Self-Determination

I was invited to speak to a class of 22 high school seniors today at my alma mater. I knew my topic of choice was going to revolve around self-determination. I chose the topic of self-determination because I know the one thing that we lacked when I was in high school was an appropriate level of recognition. A recognition by the decision-makers, that we, as economically disadvantaged youth, faced more obstacles than those elsewhere. I wasn't aware of the deficiencies of my local education system and how it had failed me and my peers for so many years. I wasn't aware of my lack of college preparedness. For someone to be accepted into college was a significant accomplishment for us. No one was concerned about college retention rates, they were concerned with how many students simply applied. No one was concerned with horrid SAT or ACT scores, they were concerned with how many of us passed or failed the TAKS.

When I began speaking to the students today, I realized that not much has changed in this regard. My first question was the typical, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The replies I received ranged from nurse, to lawyer, to coach (no rappers or athletes, thank God). My next question, how many of you have applied for college? All of the students raised their hands. I expected this due to the fact that one of the main objectives for SAISD this year, in regards to college preparedness, is to have 100% of students apply for college. I then asked who has applied for five or more colleges? Half of the hands dropped. "Ten or more?" One person had their hand up.

I continued by asking how they planned on paying for college? Many of them said they were going to use scholarships. I then asked, "How many of you have scholarships?" One or two hands went up. I followed with, "How many of you have applied for scholarships?" The same one or two hands stayed up. Allow me to remind you that it is February of these student's senior year. I refrained from lashing out and pulling the usual, "What are you waiting for? It's getting too late." statement, and instead told them that I was once in their position. I didn't have anyone to push me to fill out scholarship forms. My counselors didn't care enough to advise me on applying for college or for how many to apply. So, I applied for UTSA and luckily got in with a bare minimum SAT score. Unfortunately, I had no way to pay my tuition past the first semester. So I jumped in the military. This is the story that is left out when these students are told over and over again to "Go to college! Get your education!" The 'how' of it all is missing and many of our kids aren't provided the push they need to develop some self-determination and willpower to get the job done on their own.

Throughout my time in the classroom we jumped around from the election and how they would vote, to the current welfare system and how there needs to be some serious reform. We even dabbled a bit in the fact that the Eastside is still considered the 'black side of town', although it's majority Hispanic. Somehow, we ended up on the topic of Sam Houston's recent 'school closure' scare. These students were sophomores when the event occurred. A few of them were present at a meeting that I spoke at in September of 2009. A couple remembered me as the guy who wanted the school to close. I was offended, but I calmly asked, "How did you gather that opinion?" The student's response, "Cause everyone was booing you." I laughed and explained/reminded that everyone was booing me because I wasn't going along with the typical "This is racism. You don't care because it's a black school" jive. I then asked if anyone remembered what I said? No one responded. I reminded them that I rattled off a bunch of statistics in order to bring some light to the fact that no one has cared for this school for years. I reminded them that I addressed the audience of 500 people and asked, "Where have you been all these years?" I then asked the class, when was the last time they saw a mass gathering of community members for Sam Houston? They all stated that they hadn't seen anyone since that night in 2009. I asked, how many alumni have you had come back and speak to you? One student responded, "You're here. So I guess that's one."

I didn't want this to be a pity party and I made that clear to the students. I don't want them thinking that because they are at a disadvantage that it was an excuse to fail or to aim for mediocre levels of performance. "I am making you aware of all of this because I want you to know that you are going to have to do a lot for yourself. You aren't going to have all the perks of a kid on the Northside, or a kid at a private/charter school. You are going to have to develop a lot of self-determination to get where you want to be." I really wanted to drive this home because throughout our conversation, many of them stated that they felt that very few genuinely cared about them or their success. One of the students mentioned that "All the administration cares about is attendance. And only about 30% of teachers care about whether or not we succeed. The rest are just here for a paycheck." I replied by asking, "What have you done to change that? Have you spoken to your administration about how you feel?" She replied, "They don't care what we have to say. All they care about is if you're in class or not." I didn't really know what to say in response to that statement. How do you voice your opinion to someone who refuses to listen? I encouraged the student to consider voicing their opinion, respectfully and politely through other channels such as the PTSA or a local community leader. I wish I could say that my recommendation received a warm reception, but honestly, I received a lot of non-verbal responses that reflected a simple, "Whatever".

The response of "whatever" didn't bother me. I completely understood the students' attitudes. Who am I to tell these students that you not only have to succeed in school, but you must fight your administration to be given the same standards of education as one of the wealthier schools. You not only have to have the self-determination to want to go to college, but you also must figure out a way to get there with very little help. What kind of society do we live in where we have to tell our STUDENTS that they themselves have to stand up and fight for access to a fair and equal education system?

My conversation with the students went well over an hour, so I can't fit the entirety of our discussion in this blog post, but I wanted to give an idea of what the spirit was like today. I want you to understand the expectations of our students and their thoughts on our expectations of them. These students know that they aren't getting a fair deal. They know that the situation they are in isn't normal. They know that the fire they are having to fight through right now shouldn't be as hot as it is. As someone who has been in their shoes, I wish I could convey to them that the fire they are in now, is nothing compared to what they are about to face. When they graduate and find out that the heat in the real world is a lot more fierce and a lot less forgiving, I am afraid that it will be too late.

Sam Houston Alumni

Okay, time for "real talk"... I need for my fellow Sam Houston alumni to start showing up at Sam Houston and its feeder schools this upcoming school year. Not just 2001 alumni, all alumni in the San Antonio area. I didn't do a good enough job encouraging everyone as much as I should have done last school year, but I won't do that again this year. I witnessed too many young minds being lost due to simple neglect last year at Sam Houston for me to allow this to continue to happen.

Your presence is DESPERATELY needed in the lives of many of our Eastside students. I've seen plenty of people "repping Sam" in the past years. I ask that as you continue to "rep Sam", that you also rep the students at Sam by visiting the school and mentoring and/or tutoring. It doesn't matter if you have retained calculus for the past 10+ years, or have forgotten how to count to five. I need your presence and positive influence around these students to encourage them to do more than what is expected of them currently. I need tutors, mentors, role models. You don't have to be all three...I just need you to be one of them for one student.

You may not consider yourself to be a "role model" or "mentor" per se, but I ask you to come out and I will prove to you that there is at least one student who will look at you as such. I need you to come out and be yourself. For those of you that stay smoked out, I'm gonna need you to come in sober and leave any discussion of that at home. lol But I still want you to come out, because you may be able to relate to some of our students better than any of the rest of us.

I visited Sam Houston on a weekly basis last year and I know if I had my alumni behind me keeping a constant connection with these students, we can assist greatly in improving the education system for these students. Let's make the situation at Sam Houston and its feeder schools better for those behind us. We all can admit that we could have been provided a much better education had we been provided adequate guidance and support. Let's be that guidance and support beginning this year.

If you have any questions about what I'm referring to when I say that the students need us in the halls, then please check out the rest of my blog entries. I think you'll gather a better understanding of how things have fallen by the wayside at Sam Houston and how it's going to take us and the current Eastside community to institute a brighter future for those students.

Please feel free to post comments and remarks. If you are willing and motivated enough to help, then your notice of participation may encourage our other classmates to participate as well. I'll send everyone that is willing to participate more information and guidance on how to get involved this upcoming school year.

Thank You,
Brian C. Dillard
Cherokee 2001

"That's Not My Job"

A few weeks ago I addressed a matter of tutors not being allowed to recruit students at Sam Houston high school. (ref blog from Feb 17 entitled "Is Anyone home?") I finally received a response from the principal of Sam Houston, Mr. White. He tried to blame it on the district policy, after which I notified him that Mr. Howard (District Board Pres) had never heard of such a policy. Mr. White then told me that it was HIS policy. I told him that I thought the policy was unnecessary and that I think it should be changed. I asked to sit down and discuss the matter, along with a few other items, with him at another time. He refused to meet with me. He said that I could come to the monthly Principal's Coffee, which is where he speaks in an open forum, and he would answer any questions that I may have.

(SIDENOTE: Since that conversation I decided to call the Dept of Education and track this policy down. I made it all the way to the TEA (Texas Ed Agency). They sent me a policy about SES (Supplemental Education Service) providers which stated, "SES providers shall not compensate school district employees personally in exchange for access to facilities, to obtain student lists, to assist with marketing or student recruitment, to promote enrollment in a provider’s program at the exclusion of other providers, to obtain other similar benefits for their SES program, or for any illegal purpose." Someone please tell me where in that statement it is said that SES providers can not encourage students to come to tutoring.)

Last Friday I arrived at the Sam Houston H.S. Principal's Coffee at 8.30AM. There were about 10 people in attendance. The first hour was dedicated to talking about the new scholarship/mentoring program being implemented, which offers freshman the opportunity to receive a mentor for the next 3 years. When the freshmen graduate they receive $3,000 towards college. After an hour of Q&A regarding that topic, Mr. White opened the floor to any other questions.

My first question to him was, "How many of your SENIOR are failing TAKS?" He replied, "Six are failing Social Studies and 16 are failing English." He continued, in what seemed to be a reluctant manner, by saying "45 are failing Science and 55 to 57 are failing Math." (This is out of approximately 105 standard education students) I made sure to reconfirm that he was referring to SENIORS to which he concurred. At this point I heard everyone in the room go "Oooh" and "Ahhh" in surprise. I then asked him why mandatory tutoring just began three weeks ago and he had no legitimate excuse. He prattled for about 10 minutes about how students learn differently and how he isn't responsible for last year, yada, yada... The whole time I was thinking to myself, "If you know all this stuff, then why haven't you been acting on it?!" Excuses, excuses...

My next question was regarding college preparation. I asked him "Why is performance on the ACT/SAT and the Accuplacer so atrocious here at Sam Houston? You had 91 Seniors take the Accuplacer this year. Out of those 91 students, 89 will be taking at least one remedial course in their Freshman year in college. What are you doing to address this issue?" His response was, "That's not my job." (Yes, that is a QUOTE) I paused and asked him what did he mean by that, to which he responded, "It's not my job to make sure these students are successful in college. My job is to make sure they graduate high school." At this point three or four of the people in attendance began to praise him and give a small applause. Needless to say, I was stunned. Not only did this guy just tell me that it "isn't his job" to prepare students for college, but people actually commended him for making that statement. What do I say after that?

My next question for Mr. White was, "What is the mission statement for the school district?" I already knew the answer to this question, but I wanted to see what Mr. White's explanation was. He responded, "To graduate all of our students and prepare them for success in higher education". After a pause he then said, "That's the DISTRICT'S mission statement, not mine." Wow.

Sitting next to me was the PTA President. She was obviously bothered by all of this. She told Mr. White that she does not settle for mediocrity and that we need to be holding our students to a higher standard. She continued by saying that "we are trying to prepare our students to be productive members of a global society". Mr. White responded by saying that he didn't care about a "global society" and reaffirmed his statement of "My job is to make sure they graduate high school".

I know that I should have thrown a fit at this point. I know that I should have called the NAACP, Jesse Jackson, or someone and alerted them of this matter...but I remained calm and continued on with my questions.

I asked him what the meaning of his motto "Recognize The Skills" was. This motto has been the only thing on the marquee outside of the school for the past 6 months. I asked someone else the meaning of it and they gave me a deeper explanation than the obvious. They said that it was to tell the students to recognize THEIR skills and to use them in reaching their goals. Mr. White's response was, "It's telling the community members, city officials, district, etc to recognize our skills here at Sam Houston". *sigh* So, the meaning of it was as obvious as I thought it was. I wonder how many people drive by Sam Houston and ask themselves the same question, "What skills?". Mr. White then told me that the motto would be the only thing on the marquee for this year until the district or board or TEA themselves forced him to put something else up. I then asked him why no one was notified about the Black History program that was scheduled for that evening. The PTA PRESDIENT wasn't even notified until the day before, which is the same time I was made aware of it. District coucil didn't know about it. The people in attendance even stated that they knew nothing about it until they were given a flyer prior to the meeting. His response was "Mr. Cade's (VP) in charge of that program".

At about this point it was obvious to me that the problems at Sam Houston were as fundamental as I had perceived. There was a slight thought in my mind that the problems at Sam Houston went further than complacency and neglect, but it turns out that those two factors are exactly why Sam Houston is the lowest of low performers in San Antonio.

I had a list of 20 questions. I made it through three before I realized the problem was apparent. It wasn't hidden behind the numbers or in policy or in the environment. It wasn't a lack of money or a lack of books or a lack of technology. It was created and maintained by the carelessness of administration, exceedingly low standards and a flawed vision of education.

Extra Stats:
Out of the 91 Seniors that too the Accuplacer, only TWO (2%) will be able to go to college and NOT have to take a remedial class in their Freshman year. Out of those 91 students, 64 (70%) tested into remedial courses in ALL FOUR COMPONENTS of the Accuplacer test (Algebra, Reading Comprehension, Sentence Skills, and Writing).

PTSA Meeting @ Sam Houston High School

I attended a PTSA (Parent, Teacher, Student Association) meeting last night at Sam Houston H.S. and I was very disappointed in what I saw. Six people including myself were in attendance. The other five individuals included the PTSA president, a French teacher from the school, the "community liaison" of the high school, a community member, and a one parent who was mandated by the courts to attend due to excessive truancy by her daughter.

I asked the French teacher why she was the only teacher in attendance. She responded by telling me that a lot of the other teachers were busy leading extracurricular activities and there was also a girls athletic event that night. I asked her how many teachers worked at Sam Houston. She told me 60, and the "community liaison" mentioned 100. I then asked if they found it acceptable ad believable that out of 60 teachers there was only ONE at the meeting? She understood my point and agreed that there was no excuse for it.

Why isn't it mandated that teachers attend PTSA meetings for their own schools? It's not like they have to stay EVERY night. The meetings are once a month. I'm sure the time of the meeting could be easily adjusted to make it easier for them to attend.

I can complain about the teachers not being there and expect a difference to be made. I unfortunately can NOT expect the parents to show up. We can beg and plead for them to come, but just as they neglect their child's education in all other aspects, I expect them to neglect something as extraneous as an after hours meeting. Yes, I have lowered my expectations of parents.

I will elaborate further tomorrow in a post on what I think the solution for the black/hispanic community must consist of. It will contain my thoughts on the lack of parental involvement among minorities and the most effective way to change it.

I am going to try my best to keep the blog updated. I have been ranting to my girlfriend, friends, co-workers and parents for the past few months. They haven't gotten sick of my ranting, but I need another outlet...so here I am, back in the blogosphere. ;)

Stay tuned to my blog, as I will be addressing the performance of not only Sam Houston, but also the middle schools and elementary schools that feed into Sam Houston. I will also be addressing my thoughts on what the Eastside community needs in order to improve its current situation. These and more thoughts will be presented in several blogs throughout the next few months.

Is anyone home?

It's been a while since I have posted a blog. That doesn't mean that I haven't been working...just means I haven't blogged about any of it.

Just an update on what has occurred in the past few months...NOTHING. I went to Germany on a two month stint, thank to the US Air Force. I returned last week and got right back to work.

I visited Sam Houston for a total of 10 hours during my first week back. I found out that tutors/mentors from UT@Austin were being allowed to sit in the cafeteria after school, but were NOT allowed to recruit students and encourage them to come to the tutoring sessions. According to the high school administration, this was due to a school board policy. I spoke with the school board president and he was unaware of any policy that would restrict them from recruiting students. I then went back to Sam Houston and spoke with the VP who was all for allowing the tutors to recruit students, as long as it was in compliance with district policy.

As I spoke with the VP a young man from the school staff stopped by and gave me his insight on the matter. He said that the tutors were federally funded and that for every kid they recruited, the program received more money. Therefore, he was opposed to the program because the tutors looked at all the students as dollar signs. I asked him if the money was coming out of our pockets. He said no. I asked him if the money was coming from the district. He said no. "So, if the money isn't coming out of our funds....then WHO CARES?". He replied with a head nod.

I have contacted the school board president five times in the past two weeks and have left messages with the Principal, yet I have received no answer. I bet if I told them that I had basketball or football players from UTAustin that wanted to run a clinic at Sam I would have gotten a call back.