Byron A. Johns is co-founder of the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence (BBC), and works with Identity, a Latino advocacy group, to promote Black and Latino We work to eliminate systemic barriers that disadvantage children and children from low-income environments. . He also serves as education chair for the Montgomery County, Maryland, branch of the NAACP and leads the NAACP Parent Council, a school district organization that advocates for equal education for Black and other students of color. We are recruiting representatives from each of the 211 schools within the school to provide guidance. chance. At the state level, Mr. Johns is a former member of the Maryland Coalition to Reform School Discipline, working with the ACLU, Open Society Institute, Advocates for Children and Youth, MD Disability Law Center, and the Office of Public Defender. This led to the passage of several bills. Improving the welfare of Maryland's children. In 2021, he received the Roscoe Nix Outstanding Community Leadership Award, Montgomery County's version of the Presidential Medal of Honor, in recognition of his career of service and his work in starting the Black and Brown Coalition.
What does educational equity mean to you?
My personal view is that educational equity means that students and families, especially those from Black, Brown, and low-income communities, are able to reach their full potential and receive high-quality education. This means addressing and advocating for solutions to the barriers that negatively impact access to the full benefits of the world. public education. We must address systemic issues through improvements and changes in policies, practices, contracts, and culture at the school district level, and work to empower parents and guardians to more effectively advocate for their children at the school level. not.
Why is early literacy for students of color so important for educational equity?
There are several reasons why the BBC has focused on championing early literacy. In Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), 2 out of 3 Black preschoolers and 3 out of 4 Latino preschoolers enter kindergarten when they begin their formal education. Not ready. Because reading is the foundational skill for all other subjects, schools teach “Learn to Read” from kindergarten through third grade, and “Read to Learn” from third grade onwards. Investing resources and more effective ways to teach early childhood children to read is one of school districts' top priorities because so many children begin school with insufficient learning skills. is becoming increasingly important.
What do you think is the most pressing education equity issue today? How can advocates address this challenge?
In addition to endemic issues that have existed for decades, there are some pressing issues that have come to the forefront as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The most pressing are:
- Mental health crisis for students and school staff
- rising levels of absenteeism and non-participation, particularly among the most vulnerable groups;
- Fiscal pressures from inflation and the impending end to federal funding for pandemic recovery
- The recognition that previously widely accepted pedagogy was inconsistent with known brain science and ineffective for many students led to changes in pedagogical methods to adopt and adapt scientific practices and curricula in reading and mathematics. Rapid reorganization is required.
To meet these challenges, we need help with:
- Ensure that resource reductions and reallocation occur fairly
- Prioritize education funding at local, state, and federal levels
- Demand resources and accountability for programs that effectively support struggling students, especially underserved students.
- Leveraging the relationships and credibility of our advocates in the communities we serve, we connect and re-engage students and families with support services available across our schools and county.
How has the education landscape changed since you started this job?
Although the situation has changed in some ways, the nature of the challenge remains the same. What I can say for sure is that my perception and understanding of problems and solutions has evolved over the past 15 years. I first focused on empowering parents and caregivers, or bottom-up strategies. Over time, I realized that although the name changed, the problem was the same. So the problem was systemic. We also needed to understand and develop top-down strategies to remove these systemic barriers.
What (or who) motivates you to advocate for educational equity?
My mother and father were my first role models and taught me the importance of education to me, but becoming a parent to a son and a daughter has awakened me and made me realize that education is not just for my children. motivated me to become an advocate for fairness. Children and their families who may not have the ability or social capital to advocate for themselves.
What is your favorite quote and why?
These are three of my favorite quotes that spoke to me on different levels in my life's journey.
“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela
“If you give a man one fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” — Maimonides
“The more you read, the more you know, the more you learn, the more places you go.” –Dr.Seuss
Please share one major success you've had in your career.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, while school was held virtually, I led a public-private partnership working with MCPS, private child care providers, and public and private funders to provide safe and supervised education. Provided students with an educational equity hub that supports low-income students by providing . , technology enables in-person learning facilities and makes virtual learning effective for the most vulnerable students. This model was adapted to allow for continued support as school districts reopened, but individual schools experienced phased quarantines and closures.
We also recently hosted a community forum for late 2023. The forum focused on improving literacy and increasing resources to target interventions to close gaps in student outcomes. With more than 800 attendees, our data points, advocacy priorities, and testimonies were all presented in both English and Spanish to address community members in attendance and raise awareness of this important educational equity issue. I asked them to participate in the problem.
What’s next regarding your work?
The challenge ahead is to build capacity and infrastructure for sustained advocacy. The problems we are dealing with are persistent, adaptive, and harmful, much like viruses. The education system we are challenging is a large bureaucracy with entrenched stakeholders deeply entrenched in the status quo. Therefore, disrupting and dismantling existing power structures is a long-term endeavor.
