|
Community
Forum
"Designing
Schools for the
Times
We Live In"
With
BPS
Superintendent Dr. John J. Ramos, Sr. and
Dr.
Rudy Crew, President of Global Partnership
Schools
Hosted by
Radio
Personality Bobby
Ramos
With a
Prologue by
Dr.
Anthony L. Bennett, Senior Pastor of
Mount
Aery
Church
in Bridgeport
In
a Community Forum on Wednesday, January 19,
Bridgeport Public Schools Superintendent
Dr. John J. Ramos,
Sr. and
Dr. Rudy
Crew, President of
Global Partnership Schools, shared with the
members of the Bridgeport community the changing
reality of education, what the educational
enterprise needs to look like going forward, and
what the community must consider doing in order
to empower our students to be globally
prepared.
The
evening began with a prologue
by
Dr. Anthony L.
Bennett, Senior
Pastor of Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport. He
shared a scripture that laid the foundation for
the forum:
"This
is the kind of fast day I'm
after:
to
break the chains of
injustice,
get
rid of exploitation in the
workplace,
free
the
oppressed,
cancel
debts.
What
I'm interested in seeing you do
is:
sharing
your food with the
hungry,
inviting
the homeless poor into your
homes,
putting
clothes on the shivering
ill-clad,
being
available to your own
families.
Do
this and the lights will turn
on,
and
your lives will turn around at
once.
Your righteousness
will pave your
way.
The
God of glory will secure your
passage.
Then
when you pray, God will
answer.
You'll
call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I
am.'”
Isaiah
58:6-9
The Message
Dr.
Bennett explained that the purpose of the forum
was to “move the community closer into a greater
resolve, where our strength is renewed, and to
see the unity of our people.”
Bobby
Ramos,
WICC Radio Personality, outlined the realities
of how the economy affects the school community,
and how the District is responding to
it.
Bridgeport
Public Schools educates more than 20,000
children per year in a population with BIG
education needs. “There is a lot of work
to do,” Mr. Ramos said. “We’re going to do more
with less. These are challenging and critical
times.”
He
explained that, in 2005, the District defined
its mission and strategy to rise to the
challenges presented; it set specific measurable
objectives to get on the path to better academic
performance.
“We
have invested a lot—data driven instruction,
professional development, numerous special
programs, periodic consultant reviews," Mr.
Ramos said. "Some schools are succeeding. No one
believes that Bridgeport
performance is acceptable, therefore, we are
accelerating. The strategy for acceleration
focuses on the lowest performing
schools.”
A
part of the strategy involves the School
Improvement Grant (SIG), which was awarded to
the District at the end of the 2009-2010 school
year. The SIG will allow Bridgeport Public
Schools to achieve reform and elevate the
District’s lowest performing schools to the
levels at which they can and should be
performing. The School Improvement Grant (SIG)
garners the support and resources necessary to
affect positive change.
Dr.
Rudy Crew,
President of Global Partnership Schools, shared
what the District and community can do to
rethink the way children can be
educated.
“We
live in a time where there is ‘bigger picture
thinking,’” he said.  “...How
might you build schools so that it allows young
people to move differently through the system,
and to a level of academic and professional
proficiency beyond what we have
now?”
Dr.
Crew previously sat down with a group of
economists to learn about the major trends in
the world and how it will shape the jobs that
will be available to scholars in the future.
Some of the trends that were mentioned were:
eLearning, Water Desalination, Food Mass
Production, and Biogenetics.
Dr.
Crew explained that disruptive innovations will
be the way to prepare the scholars of today for
gainful employment in the future, and prevent
them from becoming the non-technological
underclass. “The economy of the world will ask
for skills and attitudes, that if they don’t
have will [cause them to become] a part of the
new achievement gap.” Dr. Crew
said.
Disruptive
innovations
is a term used in business and technology to
describe innovations that improve a product or
service in ways that the market does not expect.
Typically this can be done by lowering prices or
designing for a different set of consumers. In
the case of education, disruptive innovations or
opportunities mean changing the way education
happens so that it will produce more qualified
graduates.
Such
disruptive opportunities and innovations
included:
·
Internships.
Create internships
for all students; it will prepare them
for future jobs. Besides preparing for jobs in a
particular industry, internships can teach
children proper attitudes and behaviors they
will need on the job. “Parents need to demand
better behaviors and attitudes about their work
standards of their children.”
·
Reevaluating
high school
education.
o Keep the arts in schools,
and discover how to teach students in a way that
will encourage them to express themselves in a
multisensory, artistic way.
o
Realize that not all students may require four
years of high school. Many may want to finish in
three years. Some students are already prepared
to move on to the next
level.
Dr.
Crew emphasized the importance of patience and
discipline in "letting the process work." He
referred back to Dr. Bennett’s words about
unity, unity between the community and the
District. “Allow this canvas called Bridgeport to
be painted upon," Dr. Crew said. "If you have
anything to add, bring your palette, bring your
brush... Force the conversation to be about the
right things.”
 BPS
Superintendent Dr. John J. Ramos,
Sr.
reiterated Dr. Crews’ point. “We cannot continue
to do education in the same way... The model of
education is currently unsustainable...” Dr.
Ramos explained that every year the District n
eeds more money to operate and every year
receives less funding.
Over
the years, the District has tried to bring some
of the best thinking in the country to the task
of improving the trajectory of the lives of our
students in Bridgeport. “We
need to celebrate the improvement," he
said.
The
National Urban Alliance (NUA) is the first
disruptive innovation that has improved
education in Bridgeport. "It
brought people to the table to talk about the
work in Bridgeport Public Schools," Dr. Ramos
said. "Test scores have gone up appreciably at
Beardsley
School
[because of NUA.]"
Positive
Behavioral Supports (PBS) has also been another
distruptive innovation. It has helped create a
better school climate.
Relationships
have to be strong with administration and staff.
How they treat each other makes a difference. If
relationships aren’t good the whole picture
falls apart.
Dr.
Ramos explained that the goal of the forum was
to try and create a sense of urgency, give an
idea of what the future of education must be,
and how it will effect Bridgeport
students and their future role in society.
In
closing, Dr. Ramos said, “This work is about
recasting the districts limited resources in
order to empower school communities to produced
qualified graduates.”
The
forum evoked positive reactions from the
audience. Prophetess Gerry
Claytor responded in
an email:
"I
received quite a bit of confirmation as to how
our School System must move forward! It has to
make changes, yes, on all levels! Parents
being first! They need to be told, not so much
as even trained, that much of the responsibility
as to how their children behave or move forward
in life, does eminate from first teachings!
Coming from them at
home!
...And
for you [Dr. Ramos] to stand before all those
people and say, if I've offended anyone, please
forgive me, as I would like to be a support to
you rather than harm you, I wanted to
dance!" | 
