Re: “Councilor Tae Chong: Portland Public Schools shortchanging Black students, those in poverty” (Sept. 24):

It’s nice of the Press Herald to catch up on what’s been our core work. For the past five years, the board and leadership of the Portland Public Schools have consistently and openly communicated a crucial message to our community: Our district has significant achievement gaps between our economically disadvantaged students (who are mostly students of color, English language learners and students with disabilities) and our more advantaged students in Portland (who tend to be white). That is why we have made eliminating those gaps our central focus.

These gaps are not new, and they are not unique to the Portland Public Schools. They have existed for many years, and they persist in diverse school systems both nationwide and in Maine. They are due to systemic inequities that lead to opportunity gaps for Black and brown people, especially those who are economically disadvantaged. They exist because there are social and institutional structures that perpetuate those inequities. They exist because of systematic disinvestment in the institutions that support families at all levels of government. As such, they are not achievement gaps so much as they are educational debts.

What makes the Portland Public Schools stand out from many other districts, we believe, is our dogged focus on addressing that debt to our students. We have made Equity the center of the Portland Promise – our strategic plan. That is not just semantics – it means that equity drives everything we do.

For example, in the past five years, the number of staff we have added to help respond to our equity needs – social workers, multilingual family engagement specialists, teachers and behavioral health specialists – has grown from just over 100 to now nearly 200 people. And just this year’s FY22 school budget, overwhelmingly approved by Portland voters, featured a historic $3 million in such equity investments.

Here are some examples of what we have done to invest in programs and services and create cutting-edge policies to root out racism and inequities from our schools.

• Increasing support for our students who are English language learners through such measures as hiring more ELL teachers; ensuring more teachers are certified to work with ELL students; adding multilingual social workers, and investing in multilingual family engagement specialists and youth development efforts like our nationally recognized Make it Happen! program and mentoring programs.

• Increasing staff diversity and inclusion efforts that include recruiting and supporting educators who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color and creating career pathways for diverse staff.

• Creating structures to enable the district to recognize and redress harassment, sexual harassment and discrimination, including developing and approving a comprehensive policy and adding staff resources to implement this policy.

• Passing an equity policy that affects every aspect of our schools from hiring to curriculum.

• Prioritizing core instruction for equity and rigor through Wabanaki and Africana Studies; a continuation of our math and literacy equity work; the implementation of our science, technology, engineering and math plan, and improved ways to measure student progress and achievement.

• Expanding our pre-K program to meet the demand for this programming and providing transportation to ensure all families have access to pre-K.

• Ending our school resource officer program in our high schools, because such programs have disproportionate negative effects on students of color and students with disabilities.

• Overhauling our punitive, outdated discipline policies that have disparate negative impacts on our students of color.

• Implementing a policy to ensure that all of our students’ gender and sexual identities are recognized, seen and honored.

Addressing systemic inequities does not happen overnight, and we recognize that there is much more work to do. Make no mistake – we’re committed to getting it done.

However, as we stated above, the roots of these inequities are complex and beyond what any school district can solve alone. We need the support of and action by our partners – our City Council members, Portland’s legislative delegation in Augusta and our entire Portland community – to repay the societal debts that result in gaps in opportunity and achievement for so many students and families.

We invite all of these partners to work collaboratively with us and invest time, courage and boldness, steadfast commitment and resources so that we can accomplish the goal that we all share: achieving equity for all students in the Portland Public Schools.

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