Why English Is Important For Students

[Eustacio Gadit]

AAMCAssociation of American Medical Colleges) Chief Academic Officer John E. Prescott, MD, issued the following statement on new guidelines for medical schools during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:

As the guidance document states, we are committed to working with medical schools to minimize negative impacts on students and support schools in making the necessary curricular adjustments. We will continue to update these guidelines as the situation evolves.

Are black educators essential to the education system? I would argue that we are an extremely vital component of the system. Why? Simply because representation matters! Representation within school communities is so important, especially in the world we live in today. Since integration was mandated by the US Supreme Court with Brown v Board of Education Topeka (1954), the demographics for students have become more diverse, ethnically and racially. When walking through any given public school in Metro Nashville, you will find a melting pot of students soaking up their experiences, creating memories with others that surround them, and forming their idea of success based on the opportunities presented to them.

It is important that black students have teachers, principals, counselors, deans, etc. who look like them not only to be a role model but also to be a voice for the voiceless. I grew up in a low-income, inner-city neighborhood in a single-parent household. Statistically speaking, I should be dead, in jail, or the head of a single-parent household. That is what my zip code says about me. My teachers, my BLACK teachers, said otherwise. My black teachers afforded me opportunities to grow my talents and use them as a productive citizen of society. They were my voice.

Research has proven that academic, achievement, and discipline gaps between Black students and their counterparts have widened throughout the years. Students must learn that they are not a statistic. Students must know that they are capable of achieving and excelling through any academic setting. Black educators prove to students that achievement is closely aligned to mindset. Black educators have the ability to relate to Black students in a way that others may not be able to.

So, why are Black educators important? Black educators are precious gems to the education field. We cultivate strength and resilience. We are important because we disrupt the institutional inequalities that help with widening the social, economic, and academic gaps between people of color and our counterparts. We leverage our background to repair the botched educational system our black students are faced with today. We are their voice. They are our future.

When students feel a sense of belonging in the classroom, it can increase their educational success and motivational outcomes in multiple ways, and teachers can help create this feeling of belonging by building connections between classroom and community, according to DeLeon Gray, Ph.D.

Gray said students who feel a sense of belonging at school are typically more energized, more likely to spend time on-task and return to activities, and more likely to choose to be in the school environment.

One way teachers can help prevent students from mentally or physically checking out of the educational environment, Gray said, is to create instructional opportunity structures that help students feel a sense of continuity between home and school. This is especially important for historically underrepresented students, who benefit from seeing their ancestral heritage and community represented in the classroom.

To help build these connections between community and content, Gray recommends teachers bring in community members, artifacts or even local news stories to reinforce concepts that are covered in the curriculum. Teachers can also give students opportunities to discuss the ways in which the content connects with their outside lives, allowing them to drive connections themselves.

For example, sneaker culture is very important to the students iScholar serves, so they brought that into a lesson on space exploration, asking students to design shoes that would be both aesthetically appealing and protective for a mission to Mars.

To understand what matters to their students, teachers need to build interpersonal relationships with youth of all backgrounds through authentic compliments, authentic praise and authentic connections, Gray said.

Teachers can self-disclose information about their own lives to build relationships with students as well as create time and space in the classroom for students to share about their lives outside of the school environment. One activity that works well, Gray said, is to pass a ball around at the beginning of class and, as each student holds the ball, they are given an opportunity to share one good thing that has happened to them that day.

Educators can also help foster a sense of belonging in their classrooms by having high standards combined with rigorous support, adopting a communal orientation and letting students know they have the safety to be wrong, because mistakes mean that they are being ambitious.

Although redesigning a school building is likely not an option in most cases, Gray said educators can still give students a sense of ownership over their schools by giving them a say in the way things are done.

Reading through my most recent course evaluations, students zeroed in on what was most important to them, beyond the content of the course itself. Five themes emerged as I read the qualitative comments.

At the start of each class, using something like a simple poll to check in on student well-being can provide valuable information about those who are ready to learn and those who are struggling. Taking the time to do this creates an environment of respect and recognition that the times are not normal. These polls also require responses from everyone. Following that with an opportunity to share why students selected the response they did can open up lines of communications and connections between students, knowing they are not alone in how they are feeling. Many of the stresses I heard about in the fall had nothing to do with my class. Nevertheless, it was weighing on my students and was impacting their focus. Thus, taking the time to answer their questions, acknowledge their struggles, and to provide helpful tips or solutions was important.

Third, to recognize that as they become more mature, they might ask for your help less, or might choose not to follow the advice you give them. This is normal and part of the student development process, and is not a repudiation of your parenting or your values. Successfully moving towards adulthood means that students become more confident in their own decisions and are not relying on the affirmation of family, friends, or others as they chart their course.

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The research suggests that this is one of the contributing factors to the pervasive gender and race gaps in student achievement: Overall, girls outperform boys, and white students outperform those who are black and Hispanic.

The Shanker Institute report, which was commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers, examined teacher diversity in nine cities: New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

The number of black teachers declined in all nine cities from 2002 to 2012. And even though there were some slight increases in the number of Latino teachers, the population of Latino students has increased nationwide, limiting a gain in representation, the report says.

When black children had a black teacher between third and fifth grades, boys were significantly less likely to later drop out of high school, and both boys and girls were more likely to attend college, Mr. Gershenson and his colleagues found in a large study last year. The effect was strongest for children from low-income families. The study included 106,000 students who entered third grade in North Carolina from 2001 to 2005, and it followed them through high school.

Joy DeGruy, a nationally-known speaker, educator, and author, came to Rochester to help teachers in the city school district have a long-overdue conversation about institutional racism in the schools, she says.

Retaining current teachers is also important, researchers say. More qualified people would stay in the profession if the jobs had better pay, benefits and support. Nonwhite teachers in schools with poor resources are at particular risk of burning out.

And they say that the Rochester school district, like many mid-size and large urban school districts, is mired in institutional racism. They cite disproportionately high suspension rates for African-American students; extremely low graduation rates for same, particularly black boys; and security checkpoints inside schools that they say create a prison-like environment.

A Vanderbilt University study shows that white students are roughly twice as likely to be placed on gifted tracks as black students, even when the test scores are comparable. But the advantage for white students fades when black students are evaluated by black educators, the study says.

And a recent study from Johns Hopkins University shows that black teachers are much more likely than white teachers to think that black students will complete high school and go on to earn a college degree, especially a black male student.

"Throughout my life and education, my name has been pronounced all sorts of ways. It has been at times frustrating and humiliating," she recalls. "My name is an important part of my identity and heritage. As such, I expect it to be pronounced properly."

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