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I appreciated how episode 3 spent more time developing our relationship with the students and their families One part that I was very struck by was the contrast between Miss Stovall's and Aaron's classroom approaches. I really admire Miss Stovall's dedication to making sure her students feel loved, and supported. I thought her equity class activity was deeply powerful, and the stories she gets the students to open up about were heartbreaking and offered so much insight. It is sad to hear her feel that she is just "surviving" at Oak Park.

On the other hand, Aaron's approach was pretty infuriating and seriously tone-deaf . I understand where he is coming from as a white person, however he seems to not understand that he has a great deal of work to do. I am honestly not confident his heart is in the right place. It was hard to watch him seeking out two black students to offer feedback on his race memoir, and suggest they can be a great resource for teachers. It is not the responsibility of any person of color to teach white people about racism and how to address it.

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Something that stood out to me, like many others, was the way Aaron interacted with Jada. Each instance that we watched you could see how uncomfortable the comments made her, but he was not catching on. When he smelled her coffee and she stated that she could not drink it anymore he tried to justify what he did instead of apologizing and understanding that his actions made someone else uncomfortable. He continued to ask if it was an "OCD thing" or if she was a "germophobe"  - putting labels on a student because of his own actions.

Another thing that stuck out to me was administration not allowing Jessica to form an equity group on campus and prohibited the use of school emails for this effort. Especially when there was interest from other teachers, and an outspoken need for a change in the way teachers intact with their black students, you would think admin. would see the importance in this group. During the meeting with parents, parents stressed that there did not seem to be a sense of urgency when it came to these issues and this is an example of that. Teachers wanting to make a change but admin not supporting it.

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When watching episode 3 I found myself becoming more frustrated with the way in which the school was being run, especially in terms of decision making on behalf of leadership/stakeholders such as the principal. Hearing about Jess Stovall's ideas for creating a teacher run equity committee reminded me of something a school psychologist would be interested in helping get started, given that the school psych was made aware of the idea in the first place. Hearing Jess's perspective on equity vs equality was very powerful and she struck me as someone who truly cares about the issue, which is what the school needs. Something that also stood out to me that Jess said was she felt as though she was just "surviving" at that point in time. This statement further demonstrates how many teachers/staff are feeling burnt out by the systemic issues present within Oak Park.

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What had the greatest impression on me was the student's different reactions to the physics teacher. Hearing the teacher talk about the ways in which he tried to build rapport with black students made me think about how important it is to think about individual student's needs, and how what may work to connect with one student may not work for another, and we need to make sure as educators we are maintaining boundaries. Based on the way he was talking and other student's reactions to him, it seemed like by trying to connect with black students, he was actually just making assumptions about their communication and academic needs. I think especially if you're going to preach about how liberal you are without actually listening to your black students or creating a space where they can give you feedback, then you aren't really creating any sense of justice. I think the English teacher had a better approach in that she seemed more focused on honest and open communication and positive relationship building, as opposed to just trying to "seem cool." I liked how she physically got on their level and sat on the floor with her students at one point while she was listening to them talk about their experiences of racism.

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The way the physics teacher interacted with his students in this episode was concerning to me. Some students seemed to like him but others didn't and I can completely understand why. He seemed to walk all over them making judgements and statements about them that were uncalled for. It seems to be coming from a good place trying to connect with students but takes it too far. The other thing that stood out to me was the parent's concern about how the administration is handling issues of race in the school. They don't see urgency from the administration which seems to be in line with what we have seen in previous episodes. The administration didn't take feedback from the English teacher or even hear her out about her findings in New Zealand. They also have had limited involvement in the documentary and seemed dismissive in the meeting shown in this episode with parents.

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When the English teacher and students described stories about how racism has played a role in their lives, those stories really struck me and stayed with me. I loved how the teacher took the time in her classroom to have discussions about race, asking the students times when they noticed racism, it was heartbreaking hearing their examples. The English teacher described a heartbreaking story about how racism has affected her life personally. She described a time in her childhood when she was eating Hershey kisses on a school bus and a girl came over to her and said, “you should stop eating those or your going to get more black”. The girl then proceeded to say horrible comments to her and asked if she was black from having sex with her father. The English teacher described that after hearing those comments, she threw up in her mouth, starting to cry hysterically and the girl kept laughing at her. Hearing this story, I felt so sick myself. I feel it is so important to bring these stories of racism to light, to talk about them regularly within the classroom, and make them known to others. So many people are blind to the racism that occurs everyday. It is so important for our teachers and school staff to talk about these issues within our classrooms frequently. Without these discussions change is further away.

It also stuck out to me that the school wouldn’t give the teachers a space to talk about the gap in achievement within races in their school. It is extremely frustrating that people of high power in school systems don’t see these issues as high importance, not even enough to grant a room for teachers to discuss these issues in.

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It was upsetting to hear school district superintendent Dr. Steven Isoye say, "If it's truly something systemic, teachers have to be ready, students have to be ready, the parents need to be ready. So, when people may say these things need to happen now, some of these can't happen now." The fact that the superintendent confidently said this in front of the school board, speaks volumes about his incompetence professionally. It reflects his abuse of power as a school administrator. His statement is also illogical, implying that there could ever be a time teachers, students, and parents are “ready” to fight systemic racism. The policies that contribute to Oak Park’s achievement gap are rooted in foundational structures that require upheaval.

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Something that stood out to me in episode 3 was Jess and Aaron’s discussion about how school leadership opposed their efforts to forming a teacher led equity committee. It was appalling to hear that the principal wasn’t in favor of the group and even told the teachers that they couldn’t use their school emails for such conversations. It must be really challenging to work in a school environment where leadership doesn’t respect the opinions of educators, especially when it comes to bettering the school experience for students of color. This makes me think about the content we’ve been discussing in terms of the importance of leadership buy-in for the success of programming.

I was also really caught off guard by Aaron’s interactions with students later in the episode, especially the comment about Jada’s hair. Despite wanting to advocate for his students, it’s evident that he needs to recognize and understand the impact of his biased and hurtful words on his students.

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The episode discussed the attempt of creating racial equity within the school.  While there was a racial equity strand and DELT meetings to address racial consciousness, literacy, and conversation about race, one teacher discussed what the district is failing to do.  Mr. Dan Cohen said, “Impacting racial disparities all right, is really what the district has failed to do, and I am part of that, I was part of the district equity team that struggled to really create a vision and a plan.”  The school board president did not know what the district equity team does.  Mr. Cohen stated. “The racial systemic transformation plan had not been discussed in about 10-11 months.”  These quotes go to show the lack of cohesion amongst the school board and teachers.  That while the school board states to parents that the DELT meetings are there to address racial disparities, in reality the meeting do not show active change at the systems level. In addition, student representatives are not a part of the conversation at these meetings and discussions for students stay either in the classroom or with their parents.  Pack et al. discusses how safe school ambassadors are a student bystander education program to help reduce bullying and increase school climate.  They have been shown to have positive effects on discipline and overall climate and reduce suspensions and other discipline measures.  A system level intervention for students such as this provides students a voice and decrease school violence and bullying.  Within a classroom discussion in the episode, students and the teacher discussed racism and homophobia.  A program such as Safe Schools Ambassadors could help decrease verbal and other forms of violence and harassment.

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Mr. Podolner’s comments left the greatest impression on me in this episode because of how uncomfortable I felt. Although he was raised in a family involved in Civil Rights and is a co-leader for the Teacher Equity Group, he makes incredibly offhanded comments or “jokes” surrounding race. Ke’Shawn seems to like him, whereas Jada has really distressing experiences with the physics teacher. The comment about “not doing her hair” on the day she was wearing her hair natural was inappropriate, offensive/insulting, and incredibly problematic. I am interested to see how he acts in his role as a leader for other teachers in the equity group

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Within this episode I was struck by the way the principal of Oak Park handled his response to Jessica Stovall who reached out to him in the hope of forming a teacher equity group, which already had significant interest from her fellow colleagues. The principal responded to her email saying that there were only two racial equity leaders and Jessica was not one of them and therefore refused to sanction her group. He also told her that there should be no further communication about this matter through school email accounts. Even though this response from an administrative leader may have left many individuals discouraged from achieving their goal, Jessica Stovall’s response stuck with me. She said “A group of teachers that want to talk about how they can be better teachers for their black students have to do it off campus. Maybe we will get more done and be more effective if we aren’t affiliated with the school.” This stuck with me because even though it is evident that “involving key leaders can help overcome barriers or resistance to new programs” she may be onto something with not being affiliated with the school (Strein et al., 2014, p. 143). This is because chapter ten also states that supporting and facilitating change can be accomplished outside the system through those who take on “champion roles” (Strein et al., 2014, p. 143). It appears that Jessica Stovall is more than willing to take on this “champion role” because for years she has stated that she has simply been “surviving” within Oak Park and she won’t “keep her head down” any longer. This scene also left me thinking that many schools may have Jessica Stovall’s on their staff but they may be unsure where to begin or afraid to take a stand and go against the status quo.

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I was struck by a tension between two things that were said in Episode 3, both relating to the pace of change within the district. In the school board meeting, one mother noted the lacking sense of urgency among district leaders. She spoke out for the many children's lives being shaped "in the meantime," and how for high schoolers, these four years pass quickly. While systemic change takes time, even with a team fully committed and effectively working toward justice for all students, the lives of students fly by. Jess Stovall, the English teacher, echoed this sentiment in her concession that sometimes "it is teaching them how to play the game."  She recognizes that in the absence of fast-paced change, as an educator, she must teach students how to achieve success in the system that currently exists. Through no fault of their own, teachers must reinforce the status quo in the short term (i.e. valuing certain ways of speaking, behaving, thinking) in order to help the students directly in front of them, even as they work toward longer term transformation of the system itself.  Both the experiences of the mother longing for a sense of urgency, and Ms. Stovall teaching kids to "play the game" within the current system as she works toward true social justice, make me think about the pace of change- what should we expect? What kinds of changes and within what time frame should we aim for? Is there such a thing as change that occurs too quickly? How do we manufacture urgency for the things that matter (when it is not there inherently) and deconstruct manufactured urgency for the things that shouldn't matter?

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During the meeting that included the administrators and parents it was interesting to listen to the different perspectives. The superintendent and principle carefully addressed the issues in a superficial way without addressing any call to action plan. The superintendent mentioned how just by having this meeting is a step in the right direction towards equity and justice for all students at Oak Park but made no real sense of urgency. A parent spoke up to say that in the time that students are slipping through the cracks as the meetings continue to happen. As discussed in Chapter 10 of the Best Practices book the way to maintain implementation integrity in prevention strategies is to know that programs only work when actually implemented and are more effective when fully implemented as planned. The same applies to the racial disparities at Oak Park school. The only way change is going to be possible is if a plan is set in place, actually followed through and not just discussed. -Cassy Carreiro