URGENT COMMUNITY ACTION NEEDED:
A terrible educational injustice is pushing millions of students of color in California and across the nation so far behind this year that many will never catch up, will never graduate from high school, and will lose all hope of higher education achievement.
The implementation of this new program: "Every Student Succeeds Act "(ESSA) |has ended nearly all free tutoring with it hopes of closing the learning gap for low income students, students of color and students with learning disabilities. Parents and communities have been misled into believing that this new program give students improved services when, in fact, most tutoring has been ended.
For so many years, students were tutored inside their schools with "small group" tutoring which is completely ineffective because it put students with the same teachers they had trouble understanding during their regular classes. Too often, their regular teachers were not trained in the areas where the students had greatest need, such as experience with learning disabilities or with understanding of how to teach English as a second language which is needed by African American students as much as by students whose first languages Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian French, Russian, Armenian and Indigenous languages.
Also a major problem with in-school tutoring was that small groups being tutored are groups of students from different grades and different skill levels which cannot be helped by a single person all at the same time. As a result, students were given "busy work" to do for 50 minutes of each hour and only received 10 minutes of help per student. This is why such tutoring does not help the students.
An even worse situation for the students arose when elected officials encouraged tutoring of the students to be conducted by members of the community without any background in teaching based on the faulty assumption that any adult who can read is competent to help a student who is behind in academic level or who has learning problems or English as a second language needs.
Very sadly, the very minimal support that was being provided to students ended in May, 2016. Until then, schools and school districts in which high numbers of students were behind were required to manage federal funds for free tutoring by arranging for tutoring by private companies for the students with greatest need.
During the 2016-2017 school year, the so-called program Improvement, facilitated under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Federal legislation and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) , will transition to the newly reauthorized legislation, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA oversees the various federal funding sources, requirements and programs under Title I, Title II, and Title III, etc. ESSA prioritizes excellence and equity for students, sets high standards and contains policies that will help all students achieve success in college and future careers. ESSA also brings new state accountability requirements and relief from old sanctions imposed under NCLB. The law seeks to ensure that all children receive a high-quality education and close achievement gaps.
Contrary to what these words say, this means that schools and school districts no longer are required to provide this help to students but can opt out of them altogether with a promise that they have a better plan. Some of you may recall that thethe Sacramento area School District which has a plan to close the education gap for students of color with a 76 year plan. This means that no one alive today will live long enough to see any improvement for these students and no one will be held accountable.
As California has elected to eliminate the requirement for districts to provide SES (free tutoring programs), the state has developed a transition plan that describes various alternative supports and services that are to be provided to eligible students. This means PSC and SES will no longer be offered in the Elk Grove Unified School District and other California School Districts. The option for any new EGUSD students to transfer to a non-Program Improvement school, through the PSC program, will no longer be offered. In addition, there will no longer be free tutoring programs offered through outside providers. In lieu of tutoring, school sites will be offering alternative supports that assist students with increasing their academic achievement. (This is the failed system which existed before "No Child Left Behind.")Alternative supports are locally defined services and interventions administered school districts to provide a well-rounded program of instruction to meet the academic needs of students. (This effectively means that all real academic help for students has been ended indefinitely.)In EGUSD students attending a Title I school that is in PI Year 2 and beyond are eligible to receive alternative supports for the 2016–17 school year.
WORST OF ALL: There is no way to restore tutoring at the minimal levels which have been in place during the current academic year. The students are being denied all reasonable and even the most minimal levels of help. Since this will impact students at every K-12 level, the public should expect to see high school graduation rates for students with the greatest need drop dramatically by one or more years. Admission to higher education institutions, which are already shameful in their low representation of students of color and other poor students, will reduce this population to uneducated slave skill levels for the foreseeable future. California does not currently graduate African American or Chicano/Latino lawyers, doctors, veterinarians and PhDs/EdDs every year. In many years, there are no African American/Chicano/Latino graduates, even less females from these groups.
The only possible help for the masses of these students is direct community help. Parents and community support for the students must come from hiring COMPETENT, PROPERLY EDUCATED AND EXPERIENCED TUTORS WITH RECORDS OF SUCCESS WITH THE PARTICULAR NEEDS OF THE STUDENTS NOW BEING CAST AWAY EDUCATIONALLY. IF NO ONE RISES TO MEET THIS GREAT NEED, SACRAMENTO WILL CONTINUE TO LEAD THE NATION IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING OF YOUNG PEOPLE, CAN EXPECT TO SEE GREAT INCREASES IN ADDICTIONS TO DRUGS AND ALCOHOL (which also do not receive adequate treatment), AND CAN EXPECT TO SEE INCREASES IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, POLICE KILLINGS AND SUICIDES, AS WELL AS MYRIAD HEALTH PROBLEMS BECAUSE THERE WILL BE NO MEANS OF THESE YOUNG PEOPLE SECURING HEALTH COVERAGE WHEN THEY HAVE INSUFFICIENT INCOME WITH WHICH TO SUPPORT THEMSELVES.
I have tutored Greater Sacramento area students for over 20 years. I am now encouraging community organizations to assist families and foster family agencies with funds to hire tutors at $25 an hour to meet with students in their homes or in libraries to tutor them a minimum of one hour per week; two hours when possible for students with serious learning disabilities or other pressing needs, including approaching high school graduations. It is critical that tutors have appropriate training to work with students whose special needs and the failure of schools to adequately help them leads to very low self esteem and persistent negative reinforcement against them from people who do not understand why they are under-performing and instead of fixing the problems, blame the students who are not at fault.
Obviously, one person cannot alone address this crisis. However, I am willing to work with 25 students per week, on a first-come, first-served basis, by working Saturdays and Sundays, as well as weekday afternoons and early evenings, hoping that this encourages others to do so as well. I am also willing to work with community organizations to establish tutoring guidelines/training for tutors/ and other management concerns for the safety of students and tutors. Any tutor working with K-12 students especially should have police background checks and TB tests.
Schools are nearing the mid-year point of the 2016-2017 academic year. For students to be spared massive failures, immediate responses are needed to help as many students as possble, by every means necessary.
I hope no community allows so many student lives to be harmed or destroyed. In addition, this appears to be only the first of many destructive social actions. It appears that care for foster children is soon to be targeted for reduction, then elimination, followed by further reduction of caregiver help for families caring for long-term disabled children and adults.
For information or to offer help: contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Suzanne Brooks
International Association for Women of Color Day and WomenWorldCulture.com