Joseph Johnson showed some bar graphs on the screen behind him. The data showed that at some schools, Black children were outperforming all students on state tests. These schools were identified by the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) at San Diego State University Research Foundation, where Johnson is the founding executive director.

“The schools we identify are schools taking all children and achieving remarkable results,” Johnson said. “We endeavor to share what we have learned from those schools and partner with other schools that want to emulate their results.”

Johnson was the featured speaker at the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) luncheon on Saturday at NSBA’s annual conference in San Diego.

He asked the audience to consider the significance of those achievement results. “Think about that. We could reverse the achievement gap if all schools across this nation were interacting with Black students and Black families in the way we see in these schools. There is nothing permanent about the achievement gap. if we can change our beliefs and attitudes.”

The schools achieving these results have common elements that can be emulated by other schools. Leadership can play a pivotal role.
Education leaders need to prepare and develop other leaders who inspire trust so they can build the capacity of educators. Teachers need to feel confident about educating Black students. “I can feel efficacious about educating some children, but I might not feel efficacious about educating your child. Then I put your child at risk,” he said. “I am putting them at risk because I don’t know what to do with him or her.”

In schools that are successfully educating Black students, leaders know how to support their teachers to make them feel efficacious about teaching their Black students. “When these teachers are not afraid of their Black students, when they know how to work with and support Black students and Black families, they feel efficacious. And we see great results. And that is what we see happening in these schools.”

The data collected by Johnson and NCUST shows that Black students can achieve at high levels. “It can be done. There’s nothing wrong with Black children,” Johnson said. “We can use our power as educators to create situations in which Black students are likely to succeed. We have the power to create situations in which Black children are likely to fail. The choice is ours. We have the power to improve the trajectory of black students’ lives.”