Bloomfield discusses equity in education

From left, top row first, are Councilwoman Jenny Mundell, Councilwoman Wartyna Davis, Jennifer Robinson, Maureen Gillette and Bill Payne.

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield continued its Community Conversation on Race series, this time talking about building equity in education, in a livestream event on Aug. 12. The hour-and-a-half-long discussion was moderated by Councilwomen Jenny Mundell and Wartyna Davis, with panelists Maureen Gillette, dean of the Seton Hall University College of Education; Montclair State University Center of Pedagogy Executive Director Jennifer Robinson; and former Assemblyman Bill Payne.

At the beginning of the event, Payne talked about the importance of inclusive curriculum in schools.

“When we grow up, we learn that blacks in fact fought in every single war that there was, and we helped to make this country what it is,” he said. “But as long as we surgically remove that from schools, the black kids grow up feeling, ‘What is it that we’ve done?’ and the white kids feel superior.”

Payne sponsored the Amistad Bill, which became state law in 2002 and makes it a requirement for New Jersey schools to include African-American history in social studies curriculum.

“What we mean by equitable education for all includes these key drivers,” Gillette said during the event. “Do adults who support our students have access to jobs that pay a livable wage? Do they have access to transportation or a transportation system? Do families and kids have access to a clean, stable place to live? We’ve heard a lot during COVID about evictions, and we have many, many children in unstable housing situations. Do housing laws, policies and practices encourage stability, or do they encourage segregation? Are they set up so that our community stays segregated?”

According to Gillette, other factors that affect the education system are community safety and health care.

“All of the other things we need to pay attention to as members of the community impact how successful we can be in schools,” she said.

Gillette and Robinson talked about 12 different processes that school districts can use to create an equitable environment, especially highlighting staffing patterns.

“This is not an overnight process,” Robinson said. “Building education equity is something that has to be developed. It is a process. One of the major questions about staffing patterns is, how is a district ensuring that hiring practices and the distribution of effective and well-prepared educators is happening throughout the district schools, and is equitable and representative of the community that it serves?”

Robinson said that in 2024, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 56 percent of the student population nationally will be students of color. Currently, the teaching workforce is 82 percent white. Only 2 percent of the teaching population is black males.

“Is it possible that we might be able to address achievement gaps, opportunity gaps, if we were to do something in this area about the educator workforce?” Robinson said. “This mismatch between the demographics of the school-age population and the teaching force reduces the ability to promote the positive cultural understandings, especially in racially and ethnically mixed schools.”

She pointed out that students of color who have never had a teacher that looks like them may not ever be inspired to become a teacher as a result. According to the New Jersey Department of Education, Essex County has a 33-percent gap between students of color and teachers of color. The New Jersey Department of Education, Robinson said, has a goal that the teaching staff in the state will reflect the student population by 2025.

“While diversifying the teacher workforce is not a silver bullet or a quick answer to solving the equity education challenge, it is a beginning,” Robinson said. “It’s a beginning that has great benefits and significant return on investment.”

Other categories in the 12 processes were mission and values statement, budget allocation and resource distribution, physical environment, curriculum and instructional materials, instructional strategies, assessment strategies, student involvement and extracurricular activities, modes of communication, family and community relationships, student social organization and behavioral management, and school safety and security.

“Addressing only one of these is really insufficient,” Gillette said. “I think as a community and as a district, you’re going to have to grapple with, where are we doing well, what do we need to do next? You can’t take your eye off of one of them, because these are interwoven.”