Glenn Singleton (Courtesy of Glenn Singleton) “ allows us to enter into the space to develop the skills, knowledge and capacities that we need to be able to take on the challenges presented to us by race,” says Singleton. He says normalizing generative conversations about race allows other important priorities to happen. Developing racial understanding and having interracial dialogue about race is the foundation of creating equitable changes in schools and can improve student achievement. Singleton’s Courageous Conversation training aims to help educators have the tools they need to participate in generative conversations about race. There’s already a cultural difference between teachers – who are enforcing what they think is appropriate classroom behavior – and students, he says. This is in part because teachers in Broward County – and schools across the nation – don’t reflect the identities of the students they teach, according to Dan Gohl, Broward County’s Chief Academic Officer. “There's been a history of over-identifying Black students, Hispanic students – especially Black and Hispanic males – as having some sort of a learning or behavioral problem.” He’s referring to national data that shows Black, Latino and Native American students are disciplined more harshly than their white counterparts with higher rates of suspension, expulsion and referral to law enforcement. “I’m an older white guy doing this work,” says Blandina. As the sixth largest school district in the nation, Broward County contains 31 cities in Florida with students representing 170 different countries and speaking over one hundred languages. In his role, Blandina noticed how race and bias affected student outcomes. There's a heightened energy,” says Blandina. “Frequently when you go into the situation, the teachers are pretty stressed. As an autism coach and behavioral specialist in Broward County, he has insight into student discipline because teachers call him when they say students aren’t acting appropriately. Reexamining Student Behavior and Disciplineīlandina saw the outcomes of implicit bias firsthand. Gary Blandina was one of the first teachers to sign up. In order to get to the root of the troubling data, former Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie brought Glenn Singleton’s Courageous Conversations course to the district in 2015 as a months-long professional development training to help teachers understand how race can be central to outcomes for children. And these are experiences that ultimately affect how students learn.īroward County Public Schools District had its own issues with racial disparities in academic achievement, placement in advanced classes and discipline. There’s been no shortage of schools recently blundering issues of race, such as racist namesakes, unfairly enforced dress codes and reenactments of historical oppression. However, there are ways to have those conversations in a way that is engaged and productive in one of the institutions that needs it most: schools. This can leave a person wondering, “Is there anyone who is good at navigating these types of conversations?” And even as there has been more widespread acknowledgement that race should be at the center of conversations about inequity, people still get scared or freeze up when it’s mentioned. Talking about race makes a lot of people feel like squirming away. You can listen to this episode of the MindShift Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, NPR One, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
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