Elechi Kadete, School Committee Candidate
Register Forum: What distinguishes you from the eleven other School Committee candidates?
Elechi Kadete: Oh man, what distinguishes me is that… It used to be that I was the only person that graduated from Rindge, but that’s not—there are two other candidates that graduated from Rindge. What distinguishes me is, I’m proud to admit that in Cambridge we have a persistent achievement gap. I was in that achievement gap. And the biggest thing that distinguishes me is, and I haven’t heard any other candidates say this, I went through the school system but I went through it as an ESL student.
RF: So how does that change your perception about how we should act now?
EK: Basically, when I went through the school system, I went through the Maynard—now the [Fletcher Maynard Academy]—and it was tough for me not knowing English in terms of in the classroom, doing homework, being confident, and being around my social peers. It was very difficult. And I was able to get the support that I needed to learn English, and once I was able to do that—I didn’t start speaking English fluently until the 8th grade—it helped with my confidence. I didn’t really speak much when I was in the school system because I wasn’t confident and you know, people make fun of you. [Laughs] But I really understand the needs of understanding cultural competency. Understanding families of different cultures, understanding students of different cultures, and making sure that they get the support that they need to thrive.
RF: I saw that you want to expand the world language program. Is what you’re talking about something that contributed to this desire, or is it different?
EK: Um… I was born in Tanzania, [in] Dar es Salaam. I grew up speaking Swahili and with globalization, meaning that the world is becoming smaller—meaning that in order to be attractive to an employer nowadays, you have to speak a different language—you have to speak a different language. In Cambridge, I want to make sure that our students are fluent in another language besides English—reading and writing—because it’s important. I went to Brandeis, and all my classmates were speaking eight, nine, ten languages fluently!
RF: So are you saying that you want to begin the process earlier? Or have a better program? Or…
EK: No, we have good programs now, but they’re not in every school. And I want to make sure that parents have that option. That if you want your child to speak a different language, they have that option. They don’t have to go to a certain school—the Amigos [School]—to learn Spanish.
RF: OK, so the School Committee is doing a great job, but how do you think it could be more effective?
EK: You said that they’re doing a great job? How can you say that they’re doing a great job when we have an achievement gap, we don’t have early education… I spoke with a parent yesterday who told me that her child is on IEP, in the 5th grade, but the child is at a 1st grade reading level. I’ll repeat that for the record. I spoke to a parent yesterday who said that her child is in the 5th grade but is at a 1st grade reading level. So how are they doing a great job?
RF: So how do you think it can become more effective?
EK: We have a persistent achievement gap. Studies show that early education is a major factor in closing the achievement gap. Right? The problem in Cambridge is—I spoke to a parent the other day that said that her child is number 100 on the early education waiting list, for the pre-k program in Cambridge. And their child hasn’t moved! And their child is getting close to the kindergarten age. And they’re worried that their child won’t go to pre-kindergarten.
RF: We’re talking to all the candidates about the achievement gap itself because it’s so major… So your idea on how to close it is to focus on early education, you’re saying?
EK: The achievement gap is a complicated issue. It’s a complicated issue. And I want to close it, first of all, by doing analysis. Evaluation. I’m analysis-driven, metrics-driven. I want to find out—I want to do a study. What’s going on? Why aren’t all our children in AP classes? My main ways of closing it are early education, ensuring reading proficiency by the 3rd grade. It’s not fair that we have a child in the 5th grade at a 1st grade reading level. That is the achievement gap. One thing I want to say that other candidates aren’t saying is that I want to support the Innovation Agenda. The Innovation Agenda is a 6th through 8th [grade] program. I spoke to a teacher yesterday that told me that the [advanced] math classes in the Innovation Agenda aren’t working—the students aren’t getting what they need. The Innovation Agenda is in its adolescence. It’s fairly new. So I want to make sure that we’re evaluating that and making sure that it gets the resources it needs to succeed, because in Cambridge we have three distinct phases: K-5 [and] 6-8—Innovation Agenda—and the high school. Each phase has to be strong for our students. And I want to add a fourth phase: Early education.
RF: Could you speak more about what the Innovation Agenda is, for people who don’t know?
EK: The Innovation Agenda is… So in Cambridge, we used to have K-8. It used to be that you had a K-8 program. The problem with the K-8 program was that each program was different. And the problem the high school had was that when kids got into—I remember my freshman year, you go to school and the teachers can tell what K-8 program you came from based on what you know. You’ve got some kids quoting Gandhi freshman year and some kids that couldn’t add six plus seven. So what they did was, they tried to make this Innovation Agenda. … After 5th grade, you go into 6th grade and you have a complete split, right? New principal, new administration, a whole new environment for students. And the Innovation Agenda is a 6-8 program that balances the upper schools.
RF: Do you want to make that better, or—
EK: No, no, no, no, no. What I want to make sure is that it’s supported because it’s fairly new, this is recent. It’s like a newborn child and you have to monitor it, evaluate it, and make sure it’s getting the resources and everything it needs to succeed. If that makes sense.
RF: I see. What do you see as a strength of the Cambridge Public Schools that the Committee could emphasize?
EK: A strength? Um… let me think about that because there’s a lot… A strength I would say is that Cambridge loves children. I remember when I was in school, there were kids who had fled a particular country—their country didn’t want them there—but Cambridge fought to keep them here. One thing that the School Committee can emphasize is the diversity. Cambridge is unique. One of our biggest strengths is diversity, having children sit[ting] in a classroom from all different societies. When you leave Cambridge, it’s not as diverse! [Laughs] So that’s one thing we can emphasize: Just diversity and understanding of each other.
RF: Right. So what do you see, on the other side of the spectrum, as a weakness—
EK: Oh, the achievement gap, the segregation that exists in the high school, AP classes, you know, ensuring reading proficiency by the 3rd grade… One big factor is—I want you to definitely note this—hiring more teachers of color. Now, when I went through the school system—note this—I felt lost, I felt confused, for a long period, I would say. When I say “hire more teachers of color,” I don’t mean “hire teachers of color for the sake of hiring teachers of color.” I mean [we need to be able to say], “We hire high quality teachers of color and retain them.” When I went through the school system, I had teachers from all various backgrounds. But it was one teacher, Donald Burroughs—I think he’s still there. Is he still there? … It was Donald Burroughs, a gay black man, who gave me a book that changed my life, that opened my eyes, and that got me here to this day. If it weren’t for that book, I wouldn’t be here. And that book is called The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. So we need teachers—because our district now is majority minority, officially. So we need teachers that understand the kids, their communities, and their cultures. That can relate to them. Not to say that white teachers can’t relate to them, but just saying that it’s important to have that role model.
RF: I’m sure you know that, over the summer, there were a few Rindge teachers of color who left the district. So, speaking of hiring more teachers of color, what are your—
EK: What would I do?
RF: Yeah.
EK: I would pick up—note this—Richard Harding’s proposal to tie a principal’s evaluation based on the amount of teachers of color they hire, interview, and retain. Richard Harding, a current School Committee member who encouraged me to run for School Committee [and] who is now running for City Council, has a proposal to base a principal’s… The School Committee doesn’t do any hiring. The principal, the administration does. So what he proposed is that you tie a principal’s evaluation to the amount of teachers of color they hire, retain, and interview.
RF: I saw on your website that you don’t want to see “minds being wasted” in Cambridge; you want to utilize all the resources in Cambridge that there are because there are many. What ways do you see minds being wasted, and how can that be changed?
EK: One reason why I’m running for School Committee is that… now this is important. When I went through the school system, I sat in a classroom with kids from various backgrounds. I had friends whose parents were Harvard professors, and I had friends whose parents were working minimum wage jobs. We all sat in the same classroom. We learned together. We’re still friends to this day. You know, we hang out and watch football games to this day. The problem was that, after I graduated, I saw that my friends who weren’t so well-off weren’t doing that well—were moving out of Cambridge because they couldn’t afford housing here, were working minimum wage jobs, were on public assistance. And my friends that were better off, you know, a lot of them weren’t doing that well. But we all graduated; we all went through a resource-rich public school system. And when I say I see minds being wasted, these are all smart, brilliant kids. I believe that all children are smart and brilliant, so we need to bring that out of them.
RF: But how can we address that?
EK: You have to make sure that each phase is strong: K-5, 6-8, and the high school. And you have to ensure early education, knowing that we have a persistent achievement gap. We have the resources to provide early education to all of our students. There’s no reason to have a waiting list with over 100 kids on it. So making sure that all students receive the resources they need, doing evaluation, and holding all of our students to high academic standards. How can we say that we stand for social justice and academic excellence when some kids aren’t receiving a fair education? Right?
RF: Going on to a separate topic… I’ve seen that you’ve talked a lot about the CRLS guidance system and having that be strong so students can excel after high school. What issues do you see with the current system?
EK: Oh wow, with the guidance system, right… Let me tell you what I went through in the guidance system. I didn’t see my guidance counselor until senior year. I saw him twice. When I saw him, I went in his office and he had piles and piles of paper. He looked at me, looked at my report, and said, “You’re going to Bunker Hill.” I went home to my mom and said, “Hey, I’m going to Bunker Hill; my guidance counselor said so.” She said, “No you’re not.” You know where I went to school? I went to Brandeis. I graduated in 2012.
Now, when I look at the guidance system, I want to say that we have to evaluate it and make sure that they’re giving our students the resources they need to prepare for after… whether that’s going to a four-year college, a two-year college, the military, whatever they need. The guidance counselors have a job in that they have to make sure that students are being prepared for life after the school system and make sure that they’re taking the classes that they need to take. The problem is that I’m talking to students today that say, “I still haven’t seen my guidance counselor.” And then, the kids that are thriving [are] going to their guidance counselor… I’m sure that you know kids that go to their guidance counselor’s office every day. And I’m sure that you know kids that don’t even know their guidance counselor’s names. Isn’t that a problem?
RF: Yes, I see that.
EK: And you’re in the system now. It’s the same problem as when I was there.
RF: There are people who want to see their guidance counselor but the counselors often don’t have time—
EK: So what I mean when I say that I’m big on evaluation and metrics, when a guidance counselor… a guidance counselor should never say, “I don’t have time.” If they are saying that, we need to evaluate that program and make sure that if we need more guidance counselors, if they need more support, they have that so that they do have time for each student. You can’t say that you have time for this student who’s averaging an A, but [say], “I don’t have time for this student who’s averaging a D.”
If you find a kid in Rindge, sophomore year, and guide him through, you can fix them up. Right? But you have to catch them. You can’t wait until senior year and say, “Oh yeah, you’re done. [Laughs] Don’t even waste your time, you’re done.” My mom caught me senior year and fixed me up. It wasn’t my guidance counselor; it was my mother, who worked three jobs, wasn’t there for me, but really cared about me. And I want the guidance counselors to really care about each student, because I really care about each student. The problem is the disparity.
RF: You touched on this earlier a little bit, but: I know that going through the school system has given you opinions about it, but how do you think that affects your insight into how it needs to be changed and what needs to be changed?
EK: Having sat in the classrooms… I’m not here to say we have a bad school system. We have a good school system, but we need to have a great one. If we can’t do it here in Cambridge, with the resources we have, with the location, with the tax base, then who can? We’re surrounded by Harvard, MIT, B.C., Boston University, Genzyme, Google, Facebook, everything. So if we can’t do it, who can? Now, having gone through the system, I’ve seen the inequality, I lived the inequality, I’ve overcome the inequality. And I am connected to the community. I work with the kids. I teach chess, I teach basketball, and I do it intimately, and I care. I care about education because I know the value that it has. And I care about social justice, making sure that each child is having a great education and receiving what they need to succeed and be prepared for life after Cambridge. I don’t think it’s fair that you go through the Cambridge Public Schools system and you can’t afford to live here after.