I’ve seen my mother cry only twice during my lifetime — both times related to my education.
The first time happened during third grade, when I came home with my report card. Tears streamed down her face as she read my teacher’s comments. I found out years later that I had mistaken her tears for tears of joy. Despite my hard work and outstanding marks, my teacher’s sole written comment was, “We’re all happy your son isn’t a bully.”
My mother knew what the veiled comment meant. It didn’t matter that she grew up in East Palo Alto, graduated from the University of Southern California and made me read every book in her library so that I could do the same. It didn’t matter that she was a single mom and had spent her life savings to move into this neighborhood mainly because of the school district. Her long nights counting pinto beans with me so I could excel in multiplication and division was lost on my teacher. No matter how well mannered my behavior, to this teacher, my blackness came first and should be viewed as a physical threat to others.
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Unfortunately, this is a common story. A Stanford University study found that teachers recommend disciplinary action more often for black students than for white students, even for relatively minor issues such as defying teacher direction.
You don’t have to look further than the criminal justice system’s stilted reactions to the ongoing deaths of men and women — such as Oscar Grant, Mike Brown, Tanisha Anderson and now Walter Scott and Freddie Gray — to see how implicit bias and explicit discrimination play a role in our attitudes and actions. The danger manifests when individual bias meets systems in which public policies, institutional practices and cultural representations reinforce group inequity.
These preconceptions similarly shape our education system. Our lack of widespread outrage that 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education ended the legal acceptance of separate-but-equal schools, disparities still exist for black, brown and poor students proves this. Even in a resource-rich community such as San Francisco, the achievement gap persists — only 36 percent of Latino students and 28 percent of black students have taken the courses needed to apply to the UC system, compared with 62 percent of white students.
We must counteract our own biases with policies and systems rooted in equity and accountability. As Gov. Jerry Brown notes, equal treatment of children in unequal situations is not justice. Our state’s landmark decision to provide additional funding to school districts with high concentrations of English learners, foster youths and low-income students is a good first step. But providing more dollars rings hollow without accountability that ensures that those investments support increased student achievement.
To rectify the disparities, we must do more to ensure that black, brown and poor students have access to resources such as career-readiness programs and rigorous coursework that prepares them for the future. When districts don’t show gains for these students, state leaders must impose consequences.
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We must also recognize where biases exist. California is home to the country’s largest teacher demographic gap: 79 percent of teachers are white but 73 percent of students are nonwhite. We must make sure to equip teacher preparation programs and our educational institutions for conversations about the influence of internalized prejudice. We should also provide opportunities for students to discuss how biases can play out for them.
Most importantly, California’s education leadership must do everything possible to check their own biases at the door. Those who make education policy can’t afford to discuss issues of race, gender and class only in academic circles, where people of color are more likely to serve coffee than participate in the conversation. More must be done to diversify these discussions as well as diversify the very people who make decisions in the first place.
The second time I witnessed my mother cry happened when she stood beaming with pride as I crossed the stage at UCLA to accept my degree; she held my hand and told me, “Good job, son.” That’s a moment every Californian should have the opportunity to achieve.
Ryan J. Smith is the executive director of the Education Trust — West. Do you think you are unbiased?
You can test your own implicit bias at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html.