Culminating Assessment

Julie Bursch
University of Colorado Denver
May 21, 2014

Introduction

Culminating Assessment
Julie Bursch

University of Colorado Denver

May 21, 2014

I have uncovered many complexities in the field of urban education that have felt
largely personal. Working an average of 70 hours a week, and sometimes much longer,
has encouraged this job to feel more like a lifestyle than a profession. I have been
entangled in complex moments involving racism, classism, sexism, political corruption,
illiteracy, lack of resources, etc. The Masters program has helped me see these incidents
with enriched perspectivesall of which contribute to a deeper understanding of my role
in education.
Personal
Out of all the complexities in urban education, my greatest personal challenge has
been that the school systems evaluative measures do not reflect the qualities that I value
in education. Whether it is the Leading Effective Academic Practice (LEAP) Framework,
the Student Growth Objectives, or the School Performance Framework, none of these
measures of growth take into account what I value most: students social development
and mental wellbeing. All too often, education seems to be a dichotomy of right and
wrong information without the space to develop personal thoughts, emotions, and
opinions. As Elliot Eisner said:
Spelling and arithmetic are two examples of rule-governed tasks.
Such tasks convey to children that their most important activities in
school have single, correct answers, that those answers are known by
the teacher, and that their primary responsibility as students is to learn
the correct ones, (Eisner, 1994, p. 55).

I believe that if school systems were to give as much attention to the social
impacts of growing up in poverty, experiencing systematic oppression as a minority, or
witnessing traumatic events, as it does to scoring proficient on a test, many of the other

Culminating Assessment
Julie Bursch

University of Colorado Denver

May 21, 2014

problems in urban education would be alleviated as well. I tried to resolve this in my

classroom by frequently discussing values, character traits, and feelings throughout the
day in our academic lessons. It allowed students to put the information we were learning
into a context of their own lives. However, I think the lack of acknowledgment of socialemotional health in our schools will continue to be a personal complexity I face in urban
education.
Professional
My employment at three very different school environments has shaped my
experience as a professional. I have taught at a turnaround school in New Orleans, a
closing charter school in Montbello, and an opening innovation school in the Baker
neighborhood. I have learned how difficult it is to lead students of color and students
from low-income communities to success in a society and school structure that actively
works against their success.
In a meeting with my school principal in November, I tried to express my fear of
social classes and racial tensions playing out in my classroom. I explained how some of
my white students who come from affluent, educated families are often given more
leadership roles in our school and more opportunities to voice their opinions. I felt
worried about this as my students of color were falling below grade level and did not
seem to be as represented on a school-wide level. My principal nodded and empathized
with me at the time of the conversation, but later on used this as evidence for a low
professionalism grade on the LEAP indicator: Demonstrates and applies knowledge of
students development, needs, interests and culture to promote equity. In her opinion, my
comment showed favoritism to students of color and was not giving appropriate attention
3

Culminating Assessment
Julie Bursch

University of Colorado Denver

May 21, 2014

to the more affluent students. Furthermore, she said it concerned her that I was thinking
of my students in terms of their relative societal powers, and not seeing them as the
individuals that they are.
This situation represents how difficult it is to believe in the importance of
challenging injustices of our society, but not be able to express those ideas through the
structures and hierarchies in place in our schools. As Amanda Lewis said, It is often
Whites lack of understanding of their own roles as racial actors that
stands as a roadblock to further progress toward racial justice. (Lewis,
2001, p.782). As a leader of a school in a low-income community, it is
important for my principal to learn how to address racial issues rather
than become uncomfortable by them. Rather than supporting me to
lead all of my students to success, no matter what demographic they
identified with, I was penalized for merely addressing the issue.
Systemic
One thing I have learned with absolute certainty throughout my coarse work in
the masters program is that there are complexities at the systemic level of education that
prevent all children from having equal opportunities in our country. The complexity with
the most impact seems to be that our school systems and policies do not address, either
publicly or privately, any issues of race. Ricky Lee Allen claims that white people must
accept and admit that he is the oppressor, that is, he is necessarily racist as a
consequence of his structural and epistemological standing as a member of the white

Culminating Assessment
Julie Bursch

University of Colorado Denver

May 21, 2014

race, (Allen, 2004, p.129). Instead of following Allens advice or even acknowledging it,
our school systems and policy makers avoid discussing issues of race.
Neglecting to discuss racial issues leads to what Angela Valenzuela calls
subtractive schooling. Subtractive schooling refers to the schooling process
from which minority students emerge as monolingual individuals who
are neither identified with [their culture] nor equipped to function
competently in the mainstream of the United States, (Valenzuela,
1999, p. 88). We promote a certain standard of normalness in our
schools, and thus implicitly call attention to those who are different.
This is a systemic problem in education that is detrimental to our
students who do not identify as white.
Furthermore, schools are often charged with impossible tasks of mending some of
societys strongest injustices. I agree with both John Gardner and Nel Noddings that our
schools are demanded to solve the problems of a society unwilling to bear its burdens
where they should properly be shouldered (Noddings, 2009, p.184). If we schools are
going to be the agents of change that we hope for them to be, then we must begin
addressing issues at the systemic level as well as the classroom level.

Culminating Assessment
Julie Bursch

University of Colorado Denver

May 21, 2014

References
Allen, R. L. (2004). Whiteness and critical pedagogy. Educational
Philosophy and Theory, 36 (2), 122-136.
Eisner, E.W. (1994). The Educational Imagination: On the Design and
Evaluation of School Programs (3rd Ed). Upper Saddle River, N.J:
Prentice Hall.
Lewis, A. E. (2001). There is no race in the school yard: colorblind
ideology in an (almost) all white school. American Educational
Research Journal, 38 (4), 781-811.
Noddings, N. (2009). The false promise of paideia: a critical review of
the paideia proposal. The Curriculum Studies Reader (2nd Ed.).
New York: Routledge.
Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive Schooling: U.S. Mexican Youth and
the Politics of Caring. Albany, NY: State University of New York
Press.