Access the Equity Plan of Action
I write this article in an attempt to analyze the purpose and consequence of Dothan City Schools Equity Plan of Action. I share it on my blog for the purpose of alerting others about what is happening in their own schools and school boards across the country. No man (school system and school board) is an island in this nation of ours with the common contagion of teachers unions, Department of Education, and colleges and universities having adopted this philosophy of education.
We, as parents, can see the problem clearly when presented in a chart like this. But this chart exists because I dug out the information and presented it in this chart. The problem is that children come home with A's and B's on their report cards throughout elementary school. Parents are unaware of the problem until secondary teachers tell them their children cannot read secondary text books or the questions on a test. The scores are blatantly obvious, but hidden from parents' knowledge by the public relations people who write the articles that local papers print.
(Remember to double click on the images for the image to increase in size.)
http://parcalabama.org/category/education-workforce-development/
What was the purpose of this Equity Plan of Action?
Section 1: Culture of Academic Equity
Our data reflects that 40% of our student population identified as white are outperforming the slightly more than 60% of nonwhite students by a margin of 45% (2018) & 42% (2019) difference in Math and 45% (2018) & 45% (2019) in Reading. This trend reflects a gap in achievement over two years of data (2018 & 2019).
One might look at the number of students who are unable to read on the 3rd grade level in Dothan City Schools and assume that the administration would focus on the curriculum. No. They focus on an equity action plan to convert attitudes and beliefs using multicultural, social justice, and culturally responsive teaching. This is their gateway into the minds and hearts of our children, their justification for SEL (Social Emotional Learning).
Please note that the second book mentioned, Culturally Proficient Instruction was published by Corwin Press, an entity of Sage Publications that publishes domestic terrorist Bill Ayers' books. Ayers' goals?
"Education is the motor-force of revolution." Bill Ayers
"I get up every morning and think...today I'm going to end capitalism." Bill Ayers
"Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon." Bill Ayers
"The only path to the final defeat of imperialism and the building of socialism is revolutionary war." Bill Ayers
"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at." Bill Ayers
"I haven't been silent. I teach, I lecture at universities, I write, I'm not silent." Bill Ayers
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By the way, what is a MAP test as mentioned below?
MAP tests are computer adaptive achievement assessments in Mathematics, Reading, Language Usage, and Science.
2. What are computer adaptive tests?
MAP dynamically adapts to a student’s responses – as they take the test. Answer a question correctly and the test presents a more challenging item. Miss a question, and MAP offers a simpler item. In this way, the test narrows in on a student’s learning level, engaging them with content that allows them to succeed.
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Updated April, 2022 DCS Board approved June, 2022
The DCS Culturally Inspired Expertise Professional Learning Community Team Members gathered as a committee to address inequities in academic achievement between subgroups as evidenced in 2 years of state assessment data (Scantron/Performance Series) as well as local benchmark data (NWEA Maps) for the 2019/20 school year. This committee of 15 members across all aspects of the instructional community in DCS met monthly throughout this school year to discuss ways to address this gap in learning for our students. Our process for arriving at our Equity Action Plan began with a book study (Hammond, Z. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin Press).
As we engaged with the content of this work, we reached out to various resources i.e. data gathering within our schools and school community to ascertain the breadth and depth of cultural responsiveness understanding and equity in access to devices or Internet, in addition to support provided by Dr. Deloris Lindsey and colleagues in their work (Robins, K. N., Lindsey, R. B., Lindsey, D. B., & Terrell, R. D. (Eds.). (2005). Culturally proficient instruction: A guide for people who teach. Corwin Press). Using this knowledge, we collaborated, researched, and developed the following plan for moving DCS forward.
Expand All
- Phase 1: Investigate Implementation Practices
- Phase 2: Empower Stakeholders for Inclusive Partnering
- Phase 3: Institutionalize Cultural Knowledge
ACTION RESEARCH
- Abstract/Rationale/Process
The Culturally Inspired Expertise Professional Learning Committee Team Members gathered as a committee to address inequities in academic achievement between subgroups as evidenced in 2 years of state assessment data as well as local benchmark data for the 2019/20 school year. This committee of 15 members across all aspects of the instructional community in our school district met monthly throughout to discuss ways to address this gap in learning for our students. Our process for arriving at our Equity Action Plan began with a book study Hammond, Z. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. (Corwin Press)
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Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin Press) is the title of the book studied by the “Culturally Inspired Expertise Professional Learning Committee” of Dothan City Schools.
Z Hammond is not a doctor and has not studied the brain. She has a Masters in Secondary English literacy.
These are her credentials taken from the COLLABORATIVE CLASSROOM website.
She is a former high school and community college expository writing instructor. Ms. Hammond has also served as an adjunct instructor at St. Mary’s College School of Education in Moraga, California, where she taught The Foundations of Adolescent Literacy. As a consultant, she has advised and provided professional development to school districts and non-profit organizations across the country around issues of equity, literacy, and culturally responsive teaching for the past 25 years.
25 years as a consultant. And yet, she is considered an expert and the foundation for Dothan City Schools Equity Action Plan.
One might challenge her credentials as we have no empirical data or research to refer to as the consequences of her plan of action in our schools. Nor do we have any real facts upon which to base her assumption that “What I call ‘inequity by design’ was historically the brick and mortar of our school systems.” And yet, this is the basis of her philosophy of education.
No, this is another example of the public schools using our children as fodder for their experimentation. Our children are mere lab rats now. I will guarantee you that professional journals will receive articles written by those in administration promoting this agenda. These people will rise in the ranks upon the backs of our children whose cultural literacy will be limited to oppression and diversity.
In Hammonds' words:
“Other educators have come to understand that multicultural education has its limits when it comes to instruction. Instead they focus on social justice education. But the misunderstanding that some educators have is, “If I simply discuss issues of oppression, read books about civil rights, their leaders, and people who worked against oppression, then my students’ cultural identity will be affirmed.”
Here’s a thought to consider: Second graders don’t want to talk about oppression, and when we as educators make that our sole focus, we’re doing students a disservice.
Instead we must build their background knowledge across a wide array of topics. To comprehend texts with critical literacy and critical consciousness, students must be equipped with that deep background knowledge. The social justice paradigm would have us only talking about issues of inequity, bias, or how we become non-racist.
But we know that’s not enough; the tendency is for that to get reduced into diverse books about boycotts and basketball or injustice topics of the day. Many social justice educators push back on the teaching of phonics and word study as oppressive when in fact, those elements of reading development are liberatory.
Keep in mind that social justice and multicultural education are useful and necessary in the equity conversation, but they play supporting roles. On their own they are not sufficient for effectively promoting instructional equity.”
Collaborative Classroom
"A Conversation with Z Hammond About Instructional Equity"
Even Z Hammonds recognizes the need for real reading instruction and the unwillingness of teachers to actually teach phonics and word study because they have been led to believe that such education is “oppressive.” Yet, rather than focusing on literacy as the ticket out of their oppressive situations, they choose to focus on attitudes and beliefs, brainwashing children as to their oppression.
IN OTHER WORDS, YOUR CHILD IS NOT MEMORIZING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER, THE PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION OR THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, IMPORTANT MILESTONES IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION THAT GAVE US OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. |
Now that we know that Z Hammond is the guru for Dothan City Schools Equity Plan of action, we need to go deeper into her belief system.
Hammond cites Gloria Ladson-Billings as an expert she respects.
“I believe that culturally responsive teaching as Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings framed it is the heart of instructional equity.”
"A Conversation with Z Hammond About Instructional Equity"
So, who is Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings so highly touted by Z Hammond upon whose book Dothan City Schools’ Equity Plan of Action is based?
Bill Ayers, convicted domestic terrorist, recommends Ladson-Billings' writing “Also, check out this Critical Race Theory in Education Teach-In today with Gloria Ladson-Billings...” So Bill Ayers tells us that Ladson-Billings is an expert in Critical Race Theory education, something Alabama has supposedly forbidden in our public schools by our governor and denied by most politicians…and yet, here it is touted by the author of the book upon which Dothan City Schools Equity Plan of Action is based.
Critical Race Theory in Education Scholars Respond to Executive Memo M-20-34
On September 4, 2020, Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the Executive Office of the President issued M-20-34, a “memorandum for the heads of executive offices and agencies.” The document states that “Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars, to date, on “training” government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda.” As critical race scholars working in universities and communities across the globe, the following statement is our response to Mr. Vought’s memorandum.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is committed to the historical documentation and naming of atrocities carried out in this country in the name of “freedom” and “liberty.” In spite of this historical context, the claim that the United States is founded on freedom from tyranny, freedom of expression and speech, and the right to exist as a whole person, are ideals that all citizens of the US are taught in school to value, cherish and honor. From our purview as scholars of race and education, the United States of America has struggled to uphold not only the Constitution but also the Preamble of the Constitution. We are clear that racial healing cannot occur absent the recognition of the historical and current struggle against all forms of structural oppression that encumber the U.S. from ever fully living up to its democratic ideals.
You need to read this to understand the goals of these people. This was written eight months after President Biden took office.The following Alabama "scholars" signed on.
Critical Race Theory in Education Scholars Respond to Executive Memo M-20-34. These are Bill Ayers Alabama Comrades in CRITICAL RACE THEORY.
Steve D. Mobley, Jr. University of Alabama
Fayth Owen Hope, The University of Alabama
A K Lewis-Maddox, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Denise Davis-Maye, Alabama State University
Tonya E. Perry, Alabama A & M University
Jesus Tirado, Auburn University
Sara Demoiny, Auburn University
Megan Burton, Auburn University
Hannah Baggett, Auburn University
Carey Andrzejewski, Auburn University
In 1994, Ladson-Billings wrote: “All learning should be anchored in texts and other resources that reflect student’s cultures. She also suggested that culture plays an important role in not only communicating and receiving information, but also in the thinking process of groups and individuals. She defined Culturally Responsive Teaching as a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including cultural references in all aspects of student learning.”
Obviously, the Equity Plan of Action is based on CRT (CRITICAL RACE THEORY) a concept supposedly banned in Alabama.
(Please note that none of this Equity Plan is objective. It all has to do with attitudes and beliefs.)
Now, let’s take a minute to analyze this statement. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Goals 2000 and Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) “committed themselves to specific plans for systematic reform of K-12 education.”
At that time Dothan City Schools signed onto Whole Language as the method of reading instruction. Whole Language is based on Paolo Freire’s book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (read the Whole Language Catalog by Ken and Yetta Goodman and see the references to Freire and other Marxist leaders like Giroux, Apple, etc.).
At the same time, Hillary Clinton sat on the board for the NCEE, National Center for Education and the Economy. Marc Tucker and David Hornbeck also sat on that board. Hornbeck edited a book titled Human Capital, the manifesto of this group. They proposed the idea of using the courts to achieve their goals.
"Court orders can be exceptionally good vehicles for creating a sufficient sense of crisis and an imperative to act so that supporting legislation can be enacted." (Human Capital, p. 367)
Thus we got Goals 2000/Alabama First. Thank you, A Plus. (Sarcasm here. The Alabama Legislature still allows them to write legislation.)
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David Hornbeck wrote Alabama First, Alabama’s version of Goals 2000, promoted by A Plus, a supposed “research” organization that turns out to be a PR group for these radical new goals.
Another aside: Ken Goodman wrote “Reading a Psycholinguistic Guessing Game” (1969) that became a major player in the shift from Phonics Intensive reading instruction to the Look-Say/Whole Language method of reading instruction.
As cited in Goodman’s obituary, “At the core of his work was a constructivist view of learning that insisted that students should be active participants in their learning, not mere recipients of some static ‘stuff’ called ‘knowledge.’” Brian Cambourne
Constructivist education boasts of producing cognitive dissonance.
The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. People tend to seek consistency in their attitudes and perceptions, so this conflict causes feelings of unease or discomfort.
Please note the intrusion of affective education (attitudes, values and beliefs) being manipulated here. There is no objective data. No empirical research. See also the condescending attitude toward objective knowledge.
But there is more about Gloria Ladings-Billings that should be known by the public, referred to frequently as stakeholders, because the public funds this protections racket promoted by "consultants" and now called the Equity Plan of Action.
Back to Z Hammonds who comments in the article on the Collaborative Classroom: We have to make the brain work. This is [psychologist Lev] Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development,” commonly called the “ZPD.”
So, Vygotsky is Hammonds’ source for brain expertise.
Who is Vygotsky?
Note: "Inspired by the writings of Marx and Engels..." "cultural laboratories" to..."modify thinking."
"social and cultural resources" "primary tools for mediating and promoting change."
Please understand the purpose for "collaborative activities" and the potential development as
determined through "problem-solving" under adult guidance or in "collaboration" with more capable peers."
Those are all contemporary buzz words for "higher order thinking skills", terms that educators use to make their sales pitch appear scholarly and based on objective data. And the "stakeholders" buy it.
This is taken from the Whole Language Catalog. Whole Language is a “method/philosophy of education” voted on by Dothan City Schools Board of Education (rejecting systematic, intensive, direct and early phonics) in the early 1990s that continues to be the method of choice for reading instruction (though they may claim to be eclectic, throwing in a smattering of phonics to appease those parents who who might come looking). I was there when that vote occurred because I was a part of a group of parents who financed bringing a principal in from Louisiana who had turned his school (90% Black, serving 3 housing projects) around (from the 25th to the 80th percentile on the then administered nationally SAT) with the phonics intensive Spalding Writing Road to Reading. Dr. Betty Fritche led a Whole Language Hootenanny drowning out the efforts of the parent group who brought the expert from the successful school to Dothan.
I sometimes find a bit of irony in the fact that one Chairman of the Dothan City Schools Board of Education was president of Troy University Dothan which university hired Betty Fritche and supported Whole Language instruction.
Now, let's ask the question why do we let our school curriculum be dominated by Marxists?
"A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism." Saul Alinsky
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We want educators to know and be able to implement guidelines for addressing cultural proficiency instructional practices to close achievement gaps between subgroups. We want educators to know and be able to implement guidelines for addressing stakeholder relationships in regard to barriers with socioeconomic status and equal access to online learning
We will measure success by our state and benchmark data reflecting closing achievement gaps among subgroups; internal and external climate surveys, implementation surveys, and reflections through Q/A documentation; school culture and climate data i.e. discipline data, SPED/ELL students, poverty/non- poverty. We will measure success with evaluation feedback 3 times a year through surveys for implementation via staff, students, parents, community.
www.dothan.k12.al.us
May I point out that these outcomes are psychological? Mainly Affective data. How does one measure benchmark data when testing is affective/subjective? Suddenly education is no longer academic but SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING.
The important measure is how well the achievement gap is closed. How best to do that?
Apparently it is to lower the academic standards. Then judge attitudes and beliefs, the true goal for this social engineering.
Look back at the Reading Scores. Thirty years ago, Whole Language, something Dean Kunkel of Auburn said was "current wisdom" unsupported by any empirical data, was voted on by your Dothan City Schools Board of Education. Recently, accepting their poor performance and vowing to do something about it, Dothan City Schools endorsed the Equity Plan of Action. They now dig the hole deeper than ever. No longer with a goal to educate. The public schools exist to change the attitudes and beliefs that your child may come to school with.
No change to actually address the failure of the curriculum --just everything and everyone else.
If you live in another area, I challenge you to research your own school district's "equity plan of action."
