A Call for the College of Education to Suspend Its Partnership and All Activities with the State College Area School District Until They Address Systemic Racism in their Schools

The State College Area School District (SCASD) has an enduring problem of racism within its schools. This problem is well-documented. For generations, Black families have repeatedly drawn attention to the numerous occasions in which their children have faced unequal treatment, racist aggression, and/or erasure in schools. They have met individually with teachers, principals, and district administrators. They have been vocal at community events such as the 2016 SCASD Public Issues Forum: “Let’s Talk About Race for a Change,” Race and Marginalized Populations Equity Workgroups, and countless school board meetings. They have formed justice coalitions, parent organizations, and online support systems. They also practiced vulnerability by documenting their experiences for the short documentary film, Schooling Narratives. 

SCASD, however, has not taken significant action to ameliorate the negative experiences of Black children nor resolve serious systemic issues such as the underrepresentation of Black and Latine students in advanced courses, the over-disciplining of Black and Latine students, an overwhelmingly white teaching staff, and an equally white, Eurocentric curriculum. Historically, Black families have done the lonely work of holding our schools accountable, but with little success. How much more do we expect them to endure? 

We, as current students and alumni of the College of Education and the broader Penn State community, call on the College of Education to suspend its partnership with SCASD and all activities in the 2022-2023 academic school year until the school district has implemented the following systemic changes to combat its thriving culture of racial discrimination, harassment, and erasure of Black children in the district:

1.    SCASD must acknowledge in a public statement the harmful and intergenerational practices which have maintained systems of exclusion, erasure, and marginalization of Black families in the district. Healing and reconciliation cannot succeed without accountability towards communities that experience harm.
 
2.    SCASD must construct a long-term, equity-focused, and anti-racist strategic plan. On May 27, 2021, the Equity Literacy Institute shared the findings of an Equity Audit of SCASD’s policies and data. Throughout this meeting, presenters Paul Gorski and Seema Pothini emphasized their analysis was limited to the data provided by the district and to a language analysis of SCASD policies. This audit represents a piece-meal approach and does not sustain the much-needed structural transformation of a racially toxic school environment. More robust analysis and strategic planning is possible and urgently necessary. Components of meaningful strategic plan must include immediate action steps to:

a.    hire Black, Latine, Asian, and Indigenous educators as full-time teachers.
b.    diversify the curriculum across all content areas.
c.    hire more school counselors with specific expertise in supporting historically excluded students. 
d.    establish rigorous anti-racist professional development and research initiatives for teachers to address multi-layered structural issues across all schools in the district.

The school district’s culture of racism impedes the College of Education’s Strategic Goals and makes the College complicit in the harm experienced by Black families. 

The College of Education has crafted a bold and transformative 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, which calls on the College to become a leader “in the creation of a more equitable and just education system for the people of Pennsylvania, the nation, and the world” (COE Strategic Plan, 2022). However, maintaining unquestioned relationships with community partners and institutions that sustain inequitable schooling systems is in direct opposition to these goals. As it stands, the relationship with SCASD specifically impedes the College’s objectives to recruit and retain faculty of color, increase a sense of inclusion, belonging, and participation for historically underrepresented members of the College, and strengthen the College’s leadership role as a change agent for education systems and society both locally and globally. The College will struggle to recruit and retain Black faculty and students because it cannot ensure the safety and well-being of their children in the local schools. Your Black colleagues within the College have already highlighted this very issue as parents with children in the district. 

Over the years, the College has invested considerable resources in the development of institutes such as the Center for Education and Civil Rights, the Center for Educational Disparities Research, and the Center on Rural Education and Communities. The fact that there is rampant racism in Penn State’s backyard calls into the question the credibility and efficacy of these institutions whose missions are to transform schools for the better across the state of Pennsylvania and the global community. The work must first start at home. 

What needs to be different.
At this point, ignoring embedded system of racism in our schools is an intentional choice. It shields us from collectively asking the hard and necessary question of who are we? And more importantly, who are we preparing our children to be? As Penn Staters, we believe in the mission of the College of Education, and we want to see the College accomplish all the goals identified in its transformative Strategic Plan. For these reasons, we call on Dr. Kimberly Lawless and the Dean’s Office to do everything within their power to protect, support, and affirm the humanity of Black families within the State College Area School District by holding their partner accountable. We ask you to disabuse yourselves of performative statements and listening sessions—we know they do not change systems. Research from your own College makes it very clear that SCASD must take considerable steps to achieve true equity and inclusion. The two action items outlined in this letter are necessary steps towards actualizing that goal. 
 
The College of Education has a wealth of resources tailored exactly for this kind of urgent transformation. Those resources can be used to support SCASD’s nascent Office of Equity and Inclusivity. Additionally, the upcoming resignation of SCASD’s superintendent, Bob O’Donnell, presents an important opportunity to assess and influence the type of leadership that can guide its schools towards tangible change. The suspension of your partnership represents the College’s commitment to the objectives of making “essential literacies, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and mental health and well-being the foci of the College of Education’s partnership work” (COE Strategic Plan 2021-2025). Through periodic check-ins, presentations, and joint research initiatives, SCASD can demonstrate its progress and implementation of these objectives as well. 
 
This is our moment to break the cycle of marginalization for Black children in our schools. Trust that our community can do hard things. Generate an actionable plan to accomplish them. 

Signed,

The Penn Stater Community

Useful Links

Penn State College of Education 2021-2025 Strategic Plan: https://ed.psu.edu/strategic-plan-2021-2025

State College NAACP Petition: https://www.change.org/p/investigate-racist-harassment-of-black-scasd-students-and-drop-felony-charges

‘We felt like we weren’t being heard.’ State High students share, celebrate cultures. Read more at: https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/state-college/article260213735.html#storylink=cpy

Community members voice concerns following assault tied to racist photo at State College high school. Read more at: https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/education/article258170903.html#storylink=cpy

State College Area School District Board of Directors. (2021, May 27). State college school board work session on the district’s equity audit. C-NET: https://videoplayer.telvue.com/player/GNduNoua2rBThhw6N4PRP9OCSPf6B2ru/playlists/4827/media/646438?sequenceNumber=17&autostart=false&showtabssearch=true 

O’Donnell, R., Block, V., Chatters, S., Pringle, H. & Ricker, K. (2020, October 1). Discipline Disproportionality: Black Students with Special Ed. Services. https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/stco/Board.nsf/files/BTYSZA75130F/$file/7.A.2.%20Discipline%20Disproportionality_%20Black%20Students%20with%20Special%20Ed.%20Svcs%2010-05-2020.pdf 

Bock, V., Chatters, S., Pringle, H. & Ricker, K. (2021, April 29). Significant Disproportionality: Discipline and identification of Black Students: https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/stco/Board.nsf/files/C2JRX470107F/$file/6.B.%20Special%20Education%20Significant%20Disproportionality%20of%20Black%20Students%2005-03-2021.pdf 

Parent-circulated petition seeks ‘meaningful and systemic change’ to address racism, bias in SCASD: Read more at: https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/education/article243628827.html#storylink=cpy

New mini-documentary sparks conversation about racism at State College public schools. https://www.centredaily.com/article222942330.html

Nastasi, T. Why we need to talk (2016, February 19). https://www.centredaily.com/opinion/article61437887.html

Milazzo, B. (2015, October 29). District turns photo incident into ‘teachable moment’. Center Daily Times. https://www.centredaily.com/article44728461.html