CONNECTING WITH COMMUNITIES OF COLOR Harrison Bailey III ’99G, principal at Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, also works to connect with students. Its student population is diverse: 43.5% are Hispanic and 11.5% are Black. His work helped him earn Pennsylvania’s 2021 Secondary School Principal of the Year award. Bailey, who received his master’s of education in special education in 1999 and his principal certifcation in 2000 from Lehigh, says he’s most proud of two things in his work at Liberty: un- “We knew that trauma derstanding the challenges was getting in the way his students face inside and outside the school building, of a lot of our students specifcally the trauma they deal with on a daily basis, being successful.” and then from that work, creating a Wellness Center —H A R R I S ON B A I L E Y I I I in the school that’s dedicated to helping students navigate challenges. “We knew that trauma was getting in the way of a lot of our students being successful,” Bailey says. “As a result, we knew that we needed to know more about it; we needed to understand how toxic stress afects the brains and bodies of students and adults for that matter.” Under Gordon at Robeson High School, the Safe Corridors Program was started, focusing on ensuring the safety of students arriving and leaving the 42nd Street school. The school conRICHARD GORDON IV nected with the Philadelphia Police Department, University of Pennsylvania Police Department, SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) Transit Police, businesses and residents to coordinate patrols and conduct school arrivals and dismissals. Gordonalso implemented theRobesonmotto of “Build Your Own Brand,” with students identifying their post-secondary dreams and Robeson helping to develop the students’ individualized college and career pathways to get there. Embedded in Robeson’s program are four core principles that changed the school’s atmosphere: positive, nurturing, and healthy relationships; a growth mindset; college and career readiness; and belief. His work at Robeson High School led to truancy rates decreasing by 22%, graduation rates averaging 95% and school suspension rates falling below 5%. He also received the National Association of Black School Educators National Principal of the Year award in 2019 and was named Education Dive Magazine National School Administrator of the Year in 2017. For the 2021-22 school year, Gordon has been appointed to the Pennsylvania Principals Association’s Board of Directors as the diversity at-large representative. He’ll address supports needed by principals in areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. DIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM Beachum says the key to successful leadership is not the color of educators’ skin, but their ability to connect with communities of color, as Gordon, Bailey and others are doing. However, more representation that matches, or at least more closely resembles, the student body is needed, he says. “The representation has been skewed in the past, and we should know better,” Beachum says. “What we want is a true diverse representation in the teaching ranks and in the leadership ranks. And if you’re looking at the data, and the data is skewed, you knowwhat you need to do. The question becomes, do we have a real sort of moral and political will to make those changes and do the right thing?” Beachum explained that for white students, seeing white educators and administratorsmakes that the standard practice. “Innately, [white students] may have the belief that ‘Yeah, I can pretty much do what I want to do. I can be a teacher, I can be an administrator. It’s in the realmof possibility because I see it every day.’” But he asks, for students of color, do they feel the same? Can they feel the same way if they’re not seeing staf, teachers and administrators who look like them and possibly become role models? Curtis Buie, who is pursuing his master’s in educational leadership at Lehigh, experienced the impact a Black teacher can have on students of color. His frst teaching experience came in a Title One community school in the Allentown School District in Pennsylvania. At the time, he says, the district’s teachers were 92%white, and at his frst open house, parents were surprised to see a Blackmale teaching their children. Parents told himtheir child never before had a male teacher or Black teacher. “Something has to be said about a child in a challenging situation in a marginalized community, seeing someone like them come out of that and be in a position of authority, maybe a teacher or something else that they can look up to,” Buie says. “So that connection helped me establish a relationshipwith the parents and the students that was based on trust, and that trust opened the door to other learning opportunities and learning outcomes that may not have happened without that one experience.” Dropout rates for Black, male students decline by 39% if they have at least one Black teacher in elementary school, says Buie, citing a 2017 study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, American University and the University of California Davis. And marginalized students of both genders who have a Black teacher early on in school see their college aspirations rise by 19%, he says, compared with those who don’t have a Black teacher. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for white leaders in diverse classrooms, Beachum says. For them to be successful, he says, they frst need to 2 0 | L E H I G H B U L L E T I N
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