Keynote: Treat kids differently

At ASBA’s Annual Conference, a former teacher and administrator said all students have equal value, but some need more support to reach their potential

By Steve Brawner Editor

The “achievement gap” of higher test scores among white and Asian students compared to students of color is really the result of systemic gaps pertaining to opportunities and expectations. To close those gaps, schools must provide different levels of support and teach students the ways they learn best.

That was part of the message of Patrick Briggs, the keynote speaker at this year’s ASBA Annual Conference in December. Briggs is AVID’s Northeast area director and is a former teacher

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‘THE SYSTEMS YOU USE ARE PERFECT FOR THE RESULTS YOU GET.’ Keynote speaker Patrick Briggs said achievement gaps based on skin color and income are the results of systems. School districts must ask themselves what those systems are.

and school administrator. Two breakout sessions also discussed the achievement gap.

The Annual Conference was held virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schools must ask why racial achievement gaps exist, Briggs said in his lively presentation. Are student, family, community or school factors involved? Teachers can control only the school factors.

“If you didn’t catch anything from me this morning, the systems you use are perfect for the results you get,” he said. “So school board members, as you look at the results of the schools and your districts, just know that’s a result. Always ask the question, what systems do we have in place that create this result? Because a gap based on skin color or a gap based on income is a result. What system caused that?”

Briggs said at his school in Texas, an Advanced Placement calculus class was composed entirely of white and Asian students, none of whom were eligible for free- and reduced-price meals. The in-school suspension room, where no one was learning, was full of young men of color who would never have the opportunity for college, a career or the military. Briggs said systems had created that situation. In order to get into Advanced Placement calculus, a student was required to complete Algebra I as an eighth grader, which was only available if they had completed sixth grade advanced math, which was available only to those on track by the third grade. “Really, AP calculus was full of kids that we had made that decision about when they were 7,” he said. “In my advanced classes, they weren’t full of my smartest kids. They were full of my most compliant kids. Oh, you can sit still and do a worksheet, and you don’t cause any trouble. Well, let’s have you tested for gifted and talented. You’re a genius. But you move and disrupt school? Let’s test you for special ed. You see, the systems we had in place were creating opportunity gaps.” By changing systems, his school in Houston no longer has an achievement gap, he said. Briggs displayed two $1 bills – a flat one and another that he balled up, threw on the ground, and spoke harshly to as

a teacher had once spoken to him when he was a student. Both bills still had the same value, with no actual gap in their achievement, but he asked which one would have the opportunity and the expectation of getting into “Coke Machine University.” It would be the flat one, or the compliant one. If a corner were folded, the user would smooth it out. Systems are needed to ensure the balled up one can succeed, too, he said.

Briggs said teachers must help students learn the way the students learn best – not the way the teacher learns best. Starting as a seventh grade science teacher in Houston, he was going to change the world, but he soon lost his passion. He defaulted to his own learning style rather than trying to work with students in their learning style. He had them take notes believing they should understand how to organize them.

“I would say something silly like, ‘Study harder,’” he said. “What am I really saying to a child? ‘Whatever you did to fail, do that harder.’ Studying is a skill that must be taught – if you choose to.”

As a new teacher, Briggs said he had told his class before the first test he ever administered that they all would score a 100. He had handwritten the questions straight from the notes he had given them. But they were surprised that they had a test. None of them scored a 100. Some of them failed. The next day, he brought his stack full of graded tests, looked at the students, and asked them what was wrong with them.

“See, what I know now is what I had spent weeks teaching children to do was how to copy,” he said. “They weren’t learning any science in my classroom. They were learning how to copy words from a board onto paper.”

Briggs said close relationships between teachers and students increase students’ feeling of safety, boost their academic test scores, increase their understanding and the meaningfulness of what’s being taught, and reduce absenteeism and dropouts.

Relational capacity is the trust created between two people who know each other. Briggs said it can change people’s behavior whereas punishment only modifies behavior when the punisher is present, like the driver who slows down when he sees the police officer and then speeds up when the officer is out of sight.

“Not one rule you have is going to cause good behavior or grades or choices at the end of the school year. Every strong relationship you make will,” he said.

Always ask the question, what systems do we have in place that “ create this result? Because a gap based on skin color or a gap based on income is a result. What system caused that? ”

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