Dr. Fergus Talks About Progress Made from His Recommendations On 1-Year Anniversary of His Report

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange-Maplewood (SOMA) Board of Education (BOE) invited Dr. Edward Fergus, Rutgers Professor of Urban Education and Policy, to present an analysis of the progress the school district has made implementing his recommendations . He began by thanking the district team. He applauded their “earnestness,” willingness to have many meetings with him and their desire to improve the school district.

Fergus also expressed gratitude for the BOE. “You all hold steadfast in terms of your role as board members, reconciling that there is an imperative around the policy, practice and procedures that are duly important for ensuring that all of the kids in the community are able to access, and in particular those that are tied back to the long vestiges of school desegregation and integration.”

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He spoke of the long history of needing to desegregate schools and removing barriers, especially “legal barriers and policies and being inclusive in a racially, ethnically, linguistically, gender-diverse and able-bodied community.”

Fergus noted that some of the populations in the inclusive initiative include special education, gifted, advance placement (AP) and honors. He said that observing what happens once students are included in classes and receive intervention supports is vital to the process.

He explained, “[My team] did a lot of document reviews, and we did a lot of interviews. Black students spoke very pointedly about their set of experiences that I think really told a textured understanding.” He continued, “It's one thing to teach math. It's another thing to hear kids talk about what it means to be in those classes — to feel undervalued, to feel as if they have less of a cognitive ability and don't deserve to be in those courses.” He commended the students for their honesty and bravery in focus groups.

Fergus shared that he utilized a disparity formula that is used by the Department of Justice, the Office of Civil Rights and the Legal Defense Fund to gage risk. He showed slides (above) illustrating that the trends since 2018. A score above 1.0 is an elevated risk. He reported, “Your black and Latinx kids have the most elevated pattern.” Fergus mentioned that the Native American population in SOMA is very small. He reminded attendees that the black and Latinx student population have a higher risk of ending up in special education. Although not as high as some districts, he labeled the statistic “disproportionate.”

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AP and honors classes also displayed “patterns of disparity.” He commented, “Your black and Latinx student populations have an elevated pattern of risk. Some of the school staff shared that some of that has to do with the moves that were being made by counselors and as well as teachers and school administrators to encourage students to move into honors classes.”

Fergus commented that black and Latinx students are underrepresented in AP courses. A black student in an AP class remarked, “I did not feel welcomed. I did not feel supported.” Teachers who were interviewed said that students sometimes drop classes if they felt very uncomfortable.

He reviewed disciplinary statistics. “During the 2022 school year, black students were five times more likely than anyone else in terms of being disciplined, and the other pattern was around free and reduced lunch students as well.”

Fergus said SOMA isn’t different from other districts, except SOMA is making the effort to resolve these issues.

He then spoke about the development of a new curriculum to ensure that all students are getting the cognitive exposures that has not been readily available to everyone. Fergus noted, “The other big curricular sort of adjustment was around the need to also enrich and accelerate kids. I know the district team has been defined as part of their development, so we have kids who are already in the pipeline who we did not expose to higher order thinking work, particularly around curriculum.”

He then talked about Intervention and Referral Services (INRS), which was in his first SOMA report. Fergus pointed out that some students who don’t have special needs require intervention support services. He said that professional development needs to lend itself to “developing an equity lens that is connected to the pedagogical mission of the district.” Fergus recommended hiring more diverse teachers. He also suggested, “The last piece is building out the types of affinity spaces, particularly for students of color, who found those safe spaces as a refuge for themselves.”

Fergus concluded with the importance of examining the cultural and climate impact. “The nature of these system changes should trickle down to the level of texture change for the kids. The kids should be able to notice that there is a marked change that has transpired.”

He continued, “I would encourage you all to consider that part of your progress monitoring includes also talking to kids, and particularly the students who have been disproportionately affected by the patterns of the system — your black students, your male students and your students with disabilities — as well as communicating and interacting with parent communities around the nature of the culture and climate impact that's transpired.”

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