Faith, Family, Friends and Community...

Happy New Year.  This blog will be back to once a week (if not more) now that my dissertation is complete.  Thank you for your patience, and words of encouragement...

I want to take this first blog of 2014 to honor my best friend’s mom (who is like a 2nd mom to me) by writing a new year’s letter like she would have written:

My best friend’s mom was brilliant.

Sunset over Key Biscayne

Dear Marlene,

I know for those of us on the outside, the last few years as your son and brother eulogized have been “unfair.” However, in your own wonderful way you provided us with your last lesson on how to live, how to continue to learn and love, how to continue to treat people with compassion and understanding despite our own trials, and now, how to make your transition with dignity and grace.  I am so sorry we didn’t get to have one more conversation, but just knowing you knew I finished my dissertation and am on my way to becoming a good father brings tears to my eyes (even as I write this now). I know your mouth dropped knowing that little Stuart is now Dr. Rhoden, but I hope you know that you and Harold helped make that possible.  Thank you for not only helping me to learn how to do dishes (smile) but also how to keep pushing forward when things aren’t as linear as one wants them to be.  I promise to honor your memory and Harold’s by being not just the best educator, but also the best mentor, father and friend as I can be.

You also have helped renew, or remind me about the importance of community.  Family is of critical importance, and in the coming year(s) I promise to keep working to do the best I can as I face the immortality of my elderly family members, help my son to continue to grow into a young man/man, and maintain my faith in God’s will. However, in your passing, you have once again brought to the forefront the importance of treating everyone (from those asking for change outside 57^th street books, to Deans and leaders) with the same respect.  Your Funeral and Shiva brought together various generations, genders and groups from not Hyde Park but across the country.  Being in their company was an honor, and we all have you to thank.  As I sat there watching person after person eulogize you, I was in joy, tears and laughter knowing that the way you were with me (patient, understanding, direct, kind, compassionate) was exactly the way you were with everyone.  I cannot promise that I can live up to that standard, but I will do my best.

Finally, upon learning of your passing a week ago, I was overcome with emotion and grief.  Your two sons helped me understand that while it is OK to grieve, I saw the enormous strength of you and Harold’s and am positive your light will continue to live on through them.  I am, as I have always been for almost 35 years, humbled by being not just their friend but “family.”  

Thank you Marlene.  Thank you for being a teacher, mentor, and mother.  Thank you for helping to raise me and provide me with excellent examples of what it means to be a person of intellect, civic minded and family oriented.  My mother thanks you for keeping me safe and for treating me as a third son (and for all the food you provided over the years). 

You are now at peace, reunited with Harold forever.  I know one day I will see you again.  Until then, I will do my best to honor the legacy you have given not just your son’s but to everyone who had the blessing of being in your presence.

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life, satisfaction, help, comfort, refuge, healing, redemption, forgiveness, atonement, relief and salvation for us and for all His people [upon us and upon all] Israel, and say, Amen.

                                                                                             

I Am Whatever You Say I Am...

NOTE: I took the month of October off to finish my dissertation.  I hope everyone understands.  It is now in completed draft form and awaiting revisions and edits. Thanks for your support...

Part I:

In the past month, I have been continually challenged about my "credentials" or background to speak on public education, Philadelphia and pretty much everything else relating to public policy, education reform and education policy. This is the first, and last Blog post I will write to finally address the naysayers who think I'm a drive-by educator, have no business talking about these issues and/or worse. 

Let me begin with the personal and then get to the political.  I was born into an education family.  

 Being raised by a single mother who earned her PhD while little 5-7 year old me wanted to go out and play, go to the movies, to Red Sox games (we lived in Cambridge, MA at the time) and the like must have been difficult. I can only imagine how difficult it was being away from our family.  After my recent experiences, I know how hard it is to grind out a dissertation with multiple distractions.  However, my experiences pale in comparison to the experiences of a typewriter using, single Black mother from Chicago, away from her family and friends in the equally segregated Boston area in the mid-1970s. 

My first two years of formal schooling (I spend several years in pre-school in one of the best nursery schools on the South Side of Chicago) were spent at a public school in Cambridge, MA.  Upon returning to Boston recently to present at the Eastern Sociological Conference, I drove by the school and saw it to be much smaller than remembered, but still at the forefront of educational excellence.  The building today is home to several clusters of classes, is a Montessori school and continues to pursue educational excellence for the children of Cambridge, MA.

 I have a profound respect for my teachers who saw in me a student who came to school with many of the tools necessary to succeed.  I could read, write and express myself (imagine that) above grade level.  Rather than assign me work that I already knew, my teachers pushed me to the next level.  For example, rather than continue to read silently alone, they recommended I go next door to the Kindergarten classroom to read to them out loud, which of course helped me advance my reading ability further.  They also pushed me in the other disciplines, but I especially remember them pushing me towards things I was interested in - history, sports, numbers (not necessarily math)  and reading.  I knew the history of the Red Sox, White Sox, Jackie Robinson and the Negro Leagues from doing research and book projects well beyond what any 5-6 year old should know. These public school teachers were my 3rd wave of role models in education and the foundation they help build, with the help of my mom and my nursery school serve as invaluable lessons to me to this day.

I said all of that because I want it to be clear.  My first years of formalized schooling were in the public setting, and my mom, godmother, godfather, and numerous family members and family friends were all a part of the Chicago Public School System from the 1960s through the 1990s.  Even today I have many friends who are still educators (both public and independent school) in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Philadelphia and elsewhere.  I get it.  Public schools are the lifeblood of the existence of the middle class and of upward mobility in this country.  Of course there are structural and historical barriers to that success, but those complicated issues are for another day. 

Fast forward to 1995. 

After graduating college with a political science degree and minor in philosophy, I moved to DC in January of 1993.  After some time interning on Capitol Hill and working for a non-profit as a Research Assistant, I decided to part ways with the non-profit I worked for.  I was at a crossroads in Washington DC.  To me I had three options - I could either know somebody and use nepotism to advance my political career, go to grad school (which at the time for me was law school), or move back to Chicago.  What ended up immediately happening in 1995 was neither.  A year later, I did eventually move back to Chicago, but first I was hired to be a Faculty Advisor (FA) for a conference that brought in high achieving students (3.6 GPA or higher) from around the country to experience DC through simulations on the 3 branches, Embassy visits, trips to Capitol Hill to meet their Members (or staff) and a Model Congress held in one of the office buildings of the US Capitol. 

It was during those 8 weeks of intense 6 day conference sessions that others realized I had the "gift" of teaching.  In my mind, I still had plans for law school, and never intended to get into what I describe education to be, the "family business."  Several mentors (fellow FAs) kept insisting that I should get an education degree, and that I should forgo law school.  They explained that I connected with the students in a way that was indicative of a deeper level of teaching ability beyond just a week long intensive 8-week conference.  I pushed back that it was just dumb luck, stupid jokes and the fact that I was 7 years or so older than most of the participants and was part of their generation.  I ended up doing that conference 3 different 8-week cycles.  Each time I had the same rapport with the students, same high marks from the leadership of the organization and same ability to get the information to the students in a humorous, but straightforward manner.  I went home to Chicago with an experience in education I thought would help me in law school, and one that gave me a greater understanding of politics, but not one that would change my career trajectory or life's mission.

In 1996 I was fortunate enough to work for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  It was a political and professional goal I had ever since I entered politics.  If the Convention EVER returned to Chicago (after the 1968 debacle) I wanted to be there.  What I thought was going to be the pinnacle of my political career ended up being my swan song.  Shortly after the Convention ended, I had the opportunity to interview at a very prestigious public relations firm on the 40+ floor of an immaculate North Michigan Avenue building. 

During the interview, the Senior Account Executive who was interviewing me asked me about my background and professional experience.  I spoke of spending time in DC on Capitol Hill and the non-profit doing advocacy work for women and children.  I spoke of the most recent experience with the DNC and the great time I had there.  Finally, she asked me what I did in the interim between those two gigs.  I told her of my experiences at the Conference for high school students.  After what seemed like a few minutes, she sat back in her chair and said that I'd make an excellent Account Executive and that I would do a great job for the firm.  Of course I smiled.  She then said something that changed my life.  She said that when I spoke about the Conference, my eyes lit up and that the passion and specificity in which I described the experience made her feel that I would be doing myself a disservice if I didn't try to enter the education field.  She said to think about it and get back to her.

As I was going down the elevator, I was torn...Did I just get a job, or was that the nicest rejection ever? After talking about it to a few people, of course my mom included, I decided to take the Senior Account Executive’s advice.  I went down to the Chicago Public Schools main district offices which were still on Pershing Road.  After a few hours trying to navigate that dark, confusing, bureaucratic maze, I came away with the forms to become a substitute teacher.  However, I had more questions than answers.  The whole experience left me cold, isolated and confused.  At this time I also applied at several independent schools and a newly opened charter school on the northside.   After a glowing interview, I immediately began subbing at the charter and was eventually hired at one of the independent schools to serve as the Community Learning Program Assistant.  I was well on my way to becoming an educator...

Next week: Part 2 of my journey to PhD...

All Around the World Same Song...

During the early 1990s in Los Angeles, there was a significant "gang problem."  Rather than try to rectify the situation simply with one method, policing, the community, the police and politicians brought together the rival gangs (we all know their names) and sat them down in a room.  The ensuing truce lasted for several years and served as a major reason for the reduction of gun violence and death in South Central LA, Watts, Compton and the rest of the micro-cities in the area.

Fast forward to 2013.  Rather than a gang problem (which does still exist in many urban areas) we are now plagued with an educational "gang" problem - not because of closed schools which is a blog for another day. One one side of the block we have those who advance the ideas of school choice and on the other, we have those who insist that the problems that plague public schools can be fixed if we only (and I use that word with every hint of sarcasm) "eliminate poverty" and treat the "whole child."  Two gangs, both claiming the mantle of "social justice" and "reform."  What's a teacher, educator, parent, social activists to do?

As noted in an earlier blog, education policy debates usually end up being simplistic rants of if you're not with us, you're against us. This belief, ironically enough, is one of the central tenants of gang culture.  There is no parsing whether or not you have a blue or a red rag, you have one or the other and there is no discussion - and, unfortunately being caught in the wrong area with the wrong color has potentially fatal consequences.  What colors are the two sides in the education debate wearing?  Is there such a "clear" distinction between these two gangs?  Further, is anyone wearing grey?

This blog and my frequent posts on FB and Twitter are not designed exclusively to upset folk or offend - although for some reason, that's quite the primary response on social media regarding me.  My intent is to challenge folk to move beyond their preconceived notions, even long-standing ones, to think of a third way. Sometimes changing one's perspective or lens is difficult.  It is desperately needed. In order for us as educators to advance into the Post-NCLB era, we must move beyond simple black/white, or blue/red dichotomies.  Reading some of these posts online makes me sick. Seeing otherwise intelligent people try to dehumanize and dismiss people (ironically the same thing many K-12 educators claim is happening to them) simply because of; number of years served in exclusively a K-12 environment, on their side of the aisle or ballot box, or singing the same note they are means we will NEVER advance into a more positive future.  

What can we agree upon?  Here are three simple things:
1) Public education needs to change
2) Even if we eliminate poverty there will always be the "haves" and the "have nots."
3) Expectations matter

What are the three things that you think everyone can agree upon?  Please comment. 

No One is Untouchable...

"He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue.  That's the Chicago way..." - Jim Malone (The Untouchables, 1987)

Let me preface this week's blog by saying I'm PISSED.  If you take offense easily, then this week you may need to fall back, because I'm going HAM on a host of issues and groups.

Let me start by saying that if you want to challenge my credentials to be in the education game, you're racists.  It is akin to checking Obama's birth certificate and transcripts.  While I may not agree with people (especially this week), I never challenge the notion that you have a right to say what you want to say and that those comments are grounded either in experiential knowledge, research based or otherwise.  Period.  You say your peace, make your points, I get to make mine.

Now the problem is that too many people, not just on social media, but in certain buildings and departments at my grad school (hint: near the SEPTA station, not the Broad St. Line) want people to sing one note.  Repeatedly.  And if you don't sing that note, in their key, you're wrong.  You're disrespecting your race, you're "self hating" or worse.  And on social media, you're "misguided," "a hack" "moron" "not even a teacher..."  Everything but the child of God.  And to make matters worse, only two people in the last week have even ASKED what my particulars are.  Most assume, most use Google.  I'm right here, ask.

On Monday in the town of my last known address, Michelle Rhee, Dr. Steven Perry and George Parker, former DC Teachers Union chief held a Town Hall at my future alma mater.  First, there was a message on a listserv announcing a protest outside, then an e-mail and Facebook post from the college distancing themselves from the event.  I have no problem with either, if it were Fred Phelps (Westboro Baptist "Church") or Ted Nugent coming to campus.  This event, even though not sponsored by, was about education.  I understand not endorsing it, but the distancing was suspect.

Of course the event, a "Town Hall" event went as I would have predicted.  People listened for a few minutes, but otherwise came to the event with their minds already in one corner or the other.  Whatever happen to listening, taking ideas from one person, mixing them with some others, and coming to your OWN conclusions.  The proliferation of forced "Group Think" makes me sick.  Like I said above, and in last week's post, it is asinine to only believe if you don't agree with me, you're against me.

Later in the week, Saint, err I mean Dr. Diane Ravitch graced the same city, speaking at an event promoting her latest book.  You would have thought that God came down to read the 10 Commandments Himself.  As I have said both online and, in person to her when we met, I have profound respect for Dr. Ravitch, her views, her scholarship, and her transformation.  My only problem with "her" is her followers.  Much in the same way that to his flock, Tim Tebow can do no wrong, except not be able to throw the football or get onto the football field in a regular season game, Ravitch followers will swear you up and down the block if you do not feverishly believe that she and she alone can "save public education." Sorry, I don't believe in the hero worship, inflation of messianic individuals we as Americans, so desperate for leadership, perform time and time again on issue after issue.  This is one of our fatal flaws as Progressives, Democrats and as a society in general.
.

Finally, let me chime in on educational groups on social media.  It seems like every day another "teacher based organization" is popping up online.  And, humorously, just as quickly, I get banned from them... To my 3-4 readers I'm not going to give these groups their shine, but hint, one of them is where family money went to pay their salaries in Chicago. Let me paint these so called organizations with a broad brush.  Progressive organizations such as these, and others, are in serious need of not learning more about the issues or practice of education, but rather are in serious need of an evaluation of their lesson plans concerning their tactics, politics and how policy works.  Too many are content with being on the outside look in, singing that same singular note with protest sign in hand.  As someone who had to file the thousands of postcards sent to a Congressional member's office regarding a particular issue, answered numerous vitriolic phone calls and responded to angry constituents in person during member's breakfasts, I have experience on the other end of what these so called Progressive "groups" (more like a hodge podge of like minded folk) are doing.

Marching in the streets, writing letters, protesting only goes so far.  At some point, you have to decide what you are FOR rather than continue to yelp about what you are AGAINST.  So, with that said, whenever I enter a group or challenge people to do better, why is it that they take offense?  It is because we are not the same gender? Little do they know, for the most part, we are at least in the same generation. Perhaps it is because of race (as much as I despise saying that). No matter.  Like I noted above, people need to be able to have a conversation about division or tactics without being disagreeable - regardless of age, race, creed, nationality, age, educational level, etc...  Let me be explicitly clear, I'm not just talking to well meaning Whole Foods going Progressives, I'm talking to people that look like me as well.

I am sick of being challenged from all angles of the left.
 
So let me sum this rant up...Less fear, more listening.  Less reaching conclusions based on misinformation, more asking.  Less whining, more winning.  I already have 20 years in the education game and I'm going to be around for a lot longer, I'm not going away...If I can admit I am, or can be an asshole, are you willing to admit at the very least, the same?  Collaboration and cooperation is a two way street.  I'm coming to the table with both hands in plain sight, are other groups and individuals willing to do as well?

Here's to truth, reconciliation and Peace.

Quality is Job One

Back when I was growing up in Chicago, I used to describe what my mom did for a living as "teaching teachers how to teach."  Little did I, or she for that matter, know that she was also teaching her son how to teach.  Hearing story upon story of her drive up and down the length of Chicago (usually avoiding such high traffic areas such as the Kennedy or Dan Ryan) on Western Avenue or Halsted Avenue visiting her student teachers and recent graduates, I was privy to a daily report of the problems, inequities, successes and failures of 1970s-80s Chicago Public Schools from not just one side of town, but from the entire city. Hearing about such a diverse array of neighborhoods and schools was something that only in retrospect I realize was unique.  Most people only have experiences with their local schools directly, or on the peripheral, the larger system as a whole.  There are many in urban areas who have zero experience with public schools. With that background, coupled with my own practice in the classroom both in Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as my research and doctoral work in Philadelphia I should merit standing to be able to make the assertions I am about to make in this blog.  I'm sure, for some of you, my experiences will only count as an outlier or aberration.  For that, let me only say, in the words of Lonnie Rashid Lynn (aka Common), one day it'll all make sense.

I recently heard a piece on WBEZ (http://tinyurl.com/pupl9dt) about the push for teacher quality in the state of Illinois and how an unintended consequence of raising the entrance test scores on the Test of Academic Proficiency (TAP) has created a racial gap among new teachers.  Let me first say that for the past ten years I have noticed, perhaps because I've frequently been one of the few Blacks let alone males in the room, this phenomenon up close and personal.  It is an imperfect storm.  As teachers from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the same ones my mom used to mentor and teach, retire, the incoming mix of teachers has becoming increasingly monolithic.  One of the negatives (and yes, we can argue there are many more) about Teach for America is that they have contributed greatly to the "whitening" of the teaching population.  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, as of 2010 (the latest numbers), the teaching population is only 7% Black. Further, even more problematic is that out of the approximately 235,000 Black teachers in the country, only 58,000 are male.  No wonder I was one of only the few in the room.  According to the documentary (which I HIGHLY recommend, American Teacher), the numbers are even more depressing.  In 1970, 34% of the teaching population was male.  In 2002, that number was 22% and today, it sits at an alarmingly low 16%. In fact, statistics such as these are the reason why it was so difficult for me to leave the classroom and start my PhD program. I didn't want to leave my students of color behind.  I came to the realization that having a PhD, and doing the type of research I intend to do will hopefully multiply myself 10 fold.

LAUSD Pay Grid

The WBEZ piece noted that in the past over 60% of Blacks passed the TAP exam.  Today that number is 17%.  As a qualitative person, I want to go beyond the numbers and try to understand what that really means.  Does it mean that there was an over-inflation of Black folk passing the test previously, and now this is a leveling out? Or does it mean that the colleges and universities are grade inflating and those wishing to enter the profession aren't as prepared as previously thought?  Is it a combination of both, neither, something else?  Those are tough questions to isolate.  What is known is that there is a problem.

In Illinois, and elsewhere, the population of white teachers has hovered between 82-85% for decades.  At the same time, we know the population of public school students, particularly in urban areas has becoming increasingly students of color (I would no longer use the word "minority" since they are clearly the majority of the school aged population).  So what can we as educators, activists and politicians do?

I strongly believe that we need a minority equivalent to Teach for America.  I also believe that we need to cease this us versus them mentality when it comes to veteran educators versus first year teachers.  I also feel that, much in the same way as there is a dearth of Black baseball players, some argue, because of the minor league system, some students of color feel as if the road to becoming a teacher is too long for the amount of pay on the front end.  Thus a program like TFA would serve as an alternative route, and of course tackling the challenge of teacher pay would be another.  Scholars such as Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond and others have also recommended a review of teacher pay.  We can no longer simply live by an outdated model of the current grid structure (see above LAUSD grid as an example).


As the Black teaching population continues to age out of the profession, I think having an honest, serious discussion of what, in the 21st century, does it mean for teachers of color to teach students of color.  In addition, let me be clear. I, by no means am disparaging white teachers who continue to serve students of color with honor and high expectations. In fact, my own schooling is littered with many such examples. Perhaps it is an expectations problem. In too many cases, for too long we have had low expectations of our teachers, and they, in turn, have had low expectations regarding their students.  When we examine good schools, two things are always present, high expectations and trust.  Let's trust that as we raise the bar for teachers, they will in turn raise the bar for their students.