By Taylor Johnson | OBSERVER Staff Writer
As California struggles to understand how Black students are falling behind, experts say, studies show that if teachers and administrators had broader cultural understanding and experiences, Black students would benefit inside and outside the classroom.
At the 20th annual Black in Schools Summer Institute last week, keynote speaker Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings – a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – said Black educators, families and students need to support one another.
“Given the current political climate, this is important because people who are trying to do this work feel like they’re doing it in isolation,” she said. “So to be able to come together with likeminded people, share ideas, strategies, and to be encouraged, I think it helps people to be able to continue to do the work.”
About 150 people filled the Rex and Margaret Fortune School of Education’s gym June 5-6. They included educators from K-12 schools, university professors and interested community members. This is the first year Fortune Schools hosted the summer institute. It had been held at Stanford for the previous 19 years by A Black Education Network.
The theme this year was “Pedagogies and Practices for Successfully Reaching African American Students,” to reflect the Black in School Coalition’s goal of closing the African American achievement gap by improving academic and social outcomes for Black students.
Attendees included staff from the Sacramento County Office of Education, Sacramento City Unified, West Contra Costa Unified, Los Angeles Unified, Folsom Lake College, Compton College, Cosumnes River College, Cal Poly and the CSU Chancellor’s Office.
Margaret Fortune, president and CEO of Fortune Schools, said Black in Schools Summer Institute equips school officials and districts with strategies to boost Black student achievement.
“It highlights successful approaches and demonstrates how targeted education funding – such as the Equity Multiplier, $300 million in ongoing public school funding secured through Assembly Bill 2774 (Weber), sponsored by Fortune School – can be effectively used to deliver real results for Black students statewide,” Fortune said. “Attendees also gain valuable insights directly from expert speakers and education leaders successfully implementing these strategies.”
Ladson discussed her work “The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children” and how critical it is for schools to use students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences as assets in the learning process.
“It’s important for any professional to do professional development,” said Ladson, speaking from experience. “Our physicians have professional development, lawyers have professional development and of course, people interested in education should have professional development.”
The two-day event also referenced a study, reported by The OBSERVER, revealing California’s best public schools serving Black students, a student panel where college and high school students discussed their experiences, and an administrators’ panel from California’s top Black-serving public schools.
The event also featured tours of the Rex and Margaret Fortune Education Complex and Fortune Preschool and Alan Rowe College Prep.
“Fortune takes pride in bringing together leaders in the field, because when schools and educators share what works, the bar is raised for everyone – reaffirming Fortune’s mission to ensure that every scholar has access to high-quality, fully funded education,” Fortune said.
Support for this Sacramento OBSERVER article was provided to Word In Black (WIB) by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. WIB is a collaborative of 10 Black-owned media that includes print and digital partners.