This article reads "Wheeler came to Palo Alto in July..." which implies July 2018. As the link shows, Keith Wheeler came to PAUSD in July 2017.

Waste of money. Thank you for draining the swamp.

" The group envisioned a high-level person committed to holding the entire district accountable for equity-related efforts."

No. We are headed back into the abyss if this position is not replaced. The chief academic officer is Sharon Ofek, one of the last remaining old-guard admins immersed in the culture that got us the OCR complaints. She is a good soldier for her superiors and supernaturally well-organized, but she will not be a good person for any kind of a job involving holding anyone in power accountable for anything. [Portion removed.]

Instead of trying to replace the position, the district should finally have an ombuds office -- and it should be an independent office charged with supporting and working for families and students, and that has power to enforce laws so we can stop relying on students having to complain to the feds. When that happens, we only help the tip of the iceberg, there are usually many who suffer but never get the help. And it's better to catch and fix things early. This is only going to happen if be have an independent, powerful ombudsman.

The district is also never going to create this position. If families care about it, you need to make what's called a "charter amendment" for the City Charter (that is not a charter school and has nothing to do with charter schools). Our school district and board are established in our City charter, like a constitution for the City, and we can change that City charter. We can create an oversight position that is charged with supporting families and with doing the things the equity coordinator should have done. There are precedents for doing it this way, with power under the City rather than the School district, in other cities. We are not the first to realize that insular power is a bad thing.

It would be a great civics project for a bunch of students to research and propose this, whether they win the election or not (City Charter amendments have to be voted on.)

This is a sad state of affairs for the PAUSD. Unfortunately, African American and Latino children and their families have not been well-served by the district for many years. While the emphasis on "the achievement gap" puts the onus on the learners, the real responsibility lies with the educators, as well-meaning as they are, to address the opportunity gap and the expectation gap that adults hold for the children in their charge. Whatever you call this now-disbanded committee and the task of the administrator who resigned, the reality of a child's learning---in the context of a society (and, to some extent, a community) still unable to deal effectively with race relations and our country's racial history---is, indeed, an uphill battle. We haven't gotten it right yet!

@White male Palo Altan: As a current and former PTA member of both Jordan and Paly, I can tell you that the learners need to want to learn also.

The math debacle years ago with Mr. Toma was due to the math teachers tiring of trying to help the underrepresented students with math when those students didn't care to learn. If they don't care to learn, they shouldn't have to take college prep classes: Web Link

[Portion removed.]

Granted, after school, many of the teachers leave immediately to catch the train or beat rush hour traffic, but that is an issue the principals need to address with the teachers. Or, perhaps the School Board could mandate that teachers stay 30 minutes after school, which would help all students. They are earning 6 figures and should want to help.

Quit demanding resources if the students don't want to improve! It is upon them to ask the teachers for help. [Portion removed.]

> Waste of money. Thank you for draining the swamp.

^^^Equity Coordinator? Who comes up with these titles and job descriptions?

[Portion removed due to deletion of referenced comment.]

@Parent @Easy Job

These comments are exactly why this district needs an equity coordinator.

Couldn't agree more that this position should NOT be re-hired and closing the achievement gap should be a shared responsibility that includeds all Paly teachers & admins but the largest share of the responsibility needs to lie with the student and their family. To place expectations that the teachers and admins can magically close the achievement gap without desire from the students or support from their families is a fantasy.

@Parent as a self-described current member of the PTA perhaps you should reconsider. Your views are very much out of alignment with the mission and vision of the PTA at the site, district, state and national level.
The National PTA’s mission is as follows: “PTA's mission is to make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.”

As for extra privileges, let’s talk about the thousands of hours of expensive academic tutoring, the pricey coaching to give a child an edge in sports with an eye to college, the private college counselors helping students from middle school up build a college resume, the legacy admission to elite colleges ... just some of the advantages our well to do students accrue.

Interesting that the Equity Coordinator, according to the equity plan, was supposed to be looking over each principal's shoulder to see if equity measures were actually being implemented at each school, and also the HR person's shoulder, as people of color were to be hired, and trained out of any unconscious bias, and also over the Title IX/Compliance officer's shoulder, to check the UCP complaints to see if there was an environment that was equitable, ---- how interesting that with all these coordination responsibilities, and with District money just recently allocated for all these purposes by the School Board, this Equity Coordinator position is no longer needed, as the principals can just do it all themselves (!!)....Wow --- what an about face!!! Wonder who influenced that?????

Wonder who influenced Ken Dauber and Jennifer DiBrienza and everyone else, except Terry Godfrey didn't seem to get the memo, do an about face and say this was all ok! Didn't they say how necessary this all was, and how important this position was? Wow.....they seemed so committed.....guess the elephant in the room got to them....it must make their mouths twitch to be talking out of both sides....

This reader would like to share a data-based examination of the existence of an achievement gap nationally--one that can't logically be said to reflect badly on what schools are doing..
.In thinking about the achievement gap, it is useful to consider national trends in average test performance for students who take an internationally recognized test, such as the SAT, for example.
As indicated in the table, below, the All Student average for SAT Critical Reading hasn't changed materially in recent decades— true as well for average scores of groups classified by race/ethnicity – except for Asian-Americans, who have closed the reading achievement gap How did they do it? Quien sabe.
Table 1. SAT Critical Reading average, selected years
1987 '97 2001 '06 '11 '15
507 505 506 503 497 495 All students
524 526 529 527 528 529 White
479 496 501 510 517 525 Asian/Pac
471 475 481 487 484 481 Amer Ind
457 451 451 454 451 448 Mex-Am
436 454 457 459 452 448 Puerto R
464 466 460 458 451 449 Oth Hisp
428 434 433 434 428 431 Black
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.(2012).
Digest of Education Statistics, 2011 (NCES 2012-001), Chapter 2. SAT averages for
ollege-bound seniors, by race/ethnicity: Selected years,1986-87 through 2010–11
Data for 2015 Web Link

If SAT averages haven't changed materially for almost 30 years, despite the effort, time and money expended to improve educational programs for all students, it seems reasonable to assume that we shouldn't expect any meaningful change in average performance in this critically important ability in the foreseeable future.
Which leads to the $64 question: what if the achievement gap is here to stay? Of course, the fact that average reading scores haven't declined, suggests that our schools must be doing something right!

It is a shame to loose Keith Wheeler. I actually had hope that he was going to make a positive difference for the minority. He brought good constructive speakers for the community and educated us about issues, and the history of the minority in this country. He was building community and bringing us together to help address our communities/schools lack of understanding about bias, unconscious or not. I can see from some of the comments here, that we sure do need education within the community. I guess he was good at his job, therefore he had to go. Better bolt down PAUSD with incompetent people, so no one knows any better. Sad state of affairs getting worse.

>> " the fact that average reading scores haven't declined, suggests that our schools must be doing something right!"

The average is defined to be 500. It cannot decline, by definition.
When students score lower, they change the curve.
A major recalibration occurred in 1994 to make everyone look smarter.
Tests were more difficult when I was a kid. You can look it up.

I don’t know why you all bothered to spend $250,000 to rename the schools you seem to be pretty intent on disenfranchising certain groups.

The equity coordinator position was a product of McGee's "all show" approach to doing things, where having a visible committee and appointing a visible person was meant to give the appearance of something getting done. In fact, he didn't have interest in the hard work of figuring out what to do, setting goals, and holding people (including himself) accountable for results, i.e., "managing."

Since Austin appears interested in managing, he correctly pointed out that the equity coordinator was not on the critical path to anywhere - he, his academic team, and the principals are the ones responsible for improving performance and with the means to do it. And based on the last board meeting, they at least mean to try.

@Parent,
Same can be said about Karen Hendricks' RISE Taskforce. Looks good to the community, but nothing really changes. They'll give their updates, but when you still employed administrators that have an engrained culture to hide and subvert, a task force won't change that. In fact wasn't she the one that promoted Adam Paulson at Paly even though the second report from that law firm showed that he screwed up?

As you said "having a visible committee and appointing a visible person was meant to give the appearance of something getting done. In fact, he didn't have interest in the hard work of figuring out what to do, setting goals, and holding people (including himself) accountable for results, i.e., "managing." "

I agree, the Rise effort accomplished little. Hendricks did succeed in implementing compliance with the OCR resolution agreement, including getting the permanent compliance office staffed and running well. Not bad for an interim who stepped into the job in October.

Keith Wheeler never interacted with the schools, instead he brought in speakers to raise awareness for meetings scheduled after school during ties when teachers and most parents could not attend. Most importantly, this "awareness was never addressed at the school sites.

Seems as though he was more interested in PR, because his approach to equity was hands-off, which is how to describe others at the District Office who do not genuinely interact with teachers and students at school sites.

Lots of PC lingo and actions, but no substance - the real stats do not lie regarding the achievement gap and the disengagement of black and brown students in the district.

Shameful!

@Parent
“How is it in your bubble where everything is simple?” There are so many reasons why a child may appear not to be interested. Not enough food, can’t sleep for worries, anxiety, teased at school, maybe they are so lost they don’t know where to start and don’t know what to do, have an undiagnosed learning difference... And we all know, these are essentially ignored until a parent makes waves. Go ahead and shoot all these possible reasons down because anyone who would write what you did is either very young, sheltered and suffers from ignorance. It’s so easy to criticize as long as you have yours or by criticizing you can make your piece of the pie bigger. LIfe is long and it will all come around back to you and if you ever find yourself down and out - you’ll be greatful for the same people you want to marginalize as those who have the least are usually the first to help because their depth of empathy is deep and acute.

I feel sad for you. You are missing love and warmth because you are trying to maximize your share at the cost of being an inclusive member of the community and probably passing on your bias.