A thread about what’s going on in #louisville right now. I’m going to touch on the “failing school” narrative, structural racism, and reform for our city. I am a dad, a tax payer, and a principal for @JCPSKY
For my students that read this, think about the points I have here, reflect on them, and balance them with your breasts experiences. You will be in a position soon to do something about it.
I am a principal of a predominately black school. We are among the highest free and reduced lunch count in our state. Our students have many barriers and roadblocks in front of them. I work with good people who actively work to remove them #iroquoisbelieves
This requires setting aside bias and personal preference at a school not just a class level. There cannot be pockets of excellence but instead a whole school commitment to authentic pieces of literacy.
Presenting a balanced and relevant approach to literacy schoolwide May be uncomfortable, again, so what? If a school is truly committed to presenting relevant material to engage students then it MUST critically examine the material it is presenting, right? #edchat#kyadmin
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Doing some reading last night:
- HS dropouts earn 35 cents to 60 cents of a HS graduate, to 1 dollar of a college graduate. (OECD 2014)
- HS dropouts are 63x more likely to be incarcerated (Tavernise 2014)
This disparity has shifted immensely since the 1970s.
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In 1970 a HS dropout still had access to the middle class. That’s not really the case in 2019.
We’re graduating (on average) 36 percent of students who enter public college.
Would love to see some comparison numbers for trade professions.
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All the more case that graduation must be accompanied by a plan/ skills to implement the plan. The ceiling in the past was “graduate HS”. That won’t do it now. Has to be graduate HS with a plan, skills, and preferably a path to additional training (college, career, etc)
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Culture first. Because without it, who cares? Has to be supportive, which means kids and adults are safe. For risk, for trying, to be who they are, to be comfortable in learning. #edchat
Literacy next. Because if we aren’t reading, writing, speaking, listening, understanding, then what are we doing? Cross cutting. Every class. Every day. We connect all the academic (and social) work back to literacy. #edchat
Clear reason I APPLAUD @JCPSSuper and the @JCPSKY Board of Education decision to significantly increase mental health practitioners in our schools: We had several students working at Olive Garden this weekend witness a man get killed senselessly.
I am thankful our leadership sees this issue as a real issue for our community. I WISH I could say this kind of stuff is isolated. It’s not. Unfortunately we have more and more our students have to deal with across the district. I applaud more resources.
In my years as a principal I have only seen this increase. A child can not learn if they don’t feel safe and we are in a position where the school is often the best place to get frontline care and help. It’s not a question of should we... but of how much can we?
I was taught about MLK as a kid k-12. In college I learned more about his economic stances. On my own I learned that beyond his sense of justice, the man was a true revolutionary. 1/
I chose this speech this year because Dr. King challenges us to live up to the ideals of our nation. This is a worthy challenge, relevant now as it was then.
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