DENVER—On the day he decided to fight back against an older bully, Dwight Jones alternated between praying to God for help and touching the rock in his pocket he had selected for the job, a rock which fit perfectly in his hand.
It was the early 1970s in western Kansas and Jones, a black child from a poor farm family, was fed up with the racial epithets that had tarnished his love of school and made him fake illness to stay home. He was certain he could hurl the rock at the eighth grader and escape on the school bus just as it pulled up to the school.
He hit the bully square between the eyes, but his plan backfired—the bus driver saw what happened and dragged Jones, a third grader, to the principal’s office, where he was paddled. The bully wasn’t punished for the taunts.
It was on the four-mile walk home to the farm outside Sharon Springs that Jones decided to become a teacher, and his experiences being bullied helped shape the “no excuses” educator he has become.
“No kid should have their right to an education taken away for whatever reason,” said Jones, Colorado’s new education commissioner, charged with raising the achievement of levels of low-income and minority students. “And I said if I’m ever in a position to do anything about that, I’m going to.”
Jones, 45, is a soft-spoken man who said he doesn’t condone violence and later became friends with the student who bullied him. He said adults at his childhood school—from the principal to the custodian—had ignored his pleas to stop the taunting, and that taught him how important it is for adults to intervene to help children. He also remembers not having enough money to eat at McDonald’s with other children on school trips to sporting events, and he vowed his schools would always provide meals on trips.
“I believe you have to do whatever it takes. That ‘whatever it takes’ comes from that experience and others of growing up poor,” he said. “…I think doing what ever it takes can’t be doing what’s most popular.”
Jones’ previous job was superintendent of the Fountain-Fort Carson school district outside Colorado Springs, a district with many children from military families. His success in improving the achievement of black and Hispanic students there helped him gain statewide attention and unanimous support by the state Board of Education, which hired him for his new position.
The achievement gap in districts across the state isn’t the only problem Colorado faces, but Gov. Bill Ritter has pledged to cut the gap, along with the high school dropout rate, by half in 10 years.
Jones, a Democrat endorsed by former Republican Gov. Bill Owens, shares the concerns of both conservatives and liberals on helping minority and low-income students. He thinks well-trained teachers are the best way to increase student performance and favors raising expectations and tracking test scores.
However, he thinks it’s wrong to only focus on schooling since, for example, low-income students move more frequently as their families search for affordable housing or jobs or may fall behind because they’re sick and not getting proper medical care. But Jones is quick to add that a lack of action in those areas can’t stop educators from pushing ahead anyway.
Jones wants to hire achievement advisers for the staffs of the 10 school districts with the biggest achievement gaps to focus on three or four key areas that prevent students from making progress. He said he could ask lawmakers for more funding based on what works.
Van Schoales, who works with the Piton Foundation to improve education for Colorado’s low-income students, said Jones has the right approach.
“He has just the right mix of high expectations, and at the same time, says we can’t have raised expectations without allowing this reasonable path to get there,” Schoales said.
Schoales said the gap between white and Hispanic students is worse in Colorado than in many other states, possibly because the state’s school districts—which have a lot of autonomy—haven’t adapted to an influx of Hispanic students in recent years. However, he said, districts nationwide have never been very good at responding to the needs of low-income students, and the increased attention given to test scores has just highlighted that.
Schoales said Colorado and its economy have benefited in the short term by attracting large numbers of college graduates from elsewhere with its mountains and quality of life, but he thinks that has taken the pressure off the state to make more investments in its homegrown students. He said Colorado’s system of local control means Jones will have to persuade school districts to change, in part by using the district’s research to point out which districts are making strides and which aren’t.
Jones said his experiences growing up and as a superintendent may make him more optimistic than others that the gap can be closed.
“I really see that it can be done. That all kids, regardless of where you were born, regardless of your skin color, I just really see that it can be done—that all kids can actually learn at high levels,” he said.
