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AOCC Keynote Suggests We Disrupt the Discourse

At the Askwith Forum held March 2 in conjunction with the three-day Alumni of Color Conference (AOCC), keynote speaker John H. Jackson, Ed.M.’98, Ed.D.’01, president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, ruminated on how to disrupt the discourse in education.

This year’s AOCC – the theme of which was “Disrupting the Discourse: Discussing the Undiscussable” -- brought together alumni, students, and community members over several days to reflect on issues of race, class, and education as they pertain to all people, in particular to communities of color. The annual conference, now in its 10th year, aims to establish a blueprint for change in neighborhoods and institutions through active dialogue on pivotal issues at Harvard, the Boston area, and in the education sector.

“A lot of discourse is happening around education in our country,” Jackson said.

Drawing parallels to the earth’s atmosphere, Jackson contended that discourse occurs on several different levels: political winds, the surface current, and then the undercurrent. “Eighty percent of what happens in earth is the undercurrent,” he said, noting that the same can be said in education where political narratives lead to questions of choice and vouchers, but underneath each question lays deep issues about race, class, and immigrants.

The disruption in the discourse, according to Jackson, is our inability to focus on the real issues at hand – issues that go beyond research. “Even as we talk about the achievement gap, we have to address the opportunity gap,” he said, noting that in education we never really have that conversation. For instance, the opportunity gap would force us to look more at how all students should have access to early education versus the achievement gap which has focused more on developing standards, accountability, and evaluation.

He proposed killing off “bad models” and making systemic changes. Perhaps this would shift education’s focus to look more at opportunity, then high standards followed by transformative experiences, and ultimately, achievement and accountability, according to Jackson. “The trouble with the old system is that we never get to the transformative experience,” he said.

Jackson told the audience it is time to kill the current discourse because ultimately it isn’t about pro-union, pro-charters or the notion that we are living in a “post-racial” society because none of those “challenges” get to the root of a “systems failure problem.”

“Our educational system is less about having students race to the top and more about going back catching those that are behind and building a pipeline to provide all students a fair and subsequent opportunity to learn,” he said. “There are breaches in the pipeline.

The breaches show in early education, three to third, dropout rates, transition from middle school to secondary school, and enrollment in higher education. “These things can be fixed,” Jackson said, “but it is going to take us recognizing that each and every one of us play a role.”

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