Jake Crutchfield, School Committee Candidate
Register Forum: Just to get started—very simple—why are you running for the School Committee?
Jake Crutchfield: I’ve actually worked in the district for four years—in and around the district, I should say rather. That includes daycare assisting, and [for] the past few years, I’ve been at the Cambridgeport school. Throughout that time, I started getting civically engaged; I started going to School Committee meetings and started following what they were doing because I was passionate about after-school programs and other education-related stuff. As I got involved more in the education community, I began to notice that there really wasn’t anyone on the School Committee that one, taught in Cambridge classrooms, or two, [was] anywhere close to the age range of young people. I think that, when you’re discussing and … creating education policy, it is critical to have the perspective of a teacher, someone who had been there in the hallways and in the classrooms, working directly with students.
RF: So, apart from your experience in a classroom, are there any other significant traits that distinguish you from the other eleven candidates who are running?
JC: … There are definitely a lot [of candidates] running this year and they’re all really qualified people. We all make a good case and a different case. However, not many of them have worked on both sides of education. And when I say that, I mean teaching students inside the classroom but then also interacting with them in terms of after-school programs. I’ve done both, and been involved in doing teacher trainings and running some of those programs myself, and I also worked as a community organizer. In that, I got a lot of experience helping to connect families to after-school programs, and that allowed me to view [this system through] another lens. It’s not only the experiences, but my willingness to work with other people and my ideas on getting our district to communicate better amongst each other. I feel like communication is key, both in terms of educators and with families—just, you know, getting everybody engaged in the civic process.
RF: Would you say that the School Committee sometimes takes too much of a step back in terms of implementing their actions?
JC: I’m not sure about that. They are definitely involved to a large degree. What I’m more concerned about is that it really is a closed-off process. Take budget hearings, for example. I think those should be public, and honestly, there should be conversations with students about this too, because at the end of the day, this affects them far more than us. One thing I’ve been pushing [for in] this campaign was communicating to people not just at schools, but throughout the district: Providing more access points to get people involved and [having] them take a more active role in their kid’s education. They have to be allowed to share their ideas and their input, so that when we create policy, its more inclusive and representative.
RF: What specifically will you bring to the School Committee to make it more effective in these ways? You talk about creating more access points and making the process more inclusive; how will you go about that?
JC: One thing I would imagine is [that] the policy making process needs to be opened up more. Using subcommittees to allow people to create motions and then having them put forward to the Committee at large … Also, just being present in terms of communicating with the people we work for. That means talking to teachers, to students, to policy experts, and, when appropriate, visiting schools and seeing what’s actually going on. I worked in a lot of classrooms and saw a lot of perspectives, and that’s very important if you want to understand—really understand—what’s going on in our schools.
RF: You mentioned having visits to schools. Most students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School have no idea what the School Committee is or does.
JC: I totally agree. You’ve got it pretty spot on. I can’t speak a lot about individual experiences, but I know that, with the people I talk to when I’m campaigning, [people] just don’t have a clear understanding of what the School Committee does for the district. To me, I think what’s important is that we really need to reach out to the communities, tell them what we’re doing, and get them involved in the process. Having conversations within and between communities is key for this job, there is no doubt. Having those conversations takes work and it can be difficult sometimes, but it leaves us all in a better place. We have to check all the rules and regulations, but working with classes and having Committee members working directly with classrooms would really help just on a policy-creating basis.
And just another simple thing that the School Committee could do to make things going on at a higher level more well-known is [to submit] their own weekly report to the schools. The superintendents of all the public schools write up weekly reports for the Committee, so it makes sense [that] we should as well. Just, you know, make sure everybody is, or at least can be, aware of what the Committee is doing and how that might affect them. Just a little something talking about what a policy is or what the members are thinking about. That language is really tough; it’s often hard to sort through the big papers to find what’s actually going on, so it’s really important to streamline these sorts of processes as much as possible so people can understand what’s going on. And this goes two ways, as well: School Committee members need to be checking in on the motions they might have passed, see what the progress is, and just keep up to date on them.
RF: How do you intend to close the achievement gap? I know that’s a very broad question…
JC: Yes, absolutely. It’s a question I hear a lot obviously here, and then it’s also the other question about quantifying how much money we’re spending for each children’s needs. … No one person can solve it. The achievement gap is an issue that needs [collaboration] to deal with. This means in school and outside of school. I would love to collaborate with the City Council on how we [can] get more kids involved in after-school programs and get those as free as possible so that they can be available to everybody. Though that seems like a small kind of thing, the numbers show that higher attendance rates in after-school programs do significantly impact the achievement gap in local schools. Mentoring, I believe, is also a wonderful way to, not tackle the entire issue, but take a chip at it. I think a lot about not just current CRLS students, but also ones that have graduated. I always wonder how cool it would be if graduates could come back and be mentors here, talk to kids and give them advice on their own experiences. And even [give advice on] the challenging ones, to give the students the perspectives on the real world and life outside of school. Kids who ended up going to community colleges, who had difficulty going through the process, it would be great to hear from those kids.
And this goes back to something I firmly believe in, which quite simply is communication. I think it’s all about increasing the avenues and the efficiency of communication. Those are just a few small things I think could work to chip away at the achievement gap, but overall it’s about starting earlier. A lot of people say that and what makes that a difficult answer is: What about the students who are already there? I always think that we could look to the alternative side of things. We have a nature, here in Cambridge, of piloting out programs … It’s an interesting thing, and when we’re looking at education and the core of what we are trying to accomplish with education, are we looking for these individual statistics or the whole child? I like to think we could definitely pilot different solutions and try things out. But you and I, I think, are both realists, and realistically, this problem won’t be solved for decades. But we certainly need to start thinking outside of the box in order to chip away at this.
RF: Another point, very open ended again: What are the strengths and weaknesses of Cambridge Public Schools? And I know that’s also a very subjective question.
JC: Indeed. Because some strengths are working for some people but actually can serve as weaknesses for others. There are definitely ways it is failing for some parents and some students. The harsh reality of education is that because there are so many variables in play, there will always be difficulties and challenges in place for some students. Then again, CRLS has a lot of great passion, and most certainly a spirit of perseverance, that I haven’t always seen at other schools, and I think that’s just great. I’ve worked a lot with teachers in this district, and they’re all really fantastic teachers. Preparing our kids for the future is certainly a strong aspect of our system, and honestly, a lot of strengths come from the students. We have such a large and diverse student body all pursuing really fascinating projects and interests that they have. If we give more access and opportunities to students more [often], they can step up to the leadership role and take part in this important process.
In terms of challenges, again, I’ll say communication. One thing … [is] we need to have enough teaches that culturally reflect the diversity of the students. I say culturally reflect instead of race because that also includes things like religion, LGBTQ… All-inclusiveness is needed more at CRLS and other Cambridge Public Schools. We have a far higher percentage for example, of minority kids than teachers and educators at school. In after school this is less so a problem, but at schools and local academic institutions it is definitely very noticeable. One question is: Are we actually having effective exit interviews around that? That’s another challenge. Are we understanding why they are leaving? And then just again talking more to students. We have to understand their perspectives and inspire them to continue to focus on education.
RF: One thing you mention in your campaign platform is developing partnerships with the education institutions around Cambridge. Can you talk a bit on that?
JC: Yes—so it really stuns me that Cambridge misses out on a whole host of opportunities relating to [surrounding] universities. Now there are definitely important ties and joint programs between CRLS and Harvard, but there is a wide potential for so much more. These institutions are what makes Cambridge so unique, and we haven’t always utilized them in the way that we could. And it’s not that there isn’t the willingness. There is a big fear of having a one-and-done kind of relationship, but we have to build longer relationships together. We have to reach out to these great institutions like Harvard and be involved with them as much as we can.
And it’s not only universities, it’s also the private sector. Cambridge, and the Boston area, is a massive center for technology and innovation, and we should be taking more advantage of that. The job of school is to prepare its students for the real world, and I think the schools have been missing out on a lot of opportunities to do that around the area as it relates to actual jobs and workplaces. When we have the ability to bring more people together, that’s where you find success. For example, I worked with the STEAM working group. We had multiple institutions involved in this education exploration project. We had Harvard, MIT, and others all working together on this analysis, and we had great success. That was also a lesson in deepening relationships, and just keep[ing] ties strong throughout the years. … It would be very beneficial to students if we can create partnerships those ways.
RF: One of the problems we see nowadays, and I’m summarizing here, but high schools and universities often aren’t preparing students for the real world. It’s simple things, but they’re important. It’s learning how to read a tax sheet, it’s learning real world applications of math and other things that we’ve learned in school. Often times schools focus too much on learning to learn and not enough on learning for a use or related purpose. Do you agree?
JC: One hundred percent. That’s just spot on there. There are most definitely a lot of structural problems in the way that schools and colleges are set up, and we’re letting a lot of kids down because you’re right, many of them are entering into the workplace completely unprepared and unready for the challenges that face them. It’s about how to create budget, manage taxes. There are many higher-level, and lower-level, [things] that it is necessary for kids to know in order to be ready.
And this goes back to my idea about mentoring. It would be great if we could bring kids back to CRLS to talk about their experiences. Where did they find challenges? Where did they find success? There just has to be more communication around this issue. Every person can agree that their own high school experience didn’t exactly prepare them for life in the way they had hoped. And from that we need to look into the data around this and analyze why this is happening and what we can do to address it. Most of the life skills, the really important ones, aren’t taught in books, and at the end of the day it falls on the schools to teach them those things.
RF: Just one more question: What do you think about civics education as it related to students?
JC: I wasn’t planning to talk about this, but I’m actually really glad you touched on it. Civics is key, for any citizen, whether they be in high school or an adult like myself. And it isn’t only about the study of government, it’s about our society and what roles we play in it. I think you would agree that civics education, of any sort, is completely and utterly lacking in public education, and that’s a problem. It has to be introduced, on some level, so that it can be a part of the curriculum.
This kind of all ties back to my original point about communication. The students, the teachers, the policy-makers, the parents, and other adults—we all need to work together to find common ground and develop solutions. Civics is key because it teaches people how to think and work together as a society, and that’s something I’m advocating for: working together. We need to communicate and work together, on everything, and that’s what I’m going to bring to the School Committee.