When Subira Gordon took over as the CEO of the Nashville Charter Collaborative last July there was no question what challenge she wanted to work on first.
Public charter schools are leading Nashville’s educational improvement journey in many ways, but the public isn’t always getting that part of the story.
Gordon made it a priority to change that by making sure parents know the impact these innovative public schools are making with students of color and the options they’re providing families who lack the “real estate choice” to move to neighborhoods with the best traditional public schools.
“We want to make sure that the faces of the individuals who are actually the constituency group of charters, are out there. The families choosing charter schools are your neighbors, friends, elected officials and those running for office. These are the individuals who are actually utilizing choice and utilizing charters in your city,” said Gordon. “One in five families in the city are choosing charter schools for the quality choice it provides their children.”
Subira Gordon’s passion for education traces back to her childhood growing up in a small farming community in Jamaica. Gordon’s mother was one of the few who could read in the town and that provided opportunities to see how her education could help others learn to read and navigate paperwork they needed to complete.
This empowered Gordon to become an advocate for those in need of support.
“Early on I recognized that education was so important because it gave you access. Access to knowledge and power which ultimately leads to freedom. I wanted to be a person who worked on issues that created that same kind of freedom for others.”
Gordon left Jamaica after graduating high school and enrolled in Bates College in Maine.
It was a big change and not just with the colder weather.
Living as a black student on a predominantly white college campus, she noticed the other students of color at Bates College paved a different path to higher education than their white peers.
“Every person who I interacted with that was a person of color, their path to Bates was either through a charter school, living in an all-white district, or they were an international student. Very few students there had gone through a traditional public education.”
After graduation, Gordon spent time working for the Connecticut state legislature where she focused on issues of educational equity, before transitioning into education work as the executive director of ConnCan, an education advocacy organization.
She says working on education policy, along with having school aged children herself, really brought home the important role that public charter schools and school choice can play for families who don’t feel traditional public schools are responsive to their needs.
“Is there a kind of school in the United States that I would like to send my kid to that is reflective of my identity? The only place that allows for that to happen is in a charter school because there could be a school where the educational staff was intentionally reflective of my own identity in a charter school. If I would like for my kids to go to a school where they could be outside immersed in nature, that’s a charter school. It gives parents options and access that a traditional public school cannot, given that it was not created for the purpose of innovation.”
Gordon says the quality of the charter community in Nashville was a big reason why she decided to move here and lead the Nashville Charter Collaborative.
Public charter schools played a noticeably prominent role in Nashville’s recognition for improved academic performance last year. Gordon says it’s also important to pay attention to who is leading those schools because a lot of them look like the students they’re serving.
“If you look at the percentage of schools here that are led by people of color it’s just an amazing statistic that made me very excited about this opportunity,” said Gordon. “The majority of the schools here, especially in the city of Nashville, they outperform the district. The results are really high and for someone who is a strong proponent of high-quality charter schools, I think this is a wonderful place to do that kind of work.”
Gordon wants the Nashville Charter Collaborative to truly serve as a unified voice for the charter sector in Nashville and she’s set a goal of forging a stronger relationship with the elected officials and dispel the myth that charter schools are different. Traditional public and public charter schools serve the same students from the same neighborhoods.
She believes one key role that public charter schools can play in the coming years is to help build the workforce that will be needed by new industries calling Music City home.
Gordon envisions public charter schools providing innovative career and technical education opportunities that put the students they serve on a direct path to success after high school.
“I think about how we are preparing the children who are in North Nashville, imagine if those students could attend a high school that equipped them with the skills for college and career. Our students should be prepared for both so they can choose their path for success” said Gordon. “My goal is to continue to build upon the success of the public charter school movement in Nashville and continue to create access to great schools. All children deserve access to a high-quality education.”
