It certainly comes as a relief that the leaders of our schools are against racism. Is this something that has recently changed? If not, what has really changed and why should we expect the achievement gap in Seattle, which is the fifth highest out of the largest 200 school systems in the US, to shrink?

@1:

The root of the problem, as everyone knows but racists refuse to acknowledge, is that this country has engaged in 400 years of systematic enslavement and dehumanization of black human beings, including creating and promoting a system of law enforcement and incarceration that inequitably punishes black men for crimes that in many cases warrant barely a slap-on-the-wrist if committed by white men, resulting in an incarceration rate more than five times that of whites.

It's also worth pointing out that, "born to single mothers" does not automatically correlate to "absent fathers", as that figure would apply to any unmarried couples, regardless of whether the parents co-habit or maintain a parenting relationshi[p or not; as well as the fact the average number of out-of-wedlock births has increased dramatically across ALL demographic categories, including race and ethnicity, age, education and income levels for the past 30 years.

(https://www.childtrends.org/publications/dramatic-increase-in-percentage-of-births-outside-marriage-among-whites-hispanics-and-women-with-higher-education-levels#:~:text=Among%20the%20most%20notable%20changes,(Child%20Trends%2C%202016).

But, you are correct on one point: until these facts are acknowledged to be the root of the problem, there is zero chance of reducing it. Ze. Row.

Hear, hear. As a Seattle educator, I am with you.

We're watching what you do, not what you say.