SYNRGY

Objectives:

____Begin with “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”, maintain a clear definition and understanding of what is meant by human needs.

____Identify and maintain a clear understanding of societal institutions that serve human needs: that is, Family, Education, Government, Religion, and Economic.

____Share information and resources that describe and explore the impact of cultural identities, including the socialization process, norms, values, and other aspects of a culture.

____Place emphasis on knowledge of history and the important role history plays as part of a given culture.

____Foster the use of “Critical Thinking Skills” as essential for thriving in the 21^st century.

Objectives:

____Provide professional development courses, information, and resources for educators that can further Understanding, Respecting, and Connecting with students, families, and communities.

____Make available to families and communities courses, information, and resources that can aid them in supporting student achievement in schools.

____Share information and resources for advocating, organizing, and influencing policies, procedures, and practices in institutions serving human needs.

Objectives:

____Post information and resources about the origins of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and Amendments, and the Democratic Values and Processes—now a “Free World” leader.

____Illustrate how the Black American Experience, rising “From Slavery to Freedom” in the USA exemplify the promise and potential of our Democratic Republic. 

____Utilize the Black /White American Experience in the USA as a means to heal the racial divide and/or reduce the tension of racial politics.

Professional Development

Nothing can be more clear than the fact that teachers can’t be everything every student needs to be successful in school and successful in life. Any reasonable person who studies the research can quickly discover that to some extent a primary reason for the Achievement Gap between Black and Brown Students when compared to White and Asian students is because of study habits. That is, what parents and community do at home and in the community to support classroom learning. Common sense would suggest that if White and Asian students study 2 or 3 hours a night, and Black and Brown students study 2 or 3 hours a week, there might be an academic achievement gap. It doesn’t take a master’s degree and 50 years of experience in education to figure that out. That, and much more research, including potential remedies to the issue can be found throughout Synrgy School. However, there are some things educators can and should do.

Teachers and schools have a responsibility in terms of serving the community’s children well. Students, families, and communities have a responsibility to ensure high quality educational services are provided. Teachers especially, but also everyone in the school providing services, can serve better when they Understand, Respect, and Connect with the populations they serve, This is true regardless of race, gender, and other differences among students. It’s about human relations skills, and those serving certainly have to step outside of any ethnocentric perspectives they may have and think in terms of Cultural Relativity in our pluralistic society.

Learning about the students, families, and cultures one serves is necessary to help students adapt to the school culture, values, and norms maintained by educators and staff in the school. In other words, "How Do We Teach What We Don't Know?" Thus, the days of pulling out a "one lesson fits all lesson plan" may be obsolete. Lesson plans in the 21st century must give much more consideration to who is being taught, the effects the teacher's cultural background and experiences have while teaching students, and how to develop lesson plans inclusive of various groups of students being served.

Understanding, Respecting, and Connecting with students helps to reduce cross-cultural conflict and helps to manage the Dynamics of Differences.

Thus, Synrgy offers a variety of information, research, and programs designed to support educators, including the courses and book studies below. It starts with the most underserved groups. The list below shall grow to include several racial groups and ethnic groups regardless of their status in terms of being served.

As steps are being taken to include other groups in the lineup, Black and Brown students are distinctly among the most underserved and need attention, https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/asituationmwealllivewith . Even so, the need is based on the "Percentage" of the group being served. When considering the actual number of students "Underserved," however, oftentimes, White students' numbers are more than Black or Brown students. White students, as well as other groups, deserve more attention as well. Frankly, we don't want anyone in the School-to Prison Pipeline.

There are several courses well suited for professional development not yet offering clock hours. The courses below offer either clock hours for the self-paced book studies or one (1) college credit or clock hours for the self-paced course. For more information click the link below the course title to go directly to the homepage of each.

Teaching Black Boys self-paced book study link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/teaching-black-boys-book-study1

Teaching Black Boys self-paced Course link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/teaching-black-boys-course1

Teaching Black Girls self-paced Book Study link: Https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/teaching-black-girls-book-study1

Teaching Black Girls self-paced Course link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/teaching-black-girls1

African American History self-paced Book Study link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/african-american-history-book-study1

African American History self-paced Course link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/african-american-history11

Cultural Proficiency self-paced Book Study link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/cultural-proficiency1

Again, teachers need to help of parents, students, families and communities: Teachers can't do it alone:

Family and Community Support for Schools

“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our school is narrow and unlovely and acted upon, it destroys our Democracy. All that society has accomplished for itself is put, through the agency of the school, at the disposal of its future members. . .” (John Dewey) 

That statement is a mouthful. Oftentimes parents do not have the skills to educate their children well enough to prepare them for the future, not to mention the resources, so they rely on schools. Parents and families may also be in total disarray for several reasons, and barely able to care for their children. Research indicates that how well a student will succeed in life can “generally” be predicted by the zip code in which they were raised. Some states use 3^rd and 4th-grade reading scores to predict how many jail cells are needed 12 years later.

The correlation between success in school and success in life is so strong that failure in school is sometimes referred to as the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Considering the above-mentioned and other factors presented in the research, it is imperative that community leaders, especially Community-Based Organizations support students and parents when they fall short, and when possible before they fall short.

To understand how important the role of the community is in children’s lives, imagine how many lives a child touches in negative ways before they end up in prison, e.g., selling drugs, stealing, and other activities on the road from school to prison. The communities always have leaders who will step up and assume community responsibility, if they are aware of the issues.

To help communities reach those ends Synrgy offers several resources on home pages and in the curriculum with instructions on what students, families, and community can do now to help their students be successful in school.

A Situation We All Live With provides the research data in big bold print in charts and graphs that emphasize the problems but also provides information that if used could turn a failing student around immediately. Click this link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/asituationmwealllivewith

Academic Coaching Provides Community-Based Organizations (CBO) with the tools and resources to implement Academic Coaching, a proven successful program, where its staff interacts with students, families, and the schools on behalf of students and families to help students improve academically, behaviorally, and improve attendance. Click this link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/academic-coaching

Work Your Way Back is a proven successful Restorative Justice Discipline program that responds to students who may be suspended from school. The programs engage community business, city hall, and other entities to provide a place for the suspended student to work a half day each day, in one of the entities while on suspension. The students would then eat lunch in a group session at an organization that provides social services to youth and families. The student would then be returned to school to utilize their normal transportation home. The student and family reward for participation was to only serve half the suspension. Click this link: https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/wywb

Offer Provide Professional Development Opportunities For Educators, such as courses, book studies, Cultural Snapshots, speakers, etc. Documented examples, testimonials, and evaluations are present in the curriculum area of the home pages.

Policies, Procedures, and Practices (PPP), especially concerning education and government. Includes slide presentations, PDFs, and other formats that inform parents and communities about PPPP, e.g., national, state, and district Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion PPPP as well as other entities PPP such as that of national, state, and local education associations and organizations. Link Forthcoming.   

Community Organizing and Advocacy

I first came to the Kent School District (KSD) in 1977 as a classroom teacher at a time when the White student population was over 80%, and now the White student population is about 27%. One might imagine the enormity of issues that developed as the district exploded with diverse groups and became the 4^th largest district in the state. The high school where I started teaching had 2000 students and was growing to the extent that another high school was opened 5 years later. I remember when populations arrived from Southeast Asia; then from African countries; followed by groups from Ukraine, Russia, the Pacific Islands, India and other parts of the world. My last observation of the data a few years ago indicated 138 different languages spoken in the homes of KSD students.

In addition, racial tensions were increasing. George, the principal who recruited, supported, and provided me with opportunities for growth in my career, had me working with a small group of Black students, who complained about racial harassment and insensitivity, before the end of the first semester of my first year as a high school teacher. Again, this is not the place to go into a long dissertation. other areas of Synrgy shine a light on the racial issues. Suffice it to say that helping to mediate cross-cultural conflict and creating and administering diversity and equity programs and activities became a major part of my career—and it continued through retirement up to the present day.

One of the most important things I learned as a central office administrator is parents and the community must be involved, and they must be organized, especially the communities whose children are the most underserved, based on test scores, attendance rates, discipline rates, graduation rates, and other data. Thus, as a KSD administrator, I organized a group and co-founded two other groups in retirement that still function today. Many documents, including how the organizations were founded, goals, etc., are available on the Synrgy Website and readers can visit the home pages to see them. Much of the work was completed under the auspices of People Advocating Involvement in Democracy (PAID). Almost all the documents in this section relate to organizing the community, advocacy, and influencing policies, practices, and procedures in institutions, relative to diversity. The documents to be shared online tell a story that must be told and shared. Including topics like the following:

The KSD Role Model Committee (RMC): Preceding PAID the Role Model Committee had been formed in the district, ignited by newspaper headlines and reports of racial conflict between students of Color and White students at a school bus stop. (The news clippings and other details are on the Synrgy). The RMC began to address Diversity issues in several ways, e.g., Professional Development, and the Diversity in the Suburbs Conference, until the KSD established the Community Outreach Office, whose job description was created by the the RMC.

KSD Community Outreach Office established a range of districtwide diversity programs and activities, and its ombudsman role mediated numerous cross-cultural conflicts districtwide.

KSD Diversity Task Force I and II, 95/96 and KSD Diversity Plans The diversity plan was hailed as a model for the nation by Northwest Regional Educational Laboratories CNORSE Division, as well as endorsed by many other entities. Many Newspaper Articles indicate the issues leading up to the Diversity Task Force and articles indicate the praise for the Diversity Plan resulting from the drama.

https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/diversity-and-equity-plans (partially complete)

People Advocating Involvement in Democracy (PAID) Documents: PAID vision, goals, and objectives; Communications and activities.; the Weed and Seed conflict; the cofounding of the Community Network Council (CNC) and Kent Black Action Commission (KBAC); and more.

https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/paid-people-advocating-involvement-i-democracy

Synrgy Newsletters: numerous four (4) to six (6) page newsletters to keep the community at large aware of our activities and to share perspectives.

https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/synrgy-newsletters

Synrgy Special Projects Newsletters These newsletters were usually about 12 pages long highlighting specific programs or activities and/or issues. https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/synrgy-special-pojects

Newspaper Editorials: I was asked to write editorials mostly relating to education. The documents are posted in the curriculum waiting for the homepages to be created. https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/editorials

Ninety-Two (92) News Clippings

News clippings from various sources, locally and nationally, relating to the various activities ranging from the Skin Head incident in 1989 through the following 25 years. These activities laid the groundwork for programs and activities in existence today.

https://synrgy.teachable.com/p/newsclippings