Portrait of a female student in the classroom
Report says Black girls face daunting challenges and racism in school
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Scott LaMar
Portrait of a female student in the classroom
Airdate: May 17th, 2023
“Inequities pervade every aspect of Black girls’ education in Pennsylvania — where they go to school, what resources their schools have, what the environment is like in their schools, and what opportunities they can access. Due to the intersection of systemic anti-Black racism, sexism, and other forces of oppression, Black girls are subjected to especially daunting educational barriers.”
That’s the conclusion of the We Need Supportive Spaces That Celebrate Us: Black Girls Speak Out About Public Schools report prepared by the Education Law Center, a nonprofit, legal advocacy organization with offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, whose mission is to ensure that all children in Pennsylvania have access to a quality public education.
With us on The Spark Wednesday was Paige Joki, a staff attorney with the Education Law Center and one of the authors of the report, who said the report is unique because it came directly from the Black girls they spoke with and the report says they’re the experts,”They’re the experts because they are experiencing the everyday reality of schools. So I as an attorney, have legal knowledge, but I’m not in the seat learning. I’m not in the classroom. I’m not the one who’s experiencing the curriculum, the dress code, etc.. And so when we think of expertise, oftentimes that lives, expertise is missing. And that’s a huge problem because in the solutions we’re coming up with are going to actually meet the demands of those being subject to really harmful conditions. And so in our piece, we talk about black girls as experts, because they are they have unique knowledge, they have experience, and their voices do need to be centered in our conversation. And part of the reason why we made this report was because that wasn’t happening and we wanted to change things moving forward in the future.”
What are the inequities the report highlighted? “Where they go to school, what type of funding their schools have, what the staff look like demographically and schools, and that includes who is there and who is missing. So are there teachers that are of color or Black that look like you? Do you have access at all to a school mental health professional? Does that person share lived experiences and identities with you? Are police ever present in your schools? And so we have eight recommendations in the report that range from things like hiring and supporting Black teachers, ensuring that Black girls have access to affirmative and supportive adults at school, making sure that curriculum is culturally responsive and affirming, ensuring that girls aren’t facing discrimination for who they are, for expressing themselves through dress codes, making sure that they do have access to mental health professionals who share their lived experience and identities. Removing police from our schools and ensuring that schools have sufficient resources and are able to support students in the ongoing pandemic.”
