The Need for Transforming Leadership

Generational Cycles
According to the 2000 census data (United States Bureau of the Census, 2002):

• 52% of our neighbors report an annual household income between $15,000 and $25,000
• 33% report an annual household income less than $15,000
• 54% of residents live in households where English is not the primary language spoken.

Where poverty is concentrated a whole host of social problems arise.  People engage in crime and drug abuse more readily.  Elected officials divert resources toward communities with greater political clout.  Schools systems become overwhelmed by all the obstacles that stand in the way of learning.  These dynamics not only create an oppressive environment in the present, they perpetuate themselves in a vicious generational cycle.

Most of our neighbors lack the educational credentials that would help them move ahead in today’s marketplace.  According to the 2000 census, 29% of adults reported less than a 9^th grade education and only 7% had completed a bachelors degree or higher (United States, 2002).  Sadly, this gap in educational preparation is replicating itself in the next generation.

Current Educational Outcomes
In 1999 the California State Board of Education began administering standards-based tests in English and Language Arts.  Students are assessed as advanced, proficient, basic, below basic or far below basic, with the target of every student achieving the Proficient or Advanced Performance Standard.  The test outcomes for elementary schools in our community reveal a majority of students falling behind. Even in our magnet and charter schools, half of the children enrolled do not demonstrate proficiency in reading and writing skills. And these scores get worse as students progress to higher grades.  (California Standardized Testing and Reporting System, 2005 & 2006)

Implications for our Children’s Future
Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University’s School of Education describes how the American public school system has failed to keep pace with changes in the U.S. job market:

In 1900 …about 5% of the jobs were thinking work and about 90% were low or unskilled.  Today, about 10% of the jobs [are] low or unskilled and 70% are knowledge work jobs…A high school drop-out today has less than 50% of getting a job. If that drop-out is African American or Latino, the chance is less than one in four. That job earns less than half of what it earned 20 or 30 years ago. 

(Darling-Hammond, 2002)

Christopher Swanson of The Urban Institute recently studied Los Angeles Unified School District’s class of 2002.  He reported a graduation rate of 45.3% overall, and just 39.1% for Latinos (Swanson, 2005).  Julia Mendoza, a UCLA researcher, looked specifically at college readiness among minority groups who are underrepresented in the University of California system.  She reported a combined graduation rate of 48% for Latino, African American and Native American students who entered the 9^th grade in 1998.  The chart below shows her findings for the three high schools serving our community (Mendoza, 2005). 

These numbers do not seem to be improving.  After accounting for legitimate transfers, Dr. Mendoza found that only 44% of LAUSD’s 9^th graders who enrolled in Fall 2000 graduated by Spring 2004 (Mendoza, 2005).

The public schools in Los Angeles and other urban centers are not preparing their students for the 21^st century marketplace.  As a result, companies are recruiting foreign workers to fill middle class jobs, including 2.1 million computer science positions in California over the last 10 years (Castells, 2005).  Meanwhile the children and youth of our community are failing in school and engaging in self-destructive behaviors.  Few envision a future for themselves that includes higher education or professional success.  The American Dream has slipped from these kids’ reach.

Catalyzing Change from Within
Our community needs visionary leaders who will creatively intervene in the destructive cycles of poverty and community disorganization.  We need human links who will connect people with resources they lack—housing, counseling, medical treatment, sports leagues, employment, legal assistance, recovery programs.  We need programs that empower parents and children to work together toward academic success.  We need block clubs and neighborhood associations that will do the hard work of rooting out crime and obtaining critical services from the city.  We need mentors and activities for our youth that will help them discover God’s purposes for their lives. 

RCP believes that all these needs are best addressed by leaders who live in the community and who are committed to developing new leaders from within. RCP’s core staff and volunteers maintain a steady, daily, local presence in the lives of those we serve.  At the same time, we recognize that communities like ours don’t have all of the funding sources, volunteers, professional resources and political power needed for transformation. So we urgently desire and actively recruit partners from the outside.