Black Like Them: Why a ‘Surge’ of Color Could Change the Face of Ed Reform

When set in the context of these other movements, it seems crazy that a movement to improve the educational outcomes for children of color would be led by white technocrats, but that’s what education reform looks like right now.

I am cognizant that the margin of error for leaders of color is close to zero, while mistakes made by my white colleagues are more easily chalked up as a “learning curve.” With such high stakes on the line, Surge vets its fellows stringently and sets the bar high for our participation.

EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES

But we are far from monolithic. Our two-day retreat last month revealed the great diversity of perspective and experience among the 13 fellows: We are researchers, principals, lawyers, teachers, and nonprofit workers.

Together we expressed our frustrations about the revolving door of leadership in Chicago Public Schools and the guilty plea of corruption by the district’s former CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett. We analyzed the pros and cons of the Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation decision and compared the actions of the Little Rock Nine in 1957 to that of the Chicano student walkout in 1968 in Los Angeles. We deconstructed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail and wrestled with it in the context of today’s Black Lives Matter movement.

Each month following the retreat, Surge fellows will attend a daylong professional development session. This month, Elaine Allensworth, director of the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research–chronicled education reform in the city from 1988 to now–and Nicholas Pearce, professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, taught us the fundamentals of effective negotiation.

MAKING AN IMPACT

All these discussions and seminars will help Surge Fellows complete our capstone projects: independent, entrepreneurial ventures designed to make the greatest impact on CPS students.

The inaugural Surge cohort’s capstone projects, for example, include exploring the feasibility of starting an all-girls charter school in Chicago; creating a holistic mentoring program for adolescent males who have experienced violence and trauma; and adopting ninth-grade on-track metrics for middle-school students so that teachers and counselors can push college readiness earlier.

I imagine my capstone will have something to do with those two little black girls who kept wrapping their arms around me in the hallway. I see my past self in them, and their hugs tell me that they see their mother, their aunts, and maybe even their future selves, in me.

That’s how you change a community of learners–you become like family to them.

If Chicago and other urban districts ever hope to see significant academic gains among low-income children of color, we need a “surge” of family-like connections emanating from the classrooms. We need leaders of color, excellent in character and competence, adequately represented at the helms of schools and in every facet of public education, all the way up to the U.S. Department of Education.

Now that’s what I call a revolution! I’m so excited and eager to #LeadTheSurge.

Marilyn Rhames has taught in district and charter schools in Chicago for the past 11 years and currently serves as alumni support manager at a K-8 charter school. A former New York City reporter, Rhames writes award-winning education commentary featured on Moody Radio in Chicago and formerly in Education Week.