JubbDinner Keynote

Keeping the Promise: Struggling for Equity, Student Achievement and Small Schools in Oakland UnifiedSmall is Not Enough: Creating High Achieving Schools for All StudentsJanuary 30 & 31, 2004: 

Keeping the Promise: Struggling for Equity, Student Achievement and Small Schools in Oakland Unified Small is Not Enough: Creating High Achieving Schools for All Students January 30 & 31, 2004 Steve Jubb Executive Director Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools

National Public High School Graduation & College Readiness: 

National Public High School Graduation & College Readiness Source: Public High School Graduation and College Readiness in the US

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OUSD student attrition classes of 2000 – 2002

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Students were falling through the cracks in our relationships.

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In 1998, parents wanted an alternative to some of the most crowded public schools in California. As many as 2000 elementary school students shared campuses built for 500 in multitrack year-round schools. Portables lined the blacktops. There was no room to play. In the high schools, students roamed the halls and teachers had to lock their classroom doors to keep order. The system produced abysmal results. Students and teachers were rotating classrooms every month.

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In 1999 Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) asked the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES) for assistance in trying to start a small school at Jefferson Elementary School. BayCES provided research, data and counsel. OCO learned that charters are hard to start. After we visited small schools in Chicago and New York together we knew that we had to think more systemically. We started dreaming of a system of small schools. We needed to engage the school district. After being rebuffed twice, OCO turned their attentions to charter schools. Three of six opened.

A Unique Partnership forNew Small Autonomous Schools: 

A Unique Partnership for New Small Autonomous Schools Oakland Unified School District

Our Work Started With New Small Autonomous Schools: 

Our Work Started With New Small Autonomous Schools New designs, better teaching, deeper connections with community Small enough to be safe, personalized and relationship based for students, educators and families Autonomous with control over the important means of success Accountable for results

What We Did To Launch Small Schools: 

What We Did To Launch Small Schools Formed an partnership with Oakland Community Organizations (OCO), representing 35 churches in the low income neighborhoods of East, West, and North Oakland. Added OUSD as a partner when Dennis Chaconas became Superintendent in March, 2000; passed a policy in May Hired a shared BayCES-OCO organizer to organize teachers so that the teachers union would have to respond positively to the desires of members. OCO organized parents and families who demanded small schools as an end to overcrowding, unsafe conditions, and low achievement. Developed a model of school incubation and support for design teams that starts with organizing and leadership development for teachers, students and family members. We launched 15 small schools and engaged the district in considering a radical redesign of systems

The One Irrefutable Fact: 

The One Irrefutable Fact Education happens … one school one teacher one child at a time.

The Importance of Respect and Care: 

The Importance of Respect and Care "To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin." bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, Education as the Practice of Freedom

The Way It Should Be: A Partnership for Learning: 

The Way It Should Be: A Partnership for Learning

If we know what to do, why don’t we have the schools we need?: 

If we know what to do, why don’t we have the schools we need? Despite two decades of leadership by thoughtful and competent people who reflected the demographics of Oakland, the outcomes for students DID NOT IMPROVE SIGNIFICANTLY. They got worse. Though low income communities of color are the political majority, they have been able to act in a unified way to gather political will behind a common vision for schools. Why not? We observed that the problem was not the people, it was something larger than the sum of the capacity of individuals. Competent people became incompetent in Oakland. We reasoned that it had to be a systemic problem—a district poorly designed, inadequately resourced, with an internalized culture of shame, blame and ineffectiveness that continuously reinforced itself.

The Challenge: A Culture of Blame, Shame and Ineffectiveness: 

The Challenge: A Culture of Blame, Shame and Ineffectiveness Urgency Over promising to get support Rapid top-down Change Disappointing quality and depth of outcomes Blaming the Problem on the New Solution Undermining Leadership Credibility Leaders Depart, New leaders enter, Urgency Increases Cynicism Deepens

Where does this culture of shame and blame come from?: 

Where does this culture of shame and blame come from? Communities that suffer from racism, poverty, discrimination and neglect have been hurt deeply These communities often feel they have little power to change their reality, which creates anger and more hurt These hurts often cause people to distrust one another and especially those in power, causing them to act in ways that seem irrational to those with power Communities must adapt and survive, and so they develop cultures to resist, lessen, or transfer the pain Often many aspects of these cultures inhibit the formation of the cross-race, cross-cultural alliances needed to gather the power to act Belief systems emerge that explain the experience of powerlessness, different belief systems for the powerful and the less powerful

We Learn to Accept Inequity--It Becomes “Normal”: 

We Learn to Accept Inequity--It Becomes “Normal” Assigning new or weaker teachers to the most challenging students (e.g, ninth grade) Subsidizing low class sizes in advanced courses with high class size in “general” education classes Counseling loads so large that only some students can receive college counseling Teachers with no training or opportunities to learn about their students’ home language, history, and culture Segregating students into tracks that limit postsecondary options Student contacts so numerous that it is a relief when half the kids don’t show up for class

Most School Reform Fails to Address the Power Gap: 

Most School Reform Fails to Address the Power Gap “There are no pedagogical solutions to political problems” Asa Hilliard

School reform must address the culture of low expectations!: 

School reform must address the culture of low expectations! “We can, whenever we choose, teach all children whose learning is of importance to us. Whether we do so, depends upon how we feel about the fact that we have not done so already.” —Ron Edmunds, the Founder of the Effective School Movement

What makes the difference for student achievement and equity?: 

What makes the difference for student achievement and equity? Instruction: the quality and capacity of the teacher has the greatest impact on student achievement Family participation: the ability of families to support student learning, make good decisions, and participate as a partner in the learning process School Design: the allocations of time, personnel and resources in a context that supports good teaching and positive family-school relationships Leadership: leaders who relentlessly and creatively pursue equitable and high achievement for every student.

What does it take for full participation of families?: 

What does it take for full participation of families? Community Organizing Addresses the need for equal power, in the form of representative leadership, authentic participation, equitable opportunity and relational accountability Community Engagement Addresses the need for collaboration, vision building, dialogue, and connecting the reform to people’s hopes and dreams Community Outreach Addresses the need for timely and accurate information, access and entry into educational opportunities

When We Attempt to Engage the Community, We Rarely Address Power Inequity and Its Consequences: 

When We Attempt to Engage the Community, We Rarely Address Power Inequity and Its Consequences The system fails to meet the needs of the community because the major forces acting on the system are those entities that have been established to act on behalf of the community (school board members, civic leaders, high level district officials), and not the community itself. And the communities, especially those with little political power, have lost control over these entities which instead react to external demands, divergent interests and threats. The central power structures becomes increasingly authoritarian, responding to the need to protect their power to act decisively in the face of mounting criticism and low performance.

Assumptions: 

Assumptions More powerful entities, distant from the community, and perhaps even antagonistic to it, place increasing demands on the system—demands that may be overwhelming, contradictory, nonsensical, or irrelevant. The system attempts to respond. But it lacks resources, expertise, collective will and capacity to be effective at such a large scale. The voices of students, parents, and teachers in the community, if not strongly organized, cannot compete in placing demands on the system that will force it to be responsive to them. However, the system cannot respond effectively to local demands if they are not coherent, with a focused, shared vision of what the communities need and want.

Conclusions and Implications: 

Conclusions and Implications Community engagement and outreach are necessary but insufficient means to address issues of inequity and low achievement. Any strategy for serious engagement must address the unequal power relations that are operating in oppressed communities Some strategies are: Partnerships with agencies that can organize the community Cross race, cross cultural alliance building Leadership development and support for family & community participation Advocacy for the less powerful Interruption of inequity when it is identified

Creating Change: The Courage to Interrupt, The Commitment to Transform: 

Creating Change: The Courage to Interrupt, The Commitment to Transform Interruption Transition Transformation Transition Transformation Getting to a vision of equity Interruption

Achievements: 

Achievements 15 new small autonomous schools created since 2000 One high school converted to five small schools, two more will convert in seven small schools by 2008 36 new schools to be created by 2008, 22 of them high schools Increased attendance for teachers and students Increased parent involvement in schools Increases in student achievement and decreases in attrition We have survived a state takeover and a deficit of an estimated 100 million dollars But the future depends ultimately on building a culture of efficacy, partnership (shared power), and mutual accountability.

The Leadership Opportunity: A Culture of Efficacy, Partnership and Accountability: 

The Leadership Opportunity: A Culture of Efficacy, Partnership and Accountability A Culture of Efficacy and Accountability Focus on bold but achievable, short-term goals Increased confidence, take bolder actions Support responsible action, celebrate Success & learn from mistakes Trust people to solve Their own problems Create conditions for success Organize People behind a shared vision of Success Urgency: Listen to the hopes, dreams, and challenges of Families and teachers

My Lessons Learned: 

My Lessons Learned Take responsibility for your ideas Creating equitable schools in an act of hope and faith Nuts and bolts matter--the devil is in the details It is about culture, competence and conditions--they are all important to get to the outcomes Equity work is personal--you have to be the change you wish to see in the world