Response to the “Task Force Report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” of October, 2011

David Rome, Math Teacher Burlington High School January 30, 2012

Author’s Note: The following report was presented to the Burlington School Superintendent and Chair of the Burlington School Board on January 30, 2012. At that time, I was told that the Executive Summary of the Task Force Report and the Task Force Report itself were not to be linked as they were written independently. Because they were both presented to the School Board in October 2011 and posted together on the district website, it is fair to assume by anyone reading them that they are, in fact, related, whether or not one actually refers to the other. The following is based on that fair assumption of connectivity.

The purpose of this response is to take a critical and responsible view of the Task Force Report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (TFR) for the Burlington School District as submitted and accepted by the school board in October 2011. There are definite factual errors made in the report that lead to false conclusions leading to a reaction by the Board and community members that the school system is badly flawed and in need of drastic repair when, in fact, it is doing a remarkably fair and equitable job.

This report has been divided into four areas:

A. The Task Force Report as a Measuring Device of Equity (p. 3)B. Conclusions Based on Incorrect and Insufficient Data: The Executive

Summary Report (p. 6)C. Acceptance of the Report by the Burlington School Board (p. 11)D. The Summary and Conclusion (p. 12)

It is the hope that once the facts and evidence are presented, the board and superintendent will endorse the corrections and charge the committee to have the report rewritten and any subsequent actions by the committees charged with implementing the directives be put on hold.

The statistics analyzed in this response were taken directly from the Burlington High School Student Affairs Office that manages all school data-banks, Guidance Office, and office of the Principal who is charged with keeping data current for each graduating class to report to the state. Much of the data for the Task Force Report was taken from the district census that includes information that had not been properly filtered (the removal from the statistics of students who take just one class at the school such as Rock Point School students, special needs students, and students who transfer to BHS for less than two years). Additionally, the TFR used data that was taken from the first report to the Office of Civil Rights known as the CRDC, which was later amended by the BHS principal to reflect more accurate Algebra I figures than had been reported. The Diversity Now! report that was seemingly referred to (but not mentioned) in the Executive Summary did not include these changes despite the fact that they were made available to the author shortly after its being made public.

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Strangely, the only hallmarks of success in the CRDC report are that of Algebra I and AP Courses. Colleges rely on advanced courses beyond Algebra I such as Geometry, Algebra II and Pre-Calculus, as better indicators of student ability. AP courses are appealing to most colleges, but are particularly useful for students applying to the most selective colleges. One does not have to take AP courses to gain admittance to most colleges. The TFR went no further than viewing the sparse data initially presented to the CRDC in its research, fanning the flames of a fire that was falsely set. Below is a timeline of the events that led to the misuse of this false data:

● May 2010: Request by the Civil Rights Data Collection filed by Paul Irish● October 12, 2010: The Burlington School Board passed a motion ‘authorizing the

Chair to create a Task Force on Diversity and Equity for the purpose of promoting student achievement in the Burlington School District through greater cultural competence and understanding of diversity, and select and appoint members to serve on said task force’. The motion passed 10 votes in favor to 3 votes against.

● January 9, 2011: “Ethnic Differerences and Disciplinary Actions in the Burlington (Vermont) School District: Preliminary Results” created by Stephanie Sequino, Diversity Now!

● January 2011: Rebuttal of the Seguino report by Amy Mellencamp, disputing the statistics and data used in this report with respect to Algebra, AP, SAT/ACT, and Discipline

● October 2011: Task Force Report on the Recommendation Strategy Plan for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Burlington School District presented and accepted by the Burlington School Board

● November 2011: Corrections to the statistics used in the TFR presented to the Equity Council formed to act on the recommendations made by the report. No response to these statistical corrections has been made to date.

The data in the Task Force Executive Summary was simply a snapshot of an early-level math distribution. To get a fuller picture of student achievement, it is necessary to look at individual transcripts of every senior at Burlington High School in recent history. The data and analysis in this report uses the most recent information from the current 2011-12 school year as well as the three previous years. Summary data charts are at the end of this report.

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A. The Task Force Report as a Measuring Device of Equity

The charge given to this committee was as follows: “The charge of this Task Force shall be to review, research, and further the Burlington School District’s efforts to achieve the outcomes articulated in its Commitment to Diversity policy, which states in relevant part:

The Task Force will review the District’s efforts in these areas: socioeconomic integration; curriculum and instruction; the Hallmarks of Excellence initiative; affirmative recruitment, hiring, and retention; the Equity Council; staff cultural competency including professional development opportunities and evaluation procedures; school climate; and family and community engagement. The Task Force also will identify areas of need and research strategies for improvement.

The Task Force will include members from the school board, administration, parents, public, and members of the Equity Council.”

Upon first reading of the report and its subsequent executive summary led to the following observations:

● The report neglects data and reports that focus on the role of family and community engagement in the success of students. Education is a two-way street with the need for strong home support to help foster a positive environment for student learning.

● The exclusion of teachers and students from the report committee did not foster a sense of connectivity or fairness. If this were a medical review board, it would not be fair to lay judgment of a doctor’s treatment of a patient without a doctor on the board and the doctor themself giving testimony. At no time were teachers interviewed or questioned for their expertise about the veracity of the comments made at the meetings or discussions in an effort to get their input for further discussion.

● It is well document in educational research that the correlation between economic status and lower academic achievement is stronger than that for minority status and academic achievement. The TFR stresses to the need to hire more teachers and administrators of color to change the fortune of many of the students who come from a lower socioeconomic home. Three articles and short excerpts from each tell a different story other than the conclusions drawn from the report:

○ National Council of Teacher Equality: Increasing the Odds: How Good Policies Can Yield Good Teachers. http :// www . nctq . org / nctq / images / nctq _ io . pdf that summarizes its finding on districts’ hiring of teachers of color:

“States and districts seeking to increase the number of minority teachers in order to match teacher and student race should do so prudently. There is insufficient evidence to support hiring policies that give a teacher’s race primary consideration.”

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○ Eric Jensen: Teaching With Poverty In Mind. http :// www . ascd . org / publications / books /109074/ chapters / How - Poverty - Affects - Behavior - and - Academic - Performance . aspx

“We have seen that an aggregation of disadvantages creates a difficult web of negatives. Poverty penetrates deeper into the body, brain, and soul than many of us realize. A childhood spent in poverty often sets the stage for a lifetime of setbacks. Secure attachments and stable environments, so vitally important to the social and emotional development of young children, are often denied to our neediest kids.”

○ Research on Closing the Achievement Gap Between High and Low Socioeconomic Status (SES) Student http :// www . swcompcenter . org / pdf / conf 0406/ SES _ Overview . pdf that states in its conclusion:

“‘Many forms of intervention, across different domains, have the surprising effect of widening pre-existing gaps between disadvantaged youth and their advantaged counterparts—if such interventions are made available to all students, not just to the disadvantaged. Whether this widening of gaps is incongruent with American interests and values requires an awareness of this gap-widening potential when interventions are universalized and a national policy that addresses the psychological, political, economic, and moral dimensions of elevating the top students—tomorrow’s business and science leaders—and/or elevating the bottom students to redress past inequalities and reduce the future costs associated with them.’”

What all these and other studies indicate is that the many of the suggestions and comments in the TFR are based on opinion rather than fact. Hiring teachers of color has little, if any, correlation to student performance, but hiring competent teachers, regardless of color, does. From these articles, a conclusion can me made that the equity efforts of the district need to be with laying the groundwork for improving the economic situation of lower socio-economic families and educating them about the link between academic success and their future.

Generally, the TFR is very difficult to follow as it jumps from subject to subject randomly, and seemingly is comprised of conversations at the meetings rather than a stratified research report. The wording is often confusing, notably is the ambiguity over the classification of ‘students of color.’ In some areas, it refers to all students of non-European background, while in others, subgroups are singled out, such as ‘black’ students. In some instances, ‘black’ is taken as African-American only, in others it includes African English Language Learners. The inconsistencies of these terms leads to misleading and inaccurate correlations.

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Ironically, the use of the phrase ‘Judeo-Christian culture’ as a description of the tone within the school is itself inflammatory and devisive. The use of this phrase is truly an insult to the professionals who work with individuals at BHS to make the school as inclusive and welcoming to as many students as possible. BHS teachers take great pride in developing and presenting curricula that is balanced and equitable. Members of the community are welcome to talk to our teachers and look at our curricula and ask questions to clarify or dispel the notion that BHS students do not receive an equitable education, but neither the Equity Committee nor the School Board have done so.

For a report of this size, the resources cited should be much greater than shown; there is ample research done in the field of equity in the classroom, however little data was presented. While the executive summary mentions some statistics about dropout rates and Algebra I statistics, there is no mention of these statistics at all in the report itself or of the originating source. The statistics stated in the executive report will be rebutted in this response as most are factually incorrect or misleading and important other figures have been left out that may have shed a more honest view of Burlington High School as opposed to the inaccurate one that the TFR creates.

The report fails to offer a balanced discussion that includes the successes of Burlington High School with respect to diversity that include:

● A higher rate of students of all colors going to college than the state average● A highly educated and knowledgeable staff that brings to the classroom a great

amount of diversity and cultural experiences● Resources available to students, including the Homework Center and Shades of

Ebony● The conscious choice that most staff members make to work at BHS precisely

because of the diverse student population and the high level of professionalism of the staff

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B. Conclusions Based on Incorrect and Insufficient Data: The Executive Summary of the Report

It was assumed when reading the executive summary that it would be a summation of the lengthy Task Force Report. There is no reference of the data stated in the following bullets in in the report itself.

Below are the executive summary statements from the Task Force Report with comments on each statement in italics.

“Are the citizens of Burlington willing to accept statistically measured facts that:

I. There is nearly a five-percentage point high school dropout rate gap between students who are African American (19%) and those who identify as white (14%)?”○ This statistic is refuted on the last page of the executive summary itself. In

last years’ senior class, just one African American dropped out, which would account for 3% of all the dropouts (1 out of 32), or one out of 32 African-American students in the senior class and 8% of all the African American students in the class. The report neglected to include that the one student registered, but never attended BHS, to get the services afforded to him and was force dropped from the roll because of continued unexcused absences as required by state law.

○ The 14% stated dropout rate is a controversial number as this what is known as the ‘consort’ rate. This indicates the percent of students who began their secondary years at BHS, but did not complete at in the four year time period. The actual rate of students who began but did not complete their education at all, however, is actually just a 2.8%. The reason for the disparity between these figures is due to the fact that many students need additional time to complete their education for various reasons. One reason is students entering job corps and taking more time, or being in a tech program. Most pronounced, however is the fact that many African ELL students enter BHS years behind in most academic subjects as a result of having lived in areas where a quality education, let alone an education at all, may not have been available. Having these students graduate in more than 4 years is not a sign of weakness as it is being portrayed, but a sign of the fortitude of our students and staff that gives them the desire to attain their high school degree after having been so far behind. Perhaps a more constructive view would applaud tremendous effort of the teachers and students in assuring that graduates leave BHS with the necessary skills needed to be successful. How graduation and drop out rates are determined, however, is a matter of

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contention. Whether a student graduates in 4, 5 or 6 years should not make a difference in measuring success.

○ Even if the four-year cohort withdrawal rate was to be a true marker, African-American students were not over-represented in the 15% figure.

II. “There is nearly a twenty-percentage point graduation rate gap between students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch as compared to those who are not”● The total number of students qualifying for free and reduced meals at BHS in

2011 was 511, and of those who were seniors, there was a graduation rate of about 95%. The graduation rate of non-free and reduced rate senior students was about 99%. This is a gap of just 4 percentage points.

III. “Students of color—Asian, Black, Latino, Native-American, Multi-racial— make up 27% of the student body across the district, yet only 13% of those who are taking and passing Algebra 1 are students of color?”

The 13% figure is not only incorrect, but also extremely misleading. BHS has two courses; Algebra and Algebra I, both of which lead into Geometry the following year. Nearly all of BHS students take Algebra I, and the percentage of students of color in these classes is, in fact, 38%, not 13% as claimed. Another and better measuring quanitifer is Geometry since this is a minimum standard for students wanting to attend at least a two-year college. In this course, 33% are of color, still exceeding the 27% in the district .

As the data page at the end of this report demonstrates, the percentage of students having taken Algebra I BHS is 97% and is the same percentage of students of color as in the overall student body, not-including African ELL students. In fact, the percentage of Asian, African American and Hispanic students in Algebra, Geometry and Algebra 2 are statistically the same as the percentage of white students over the last four years (due to the small sampling of each, the difference or addition of just one student in each category would make it higher or lower than the percentage of the larger group). If one looks at this fact that the individuals rather than individual classrooms are equitable, the report grossly misuses this single piece of information that paints a portrait of a staff that somehow steers black students away from taking Algebra I.

By stating that students of color are underrepresented in Algebra I, the TRF infers that they are they are being placed in other courses that are not up to the level of Algebra I. BHS students are required to take three years of math. Even if a student were to begin at BHS by taking Elements (the most basic math class offered by the math department), they would then progress to Pre-Algebra and then Algebra. The fact is that by the end of their 9th grade year, 72% of the entire class of 2011 had already successfully taken Algebra I (it should be noted that those entering 9th grade taking Geometry had taken Algebra I in Middle School are included in the data), at the end of 10th grade 84%, 11th grade 91% and 12th grade 93%. If African ELL students, far

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below grade level when entering BHS, are not included in these numbers, the total percentage is 97%.

In the years 2011 and 2012, the seniors students of color was about 26%, but of the years when the report was referring, the actual percentages of students of color was 20% in 2009 and 19% in 2010.

IV. “Students of color who are English proficient (17.1% of total high school students who are English proficient) are underrepresented in the share of students expected to take SAT/ACT tests (only 13.8% of these students of color participate)? In other words, there is nearly a one in five chance that an otherwise qualified student of color did not take the SAT or ACT exam?”

It should be noted that African ELL students comprise about 6% of the graduating class and have been found to enter the Burlington School District far below grade level in math and reading- in some cases, students are at a third grade or lower level. The expectation that these students will take SAT/ACT or attend college within four years is not realistic even with the intensive education that they are afforded. They do take a TOEFL exam in place of the SAT/ACT.

The first line contains a parenthesized portion that is unintelligible and cannot be discussed because it has no reference anywhere else.

V. “Black students are disproportionately achieving math proficiency (4% of those who are taking and passing Algebra 1) but represent 13% of the student body?”

Black students comprise a total of 20% of students in the Algebra I courses; this includes African ELL and African American students. In the current school year, Africans ELL students comprise 14% of Algebra students; African Americans 6%. The percentage of African American students passing Algebra I by graduation has averaged 91% in the past 4 years, while that of the African ELL students has been about 72% over the past 2 years (a more accurate indictor of their progress than using a four year average as more students have spent more time in US schools over the last 2 years). As a matter of comparison, Asian students have averaged 96% in the past 4 years, and White students have also avereraged 96% over the past 4 years.,

VI. “Minority students are 27% of the student body but are over-represented (34%) in being punished through in-school suspensions?”

According to the official student suspension forms and from the data given to the Civil Rights Report it is found that there were a total of 63 individual students who were disciplined one or more time in school or out of school in the 2009-2010 school year at Burlington High School. Of these 63 students, 81% were White, 12.7% were Black. Therefore, 19% total of the suspensions were of non-White students, much lower than the 27% threshold. The false 34% figure may have been derived from the fact that if a student was disciplined more than one time, this may have been counted as multiple

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people. One student disciplined four times should not be counted as four people, but one.

VII. “Minority students are extremely over-represented (60%) in being punished through out-of-school suspensions?”

According to the official suspension forms, just 17.8% (8 out of 45) out of school suspension were non-White students. Compared to the 23% of the non-white students in grades 9-12 at the time from which the Civil Rights Commission was given data.

VIII. “Black students are 13% of the student body, yet make up 27%—more than twice as expected—of the out-of–school suspensions throughout the district?”

From the same source as above, just 11.1% (5 out of 45) out of school suspensions were Black students. Again, likely miscounted data.

The CRDC report, as mentioned, focuses on percentage of particular courses and the inclusion of non-white students in these non-honors level classes. The the actual data is as follows for the year 2010-2011, the year of the CRDC report:

Students of White Non-White○ Algebra/Algebra I 62% 38%○ Geometry 67% 33%○ Algebra II 81% 19%

Looking at the data this way, however, is skewed because it focuses on a snapshot of the present and does not focus on individual accomplishment. An example of this would be a student entering BHS having taken Algebra I in middle school or another high school. While their individual accomplishment of success is real, this statistic does not include such cases. As a result of realizing this shortfall, a detailed analysis of the math courses taken by ALL students in the last four BHS graduating classes (inclusive of the current school year) was made based on the review of each individual transcript. The full data charts are at the end of this response.

Percentage of all students of color Senior class datawho passed: 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

○ Algebra 67% 79% 95% *91%○ Geometry 56% 54% 80% *54%○ Algebra II 52% 56% 64% *52%

*As of end of 11th grade

It needs to be noted that the above data does include ELL students who in recent years have come the the Burlington School District with little, if any, education in math. It takes at least 2-3 years for many of these students to acquire the language and prerequisite math skills necessary to learn high school mathematics, and when some

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begin, they do so at a level that is far below their peers at school. By not including the African ELL students from the above data, it is as follows:

Students of color, excluding African ELL students,who passed 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

○ Algebra 74% 100% 100% *98%○ Geometry 67% 72% 86% *83%○ Algebra II 56% 61% 75% *66%

*As of end of 11th grade

An analysis of both tables shows steady growth of all students of color over the last four year. It should be noted that individual groups (Hispanic, African American, etc.) are relatively small samplings and looking at each one independently must be done with caution as the difference of just one student can make the percentage of this group greatly fluctuate. Despite this, each group showed strong numbers, particularly that of Asians (that is inclusive of other ELL students, such the Nepalese, who did come to BHS with strong math backgrounds but weak English skills).

The African ELL have shown much growth over the last four years, mostly depending on the length of time they have spent at BHS. The math department, in response to the wide differences and gaps in their incoming math backgrounds implemented an ELL math class as well as using computerized math programs that individualize instruction and are able to target the unique weaknesses of each student. This also allows for more individualized one-on-one instructional opportunities for teachers to better assess and address student needs.

The individual data was broken down to four African ELL categories: ELL1, ELL2, ELL3 and ELL4 with the number in each category indicating the number of years each African student had spent at BHS, and each percentage is a comparison to other students in this classification. The data demonstrates that there has been measured growth, even within this statistically minute subset of the non-white BHS population.

Senior-year African ELL students who passed

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1. The Acceptance of the Report by the Burlington School Board

The Burlington School District school board received the report at the October 2011 board meeting and accepted it unanimously, without reading and critically reviewing or questioning it. While some on the board have viewed this as simply a gesture to show appreciation for the hard work that went into the document; the record shows that this motion was intended to use the document as fact without any critical review:

“Motion (Woodward King/Evans) that The Burlington School Board accepts the Task Force on Diversity and Equity's recommended strategic plan as a road map toward diversity, equity and inclusion for the Burlington School District. The Board thanks the Task Force for its hard work and acknowledges the commitment and dedication of its members, who included School commissioners, administrators, teachers, parents, city councilors, and members of the Equity Council and greater Burlington community. The Board recommends to the Board Chair that the newly charged Committee on Diversity and Equity study and execute a strategic plan for diversity, equity and inclusion in the Burlington School District, thereby promoting the success and excellence of all students – PASS”

Board meeting minutes from October 11, 2011

Nowhere in the motion is it stated that the Board will read and review the document for future endorsement. On the Burlington School District website at the Diversity and Equity page as viewed in January 2012 it followed that:

“The Task Force , chaired by Vince Brennan, has met several times as a group and in committee groups for ten months. On Tuesday, October 11, 2011, the Task Force Report on the Recommended Strategic Plan for Diversity , Equity and Inclusion was unanimously accepted to the Burlington School Board of Commissioners. In October 2011, the Board has established a Committee for Diversity and Equity to help review the recommendations and guide an implementation process as deemed appropriate by the Board.”

The matter of acceptance seems to be a point of contention between the School Board and the Diversity and Equity Office. To the School Board, the term ‘acceptance’ was a gesture of gratitude, but this same word was used as an endorsement by the Diversity and Equity Office; yet the Board’s very action in creating a committee to act upon the suggestions of the report contradicts their contention. If the board truly desired to take the report under review, the motion should have specified so. By not stating this, however, the TFR was accepted without critical review.

It should be also noted that the report stated that teachers need to undergo regular cultural training. This statement was made, despite the fact that issue had already been addressed by the Vermont Department of Education in its licencing and re-licensing process as part

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of teachers’ professional development and expertise. This was not mentioned in the report.

D. Summary and Conclusion

It is clear that the limited facts used by the committee to write the Task Force Report were false and misleading. The majority of the report itself is not based on research, but on comments and opinions made at meetings at which BHS teachers were not present to correct them or clarify the truth. The resulting document and conclusions drawn from it were incorrect and largely unfounded.

While there are certainly areas in which the Burlington schools and community can improve, such as increasing the percentage of African American students in honors level math classes, the extremes to which the report wants to remedy this are not needed. The overemphasis of hiring teachers of color seems to be a reflex response to emotion rather using the correct data that shows that the district has been hiring teachers who are culturally competent and have been doing an excellent job. What is needed is a more open dialogue between the School Board and the faculty in the district to allay any questions or concerns they might have about the equitable education that students are receiving. The creation of task forces and committees at this time seems unnecessary and the efforts and resources that could better be used elsewhere.

At the very least, the Burlington School Board must look at the report and this response and then rescind its acceptance of the report, however it was intended. The Task Force committee report needs to be revised using actual, detailed, and referenced data before any further action can be taken and all further committee work be put on hold. The Task Force Committee itself needs to either include teachers to hold member’s more accountable for their statements, comments and conclusions or make an effort to interview teachers and students. The revised report should not be based anecdotal evidence of committee members, but instead be based on facts as have been presented and suggested in this report, as well as critically reviewed studies.

Postscript: In his work with the Burlington School District on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 16, 2012. Paul Gorski commented on the actions of the district with respect to diversity and equity. According to him, many of the initiatives requested in the Task Force Report will not work. What he does say will work are the following:

Setting clear expectations Making family opportunities and involvement accessable Reject deficit idiology and focus on what the school can do Engage in policy review Perform full assessment by an outside professional group Place equity first Provide advanced and ongoing professional development opportunities

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Hire staff committed to equity rather than hiring for their race

In an afternoon session, he went on to comment on why teachers are not ‘buying into’ the findings of the diversity report:

Teachers have been dispossessed and disenfranchised community Outsiders must assume that teachers are doing well and want what is best for

students Activists who are not teachers should not be telling teachers what to do People who are committed to equity should be hired

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Data in the following chart is arranged to show the African ELL students who had been at BHS 1 or 2 years (ELL1/2) or 3 or for years (ELL3/4). The data is given with respect to the population within that subgrouping.

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