Hearing the Voices of All of Our Students, Parents, and Teachers

I was fortunate enough to have been present at the Board of Education meeting last night when Teacher of the Year Chris Todd was honored. If you did not have the opportunity to hear Mr. Todd speak at the meeting then I would encourage you to watch the video on the Town of Windsor website. Hearing Mr. Todd speak reminded me of all of the inspirational teachers that I was lucky enough to have at Windsor High School – the teachers that made you want to learn, that inspired you to move forward with your education and that genuinely cared about your development as a learner and as an individual. Hearing him speak reminded me of why I wanted to run for the Board of Education in the first place and what a special place this community can be. We as a community should support the positive things that come out of our school district. We should support those teachers, like Mr. Todd, that come to school every day and interact with our students in a positive way. Yet the image of Windsor High School, and the district as a whole, that was painted by Mr. Todd last night is in stark contrast to the one presented in the Equity and Excellence Review report. The EER report portrays a district that has created a systemic, normative culture of failure and mediocrity for African and Latino American students, a district that continues to demonstrate a “structural practice, namely segregation,” a district that is in violation of its own anti-discrimination policy. How can we reconcile these two images? As a first step I believe that it is imperative that the Board of Education be provided with all of the data collected during Dr. James’ visit. As Ms. Richardson stated in her recent article in support of Dr. James’ report, it is always a good thing to allow student perspectives on their experiences in our schools to take center stage. So then let’s allow all of the student perspectives to take center stage and be viewed by our Board of Education. Each one of the voices of the 250 students that took part in this study should be heard equally. As Mr. Williams stated during last night’s meeting, the district hired Dr. James to conduct these interviews because he is an educated, experienced researcher. We should then be able to trust that he did his job well in collecting this data, and would agree that greater access to what our students are saying about their educational experiences could not be a bad thing. Those that support the conclusions found in Dr. James’ report must think it critical to be able to see not only the student responses, but also those of teachers and parents. If they truly wish to evaluate and understand the systemic racism that Dr. James describes in his report and take the appropriate action, wouldn’t it be helpful, and necessary, to have access to all of his data? And for those that take heart in the vivid picture painted by Mr. Todd last night, one of dedicated teachers that are both willing, and able, to provide insight into what takes place at Windsor High School every day and what we can do to improve, we should turn to the data collected from them by Dr. James for possible solutions.  We should allow our teachers their opportunity to take center stage and provide insight. As we discuss the future of education in Windsor, having this valuable information from students, teachers and parents at our fingertips is crucial. More information can never be a bad thing.