Teachers need to encourage students to shift to Banks' (2003) social action approach which means that students must engage in problem-solving and critical thinking activities that require them to evaluate and take action on social issues rather than only surface level concepts are being taught but the mainstream curriculum remains the same.



Biracial students should see themselves in the curriculum through famous biracial or multiracial historical individuals, such as George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DeBois, as well as more contemporary ones, such as Bob Marley, Tiger Woods, Colin Powell, Halle Berry, Derek Jeter, Alicia Keys, and Barack Obama. Also, inviting members from the local community into schools to reinforce the presence of biracial role models not only validates racial identity for biracial students, but also helps white and other minority children recognize the growing number of biracial and multiracial people around them. Having real role models is crucial to students' overall success and positive racial identity (Wardle & Cruz-Janzen, 2004).



Finally, teachers should supply their classroom libraries with picture books, adolescent novels, and reference books that focus on biracial children. This requires effort on the teachers' part, due to many schools' and libraries' lack of resources about biracial children.





Three major themes and associated issues emerged from the community dialogues:

1. Communication

2. Assistance to Families

3. Implications of Racial and Cultural Difference

4. Accountability

In general terms, regarding each of the areas, participants expressed

A need to communicate clearly and consistently the school systems mission, programs, progress, opportunities and challenges.

A need for strengthened channels of communication between and among the school staff, parents, and community members

A need for assistance in identifying and accessing available community and governmental supports and resources

A desire for school-based parenting centers, to include parent effectiveness training

A conviction that sensitivity training in racial and cultural difference, be provided to all levels of school personnel as well as to families, would improve relations between the schools, the community and families

Specific issues that I identified from the community meetings are summarized below,

1. Communications

Parents were concerned with both the accuracy and consistency of information they received from school personnel at all levels. For example, how schools operate, the nature of, and access to, special programs and services with which many parents are not familiar, and their rights to information about their children's academic experiences and performance.

A need for the development of common strategies and procedures and common paths of dissemination was expressed often by parents and community leaders alike.

Further examination revealed that the variances and disparities that were so frustrating extended to such areas as commitment of personnel to teaching children, curriculum, textbook adoption, and ways in which parents were (or were not) valued by school personnel.

Non-teaching school personnel should be regarded as valuable community and school resources and they should be encouraged to become familiar to parents and students.

Finally, it was strongly suggested that other organizations in the community be utilized as communications vehicles: churches, civic organizations, etc.

2. Family Assistance.

The schools are seen as institutions within the community that might assist families by compiling listings of resources of support and by making referrals for families in need.

There is a pervasive view among community folks that the system itself has narrowly defined "parental involvement" to mean attendance at parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings and that only the proscribed activities are valued as evidence of involvement and/or concern. Considerable interest was generated by the distribution of a document that identified many ways of being involved with schools and a child’s education, many of which did not involve coming to the school.

3. Implications of Racial and Cultural Difference

Many people at the meetings spoke about feeling intimidated by school personnel, many of who use educational jargon when speaking with parents. This uncomfortable situation is made worse because most of the circumstances that result in teacher-parent communications are about a child's negative behavior (actual or perceived) that the teacher is reporting. Meeting participants were looking for ways to create a sense within communities that schools are a place from which to seek help and support. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, community members were looking for ways in which the school could demonstrate a sense of caring about the children in their charge, and a sense that the system and school personnel were genuinely interested in the children and their lives.

At every meeting without exception, the need for "sensitivity training" was discussed. Dialogue on race, culture, gender, and social class and the effects of each of these areas of difference on the ways teachers and administrators perceive their students and parents was thought to be the starting point for better school and community relationships.

4. Accountability

Teachers, as well as principals, are perceived as not being subject to any accountability. There were complaints that the School Board, administrators and others in charge were the first and last resort for many school related concerns. Teachers were further seen as needing to be committed to the community rather than just to a job. The sense that school personnel were just too busy to be bothered has to be ameliorated in some way.

The sense of "not feeling welcome in the schools" came up so often in these community meetings, and the pervasive feelings of disconnection and alienation suggests that parents and other community members seem to feel that while schools exist in their communities, they are not part of the communities.



One of the consistent themes that emerged from the many meetings that I conducted was the need for all teachers to receive “sensitivity” and skills training in diverse learning styles. Addressing issues of diversity and racial difference in the school system will need to be done carefully, but, I believe, must not be ignored as school systems move to eliminate racial disparities in educational outcomes.



