by James C. Sherlock
Why aren’t Black children, on average, learning in Virginia public schools?
You have heard and perhaps internalized all of the excuses.
Cue the historical/social/cultural/economic theories. They are all interesting. And exhaustively pursued.
And irrelevant.
Black children in many Virginia urban public schools are not being taught properly in environments conducive to learning. Black students in those schools depress the averages for Black students statewide.
Money won’t fix that if it funds more of the same. No chance.
There is a different way.
I reject utterly the idea that Black children can’t learn. Whether they learn is a different matter.
It is very difficult for students of any heritage from homes with dysfunctional single parents in chaotic, violent neighborhoods to learn, much less in the school environments and with the teaching methods they are offered in some of Virginia’s cities.
The results bear that out.
We should expect all children to learn. We should provide safe and proper school environments and teach them with the expectation that all of them can, with their parents’ support, become not just literate, but scholars. Wherever they live.
School environments must support learning. We must establish and maintain discipline, treat students with dignity and respect and demand the same in return.
And then we must teach them properly and support them at every step.
The data. The failures are not related to COVID.
The data on Black children learning in Virginia urban public schools have been horrible for generations. Too many divisions have never established and maintained “public schools of high quality” as required by Article VIII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution.
The results of assessments of academic progress are a disgrace. Here are the statewide SOL pass rates for 2021-22. Statewide Black student enrollment is 21.7%. Passing has been set as a very low bar.
- English reading – All 73 / Black 60
- English writing – All 65 / Black 47
- Math – All 66 / Black 49
- Science – All 65 / Black 46
Now let’s look at Petersburg and Richmond.
Petersburg has six schools: four elementary/none accredited, one middle/none accredited and one high school/one accredited. Black student enrollment is 86%.
- English Reading – All 46% / Black 46%
- English writing – All 34% / Black 34%
- Math – All 31% / Black 30%
- Science – All 33% / Black 32%
The City of Richmond has 44 schools: 26 elementary/12 accredited; seven middle/none accredited; eight high schools/three accredited; three combined schools/one accredited. Black student enrollment is 60.5%
- English Reading – All 47% / Black 45%
- English writing – All 36% / Black 33%
- Math – All 37% / Black 31%
- Science – All 32% / Black 27%
So, we just learned at least three things:
- Schools all over the state on average are in trouble. Black students are in worse trouble;
- Richmond and Petersburg have bad schools and are dragging down the state averages. No points for effort. Students either learn or they don’t;
- Black students as measured by SOLs from third grade through 12th in Petersburg and Richmond have retained about as much knowledge in reading, writing, math and science as if they had never gone to school. Tell someone else that is the tests’ fault.
I’d like to be able to say that won’t last. But that would be a lie. It has lasted, and can continue.
Cities must not let their schools continue doing what they have been doing in the way that they have been doing it.
If we do so that is not just inhumane, it is madness.
Radical change. I have a proposal.
I recommend the City of Petersburg carefully explore progressing slowly to separate its public school system over time into two parts:
- one part run by one of the extremely high performing charter management organizations (CMOs) that specialize in poor minority urban kids; and
- the other part run by the school board and superintendent.
That is what New York City and hundreds of other municipalities in America have done. Those charters are hugely popular with and oversubscribed by parents and kids.
I suggest Petersburg because of extreme need and because the scale is conducive as a pilot. If it works there, it can work elsewhere in the commonwealth.
New York’s Success Academies (S/A) and KIPP come to mind as the top two options. Success Academy schools in New York City, if operated as a separate school division, would be the most successful division in the state in performance on the Regents exams, New York State’s SOLs.
Each is a non-profit. Each accepts per capita the same payments allocated to other public schools and bears its own costs.
Each of those CMOs depends upon philanthropy to make up the difference between state and local tuition payments and its costs. Virginia philanthropies would need to step up to help. I don’t anticipate that being an issue.
These organizations run astonishingly successful public schools. They take poor kids, special-ed kids, English learners, all kids. Ninety-four percent of S/A scholars in NYC are minorities. Nearly 90% are economically disadvantaged. Eight percent are homeless.
Those with custody — parents, parent, grandparents, guardians, foster parents — are asked to apply for their children. The only thing asked is that they commit to supporting the children at home and preparing them for school. Students will wear uniforms.
Every kid with that support commitment will be accepted up to the limit of the charter’s facility capacity. There are waiting lists for every S/A school in New York. Lotteries are held for openings.
The CMO will hire and pay its own principals and teachers. It trains them on its teaching methods. It will comply with state laws and regulations but must be independent of the local school board and division superintendent.
Existing school buildings are used to start, with separate entrances and facilities for charter school and regular school students. Not every parent will apply for their child. Those kids will continue to be taught by the school division.
From day one, the charter schools would establish dignified, respectful learning and teaching environments in the existing buildings with different entrances, as S/A has done in New York City.
The students will be addressed and treated as scholars. They will be proud of their schools, and more importantly proud of themselves.
They will achieve at the highest levels, as they have done in New York City neighborhoods every bit as tough or tougher than those in Richmond and Petersburg.
Students who turn out to be repeatedly non-compliant with either school type rules for comportment should continue as now to be placed in alternative education programs in accordance with Code of Virginia § 22.1-254. They should not be moved from the charter schools to the non-charter schools.
I have studied Success Academy and KIPP intensely for years. Their startup costs average about $1 million.
If they agree to take on the challenge.
Charter Period. One feature attractive to municipalities is that if one of the CMOs accepts the challenge, it will move slowly, as it must, raising its own students from kindergarten and first grade.
If it is seen not to work after an agreed upon multi-year charter, say five years, the charter can be revoked, like any charter.
Challenge. That is a potential Plan A.
I recommend it to Petersburg for consideration. Petersburg can take advantage of its partnership with the Governor and his administration to ask for state support over the next year in investigating whether Plan A will be viable in that city.
It is a well-proven solution. If Petersburg decides to go with it, the state and city can prepare the enabling legislation for next year.
Petersburg will consider Plan B as well. I am not sure what Plan B is, but whatever it is, the city will assess whatever empirical evidence there may be that it will work.
Petersburg can pick the one that is most likely to succeed. For the students.
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