Inviting All Students to Sit at the Success Table

While I hate to make allusions to junior high lunchrooms, Federal Way Supt. Tom Murphy used the image eloquently and effectively to describe the disenfranchisement of African American students in his district:

“We looked at our numbers and found that—though African American students made up 12 percent of our district—out of 250 children in most of our gifted programs only one or two would be African American. And, in our special ed programs, they would make up nearly a fourth of the students. We simply weren’t inviting them to sit at the ‘success’ table and we were doing it year after year.”

Murphy was just one the presenters at yesterday’s African American Achievement Gap Committee meeting, which refreshingly enlightened the Committee with concrete strategies for engaging African American students. These presentations couldn’t have come at a better time, as the Committee digs into the details of its plan to close the achievement gap in Washington state.

So just what were the concrete strategies that Murphy, and his co-presenter Doris McEwen Harris from Clover Park, presented? Not surprisingly, many were no-brainers—but easier said than done:

• Murphy ran the population numbers for African American students in his district (12 percent) then confronted principals and teachers as to why they were disproportionally placed in special ed, as opposed to AP classes.
• Then, he sat down with African American high school students and asked them why they weren’t taking AP and honors classes. They said they felt like they didn’t belong. He didn’t take this news lying down.
• Now all principals in charge of gifted programs in Federal Way must adequately assess students so that the population of their programs reflects the population of their schools.
• Also, worried about the absence of strong male role models for young men, Murphy started a mentor and leadership program for African American and Hispanic students called the Heritage Leadership Camp.
• Faced with an incredibly tough population and depressed community, Harris rigorously sought to recruit African American staff (teachers and administrators) for her schools.
• She also engaged local rotaries, businesses and the Boys and Girls Club to support after school programs and facilities for students who were previously playing in dirty parking lots.

Most of these strategies are small and programmatic, but they all stem from incredible leadership and a district mindset of support for traditionally marginalized students. Frankly, I was blown away by the powerful simplicity of how Murphy and Harris talked about the intentional inclusion African American students in every decision they made as superintendents.

How can we create this sort of intentional inclusion in all districts? That’s up to the Committee to decide, but it’s good to know there are individuals like Murphy and Harris out there leading the way and inviting students to sit at the success table.

To learn more about the African American Achievement Gap Committee, visit their website.