Working with what works - Equity 2000 executive director Vinetta C. Jones - includes related article on her experiences as a teenage student - Interview - Cover Story

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 20, 1997 by Frank Matthews

Can you articulate your personal commitment

to this effort and why you are so

passionate about it?

Let me first of all say that it's important that

what we're doing is shattering the myth that

just some kids can learn at high levels. All kids

can. And from my background in research I know that this is

true, and yet I see so many lives being wasted because people

are operating as if we do not know this.

My own passion in this probably comes from [personal]

experiences. That particular experience [in middle school

algebra] was one that made me think of where I would have

been if I had not had parents to intervene. I would have been

washed away, like so many others. So from that, I always had

the feeling that I had to use any opportunities or advantages

that I had from accident of birth to make a way for others.

The other thing is when I first started teaching [in the

1960s], I was teaching mathematics in the middle grades and I

had some kids in the class who had been labeled

educably mentally retarded.

They were waiting for

placement, but there was no

placement there. I went into

the classroom, fresh out of the

University of Michigan. I

really didn't know much of

what I was doing, except that I

believed that all kids could

learn. Looking back, I realize

that almost accidentally I did

some of the things that turned

out to be good teaching--like

having kids teach together,

teach each other, and all that

sort of thing I used different

strategies that, in retrospect, I

realize that a lot of good

teachers use now - like high

expectations, saying that

everybody in the class started

off with an "A" and that you

will know the things to do to

continue with that.

Bottom line is that by the

end of the school year there

were kids who had been

labeled educably mentally

retarded. . . who performed at

very high levels. They

skipped several years in one

year and people who had

them tested were shocked. So

the next year they gave me

kids who had more problems

and the same thing happened.

And I realized that a lot of

kids were being labeled in

ways that could destroy their

lives for no reason at all. So I

felt a sense of urgency to do

whatever it was that I could do to let

people know.

What distinguishes Equity

2000 from other reform

movements, the more

prominent reform movements,

in this country?

The main difference of Equity

2000 is that it is district wide. It

doesn't work in just individual

schools [or] in classrooms. And it

uses math as a driver for the

reform. It is research based. It is

comprehensive in that it is a

six-point model that builds on

things that are already working. It

starts with policy changes, the

ongoing professional

development, the involvement of

parents, the safety nets for kids,

partnerships, and the use of data.

Is it a hard sell to the school districts?

No. I think that it's very easy when I

talk with educators because it rings

true with their experiences.

Why is it, then, only in fourteen

school districts nationwide?

Because there was a decision made

within The College Board to only

operate within those six pilot sites in

sixteen districts for the [allotted]

six-year pilot [time limit. That was

done], so that we could see what the

results were before lessons learned

were shared with other districts. That

time has just finished [and] we are just

moving now to national

dissemination. There have been

districts across the country who have

been really chomping at the bit to

become a part of Equity 2000.

When does your first class

graduate from college?

The year 2000, believe.

So we don't know yet how

successful you've really been?

What we have shown in our results are

interim results--changes in the school

district, in course-taking patterns, and

success. The longitudinal study--that

looks at how they go into college and

graduate and if, in

fact, the gap is being closed--has yet

to be done. The College Board is

looking at doing that study.

Do you work with some of the other reform efforts?

Absolutely. At the school district,

Equity 2000 acts as an umbrella. If

you go into any school district, it is

hard to find one person who can even

list for you the various reform efforts

that are going on, let alone having them

coordinate it all. So one of the big

efforts of Equity 2000 is to bring

cohesion to the many different efforts

that are going on. [We want to have]

all the various players sitting around

the table with kids in the middle and

the goal [being the achievement of the

children].

A lot of districts don't have

$150,000 to spend and that's

where a large concentration of

African American kids are.

There have been some [small] districts

in the Mississippi Delta that are

interested in using Equity 2000 as a

vehicle to help all kids reach high

standards. We have started looking at

the possibility of [forming] a

consortium of small districts there.

[They should] be able to operate in

much the same way [as the] San Jose

consortium of nine districts that

operate together as one district. We are

hoping that we will be able to figure

out [how to implement] some sort of

consortium effort.

What you are doing in these

districts is not exactly rocket

science. Why hasn't it just