The Bucks-Mont Collaborative first Membership Meeting of the season will include a presentation and discussion by Children First (formerly PCCY).
Across the region, the share of students of color attending suburban public schools is growing. In fact, one of four students attending 61 suburban school districts in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties are Black or Hispanic. Without question, these suburban school districts are becoming more and more diverse, yet the educational paradigms have not kept pace with this change.
Learning disparities among Black and Hispanic students is an equity problem, not an "urban" problem. Children First’s research, for the first time ever, reveals the problems of and solutions to the entrenched racial problems in Philly's suburban districts.
Black and Hispanic students are less likely to be placed in rigorous classes and more likely to face harsh disciplinary action. They are less likely to have access to academic support services and more likely to be economically segregated. These factors all take a profound educational and emotional toll. To build an education system that works for the region’s Black and Hispanic students, schools, districts, and lawmakers must stop divorcing the issues of poor school climate, lower access to rigorous academic courses, racially and economically segregated classrooms, and consistently inadequate school funding from student performance.
Join your partners for an engaging presentation that examines the problem and presents actionable solutions.
Read the report here.
Presenter:
Tomea A. Sippio-Smith, J.D.
K-12 Education Policy Director, Children First
Born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Miami, Florida, Tomea Sippio-Smith has dedicated her career to service. As an attorney for the state of Florida, she handled dependency proceedings for children who had been abused, abandoned or neglected. She subsequently represented the Agency for Persons with Disabilities in fair hearings for service authorizations, eligibility and crisis determinations. Currently, she is the K-12 Education Policy Director at Children First (formerly known as Public Citizens for Children and Youth or PCCY) where she writes policy, legislation, reports, issue briefs and other publications on education and equity issues, and collaborates with business leaders, lawmakers and education stakeholders to create policy. She passionately advocates for adequate and equitable education funding for students and collaboratively leads a statewide education advocacy coalition consisting of education and other non-profit organizations to encourage policy makers to create and pass legislation that improve outcomes for Pennsylvania’s public-school students. She holds a Master’s degree in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida and is the parent of two children in Pennsylvania’s public schools.