Education 2023: What are the Rules?
Entry: Journal of a Black Teacher May 26, 2023
Today, I am frustrated.
I’ve worked for the last seven years to understand the data-driven defeat of some of our most reputable educational institutions. When I write ‘defeat,’ it does not mean the system is not functioning at some level; you have buses, students, passing bells, teachers, social workers, counselors, administrators, and such with an output that might not meet the core ethics of society’s expectations for a well-rounded education system (creating Minnesota’s Best Workforce). I could be wrong. Maybe people don’t care? I don’t hold any of the power; if I did, the conversation would look different. To be honest, I do not understand the current rules about being just fine with less and inefficient with what you have. Processing the Twin Cities' educational information for understanding and critique is very different from simply blaming the school systems for the recent uptick in teenage (secondary) crime in the inner city, and it’s usually not the teacher's position to run a class daycare for an eight-hour day with more than 20 minutes of classroom management for each class before you can get to the lesson. There is a unique underlying poisonous symbiote that is evolving from organizational health that has put many local systems (including charter schools) in the ICU of educational trustworthiness.
Disrupting the status quo is not as easy as it sounds; whether you’re the only Black teacher in a school or work in a system where all Black teachers are in the building, the same dynamic applies, there is no one that has your back, nor is there a safe way to climb to excellence for your class and students as long as you are considered a ‘trailblazer’ - or someone that knows there is more and more is reachable sooner but is blocked by low acumen in operational design, health, communication, and delegation. This means the organization is not ready to shift up and has fully engulfed itself in what’s known as “The Peter Principle.” Unfortunately, the agencies that suffer the most are usually the most cultural of all. The Peter Principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence": employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another” (Hayes, 2020).
Again, I don’t understand the rules.
If there was a Bible dedicated to education, chapter one, verse one would read, “If our schools cannot get to nor maintain a minimum of 95 percent proficiency among its students in reading, writing, science, and math, then replace or change-out the necessary human capital that will garner the receipts needed to fulfill proficiency.” This would be very hard; people do not like change - they adhere to substitutions. The substitution for proficiency is that school districts did the testing training; the substitution for children in secondary not being able to read at grade level is that some clever salesperson has tricked a district into thinking that a reading program created by some really sophisticated, smart, and crafty people will circumvent generations of literacy breakdown in the homes of children across Minnesota and the country to empower teachers in a way that has never happened before - hear me out; teachers that know how to teach would not use kind words to explain how this will never correct current deficiencies our students reading at grade level. Finally, the substitute for talented leadership is to politicize our education systems into a right, left, rich, poor, or a culture - every district wants to seem altruistic - let’s open up a Somali school; let’s open a Hmong (Asian) school - but when having an all-Black public school comes up, the action becomes an idea of a segregationist - evil and cruel, you must be a Republican. Let’s not get started on the very important topic of School Choice. The truth is you cannot dig yourself out of a hole when you first crawled in the hole, then had the dirt thrown in, and you forgot your shovel in the trunk. Tools are important.
In 2023, the fact remains that no Twin Cities school system has 100 percent proficiency for any of its students. That’s why we need to start looking at individual school sites. There might be schools in these districts that do well for the community, parents, and students. The students might be passing College Board AP tests; they might be enrolled in College in the Schools and are receiving credits from the University of Minnesota or MnSCU. If there are working models, they need to work across the spectrum of any district to ensure a chance for ALL students. This year, I have experienced the lows of lows in education and organizational health inside a school building; I’m done with it and will not let it continue on my watch. The rules, whatever they may be will be changing. Stay tuned.
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