By Stephan Blanford

A couple years ago, near the end of my term on the Seattle School Board, I was asked by public radio station KUOW to reflect on my four years advocating for racial equity in Seattle Public Schools. I shared how I, maybe a bit naively in retrospect, chose to run driven by a belief that our racial opportunity gaps were the most important issue facing the district and that all adults (parents, teachers, principals, central office staff and the school board) should increase their focus on improving outcomes for the lowest performing students enrolled in our 100 schools. I frequently cited academic research that demonstrates that this approach improves academic outcomes for all students and addresses the opportunity hoarding that is rampant in many schools throughout the district. 

During the long-form interview, I used the term, “passive progressivism” to answer a question about why our racial achievement gaps actually got larger every year of my board service. I noted that nearly every person I engaged with while campaigning strongly agreed with my platform, but once in office, I faced stiff resistance from many of these same stakeholders, anytime we were grappling with a racial equity issue. 

“Passive Progressive” is an unscientific play on the words of the personality disorder “passive aggressive,” which Webster defines as “displaying behavior characterized by the expression of negative feelings, resentment, and aggression in an unassertively passive way (as through procrastination and stubbornness).”

The term brilliantly sums up an analysis of how such a progressive city’s public schools could generate such large racial gaps in achievement – we espouse a strong commitment to the value of public education as a bedrock of democracy, and a belief that students of all races can learn at high levels, and that significant race-based gaps in achievement are not the fault of the students, but are systemic in nature. That is the “progressive” part of the term. Unfortunately, we are also too passive in living those values, sitting silently when inequitable policies and practices are implemented and too easily electing board members who conspire with some in their constituencies to hoard opportunities and maintain the status quo – for the benefit of their children. 

I wish that I could claim ownership of the term, but that belongs to Vivian van Gelder, a fierce, White Montlake Elementary mom and passionately active advocate for racial equity in our schools. She has been leading an effort (Families and Communities for Equity in Schools – FACES) with Hayden Bass and other community equity leaders to interrogate PTSA fundraising for individual schools that has the unintended (or not) consequence of exacerbating SPS’s funding gaps. Their hope is that SPS would find a more equitable way of redistributing these funds, similar to what Portland Public Schools has done for several decades now.

Other parents are actively challenging inequitable practices in the district’s Highly Capable Cohort (HCC), which is more commonly known as the “Advanced Learning” or “Gifted” program. At present, roughly two-thirds (67%) of the students enrolled in the program identify as white, though white students represent only 47% of the district’s enrollment. This will be a hard-fought issue, pitting many of those same opportunity hoarding parents against teachers and district staff who know that current policies are wrongheaded.

On another front in the war for educational equity, a different group of parents led by the intrepid Ali McKay, are working through an organization called Integrated Schools to encourage and support parents who enroll their students in diverse schools to battle the gentrification of those schools. Sixty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education, they continue the fight against the resegregation of our schools, knowing that racially isolated schools are bad for their kids and our society.

Each of these efforts prove that not all Seattle stakeholders are guilty of “passive progressivism” – these leaders (and those that they have inspired) are actively confronting the equity challenges that Seattle Public Schools faces, working collaboratively with district staff to combat the active opposition of opportunity hoarders and the passive indifference of too many of our fellow citizens. Our district’s racial equity gaps are among the largest in the nation, and will not decrease without concerted effort from parents, district staff, elected officials and others. 

A school board election takes place next month, the results of which have the potential to accelerate the district’s efforts to prioritize “those furthest from educational justice,” or to render those just another set of meaningless words. So, please take the time to read closely and learn the racial equity positions of each of the candidates on the ballot so that you cast an informed vote. And then, hold your school board accountable for demonstrable progress on its racial equity goals. Participate in one of the initiatives I’ve listed above, or maybe launch one yourself. Become active so that our city and its school district doesn’t merely espouse progressive values, but actually lives up to them.