Reflecting on the first year of his tenure, Durham Public Schools Superintendent Eric Becoats said he plans to focus on improving low-performing schools, developing and retaining good teachers, recruiting strong administrators and expanding community partnerships.
Becoats—who wore a pinstripe suit, paisley tie and French cuffs—spoke yesterday in the Duke Chapel about his background as a “non-traditional educator.” After graduating with degrees in finance, Becoats began a career in banking. But after working with high school students in a weekend tutoring program, he decided to pursue an administrative position with Baltimore City Public Schools.
“I really didn’t want to... continue in banking [because] basically what I was doing was increasing individuals’ debt,” he said. “My heart and soul was making sure that students had what they really needed.”
When asked by Dean of the Chapel Sam Wells about the effect of race on education policy in Durham, Becoats skirted the question to speak about general diversity.
“I do think that this a prime place to show that diversity can work and that it does work and that it can work in a school system,” he said. “I am an advocate for diversity—you can look at it in terms of gender, socioeconomic status or race.”
Both leaders emphasized the need for more community partners to support a school district affected by socioeconomic problems.
“You are over the threshold of society’s unresolved issues which all come through your door,” Wells said to Becoats. “And yet you haven’t got a lot of colleagues in addressing those issues.”
In response, Becoats identified key partners in the community—the DPS Board of Education, the city government and the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce—with whom he hopes to forge deeper partnerships.
“This is a rich community... and people want to help,” Becoats said. “At the end of the day, I want kids to really be able to say to me that I’ve received a quality education and that they can do whatever they desire after school.”
This year’s Dean’s Dialogues series aims to examine the Duke-Durham relationship. In the previous two lectures, Wells emphasized the need for Duke students to invest themselves in their community—a theme he reiterated yesterday.
“I see a lot of students who, through Teach for America... will take two or three years teaching public schools, but I don’t see many seeing a life in teaching,” Wells said. “How do you foster a culture in which a Duke undergraduate would see themselves as having a whole life future in teaching?”
About 40 individuals attended the lecture, including Duke faculty and members of the community. Sam Miglarese, director of community engagement at Duke’s Office of Durham and Regional Affairs, said he was impressed by Becoats.
“I really feel strongly [that] the commitment of [Becoats] to Durham Public schools is extraordinary,” Miglarese said. “I think he’s been very open to working with Dr. Phail Wynn [vice president for Durham and regional affairs] in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership and we have 400 student tutors [working in DPS] at any given time.”
Recognizing that he leads a school district plagued by high dropout rates for African-American males, Becoats closed on a personal note to emphasize that his community enabled him for success, and he believes Durham can do the same for its students.
“I was not the perfect child in school,” he said. “There was a triangle of support for me. My principal, my counselor and my social studies teacher put me in the middle and they told me, ‘You’re going to be successful.’”
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