Coming Together to Bridge the Gap

Community members and educators gathered at in Bolingbrook on Saturday to brainstorm about the causes of and possible solutions to the academic divide between white and minority students in Valley View schools.

Organized and moderated by the community action group Building Academic Achievement Within This Generation (BAAWG), the forum focused on a central theme: “How can we close the achievement gap?”

Moderators challenged participants to envision the impact that raising expectations for academic performance and demanding accountability would have on all students in Valley View schools.

Teachers, students, administrators, school board members and parents in attendance were then guided through discussions on closing the spending gap and addressing the root causes of problems affecting student performance.

“We hope you consider other perspectives,” BAAWG board member Patti Chow told attendees, stressing that the forum was not a debate but a deliberation. “Share ideas — and come up with possible common ground.”

And share they did, from personal anecdotes from a mother who had to fight to get her child enrolled in honors classes, to a nursing educator who said many of her students “had to take every developmental class known to man” before they could even begin their studies in nursing school.

A school social worker lamented that the talents of many children are being wasted, with minority students often unable to achieve as much as white children.

“That always bothered me,” she said. “We are programming our country to go down the drain.”

During the event, moderators posited three approaches to bridging the gap:

Approach 1: Raise expectations and demand accountability

“We have to raise expectations,” said a high school teacher. She added that although some scores will inevitably drop in the beginning, if the school district sets a benchmark and everyone in the community expects students to achieve, they will.

She warned, however, that everyone must remember that not all students come from the same home environments.

“Some kids are not just with parents, but foster families; some are on the street,” she said. “But the things I can control, I need to.”

 “We all need to look out for the good of all kids,” agreed a participant. “Parenting is the key,” said another.

School board member Rick Gougis shared a story of visiting his 4-year-old daughter’s future school, only to sense reluctance on the part of staff members to allow him access to the information he was seeking. Later, Gougis said, when he offered to volunteer at the school, he felt his role as a parent had already been clearly defined by the district: fundraising.

“I felt like they were saying, ‘Do what we tell you to do, but don’t ask what we do,’” he said. “To a lot of parents, that door doesn’t feel very open.”

Current Bolingbrook High School Principal and incoming Valley View Supt. James Mitchem cautioned that supportive parents are not always defined simply by their level of engagement at their children’s schools or how often they volunteer.

“We need to help parents understand what involvement is,” Mitchem said. “There are kids whose parents never come to school but I know those kids are coming from a place of care.”

Approach 2: Closing the spending gap

Although educators and parents across the nation often cite the lack of money as one of the root causes of low student achievement, nobody at Saturday’s BAAWG forum blamed the stinginess of local, state or federal governments.

“This district is very well funded,” Mitchem said.

To him, the difference-maker is not money but the teacher in the classroom.

One elementary teacher said her school has plenty of good supplies on hand that are not being utilized. She wondered aloud, “How can we use the resources we already have to max potential?”

During a spirited exchange, educators and parents shared ideas for doing just that — whether through redirecting funds toward early childhood intervention including all-day kindergarten, improving outreach to parents of preschoolers, offering summer enhancement programs for elementary students, offering more professional development opportunities for teachers and seeking more creative ways in which to teach both special-needs and regular-education students . 

 Approach 3: Addressing root causes

Even with high academic expectations and funding aimed at maximizing students' potential in the classroom, some participants said, the reality is that not all students come to school ready to learn.

According to BAAWG Executive Director Leroy Brown, many kids struggle with issues such as health problems, poor nutrition, stressful living conditions at home and a lack of parental support. One or more of those issues can potentially derail a student from the track to success.

“Students often become angry when they can’t perform,” said a social worker. “And there are a lot of angry students and children.”

Students who don’t feel a part of the school community often struggle in the classroom too, some said.

“Hispanic students who are not fully integrated into society don’t feel engaged …” said a staff member. Whether because they are recent immigrants or they are kids who live in a home where English is not spoken, “they don’t feel acceptance,” he said.

Mitchem said the district needs to spend the time and resources to be sure teachers are “culturally competent.”

Citing research by Alfred Tatum, associate professor and director of the UIC Reading Clinic, an elementary-level teacher said students often seek books with which they can identify. 

“Kids ask for books about black kids like them — not just about slavery or civil rights,” she said. Another educator commented said some books are considered “flat-out offensive to black and Hispanic kids.”

To address such inequities, Bolingbrook High School English Department chair Pam Pritchard suggested that although students need to read books that are considered classics because the subject matter will later appear on high-stakes tests, educators can supplement those books with reading material that will engage and inspire learners from all backgrounds and ethnicities.

Moving in the right direction?

Mitchem said he sees “random acts of improvement” throughout the district. In the coming year, he said he will seek to work with the board of education and staff to recognize early on when a student is needs help — and to develop a rubric for intervention.

Pritchard expressed optimism that the district is moving in the right direction.

“We have systemic problems but in this district we have decided to fight against them,” Pritchard said.  “We are putting a great plan in place. We need to communicate it so all schools are doing great things.”

“This community has been screaming for change,” Mitchem said. “We need to get to the heart of systems that have been embedded for years. We can be a beam of light for communities around the country.”

The next meeting of BAAWG is scheduled for 11 a.m. May 21, at .