“For SLPS, not only are you not educating the kids in your stead, but you have the audacity and the deep level of racism to limit other people from educating the kids that you refuse to. You either refuse to or are unable to, but for decades you have not.”

Chester Asher

Today’s guest is Chester Asher, Activist and leader at Coalition STL Kids. Chester sat down with Staci to discuss the dire need of improved reading scores in SLPS, how to create change within a large school system, and the need for accountability and goals in all of St. Louis school systems.

Chester’s personal K-12 story

• Chester is a career educator.
• Did TFA (Teach for America) in south Bronx, NY.
• Taught for eight years, was the Dean of Students, Dean of Curriculum, and a principal charter school CEO.
• Learned in 6th grade of the low, sometimes criminal expectations of Chester by his teachers and other adults around him.
• From Maryland.

What inspired you to start Coalition with STL Kids?

• It’s a grassroots organization that is working with other organizations that are helping people provide an excellent education for kids, especially black kids in the city.
• SLPS is 80% black children 
• Often have to address schools to get them to admit the issue at hand
• “For SLPs, not only are you not educating the kids in your stead, but you have the audacity and the deep level of racism to limit other people from educating the kids that you refuse to. You either refuse to or are unable to, but for decades you have not. “
• Still pro SLPS, because he wants a better education for black kids.

So why are you doing this work?

• Chester was recruited.
• He used to be the CEO at Northside Community School, a charter school.
• He was in NY, and was fighting a huge uphill battle there and took the recruitment as a way to refocus his energy.  
• “Everywhere I go, whether in Atlanta or New York or L.A. And so to me, it’s that that hasn’t changed. And that needs to be fixed and remedied and addressed. And if we can do that here in Saint Louis, maybe we can use this as an example to spread out to other areas and other metropolitan areas to improve the lives of black and brown children.”

What do you think is the importance of social impact campaigns like yours on helping to improve the quality of education for kids?

• SLPS is now discussing reading, which is good. 
• We want to see how they review the data and how they follow up.
• Chester has been encouraging SLPS to set a reading goal. What percentage are you shooting for? Next year? In 10 years?
• When there are no goals, there is nothing to track and keep on track.

What is one of the biggest challenges in education in general in St. Louis City?

• Poverty alone is the biggest predictor of academic success.
• We know our kids have trauma and come to school with trauma.
• As a school system, we cannot fix all of the things that affect a child’s education outside of school.
• What we can do is have a strong reading and math program and have strong supports.
• There are examples across the country of schools making real improvements.

So one of the things that people argue about charter schools, especially high performing charter schools, is that they get to select their students. And so do you think that that like that had anything to do with having a school in the same building, in the same neighborhood, serving similar or sometimes the same families and having different outcomes that they got to select the kids that went there?

• Legally, Charters Schools aren’t allowed to discriminate
• Success Academy in NYC were kicking kids out via pressuring families and kicking kids out, despite having a lottery admission system.
• But that doesn’t explain the discrepancy in performance.

Are there any things that give you hope when it comes to the future of education in the city of St Louis?

• A lot of people think parents don’t care, but Chester has found in his work that they really do.
• The parents have been stonewalled when they’ve tried to speak up.

How do we tell parents what to consider? But how do we help them to understand it’s not their fault? And they’re still doing the best for their children?

• Change it through organizing.
• Imagine if the parents of Bryan Hill said, you know what, we are going to boycott until we get tutors. Until teacher pay is increased. 
• Not everyone can afford to do that, but that’s the beauty of organizing. 

How can we find you?

• chesterasher@gmail.com
• Coalition with STL Kids on Facebook
• Coalition with STL Kids on X