Education Week - March 17, 2021 - 15

The Invisible Goalies in Education

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Our country has a long history of blocking access for Black Americans
in and out of the classroom. To this end, it is incumbent upon all of us to hold Secretary Cardona
to this expectation and the promise he makes to all
students.
Despite the Brown v. Board of Education decisions of 1954 and 1955, school districts across the
country continued to play goalie by blocking access
to public education for Black students. For example,
the Prince Edward County school district in Virginia closed all its public schools from 1959 to 1964 to
avoid integrating them. The state and county then
offered tax credits to support private schools educating white children, leaving many Black children
with no opportunity for education for five years.
An entire district suspended public education for
no other reason but to ensure its white population
could play goalie and block Black students from accessing an education that they deserved.
There are ample other instances throughout history where access to education has been blocked
for Black students. Black schools were bombed.
Black children were tormented by white kids and
their parents for attending white schools. And
Black churches were set on fire because Black children learned to read in their basements. In fact,
since the first enslaved Africans were brought to
these shores in 1619, white people have worked
to keep Black people illiterate and unable to fully
participate in American society. The owners of
enslaved people widely feared that if the racially
oppressed learned to read English, they would be
armed with the necessary tool to realize their freedom-education!
The intentional goalkeeping to block Black education remains the most important aspect of systemic racism. The residual effects are long lasting
and are still reflected in the persistent gaps in educational attainment.
We, too, have personally been blocked from educational opportunities at every level of education.
However, we have also been able to score, despite
the goalie's attempts. Our forebearers fought-
and some died-for the right to vote, attend public
schools, serve in public office, and to realize the

By John B. Craig &
Kenneth D. Waters

American right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.
In 2021, the barriers to access remain, but the
goalies have become more sophisticated in how
they maintain their position in society.
What else can educators do to ensure Black
students have access to educational opportunities
that will advance them academically, socially, and
professionally?

CRAIG is an associate
professor and the chair of
educational development
services at West Chester
University of Pennsylvania
and the editor of the Journal
of Access, Retention, and
Inclusion in Higher Education. WATERS is a diversity
director for a private K-12
school in the Washington
metropolitan area, where
he is also a faculty member
in the school' s English,
philosophy, and history
departments.

1. Educate yourself. Be sure that you fully
understand what the barriers are, how those
barriers were built, and what needs to be done
to eradicate them.
2. Be courageous. Do not accept the old excuse, " Well, we want a more diverse teaching
staff or student body, but we can't find diverse
students or educators. " Challenge that assumption by asking: Where are you looking? Often,
predominantly white schools hire within their
own networks. Obviously, if you keep recruiting
from the same water well, you will keep drawing the same water. So, be courageous enough
to force the issue of intentionally recruiting in
diverse locations.
3. Be wise. To change the system, you have to
get into the system and work from within to
speak truth to power.
4. Build meaningful alliances with your
colleagues. Look for the colleagues who are
courageous enough to stand with you when
you're having those courageous and tough conversations.
5. Talk about race. Do not simply have programming about diversity, equity, and inclusion
to check off a box for marketing purposes and
to make yourself feel good; instead, create safe,
collegial workplace environments where you
can have candid conversations about race and
its impact on decisionmaking and policies.

iStock / Getty Images Plus

hen we think about
education access,
the image of a
goalie comes to
mind. The goalie
in soccer and hockey has one job:
Keep the opponent from scoring. How this pertains
to the field of education is that our K-12 schools and
our institutions of higher learning are guarded by
goalies. These goalies are cloaked in exclusionary
policies, which materialize in defending their lack
of employing diverse administrators and instructional staff. They deflect financial and emotional
support for students from lower-socioeconomic
statuses. Black educators must constantly get past
a goalie's tentacles and work tirelessly to get other
Black educators past these long withstanding defensive systems that are designed to block access
once we do.
As Black male educators who have spent time
teaching and in positions of leadership in inner-city
public and charter schools, in college classrooms,
and recently, in predominantly white K-12 private
and public schools and universities, it is painfully
obvious to us that Black students and even fellow
Black educators continue to be negatively impacted by racist acts and systemic oppression. Our
solution is all about access, access, access: access
to equal and equitable educational opportunities,
access to employment opportunities, and access to
upward mobility.
As the nation's newest U.S. secretary of education, Miguel Cardona has great potential to lead
on policies that promote opportunities and access
for students of color. His celebrated career as a
teacher, principal, and most recently, Connecticut's education commissioner gives us hope that
his presence heading a Cabinet department has the
potential to reverse goalielike policies.
As educators, we must remain steadfast in ensuring that our most vulnerable students are receiving not only an equitable learning experience
but one that adequately prepares them for success

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Education Week - March 17, 2021

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