worthy; but again, when a white police officer shoots and kills an unarmed Black person, we are in the streets burning down our neighborhoods, but when Black kids are only 5-percent proficient in math; 19-percent proficient in reading, and science is not even measured because it’s so low (Humboldt High School/SPPS 2016-2019), there isn’t a hint or slight protest. Education has its knee on the necks of our students in the Twin Cities, and the distractions are there to keep community members and stakeholders looking the other way.  It will take a team of dedicated educators to talk about the numbers with the people in charge of changing the trajectory. It’s almost too late, an implosion is imminent. Personally, I would like to see local schools that have 3-5 years below 70-percent proficiency put in state or federal receivership and reorganized.