Black and White: Fixing The Student Achievement Gap In Montclair

It’s taken them 18 months, but the members of the Montclair School District’s Achievement Gap Panel (AGAP) have finally released their recommendations to tackle the racial inequality that they say is plaguing the district’s public schools.

According to the AGAP’s report, socioeconomic status, while a contributor to some disparities, is not the sole cause of the gap between black and white students.

“Montclair must be willing to have a conversation about race to truly address the issues at hand,” the report stated.

The main suggestion from the 35-member panel of community volunteers was that the district needs to create a new position: “Assistant Superintendent of Student Achievement and Equity.”

This new staff member would be responsible for “leading, measuring, supervising and ensuring the implementation of all efforts related to closing the opportunity gap,” and would be “supported by and collaborate with the district, the Achievement Gap Advisory Panel and various community partners.”

Other recommendations from the panel include:

• Form an “achievement team” at each school, consisting of a principal, student assistant counselors (SACs), head of guidance, general education and special education teachers
• Create a procedure to ensure that students are not incorrectly classified as “emotionally disturbed” under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
• Develop and implement a Family Advocacy Mentoring program to provide guidance for caregivers on academic planning and transition support
• Provide on-going professional development to administrators and teachers, with an explicit focus on establishing and supporting a school culture and climate of cultural respect and high expectations for all students
• Develop a universal suspension policy for non-violent offenses
• Ensure that the district’s hiring practices emphasize the need to attract a more racially diverse and culturally-competent workforce

See the AGAP’s full list of recommendations here.

RACIAL DISPARITY IN THE SCHOOLS

Here’s why AGAP members are charging that there is an achievement gap in Montclair:

• In Montclair, four out of 10 (40 percent) of black students are not proficient in language arts (reading) by the end of 3rd grade. By contrast, 90 percent of white students are proficient.
• Black students make up about 80 percent of school suspensions at the high school, while representing only 38 percent of the total school population. Black middle school students represent about 70 percent of school suspensions, while representing only 32 percent of the total population.
• White students make up 72 percent of enrolled AP students at the high school, yet are 49 percent of the total population; Black students are 11 percent of AP classes and 35 percent of the total population.
• 72 out of 235 of white students (30 percent) at the high school had GPAs in the bottom 50 percent of the class; 151 out of 196 of Black students (77 percent) had GPAs in the bottom 50 percent.
• White students made up 72 percent of all enrolled AP students at the high school in 2014-2015; Black students only made up 11 percent of all enrolled AP students during that period.
• The racial disparity also manifests itself in the high school’s small learning communities. CGI (Civics and Government Institute) is 78 percent white, while the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) is 65 percent black.

Pictured above: AGAP Chair Jonathan Simon

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