OUSD should have accused the Feds of racist behavior in going after the black schools to cripple the kids there with indiscipline – which is what they are doing.

Brave New World.

My bias, shared by many at the Board meeting last night, is that racism is still an American problem; and therefore I want to support whatever a policy making board, such as the Oakland Board of Education, can do to address racism in all its forms.

Where I part company with all that spoke on the Voluntary Resolution Plan is that I believe the Federal Government should not be controlling OUSD discipline of Black students for the next five years.

And, I also was upset because the statistics OCR used to demonstrate discrimination left out the factor of “poverty”; and therefore, the comparison of enrolled Black and White students–the basis for the charge of the District discriminating against its Black students–wasn’t valid. The gross comparison of Black and White students on metric of suspension was not a figure should a similar comparison without factoring in difference in poverty for the two groups. Without valid statistics only bias was the basis for the charge of discrimination by the District. I feel the Feds should have been required to make their case beyond the bias of all the officials involved.

Fed Bullying is demonstrated when the OCR is making a district an offer that they can’t refuse. First, OCR holds a review and finds what they say is a district’s discriminatory policies and give the district a chance to “voluntarily” submit to what OCR sees as the steps a district needs to take to eliminate disparities in how a district’s Black students are treated. Only there is a subtle shift from a district eliminating something the district is doing to eliminating the differences in outcomes between Black and White students. In Oakland, the OCR outcome becomes the statistical gap between Black and White students that is defined as discrimination. Because the statistic OCR uses doesn’t include the factor of poverty in comparison of Black and White student and a comparison of similar students, the programs created are built on a false assumption.

The statistical disparity that is defined as discrimination could be closed by the District policy of increasing the suspension of White students. That is almost as crazy as defining discrimination as gap between Black and White suspensions.
In the context of all the mistreat of Black students in California and the Nation it doesn’t make sense to for the Office of Civil Rights to decide to review policies of Oakland as to whether or not it is complying with Article VI prohibition against discrimination a group such as Black students in a district.

The representative of OCR said at the meeting that his Office selected Oakland for review because it thought Oakland would be cooperative in bringing about the policy changes in discipline of Black students “it” wanted to see. From that statement It looks like Russlynn Ali and her department are trying to change America’s institutional racism in school districts by working with districts they deem “cooperative”. You might think with such hubris and belief in OCR’s God like powers they could at least get their statistics right.

Because the next five years of Federal oversight of the District does involved getting additional money, the “Voluntary” Resolution Plan is about how to spend the District’s budget.

What may happen is that supporters of this approach of kissing up to the Feds will get the District’s current overseer of Black males in the District, who is paid by Foundation money, to land the top administrative job for implementing the 5-year plan. Also, his pay will be shifted from the foundation that is currently providing his pay to the District. And, I will guess, that whatever his salary, he’ll be given a pay raise and additional staff all paid for out of the District budget.

Jim Mordecai

All I herad from the speakers was , black kids cant read, understand, and expain rules so they break them.? OCO should be ashamed!

Its all blame no self reflection and acceptance that blacks are also part of the problem. I hear conspiracy theories about how black meant are being eliminated systematically and I believe it…..BUT we need to really see ho.. They are killing is with excuses, patronage, and favors while immigrant groups whip our tails.

Fathers aint a home, and women will blame the system…..how do you work with, I dont know

I was soooooo angry at the fact that misleading statistics were used by OCR and nobody seems to care.

The history is that the head of OCR Russlynn Ali when she was CEO of Ed Trust West wanted to depict the disparity between hill and flatland Oakland schools and lumped Asians with whites to make the disparity appear greater. Maybe it was reflecting on that statistical trickery that caused me to feel as I did.

The School Board members and Superintendent Smith kissing up to the OCR bully, that tried to walk softly with the big stick of withdrawing all Federal aid to the District, in its pocket, was also a factor.

The OCR was about discrimination defined as the disparity between Black and White student suspensions. There narrative didn’t just mention high suspensions for Black students but always placed those high rates in the context of a comparison to White students to “prove” discrimination.

But, it is a complete statistical distortion if poverty is not factored into the statistics. Comparing not just on the basis of race but also comparing economic lower class defined at school as students receiving free and reduced meals.

While exception to poverty and discipline/low scores association is Lincoln with its large Asian population, the six and only Oakland majority white schools also have the lowest identified poverty enrolled students. In 2009-10 school year three of these schools had no suspensions and the three others had less than 1%. One OUSD continuation school had 92% suspensions.

I didn’t get in my two minutes to my question. My question was who picked the 31 or so targeted schools in Phase I and what, if any, criteria were used?

Jim Mordecai

I can tell you from our personal experience and that of other parents at our school that it’s just the opposite. The school I am referring to is fairly racially diverse and considered successful.

What I have seen, time and time again, is the kids that occasionally act out who don’t have on-going behavior issues, are academically sound and have solid families, (ie: the “good” kids) are dealt with severely and quickly. The kids who are repeat offenders? Well, I think once they’ve established themselves as that kid that’s going to be sent to the principals office several times a year, the teachers hold off on doing that. It’s a phenomenon. They could send James to the office 4 times a week or 4 times a month, the amount of disruption is the same. They generally pick that latter and put up with James.

And, yes, the kids that are the most disruptive are black. Nearly always. The outbursts, the loud talking, interrupting, stealing and bullying consistently comes from the same kids year after year. Not much is done, ultimately. My opinion is that the administration views the families as being unable to do much about it for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they are under-estimating the mothers ability to deal? Yes, to a child these kids come from single parent households and the parents are told, the boxes are checked, the admin does what is is supposed to. The more stable kids that get into to trouble? Their families are brought into the picture immediately. My child was attacked by two boys. One of the mothers was called and she addressed the issue immediately and worked with the teacher and her son (and ultimately prevented her child from continuing his friendship with the other boy). The other mother was notified and did nothing, was considered unable to do anything because of her circumstances and her son continues to have behavior problems year after year and some people think it’s kind of funny, like it’s cute. It’s not cute. The boy gets more and more isolated as each year goes by and less and less of the kids play with him because 1. they find themselves getting in trouble and 2. he hurts them. He did have a happy go lucky attitude before, even though he was always in trouble. That’s changing as he enters his double digit years. Too bad because his energy could be redirected, he’s smart and honestly, a lot of the trouble makers are short on plain ol’ love and affection in their lives and you can’t underestimate how far that goes in (though this is rarely discussed here, at board meetings or anywhere when we talk about education. Children thrive when they know they are cared for, period).

We need IN SCHOOL suspensions. Perhaps a 3 or 4 classrooms down at the old Lakeview building, the new OUSD admin offices could be allocated by Elementary, Middle and High School level for in school suspensions. How about that? Are there civil right violations there? Probably.

Is data collected that shows that racism is involved with these suspensions? For example, are hispanic, asian and/or white kids behaving in a way that would warrant a suspension but not receiving one, when the african american kid does get the suspension for the same infraction?

Are all kids behaving badly and just the african american kids being reprimanded? If this is the case then racism is involved. But if there are more african american kids behaving badly, even though there are fewer of them, how can their suspensions be called racist?

As a parent with children in OUSD schools I want the administrations to be on top of behavior issues in the classroom. I want kids who are disruptive on a regular basis to be reprimanded. I hear about bad behavior all of the time. It’s a problem and I don’t think enough is being done. I don’t want racist policies in place but I want the problem kids, regardless of their race, to be removed from the classroom so they don’t ruin it for everyone else.

Jim is correct, many of the schools have other ways to discipline students that do not include suspensions, which I would say is an advantage. As for the accusation of “group shaming” at KIPP…if you ask one of their teachers (I did), they call it “positive peer pressure” and “team-building”.

Tomato, Tomahto…I can hear it now.