NARRATOR: Make the choice to begin anywhere in your life.

And the journey has started.

And along the way, be inspired.

Listen to the stories by joining the President of Howard University, Dr. Wayne A.I.

Frederick on "The journey".

As we approach the spring 2021 semester at Howard university, and welcome the Presidential Administration of Joe Biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris, it is vital that we explore the connections between education and politics.

Right now, we are at a critical crossroads.

We are still in the midst of a global pandemic and continuing to work to meet the challenges to provide for our students' educational needs in a mostly volatile environment.

At the same time, the availability of effective COVID-19 vaccines means that the end of the pandemic is in sight.

And therefore, we must begin to prepare now for a post coronavirus educational future.

Today, I'll be speaking with an expert in higher education about what we can expect from the new administration's educational priorities.

Hello, my name is Dr. Wayne Frederick and my guest today on "The Journey" is Dr.

Dawn Williams, Professor and Dean of the Howard University School of Education.

Welcome.

Thank you.

So let's jump right in first with a little bit of background here.

What got you first interested in pursuing the field of education?

Well, it's a very interesting background and probably not a very traditional background.

I wanted to start off to become a lawyer and my major was in political science.

I studied political science for about two years before I realized it wasn't my true passion.

Every time I volunteered and served the community, it was always in the educational components, tutoring or working within schools and some kind of way in volunteering.

So I changed my major to elementary education and it was the best decision that I made to begin my career.

And that experience allowed me to just be happy professionally and personally.

When you were growing up, what was your schooling like in terms of elementary education?

So I'm a proud product of the New York City public schools.

I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, New York and my journey through education was full public school education from pre-kindergarten really through 12th grade.

One thing that people are always surprised about is that I never had a Black teacher in my kindergarten through 12th grade experience.

And that is surprising when you think about the diversity that you see in New York City.

And of course I had diverse friends.

I remember my block in Queens, very diverse.

However, when I went to school, I didn't have any Black teachers.

The two Black teachers I will say that I did have were of specials.

So I did have a music teacher in middle school and I had a long-term sub in high school, but for all the core professions, never did I see a Black teacher until I went to college.

At least it wasn't the formative experience in terms of you seeing role models who looked like you to get into education, but clearly education was an important aspect of what you did.

What influenced your choices for your undergrad experience?

It was those volunteer experiences once again.

Every time that I worked with children, it made me happy.

And I recall even in the third grade that a first grade teacher who was a Black teacher, but she wasn't my teacher picked me out to volunteer to help her in her first grade classroom.

I felt very special and very important as a third grader.

And I felt almost like a mentor even before knowing what the word mentor was to those first grade students.

I know jumping into the current circumstance that we're in, the challenge that we have today and what we worry about really, it's probably most pronounced at the elementary school level.

So that third grade experience you had mentoring the first graders is not a natural experience that someone like you will have today.

And so what do you see as a challenge in the pandemic with remote learning at that level in particular?

So I am also a mother of a first grader so I see it in reality, but then also see it from the times of when I was practicing when I was an elementary education teacher.

I am most concerned for elementary education students and early childhood students.

And even more concerned with students that have special needs.

They are struggling the most right now during the virtual learning.

And although educators are doing what they can to engage and assess students to be able to see where they are, they need physical presence.

I mean, that's very hard to provide in a safe way right now.

Some are figuring it out, but for the most part, many of those students are at home learning.

And why do they need physical presence?

What about the socialization at that age is so critical to the overall development of these young people?

Developmentally, it is extremely important.

So I know we put a lot of emphasis on the academics which of course is important, but to round it out, to round out that whole child, they need to be able to talk with and develop peer relationships.

Developing those relationships virtually is just not the same.

Of course, my son has never met the children in his classroom right now.

And the teacher does give them opportunities during lunchtime.

He takes them all off mute and it's crazy.

They're talking about roadblocks and a number of video games and trying to become friends on their video games, but that social development of them actually learning how to become a friend isn't there in a virtual environment.

And this potentially, I would imagine would have long-term implications in our society as a whole?

We expect that they will have long-term implications.

And we don't know the extent of it just yet, but we know that when we do return to schools in person, there's gonna be a lot of makeup work that has to be done.

And is there any experience that we've had in the past whether it was during war time or some other experience that probably gives us some insight into the injury and then hopefully the recovery in our history?

I'm afraid my experience with that isn't such a positive one.

So of course, we have never seen anything like this globally, globally.

However, I think about the time when my dad growing up in rural Prince Edward County, Virginia where their schools were closed from 1959 to 1964 for Black and White students in response to massive resistance to desegregation.

So that's the one example that I know very well where schools were closed for five years, but what happened during that time was community.

Community came together.

And these people who were not heavily resourced during the late 1950s and early 1960s, some made do by coming together and having local schools within or I should say learning environments within people's homes where people volunteered to become tutors.

So that's one example that I think that we should look to of how the community came together to make sure that these youngsters were taken care of.

And these were students from kindergarten through 12th grade I know when you look at education obviously being the Dean of the School of Education, you're seeing young people who wanna join the profession at different places in the profession.

What about their education has to be different so that they can be prepared probably to deal with some of the social elements of teaching as they go out into the workforce?

And even in our own field here at Howard university, we have to adjust our teacher preparation to prepare them for this because many of our students, they graduated and their first year teaching is virtually.

And if this is to ever happen again, we want them to be prepared.

So there is a mixture of how students are being prepared.

There's the traditional elements of how to work with children.

But then there's also elements of having that virtual engagement, being exposed to the type of technology, the type of applications that can bring students together, the type of even those activities that can bring them together and not just in an academic way, but in a social regard.

How you talk about resiliency, especially for our counselors and our psychologists who are working with children.

So preparing them to be ready to adjust to the environment that they might see from a virtual perspective, whether they're in schools or out of school.

I've been on the board of my son's school.

He's now a 16 year old junior and now I'm on the board of my daughter's school.

She's a freshman in high school, 14 years old.

And I've watched her have that difficulty of the isolation starting high school.

And as you said, not being able to engage.

The other element obviously is trying to manage the vaccines.

Just earlier this week, I was with the Maryland State Education Association.

They have a broadcast that they had me on.

And all of the questions were about the vaccine.

What is the status of the COVID-19 vaccine at the K through 12 level for teachers in particular?

And what is the level of apprehension for teachers in that environment?

I think teachers are ready to be vaccined by and large.

We do have pockets of populations and sometimes it is culturally informed of whether or not they are ready and comfortable with getting the vaccine.

In our neighboring state of Virginia, teachers are already starting the vaccination process because many of them are attending school on a regular basis and working with children.

And I guess as we look into the future and we start coming back albeit, it's gonna be a different environment.

What maybe in terms of skill set, the basic skill sets you want elementary students or even more formative students to have?

What are the things that you think we would lose?

Are those gonna be language skills or is it gonna be more math?

I mean, what are the elements of that early education that you think may be harmed the most?

So I think there's gonna be a variance.

I do believe that there are some school communities who are doing very well.

And then there are others that are struggling.

And the difference between those that are doing well and those that are struggling is resources.

The access to resources to be able to supplement.

There are homes that are able to provide private learning opportunities for students in addition to what they're getting in a public school setting.

But from a content perspective, it is likely to be in the area of English and language arts that we may see the greatest struggle or the area that we need to take a very keen look at during the foundation of the elementary education where students are learning to read.

And not just learning to read, but learning to develop a love of reading.

And they're competing with technology and wanting to go onto their devices instead of opening up a traditional book, that is where the greatest obstacle I see.

And what advice do you have for parents who may be listening to this like yourself with a first grader who are trying to do other things at home to ensure that their children don't fall too far behind?

There are a variety of things that parents can do right now.

And I'm going to emphasize again community.

And that might mean your community, your friends and other parents that have children of similar age groups.

However, parents can work with their children in ways that are a little less traditional where it doesn't feel like work for the child.

It could be helping cooking and that might be reading a recipe.

It could be help, and I'm big on students learning about financial wealth.

It could be them helping you pay bills.

It could be when you're driving around, you're reading the signs.

So there are ways that parents can help to reinforce that.

I also encourage for parents to work with the teachers and ask the teachers for what's called a scope and sequence.

This scope and sequence lays out the curriculum for the whole academic year or they may be able to get it for a grading quarter.

Because if I see that we're talking about government in February as an example, that might be my opportunity to drive down to the Capitol.

Well, maybe not right now of course, but to drive around D.C. and point out some of the government buildings and what they do.

These supplemental activities really help to reinforce a love of learning and connect the dots.

That makes a lot of sense.

As you look at the evolution of the School of Education and the role that Howard and the other HBCUs have to play, what are some of the new and innovative programs you're looking at that you think are going to be parts of the solution for the issues that we were discussing earlier?

We have several.

We have several across our platform within the School of Education.

I'll talk about a few that I think are trending quite popular among our practitioners across the country.

The Urban Superintendent Academy is an academy that we've had with the American Association of School Administrators, AASA, the Superintendent Organization.

This is a partnership that is preparing executive level leaders to be superintendents within urban school districts.

We have had this program for about five or six years now and have produced well over two dozen superintendents that are currently serving in districts across the nation and doing great things.

We have another program that we'll be launching this summer in 2021.

And it's our advanced placement summer institute.

This one, I'm very excited about.

This one, we're bringing teachers across the country to Howard University this year in a virtual sense, but to Howard university to have the Howard experience, but also prepare them to be AP high school teachers.

The research shows that there are a significantly low number of teachers of color within AP subjects across the nation, more specifically Black teachers.

And what I am also finding as we hire AP consultants to teach within these workshops, there's a lack of diversity in that area too.

So the whole pipeline of AP, I feel like it's going to benefit from Howard University being at the table as a partner to diversify the teaching profession in this regard.

We also know that if a student has a Black teacher, they are more likely to hold higher expectations for Black students and also encourage them to be tested for gifted and talented and also refer them to take AP courses.

Yeah, that's excellent.

When you tie those programs as young people are coming in to the profession and trying to evolve into circumstance, what is some of the advice for the young people who may be listening, wanna get into education, wanna be a teacher or want this rigorous type of preparation?

What should they be thinking of and doing as they are in high school and getting ready to send the applications to Howard?

I love talking to high school students.

I had an opportunity to do so a couple of times in the last calendar year, particularly about becoming a teacher because there are a lot of myths associated with becoming a teacher.

And the number one myth that we often hear is about teacher salary.

Now, there's variance across the country as related to teacher salary, but there's also variance across the country as far as it relates to the cost of living.

Here in Washington D.C. and DCPS, DCPS is the highest paid area for teachers and they often don't know that.

And I cite the salaries to the students and they're usually very surprised about that.

We have a great partnership with DCPS right now.

We have a teacher residency program where we are preparing teachers to work within DCPS.

We're preparing effective diverse teachers to serve in this regard.

But for those high school students that are interested in becoming a teacher, many times I ask them to think about their favorite teacher, whether it's within high school or if it was an elementary education and what do they admire and like about that teacher?

And do they have those same characteristics within themselves that they think that they can pass on to another student?

I tell them my journey and my story about becoming a teacher and how it wasn't initially brought to me, but it was a part of what I was doing even when I didn't know I was doing it.

I was always teaching in some regard, cousins, siblings, et cetera.

Let's switch gears a bit.

Obviously, we've had a historic election.

One of our alumni in the form of Kamala Harris has been appointed to be the Vice President elect or should I say elected.

And she and President Biden obviously are laying out their plans.

They've selected Miguel Cardona to be the Secretary of Education.

As you look at the incoming Secretary of Education and you look at the full scope of education from K all the way through universities and grade schools, et cetera, what are some of the things that you would like to see incoming Secretary Cardona really prioritize that may be very different from what the prior administration was focused on?

Dr. Cardona is bringing a wealth of experience that is gonna be a breath of fresh air for educators.

He has walked the talk.

He has served in so many capacities within the profes&sion of education so he understands the perspectives.

One thing I feel comfortable that I feel that he would bring is a higher respect for teachers and that is interpreted in a variety of ways.

So his affiliation with being a former educator while really always having been an educator, I consider it will help to underscore what teachers are doing now.

The other part that I think that will be easier for him to do that is how we are or the position that we're in right now because we're in a pandemic, parents are really understanding all that teachers do.

And why are they understanding that?

Because they're having to do it too.

So with them at the homes helping, assisting children or either homeschooling their children, they see how difficult it can be to teach children a variety of subject matters, to keep their attention, to keep them engaged and to see the outcome of the result of the teaching that's happening.

So right now, teachers are highly regarded because of the work that they're doing.

They've had to switch as many of us have had to do to prepare to teach in a virtual environment.

So one of his first initiatives I hope is going to be one that is gonna be a targeted investment to help assist schools to get over this hump of the learning loss that has occurred during COVID-19.

And part of that, even our current administration has been generous of giving these care packages, COVID care packages so that schools have the funds that they need.

However, there have been a realization for some but not all, but a realization that there are extreme inequities within the educational system.

There always has been, but this pandemic helped to exacerbate that.

It has it in the frontline.

We're talking about food and security is now in this connection to school.

These are things that have always been there.

These are items that we talk about all the time within the school of education to prepare our teachers even though they're not necessarily in the realm of making decisions around food and securities, they are aware of how important it is to have good nutrition and the outcome of a strong education.

Now, obviously there's some concern that has higher ed experience may not be as strong as is K through 12.

And when you look at the budget in the department of education, a large part of it is focused around higher education.

Any concerns there?

I don't think so.

When we get a secretary of education, they are generally have some connection from higher education or within the K-12.

More likely you've seen it in the K-12 but they have the major responsibility of overseeing education from pre-K through and beyond to higher education.

Sometimes secretaries of education have to come to the job and really learn from those, especially from those employees within the U.S. department of education that are career employees and help bring them up to speed.

Now, what I think is going to be important for any secretary of education that steps into the role is to actually be visible in these environments so that they can learn.

They will learn from research.

They will learn from those career employees but they also must learn on the ground and hearing from college presidents and other college personnel about what their greatest needs are especially now.

So this transition of an administration during a pandemic coming in the needs for universities are quite different than what they were four years.

That's absolutely right.

And we're seeing that every day as we try to navigate through this environment.

It's certainly a challenge.

As we begin to close, I think two things I'd like to close with.

The first is you've outlined obviously how you would like to see the secretary of education engage and what should be happening.

And you've also spoken about what we wanna see in teachers.

What about infrastructure across the spectrum nationally?

Obviously, varies significantly state by state, but how much of the technology changes and so on do we need in the classrooms especially for those students who are particularly disadvantaged because of the circumstances that they may be living in or the cities that they may be living in or the municipalities they may be in?

It's a new normal.

So, many times prior to the pandemic, schools were engaged in conversations about how can we make our education more engaging through technology?

Now we're here.

So not only are we are here, it's somewhat of an overload of technology in the applications et cetera, that teachers are working with.

However, now that we are into hopefully coming out of the pandemic and we're going to have a healthy assortment of technology along with in-person instruction, the infrastructure is still important because there were what some might consider small items that we didn't think about.

So it was children were provided in many cases with laptops to be able to learn, but it had to be a laptop with a camera.

Children were provided even some cases with headphones.

They were provided with internet.

And we talked about the digital divide, that conversation has resurfaced yet again with an education because even having the internet connectivity, we have to look at the bandwidth of the connectivity.

So there are some families that are actually driving to public libraries, sitting out in the parking lot so their child can be on during school time.

There are some families that are using their phone as a hotspot.

And when they do that, if they turn their camera on, the video is not of high quality.

When they decide to unmute and speak, the audio rather is not of high quality.

So there are a variety of areas when we talk about technology that needs to be included because what I imagine, a return back to the schools is not gonna be a return back to what we've had before.

It is gonna be a combination of what we're having now in addition to what we've had before For any of the young aspiring teachers out there who are looking at Howard University, why Howard?

Howard University is going to prepare you to become a phenomenal teacher.

And I'm not just saying this because I'm at Howard University, I hear this time and time again from school districts.

We don't even produce enough teachers before all the school districts that are asking for our teachers.

You will get a well-rounded experience.

You will get an experience that will teach you how to be a culturally affirming educator.

One of the areas that I am most proud of is that we launched our international travel abroad program for our students.

We've gone to Cuba, we've gone to South America because we want to make sure that students are learning about cultures that they're likely going to have in their own classrooms.

So we're not backpacking through Madrid because they're not likely to have European Spaniards in their classrooms, but they are likely to have a student from Colombia in their classroom.

We want them to see exactly how education looks there.

We look at the African diaspora anywhere that we go as it relates to Cuba and Colombia.

They had a really great experience in Cuba and these are undergraduate students in teacher education because Cuba has such a high literacy rate.

So we wanted them to know, how did that happen?

How did you perform this?

And we wanted them to see the perspective and hear about Cuba from Cubans and compare that to how Americans talk about Cuba and for them to be able to distinguish what they see and is happening in the world.

Excellent well, thanks again.

Thanks for being here.

My guest today was Dr.

Dawn Williams.

She's a Professor and Dean of the Howard University School of Education.

I'm Dr. Wayne Frederick.

Please join me next time on "The journey".

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For more information on this program or any other program, please visit our website at whut.org, thank you.