The Bellweather Report—A Call to Action
Earlier this year, the Albemarle County School Board commissioned a report from Bellweather Education Partners, a nationally-recognized nonprofit that seeks to ensure marginalized young people receive a high-quality education, to help understand why our Black and Brown students are consistently underperforming compared with their white peers, as well as students of color statewide. The result of this report, which was publicly released this week, is stark: we are failing our Black, Latino, and economically-disadvantaged students. It also highlights the opportunity we now have to make real change so that ALL of our students can learn, grow and thrive.
On average, ACPS outperforms the state of Virginia on a number of key achievement measures. Historically within the district, however, performance on these same measures varies greatly, with students of color and economically disadvantaged students demonstrating far less achievement than their white peers. This is especially evident when looking at Standards of Learning (SOL) results, which show large gaps between Black and Brown students on one hand, and white and Asian students on the other.
One key takeaway from the Bellwether report is that systemic racism is still very real here in our school system and our community. The report is replete with evidence of discrimination, including tracking into vocational education and less rigorous courses for Black and Latino students, a feeling among many students of color that they are overly scrutinized and disproportionately disciplined, a lack of school and district engagement with families of students of color, and the use of racist language and microaggressions. While ACPS has focused on identifying and correcting systemic racism in our schools since 2019, we have not done enough to change “the degree to which systemic racism is woven into the fabric of our everyday experiences in the form of behaviors, practices and structures.” We cannot implement real solutions if we don’t believe systemic racism is harming our students of color. And we cannot make headway on any initiative for improvement without supporting and empowering our teachers. In short, equity, inclusion, and academic excellence go hand in hand.
Many of Bellwether’s recommendations for change will require more resources, but we cannot simply dump these additional obligations on our teachers without supporting them with the proper resources. And we certainly can’t expect that we can achieve any of the desired results by slashing per-pupil funding, as my opponent has suggested.
Over the past few months, I have met with dozens of ACPS teachers and staff. They feel unheard and undervalued. Our teachers are our front line workers. They spend more time during the day with our kids than we do. We need to listen to them. We also need to listen to our diverse families. The report makes clear that ACPS isn’t effectively communicating with parents of students of color, and that there is a profound lack of trust. Parents need to be involved in their children’s education, and that includes all children and all parents.
As a solutions-oriented candidate, I encourage swift implementation of the recommendations of the Bellwether report to close these achievement gaps. Specifically, I support:
Encouraging and promoting academic excellence for all our students. We must stop the soft bigotry of low expectations for black, Latino, and lower-income students, and ensure that they receive appropriate counseling at key junctures in their school careers on all options, including the importance of key college preparatory classes and when to take them.
Allocating educational resources through ACPS equitably. This includes dedicating more resources to intervention for students who are falling behind grade level, particularly in elementary and middle schools, and allocating those resources equitably. In addition, volunteers and organizations who want to help tutor and mentor students should be directed to schools with the greatest needs.
More and higher quality professional development for our teachers. The report makes clear that existing central administration-led professional development programs are not helpful. Instead, teachers should have more opportunity to educate each other on successful teaching strategies and practices, and to collaborate with central administration leadership in developing truly productive professional development sessions. ACPS should also encourage and incentivize more mentorship of new teachers, particularly from experienced and skilled teachers located in the same building.
Higher quality teaching materials, including a Virginia Department of Education-approved curriculum for reading in our elementary schools and secondary math and Algebra I materials that are grade-level appropriate and aligned with state SOLs. Our teachers know best, and they should help guide the selection of appropriate classroom materials. This also includes a district-wide plan for formative assessments throughout the school year that track the SOLs, as recommended by the Bellwether report.
Providing additional time for parent-teacher conferences. Currently, many schools have only one parent-teacher conference per year, often done outside of teachers’ normal working hours. ACPS should allocate 3 paid teaching days per year for teachers to meet with parents, and spread these meetings through the school year.
More support for our English Learner (EL) students and their teachers, and more effective outreach to ESOL families. This should include, at a minimum, simultaneous interpreters at all ACPS meetings and events, including School Board meetings, and translating all written materials on ACPS’s website, including the Bellwether report. I also strongly support funding and incentivizing Spanish language classes for educators, including at PVCC and/or offered during the evenings at teachers’ schools. This could take the form of a “Spanish for Educators” cohort with a stipend.
Effective communication and engagement with all ACPS families, including black and brown families that have been historically skeptical or distrustful of public schools. This requires providing important information in multiple modes (email, phone, text, printed material sent home with students) and holding “listening sessions” in disadvantaged communities to facilitate a stronger relationship between administrators, teachers, and families.
This is a lot to do, but these changes are necessary to meet ACPS’s mission to “end the predictive value of race, class, gender, and special capacities for our children’s success through high-quality teaching and learning for all.” As a School Board member, I will work tirelessly to close the opportunity and achievement gaps identified by the Bellwether report. Ultimately, we cannot have excellent schools if we are failing any of our students.
