Two weeks till break…two years till radical change (12-7-08)

I’m currently reading a book titled “No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning,” and I can’t help but feel that I should be using the title as a guiding motto for the next two years of my life. In this upcoming week I have two important meetings scheduled, one with the Colorado League of Charter Schools and the other with a representative from Get Smart Schools. I’m hopeful that both organizations will play pivotal supporting roles as I look to open an ECE – 8^th grade public charter school housed right in the Manual Facility. The school opening date is fall 2010. From this point until that date I would like to follow the no excuse life model.

There are so many reasons why the school won’t open on its scheduled date. Whether it’s the fact that I have no expertise in early childhood education or that I just had my 27^th birthday two days ago, or that I’ve never done any fundraising in the private sector; it’s easy to see the shortcomings I bring to the table. However, I’m going to acknowledge all the possible deficits that I have, do whatever I can to fix them by either improving myself or recruiting human capital, and move forward. There are “no excuses” for why this school won’t open on time and do exactly what it says it’s going to do. Eliminate the achievement gap and prepare impoverished minority students to compete with their middle and upper class counter parts.

As the text I’m reading states, “indifference to minority children who arrive in kindergarten already behind and continue to flounder is no longer an option for schools.” (Thernstrom 3) It’s no longer an option for our communities and it’s no longer an option for our country. I am frustrated, to put it nicely, with the students who walk into my 9^th grade classroom three and four grade levels behind their peers. I think about my own peer group, law school graduates, commodities and insurance salesmen, bankers, accountants, small business owners, and I can’t help but think about whether my students can compete with them. Do they have the academic, social and cultural capital necessary to thrive in our competitive country? Simply stated…no. That’s not to say they’re not able to develop these assets or that they have less innate ability then my friends did at their age, I simply mean that should the school not ensure the attainment of these assets then the students chances of success in our global economy are dire.

For those wondering how I define success I will put it in non-financial terms and simply define it as the ability to do whatever you want in this world without being held back by your deficits. When I think about the quality of some of my students writing and what a cover letter on a job application would look like I quickly see a deficit that could hold them back from achievement. When I say good morning to a student and put out my hand only to receive a barely audible voice in response with a weak hand shake and no eye contact I once again see a deficit that could stop one of our students from getting what they want in this world.

As the “beat the odds” schools are proving and as all research that I’ve been reading states…we must develop the human capital of our students which includes everything from writing engaging, organized and grammatically correct text to shaking a persons hand, looking them in the eye and confidently saying “good morning.” This is the backbone of inner-city academic institutions that are changing the odds for our most underserved student population and this will be the back bone of Make it Happen Academy, an ECE – 8^th grade charter school that will open in fall of 2010 and will ensure that minority students living in poverty can and will compete with my peer group. There are “no excuses.”