Parents will get a chance to dialogue with Madison-area Black educational experts on how to help their children succeed academically when Blacks for Political and Social Action of Dane County hosts its annual Black Parents Summit on Saturday, Sept. 20, noon-3 p.m. at Madison College Goodman Campus.
Blacks for Political and Social Action of Dane County (BPSADC) is a local organization comprised of civil rights leaders past and present, ministers, attorneys, community leaders and citizens who have chosen to speak in a concerted voice on important issues that demand a united stance. The organization is the first and only Black PAC in the State of Wisconsin, according to the organization’s website.
“We want everybody to come and break bread together and ask the questions that need to be asked… this is really all about our kids,” David Hart, president of BPSADC, tells Madison365. “It’s really all about making sure that we close some of these educational and achievement gaps. This is vital and important for us to do, and we’re looking forward to it. We’re enthused and encouraged because in the last several years we’ve seen some good things come out of this event.”
BPSADC, Inc., is an organization of community leaders and citizens who have joined together to speak in a concerted and united voice on important issues. Every year, the organization hosts its annual community engagement session on the state of Black students at MMSD.
The Black Parents Summit has been held for a few years now and it started with BPSADC’s concern over the data it was seeing regarding Black children in the school district.
“We started to host this event after we were looking at the metrics and the data for our children — looking at their reading proficiency scores, their math scores and their graduation rates — and we were just very discouraged by those numbers,” Hart says. “We had the desire to give parents some real avenues for feedback, talking about how to engage with the school and with administrators and teachers.
“A small percentage of our children in third grade, eighth grade, and 11th grade are proficient. A third of them are not graduating. So it really came from concern over the data that we were seeing about our children,” he adds. “There were dire circumstances and concerning data, and it just really created some concern for us. We felt that one of the ways that we can address this was by sounding the alarm and calling the parents in to talk about some tools for helping them engage and support their children.”
The panelists at BPSADC’s Black Parents Summit will include Dr. Joe Gothard, the superintendent of MMSD; La Tasha D. Fields, adult basic education instructor at Madison Area Technical College; Kaleem Caire, founder and CEO of One City Schools; and Erika C. Bullock, associate professor at the UW-Madison School of Education.
“I think everybody on the panel brings something important to the table, whether it is presiding over the [school] district, or presenting alternative educational theories, to literacy experts to scholars in educational academia,” Hart says. “I think they all bring important and distinct pieces to this conversation and will be very helpful and enlightening for our parents as they try to maneuver through the school year.”
Hart encourages parents to register for the event to engage in a dialogue with Black educational experts on how to help their children succeed. There will also be time to discuss parents’ concerns and possible solutions for supporting Black MMSD students.
“As in other years, we will have a panel discussion, but we will also have some breakout sessions where parents will get an opportunity to talk and have some real discussions,” Hart says. “There will be folks who are taking notes and helping them to put together the steps forward from this event. So we’re going to follow the same format that we have followed in years past, but I think we’re just going to have a little bit more robust panel discussion this year.”
Madison College–South Campus is located at 2429 Perry St. Lunch will be provided at the Black Parents Summit and RSVP is required. “I think parents often have a perception that they don’t have a voice and this is an opportunity to have a voice. This is an event for all parents,” Hart says.
For more information about the Black Parents Summit, e-mail [email protected].
