Education Week - September 16, 2015 - 14

BEYOND BIAS

Countering Stereotypes in School

Sid Hastings for Education Week

Joseph Davis, the new
superintendent of the
Ferguson-Florissant
school district, visits
a social studies class
at McCluer High School
in Florissant. Davis
has plans to address
the educational
disparities that fed
into the protests
that ignited last year
after a white police
officer shot and killed
a black teenager.

Ferguson's New Schools Chief Outlines Plans

Q&A
With JOSEPH DAVIS,
Superintendent
Ferguson-Florissant
School District

Joseph Davis grew up in rural North Carolina and was part of the first generation
in his family to attend college. On July 1, he became the superintendent of the
11,200-student Ferguson-Florissant school district, the second African-American in
the district's history to hold that position.
A year after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, by a
white police officer touched off protests that echoed nationwide, Davis spoke with
Education Week Staff Writer Denisa R. Superville about his still-developing plans to
address inequity and bias in the district.
A condensed version follows.

Since the Michael Brown shooting, there has been this national
conversation about race, policing, bias, inequity, and America's
unfinished work dealing with race. What role do you see the
district playing in this conversation, and what are your plans
as the superintendent to address such issues?
The school has a huge part in this national conversation about race,
largely because of the students. They will be the future.
One of the things I think is important is that students need to
become self-advocates. They have so much to say, and can really be
influential to some of the students who are hard to reach. The school's
role is to give voice to the kids.
In education, my philosophy has been around having great principals
in schools. If you have great principals, who are learners themselves,
and great teachers in the classrooms-that's the recipe for success.
I think the gap we have in this world largely comes from lack of
education. We have some of the ills in society because kids aren't
getting the kind of education they need. I am able to walk in the life
I live because of my education. So how do we get more kids not just
getting a high school diploma, but getting a great education so that
they can have the ticket to the next station in life? I see my role as
superintendent [as] leading that conversation, leading the students
and the adults, bringing them together so that they know that [they]
really do matter.

What concrete steps have you taken or what action plans do
you have to address inequities?
We are going to be doing an equity audit in our district. One of the
things that I'm interested in learning is the kind of education that
[goes to the] kids who need it most. What kind of education are they
getting? Do they have the kinds of teachers in front of them on a
daily basis that will fill the gaps? I want to see more students of all
races, and, especially, women, in science ... [and] more diversity in our
higher-level classes.
It shouldn't be that kids who come from homes that are poor or
[are] first-generation college don't get access to the kinds of courses
that propel them to a bright future or many options. Doing an
equity audit will unfold who are the teachers in front of the students
who need it most, and how do we make sure that our kids who are
underperforming or our kids who are underachieving-because we
have a lot of underachievers-are in the kinds of courses that will
give them more options when they graduate. [We are] not just looking
14 | EDUCATION WEEK | September 16, 2015 | www.edweek.org

at students, but looking at teachers, looking at our community, [and]
the kinds of resources that are available in our community.
I've met some great people here, but some of these things that
are available to this side of the community may not necessarily
be available over here. The audit will give us some of that data to
be able to engage, not just the people in the school district, but the
community at large.

I want to circle back to the discipline rate. Is that something
you are still reviewing?
It will be part of our equity audit. I want us to be really clear
about these inequities and the rate at which we suspend black boys
especially-more than any other group. It's not that it's bad. It's just,
why? And how do we fix it? How do we fix the why? Maybe it's that we
train our young men differently on some ways of acting in school. How
do we give them the tools they need to be more successful in school?
Because when you look at any school district across this country, the
group that's at the bottom is always black males.
I think we have to begin having conversations about teachers. It's
just that we have to bridge the gap between what's going on at home
and what's going on at school. Teachers need to understand what
kids of poverty go through, and kids in poverty need to know how to
switch codes when they come to school.

How will [your background] inform what you do here?
Growing up in rural North Carolina, it was just stark in terms of the
communities. The black community was here; the white community
was here. My grandmother used to clean up people's houses during
the day in the white community, then she worked a second-shift job at
night. My mother was a teenager when she had me.
I worked on a tobacco farm when I was younger ... for two different
farmers: One was black, one was white. Most of the people around me
had this mentality that "this is as much as I can do, this is my life."
But my grandmother, at a young age, she put books in my hands, and
I read about places I'd never been to before. I wanted to do more than
just read about it. I wanted to see it.
She taught me some good lessons: That you can be anybody you
want to be. You go to school, you get the education that you need, work
hard, and things will pay off.
So for me, when I think about Michael Brown and what happened
here, this is an opportunity for me to come and show other children
that look like me-or not-the world is yours.

In Ferguson,
Schools Poised
For Changes
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

and his desire to make a difference in
the lives of all students, particularly
those who appear at the bottom of
nearly all major educational analyses:
black boys.
"I think we have to have an environment ... in which to have a safe conversation about race and how to move
forward," said Davis. "And, for me, this
is the greatest opportunity for us as a
country to do it right."
Davis is the second African-American
to hold the job. The first, Art McCoy, resigned in March, months before Brown's
death, after he was suspended without
public explanation by the school board.
His exit drew an outcry from students
and parents who thought he was leading the district in the right direction and
wanted him to stay.

School Board Under Scrutiny
The district is also facing a lawsuit by
the state chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union, which charges that Ferguson-Florissant violates the federal Voting Rights Act because the election system makes it hard for African-Americans
to win seats on the school board.
When the lawsuit was filed in December
of last year, one African-American sat on
the seven-member board. Now there are
two. About 81 percent of the district's students are black.
Davis plans to conduct an "equity audit"
that will examine teacher certification
and placement, discipline rates, participation in Advanced Placement courses,
and the division of resources among the
different towns that feed into the district.
While the audit is underway, he is concentrating on helping principals to become better instructional leaders. Principals have received training on how to
distribute leadership, improve teacher
observation, and give more constructive
feedback to teachers, he said. Davis also
wants to work with the community to
open a STEM academy, launch an International Baccalaureate program, and
expand AP participation. His strategy
includes listening to students about the
changes they want to see in the district.
His goal, he said, is to transform the
district into a top-flight system, similar
to the ones that are featured in the annual U.S. News & World Report ranking
of the country's best high schools.
To achieve that, Davis must improve
student achievement. Although the district is accredited, student performance
on state assessments has lagged behind
the state. In 2014, for example, 26.7 percent of all 3rd graders showed proficient or advanced-level proficiency on
the state's English/language arts tests.
Eighth-grade English/language arts
GO DEEPER: Listen
to a fuller interview with
the Ferguson-Florissant's
new schools chief.
www.edweek.org/go/
fergusonQA

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Education Week - September 16, 2015

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