Richard Alan Rogers is helping improve the education of Merced’s Black, Brown students
Black and Brown children have been shortchanged for over half a century or longer in Merced City School District. These students are among the lowest academically performing and the most suspended and chronically absent student groups. This state of affairs does not reflect negatively upon the students. As educators, we are the experts who are responsible for student performance.
Dr. Richard Alan Rogers was hired for the express purpose of reversing these decades-long trends by beginning to erase the achievement, suspensions, and chronic absenteeism gaps. He has begun to fulfill his mission, all while doing the more than the full-time job of operating a district, with people he barely knows, during a pandemic.
The Black Parallel School Board does not condone discrimination, harassment or any other form of oppression. Our support of Dr. Rogers is solely in recognition of the work that the district has done under his leadership on behalf of the roughly 70% of students who had previously not been served with fidelity. We do hope that Dr. Rogers is treated fairly and without bias as the legal process plays out.
To date, Dr. Rogers has prioritized the educational needs of students of color as evidenced by the following actions. He has made AVID available to all grades in the district. He has hired an experienced firm, Birts Equity and Inclusion Solutions, to determine how to make the school environment affirming for all student groups. He has provided food to families as they have needed it. He has begun to make long overdue improvements to the Stowell Elementary site. He has provided on-site, online instruction facilities for students who need a technology-rich supervised and safe environment to work during school hours.
Under his leadership, the district is engaging with community agencies to provide safe spaces in which students can access technology and be supervised after school. He has hired elite tutors to speed up English acquisition for the district’s English Learners.
Dr. Rogers has done what no one else here has ever done — set district priorities squarely behind an equity agenda that is meant to address educational disparities that adversely impact children of cColor.
The Black Parallel School Board recognizes the exceptional value of the work that Dr. Rogers and a few committed staff have begun as well as the urgency with which they have done it. Had Dr. Rogers not begun implementation of significant changes within two years, he would have been slated for release. That is the shared experience of African Americans who are engaged to turn a system around.
We cannot stop all of the current noise that distracts from the real issue — addressing the educational needs of Black children and other children of color. We can, and must however, keep our eye on the prize and point out that everything apart from that prize (equity) might very well be a biased response that will again deny Black and Brown children equal access to education.
Regarding the civil suit involving Dr. Rogers, the Black Parallel School Board does not support a rush to character judgment for two reasons. First and foremost, he and the current MCSD School Board are the only real and immediate hope for traditionally underserved students in the Merced area. Second, make no mistake. If, Dr. Rogers is forced to leave, the equity agenda set by the previous MCSD Board (despite all expected attestations to the contrary) will likely not be effectively carried out. The few district staff who have always been committed to equity, will again, not be able to counter the inertia that drags against change.
Dr. Rogers’ insistent and steadfast administration provided the leverage to begin to turn the wheels of change. As goes Dr. Rogers, so go dedicated efforts to prioritize the needs of those children who have been most, and for so long, denied equity.