Articles in the CUBE category

NSBA mourns the loss of former CUBE director

The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is mourning the Oct. 9 passing of Katrina Kelley, who served as director of the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) until earlier this year.

“She had tremendous passion, knowledge, and a strong commitment to helping urban school leaders find solutions to challenges at the local level and improve student achievement in their schools,” said Lisa Bartusek, NSBA’s associate executive director for State Association and School Board Leadership Services. “Guided by the leadership and counsel of the many dedicated CUBE Steering Committee members over the years, Katrina helped to shape the CUBE program as a critical component of NSBA.”

Kelley spent nearly 20 years at NSBA working on urban education issues. A graduate of Marycrest College with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work, she served as legislative director for former Representative Charles A. Hayes (D-IL) of Chicago prior to joining NSBA. She joined NSBA in October 1992 as director of Urban School District Advocacy.

Under Kelley’s leadership, CUBE has grown to represent more than 100 urban school districts in 35 states and the Virgin Islands.

 

 

Joetta Sack-Min|October 10th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, CUBE, Urban Schools|Tags: , |

CUBE panel: School-level policies help minority male students

To make a difference in the lives of young men of color, urban school boards need to review the policies and priorities directed at the needs of this population—but they also need to make certain that these policies and priorities are reality at the school level.

That was the advice offered by a panel of educators speaking at the 45th Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Annual Conference in Atlanta last weekend.

Discussing possible school board strategies to help these students, panelist Carl Harris, a one-time superintendent and former deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, suggested conference attendees begin by taking a closer look at what was happening in their schools.

“In too many settings, we have a beautiful mission, a beautiful vision of where we want to take our schools, but when we look at how we operate day to day as a school or district, there’s a disconnect,” he said.

An example of this disconnect might be the difference between a school board’s academic hopes for minority male students and the disproportionate number of these students assigned to special education. The panel’s facilitator, Kendall Lee, a board services consultant with the Ohio School Boards Association, asked panelists how to address the issue.

Look at the data—and ask tough questions about why the district’s outcomes aren’t aligned with the district’s goals, Harris said. “My experiences working with school boards across the country is that, in many case, the data is not put directly in front of school boards as much as it should be.”

The answer is no different when examining a district’s disciplinary policies, panelists said. Statistics show that young black males are suspended or expelled at far greater rates than other students, a practice that forces students out of the classroom and discourages their interest in school.

“It’s an American shame,” said panelist Van Henri White, a school board member in Rochester, N.Y., and a member of the CUBE Steering Committee. “Our leaders aren’t treating our people right.”

Inappropriately assigning students to special education classes or disciplining them excessively undermines students’ hopes and risks putting them into the school-to-prison pipeline, panelists said. These are messages that only heighten the negative and hope-deflating experiences, such as police harassment, that these students face on the streets.

Indeed, talking to jailed young men, White said, he’s seen “the frustration of young men of color who do not believe they have an honest shot at the American Dream. They believe the deck is stacked against them, and they do not have a chance to succeed in the classroom, the courtroom, or in the boardroom.”

That reality puts school boards in the “business of saving and rescuing” these students, said panelist Ron Walker, executive director of the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color said. “It’s non-negotiable to stand up and save our sons.”

It would help if schools had more black and Latino male role models in the schools—to show young students that academic success is possible, suggested Lee, and the panel talked of the challenges of recruiting and retaining such hard-to-find teachers.

Yet, Walker noted that the demographics are not in school boards’ favor, and, ultimately, there was no guarantee that simply having male teachers will allow schools to reach out successfully to students.

“It’s not a forgone conclusion that if, you have black male teachers, that they’ll be culturally proficient,” he said. “Some of us, who look like me, are as close to culturally proficient as I am to the moon.”

What’s needed, Walker suggested, is better recruitment and professional development to ensure that more teachers understand the needs of young men of color.

“We’re not going to get the influx of black and brown teachers we’re going to need,” he said. “So everyone needs to be culturally proficient.”

 

Del Stover|October 9th, 2012|Categories: CUBE, Student Achievement, Student Engagement, Urban Schools|Tags: |

Savannah school board president honored with national urban education award

This year’s winner of the Benjamin Elijah Mays Lifetime Achievement Award is Joseph A. Buck, III, president of Georgia’s  Savannah-Chatham County Board of Education.

Joseph A. Buck, IIIJoseph A. Buck, III displays the The Benjamin Elijah Mays Lifetime Achievement Award

Buck, a school board member since 2006, received the award during the 45th Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Annual Conference in Atlanta. CUBE honored Buck for his efforts to improve student achievement and management in the school district as well as his efforts to increase community engagement in the district’s public schools.

The Benjamin Elijah Mays Lifetime Achievement Award is given to individuals who demonstrate a long-standing commitment to the educational needs of urban schoolchildren through school board service. Benjamin Elijah Mays, whom the award honors, was a teacher, minister, author, and civil rights activist who served as president of Morehouse College and the Atlanta school board from 1970 to 1981.

Buck spent nearly 40 years as an administrator at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, most recently as vice president of student affairs. During that time, he also built partnerships between the university, the school system, and key businesses. Two local programs that he has helped implement include Leadership Savannah and Leadership Georgia, which help local professionals gain leadership skills. Buck recruited many teachers and administrators to these programs and used his positions on the groups’ boards of trustees to build partnerships between schools and the business community.

When Buck became Savannah-Chatham’s school board president, the school district was on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and was facing declining enrollments and mistrust from the community. Working with a new superintendent, Buck helped expand a school choice system and bring back students to neighborhood public schools.

Buck has supported charter schools in his school district, and helped build a new charter facility using the education special purpose local option sales tax. He also is a member of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s education advisory group, which meets quarterly to discuss issues facing schools in the state.

Del Stover|October 9th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, Charter Schools, CUBE, NSBA Recognition Programs, School Boards, Urban Schools|Tags: , , |

Nevada’s Washoe County Public Schools District receives national urban education excellence award

The Washoe County School District has been awarded the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Annual Award for Urban School Board Excellence for 2012.

The Nevada school system, which serves Reno and surrounding communities, was recognized for its school board’s resolve to improve student academic performance, engage parents and the community, and ensure that all students leave high school ready for college and careers.

Washoe County Public Schools District leaders

Washoe County Public Schools District leaders show off their CUBE Annual Award for Urban School Board Excellence

“It’s a great honor, and a confirmation of the hard work of principals, teachers, and staff members,” said Washoe County Superintendent Pedro Martinez. “This award shows what is possible when board members work in partnership with the leadership team to implement reforms that change the lives of children every day.”

“We are honored to receive this recognition on behalf of the staff, parents, and students of the … school district,” said Ken Grein, president of the board of trustees. “Our board has joined with the district to listen to members of our community, learn about their concerns, and build upon their support to help more of our students succeed in school.”

The award was presented this past weekend during a luncheon at the CUBE Conference in Atlanta.

Maryland’s Baltimore City Public Schools and Prince George’s County Public Schools also were finalists for this year’s top honor.

Washoe County is a 63,000-student school system that, only a few years ago, outperformed others in its state but was receiving negative reviews from county residents. In 2009, the school board told the community it would make changes and began an exhaustive review, with community input, of the school system’s performance.

That effort led to the development of a five-point reform initiative, Envision WCSD 2015, Investing In Our Future, that aimed to institute performance management systems; engage parents and the community; develop effective teachers and instructional leaders; instill a caring and positive school climate; and ensure all students leave ready for college and careers.

This initiative helped the school system make noticeable progress. Graduation rates rose from 56 percent in 2008 to 70 percent in 2011; the achievement gap closed as third-grade math and reading scores for African-American and Hispanic students jumped double digits. District officials now use a variety of communications tools to market their schools and foster two-way communications with parents and community members.

“Washoe County has made tremendous gains in increasing its graduation rate, increasing the achievement of low-income and minority students, and placing highly qualified teachers in its schools with the greatest needs,” said Joseph S. Villani, NSBA’s Interim Executive Director. “Working closely with its superintendent, the school board set high expectations for all students and staff and engaged its community as partners.”

“Washoe County is an example of excellence for our state and for urban school districts across the country,” added Dotty Merrill, executive director of the Nevada Association of School Boards. “The school board, working with the superintendent, has done an exceptional job at developing a strategic plan with community involvement, and has focused on implementing that plan and continuously improving student achievement.”

The Washoe County school system was selected for the CUBE award by an independent judging panel based on materials submitted by the school district, independent follow-up research, and information provided by the district’s state school boards association.

The judges selected the winner based on the following four criteria: Excellence in school board governance; building civic capacity; closing the achievement gap-equity in education; and demonstrated success of academic excellence.

CUBE represents a total of more than 100 urban school districts in 35 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The districts that comprise CUBE educate nearly 7.5 million students in over 12,000 schools, with a collective budget of approximately $99 billion. CUBE helps urban school boards find solutions to challenges at the local level and helps them to strengthen their policy making effectiveness.

 

Del Stover|October 9th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, Board governance, Conferences and Events, CUBE, Governance, Leadership, Urban Schools|Tags: , |

School leaders lack understanding of minority male students’ home lives, CUBE speaker says

How is it that an African-American student attending his high school graduation ceremony can feel depressed—overwhelmed by what the future holds and wondering why other students appear to be looking forward to college and the years ahead?

Why could this youth see no advantage in his success—and the opportunity to go to college—compared to students who enlisted in the military or entered the workforce?

There is a crippling power in the disconnect that exists between many African-American and Latino male students and their educational opportunities, David Heifer, executive director of Concentric Educational Solutions, told urban school leaders during a workshop Friday at the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) conference in Atlanta.

In an hour-and-a-half discussion of strategies that schools can use to help young men of color, Heifer noted that these students often face challenges that undermine their confidence, discourage their hopes, and leave them frustrated and defensive.

Many of these challenges have their roots in the poverty, broken homes, drug abuse, and other social ills that exist in urban communities. But another part of the problem rests in the failure of urban educators to understand what these students are going through—and the failure of schools to provide the social and emotional support these young men need.

That’s the result of another disconnect—between students and the adults in their schools, he said. Teachers and principals don’t live in the same neighborhoods as their students, and they cannot really understand what’s happening in the lives of these students.

Instead, school leaders turn to data to try to make sense of what’s happening.

“We get caught up in numbers—the dropout rate, the truancy rate,” he said. “We skip right to solutions … then come back next year and try to come up with policies to figure out” how to do better.

It’s a dynamic that Heifer indicated he understood all too well. During his high school years, his father died of a heart attack, and as a grief-stricken youth, he began to act out—a troublemaker transferred to five different schools over the course of his senior year. He eventually was arrested 28 times and sent to prison.

With a little luck and the support of others, however, Heifer says he managed to turn his life around, earn his GED, attend college, and become a school principal. But he still recalls that, after his father’s death, not a single teacher or school counselor offered any condolences.

None of the adults in his school understood his pain—or recognized that there was an underlying reason for his dramatic change in behavior.

The story underscored Heiber’s argument that, if educators truly want to help their minority male students, they need to do a better job of understanding what’s going on in these students’ lives. There are a variety of ways to do that, but Heiber focused most of his comments one strategy—encouraging teachers to make home visits.

It’s a strategy that his nonprofit school-support organization encourages in the schools that it works with. In fact, he boasted, teachers at these schools have made more than 5,000 home visits in recent years.

Schools also can do more to strengthen “wrap-around services” for students, he suggested. “Students need their social-emotional support.”

What they don’t need, however, is “discipline policy that mimics the criminal justice system.”

Many school boards already have recognized the need to provide these supports. If a school board isn’t seeing results, however, the reason may lie with another common “disconnect”—between what the school board wants to happen and the actual practices taking place in schools.

“We come up with policies at the school board level, then we go to the schools … quite frankly, they don’t want to hear what you have to say.”

So school board members need to get out more—into their schools and, yes, even into their students’ homes—so they can better understand the dynamics at work in young men’s lives.

“You have to uncover it, and the only way to uncover it is to ask the hard questions,” Heifer said. “You’ve got to get dirty. You’ve got to get in there.”

 

Del Stover|October 8th, 2012|Categories: 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Board governance, CUBE, Data Driven Decision Making, Discipline, Diversity, Dropout Prevention, Educational Research, School Boards, School Reform, School Security|Tags: , , |

School districts in Maryland and Nevada named finalists for national urban education award

Three urban school districts: Maryland’s Baltimore City Public Schools and Prince George’s County Public Schools and Nevada’s Washoe County Public Schools have been named finalists for the 2012 National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Annual Award for Urban School Board Excellence.

“This year’s CUBE award finalists clearly demonstrate effective board leadership driven by raising student achievement,” said Anne L. Bryant, executive director of NSBA. “These school boards have focused on policymaking, are driven by an accountability system which makes student learning and success their number one goal. They have demonstrated strong leadership—with the goal of improving the quality of education offered in their schools.”

CUBE showcases excellence in school board governance every year by presenting the Annual Award for Urban School Board Excellence. Award winners share their ideas and promote effective techniques at CUBE conferences and through CUBE publications. These districts serve as a resource for other CUBE districts, sharing best practices to help all urban districts improve.

The three finalists were selected by an independent judging panel based on materials submitted by the school district, independent follow-up research, and information provided by the district’s state school boards association. The judges selected the finalists based on the following four criteria: excellence in school board governance, building civic capacity, closing the achievement gap—equity in education, and demonstrated success of academic excellence.

About the Finalists:

Baltimore City Public Schools

For many schools to stay open in Baltimore, it is essential to have the support of students and families. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s a traditional school operated by the school district or a charter school run by an outside group. School choice is the mantra of the city school board, and under its new school funding formula, the money follows the child. This vision for the Baltimore City Public Schools makes it one of the most aggressive nationwide in restructuring itself for the 21st century.

Breaking with the top-down management model of the past, the school board and its CEO, Andrés Alonso, have chosen to dramatically decentralize decision-making. Individual schools now have a large degree of autonomy over budgeting and operations, and the central office’s role is being repositioned to one of providing guidance, support, and accountability.

The district’s success speaks for itself. High school graduation rates hit a record high in recent years, while dropout rates declined. In four years, the district boosted reading scores by 21.7 percent in grades three to eight, while math scores rose 28.4 percent. More students now enroll in Advanced Placement classes, and efforts to expand preschool programs increased the number of children arriving in kindergarten “ready to learn” by 15.5 percent.

Prince George’s County Public Schools

With 127,000 students, Prince George’s is among the Top 20 districts in nation in terms of enrollment size. No doubt, some students were getting a good education when the new board took over in 2006. But in a predominately minority district were more than half the students receive federally subsidized lunches, those students tended to live primarily in the wealthier sections of the county; a large portion of the others were being left behind.

The board and former superintendent focused on a “five-pronged vision” for high student achievement, highly effective teaching, safe and supporting schools, strong community partnerships, and effective and efficient operations. In order to better serve all students, the board in 2010 implemented “Student Based Budgeting,” a system that allocates money based not only on the number of students enrolled in a school but also on the particular needs of those students. Poverty would no longer be an excuse for not providing an equitable education for all.

The payoff has come in test results, with scores on the Maryland School Assessment rising in both reading and math. Between 2007 and 2011, for example, fifth-grade proficiency rates have increased from 61.8 percent to 83.9 percent in reading, and from 64.5 percent to 72.6 percent in math. Test scores are one thing. But equally important is a new spirit in the county and a sense of unity emanating from what a few years ago would have been a most unlikely place: the local school board.

Washoe County Public Schools

The academic gains at Washoe County School District are certainly impressive: graduation rates rose from 56 percent in 2008 to 70 percent in 2011; the achievement gap closed as third-grade math and reading scores for African-American and Hispanic students jumped double digits; and the classes at all Title I schools can now boast of being led by highly proficient teachers. Though the results deservedly get all the attention, they believe the careful planning and foundation it was built upon, which began with the board recognizing it could and should expect more from its students, its staff and itself.

The exhaustive research, data analyses, and community input served as the basis of a five-point reform initiative that aimed to institute performance management systems; engage parents and the community; develop effective teachers and instructional leaders; instill a caring and positive school climate; and ensure all students leave ready for college and careers.

“Envision WCSD 2015, Investing in Our Future,” their strategic plan was rolled out slowly, methodically among its staff, who worked in committees and groups to work toward the goals and internalize the message. With employees embracing the new mission, district officials could now turn to selling the value proposition to the public — developing key messages based on its mission, identifying and segmenting its target audience, using a variety of communication tools and channels, and most importantly, developing communications plans that foster two-way communications.

CUBE represents a total of more than 100 urban school districts in 35 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The districts that comprise CUBE educate nearly 7.5 million students in over 12,000 schools, with a collective budget of approximately $99 billion. CUBE helps urban school boards find solutions to challenges at the local level and helps them to strengthen their policy making effectiveness.

Alexis Rice|September 6th, 2012|Categories: CUBE, Student Achievement, Urban Schools|Tags: , |

Tending to children’s social, emotional needs important part of delivering education

It’s hard to learn at school when you’re hungry. It’s hard to learn if you’re afraid of the school bully. And classroom lessons hold no interest for you if you have been abused at home, or your heart is otherwise filled with pain and anger.

That reality is no surprise to urban school leaders—and that’s why attendees at the CUBE Summer Issues Seminar in New York City spent part of Friday learning more about how to meet the social and emotional needs of students.

In poor urban neighborhoods, children can be bombarded with challenges to their social and emotional needs even before they’re born—starting with a lack of good prenatal care, said Barbara Cavallo, associate executive director of Partnership with Children, a social service agency that has counselors and social workers in 26 of New York City’s most disadvantaged schools.

Those challenges, which range from neglect to abuse to other social ills, leave many students struggling by the time they reach school age, she says. Those struggles are reflected in behavioral problems that can lead to repeated visits to the principal’s office, assignment to special education programs, or a slow decline in academic performance.

These kids go into “survival mode,” Cavallo says, which leaves them ill-prepared to learn or stay out of trouble.

Recognizing this dynamic, the Partnership attempts to intervene with a program that provides participating schools with extra counseling services. Counselors also can conduct home visits and coordinate referrals for students with more serious problems.

The Partnership also works with school personnel to develop a healthy school culture by training teachers in how to respond to student misbehavior and identify the underlying causes of any problem so that an appropriate response can be planned. Counselors also work with teachers and principals to develop a school-wide plan to create a safe and supportive school climate.

Part of the Partnership’s work is inspired by Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs,” Cavallo said. Once a child has satisfied such basic survival needs as food and water, what they need is a sense of safety, of love and self-esteem and confidence.

“That’s what we’re focusing on,” she said. “Once students feel confident and supported, they can start to demonstrate appropriate reactions [in school]. They are willing to establish relations with teachers and the classroom. That’s when we’re on our way to preparing students for success.”

It’s not just a touchy-feeling exercise to make children feel better—meeting students’ social and emotional needs have a practical impact on learning, she says. A survey of the Partnership’s program found that school administrators reported a 25-percent decrease in students being referred to their office, and they said they spent about one-third less time on disciplinary matters.

What’s more, another study of similar programs nationwide found that schools that focused on social and emotional learning reported a noticeable bump in standardized test scores.

But such an effort begins with training—of everyone from the school board to the classroom teacher, Cavallo said. And the message is that human connections are key.

“We work with teachers and explain what works. We ask them to greet students every day at the door … to stand outside the classroom and say, ‘Hello.’ It’s a connection to a caring adult that makes all the difference in the world.”

Del Stover|July 30th, 2012|Categories: CUBE|

Role play, real-life scenarios fortify training at CUBE conference

After a teacher learns that two students plan to fight after school—because he read the gossip on a student Facebook page—the school board is relieved when school officials intervene and prevent the altercation.

But shouldn’t the school board also be concerned that students and teachers are interacting on social media sites without supervision?

This real-life scenario—and the policy implications regarding employee use of social media sites shared with students—was one of several case studies debated yesterday by urban school leaders attending the CUBE Summer Issues Seminar at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York City.

Yesterday’s discussions were part of a new CUBE Leadership Academy designed to strengthen board member leadership skills, led by Brian Perkins, a past chair of CUBE’s Steering Committee and currently director of the university’s Urban Education Leadership Program.

With help from a cadre of presenters, the Academy put urban leaders through the paces by posing a series of what-if scenarios and asking them to find potential solutions.

One of the more compelling case studies dealt with school board policies on social media sites—such as Facebook or Twitter—and potential communications between students and teachers. As noted by presenter Sharon Skyers-Jenkins, a former school board member and education attorney, this is a policy issue that school boards ignore at their risk.

“At least 40 school districts have approved social media policies,” she noted, adding that some school districts have required teachers to “unfriend” students on Facebook while others have banned all social networking efforts using school-owned computers.

Yet many school officials are playing catch-up on this issue, Skyers-Jenkins added. “Technology is moving at warp speed, and social media outlets are increasing. A district has to carefully craft their policy to be relevant. To ignore this issue now is probably not too wise.”

In their discussion, urban school leaders were asked how they would come to agreement if their board was divided in its views. For example, in the case study given them, one hypothetical board member wanted to ban all teacher and student interaction through social media services. Another wanted to regulate even private use of social media services by employees, and a third wanted to ignore the entire issue.

In the end, many board members decided that a combination of views would make an appropriate policy, with the main points being to ensure that communications between student and teacher was accessible to parents and school officials, teachers should only use online communications for education-related issues, and teachers must avoid any social interaction with students.

At its most basic level, one board member noted, the issue is that teachers cannot “friend” students online.

“Teachers are teachers 24 hours a day. They can never be a friend. They must never cross that boundary.”

Del Stover|July 27th, 2012|Categories: CUBE, Urban Schools|

CUBE elects leadership, Steering Committee members

NSBA’s  Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) has re-elected its Chair and Vice Chair and elected new members to its Steering Committee at
NSBA’s Annual Conference in Boston.

School board members Sandra Jensen of Nebraska’s Omaha Public Schools and Minnie Forte-Brown of North Carolina’s Durham Public Schools were each re-elected to a second one-year term of Chair and Vice Chair respectively.

“The extensive knowledge and experience of our new CUBE Steering Committee members will be extremely beneficial to the nation’s urban school boards as they continue to seek innovative strategies to increase student achievement,” said Lisa Bartusek, NSBA’s Associate Executive Director for State Association and School Board Leadership Services.

The following school board members were elected this year to serve on CUBE’s 15-member Steering Committee: Estela Gutierrez from Nevada’s Washoe County School District, Norma Munoz from Arizona’s Roosevelt School District, Janet Ryan from California’s Fresno Unified School District, and Van Henri White from New York’s Rochester City School District.

“The dedication that our CUBE leadership has to ensuring that all urban students receive a high-quality education is unparalleled,” said Lock P. Beachum, Sr., the head of this year’s nominating committee and Immediate Past Chair of CUBE.

Erin Walsh|April 21st, 2012|Categories: CUBE, NSBA Annual Conference 2012|

Resegregation threatens to undo strides of ‘Brown’

Following a vigorous half-day workshop that explored Boston Public School’s weighted student funding approach, members of the Council of Urban Boards of Education on Friday continued their pre-conference programming with a special luncheon featuring a giant in the field of sociology research.

Most recently serving as the Charles William Eliot Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Charles Willie has spent decades studying the patterns within race relations, urban communities, and education and has been tapped countless times to serve as expert witness and consultant on major desegregation school cases across the country, including Dallas, Kansas City, and Seattle.

Willie shared his prodigious knowledge on social issues with CUBE members. “This is where I like to be,” Willie said, beaming at the audience. “Talking to people I know who are going to do something about this.

“This” was the worrisome trend of resegregation that threatens to widen disparities and undo the great strides made in the half-century since the historic Brown v. Board of Education. Willie cited the boastful tenor many colleges strike in proclaiming how many applicants they reject annually as a prime example of America’s growing divisions.

“It’s my contention that the inclusiveness of our education system has been one of our greatest achievements and it’s time for educators to step forward and showcase that,” he said.

Willie’s research, which includes more than 100 articles and 30 books on topics ranging from family dynamics, religion, and socioeconomic status, has shown that diversity can be an asset to those who embrace it, making them, as he says, “double cultural.”

“Everybody’s culture is good but you don’t want to know just your own culture. You must know what people like you are doing and what people not like you are doing if you want to be successful in life,” Willie said. “I learned about diversity when I came to Boston. I said Boston, not Harvard.”

A graduate of Morehouse University, Willie said he’s trying to take that message straight to his alma mater and other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

“Black colleges do a good many things for black people, but can you think of the number of white people who’ve missed out on opportunities by not going to Morehouse?” Willie asked.

Schools must be places where people learn from one another, Willie said. Morehouse students could learn from white students how to think like a dominant populace in power, while black people could come to understand the experiences of minorities.

But as Willie tries to create those pathways for white students into HBCUs, he’s reminded that not everyone is on board. He recalled the 2009 controversy at Hampton University, when Nikole Churchill became the first non-black student to be crowned homecoming queen. While her nomination stirred indignation and heckling among some, Churchill outraged the student body at large when she posted an open letter online to President Obama, where she tried to draw comparisons to herself and the commander-in-chief.

“It’s not like we’re all going to be together and everyone’s going to be happy,” Willie acknowledged. “There are going to be some people who are unhappy but we still must move forward.”

Naomi Dillon|April 20th, 2012|Categories: CUBE, NSBA Annual Conference 2012|
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