spelling out institutional barriers to just schooling ......framework (courageous conversations...

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Portland Public Schools Presents January 11th, 2013 Luis Versalles, Facilitator Director of Leadership, Pacific Educational Group, San Francisco, California Pacific Educational Group • 795 Folsom Street, First Floor • San Francisco, CA 94107 •415.346.5475 • www.pacificeducationalgroup.com 0 SPELL ing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling: Moving from Compliance to Equity and Excellence

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Page 1: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Portland Public Schools Presents �

��

�January 11th, 2013�

�Luis Versalles, Facilitator �

�Director of Leadership, Pacific Educational

Group, San Francisco, California��

��

Pacific Educational Group • 795 Folsom Street, First Floor • San Francisco, CA 94107 •415.346.5475 • www.pacificeducationalgroup.com � 0

SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling:

Moving from Compliance to Equity and Excellence �

Page 2: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Seminar Objectives �

�1. Participants will hear counterstories of PPS students and integrate their voices into their advocacy for racial equity for emergent bilingual/multilingual students.��2. Participants will integrate PEG Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership Principles) to analyze a racial equity challenge for focal emergent bilingual/multilingual students in PPS.��3. Participants will reflect on their personal adaptive challenges and how to respond to them effectively. �

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Page 3: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Agenda�

1.  Focal Students Check In ��2.  The 3rd Condition: Surfacing

Counterstories from our Students’ Perspectives �

�3.  Utilizing the Courageous

Conversations About Race Protocol to Dialogue about our Students’ Counterstories �

�4.  Analyzing our Students’ Narratives

from a Critical Race Theory and Systems Thinking Perspective �

�5.  Surfacing our Personal, Local and

Immediate Adaptive Challenges: Increasing Awareness of Self though Ladder of Inference �

�6.  Journey Partners: Taking Meaningful

Action Moving Forward in Behalf of Emergent Bilingual Students �

��

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Page 4: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Utilizing CRT to Analyze Student Counterstories

�1. Board of Education members will �

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Counter-Storytelling

A method of sharing a story that aims to cast doubt on the validity of accepted views or myths, especially ones held by the majority. It is a strategy and means of exposing and critiquing dialogues that perpetuate racial stereotypes.

The Permanence of Racism

The notion that racism is a permanent component of American life. Racism in the USA is pervasive and operates like the air we breathe; it is ubiquitous and omnipresent.

Whiteness as Property

Due to the history of race and racism in the United States and the role that the U.S. jurisprudence has played, whiteness can be considered a property interest in three ways-1.the right to possess 2. the right to use 3. the right to disposition.

Interest Convergence

Civil rights gains for people of color should be interpreted with measured enthusiasm because the first civil rights have been enjoyed by Whites forever because they were basic tenets of U.S. democracy.

Critique of Liberalism Three basic notions that have been embraced by liberal legal ideology. 1.the notion of colorblindness; the neutrality of the law; and incremental change.

Page 5: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Courageous Conversation Protocol Developmental Scale

KNOWLEDGE COMPREHENSION APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS INTERRUPT

Adapting Blooms Taxonomy for Developing Proficiency in Understanding, Internalizing and Applying the Protocol for Courageous Conversations About Race.

  Knowledge: Define, Describe, Recite, Recall, Recognize, Identify, States, Outlines

  Comprehension: Comprehends, Converts, Defends, Distinguishes, Generalizes, Gives Examples, Infers, Interprets, Understands

  Application: Applies, Changes, Computes, Constructs, Demonstrates, Discovers, Solves, Uses

  Analysis: Breaks Down, compares, contrasts, Diagrams, Deconstructs, Discriminates, Identifies, Illustrates, Infers

  Synthesis: Categorizes, Combines, Compiles, Composes, Creates, Devises, Designs, Modifies, Organizes, Plans, Summarizes

  Interrupts: Evaluation

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Page 6: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Courageous Conversation Protocol Developmental Scale

KNOWLEDGE COMPREHENSION APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS INTERRUPT

STAY ENGAGED

I know that I must agree to stay engaged.

I understand that staying engaged is essential for advancing the conversation and involves full participation of my mind, body and spirit.

I demonstrate engagement by actively listening, inquiring and responding to racialized situations or circumstances.

I identify my levels of engagement as well as what triggers my defenses, disconnection and/or search for detours.

I devise a method for recognizing a pathway through possible detours toward heightened engagement.

I engage at the personal, professional and organizational levels as a way of interrupting racism.

SPEAK YOUR TRUTH

I know that I must agree to speak my truth.

I understand that speaking my truth is essential for advancing the conversation and involves getting to know myself as a racial being.

I demonstrate speaking my truth by sharing my racial perspective and asking questions of others about their racial perspective.

I identify my personal truth about my racial experience and deconstruct limiting beliefs I have about speaking authentically about race.  

I create space for myself and others to speak truth as a way to raise racial consciousness.

I consistently speak my truth as a way of deepening the conversation and interrupting institutional racism.

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Page 7: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Courageous Conversation Protocol Developmental Scale

KNOWLEDGE COMPREHENSION APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS INTERRUPT

      EXPERIENCE DISCOMFORT

I know that I must agree to experience discomfort.

I understand that experiencing discomfort is essential for advancing the conversation on race.

I demonstrate my acceptance of discomfort by my continued participation in the conversation though it is difficult.

I identify my discomfort and am willing to look closely at it to better understand what my obstacles are in the conversation about race.  

I devise a method for addressing the discomfort that allows me to continue to fully participate in the conversation about race.

I am willing to experience discomfort in all my conversations about race as a way to continue to interrupt racism.

          EXPECT/ACCEPT NON-CLOSURE

I know that I must expect and accept non-closure.

I understand that expecting and accepting non-closure is essential for advancing the conversation on race and involves an ongoing dialogue with ever changing solutions.

I demonstrate non-closure by participating in an ongoing racial discourse where there is no “quick fix,” rather the solution is revealed in the process of dialogue itself.

I identify my ways of dealing with racial challenges and my trained desire to find solutions and closure.

I create a method for recognizing a pathway from solutions-thinking to sustaining dialogue on race, recognizing the more I talk, the more I learn, and the more I learn the more promising the intervention.

I expect and accept non-closure at the personal, professional and organizational level as a way of interrupting racism.

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Page 8: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Courageous Conversation Protocol Developmental Scale

KNOWLEDGE COMPREHENSION APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS INTERRUPT

        PERSONAL LOCAL IMMEDIATE

I know that I must begin with exploring my own personal, local and immediate experiences about race.

 I understand that my own experiences provide a foundation for me to make meaning about race and racism.

I demonstrate my personal explorations of race through my evolving racial autobiography.

I identify the aspects of my personal experience that are impacted by race and I am conscious of that impact.

I create opportunities to discuss the racial aspects of situations in which I am immediately involved.

I interrupt systemic racism when I encounter it in my personal, local and immediate interactions with others.  

            ISOLATE RACE

I know that I must isolate race while never failing to recognize that other aspects and forms of diversity continue to impact the racialized scenario.

I understand that by isolating race, I am better able to keep race on the table and not allow for other aspects and forms of diversity to supplant racial meaning and significance.

I demonstrate my understanding of race when I can determine its meaning and significance in life situations where others may fail see its presence and/or impact.

I identify when to isolate race as a way of holding the space for investigation and understanding of the way in which race impacts my own and others’ lives.

I combine my deepest analysis of race with an understanding of how other aspects and forms of diversity may be contributing to the process and/or result of a racialized situation.

I interrupt the perpetuation of individual and/ or systemic racism by isolating race and insisting that other forms of diversity not be positioned as proxies for race.  

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Page 9: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Courageous Conversation Protocol Developmental Scale

KNOWLEDGE COMPREHENSION APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS INTERRUPT

    MULTIPLE RACIAL PERSPECTIVE

I recognize that race is a social construct and know there are multiple racial perspectives.

I understand how race was socially constructed and comprehend the need to have multiple racial perspectives.

I use the multiple racial perspective to interpret social constructs that have been normalized.

I identify the social constructs that I have normalized about race and compare them to other perspectives.

I combine multiple racial perspectives to modify my own and to reach a critical perspective.

I use the process of obtaining the critical perspective to interrupt social constructs normalized in Whiteness.

        THE COMPASS

I know that there is a Compass; I recognize its components and I can define its purpose in advancing the conversation.

I understand the Compass holistically as well as its components, and how they work independently and in relationship to each other.

I use the Compass to sustain the conversation by locating my response, getting centered and discovering the location of others.

I identify when to use the Compass holistically as a part of the Protocol in order to sustain the conversation.

I combine the components of the Compass as a tool to center myself and others in order to deepen the conversation.

I use the Compass as a tool to interrupt the silence and to progress into a deeper conversation about race.

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Page 10: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Courageous Conversation Protocol Developmental Scale

KNOWLEDGE UNDERSTAND APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS INTERRUPT

      WORKING DEFINITION FOR RACE

I know that I must have a working definition for race in order to engage in a courageous conversation about race.

I understand that race is different from ethnicity and culture and that parties involved in a courageous conversation must agree on a working definition for race.

I use an agreed upon working definition for race when having a conversation about race.

I identify the nuances that distinguish race from other ethnic/cultural characteristics and place race in a social context.

I compile the social indicators for racial classification in order to capture the ways in which race is operating when I am engaged in a conversation about race.

I use a working definition for race to interrupt detours and keep the conversation focused on race.

      EXAMINING WHITENESS

I know that Whiteness is a condition as well as its aspects or levels, and the purpose of recognizing it for deepening the conversation.

I understand that Whiteness is always operating when I engage in a conversation about race.

I use my awareness of Whiteness and can demonstrate its impact on the conversation.

I deconstruct the Presence and Role of Whiteness in my life and can identify ways I challenge my Whiteness.

I combine White as a color, culture and consciousness with White racial identity in order to capture the ways in which Whiteness is operating when I am engaged in a conversation about race.

I interrupt the perpetuation of White Supremacy by voicing the ways in which Whiteness is present and how it is impacting critical thinking, beliefs, emotions and actions.

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Page 11: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

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Systems Thinking tools

•  In California, the most common “program” of long term English

language learners is “mainstream” with no accommodation made in instruction, pacing, curriculum, grouping, etc. whatsoever. Most secondary instructors are not even aware they are in their classes. What is occurring in your personal, local, and immediate context with service models for long term emergent bilinguals? What is the underlying belief that this practice is rooted in? What is the role and presence of Whiteness in this line of thinking, and is it sustainable? �

��•  Many of these instructors possess a Crosscultural Language and Academic

Development (CLAD) credential, yet no meaningful differentiation occurs in most secondary classes for long term emergent bilinguals. What does this indicate about the relationship between belief, practices, and outcomes, from your perspective? �

��•  Most intervention programs overemphasize literacy development which

meets the needs of most native English speakers but is not adequate for emergent bilinguals. �

REFLECTION: Where do you see an equality vs. equity playing out in your personal, local and immediate context, and how might these approaches cause learning gaps to grow, not be reduced? What systemic structures perpetuate these patterns of behavior in your system? What beliefs need to shift to interrupt this ongoing pattern? �

Classic, Systemic Equity Challenges Faced by Long Term ELLS�

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Systems Thinking tools

Classic, Systemic Equity Challenges Faced by Long Term ELLS�

GROUP REFLECTION QUESTIONS: HOW DO THESE CLASSIC, SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES FACED BY EMERGENT BILINGUALS SHOW UP IN YOUR SYSTEM? ���• Long term ELLS have significant gaps in academic knowledge due to the fragmented experience that many have had in schools. What aspects of your system contribute to the fragmented experience of emergent bilinguals? ���• Marginalization occurs for long term ELLS due to a systemic lack of readiness to effectively incorporate their needs into mainstream settings. This hyper segregation of ELLS is rooted in deficit thinking and systemic aspects of racism that preclude them from meaningful interactions with native English speaking peers. Eventually many systems “push out” students by their collective failure to integrate them fully by taking ownership for educating all students. Over time, too many long term ELLS internalize a sense of hopelessness, failure, and inferiority. This thinking typically takes hold by fifth grade. What role does internalized racism play in this phenomenon? ���• Many long term ELLS, despite their academic struggles exhibit tremendous resiliency and optimism and even hold on to their hopes of attending college and fulfilling future aspirations. Yasso identifies the various forms of “social capital” possessed by many communities of color. How have you systemically nurtured and developed the rich array of social capital your emergent bilingual students of color possess? ���• Does your system operate from a mental model that what is good for monolingual, English speaking children is good for bilingual/multilingual emergent bilinguals? What is the role and presence of Whiteness in this line of thinking? �

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Systems Thinking tools

Classic, Systemic Equity Challenges Faced by Long Term ELLS�

GROUP REFLECTION QUESTIONS: HOW DO THESE CLASSIC, SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES FACED BY EMERGENT BILINGUALS SHOW UP IN YOUR SYSTEM? ��• Belief held by parents and students that if they are promoted from one grade to the next, they are making adequate progress towards attending college and have mastered the skills of the previous grade sufficiently��• Equity issues with courses being offered and taken that put students or deny students from a college-bound track��• Many long-term ELLS are unaware that their language proficiency scores designate them as ELL still because they have been integrated into mainstream classes and are socially comfortable in English. This becomes apparent at transition points (elementary to middle or middle to high school) when there are no vertically articulated programs (“Why do I have to be in an ELD class again!”). Systemically many systems fail to provide both students and their families with sound information about what the trajectory towards English proficiency looks like. ��Reflection: How does your system operate from a siloed approach rooted in compliance? What would true, systemic organizational ownership and accountability for ELL success look like? What are the adaptive challenges that would need to be faced and addressed to create that dynamic? �

��������

Page 14: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

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Systems Thinking tools

Classic, Systemic Equity Challenges Faced by Long Term ELLS�

GROUP REFLECTION QUESTIONS: HOW DO THESE CLASSIC, SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES FACED BY EMERGENT BILINGUALS SHOW UP IN YOUR SYSTEM? ���PATTERNS OF NON-ENGAGEMENT, LEARNED PASSIVITY AND INVSIBILITY IN SCHOOL�In what ways have we as adults charged with educating our ELLS become complacent with “good behavior” in exchange for academic rigor, equity and excellence? (“Not calling attention to themselves/well-behaved” mentality). How do our systems/curricula perpetuate this challenge we face? What role does racial identity development play? ���CRITICAL SIMILIARTIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HIGH-PERFORMING RFEP HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND LONG TERM ELLS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS:��SIMILARITIES: Desire to go to college; perceptions that they were doing what was needed to attend college; attendance; readiness with materials needed for class ��DIFFERENCES: Amount of reading done outside of class; comfort in engaging academic texts; homework habits (writing done assignments, depth of understanding about assignments and expectations, habits of seeking help, recognition that they were expected to participate in class discussions) ��REFLECTION: WHAT IMPACT DOES THE ROLE AND PRESENCE OF WHITENESS HAVE IN THE PERPETUATION OF THESE BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IDENTIFIED IN THESE STUDENT GROUPS? WHAT SYSTEMIC STRUCTURES ARE CONTRIBUTING TO THIS PHENOMENON? WHAT ARE THE UNDERLYING MENTAL MODELS AT PLAY? �

Page 15: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Recommendations for Interrupting Equity Challenges to Ensuring Equity and Excellence for Emergent

Bilinguals �

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•  Urgency, acceleration and focus on interrupting damaging policy, practices, and

attitudes towards ells! Leaders for racial equity must interrupt the institutional inertia of racism and complacency in the current state of performance of emergent bilinguals linked to a deficit perspective. All instruction for emergent bilinguals must be particularly targeted to most efficiently, most directly, and most powerfully address their needs as a group of learners.�

�•  Emergent bilingual-specific interventions that recognize the diversity of racial,

cultural, and linguistic experience and needs represented among ells. There are important distinctions in learner needs between newcomers, normatively developing emergent bilinguals, struggling native English speakers, and long-term ELLs, as well as diversity of needs within the long-term ELL group that needs to be determined on an ongoing basis with sound assessment practices. The adaptive challenge districts face is discovering why this is frequently not recognized or responded to in terms of programming, staffing, and professional development.�

�•  Understanding that language development is more than literacy development from a

universal, White perspective. �

��

Page 16: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Systemic Racism

Institutional Racism

Personally-Mediated Racism

Internalized Racism

What is Racism?

Adapted from Camara Phyllis Jones’ “Going Public: Levels of Racism…”American Journal of Public Health, August 2000.

• To Perpetuate Systemic Racism Does

Not Require Intention or Malice…

•  A “teacher” teaches his/her culture primarily, the grade-level and/or subject matter

standards secondarily.

• You can not address racial achievement disparities without dealing with race!

PEG’s Three Research Based Assumptions

Page 17: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Systemic Thinking: Ladder of Inference The tool that gives us a language for describing the interrelationships between complex elements of real-life situations as they evolve

over time.

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ACTIONS AND BEHAVIORS:��“What strong opinion do you hold regarding this topic or issue? What is the role and presence of Whiteness in the shaping of your perspective?” �

CONCLUSIONS:��“What conclusions have your drawn to form your belief? What is the role and presence of Whiteness in that conclusion?” �

Page 18: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Systemic Thinking: Ladder of Inference The tool that gives us a language for describing the interrelationships between complex elements of real-life situations as they evolve

over time.

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ASSUMPTIONS:��“What are the various assumptions that your conclusion is based on? What is the role and presence of Whiteness in these assumptions?” �

PAST EXPERIENCES:��“What experiences �have you had around�This issue that have led you to form these assumptions and opinions? How has the role and presence of Whiteness impacted these experiences?” �

Page 19: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Systemic Thinking: Ladder of Inference The tool that gives us a language for describing the interrelationships between complex elements of real-life situations as they evolve

over time.

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ACTUAL OBSERVATIONS:��“What have you actually observed relative to this issue? How might the role and presence of Whiteness impact the data you are ‘selecting’ and the data you have unknowingly not selected and left ‘on the floor’?” �

BELIEFS AND VALUES:��“What belief or value sits behind the meaning you have made based on your observations and the assumptions you have reached? What might the role and presence of Whiteness be in the forming of those beliefs and values?” �

UNDERSTANDING VALUES:��“Is it possible that this value may be filtering your experiences around this issue in some way? If so, how? What is the role and presence of Whiteness in the shaping of this value?” �

Page 20: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Systemic Thinking: Iceberg The tool that gives us a language for describing the interrelationships between complex elements

of real-life situations as they evolve over time.

•  Future Evidence of Success: “As we look in the future and imagine that we have implemented these changes, what results would we anticipate as evidence of our success?” �

���•  Future Operating Principles: “Given our new values,

beliefs and structures, what essential agreements are needed to guide our behaviors, decisions and how we design our system in an equitable manner?”�

���•  Future Systemic Structures: “Given these new values

and beliefs, what would be the most effective structures, strategies and processes to apply in ensuring racial equity?” �

���•  The Future State Toward Racial Equity: “Given our

new understanding of our current system, what are the appropriate values, beliefs, assumptions and desired outcomes to apply to our system now?” �

��Prompts Adapted from Leadership Practices for Challenging Times, Zuieback�

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Identifying Racial Equity Challenges �To Emergent Bilinguals �

Page 21: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Microlab Protocol Reflections �

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Prompt #1�

Prompt #3�

Prompt #2�

Page 22: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Taking Action Moving Forward

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Personal and Professional Adaptive Challenges Identified �

Systemic Racial Equity Challenge(s) Identified in your Context for Emergent Bilingual Students �

Journey Partners Moving Forward to Address Personal, Professional and Organizational (Systemic) �Adaptive Challenges �

Page 23: SPELLing out Institutional Barriers to Just Schooling ......Framework (Courageous Conversations Protocol, Critical Race Theory Tenets, Systems Thinking Tools and Adaptive Leadership

Reflections �

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