Mobilizing capacity is more important than ever
Conversations and decisions about student success often happen at the structural level, far from the communities our schools were designed to serve. Decisions made apart from community perpetuate issues of race and class. This is evidenced through the achievement gaps experienced by entire schools, where boundaries dictate where students will learn and the resources they will have access to – or not.
Frequently and justifiably we focus our energy and dismay here – at the local level. We blame our community schools for not preparing students for career, college, and life. We blame single-parent households, and poverty, and unknowingly and knowingly we apply unwarranted and unsubstantiated claims to entire groups – specifically black and brown families – claiming things like “they don’t value education”. Before we know it, the problem seems too big to do anything about.
When faced with an overwhelming problem, we often talk about our lack of capacity to give, to volunteer, or to do anything else about it. In fact, we tend to overuse the word “capacity” to describe deficits in our local communities. This points to the tension of being under-resourced while simultaneously being expected to close gaps and right inequities in our most vulnerable communities. What would you say if I were to tell you that this deficit narrative is meant to distract us from reaching our real capacity to change outcomes for our students?
Business-school partnerships activate local capacity
This is why In4All mobilizes community to increase local capacity in addressing issues of student equity, access and inclusion. We believe there is plenty of capacity to create business-school partnerships that connect students to a world of opportunity. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically reshapes lives and learning, our unique partnering model is showing the importance and the value of committed industry professionals consistently being present to supplement the connection students have with teachers and classroom content every day.
Our elementary students are still thinking creatively about solutions to problems using energy transfer and are learning about human impacts on environment exploring acids, bases, and healthy pH levels in water. Our middle school students are still using concepts like failing forward, and iteration while working, to challenge fixed mindsets – critical concepts connected directly to the self-determination and success of the individual – to solve problems that they define in their community. All of these students are learning how business professionals and teachers are using these concepts to do their jobs and reach their individual goals.
And students aren’t the only people learning. Adults bring with them their own narratives about the barriers students navigate and their own capacity to impact the structural problems that make our education system inequitable. Problems they have been acculturated to believe are too big for any one person to do anything about. These adults are discovering their capacity to impact student success.
We need that now, more than ever. The disparities inherent to our education system that disproportionately affect students of color and students navigating poverty are impossible to ignore. The gaps were here long before COVID-19 closed our schools and without action they will persist long after they reopen. The time for community mobilization and creative solutions is now. It begins with me – and with you.
Realize your community capacity to make a difference
In4All needs you to join us in our effort to create local community partnerships between businesses and schools. Partnerships that persist, year-over-year, where business volunteers, teachers, and other members of the community work to disrupt and dismantle the structural barriers for Oregon students of color and students navigating poverty. Contact us to learn more about sponsoring a school or consider making a financial gift through our new Community Impact Circles to help us fully fund existing programs at our schools or to help us reach our goals to expand our work in the communities we serve and beyond.
We are planning a hybrid of virtual programming this fall that will be responsive to the needs of our local schools, increasing teacher and student connection to the community. Each one of us is part of the solution: a solution comprised of many who understand that real capacity is realized only when a community is mobilized. Together we will provide multiple opportunities for students to connect with businesses in their communities while changing the narratives of the students and adults who make up our communities. Together we will create a future that is limitless – one student at a time.