School administrators can change the culture of blame and shame that besieges public schools. They should begin by challenging the claims that bad teachers are the leading cause of problems in low-achieving schools and instead look at how policies that fuel socioeconomic segregation lead to achievement and opportunity gaps in public schools.
Ignoring Socioeconomic Segregation
School turnaround, a top priority of the Obama administration, requires that districts replace the principal of the school and rehire no more than 50 percent of the staff (U.S. Department of Education, 2012, pp. 27–28). However, in a recent study on the effects of turnaround policies, the National School Boards Association found that "scant data exists on the effectiveness of the turnaround model" (O'Brien & Dervarics, 2013, p. 2). In fact, policies that result in constant staff turnover at predominately high-poverty schools are not working. It's not enough to replace half the adults in the school. If the student body remains impoverished, problems of low achievement persist. Solving educational inequities requires leadership stability and governing policies that value "true integration," where class is not a barrier and where stakeholders share common goals (Powell, 2005, p. 298).
As long as children remain segregated in high-poverty and underresourced schools, significant opportunity gaps will exist. A report from the Civil Rights Project draws attention to the soaring inequalities. "The typical Latino student … attends a school where … two-thirds are poor," and "the typical black student is now in a school where almost two out of every three classmates (64 percent) are low income, nearly double the level in schools of the typical white or Asian student (37 and 39 percent, respectively)" (Orfield, Kucsera, & Siegel-Hawley, 2012, p. 7). In New Mexico where minority students are the majority, 68 percent of school children come from low-income families. This rate is second only to Mississippi, which leads the nation with 71 percent of students coming from low-income households (Southern Education Foundation, 2015). Veronica Garcia, the executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, observed that "child poverty has a cascading effect that results in hunger, lack of medical care, abuse, neglect and homelessness" (Nathanson, 2015).
If we are to achieve opportunity equity in our nation's schools and sustain our nation's well-being and democratic purposes, we must acknowledge that failed national and state policies have led to a resegregation of our schools, stereotypes about students living in poverty, and unfair blame placed on teachers and administrators for underperforming schools. Failure to solve school boundary problems also contributes to school inequality, leaves children separated through unrestricted school choice, and results in severe funding inequities (Orfield, 2014).
Socioeconomic Integration Holds Promise
School destratification holds the promise of improving poor students' school experiences. As a former assistant superintendent in Colorado, I worked with a team of senior leaders, teachers, parents, students, and community members to develop a plan to reassign students to schools based on socioeconomic status (King, Miller-Brown, Williams, & Ripplinger, 2006). It took the collective will of all stakeholders to carry out the destratification plan. Among the strategies executed were enrollment preferences for students on meal assistance programs, boundary changes across ZIP codes, transportation assistance, expanded opportunities for English language learners, increased access to Advanced Placement courses, and calendar reconfiguration to better support teacher professional learning.
In the newly destratified schools, teacher leaders and administrators were coached to examine opportunity gaps through the lens of culturally proficient inquiry and to eliminate inequities within and across classrooms, schools, and districts. The destratified schools empowered students to thrive as learners with relevant curricula, differentiated instruction, and problem-based assessments. After a series of crucial conversations with parents who initially resisted the destratification plan, we were able to turn these parents into powerful advocates for socioeconomic integration. These parents worked with the school to implement a plan to create a welcoming environment free of classism.
The number of districts applying the principles of socioeconomic integration to turnaround schools has increased dramatically in the past decade. In a report for the Century Foundation, Kahlenberg found that "some 3.5 million students live in school districts with some form of socioeconomic integration plan in place" (2009, p. 12). These results are encouraging. Reduced concentrations of school poverty make a difference for low-income students. Berman (2013) cites extensive and powerful research on the benefits of socioeconomically integrated schools, including higher test scores, better grades, higher rates of graduation from high school, and higher rates of college attendance and degree attainment. Gaining community consensus for socioeconomic integration, however, is long, hard work. But, as religious leader Hillel the Elder says, "If not now, when?" (Pirkei Avos: Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14).
Start at the Root
Until administrators find their voice and speak out about the complex causes of school failure, simplistic solutions will prevail and continue to fail to fix pervasive school problems. Socioeconomic integration can be a powerful lever for improving the lives of our children. Drilling down to the root causes of issues facing low-achieving schools is an essential first step in developing plans to ensure opportunity equity. A new workbook from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders takes school leaders through steps and strategies to target the real causes behind schoolwide opportunity gaps (Sheratt, 2014). The workbook addresses the pressing issues, including teacher turnover and stakeholder engagement, school leaders face when implementing a comprehensive strategy for destratification.
School leaders need to devise strategies that will help end the soaring inequalities in our schools. Now is the time to exercise our collective will to make opportunity equity a reality for all our children. Let's make this our mantra: If not now, when? If not us, who?