I've been hearing a lot of things about them these last few months, so let's discuss them.
This is their website, and this is part of their "about" page:
{ Founded by Glenn E. Singleton in 1992, Pacific Educational Group is committed to achieving racial equity in education. We engage in sustained partnerships with educational organizations to transform beliefs, behaviors, and results so people of all races can achieve at their highest levels and live their most empowered and powerful lives. }
If you are starting to get suspicious, you are on the right track~
I believe it was this report that brought them to my more immediate attention. 42 districts responded to their request for financial information regarding how much they had paid to PEG since 2010.
{ The total amount was $3.9 million between 2010 and 2015, with some districts spending a lot more than others.
The biggest spender on the list was Pittsburgh Public Schools, which paid PEG a whopping $586,300 over a four-year period. }
So, what exactly is PEG being paid to do to these schools?
The most comprehensive editorial from a district effected by PEG comes from St. Paul, MN where the teaching staff has been quitting in droves.
Condensed summary of the three page spread, just copy and pasted what I felt are the key paragraphs:
{ Harding isn't much different than most big city schools. It squats in St. Paul's most economically depressed zip code, where 83 percent of kids receive free or reduced-price lunch. This is a multi-ethnic, multi-national place, the majority the sons and daughters of Asian immigrants.
By the inverted logic of poverty, some of the lowest-achieving students ironically have the best attendance. Even on snow days, they can still count on free breakfast, heat, and wi-fi.
Every year kids reach the 12th grade with elementary-level reading skills. Still, the teachers here, who share centuries of experience, say they love their students and they love their jobs. That makes it harder to admit that over the last few years, Harding has suffered a breakdown of safety and order.
Two years ago, kids who'd spent their academic lives in specialized classrooms for behavioral issues and cognitive disabilities were mainstreamed into general classes, along with all the kids who spoke English as a second language. More than 3,000 made the transition.
The district also shifted its thinking on discipline, influenced by data that showed black kids being suspended at alarming rates. Such punishment would now come as a last resort. Instead, disruptive or destructive students would essentially receive a 20-minute timeout, receive counseling by a "behavioral coach," then return to class when they calmed down.
The changes came at the behest of Superintendent Valeria Silva. When she took up the torch of St. Paul's schools in 2009, she inherited an urban district like so many others -- one with a dire achievement gap between students of color and their white counterparts. }
Stay with me, KYM, shit's about to get weird.
{ To kick it off, St. Paul spent more than $1 million on Pacific Educational Group, a San Francisco consulting firm that purports to create "racially conscious and socially just" schools.
Pacific offered racial equity training for teachers and staff, where they practiced talking about race. Teachers were asked to explore their biases, to preface their opinions with "As a white man, I believe…" or "As a black woman, I think…."
Becky McQueen, who comes across as a five-foot-three mother hen, heads Harding's college prep program for middle and low-income kids. She says the percentage of kids causing problems at Harding is very small, and they're not all special ed. Last spring, when she stepped into a fight between two basketball players, one grabbed her shoulder and head, throwing her aside.
The kid was only sent home for a couple of days.
In March, when a student barged into her class, McQueen happened to be standing in the doorway and got crushed into a shelf. The following week, two boys came storming in, hit a girl in the head, then skipped back out. One of them had already been written up more than 30 times.
Yet another student who repeatedly drops into her class has hit kids and cursed at an aide, once telling McQueen he would "fry" her ass. She tried to make a joke of it -- "Ooh, I could use a little weight loss."
Her students interjected: "No, that means he's gonna kill you."
Now, to know who to let in, she tells her students to use a secret knock at the door.
"There are those that believe that by suspending kids we are building a pipeline to prison. I think that by not, we are," McQueen says. "I think we're telling these kids you don't have to be on time for anything, we're just going to talk to you. You can assault somebody and we're gonna let you come back here." }
The whole thing is a great read, three pages isn't going to kill you.
So, what do you think?
Would minority students do better if we segregated them and taught them in more culturally relevant environments?
Is education as we know it a white concept based on white ideals and standards that minorities can't identify with, which leads to their struggle?
How would you react if you learned your school or your kid's school was inviting PEG to teach students about race for the week?
How about a little Booker T to kick us off?
I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.
