EDU BA122: Creating the Conditions for Effective School, Families, and Community Partnerships
Courtland Ferreria-Douglas
Word Count: 2,477
A Dual Capacity Framework Approach to Building a STEM Pipeline for Black/Latinx
Originally founded in 1854, Wayland High School ranks as one of the highest performing schools
in Massachusetts, ranked the 2nd best Public High School in the state by Boston Magazine. With average
reading/writing SAT scores of 636, average math SAT scores of 661, 98.5% graduation rate and 93.1%
attending 4-year colleges/universities [Jasnoff B.], Wayland High School is one of the highest performing
schools in the United States. Looking at the demographics of Wayland Public Schools has 2,754
students, with race/ethnicity comprising of: 5.3% African Americans (9.4% state avg), 18.0% Asian
(7.3%), 5.0% Hispanic (24.2%), 64.7% White (54.4%), 6.9% Multi-race (4.4%) [Dept of Education.]
However, while looking at state testing results in English, Mathematics, and Science shows that White
and Asian students are performing significantly higher than the state average, but their Black and Latinx
counterparts are performing at or below Black/Latinx performance of other districts. This is highlighted
when it is revealed that out of the 824 students at Wayland High School, there are only 2 Black (both
Juniors and zero Latinx) students in honors science courses. Wayland Public Schools needs to create a
Response to Intervention (RTI) Tier 2 support to be able to give Black/Latinx students access to higher
level courses.
The problem of Black and Latinx students gaining access to higher level science courses is a
growing problem in education. A new report from The Education Trust found that “2 in 5 Black and
Latino students say they really enjoy STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) courses and
aspire to go to college, but less than 3 percent are enrolling in STEM courses.” [Trust, E.] Their report
showed that Black and Latinx enrollment numbers in gifted and talented programs do not reflect their
overall representation percentages in the Kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12) ecosystem:
This lack of representation is also reflected in their findings that Black/Latinx students are being left out
of advanced courses, as “they are locked out of these opportunities early when they are denied access
to gifted and talented programs in elementary school, and later in middle and high school, when they
are not enrolled in eighth grade algebra and not given the chance to participate in Advanced Placement
(AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and dual enrollment programs. As a result, these students are
missing out on critical opportunities that can set them up for success in college and careers.” [Trust, E.]
Education Trust found that Black/Latinx students are not able to either because to “(1) schools that
serve mostly Black and Latino students not enrolling as many students in advanced classes as schools
that serve fewer Black and Latino students; and (2) schools – especially racially diverse schools – denying
Black and Latino students access to those courses.” [Patrick, Socol, Morgan] Currently Wayland High
School offers AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics. But, “even if schools do have an adequate
number of advanced courses available, Educator Bias and Mindsets often limit students” access “when
school leadership overly rely on the recommendations of teachers and counselors whose judgments
may be shaped by implicit or explicit racial bias.” [Trust, E.] Even if a student excels in a lower level
course, the curriculums of courses that most Black/Latinx students take have such limited exposure to
concepts that students enrolled in them are not exposed to concepts needed to allow them to take AP
counterparts. Students are being barred from gaining access to these courses, despite voicing interest
in going to college and pursuing a career in a STEM field.
What access to higher levels of courses really amounts to is an equity issue. Not having access
to higher level courses K-12 is having effects on students’ college choices and careers. In Charles Blow, a
New York Times reporter, states that “Few women and minorities are getting STEM degrees, although
STEM jobs are multiplying and pay more than many other careers.” [Blow, C.] According to the National
Math and Science Initiative, “STEM job creation over the next 10 years will grow significantly, growing
17 percent, as compared to 9.8 percent for other non-STEM positions.” In 2011, associated press found
that “the percentage of African-Americans earning STEM degrees has fallen during the last decade”
which is a result of “a complex equation of self-doubt, stereotypes, discouragement and economics —
and sometimes just wrong perceptions of what math and science are all about.” The New York Times
found in 2013 that this has an impact on career aspirations showing that “women make up nearly half
the work force but have just 26 percent of science, technology, engineering, or math jobs, according to
the Census Bureau. Blacks make up 11 percent of total workers but just 6 percent of STEM jobs and
Hispanics make up nearly 15 percent of the work force but hold 7 percent of STEM positions.” Currently
the proportion of college graduates with STEM degrees who are Black are declining, even “months after
universities and scientific associations pledged to address it in response to the increased focus on
systemic racism following the killing of George Floyd.” [Newsome, M.] As Cato Laurencin, CEO of the
Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, said “we need to move from talking about
the issue of Blacks in STEM and systemic racism to making concrete changes.”
Luckily, there are organizations that can act as models for supports that can be used to help
provide support and community engagement to help elevate students to higher levels. Dr. Adrian Mims
found himself in a similar problem with Brookline Public Schools, which lead to the formation The
Calculus Project, as a response to the history of underachievement in mathematics by African American,
Latino, and low-income students. Like Wayland, “very few African American, Latino, and low-income
students were seen in high-level math classes, and those who began in high-level math classes soon
“dropped down” to lower levels.” [Mims, History] Students enter The Calculus Project as rising 8th
graders, “Pre-teaching in the summer, and re-teaching/tutoring during the school year the full sequence
of mathematics courses... for example, at the end of the seventh grade, students take an algebra
preview course in the summer, and then receive after-school academic support throughout the school
year in algebra.” Integral to the academic side, is the implementation of a ‘Pride Curriculum’ “that
teaches students about the historical accomplishments of STEM professionals of color, and includes
interactions between the students and successful STEM professionals of color – at school and in the
community,” with potential paid ‘peer teaching’ opportunities for participants. As a result of
implementing this program cohorts “had higher increases in their proficient and advanced math MCAS
scores from 8th to 10th grade, than students in the district and state” with “performance on the math
MCAS from 8th to 10th grade, almost all students (96%) increased or maintained their MCAS level – with
an impressive 61% increasing a level, and 24% maintaining performance at the highest level. Finally, the
vast majority (70%) of TCP students enrolled in upper-level math classes by senior year.” [Mims, Results]
Our goal is to create a similar support program for Wayland, but specifically targeted towards
science fields. The proposal would be to have students enter the program as rising 9th graders and
remain within the program until the 11th grade, with the hopes of expanding it to include rising 8th
graders. Since science curriculums do not progress on a continuum, whereas math content builds year
after year, at Wayland students take a progression of: 9th – Biology, 10th – Chemistry, 11th – Physics.
During the 9th grade students are required to take the MCAS state science test, which students are
required to have a minimum score with the designation ‘Needs Improvement.’ Only Honors course
students are exposed to deep enough content to take AP Biology, AP Chemistry (students can also take
Quantitative Chemistry), or AP Physics. Students will be exposed to subject content by pre-teaching
curriculum in their subsequent course, where rising 9th graders will preview Biology, 10th graders
Chemistry, and lastly 11th graders Physics. This pre-teaching will commence during the summer for a 4week period, which occurs daily Monday through Friday from 9am to 2pm. During the school year, by
creating a coalition of Black/Latinx students allows for cohorting them together in the same class during
the school year. Wayland has the benefit of the foundation of an academic center, which can be
leveraged for creating ongoing support(s) throughout the year, along with helping to create after school
tutor supporting and peer teachers. By designing a RTI tier 2 support will create better access to
Black/Latinx communities.
To specifically target Black/Latinx students, this Wayland program will be open to specifically
METCO any Black/Latinx Wayland resident. While the Asian community does have challenges, currently
Asian demographics do not have significant barriers to access, which is why they are not included. The
Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) is a state funded “voluntary educational
desegregation program designed to eliminate racial imbalance through the busing of children from
Boston, MA and Springfield, MA to suburban public schools in the 38 communities.” [Metco]
Concentrating on these METCO students means that there are technical challenges needed to
overcome. The largest technical challenge to creating a summer program is transportation. It takes
anywhere from 24-35 miles to travel from Boston to Wayland, MA, with no MBTA public transit options
to facilitate city options. Currently METCO students ride buses which take them to and from Wayland
each school year. This program will need to find a location within the greater Boston area to allow these
students the daily access needed. To house students from 9am to 2pm, food considerations must also
be considered, along with many different coordinating efforts needed to be created.
Even after the creation of such a program, Wayland will need to develop many practices built
around family and community engagement. Family Engagement is “the concept of schools partnering
with families to help them support their children’s learning and development.” [Mapp & Bergman, New
Normal] It is important to name how family engagement has looked for marginalized groups in the past.
Previous attempts to address said instances are usually based around tokenism where “Efforts to
include marginalized parents in the conversation often take the form of windowdressing conventional
activities to be more ‘inclusive’ or tokenizing rituals that, contrary to intent." [Ishimaru, A.]
Transformation cannot occur by putting a single parent/community member on a committee or putting
educators and families together and expect meaningful change. To not address these issues is to
contribute and maintain the current caste system in STEM. “A caste system is an artificial construction,
a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against
the presumed inferiority of other groups on the basis of ancestry and often immutable traits, traits that
would be neutral in the abstract but are ascribed life-and-death meaning in a hierarchy favoring the
dominant caste whose forebears designed it. A caste system uses rigid, often arbitrary boundaries to
keep the ranked groupings apart, distinct from one another and in their assigned places.” [Wilkerson, I.]
By forging meaningful engagement between families and
Remote learning forced families and teachers to work together “and educators are noticing,
many for the first time, that families know more, see more, and can do more than previously
acknowledged.” [Mapp & Bergman, New Normal] Due to many different technical and logistical
challenges that are required, both parents and educators are going to have to participate with a
Codesign models, where “educators and families... work together to define their shared challenges and
improve the educational experience for children... [where] codesign models move beyond parent
committees and compliance mandates to involve families in the day-to-day work of education.” [Mapp
& Bergman, Dual Capacity] It requires the implementation of what Dr. Karen Mapp calls her DualCapacity Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships, which is “a tool for educators, policy
makers, families, and community members to understand what’s needed to cultivate and sustain
partnerships between home and school that support student achievement and school improvement.”
The Dual-Capacity Framework hopes to address and highlight the need for meaningful training and
exposures that educators don’t have access to, as well as families not being exposed to excellent
practices with many unfortunately experiencing negative aspects as children and as adults. The
‘Essential Conditions’ framework provides Process Conditions, which describe “the key components of
effective practice to build partnership” and the Organizational Conditions describe “the systems and
structures... the infrastructure, needed to support and sustain partnership.” Policy and Program Goals
illustrate the types of growth one should see once the essential conditions have been met, expanding
both educator’s and families’ the ‘4 C’ areas: Capabilities (skills and knowledge), Connections (Network),
Cognition (shifts in beliefs and values), Confidence (self-efficacy). It is not just leveraging content
knowledge, but also harnessing the unique experiences that Black/Latinx community members can bring
to education spaces like Wayland.
Dual Capacity in Wayland means bringing together the different stakeholders of students,
families, and educators. The key components of implementation and development for students, involve
the development of a Summer Academy where students are pre-taught some of the upcoming science
content providing an opportunity to get ahead and build confidence; leveraging the Academic Center
where students can receive tutoring support throughout the academic school year; Clustering students
together into designated sections to drive continued collaboration and a sense of belonging;
establishing Paid Peer Teaching opportunities to drive persistence and achievement; and development
of a PRIDE curriculum where students learn about the accomplishments of STEM professionals of color
during Summer Academy, reinforcing beliefs of high achievement and belonging. Parent/family
stakeholders must also be involved through the creation of Parent Advisory Council, which are
composed of METCO students’ parents which meet regularly and serve as powerful advocates for
students. METCO coordinators should also provide parents training and regular updates, so they know
what to expect and can better support their children. Lastly teachers and educators must receive
Professional Development/Coaching to push them to rethink systems, structures and behaviors that
suppress minority achievement.
The good news is that one of essential takeaways from The Education Trust’s findings is that
Black/Latinx individuals are successful when given the opportunity to pursue advanced classes. By
empowering students to gain access to higher level courses, students will also be provided with financial
benefits when applying to college, which will lead to greater access to STEM careers. For example, some
students who have participated in the Calculus Project like Loren Venegas (Georgetown), David Lopes
(Bucknell), or Jonathan Pierre (Princeton) have all received full rides to college. Currently there are zero
Black or Latinx students in Wayland Chemistry classes, with only 2 Black students currently at the honors
level. There are considerable Logistical and financial challenges that need to be overcome, but in a
district with a household median income of $185,375 and home value of $801,000, it might also act as
the perfect location to create a district-lead model. By partnering with families and educators with the
Dual-Capacity Framework to create a science-based support designed to help promote science literacy,
Wayland can help create a continual STEM pipeline for Black/Latinx communities to establish “effective
partnerships that support student and school improvement.”
Work Cited
Blow, C. (2015, February 2). A future segregated by science?. The New York Times. Retrieved March 12,
2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/opinion/charles-blow-a-future-segregated-byscience.html
Department of Education - Massachusetts. (2023). Massachusetts school and District Profiles.
Enrollment Data (2021-22) - Wayland High School (03150505). Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=03150505&orgtypecode=6&
Ishimaru, A. Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families and Communities. Teacher’s
College Press. Columbia University, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2023 from
file:///C:/Users/skeit/Downloads/ishimaru2020pp1-4%20(1).pdf
Jasnoff, B. (2021, September 22). Chart: The best public high schools in Greater Boston. Boston
Magazine. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://www.bostonmagazine.com/education/bestpublic-high-schools-boston-2021-chart/
Mapp, K. L. & Bergman, E. (2019). Dual capacity-building framework for family-school partnerships
(Version 2). Retrieved from: www.dualcapacity.org
Mapp, K. L. & Bergman, E. (2021) Embracing a New Normal: Toward a More Liberatory Approach to
Family Engagement. Carnegie Corporation of New York, June 2021. Retrieved March 12 2023
from https://media.carnegie.org/filer_public/f6/04/f604e672-1d4b-4dc3-903d3b619a00cd01/fe_report_fin.pdf
Metco. Wayland Public Schools. (2020). Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://www.wayland.k12.ma.us/administration/m_e_t_c_o
Mims, A. (2020, December 10). History - the calculus project. The Calculus Project - Creating a new path
to success in advanced mathematics. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://thecalculusproject.org/?page_id=727
Mims, A. (2022, April 4). Results - the calculus project. The Calculus Project - Creating a new path to
success in advanced mathematics. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://thecalculusproject.org/?page_id=1234
Newsome, M. (2022, February 9). Colleges now produce fewer black graduates in math and engineering.
The Hechinger Report. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://hechingerreport.org/even-ascolleges-pledge-to-improve-share-of-engineering-graduates-who-are-black-declines/
Patrick, K., Socol, A. R., & Morgan, I. (2022, October 18). Inequities in advanced coursework. The
Education Trust. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://edtrust.org/resource/inequities-inadvanced-coursework/?emci=ed0b9936-4232-ea11-a1cc-2818784d084f&emdi=ea000000-00000000-0000-000000000001&ceid=%7B%7BContactsEmailID%7D%7D
Trust, E. (2020, June 4). Black and Latino students shut out of advanced coursework opportunities. The
Education Trust. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://edtrust.org/press-release/black-andlatino-students-shut-out-of-advanced-coursework-opportunities/
Wilkerson, I. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent. Random House, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2023
from file:///C:/Users/skeit/Downloads/wilkerson2020pp15-20%20(2).pdf
1. Argument. A quality proposal will offer
a strong and compelling argument. It will
clearly articulate the context, the need,
the benefit, and feasibility of your
strategy. Each of your strategy’s
components will be held together by a
coherent vision for a family engagement
and partnership.
2. Rationale. The rationale for your
proposal is well grounded in what you
have been learning in the course. The
rationale should:
a)
Align the proposal with the problem
you are trying to solve and the goals you
are trying to reach.
b) Be grounded in frameworks from
class. Frameworks should ground the
strategy clearly rather than be
superimposed on the proposal.
c) Rely on research and evidence (Be
sure to use readings/materials from the
class but feel free to augment with outside
readings/materials, if appropriate).
Points
Comments
9/12
Courtland, you offer a strategy aimed at increasing access
to advanced science courses for Black and Latinx student
at Wayland High School. You want to create a program
that will not only further develop their knowledge of
science, but of their cultural history. You offer a great
argument, but this reads more like a research paper on
why Black and Latinx students should have access to
advanced science courses than a family engagement
proposal aimed at achieving that. It was unclear what
your role in the organization was and who your intended
audience was. You also did not focus on family
engagement as parents/families are only mentioned in
two sentences before your concluding paragraph.
Creating a more detailed outline of your program would
have allowed for greater clarity around the feasibility of
your program. You also do not mention any anticipated
challenges.
6.5/8
Rationale includes material from course as well as outside
research. Using the research to elevate your plans for
increasing access to Black and Latinx students would
have strengthened your rationale. Your research drives
the point of this being an equity issue more than
illustrating the benefits and potential successes of your
parent engagement strategy.
3. Organization & Clarity. Papers are well
organized and coherent. The structure of
your paper should be easy for the reader
to follow. The paper must be written
clearly for an intelligent but naïve
audience: key concepts and details must
be explained. Papers should use APA
style and be proofread to avoid careless
mistakes (grammar, spelling, typos, etc.).
4. Risk-Taking and Creativity
We encourage you to be creative in your
strategy design, and to push the
boundaries of the field (and yourself!).
This is a chance to try out new ideas.
Total Points:
5.5/7
Paper not formatted in APA style. Be sure to proofread to
catch incomplete and run-on sentences, typos, as well as
grammatical errors. Also be sure to define all key terms
for the reader such as Response to Intervention Tier 2
Support.
2/3
Courtland, you present a great idea for a program aimed at
increasing Black and Latinx student presence in
advanced science courses in Wayland High School, but it
ignored their families. Adding them to your strategy and
considering how they could help you achieve the goals of
your program is important. Prof. Mapp and Kwame
23/30