Only 30 Percent of the African American Third Graders in Alachua County Can Read

Valerie Freeman's chore is a big one — narrowing the achievement gap in Alachua County schools — but a year into the chore there is as even so no clear roadmap for how this can be accomplished.

That could change over the summer. Freeman is preparing an disinterestedness plan to present to the schoolhouse lath, a plan that could set policies aimed at endmost gaps in proficiency in cadre academics, schoolhouse subject field and graduation rates that are the widest in the state.

She will present the plan to the board at 3 p.g. July 24 in the District Part Boardroom, 620 E. Universtiy Ave.

"The whole community has to rally behind a cultural shift," said Freeman, who was hired in July 2022 as Alachua County Public Schools' showtime-ever disinterestedness manager.

The claiming clearly extends beyond schoolhouse doors. Alachua Canton has broad disparities for unemployment, childhood poverty, housing, criminal justice and access to health care that were detailed in a Jan study released past the Bureau of Economical and Business Inquiry at the Academy of Florida. In some cases, the disparities are wider because non-Hispanic white residents here are doing improve than average statewide. But as well, black residents here are frequently faring worse than blacks statewide.

To deal with the consequence of school equity and get results, those most involved must understand the focus should be on preparing all students for success, Freeman said.

"When nosotros are talking about the achievement gap, I come across the faces of all students. When we are talking about out-of-schoolhouse suspensions, I run into those faces that need equitable practices and policies to be successful! When we are talking well-nigh diversity in hiring, recruitment and retention for all areas of the school district, I see those aforementioned faces," Freeman said.

Freeman's approach has been to spend fourth dimension engaging faculty and staff in discussions about race, building relationships and trust within the county arrangement. Early, she said she hoped to have an equity program drafted within a year merely that timeline now looks less probable.

One of the criticisms of her approach is that Alachua County has not washed enough to learn from other school systems where gains are being seen.

Diedra Houchen, a postdoctoral acquaintance at the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, said she applauds the work being done to discuss race, but more needs to be done to provide classroom instruction that is culturally advisable for black students.

Houchen advocates a student-centered approach to teaching in which the students' cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about the student's cultural identify in the earth.

"I haven't seen any experts who do that kind of work be invited to help the commune deal with this trouble," Houchen said.

However, Freeman, Anne Wolf, district disinterestedness double-decker, and Bessie Criscione, district supervisor of professional evolution, recently completed providing introductory training to the district'southward approximately two,000 teachers on how to develop culturally responsive classrooms, which among other things, encourages teachers to be sensitive to how their thought procedure may differ from students who come from unlike cultures than they do.

Freeman has listened to the concerns of organizations like the education committees of Gainesville For All and Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, NAACP, Alachua Canton Coalition of Parent Teacher Associations, Alachua County Black History Task Force and many other groups. Gainesville For All, a partnership betwixt The Gainesville Lord's day and the Community Foundation of North Central Florida, was established in 2022 to deal with disparities in education, health, housing, employment, transportation and criminal justice that ofttimes fall along racial lines.

The equity plan will be a blueprint for how to eliminate the accomplishment gap, disproportionate out-of-school suspensions and increasing the multifariousness of the district's assistants and teachers, and should exist used throughout every department in the district, but won't by itself solve all of the commune's disinterestedness problems, Freeman said.

"It should not be considered a cure-all or set-all," Freeman said.

The foremost school equity issue that must be dealt with is the achievement gap, Freeman said.

District Superintendent Karen Clarke feels the aforementioned way. The School Board'due south priorities and her goals and objectives equally superintendent demonstrate the commune is committed to closing the accomplishment gap and increasing the performance of all students in the district, Clarke said.

"We're always looking for new means to reach that goal," Clarke said. "In that location is no silvery bullet for closing the accomplishment gap. We have to tackle the problem in a variety of ways, which means addressing the academic, physical and emotional needs of our students and sometimes their families as well. We're definitely taking a very comprehensive approach."

Alachua County has had the largest achievement gap between white and blackness students on country exams of all 67 Florida counties the by three years, a Florida Department of Didactics information portal reveals.

Black students in the county score significantly lower than their white counterparts across all four subjects of the Florida Standard Assessment, an end-of-the-yr exam required for third through tenth-graders.

Last yr, the language arts FSA had a 45 percent achievement gap. Only 29 percentage of the county's 5,982 blackness students in grades iii-10 passed, compared with passing scores for 74 per centum of the county's vii,678 white students in those grades.

In math, the gap was 42 percent, with white students passing at 72 percent and blackness students at 30.

The gap was 42 percent in social studies and 47 per centum in scientific discipline.

"We are in a dismal situation, but we are non in a hopeless situation," Freeman said. "We must notice a mode, when, on the surface, there is no mode."

Despite wide gaps in achievement on the FSA, the gap in graduation rates between black students and students overall in the canton is much smaller. In 2016-17, 83 percent of blackness students graduated from the seven public high schools, compared with 91 pct of the total pupil population.

The rate of out-of-school suspensions shows a disproportionate number of black students are suspended from public schools in Alachua County. During the showtime semester of the 2016-17 school year, 78 pct of students who received out-of-schoolhouse suspensions were black, and that number dropped to 76 percent during the commencement semester of the current school year. Blackness students in both years were only 35 pct of the full educatee population in Alachua County, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Of the nine schools with 50 or more than out-of-schoolhouse suspensions, Eastside Loftier School led the way with blacks bookkeeping for 129 of its 141 suspensions, or 91 percent. Blacks make up 51 percent of the school'due south student trunk.

Increasing the access black students have to opportunities in the Alachua County school system that volition increase their chances for success afterwards graduation is also an of import part of addressing the schoolhouse equity issue, Freeman said.

"Right now nosotros are taking a look at our magnet, career and technical programs to make sure we are using some of the strategies or changes some of the other districts have used to be able to provide more accessible opportunities to our students," Freeman said.

1 of those programs is the high schoolhouse dual enrollment program at Santa Fe Higher that allows students to have college-level courses and graduate from high schoolhouse with an Associate of Arts degree if they pass 60 credit hours during their junior and senior years and the summer in between. The program is free to the students because the school district picks up the tab for tuition and books.

The programme has made special efforts to reach out to students who have transportation and other issues that keep them from physically attending classes at SF College.

"Nosotros have consistently offered several online spots in our College Success form to Hawthorne Loftier School students each semester, with the hopes of increasing our program's accessibility for these students," said Jen Homard, director of the dual enrollment plan at SF College.

Several programs and strategies accept been created in the district to further increase access to opportunities for black students, Freeman said.

Some of them include establishment of the Advancement Via Individual Determination pilot program at Mebane and Westwood Middle schools that feed into Gainesville and Santa Fe Loftier schools. A higher-readiness plan, Avid place accent on disquisitional thinking, organization, reading, teamwork and writing skills.

The new Avant-garde Placement Capstone program at Eastside provides AP seminar and research courses that help students improve their research, writing and other skills to increase opportunities for success in advanced and college-prep courses.

Also, in that location has been a revision of the pupil code of conduct to allow the use of restorative discipline practices that allow administrators, behavioral research teachers and deans to focus on finding the root causes of behavioral issues in guild to avoid "zip tolerance" practices that remove students from classrooms, often for modest infractions.

Members of the Alachua County Coalition of Parent Teacher Associations have attended several community meetings sponsored by the district to discuss equity. In their stance, the most pressing school equity issue is having adequate personnel and facilities, said Khan-Lien Banko, the group'due south president.

"In social club to accost disinterestedness, we must have trained personnel and resource, and we must have a school environment where students feel safety to come as they are," Banko said.

The half-cent sales tax plebiscite to heighten money to improve school equipment and facilities that will exist on the November ballot in Alachua County and the bonus pay program for teachers at high-needs schools are things being implemented by the district that show its delivery to school disinterestedness, Banko said.

Likewise, the work Freeman and others are doing is going to make a deviation, Banko said.

"We believe the office of equity and outreach has a huge job on its hands, especially for an office of only 2 individuals," Banko said. "We are confident they are tackling the problems head-on and are the correct personnel to develop and implement an equity plan."

Freeman and Wolf have completed a volume study with commune administrators, assistant principals and principals using the book "Courageous Conversations about Race – A Field Guide for Achieving Disinterestedness in Schools," by Glenn Singleton. The volume will go on to be used this summer during lessons on equity for administrators, and all administrators and two teachers from each school will attend a presentation by Singleton this summer.

Providing cultural sensitivity grooming to teachers and administrators has been a meridian priority, Freeman said. That training has been provided by Freeman, along with Wolf, whose office as district equity coach focuses on pedagogy constructive ways to communicate about race for the purpose of fostering equity and social change.

"The goal is to bring an sensation about how race and racial identity has impacted some of the norms we accept in the instruction organization, and non but in our district, but in the state and the nation," Freeman said.

Professional development sessions volition exist held during the summertime for teachers with a focus on culturally responsive teaching, racial trauma in the classroom, promotion and support of opportunities and accessibility for underrepresented groups and other topics, Freeman said.

School equity work isn't an easy job, and those charged with dealing with the event, specially teachers, practise so because they are committed to their craft and their students. With the demands on teachers increasing and changing constantly so they can be prepared for school shootings and gangs in schools, too as having to bargain with the emotions and personalities of their students, teachers already take a lot on their plate, Freeman said.

However, she said administrators, staff and teachers accept pleasantly surprised her with their willingness to talk openly about school equity issues and their commitment to accost those problems. Schools will have equity plans and equity teams who will meet with Freeman and Wolfe monthly to "spot cheque the work and progress" the schools are making with their plans, Freeman said.

Closing the achievement gap is going to accept a community attempt, and must begin with a shift in the mindset of all involved with the educational process.

"If we have a racial achievement gap, we are going to accept to talk near race," Freeman said. "The assumption has to be that these kids are bright. I expect at the achievement gap and say these kids take genius, and I get out and say the genius of our African-American students isn't being reflected in the numbers, and inquire how practise we bridge that gap? Having that mindset is a big function of what we're doing. We need to find the giftedness in our children and fit that to any will lead to them being successful."

bonettilovicher.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20180602/alachua-county-schools-closer-to-equity-plan