PLEASE FILL OUT OUR SURVEYS

We want to hear from parents and educators!

The Education & Workforce Development subcommittee has created TWO surveys to assess local needs related to our schools.

Parents: help us understand how the City of West Palm Beach can support you better when it comes to our local schools. Fill out our survey here.

Educators: How can the city support teachers and schools better? Fill out our survey here.

MEETING DATES & UPDATES

To learn more about the efforts of the Education & Workforce Development Subcommittee, please visit the Education & Workforce Development Project Library here to read the agenda and meeting notes from previous meetings. To stay up-to-date on the next steps, attend the Task Force meetings. The date of the next meeting (and Zoom link) is listed on our Calendar of Events.

Sign up for updates about the subcommittee meetings (and Zoom links) and/or for our monthly Task Force email newsletter. Share comments about these priorities on our Facebook page.

We update this page regularly. Last updated 9/1/2021.

Why Does Racial Equity Matter?

Healthy and equitable neighborhoods offer the educational opportunities to build a strong workforce. Today, jobs require ever-higher levels of skills and education. How well is West Palm Beach’s education system preparing young people to succeed in a knowledge-driven economy?

To strengthen a local workforce well prepared to perform–and create–the jobs of the future, it is critical to close persistent racial gaps in educational attainment and reduce student debt.

Moreover, studies show that NOT accessing education and job experience early in life can have long-lasting negative impacts. For youth, this can include lower future earnings, worse health, higher unemployment, and a greater risk of contact with the criminal justice system. For communities, these impacts can include higher public expenditures and lower tax revenues.

Moreover, African American and Hispanic/Latino communities are especially hard-hit by scammers who profit off of lack of education and access to resources related to credit, health, housing, and so forth.

The Prison Policy Institute’s 2019 study, Arrest, Release, Repeat, found that people who go to county and city jails are far more likely to lack a high school diploma, have a substance use disorder, suffer from a serious mental illness, and lack health insurance. They’re far more likely to be unemployed or have incomes under $10,000. Racial disparities in education, housing and health contribute to racial inequity found in the justice system—and the cycle continues.

What’s behind the disparities?

1. Students of color tend to have significantly less access to advanced coursework

In Florida, schools serving the most black students have only 63 students enrolled in gifted and talented programs for every 100 students who would need to be enrolled to achieve fair representation. Only 4 states rank lower than Florida.

Florida would need to more than double the number of black students in gifted and talented programs in order for black students to be fairly represented.

In the Palm Beach County School District specifically, white students are 3.6 times as likely to be enrolled in at least one AP class as black students.

2. School poverty limits access to resources

The gap in educational attainment between White students and students of color is largely driven by disparities in school poverty rates. Students of color are more likely to attend high-poverty schools because of ongoing racial segregation forged through historical practices such as racially exclusive housing covenants and zoning laws as well as ongoing ones such as discriminatory hiring and mortgage lending.

Students at high-poverty schools often have less access to quality resources and score lower on standardized testing than their wealthier counterparts. At the same time, the rising cost of college combined with decreased financial aid prevents many students of color, who are disproportionately low income, from attending college.

Despite the 1954 Supreme Court ruling Brown v Board of Education of Topeka that banned racial segregation, students of color remain far more likely to attend high-poverty schools than White students. Racial segregation in the United States was forged through historical practices such as racially exclusive housing covenants and zoning laws as well as ongoing ones such as discriminatory hiring and mortgage lending. These practices dispossessed communities of color and excluded them from economic prosperity while White communities have accumulated wealth. The resulting geographic concentrations of wealth and poverty cause students of color to attend high-poverty schools at much higher rates than White students.

3. Teachers and trainers may be influenced by racial bias.

A 2016 study of racial and gender disparities in Palm Beach County public schools found “a pattern of harsher punishments for students of color” in cases not involving drugs, alcohol or weapons. Schools also suspended black and Hispanic students for longer periods of time. The study was conducted by New York University.

In the Palm Beach County School District, black students are 4.2 times as likely to be suspended as white students.

4. Language factors can serve as a barrier to full engagement in education

Nationwide, the number of Latino adults has grown by 72% since 2000.

When the primary language and culture of English Language Learners are not supported by educators and those who shape the culture of education reform, students face the shaming of their identity, impacts their self-esteem, and threats to their ability to successfully intermingle with their English-only peers. For instance, leaders have used language barriers as an excuse for separating Latino students from their white counterparts in gifted and talented classes.

Even in districts that offer dual-language programs, schools don’t always divide instruction evenly between the two languages. Rarely do schools offer a 50-50 balance of English language learners and native English speakers in the same classroom.

Major Support Organizations

Leading organizations that strive to advance new state and local policies.

The Education Trust
The Education Trust is a national nonprofit that works to close opportunity gaps that disproportionately affect students of color and students from low-income families. Through our research and advocacy, Ed Trust supports efforts that expand excellence and equity in education from preschool through college, increase college access and completion particularly for historically underserved students, engage diverse communities dedicated to education equity, and increase political and public will to act on equity issues.

Research Resources

Online resources focused on new state and local policies.

89 Racial Equity Resources for Healthcare, Education and Communities
Extensive list of resources.

Equity Measures-Pathway to Educational Equity (Voices for Racial Justice)
Concise list of measures, organized by topic.

The State of Higher Education Equity (Report – The Education Trust)
The State Equity Report Card assesses states’ commitment to equitable college opportunity and success for Black and Latino Americans. This tool contains state-level data on who has a college degree, who enrolls in college, and who graduates.

Articles and Publications

Articles, reports, and papers focused on new state and local policies.

6 Ways District Leaders Can Build Racial Equity (Education Week, 2020)
Education Week asked six district leaders to share specific practices and processes they use in their school systems to promote equity. A common thread? All of them require deep, sometimes difficult reflection on district and school practices and assumptions that might otherwise go unexamined.

Black Teachers Matter, for Students and Communities
This article outlines some of the reasons for retaining and hiring black teachers. It is supported by recent studies and numerous examples.

Civil Rights Rollback: U.S. Government Actions to Reduce Civil Rights in Public Education (report – ERASE Racism/Education Equity Initiative, 2019)
The report provides an analysis of the federal government’s latest efforts to roll back civil rights in the areas of housing and education. It includes spotlights that highlight implications for New York’s Long Island, because that is where ERASE Racism is based and because the spotlights illustrate how federal changes affect specific communities.

Equity for English Language Learners
This article recommends strategies for improving educational access for ELLs (English Language Learners), such as offering quality instructional practices and resources, including fair assessments, free use of dictionaries and thesauruses, extra time, and the option of multiple media.

Five Strategies for Advancing Racial Equity in Public Education (blog post, 2018)
I have reshaped these strategies to focus on racial equity in public school districts and identified four school districts that have done at least one of these strategies in furthering their equity work (two of the four districts are EP Partners). I chose these districts because they are pioneers of racial equity work in public education and, in trying to create something in Memphis, I wanted to see if there were any models to replicate. (author of post is Senior Director for Equity & Partnerships at SchoolSeed Foundation in Memphis).

Five Things Public Workforce Systems Should Do Right Now to Advance Racial Equity (article)
As states and localities begin to address the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are steps the public workforce system can take now to center and advance racial equity. Doing so will help ensure that this system benefits the people who have been hardest hit by the pandemic and historically denied access to opportunity: people of color.

How 5 School Districts Are Breaking Down Language Barriers in Education
This article describes how schools are increasing access to education by offering dual-language programs, summer courses and after-school activities for ELLs (English Language Learners) and native English speakers.

In Pursuit of an Equitable Start: Leveraging and expanding public funding to support a more equitable recovery for young children, families and child care workers (report – PolicyLink)
The majority of young children living in the United States today are children of color, cared for by parents and caregivers across a spectrum of identities. These children face increased economic insecurity as their parents navigate the high cost of leaving work to care for them or assume crippling child care costs, all while earning stagnantly low wages. Their families may also experience considerably unequal challenges to living in safe and secure housing, enrolling in affordable and high-quality early learning experiences, and accessing healthy food. Additionally, the emergency triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, with its significant impact on families’ health and economic well-being, threatens to widen these gaps, especially for families of color who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and its economic fallout. This brief looks at how to leverage and expanding public funding to support a more equitable recovery for young children, families, and child care workers.

New Report Calls for National System to Measure Equity in Education, Identify Disparities in Outcomes and Opportunity (2019)
Summarizes a 2019 consensus report by the National Research Council (NRC) called “Monitoring Educational Equity” (this report costs money to access). That report recommended our states and country create a national system for measuring educational disparities so that our systems are held accountable not only for improving performance, but also for ensuring equitable opportunities for all students to achieve and thrive.

Nice White Parents (podcast – The New York Times)
Years ago, producer Chana Joffe-Walt started reporting on one school in New York. She thought the story was about segregation and inequality in public schools. But the more she looked into it, the more she realized she was witnessing something else. She was seeing the inordinate power of white parents at this school.

Now is the Right Time to Measure Educational Disparities (article, 2020)

Policies to Eliminate Racial Disparities in Education: A Literature Review
This review of academic journal articles aims to provide a knowledge base of what is working in other jurisdictions to improve racial equity in education. It focuses on promising practices that have been documented in research studies.

Race in the Workplace: The Black Experience in the US Private Sector (report, McKinsey & Company)
This report highlights statistical points and personal experiences of black workers in the private sector. It is divided into three parts: their participation, their representation/advancement, and challenges to address/actions that can be taken to create a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable work environment.

Race, Risk, and Workforce Equity in the Coronavirus Economy (report, PolicyLink)
Based on data on changes in job openings between March 2 and April 13 from Burning Glass Technologies layered with data on worker demographics and wages from the Census, this report offers the most comprehensive analysis of the economic impacts of the crisis on workers by race, gender, nativity, and occupation to date for the United States as a whole and 10 metropolitan regions: Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, San Francisco, and Seattle. We examine the labor market impacts for three broad and mutually exclusive occupational groups: health-care jobs; frontline non-healthcare jobs deemed “essential” in the midst of the pandemic; and “non-essential” jobs most likely to be subject to the economic shutdowns that followed declarations of emergency at the federal, state, or local level.

Racial Justice in Education (resource guide)
This resource helps educators and others understand what racial justice is, why it’s important and why it’s relevant. It also provides guidance on how to create spaces to talk about race and other related issues. There are several tools available in the guide to help facilitate these conversations.

The Roadmap for Racial Equity: An Imperative for Workforce Development Advocates (report – National Skills Coalition)
In its latest report on racial equity and workforce development, the National Skills Coalition describes some of the disparities that challenge both equity and economic competitiveness in the United States and calls for inclusive workforce policies to help advance racial equity. The report highlights trends on educational and economic disparities for people of color and shortages of workers that have access to training for middle-skills jobs. These jobs account for 53 percent of the labor market, but only 43 percent of workers have access to training at the middle-skill level.

States Struggle to Close Degree-Attainment Gaps
But many states will not achieve degree-attainment goals if they don’t close gaps between black and white and Latino and white adult students, according to a set of reports released in 2018 by the Education Trust.

Taking Action on Racial Equity: How Grantmakers are Becoming Change-Makers (Grantmakers for Education, 2018)
This paper reflects on learnings from three Grantmakers for Education summits on racial equity held the summer of 2018. The purpose of the program report is to fuel ongoing conversations among grantmakers about racial equity and, more importantly, inspire transformation within education grantmaking organizations and beyond.

Using Data to Advance Racial Equity (article – edutopia, 2020)
Schools that strive for equity can collect, interpret, and use data about students in purposeful and self-reflective ways.

Toolbox

Practical resources and interactive tools designed to help both on-the-ground practitioners and citizens.

The Educational Opportunity Project (Stanford University)
he Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University has built the first national database of academic performance. Use our Explorer to view three measures of educational opportunity in your school or community. Learn about average test scores, learning rates, and trends in test scores, with breakdowns based on race, socioeconomics, gender, etc., as well as information on gaps (e.g., black-white, Hispanic-white), etc.

MisEducation: Palm Beach County School District (ProPublica)
ProPublica has found that in school districts across the country, Black and Hispanic students are, on average, less likely to be selected for gifted programs and take AP courses than their white peers. They are also more likely, on average, to be suspended and expelled. Another measure of disparities is how segregated schools are in a district. Use this interactive tool to explore if disparities exist at a school across all racial groups. You can also find statistics for Palm Beach County as a whole.

Ready for Equity in Workforce Development: Racial Equity Readiness Assessment Tool
Taking decades of racial justice research, training and consulting experience into account, Race Forward and its Research team developed workforce readiness assessment criteria to provide a landscape of possible solutions for organizations to lean further into their racial equity practice.