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Three-year goals designed to lead to bold and sustainable systemic practices that result in elimination of persistent achievement gaps, better outcomes for students
On Monday, November 18, the Somerville School Committee unanimously approved four long-range goals focused on ensuring that the district is making clear and bold progress toward providing equitable access, opportunities, and support for all students in the district. The three-year goals are designed to address the root causes of systemic inequities that have contributed to persistent achievement gaps, particularly for black and LatinX students. School Committee members worked with Superintendent Mary Skipper and her district leadership team over the course of several months to develop specific goals related to the district’s human capital strategy, enrollment and access to programming, resources, and learning milestones that will support the district’s commitment to achieving its vision of equity and excellence.
“These goals represent our collective commitment to taking the steps we need to take to make sure that every student in our district is able to define and achieve his or her potential,” stated School Committee Chair, Carrie Normand. “Despite our efforts to provide equitable access and opportunities for our entire community of students, past goals and initiatives have not given rise to persistent deep progress for all students, specifically our black and brown students. These goals are designed to help us make the necessary changes in systemic practices that will result in the elimination of barriers and the persistent achievement gaps that we have continued to see in our student outcomes.”
“I am incredibly proud of the work that our School Committee and the district leadership team did to develop a set of goals that are bold, innovative, and critical to helping us achieve our vision of equity and excellence,” added Superintendent of Schools, Mary Skipper. “Our focus from the beginning of this process was on developing aggressive but realistic goals that were informed by a variety of data, the needs of our students and families, and our firm commitment to supporting the whole child. I believe these goals will allow us to clearly understand current systemic inequities in our district, and help us to firmly move forward in shifting our practices to ensure equitable access to the opportunities, resources, and supports that each of our students needs to succeed.”
School Committee Goals 2019-2022
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Human Capital
Because research shows that all children benefit from a highly skilled and diverse educator workforce that reflects SPS students and families, we will, by 2022, increase the percentage of support staff of color by 6 percentage points, teachers and counselors of color by 5 percentage points, and administrators of color by 4 percentage points through evaluating and strengthening all elements of our human capital system: recruitment, processes, training, retention, development, and advancement. We will engage staff and community as authentic partners in this work.
Enrollment and Access to Programming
Because we believe that no group of students should be disproportionately impacted by district enrollment policies and that all students should have access to support they need, by 2022, we will 1) conduct a district enrollment study to understand the prospective future population of the district and 2) craft a vision for school assignment and programming aligned with the district’s equity policy. We will engage students and families in this process to design a school assignment policy grounded in equity and in the values of our community.
Resources
Because we know that every student has unique needs and interests and should have access to rich learning opportunities that help them thrive, we will design, evaluate, and partially or fully implement student-based budgeting by 2022. We will do this through a transparent process that welcomes and embraces the engagement of stakeholders at all levels to develop a system where students are funded equitably, regardless of which SPS school or program they attend.
Milestones of Learning
While we believe that every child can thrive, we recognize a gap in achievement and opportunity in our current system. We will, by 2022, design a robust system of aligned developmental academic and social-emotional benchmarks working with district administration, school communities, students, and educators. These benchmarks will be used to inform practices, policies, and resource allocation to ensure that every student has access to rigorous and responsive core instruction that integrates the whole-child approach.
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For those who lack the time to digest this gobbledegook, they’re saying:
1-they’ll hire more minorities
2-they’ll try to make sure schools with lots of minorities get all the stuff that the mostly white schools get, or they’ll mix things up or something
3-they’ll spend more money on education for minority students
4-they’ll check and see if this all is doing any good in a while
It’s a worthwhile effort, but good lord people who writes this stuff?
Improve diversity, hire more people of color. Once again disability is invisible to the city of Somerville. So sick of this. Color is the only thing that matters. Imagine students working with a teacher who has a disability. No, it’ll never happen here. Happening many other cities, but not here
Let me get this straight the schools are setting hiring race quotas for teachers and admins? Somerville has an achievement gap and the solution is to hire people based on their skin color instead of qualifications? The best teacher could walk in the door for a job and would be turned down if their skin is the wrong color and the 5% target hasn’t been met? Isn’t it racist to say kids of color can only really learn from people of their own skin color, but somehow white kids can do fine with anyone? Sounds like real goal is making trust funded white people feel good about themselves giving them something to talk about with each other not actually helping the kids. Every kid regardless of skin color or background deserves the best.
Quota sums up the feelings of a large number of people. Pat yourselves on the back, you wrote up a paper that probably involved consultants and many hours or discussions. Time wasted.
Went through that at Raytheon early 60’s. Since I am not into this race thing myself I didn’t see why we could not make sure that the best person for the job was hired regardless of race or whatever. Should not even be an issue. Unless the hiring is racist. The company moved too fast on this and hired many that had no clue how to do the job to make so called race quota. Maybe there is no real fair way, I am no expert. But most qualified seems to work for me.
Most qualified? Yes, of course. It’s a no-brainer. As a side note though, anyone using a dumb ass term like “trust funded white people” immediately blows their credibility as a clear thinking, unbiased adult. If those doing so pulled their heads out of their rear ends long enough to take a real look around they’d see see that most progressives —like most everyone else—are hard working, salt of the earth people. Nice parroting of banal right wing lingo though. Polly want a cracker?
I don’t like throwing out those terms, but it aptly describes a few of our elected officials. Honestly. And in my vast experience progressives have their heads stuck in these studies and committees and no clue how things really work out there on the street
Fair enough on the issue itself. You may be right. But I still think it’s a dumb term to be using. Your choice.
There is a lot of nonsense jargon in the educational industrial complex, but as a SPS parent, you can see the achievement gap widen as kids progress through the grades. The common denominator is often parental education and involvement. I don’t think the administration is off base trying to recruit more black and Hispanic educators. Obviously competency should be priority #1, but a concerted effort to bring more qualified applicants to the table is good.
I think the School Committee/Administration is terrified that their ponzi scheme is going to fall apart as their multi-million dollar school is completed and student enrollment continues to go down. Once the cobwebs begin to decorate empty classrooms consultants will be brought in by the city to determine how best to turn them into condos. The building already possesses the (apparently) best selling point: no parking. Happy New Year to the voters who are funding this charade.
How tragic for you that you’re forced to pay for your participation in American life. And how sad that you must cough up half-baked scenarios like this to back up your sorrowful complaints. Happy New Year to the voters who are happily funding this wonderful new school. You’ve earned the right to call yourselves good Americans.