January 26, 2023 • 25 mins
A 2022 study conducted by Harris Poll surveyed 5,000 parents in the U.S. indicated parents want to have a say in where their children attend school. Since the pandemic, parents have become more involved in their children’s education. In 2021, 240,000 students were newly enrolled in public charter schools.
In this episode, we chat with the CEO of Rainer Valley Leadership Academy (RVLA) in Seattle, Washington, Baionne Coleman, and RVLA parent, Nicole Franklin on why some families choose charter schools. We covered the topics of academic rigor, sense of community, and a culturally affirming environment.
Takeaways
The Three Pillars of their curriculum; anti-racism, leadership, and collaborative community
The top reasons why parents put their children in Public Charter Schools
The experience of having a child in a Public Charter School and also being a part of the community
Quotes
What benefits the community benefits our scholars. - Bayonne Coleman
I think it is important as a parent to feel welcome at a school, be involved, and be a part of the community - Nicole
Featured in the Episode
Baionne Coleman
Chief Executive Officer, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/baionne-coleman-569160139/
Nicole Franklin
A Dedicated Rainier Valley ParentChapters
00:00 Introduction
02:17 How are culturally affirming schools helpful to students?
05:05 Reactions from students and parents in regard to these routines
06:46 The three pillars: anti-racism, leadership, and collaborative community
12:34 Describing the pride rubric, and its impact on scholars
14:52 The top reasons
18:06 Choosing Rainier Valley Leadership Academy
20:37 How the school met the needs of the students
22:37 Nicole’s son and his experience attending RVLA
27:39 Final Takeaways
In this episode, we chat with the CEO of Rainer Valley Leadership Academy (RVLA) in Seattle, Washington, Baionne Coleman, and RVLA parent, Nicole Franklin on why some families choose charter schools. We covered the topics of academic rigor, sense of community, and a culturally affirming environment.
Takeaways
The Three Pillars of their curriculum; anti-racism, leadership, and collaborative community
The top reasons why parents put their children in Public Charter Schools
The experience of having a child in a Public Charter School and also being a part of the community
Quotes
What benefits the community benefits our scholars. - Bayonne Coleman
I think it is important as a parent to feel welcome at a school, be involved, and be a part of the community - Nicole
Featured in the Episode
Baionne Coleman
Chief Executive Officer, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/baionne-coleman-569160139/
Nicole Franklin
A Dedicated Rainier Valley ParentChapters
00:00 Introduction
02:17 How are culturally affirming schools helpful to students?
05:05 Reactions from students and parents in regard to these routines
06:46 The three pillars: anti-racism, leadership, and collaborative community
12:34 Describing the pride rubric, and its impact on scholars
14:52 The top reasons
18:06 Choosing Rainier Valley Leadership Academy
20:37 How the school met the needs of the students
22:37 Nicole’s son and his experience attending RVLA
27:39 Final Takeaways
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
You're listening to get schooled on publiceducation. I'm your host, Brittany Baker,
and remember, charter schools are publicschools. A recent survey of five
thousand parents in the US conducted byHarris Poll found that ninety three percent of
them agree that one size does notfit all when it comes to education.
(00:25):
This data suggests that many parents cravethe opportunity to choose an educational experience that
best fits their child's needs. Andwhen you take a moment to think about
it, it makes sense all childrendeserve a high quality education and that's something
I believe we can all agree on. Today, we're going to discuss some
(00:47):
of the reasons parents enroll their childreninto public charter schools and learn more about
what's keeping families there. Public charterschools serve more than three point six million
students, two thirds of whom arefrom low income, Black and or Latino
communities. According to the Harris Pollsurvey, most parents who switched to charter
(01:10):
schools compared to parents who did notswitch schools set the following factors have become
more important to them, either duringor post pandemic. Academic rigor, a
sense of community, and a culturallyaffirming environment for their children, not only
prioritizing academics, but also focusing onthe holistic needs of a child in an
(01:34):
environment that helps support their unique needs. Meet Miss Bayon Coleman. She is
the CEO at Rainier Valley Leadership Academyr VLA is a public charter school in
Seattle, Washington, serving grade sixthrough twelve. The school's mission is to
be an anti racist, collaborative communityof critical thinkers focused on dismantling systemic oppression
(01:59):
through all our leadership and college success. Let's dive into the benefits of culturally
affirming schools. A culturally affirming schoolapproaches learning by acknowledging, respecting, and
incorporating students' cultures and experiences. Asa nation, we've come a long way
(02:20):
in creating welcoming school environments for ourstudents. However, we still have work
to do. I think we haveto do better as a nation to actually
deal with the atrocities that have happenedthroughout our history. And what that has
meant is is that there has beena lot of ignorance and ignoring what has
(02:40):
actually occurred, and it has putblack descendants of the enslaved in a space
where they lack identity in spaces aswell as our indigenous folks in those spaces
as well. And so I havea deep seated belief that in order for
us to do better, we haveto center Black aidos and Indigenous youth and
(03:00):
families and communities regardless if they arepresent or not, in order to actually
do this work. I think thereis something we know the research, the
John Hopkins study that says when youhave an African American teacher, you're thirty
nine percent more likely to actually graduate, to attend college, etc. That's
just one teacher in your career ofeducation, right, And so we know
(03:27):
what it means for us when wesit in front of an educator who understands
what racism is, who understands whatbringing diverse perspectives into classrooms mean for us,
right to be able to hear allhistories and to give us the opportunity
in the space to actually critically analyzethat information as youth and make decisions about
the world around us on our ownwithout having certain things shoved down your throat.
(03:52):
And so that's really really important,and not only as a administrator,
right, Like I also have mychildren in school I have four children myself,
and one of one of my sonsdoes attend RVLA as well, And
so he used to get headaches whenhe was at other schools that he was
at. He was always talking abouthow racist folks were in the spaces that
(04:14):
he was in. He was constantlycoming home feeling like he was being bullied,
especially when he was in predominantly whiteschools, etc. He no longer
has headaches. He's excited about goingto school. He knows that he can
have conversations about teachers and classrooms inregards to anti racism and different things that
happened to him. He knows thatpeople are going to be empathetic and that
(04:35):
they are going to care holistically abouthim, not just as another person on
their grade book, but as ayoung man who's growing up in community.
As a part of the RVLA community. Scholars get to choose their preferred greeting
each day. Yeah, I thinkironically enough, we say, you know,
(04:56):
you can handshake, high five,you know, hug, whatever you
want to do. There are alot of folks who require for scholars to
come in and shake hands. Well, culturally, that's not necessary, that's
not necessarily relevant. For all culturesor just based off of the pandemic.
Everybody doesn't feel comfortable doing those things, right. We have scholars who have
different neural diversities. They don't wantto do that. I have a young
(05:17):
man who whenever I see him,he turns around, he backs his shoulder
up into my shoulder and that's howhe says hello, right, and that's
his form of hug. So it'sabout making space for scholars to make decisions
about how they want to be interactedwith and not how we choose to interact
with them. Right. It's nodifferent than understanding your partner or children's love
(05:41):
languages. You can't love someone inthe way that you want to love them
if they want to receive it ina different way. And so even with
our greetings and how we say helloto scholars in the morning, it's really
about how do you want to beloved on today? How do you want
to say hello today? And that'swe're gonna going to do. Like some
scholars they don't want to shake hands. They had a terrible morning, something
(06:03):
happened on the bus ride in,or they got into an argument with the
family member or whatever, or theyjust woke up on the wrong side of
the bed, they're grumpy, theydidn't get any sleep, whatever the case
may be. We have to respectwhere they're coming from and not ask them
to then somehow like fit into thisbox of what it is that like looks
cute, right, we need tomake sure that we're actually seeing who they
(06:24):
are. And the words of doctorSeuss, why fit in when you were
born to stand out? And somethingthat stands out about r VLA are their
three pillars, a collaborative community,anti racism, and leadership. Miss Coleman
breaks them down and how they arebuilt into the school's curriculum. I guess
(06:45):
to kind of understand our pillars,you also have to understand our vision and
our mission as well. And ourvision and our mission were collaboratively created with
our community. This was our scholars, This was our elders, This was
community members, this was community partners, this was families, this was educators,
(07:08):
this was even you know, someof the authorities that be in the
Washington State Charter Commission also showed upto these meetings as well as a community.
It was very evident, well beforeGeorge Floyd and well before the pandemic,
that our school had to transition intoan anti racist space. And so
through that those conversations and we hadnumerous conversations over the course of that time,
(07:33):
the community had decided we're going tobe anti racists, and so based
off of that, we were ableto synthesize what is it that we actually
want to like die on the hillfor. And those three pillars that came
from that were anti racism, leadership, and collaborative community. And that's really
important to us because when we thinkabout our vision and mission, our vision
(07:56):
emission is really our blueprint of youknow, this is what we say are
going to do, and those threepillars of leadership, collaborative community, and
anti racism then become our foundation.So everything that we do is built upon
those three pillars. So if wemake any decisions, they have to be
grounded in that. If we aretalking about scholars, we have to ground
(08:18):
the conversation in one of those pillarsor all of them, depending on the
situation. When we're having conversations withfamily, we've ground ourselves in those specific
pillars. So like leadership looks likedifferent neural diversities, being able to sit
in space and to be able tolead, and that's really important to us.
It's also understanding that leadership does notlook like the person who's just standing
(08:41):
in the front, but also knowingwhen to fall back and when to follow
and went till to stand alongside.It means the scholar who is quiet,
who is taking the notes because thoseare going to be the historical documents that
are needed. It's the person who'screating the budget, who's never out in
the forefront. It's the person who'swriting the policies. It's the person who's
asking the tough conversation stations. Andso it's about understanding leadership comes in different
(09:05):
roles in different spaces, and weneed all leaders to be able to sit
in these spaces. I think foranti racism, we also recognize that there's
a myth that scholars who are whiteor families who are white don't need identity
affirming spaces of education, and thatis farthest from the truth. In order
(09:26):
for us to be able to eradicateracism, we have to make sure that
our white scholars and our white familiesare also included in this conversation so that
they can see the excellence of melanidglobal majority folks who do not look like
them so that they can stop diminishingtheir quality and their excellence in those spaces,
right, and they'll have a higherrespect for Oh, this is who
(09:48):
created math, this is how thepyramids were created. You know, this
is what you know pre colonialism actuallylooked like across our country, and this
is what you know has happened acrossthat time. So being able to ensure
that we are all working on thisfrom all angles, all together is really
important. We have a belief thatracism is murdered, and so we don't
(10:11):
stand for it. There has tobe a lot of urgency around the same
way. You know, if youas a kindergarten teacher got into trouble,
if you didn't write a lesson plan, right, it's like you're not prepared.
We continue to make excuses for folksto be in front of our children
who are intentionally harmful in the spaceof racism, and that literally kills our
(10:33):
scholar spirits, not just our black, Indigenous, and global majority scholar spirits,
but also our white scholar spirits aswell. And so we have to
recognize that and come from this asa holistic approach. And then for collaborative
community. We've always been very clearthat community owns the space. Community pays
my salary, community pays our teachers. You know, our scholars are sitting
(10:54):
in a desk and their families havepaid for their children to sit there.
Right, Public education is paid throughtax dollars, and so understanding that the
community has to hold the school andthat we are required an accountable to community
to do what community is asking usto do, it's something completely different,
right, Like it kind of flipsa lot of things. A lot of
(11:15):
time scholars come into a classroom andthe teacher says, you're going to learn
what I have to teach you today, and if you didn't learn it,
it's your fault, right that youdidn't learn it. And the reality of
it is is that those are adultswho have gone to school to be educated,
to sit in front of our scholarsand have the privilege of being able
to support and facilitate what education lookslike in those spaces. So our elders
(11:35):
are very much present. They'll walkinto the school whenever they want. We
have one elder right now who justhave back surgery and called and was like
I need to get out. Ineed somebody to come and pick me up
at least, you know, onceor twice a month so that I can
walk around the school and my walkerand like be active and whatnot. And
that's what being a collaborative community schoolright truly truly means. It's, you
(11:56):
know, it's making sure that wehave community partners who say, hey,
I want to do this cool thingand have you know, we need space
for something that doesn't even have tonecessarily do with the school. We just
need space after school to come anddo this thing. Great. We've got
some classrooms that you can use.What benefits the community benefits our scholars.
RVLA uses us santkfa model. Theword sankofa comes from the Twee language of
(12:22):
Ghana and translates to go back andget it, meaning we use the teachings
of those before us to learn frommistakes and create a better future. R
VLA uses their Pride rubric to helpstudents practice this skill. Pride stands for
perseverance, responsibility, integrity, driveand excellent. I talked about our vision
(12:46):
emission kind of being our blueprint.I talked about our pillars being more of
our foundation. There's another piece ofthat which is also our commitments, which
is what we aspire to be right, and we have a few commitments and
we have them up in each classroom, in each of the classrooms, and
the scholars and the teachers actually signoff to say that they are going to,
(13:07):
you know, actually try to abideby these commitments. We understand that
these are aspirations and that like we'regoing to fall short and we're human.
That's part of our Sandcofa model.Like you messed up this time, you
learn from it, you do betternext time. And so our pride rubric
is really the piece that helps ustry to live up to those aspirations.
And they're all grounded in our pillarsof anti racism. So it's like speaking
(13:31):
to the person rather than about theperson, right, Like, you go
and have a conversation with them,and if you can't have that conversation,
that you find someone who can supportyou with facilitating that conversation. It's leaving
no team member behind, right.So there may be a time in space
where something happens and someone's going toget left behind because I have a whole
lot of something to do, butI'm going to go back and check for
(13:52):
them to make sure that they're okay. So those rubrics with the pride,
perseverance, responsibility, integ it ordrive and excellence really support us with in
each space that I'm going into andI showing these pride habits in that space?
Am I showing up with pride?And like I said, like we
have different rubrics where you know,similar to a PBIS system, like this
(14:16):
is what it looks like in thelunch room, this is what it looks
like, you know, in theclassroom, because it looks like different things
in different spaces. But if youcan say to yourself, Okay, I'm
showing perseverance, I'm showing responsibility,I'm showing integrity, I'm showing drive,
I'm showing excellence, then you cankind of have something to kind of ground
yourself on to say, oh,I feel kind of shorten that perseverance I
could have you know, tried fora little bit longer to tackle that,
(14:39):
or you know, I cursed andI slipped, you know what I mean,
like in front of folks or whateverlike that wasn't really showing my excellence
in that space. But I didthese other pieces well for myself. So
that's really what our rubrics try tosupport us within our pride habits. Let's
talk about some additional reasons parents choosecharter schools such as r VLA. I
(15:00):
think that a lot of families cansee that we are collaborative. I think
they know that. I think alot of our families they want for teachers
to be in front of their childrenwho actually care about their children, who
are from the community, who looklike them, who are going to pour
into them and not see them asjust another number or another student ID.
(15:24):
And I think that's really important.Like, I've grown up in the community,
and so I know that, youknow, just on a very base
level set, Like there's a lotof community members that are like, Okay,
we know her, we know someonein her family, you know,
etc. And so like, ifI don't do what I'm supposed to do,
I have to still answer to thiscommunity. If I go and change
jobs, I still live in thesame community, you know. So there
(15:46):
is a higher level of accountability thathas nothing to do with metrics, that
has nothing to do with you know, compliance or anything else that has to
do with you know, human interpersonalrelationships that I'm a acountable to on a
daily basis. A lot of ourother educators who sit in that space hold
that same space as well. Thereare families who want to make sure that
(16:08):
they have an identity affirming curriculum sothat they can be learning about diverse perspectives
and be learning about their history andsee themselves in a light that they have
never been able to necessarily see themselvesin in different spaces. I think a
lot of our families are really excitedabout, like the holistic approach that we
do with our social emotional learning,with making sure that our adults are doing
(16:30):
that social emotional social emotional learning aswell, and then also making sure that
there's like academic rigor. So it'slike all of these things are very important.
We have a mental health of clinicwithin our school that directly supports our
scholars. We know that our scholarsare going through a lot. We have
a medical clinic where there's natural pathmedicine, etc. So, like our
(16:52):
scholars are learning about this, They'retaking walks out into nature to figure out
like what is this medicine? Whatis this plant? How can this actually
how is this a medicine medicine thatcan support me and whatever it is that
I'm going through. So I thinkthat families are beginning to see the value
of what this means to be holisticand really get back to our ancestral roots
of what does education actually look like. And it's not just reading from a
(17:15):
book. It's really about the spirit, the mind, the body, you
know, your mental health, etc. Now let's hear directly from a parent
at Rainier Valley Leadership Academy and whyshe enrolled her son, Mattheo into the
public charter school. Mis Nicole Franklinhas two kids and her oldest son is
in the tenth grade. I haveone scholar currently and I'm hoping that they'll
(17:40):
be an expansion of Grander Valley LeadershipAcademy so that my youngest scholar, who
was now will be able to attendnext year and I can talk a little
bit about that. I've chosen notto put my youngest scholar in school in
estate. You know whom, youdon't have to pick them intool to their
eighth and I have not found aplace that I feel will nurture his can
(18:00):
self. My oldest scholar um justlike lands. But my oldest is brilliant,
amazing, intelligent. He's a leader, and before he went into school,
he loved school. And it isquite frankly, then a struggle,
um to see him, you know, get praised to his athletic talents um,
(18:23):
but not it was even close tothe same level of praise for his
academic or leadership ability. And Iknow that if he is in a school
like Grand Valley Leadership Academy in kindergarten, that who have a different a different
situation right now. And you know, and so even now he's there,
you know, just I know he'sI know, he's getting plants and the
(18:47):
seeds and he's getting raptord love andthat they see him for the whole person
um that he is. And youknow that that's one of the main reasons
I chose that from you know,the development of my child. Another really
strong reason for choosing Rate of OurLeadership Academy is a commitment to anti racism.
(19:11):
It is a core value, familyvalue, and in fact it's of
the work that I do. Andum, you know, quite frankly,
a lot of folks aren't clear aboutthe difference between when diversified diversity and in
apudium and anti racism. When beingreally clear about finding you know, racism
and other systems of a pressure andbeing able to do that work into how
(19:36):
the true curriculum that allows scholars,all scholars to be able to see um
the ways in which many folks andmany preatures have you know, produced the
society that we have with. Oneof Miss Franklin's favorite things about our VLA
(19:57):
is the genuine love her son receivesfrom his teachers. Yeah. I think,
like he said, Masio is fortunateto be academically gifted, but it's
not his passion. And so whatwhat I struggled with as a parent and
(20:18):
what our beable he provides is youknow, basically seeing my son and not
allowing him to take easily, ofallowing him and asking him and encourage him,
not disappointing him, but encouraging himto engage in his education, encouraging
with him to engage in his communityas a leader, encouraging to understand and
(20:38):
the privileges that he might have hadcompared to others, and being able to
see this is a community and thatthat everybody comes and shows up. And
so I think, you know,the biggest thing for me is just keep
inviting him in every day, youknow, no matter how he shows that,
they're going to keep loving him.Uh. And that's wasn't it's supposed
(21:02):
to be talked about. But loveis critical, um. And you know
wants someone who cares. It's noteven just scares, it's love my son.
I know my son is loved atart LA and that's important, um
for you know, for many reasons, not only as a black parent,
but also as a parent of myson. There's a lot of senses in
(21:23):
a missogyny that goes into boys notbeing able to show their feelings or how
much they care about things, orhow people even care about them. There's
been studies that show that, youknow, black boys will down the streets
and people don't wait, that theywill smile at them or even acknowledge them.
Um. And so I know himbeing at r LA, that he
(21:44):
is constantly being pulled in you knowwhat I mean to too positive pulling into
education, putting into leadership from aplace of a core value of life.
UM. And that's really important.Not only is Maco growing academically, he
is growing socially as well. Ithink more than academic growth. I think,
(22:06):
you know, I said, Ithink it's the social emotional growth that's
what I most see. And itdoesn't mean he's not getting an academic growth,
but the thing that's more important forme is the social emotional growth.
So the fact that I'm not gettingcomplaints like at all for him is really
a huge thing. That means thathe's okay. That's what I know.
That means that he is okay becausehe doesn't have something that he's not agreeing
(22:32):
with. And that might seem small, but when your kid comes home every
day and talks about, you know, certain things, and oftentimes it's not
even about him, it seems thathe seems happens to other folks, it's
really nice to know. That's howI know that he's in an environment that
is leving and caring and nurturing,and then you know, then be able
to allow him to exceed academically.And that makes a little difference. I
(22:57):
think it's key as a parent toyou know, feel welcomed and at a
school and um, it's a verydifferent experience to walking to our v LA
with folks all up and down theway asking hey, can I help you
using anything I can do for you? Are you okay? Um? And
(23:17):
not from like well what are youdoing here? You know our hours are
from this dad, and um,it's a very different experience from the respectrum
of a parent and also as acommunity member being asked to be involved in
our in LA and coming and doingPanther talks and even when my son wasn't
at the school so to me andthis you know, the the understanding of
(23:37):
the community in the field, notjust for the for the students. As
a parent, it was really importanth to be able to have you know,
I really, I guess I'm sayingit's an a test to to our
VLA leaving out it's the desirables tobe a community decented um and to focus
on the scholars and to make parentsfeel welcome. All of those things will
(24:00):
trust and when you can trust,you all speak him down or each space.
Parents deserve essay and where their childrengo to school, regardless of the
school style that works best for yourscholar, All students deserve the opportunity to
feel welcomed, understood and cared for. And this is where true learning begins.
(24:22):
Thank you to our guests CEO ofRainier Valley Leadership Academy, Miss Banon
Coleman and Miss Nicole Franklin, oneof the dedicated parents at RVLA. Let
us know when the comments what factorsare important to you as a parent when
selecting a school, and check outthe National Alliances report on the Parents Survey
(24:44):
Never Going Back in analysis of parentssentiment on education at Public Charters dot org.
Don't forget to follow us on socialat Charter Alliance and subscribe to our
podcast produced by Hardcast Media
You're listening to get schooled on publiceducation. I'm your host, Brittany Baker,
and remember, charter schools are publicschools. A recent survey of five
thousand parents in the US conducted byHarris Poll found that ninety three percent of
them agree that one size does notfit all when it comes to education.
(00:25):
This data suggests that many parents cravethe opportunity to choose an educational experience that
best fits their child's needs. Andwhen you take a moment to think about
it, it makes sense all childrendeserve a high quality education and that's something
I believe we can all agree on. Today, we're going to discuss some
(00:47):
of the reasons parents enroll their childreninto public charter schools and learn more about
what's keeping families there. Public charterschools serve more than three point six million
students, two thirds of whom arefrom low income, Black and or Latino
communities. According to the Harris Pollsurvey, most parents who switched to charter
(01:10):
schools compared to parents who did notswitch schools set the following factors have become
more important to them, either duringor post pandemic. Academic rigor, a
sense of community, and a culturallyaffirming environment for their children, not only
prioritizing academics, but also focusing onthe holistic needs of a child in an
(01:34):
environment that helps support their unique needs. Meet Miss Bayon Coleman. She is
the CEO at Rainier Valley Leadership Academyr VLA is a public charter school in
Seattle, Washington, serving grade sixthrough twelve. The school's mission is to
be an anti racist, collaborative communityof critical thinkers focused on dismantling systemic oppression
(01:59):
through all our leadership and college success. Let's dive into the benefits of culturally
affirming schools. A culturally affirming schoolapproaches learning by acknowledging, respecting, and
incorporating students' cultures and experiences. Asa nation, we've come a long way
(02:20):
in creating welcoming school environments for ourstudents. However, we still have work
to do. I think we haveto do better as a nation to actually
deal with the atrocities that have happenedthroughout our history. And what that has
meant is is that there has beena lot of ignorance and ignoring what has
(02:40):
actually occurred, and it has putblack descendants of the enslaved in a space
where they lack identity in spaces aswell as our indigenous folks in those spaces
as well. And so I havea deep seated belief that in order for
us to do better, we haveto center Black aidos and Indigenous youth and
(03:00):
families and communities regardless if they arepresent or not, in order to actually
do this work. I think thereis something we know the research, the
John Hopkins study that says when youhave an African American teacher, you're thirty
nine percent more likely to actually graduate, to attend college, etc. That's
just one teacher in your career ofeducation, right, And so we know
(03:27):
what it means for us when wesit in front of an educator who understands
what racism is, who understands whatbringing diverse perspectives into classrooms mean for us,
right to be able to hear allhistories and to give us the opportunity
in the space to actually critically analyzethat information as youth and make decisions about
the world around us on our ownwithout having certain things shoved down your throat.
(03:52):
And so that's really really important,and not only as a administrator,
right, Like I also have mychildren in school I have four children myself,
and one of one of my sonsdoes attend RVLA as well, And
so he used to get headaches whenhe was at other schools that he was
at. He was always talking abouthow racist folks were in the spaces that
(04:14):
he was in. He was constantlycoming home feeling like he was being bullied,
especially when he was in predominantly whiteschools, etc. He no longer
has headaches. He's excited about goingto school. He knows that he can
have conversations about teachers and classrooms inregards to anti racism and different things that
happened to him. He knows thatpeople are going to be empathetic and that
(04:35):
they are going to care holistically abouthim, not just as another person on
their grade book, but as ayoung man who's growing up in community.
As a part of the RVLA community. Scholars get to choose their preferred greeting
each day. Yeah, I thinkironically enough, we say, you know,
(04:56):
you can handshake, high five,you know, hug, whatever you
want to do. There are alot of folks who require for scholars to
come in and shake hands. Well, culturally, that's not necessary, that's
not necessarily relevant. For all culturesor just based off of the pandemic.
Everybody doesn't feel comfortable doing those things, right. We have scholars who have
different neural diversities. They don't wantto do that. I have a young
(05:17):
man who whenever I see him,he turns around, he backs his shoulder
up into my shoulder and that's howhe says hello, right, and that's
his form of hug. So it'sabout making space for scholars to make decisions
about how they want to be interactedwith and not how we choose to interact
with them. Right. It's nodifferent than understanding your partner or children's love
(05:41):
languages. You can't love someone inthe way that you want to love them
if they want to receive it ina different way. And so even with
our greetings and how we say helloto scholars in the morning, it's really
about how do you want to beloved on today? How do you want
to say hello today? And that'swe're gonna going to do. Like some
scholars they don't want to shake hands. They had a terrible morning, something
(06:03):
happened on the bus ride in,or they got into an argument with the
family member or whatever, or theyjust woke up on the wrong side of
the bed, they're grumpy, theydidn't get any sleep, whatever the case
may be. We have to respectwhere they're coming from and not ask them
to then somehow like fit into thisbox of what it is that like looks
cute, right, we need tomake sure that we're actually seeing who they
(06:24):
are. And the words of doctorSeuss, why fit in when you were
born to stand out? And somethingthat stands out about r VLA are their
three pillars, a collaborative community,anti racism, and leadership. Miss Coleman
breaks them down and how they arebuilt into the school's curriculum. I guess
(06:45):
to kind of understand our pillars,you also have to understand our vision and
our mission as well. And ourvision and our mission were collaboratively created with
our community. This was our scholars, This was our elders, This was
community members, this was community partners, this was families, this was educators,
(07:08):
this was even you know, someof the authorities that be in the
Washington State Charter Commission also showed upto these meetings as well as a community.
It was very evident, well beforeGeorge Floyd and well before the pandemic,
that our school had to transition intoan anti racist space. And so
through that those conversations and we hadnumerous conversations over the course of that time,
(07:33):
the community had decided we're going tobe anti racists, and so based
off of that, we were ableto synthesize what is it that we actually
want to like die on the hillfor. And those three pillars that came
from that were anti racism, leadership, and collaborative community. And that's really
important to us because when we thinkabout our vision and mission, our vision
(07:56):
emission is really our blueprint of youknow, this is what we say are
going to do, and those threepillars of leadership, collaborative community, and
anti racism then become our foundation.So everything that we do is built upon
those three pillars. So if wemake any decisions, they have to be
grounded in that. If we aretalking about scholars, we have to ground
(08:18):
the conversation in one of those pillarsor all of them, depending on the
situation. When we're having conversations withfamily, we've ground ourselves in those specific
pillars. So like leadership looks likedifferent neural diversities, being able to sit
in space and to be able tolead, and that's really important to us.
It's also understanding that leadership does notlook like the person who's just standing
(08:41):
in the front, but also knowingwhen to fall back and when to follow
and went till to stand alongside.It means the scholar who is quiet,
who is taking the notes because thoseare going to be the historical documents that
are needed. It's the person who'screating the budget, who's never out in
the forefront. It's the person who'swriting the policies. It's the person who's
asking the tough conversation stations. Andso it's about understanding leadership comes in different
(09:05):
roles in different spaces, and weneed all leaders to be able to sit
in these spaces. I think foranti racism, we also recognize that there's
a myth that scholars who are whiteor families who are white don't need identity
affirming spaces of education, and thatis farthest from the truth. In order
(09:26):
for us to be able to eradicateracism, we have to make sure that
our white scholars and our white familiesare also included in this conversation so that
they can see the excellence of melanidglobal majority folks who do not look like
them so that they can stop diminishingtheir quality and their excellence in those spaces,
right, and they'll have a higherrespect for Oh, this is who
(09:48):
created math, this is how thepyramids were created. You know, this
is what you know pre colonialism actuallylooked like across our country, and this
is what you know has happened acrossthat time. So being able to ensure
that we are all working on thisfrom all angles, all together is really
important. We have a belief thatracism is murdered, and so we don't
(10:11):
stand for it. There has tobe a lot of urgency around the same
way. You know, if youas a kindergarten teacher got into trouble,
if you didn't write a lesson plan, right, it's like you're not prepared.
We continue to make excuses for folksto be in front of our children
who are intentionally harmful in the spaceof racism, and that literally kills our
(10:33):
scholar spirits, not just our black, Indigenous, and global majority scholar spirits,
but also our white scholar spirits aswell. And so we have to
recognize that and come from this asa holistic approach. And then for collaborative
community. We've always been very clearthat community owns the space. Community pays
my salary, community pays our teachers. You know, our scholars are sitting
(10:54):
in a desk and their families havepaid for their children to sit there.
Right, Public education is paid throughtax dollars, and so understanding that the
community has to hold the school andthat we are required an accountable to community
to do what community is asking usto do, it's something completely different,
right, Like it kind of flipsa lot of things. A lot of
(11:15):
time scholars come into a classroom andthe teacher says, you're going to learn
what I have to teach you today, and if you didn't learn it,
it's your fault, right that youdidn't learn it. And the reality of
it is is that those are adultswho have gone to school to be educated,
to sit in front of our scholarsand have the privilege of being able
to support and facilitate what education lookslike in those spaces. So our elders
(11:35):
are very much present. They'll walkinto the school whenever they want. We
have one elder right now who justhave back surgery and called and was like
I need to get out. Ineed somebody to come and pick me up
at least, you know, onceor twice a month so that I can
walk around the school and my walkerand like be active and whatnot. And
that's what being a collaborative community schoolright truly truly means. It's, you
(11:56):
know, it's making sure that wehave community partners who say, hey,
I want to do this cool thingand have you know, we need space
for something that doesn't even have tonecessarily do with the school. We just
need space after school to come anddo this thing. Great. We've got
some classrooms that you can use.What benefits the community benefits our scholars.
RVLA uses us santkfa model. Theword sankofa comes from the Twee language of
(12:22):
Ghana and translates to go back andget it, meaning we use the teachings
of those before us to learn frommistakes and create a better future. R
VLA uses their Pride rubric to helpstudents practice this skill. Pride stands for
perseverance, responsibility, integrity, driveand excellent. I talked about our vision
(12:46):
emission kind of being our blueprint.I talked about our pillars being more of
our foundation. There's another piece ofthat which is also our commitments, which
is what we aspire to be right, and we have a few commitments and
we have them up in each classroom, in each of the classrooms, and
the scholars and the teachers actually signoff to say that they are going to,
(13:07):
you know, actually try to abideby these commitments. We understand that
these are aspirations and that like we'regoing to fall short and we're human.
That's part of our Sandcofa model.Like you messed up this time, you
learn from it, you do betternext time. And so our pride rubric
is really the piece that helps ustry to live up to those aspirations.
And they're all grounded in our pillarsof anti racism. So it's like speaking
(13:31):
to the person rather than about theperson, right, Like, you go
and have a conversation with them,and if you can't have that conversation,
that you find someone who can supportyou with facilitating that conversation. It's leaving
no team member behind, right.So there may be a time in space
where something happens and someone's going toget left behind because I have a whole
lot of something to do, butI'm going to go back and check for
(13:52):
them to make sure that they're okay. So those rubrics with the pride,
perseverance, responsibility, integ it ordrive and excellence really support us with in
each space that I'm going into andI showing these pride habits in that space?
Am I showing up with pride?And like I said, like we
have different rubrics where you know,similar to a PBIS system, like this
(14:16):
is what it looks like in thelunch room, this is what it looks
like, you know, in theclassroom, because it looks like different things
in different spaces. But if youcan say to yourself, Okay, I'm
showing perseverance, I'm showing responsibility,I'm showing integrity, I'm showing drive,
I'm showing excellence, then you cankind of have something to kind of ground
yourself on to say, oh,I feel kind of shorten that perseverance I
could have you know, tried fora little bit longer to tackle that,
(14:39):
or you know, I cursed andI slipped, you know what I mean,
like in front of folks or whateverlike that wasn't really showing my excellence
in that space. But I didthese other pieces well for myself. So
that's really what our rubrics try tosupport us within our pride habits. Let's
talk about some additional reasons parents choosecharter schools such as r VLA. I
(15:00):
think that a lot of families cansee that we are collaborative. I think
they know that. I think alot of our families they want for teachers
to be in front of their childrenwho actually care about their children, who
are from the community, who looklike them, who are going to pour
into them and not see them asjust another number or another student ID.
(15:24):
And I think that's really important.Like, I've grown up in the community,
and so I know that, youknow, just on a very base
level set, Like there's a lotof community members that are like, Okay,
we know her, we know someonein her family, you know,
etc. And so like, ifI don't do what I'm supposed to do,
I have to still answer to thiscommunity. If I go and change
jobs, I still live in thesame community, you know. So there
(15:46):
is a higher level of accountability thathas nothing to do with metrics, that
has nothing to do with you know, compliance or anything else that has to
do with you know, human interpersonalrelationships that I'm a acountable to on a
daily basis. A lot of ourother educators who sit in that space hold
that same space as well. Thereare families who want to make sure that
(16:08):
they have an identity affirming curriculum sothat they can be learning about diverse perspectives
and be learning about their history andsee themselves in a light that they have
never been able to necessarily see themselvesin in different spaces. I think a
lot of our families are really excitedabout, like the holistic approach that we
do with our social emotional learning,with making sure that our adults are doing
(16:30):
that social emotional social emotional learning aswell, and then also making sure that
there's like academic rigor. So it'slike all of these things are very important.
We have a mental health of clinicwithin our school that directly supports our
scholars. We know that our scholarsare going through a lot. We have
a medical clinic where there's natural pathmedicine, etc. So, like our
(16:52):
scholars are learning about this, They'retaking walks out into nature to figure out
like what is this medicine? Whatis this plant? How can this actually
how is this a medicine medicine thatcan support me and whatever it is that
I'm going through. So I thinkthat families are beginning to see the value
of what this means to be holisticand really get back to our ancestral roots
of what does education actually look like. And it's not just reading from a
(17:15):
book. It's really about the spirit, the mind, the body, you
know, your mental health, etc. Now let's hear directly from a parent
at Rainier Valley Leadership Academy and whyshe enrolled her son, Mattheo into the
public charter school. Mis Nicole Franklinhas two kids and her oldest son is
in the tenth grade. I haveone scholar currently and I'm hoping that they'll
(17:40):
be an expansion of Grander Valley LeadershipAcademy so that my youngest scholar, who
was now will be able to attendnext year and I can talk a little
bit about that. I've chosen notto put my youngest scholar in school in
estate. You know whom, youdon't have to pick them intool to their
eighth and I have not found aplace that I feel will nurture his can
(18:00):
self. My oldest scholar um justlike lands. But my oldest is brilliant,
amazing, intelligent. He's a leader, and before he went into school,
he loved school. And it isquite frankly, then a struggle,
um to see him, you know, get praised to his athletic talents um,
(18:23):
but not it was even close tothe same level of praise for his
academic or leadership ability. And Iknow that if he is in a school
like Grand Valley Leadership Academy in kindergarten, that who have a different a different
situation right now. And you know, and so even now he's there,
you know, just I know he'sI know, he's getting plants and the
(18:47):
seeds and he's getting raptord love andthat they see him for the whole person
um that he is. And youknow that that's one of the main reasons
I chose that from you know,the development of my child. Another really
strong reason for choosing Rate of OurLeadership Academy is a commitment to anti racism.
(19:11):
It is a core value, familyvalue, and in fact it's of
the work that I do. Andum, you know, quite frankly,
a lot of folks aren't clear aboutthe difference between when diversified diversity and in
apudium and anti racism. When beingreally clear about finding you know, racism
and other systems of a pressure andbeing able to do that work into how
(19:36):
the true curriculum that allows scholars,all scholars to be able to see um
the ways in which many folks andmany preatures have you know, produced the
society that we have with. Oneof Miss Franklin's favorite things about our VLA
(19:57):
is the genuine love her son receivesfrom his teachers. Yeah. I think,
like he said, Masio is fortunateto be academically gifted, but it's
not his passion. And so whatwhat I struggled with as a parent and
(20:18):
what our beable he provides is youknow, basically seeing my son and not
allowing him to take easily, ofallowing him and asking him and encourage him,
not disappointing him, but encouraging himto engage in his education, encouraging
with him to engage in his communityas a leader, encouraging to understand and
(20:38):
the privileges that he might have hadcompared to others, and being able to
see this is a community and thatthat everybody comes and shows up. And
so I think, you know,the biggest thing for me is just keep
inviting him in every day, youknow, no matter how he shows that,
they're going to keep loving him.Uh. And that's wasn't it's supposed
(21:02):
to be talked about. But loveis critical, um. And you know
wants someone who cares. It's noteven just scares, it's love my son.
I know my son is loved atart LA and that's important, um
for you know, for many reasons, not only as a black parent,
but also as a parent of myson. There's a lot of senses in
(21:23):
a missogyny that goes into boys notbeing able to show their feelings or how
much they care about things, orhow people even care about them. There's
been studies that show that, youknow, black boys will down the streets
and people don't wait, that theywill smile at them or even acknowledge them.
Um. And so I know himbeing at r LA, that he
(21:44):
is constantly being pulled in you knowwhat I mean to too positive pulling into
education, putting into leadership from aplace of a core value of life.
UM. And that's really important.Not only is Maco growing academically, he
is growing socially as well. Ithink more than academic growth. I think,
(22:06):
you know, I said, Ithink it's the social emotional growth that's
what I most see. And itdoesn't mean he's not getting an academic growth,
but the thing that's more important forme is the social emotional growth.
So the fact that I'm not gettingcomplaints like at all for him is really
a huge thing. That means thathe's okay. That's what I know.
That means that he is okay becausehe doesn't have something that he's not agreeing
(22:32):
with. And that might seem small, but when your kid comes home every
day and talks about, you know, certain things, and oftentimes it's not
even about him, it seems thathe seems happens to other folks, it's
really nice to know. That's howI know that he's in an environment that
is leving and caring and nurturing,and then you know, then be able
to allow him to exceed academically.And that makes a little difference. I
(22:57):
think it's key as a parent toyou know, feel welcomed and at a
school and um, it's a verydifferent experience to walking to our v LA
with folks all up and down theway asking hey, can I help you
using anything I can do for you? Are you okay? Um? And
(23:17):
not from like well what are youdoing here? You know our hours are
from this dad, and um,it's a very different experience from the respectrum
of a parent and also as acommunity member being asked to be involved in
our in LA and coming and doingPanther talks and even when my son wasn't
at the school so to me andthis you know, the the understanding of
(23:37):
the community in the field, notjust for the for the students. As
a parent, it was really importanth to be able to have you know,
I really, I guess I'm sayingit's an a test to to our
VLA leaving out it's the desirables tobe a community decented um and to focus
on the scholars and to make parentsfeel welcome. All of those things will
(24:00):
trust and when you can trust,you all speak him down or each space.
Parents deserve essay and where their childrengo to school, regardless of the
school style that works best for yourscholar, All students deserve the opportunity to
feel welcomed, understood and cared for. And this is where true learning begins.
(24:22):
Thank you to our guests CEO ofRainier Valley Leadership Academy, Miss Banon
Coleman and Miss Nicole Franklin, oneof the dedicated parents at RVLA. Let
us know when the comments what factorsare important to you as a parent when
selecting a school, and check outthe National Alliances report on the Parents Survey
(24:44):
Never Going Back in analysis of parentssentiment on education at Public Charters dot org.
Don't forget to follow us on socialat Charter Alliance and subscribe to our
podcast produced by Hardcast Media
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