Media release: Black Educators Association – Glaze Report snubs the Black community!

For Immediate Release:

February 12, 2018

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Contact: Karen Hudson, President

In 2019, the Black Educators Association (BEA) will celebrate the monumental milestone of the Association’s 50th anniversary solidifying the organization as the oldest African Nova Scotian educational non-profit whose mission is “To monitor and ensure the development of an equitable education system so that African Nova Scotians can achieve their maximum potential“. Yet, during the consultation phase and subsequent implementation of the Raise the Bar: A Coherent and Responsive Education Administrative System for Nova Scotia report, the Black Educators Association was neither invited nor requested to give input into this review.

BEA‘s membership of teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and community members are appalled to have been omitted from such a process of paramount importance. For the BEA, the discussion of the achievement gap and educational equity and equality in mathematics and literacy continues to be at the forefront in the black community. Given the work that BEA is doing with black learners in Nova Scotia to bridge the evidenced-based significant gaps, we ask ourselves how and why the Association was not invited and blatantly ignored by the very consultant garnered to write the report?! Dr. Avis Glaze clearly should have consulted this historic and grassroots organization prior to constructing the Report, The Association’s position is that the Glaze Report is missing key components namely:

1. There is zero reference to the BLAC Report on Education – Redressing Inequity, Empowering Black Learners: the cornerstone report dealing with moving African Nova Scotians forward in education and is one of the most historical and prolific reports of the Black community. Further, there is no reference to Enid Lee’s Reality Check: A Review of key program areas in the BLAC Report for their effectiveness in enhancing the educational opportunities and achievement of African Nova Scotian learners and Nova Scotia black communities are still waiting for recommendations to be implemented.
2. The history and involvement of BEA in the development of African Nova Scotians’ educational experiences, even when the Education Act includes legislation to this effect.

BEA is further discouraged to learn that the value of elected representatives are seemingly dispensable in English speaking school boards in Nova Scotia but not in others. This begs the question of why our basic voting rights and freedoms are being silenced. The voices of our African Nova Scotian elected officials who represent our nearly 50 black communities are threatened and BEA denounces Glaze’s recommended elimination of the elected Nova Scotia school boards. Today we are grappling with this decision.

Raise the Bar by Dr. Avis Glaze was undeniably written in haste and is at the very least disrespectful to every African Nova Scotian learner past, present and future. BEA questions its merit and worth. As President of the Black Educators Association, I look forward to meeting with the Minister of Education (the Honorable Zach Churchill) to discuss the current and impending ramifications of the Glaze Report on African Nova Scotian learners and of our voice as a community.