Episode 109: An Equity Warrior's Journey: Mark Norwood Shares His Fight for Educational Justice

In this episode, Dr. Amitra Berry introduces Mark Norwood, an equity warrior who shares his personal journey and fight for educational equity. Mark recounts experiences with inequity, from being tracked into lower-level classes to witnessing resource disparities across schools. He describes how his high school counselor discouraged higher education and pushed military service instead. Mark's story highlights systemic challenges faced by students of color and the need for advocates to amplify underrepresented voices.

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:03

If you're a parent, teacher or school leader and you're sick and tired of the frustration, anger and unfair treatment of children at high risk in our public schools, then perhaps it's time for all of us to do something about it. In this podcast, Dr amitra Berry brings you tips, tools, strategies and tactics to build successful solutions while touching, moving and inspiring all of us to transform our schools so that every child thrives. Here's your host. Dr Berry,

Dr Almitra Berry: 0:42

welcome back, equity warriors. You might recall, in my 100th episode, I did a bit of reflecting, looking back, looking forward, what had been in the show and the future. And I put out a call to action, an invitation for equity warriors to share their stories, because I am on a mission. Part of that is to elevate voices of color, voices of diversity in education, and a few warriors have stepped up. So I am honored today to introduce you to the first, not the last, but definitely the first, a man by the name of Mark Norwood. So find that quiet space. Put your headphones on or crank up the volume. I want you to hear from him, his story, in his words, his why, his motivation for becoming an equity warrior. Enjoy witty

Unknown: 1:37

warrior, and to share a bit about myself, my story. I love what you're doing here, and this work absolutely must be done. And for as long as I've known you, that's about 15 years now, you have been a stalwart soldier in the war for equity and education, fighting for our children and families and shining light on issues that many would have us ignore, but ignore you will not. And watching you use this platform to bring awareness, not only to the masses, but to the smaller pockets of individuals who lack the knowledge and the voice to fight outright for themselves, has been an inspiration, and for that, I have in a miserable appreciation. Today you've asked me to talk about my story and what makes me an equity warrior. I like to reframe that a bit and talk about the why or who am I and what has happened in my life to bring me to this table, who is Mark? Well, that's too complex of a question to answer in 20 minutes, but I can share. What I can share is how I came to become an advocate for education equity and a voice for those who have not yet found their own somewhere along my path, that finds us here together. I was a K 12 sales representative for one of the top three education publishers in the country. I had an opportunity to manage accounts from San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo County, that's the north central coast of California, all the way south to the border of California and Mexico and Imperial County. I went as far east as China Lake and Ridge crest Death Valley, and south to Calexico and smaller cities close to the California Arizona state line. It's safe to say that I've traveled the entirety of Southern California during my work experience, and literally half the state along my route. I witnessed a true life tale of the haves and have nots when Plessy versus Ferguson declared rights, including those governing the administration of education as separate but equal, the same, the Supreme Court could not have had in mind what I witnessed almost daily. On some afternoons, I would drive from an elementary campus overlooking the ocean, sprawling grass fields, fully equipped computer labs, state of the art, classrooms built for collaborative growth for both the student and teachers to dirt roads, chain link fences, concrete playgrounds with equipment perpetually wrapped in yellow caution tape, small, ill equipped libraries, chipping Paint and dirty hallways, classrooms that it seemed time forgot, an hour's drive between the two, but hundreds of years apart, I was literally sickened by the stark differences from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city, many cases, within the same school district. It is these differences that confirmed what I had known for years at our current state, there is no equity in education. My story began at a small k8 Catholic School in South Central Los Angeles. I don't need to go into Grand detail about that, but I can tell you that I grew up in a rough neighborhood. I. My parents had the means to send me to a private school with the expectations of keeping me safe and out of trouble. I really don't believe they thought the education would be any better. They just knew that the school was smaller, had fewer students, fewer classrooms, and of course, that Catholic education, my parents made it clear early on that they did not have high expectations for me. Educationally, I was the youngest of four, and my older brothers and sisters seemed to be born with all the brains, while I was to simply stay out of trouble. When I graduated from the eighth grade, I begged my parents to go to the neighborhood public school, but the answer was a resounding no. I heard no Hell no, then just silence as to say, Why are you so asking? I was, however, given my choice of Catholic high schools, but was limited to where I could easily get to by bus from kinder to seventh grade. I was pretty much a knucklehead. I guess you can call it, not a menace, not a violent or mean person, I simply didn't listen, and I did what I wanted to. Fortunately for me, the worst of it was talking. I really could run my mouth. Had a motor mouth. I did get in occasional fights, stuck tacks on a teacher's seat, glued chalkboard erasers together, but that was about it. My teachers, however, treated me like I was a hardened criminal. By the eighth grade, I began to mature, and I was smart enough to understand that high school was a big jump, and immature behavior was not going to fly, especially if I intended on dating girls for all of my so called behavior issues, schoolwork seemed to come easy for me in k8 I enjoyed reading aloud, and I got great marks in math and science. Math was my favorite subject of all, and I received achievement awards for math, and expected to continue with math success in high school, but enter the high school placement test, my high school tested all incoming freshmen to determine their placement, where what classes they would be in. I'd always tested well on the state standardized test, but for some reason, I was really nervous about this one, so nervous that I actually showed up to testing day wearing mismatched shoes. How I put on two different shoes? I have no idea, but I did, and it set the tone for the next four years, I bombed that math placement test and was relegated to pre algebra. Here is where I began to experience inequity in education, and I did not have to go to school in a poor city across town. It was right there in the same school across the hallway, I did not learn what an AP course was, until my freshman year in college, when my new best friend boasted that he took the AP math and AP Biology. Me, I graduated from high school without ever having taken algebra, and that would include geometry, algebra, two, biology, chemistry, or any other college requirement. If I could see you now, you'd probably be tilting your heads and scratching in and wondering, how did that happen? How or why did a school graduate me? How could I go through four years of high school and graduate graduate without a single high school, excuse me, without a single college requirement? And so the answer became very clear. It was my guidance counselor, the person that was there to guide me through this system, to get me ready, to set me up for college readiness, to set me up for success. Well, that didn't happen. We'll call him Mr. M the first year in high school didn't go so well for me. It was harder than I expected, and being the motor mouth that I was, that didn't help much. I bombed that pre algebra, course, but I did not fail. I still made a passing grade, barely a D plus, yep, a D plus, but it was still considered passing back then, and I should have moved on to algebra and given the opportunity to fail outright, instead my very beautiful pre algebra teacher, Miss s, who I had a tremendous crush on, decided she would not throw me to the wolves, aka algebra teacher, so she chose to fail me. Yep, she changed that grade that I had earned in an effort to save me from what she saw as further embarrassment and failure in algebra. Now, how many times have we heard this story Miss s was a black teacher, and in many cases, many, many times we've heard the story of the black teacher trying to help the black kid not get in trouble, not embarrass themselves, so they make it easier for them. Well, I think that was the case here. I was both livid and relieved I would have another year in Mrs. S, Mrs. S class, and maybe this time around, I would do better and earn a grade worthy of algebra one I knew AGA was requirement for college, and even though no one in my own home you. And thought I would go just before the fall semester, we began students filled out their class sign up sheets, and I chose ms, S for pre algebra along with biology and other requirements. On the first day of my sophomore year, I was called into Mr. M's office. Remember my guidance counselor? He told me that since I took Miss s for pre algebra the previous year, I would not be able to take her again. Worse, there was no other pre algebra teacher. And to this date, I still don't think any of that was true. I was given the choice of not taking math at all that school year and re enrolling in pre algebra my junior year. Terrible option, because that would mean that there would be no way for me to meet the AGA requirement for college. Mr. M offered me an alternative that seemed good at the time. I could take his course math essentials and bypass pre algebra altogether. Math essentials was a semester course I would be able to to enroll in algebra one a in the second semester, and then algebra 1b over the summer. Stay on track with geometry my junior year sounded good, so I did it and all. I also had to drop biology, because, well, Algebra One was a prerequisite. You see where this is going. I took Mr. M's class, it was just just as the name implied basic math. I learned how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Sorry, but I had mastered all those by the fifth grade. I'd also learned how to make a grocery list and fill out a checkbook ledger and do minor household accounting. This class was designed for students had who had little or no college aspirations and had the math acumen to match. I smoked that class. Got an A plus. It was so easy that I was done with my work and tests long before any of the other students. I sat bored most of the time. And what do boys that are bored with class? Do they talk, draw pictures, write on the desk, make stupid noises and so on. I reached the point where I wanted to gouge my own eyes out. I was so bored with that class. As a result, I made trouble for myself and others, leading to multiple trips to the dean's office when the semester report cards came out, mine had an a plus for academics as well, because I earned it and an F for citizenship. Apparently, Catholic schools took citizenship very seriously, because an F meant that I could not move on to the next class without a recommendation from my counselor, which for me would have been algebra one. However, my counselor and my instructor were the same person, Mr. M, you guessed it, and he would not sign off on sending me to the next level with no math. My second semester, I took composition, American history, health class, religion class. I was also allowed to skip PE because I played football, the workload was easy. Well, too easy. Boredom kicked in. I ignored assignments, missed deadlines, and didn't do my homework. Now, I won't blame Mr. M for that or how poorly I did. That's on me, but it seemed he was always there to bail me out. He was physically he was a physically imposing man, tall and heavy his stomach stuff stuck out over his shoes, and I doubt he ever saw his feet when he stood up. He always wore black or khakis and a plaid button down shirt. He carried a briefcase and a pack of Winston cigarettes, even though, of course, smoking was never allowed on the campus. Funny a person what a person can remember remembering specific details about their abuser. In this case, Mr. M was absolutely Mr. M absolutely abused me. He abused his power, and I've never forgotten it to this day. By the time my junior year rolled around, I was behind by two years in both math and science, and going to college was looking more and more like an improbable plan, and this is when I really began to notice what Mr. M's plan was for me. Every counseling visit, he pushed the army on me. I had no desire to serve in the army, college, even Junior College was my plan. But military service, this wasn't happening. Never stopped him from reminding me, though, that I did not have the college requirements. He convinced me that my two years of math was enough to graduate and with me constantly, seemingly getting into trouble and finding myself in the Dean's office, I accepted it my senior year, I began to fall right into where he wanted me. I began to seriously consider military service as an option, but I was interested in the Air Force now my father was. The Air Force. He served in Korea, and growing up, I looked at his medals often and his citations that were on the wall, and all of his photos of being in the Air Force, and that was one thing that I was excited about. The Air Force. I also considered the Coast Guard. But every time I went into that counseling office, Mr. M would push the army, he made it clear to me that I didn't have the math and I would not be able to compete in either the air force or the Coast Guard, which we both know. We all know that that's not true. All we need to do, all I need to have is a as a high school diploma, and I could have gone into the Air Force. Well, at that moment, I realized what was really happening, and I pushed back on Mr. M and he continued to push army on me. And when I pushed back, he would get loud with me. He would get angry and almost violent with me. He would continually tell me that I wasn't smart enough, that I wasn't prepared, that I wasn't able, that I wasn't capable to go to college or even junior college, to go to the Air Force or even to the Coast Guard. And this really angered me. Angered me so much that I told him that I was going to the principal and to my parents, and I was going to tell them, finally, after all this time, right? What he had been doing, something that I should have done my my freshman year, but here I am a 17 year old senior, and I'm finally standing up for myself and finally pushing back. Do you know what this man did? He threatened me. Remember what I said earlier? He was always there, always there to bail me out. Well, what he was doing is he was setting me up, sure he would bail me out, but he kept notes, he kept tabs, he kept the folder on me. And what he told me at that moment when I began to threaten him, was that he was going to contact my parents, and he was going to share my entire file with them, all the times that I had gotten in trouble, all the times that I had been kicked out of class, all the times that I was being reprimanded that really, my parents never found out about, because he was always bailing me out. In many cases, the Dean didn't even know, because he would get me from the dean's office before the Dean never even saw me, so he had this dossier on me that he was ready to use against me if I told on him. So being young, ignorant, you know, I'll be honest, scared. I didn't want to get in trouble. I didn't want my parents to know about these things, and I reached a point where I just simply wanted to get out of high school. I just wanted to get out of high school and get away from Mr. M and move on with the rest of my life. So I kept it to myself, just as Mr. M predicted, I graduated. I had the requirements to graduate. I was still excited about college. I applied to eight different universities in California, not one of them accepted me. I had to take a moment of silence, because I think about that time and how disappointed I was, how sad I was, because I really did want to go to college. My parents didn't think I was college material. I mean, my mom told me that my counselor, my guidance counselor, didn't think that I was college material. He wanted me going to the army. So I had decided I was going to do this to spite them, if not for myself. I was going to do it just to show others that I could do it. So I applied to these universities, and not one accepted me. So at that point, I decided I'm not going to give up. I was a halfway decent football player, so I thought I would go to Santa Monica College, that's a junior college, and play football there. And while playing football, I get my grades up, I get all the right courses, and hopefully I can get a scholarship, a four year scholarship, and continue my my plans of going into college. So I enrolled at Santa Monica College, and just before that, the summer before classes would begin, I got a letter from Cal State University, Long Beach. Long Beach, state was offering what they called a summer bridge program. So I looked at it, and I considered it, and I remember running it by my dad, and I told him, You know, I really don't want to do this. I've decided. I've made up my mind. I want to go to Santa Monica College. I want to play football. I want to follow my dreams of playing football that became the dream now football. It was no longer just going to college. The dream became playing football in college. So I told my dad I didn't want to accept the offer to go to summer bridge, and he just about lost his mind. This is the same man that told me that I was in college material, right, and had no. Expectations for me to go to college wouldn't even help me pay the application fees when I when I turned in those eight applications to all the California state schools. But now he saw this opportunity, and he said, I better take it. And he talked me into it. So I decided I would go forth with Summer Bridge. My dreams of football, though, weren't gone. So I put together a reel at my highlight tape, and I set up an appointment with the head coach at Cal State Long Beach, went down there, talked to them, and while it was a good meeting, I didn't get recruited. I could not earn a they didn't give me a scholarship, and at that point, I just decided, You know what, I'm not even going to try to walk on. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to focus on this summer bridge program and take it from there. So I went to summer bridge. Summer Bridge was, let me see, it was a week, two weeks, two weeks on campus. You lived in the dorms, you took college level courses. You took college level math, college level English. And the idea behind Summer Bridge was if you could show, if you can demonstrate that you can compete in these courses, earn a positive marks in these courses, and demonstrate that you can do college level work, the university, Cal State Long Beach would then accept you into the university. You would become a college student. So it was great. I went to summer bridge. It was awesome. I met great friends. I met my best friend there, my lifelong friend. We've been best friends for 35 years. I met a number of other people there that I'm still close to to this day, I did great in the courses. I loved it. I enjoyed it. I loved living in the dorms. I loved taking the college courses. I loved meeting the college professors. And you know, without going into any more detail, you can pretty much say the rest was history. I graduated five years later with a degree in criminal justice. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA. Shortly before I graduated, though, there was another change in my trajectory. It all happened around the Rodney King case and the LA four and the and the riots in LA and I was sitting on the balcony. The riots broke out after that verdict came down, where those four police officers got off for beating Rodney King, and I was sitting, I was standing on my my girlfriend's balcony, watching the city of Long Beach burn as a result of the of these riots. And I watched the news, and I saw that Chief Daryl Gates had pulled all of his officers off of the streets. Now that was in LA. I really don't know what was happening in Long Beach as far as the police, because I stayed inside and pretty much watched it from the from the balcony with my girlfriend, but I knew that Chief Daryl Gates had pulled his officers off the street. So there was two things that crossed my mind at that time. I can't believe that the chief of police would do that and put all innocent people in harm's way by taking his police force off the street. That was actually the second thought. The first thought came when the officers got off. And remember, I told you my degree was in criminal justice. At that time, I had, I literally within that moment, made the decision that I did not want to be part of an organization that supported that and would allow that. So I decided I will go in the absolute opposite direction, and I would become a teacher. Throughout my high school and college career, I hadn't even considered teaching. It was the LA riots and that Rodney King case that made me think heavily about teaching, and I didn't have to think too hard. Shortly after that date, I went back up to the university, I re enrolled, and I started to take the credential classes. And not long after that, I was able to land a job with a small private Elementary School. And then one year later, I went to work for Compton unified. And then one year later, after that, I went to work for LA Unified. And during my time at LA Unified, I witnessed more education, educational inequity. I noticed it more from the teachers. So for instance, I was a fourth grade teacher when I was at LA Unified. And there's one specific instance that comes to mind. I it was the end of the day, and I was lining my students up to go home, and we traditionally lined up in the hallway. I always liked to be ahead of the bell, so I would line my class up in the hallway, and as the and once the bell rang, I would dismiss them. My students were. Well behaved. They knew to walk down the hallway and walk down the stairs, and they were free for the day. Well, I'm standing in the hallway this one day, and the bell rings, a door behind me swings open, and students start flying out the classroom. So I wanted to oh gosh, I wanted to scream, because my class was standing there at attention, waiting, and they looked at me like Mr. Norwood, what is happening? What are they doing? And then there were other students that were in my line that wanted to run right along with them. So I couldn't grab all of them, but I was able to get a couple of the students. And unlucky for them, I sent them back to their classroom. When I sent them back to the class, and their teacher came out and said, stuck his head out, yelled to me and said, hey, when I'm done with them, I'm done with them, you deal with them. Those are his words in front of my class of 30, in front of his own students, in front of any other student and teacher that was in that hallway at that time during dismissal, so that was a bit of a head scratcher. Me and that guy were actually really good friends. Until that day, I stopped being his friend. I felt like I was barely his colleague. He was my room neighbor. So that I saw that often throughout my teaching career, I saw teachers that gave their heart and soul, and then I saw others that could seemingly care less. About 15 years later, I left, I left the classroom, and I became a an instructional advisor, and then ultimately became an assistant principal. And then, while I was working as an assistant principal, I did some Moon lighting work for McGraw Hill. I met my my future wife, and she was working for a publishing company, and she helped get me hired on part time where I would assist the sales rep with his with his duties and things that he needed to do out in the field. And I loved it. I really, really loved it. And ultimately, I found myself in a position where there was an opportunity, an opportunity with your very own Dr Berry. This is where I met Dr Berry, with McGraw Hill, and Dr berry interviewed me, felt that I was going to be a good match, and she hired me. And that's where I began to get that experience that I talked about earlier, where I covered San Luis Obispo, all the way down to the California, Mexico international line. Well, those are just a few of the things that touched me as I as I moved and navigated throughout my career, my education experience and my career working with students, both as a teacher and as an instructional advisor and an assistant principal, then later as a sales representative, where I served, where I sold di products, direct instruction products, and then later became a what they call a blended rep. And I sold everything. I sold everything in the in the backpack. During that time, it was awesome experience. I had an opportunity to meet some wonderful people, including your very own Dr Berry. And that's how we became not only colleagues, but very good friends. And so as I wrap this up, those experiences, primarily starting with high school and that that guidance counselor now I later found out in talking to some friends, meaning meeting them through Facebook, years later, they had the same counselor, and some of those guys actually were in the army, and found out that that counselor kind of guided them, or pushed them, if you will, into joining the army. These are smart guys, man, they these are really smart, smart, smart men and smart women. Definitely the ability to, they could have performed well in college and made exceptional careers once they graduated, and not to knock the military at all. I mean the military. I have the utmost respect for all of our military currently serving in our veterans, my father, my grandfather, I have uncles, my father in law, and I've plenty of people in my family that have served, served in the military. And I have, I have respect. Effect for the military. I understand the need for the military, and so I don't knock it whatsoever. It just simply wasn't the route that I wanted to go. But when I later learned that that same counselor had pushed some of my classmates, and had guided, if you will, some of my classmates to join the military, specifically the army, once again, I found myself being livid. It was it was pretty disgusting to me, and I know, as well as many of you know, that when it comes to equity in education, that our black and brown students are disproportionately pushed into the military. Once again, our military is very important. We need it. But the question is, what did those students have in plan for their future before this particular guidance counselor got a hold of them and said, This is the only plan for your future? Because that's what he did to me, it was my only plan, according to him, I had bigger plans for that than that, and I ultimately realized them again, having I finally graduated, then I went to college. I graduated, I became a teacher, a successful teacher, an successful administrator, a successful sales rep, and now I am a successful business owner, so that's a bit about me. I hope I wasn't too long winded. I hope you've learned something. I hope it help. It makes you want to learn more about where I come from, about what I know, what I understand, and my understanding of educational equity and being a equity warrior and continuing to be a soldier for our students, for our children, for our families, who either one don't have the knowledge, or two do not have the voice to advocate for themselves. I

Dr Almitra Berry: 33:36

hope you enjoyed Mark's story. Next week, I will sit down with Mark and we'll chat, but I still want to hear from you. If you're an educator of color with a story to share or insights on educational equity, join me on the show. If you're an educator who is LGBTQ with a story to share or insights on educational equity. I want to hear from you. Let's amplify our voices and inspire change together. Just click that link that's down in the notes and shoot me a text. And as always, don't worry about the things you cannot change. Change the things you can no longer accept. And that's a wrap for today's episode of the 3e podcast. Now here's how you can make a real difference. First, smash that subscribe button. It's free. It's easy, just do it. Second, share the show with anyone you know who cares about education. And third, consider becoming a supporter of the show. Together, we're not just talking about change, we're making it happen. Make a donation today to be part of that mission and change, and I'll catch you next time you.