ABSTRACT
As student advocates we choose to see. To see is to understand, realize, grasp, recognize, observe, perceive, comprehend, and consider. We can look closely or we can look away. Molly Griffin chose to recognize that 17 percent of high school seniors did not meet the high school graduation requirements. As she further examined the data, she found that more than 50 percent of freshmen students were receiving D or F grades on their first progress reports. Lisa Maibaum observed that while African-American students comprised 3.5 percent of the district population, 11 percent of the special education student population was African-American and, in 2008, 28 percent of students suspended were African-American. Katie Messina considered the 38 percent graduation rate in the community college where she served, in contrast with the 68-72 percent graduation rate of the community colleges serving students from more affluent com - munities in the surrounding area. Lisa Davies realized and pointed out that while teachers initially identified the low performance of their AfricanAmerican males in Algebra as the focus of their inquiry, these teachers chose to discuss “all students” in their lesson debrief conversations. In each inquiry the student advocate continued to look into, not away from, the challenges presented.
