Black Excellence: Shaka Rawls

Tariq El-Amin 00:01     

Welcome to “Black Excellence” at UIC.     

The Office of Student Success and Belonging, with Dr. Aisha El-Amin.      

Recording of Dr. Martin Luther King 00:09     

[Applause] Believe in yourself and believe that you’re somebody.     

Clips from 1995 movie “Panther”  00:17     

His intention is that we study and master a bunch of different things.    
Why are you here?      
Study and master a bunch of different things.    
I’m proud to introduce our new Minister of Information.    

Aisha El-Amin 00:26     

I’m Dr. Aisha El-Amin.     

Tariq El-Amin 00:29     

Welcome to “Black Excellence.”  

Shaka Rawls 00:35 

But what I will do fearlessly is try, right? And that’s what I want them to understand. Society is going to beat you down. You’re gonna take an “L.” What makes you into the young man that I want you to be is being able to bounce back from that. 

Aisha El-Amin 00:46   

In this episode of the “Black Excellence” podcast, we sit down with Dr. Shaka Rawls, Chicago native, changemaker and the principal of Leo High School. Dr. Rawls shares about navigating grief setbacks, and how those experiences shape the powerful culture he’s building at Leo. He begins by reflecting on his own journey and the work he’s doing to impact students and the Chicago community. 

Shaka Rawls 01:15 

My name is Dr. Shaka Rawls. I’m a very proud principal of Leo Catholic High School, and I’m a 1993 graduate of this institution. I came out of Leo in 1993 and matriculated to Aurora University, which is where I did my undergrad. I was on the football team at Aurora. I didn’t play much, but I was on the team, and there I developed. I mean, it was a cultural shift. I went from a predominantly African American high school to a predominantly white college. So that was a huge culture shift, from the South Side of Chicago to Aurora in the ’90s was a big deal. 

From Aurora, I went to start coaching. I realized that I wanted to be a teacher. I think I wanted to coach more than I did be a teacher. I wanted to be around the game. I wanted to be around football, wanted to be around track — all the things I did in high school — and I just fell in love with the environment of working with young folks and working with athletics. That’s how I really got into this field. 

I encourage young teachers and people who are trying to figure things out to go do something that you love. I loved to play football. I loved being around the game. I loved to watch football, talk football, and a great way to get to that was through athletics and coaching high school was a great way for me to become a teacher as well as be involved with the sport. 

After high school, I really just tried to find my way. And if you’re going to be in education, everyone knows: within the first two years, go get a master’s. If you want the lane shifts on the pay scale, you want to make a little bit more money. We’re talking about the mid-’90s. You want to make a little bit more money once you get a master’s. So, I applied for admission into UIC’s master’s program. 

From the first day of class, I had Bill Watkins as my teacher. After reading his work and understanding what the canon is of social foundations, I realized that this is exactly where I wanted to be. 

Later that summer, I had a class with Steve Tozer. I tell Dr. Tozer this all the time: He put on a clinic of how to teach a summer master’s-level course. It was interesting teaching methods every single day. These were four-hour classes, so you gotta reach deep into your bag. Those of us who have taught at the post-secondary level, or even at the secondary level — if you’re teaching somebody for four hours, trying to hold their attention — you gotta reach into your bag. You gotta bring out all the tricks. There has to be movement and pulsations and different assessments — all in one class. 

I watched Dr. Tozer do this for a summer. I was just like, I want to be that kind of teacher when I get older. That really just set me on the track to say, OK, after I got the master’s, I gotta go back and get a PhD, because I want to teach grad school like Tozer did. Obviously, having Dr. Stovall as a dynamic, inspirational leader, and having people like Dr. Pauline Lipman, and just having amazing people — Dr. Lawless, who is now over at University of Penn, the dean of the college at University of Penn — having her in a class, that was probably one of the most rigorous classes I had. That was my stats class. Those of us who matriculated through a doc program — especially us qualitative researchers — know that’s the class that puts a hurt on you. 

Having her, and having these different individuals — who I literally, educationally, just aspired to be like — I took a little bit from here, a little bit from there, and really kind of found my profession. 

During that time — I’ll give you the short version of this trajectory — I was working as a visiting professor at Purdue University in Calumet, and I was going through my program. I failed my comprehensive exams. Well, you can’t be a visiting professor if you failed your comps. So, then I was stuck. I had to find a job. 

Luckily, another one of my grad school friends, and again, there are a lot of connections with the people that I’ve met who formulated the person that I am, right? A lot of it was the people, as well as the educational knowledge that I gained, which was great — but I think the personal, the interpersonal relationships, are really what gave me my career. 

During that time, I started working with another grad school friend, Dr. Marlon Cummings, who got me into Burke Elementary School. That was kind of where it started. That was the launching pad. I really helped formulate the culture at Burke. We got a SIG grant, which was $1 million for three years, so that was a $3 million grant. I was at Burke for two-and-a-half years, and Leo High School called me and said, “Hey, we see what you’re doing on social media. We want you to come and spread some of that magic over here.” 

When your high school calls you and says, “We need help,” it was definitely a decaying school. We were in low enrollment of just maybe 100 students. I think the record might have been 110, 115, but in actuality, we were probably sub-100. I came over here and decided to join the team at Leo. 

It was very difficult the first couple of years because the school was in much more distress than I think they really told me in the interview process. We were struggling. We were financially bleeding money and had low morale in the building and students who didn’t understand what it meant to be a Leo man like I understood it. I just started from day one, infusing that back into the system. 

Through hard work, and tears, and God’s grace, we’ve been able to grow to 250 students. We still struggle financially, like most small private schools, because we don’t — I want students who want to be in this building to come to this building. It doesn’t matter what your financial situation is. We’re providing quality education and getting kids prepared for postsecondary success regardless of your financial situation. That’s the school I want to be a part of. 

I speak that into these boys, and I speak that into the universe. God’s been providing for me, through His grace, been providing for me. I also kiss a lot of babies, I go to all the events, and I make sure that the mission. I always say it’s evangelizing, right? Being Catholic, I can use those terms without any hesitation — I evangelize the work that we’re doing. 

I tell the boys, we’re on mission. My job is to support our community. Support our community through service, through acts of service. So, if people are naked, we provide clothing. If they’re hungry, we provide food. If they are homeless, we provide shelter. That’s our job. Through that, we educate young men for postsecondary success. 

I think that us being service-oriented first is what’s helped us be the school that you see in the public. 

That’s the short version of how I got there. 

Aisha El-Amin 07:29 

That is amazing, as I would expect nothing less from you. I want to dive into a few points that you made. One: your prelim — failing your prelim. Now in our connection here, Steve Tozer is the one who told me that I passed my prelim after I thought I might have failed because I hadn’t heard a word yet.  

So, I understand that feeling of, this is a heavy weight. And it could be that barrier that stops me. How did you navigate that? Because oftentimes, young folks feel — if I didn’t succeed at one thing, then I’m a failure for all things ahead. So, talk us through that a little bit. 

Shaka Rawls 08:14 

Yeah, so failing my prelims. The way it works at UIC — and it may have changed since then —but you basically get twice to take your comps, right? Your comps can be anywhere, depending on how you arrange it. My comprehensives were two weeks of intensive writing, answering four questions, I believe. So, you’re looking at a document of 60 to 80 pages in two weeks. It’s a heavy lift. 

Essentially, you’re trying to say, “I know all of this, and because I know all of this, I’m able now to do this type of research.” So, I’m flexing to the grad college, saying, “This is what you all taught me. Now, based on that, please give me permission to go out and conduct this research.” That’s essentially how they’re structured. 

Being able to articulate that in written form solely — I can explain it all day — but being able to articulate that in written form, under a time crunch, is a hefty task. It’s a difficult task. 

One: You need to be mentally prepared to do that. Two: You have to have the time and space to do that. I needed to sit in a corner and type, unobstructed. Now, those two things are difficult to do if you’re working, trying to support your family — a young family at that — and you’re working with kids. That’s a heavy lift at work, and then you come and you’re writing all night — it’s a heavy lift. I pulled a couple all-nighters, and I don’t think that the quality of work was indicative of who I am as a researcher, even at that point. 

So, the second time I did it again — you get another opportunity to do it again. Now this time, I’m dealing with the weight of not being successful the first time. So that’s added pressure. And then trying not to just repeat the first one the second time. They reformulate the questions—the weight is actually exponentially more heavy on my shoulders. And I just didn’t rise to the occasion. 

Once you fail your comps the second time, you’re automatically dismissed. I think there’s a process — they dismiss you from the college. But luckily, through the advice of David Stovall and Steve Tozer, they told me to appeal — appeal the dismissal to the dean of the College of Ed. 

I’ll always give Dr. Tatum — who was also a UIC grad — I think what he did was excellent. He brought in an arbitrator to hear my case out. He said, “OK, we’ll hear the case.” 

I created the documents. I created all the meeting dates. Luckily, I work out of a calendar, showing, “This is what I did over the last three years to get prepared.” And I wasn’t prepared. The arbitrator said, “Take three more classes, and then sit for your comps again. Then I think you’ll be ready.” And that’s exactly what happened. 

I took the other classes. I was devastated when I heard I had more school. You don’t want to hear that. 

So, I took the additional classes, and I think they helped. They gave me some more confidence— some additional confidence. I sat for my comprehensive exams again and passed them the next time. 

Aisha El-Amin 11:01 

That’s truly an inspiring story. Oftentimes, we only hear about the triumphs, but not the hills we have to go over to get to where we are. You are inspirational in so many ways, and much of your work focuses on men of color. Tell me, where are you pulling from to give that inspiration, and why have you poured into young men of color the way you have? 

Shaka Rawls 11:32 

It’s funny you use that as a segue — because you said we often focus on the triumphs. But the lessons aren’t in the triumphs. If I win, then I know it works. The lessons are in doing what doesn’t work. That’s where I pull from. Failing my comprehensive exams — that fuels me. I said this in my graduation speech: I lost my father on my 40th birthday. That kind of tragedy fuels me. I never want to feel that kind of hurt again. 

I make sure every single morning I tell my mother I love her, my wife I love her, my daughter I love her. The boys in this room — I love them. Because I’ve experienced these demonstrative failures. Even with the boys, when we lose — we were going downstate for basketball. I had my bag packed, clothes laid out and everything. We lost. When I got on the court, I said to them, “This is why I work hard — because I never want to feel this feeling again.” The losses are what fuel me. 

Because I’ve experienced those losses, the boys upstairs don’t have to. I share my story with them. If you can talk to students with a certain empathy because you’ve been there before. I can’t walk through these halls without saying, “I got kicked out of class when I was here.” My transcripts are openly available for these boys to see. I was a justified average student, just a little bit. So, you don’t have to be perfect to be successful. I don’t have to be flawless to be a role model for these young men. I think, actually, it’s in my imperfections. 

When I apologize to the school for not being more on my game, or if you watch my social media, sometimes I’m like, “You know what? I messed up. I’m sorry.” I have no fear in being wrong. But what I will do fearlessly is try. And that’s what I want them to understand. 

Society is going to beat you down. You’re going to take an “L.” What makes you into the young man I want you to be is being able to bounce back from that “L.” Here are the examples of the “Ls” I’ve taken, and here’s how I came back. Even after the loss, I put my feet on the floor and bring my butt back to work the next day. I don’t take days off. I’m not soaking in my tears. Let’s go again. Let’s try it again. 

That kind of grit, if we ingrain it in our society, we’ll see a lesser need for things to numb our emotions. Just having a space for Black and brown young men to say, “My feelings are hurt,” or “I’m sad,” or “I’m hurt,” or “I’m still disappointed my father left,” or “I’m disappointed that society doesn’t give me an opportunity.” You can say those things in this space. And that actually helps you be able to emote, articulate what you’re feeling, and then move on. 

Aisha El-Amin 14:09 

There’s a modeling that I see you doing. It’s one thing to say, “You can be vulnerable.” It’s another to show vulnerability as a Black man. You’re modeling it, and it creates a space where they also feel safe enough to be their whole selves, with all their emotions. And that’s often not allowed in other spaces. So, I applaud you for doing that. 

Shaka Rawls 14:36 

Just real quick before you move on, I want to say: it’s a shame in our culture that a guy can’t say, “I’m hurt,” or “I’m sad,” or “I’m heartbroken,” or “I miss someone,” or “I love someone.” This is a school full of boys. I can say, “I’m not having a good day,” or “I’m sad,” or “I lost someone.” All those things. And that’s taboo, unfortunately, in our culture. I want them to be in a space where those things are normalized. The feelings exist whether you acknowledge them or not. Here, I just want you to say it. Acknowledge the feelings. Now we can process. Now we can get to the root of the problem, instead of me just dealing with you balled up and mad. You’re not mad. You’re hurt. You’re mad at your mom because she made you sad this morning. You can be sad, bro, and still be a man. Still be masculine. 

Two things can exist simultaneously. I can have bravado and be that dude who walks down 79th Street with his head held high. And I can also be the guy who wants to read poetry to my first-period class. I can be both. 

Aisha El-Amin 15:35 

You’re absolutely right. Because all of that tends to manifest as one emotion — anger — when it’s actually a range of emotions. There’s a conscious connection to those emotions that you’re making for those young men, and I appreciate it. That means there will be a generation that will tell their wives and mothers, “I love you,” or “I’m upset right now,” or “I don’t feel right.” It begins to change society. So, I love all of that — and I love you for that. 

Shaka Rawls 16:13 

Love you, too. 

So, my research is totally aligned with who I am. One word: authenticity. I wanted to look at a school district. I’m in policy studies because I believe the best way to change education structurally is through policy. It’s probably more of what I’m doing here at Leo, but as a researcher, which is a hat I can throw on and rock just like a starter cap, I look at how policy impacts what we do in educational spaces like this. 

Because we’re a privately led Catholic school, I don’t have the same hindrances public schools face when it comes to district-wide policy. But I wanted to look at a school and a location where policy impacted the entire community. 

So, I studied a particular community’s response to a policy, the Renaissance 2010 policy, that shuttered schools, reconstituted them and renamed them. I looked at a case where one school was closed. It had good numbers but a poor facility, so they moved the whole staff to another building and merged the two schools. 

On the surface, it sounds good — put the best teachers in the best building and get the best product. But what I found is that there are a number of other factors that contribute to a high-performing school. It’s not just location and people. There are external factors. There’s community ethos. There’s school pride. Parents being on board. Resources. It’s not that simple. That’s my thesis—it’s not that simple. You don’t just put the best teachers in the best schools and get the best kids. 

So, I looked at how these spaces interact, and how educational policy can often be tone-deaf to community politics or the social fabric schools are built within. As a private school principal, I can say, “I don’t care where you come from. When you walk into this building, you’re part of Leo.” Public schools can’t do that. Those kids are from around there — good side, bad side, rich side, poor side — it doesn’t matter. That’s a different situation, and it needs to be considered when creating educational policy. 

My research and dissertation became a call to policymakers: talk to everyone involved. Not just a couple of focus groups yelling, “You’re not going to do it.” Understand the lives of the individual students, what they experience as they travel to and from school, if they even can. 

Very seldom, when creating education policy, do we talk to young people. That sounds like the craziest thing in the world. But that’s one thing I do in this building. If you look at my social media, the students are the main character in this building. 

Sometimes in education, we think the main character is the principal, the district, the CEO, or even the mayor of Chicago. They’re not. The main character in the story of education is the student. If we don’t center the student first, we find ourselves in a bit of a pickle. 

That’s what I found through educational change. Dr. Tozer and others wrote a book, a great book with research, about the success of the turnaround policy and how educational change works. And it did work in certain communities. But I wanted to highlight the communities where it didn’t work as well. 

At my dissertation defense, Dr. Tozer said, “Hey, I actually wrote a book that says the opposite.” And I said, “Well, I actually experienced something contrary to your book.” As qualitative researchers, we understand two things can be true. Educational policies can work in Lincoln Park, but they operate very differently in Woodlawn or Auburn Gresham. 

Aisha El-Amin 20:07 
So I love that you had a back-and-forth. You started with him being one of your mentors and reasons you’re where you are, but then you also disagreed on something. I think that’s an important layer of being a UIC PhD. Talk a little bit about how getting your PhD at UIC impacts the researcher/starter-cap hat you wear so eloquently. 

Shaka Rawls 20:38 
Well, I’ll say this a hundred times: UIC made me smart. My mama made me an activist, right? UIC made me smart. I just do things smarter — almost to a fault — because I’m constantly thinking from so many angles, with a different epistemology. I’m just coming to knowledge in a different way because of that grounding. I’ve been in spaces with you and dozens of other colleagues, pontificating about ideas most people don’t even have access to, for 10 years. 

So, it gave me the ability to navigate both spaces. I can talk to 15-, 16-, 17-year-old boys listening to drill music, and I can also dissect any academic book and hold my own with others with similar degrees. I love being in conversations with other PhDs and saying, “My degree looks just like yours,” and feeling confident. I’m seldom outmatched — admire, yes, but outmatched? Rarely. 

Aisha El-Amin 22:08 
You’ve transitioned well. You’re still doing both, but now you’re really in partnership with UIC. I know the tagline for Leo High School is “creating possibilities for life.” So, tell me the value of partnerships like the one you have with UIC. 

Shaka Rawls 22:29 
The value — well, we could talk sports, but it really came from relationships. As soon as you knew I was at Leo and saw what I was doing, you called and said, “I’m pulling up.” You wanted to see it firsthand and figure out how UIC could get involved. This was before the neighborhood incubator, before UIC even knew it would be working with Leo. 

So, it wasn’t just a partnership—it was a friendship. Grad school gave me relationships. My relationship with Dr. David Stovall is what got me through. Once he became my advisor, he said, “I see who you are. I got you.” 

My relationship with UIC as a practitioner came from that personal connection. It expanded through the neighborhood partnership, with UIC next door to Leo now. Because we’re active in the community, it’s only right. If you’re coming into this community, you have to say something to Leo. 

We’re boots on the ground. I tell the boys, “We 10 toes.” If you work here, at least come say hi. 

The buds of our relationship matured over the years. You said, “I can bring 10 to 15 people to visit, 10 to 15 times a year,” just to talk about the things we’re doing at UIC. And that was pro bono — no MOUs, just looking out for each other. 

That’s the way things start. So based on that, this is what my students are having interest in. I’ve got two students definitely going to UIC this year.  

UIC is a relatively young university, downtown, which feels far from the South Side. We weren’t their target demographic for years. UIC is known for producing great scientists, and we’re not known for sending out a lot of scientists. 

Now we’re closing that gap. I have two students who will be doctors. They were at my graduation. I put my regalia on them and said, “You’ll be the next doctor out of Leo.” Just breathing life into them. 

That’s what I do every single day with these boys. Even when the opportunity doesn’t exist, you’ve got to breathe life into them. Believe hope, breathe faith into our young folks.  

And now we have a full-blown partnership where are students take classes at UIC. Which is amazing! We never thought that would even be a possibility at a small private school on the South Side. 

Aisha El-Amin 25:31 
Everything is possible when you’ve got a little Shaka involved, that’s all. 
I’ll end with three sentence stems for you to complete. 
First: I am most grateful for… 

Shaka Rawls 25:49 
I am most grateful for my faith. Not just my belief in God, but in humanity, in people. Even in my biggest challenges, I believe I can continue. 

I believe these young men will be the future I’ve dreamed of. I have faith that I’m doing the right thing for them every single day. 

God orders my steps. I get up every morning, 5 a.m., work out, Peloton, get fired up. That fire and vigor comes from faith. I thank God I have it. 

Aisha El-Amin 26:50 
The ideal educational space has… 

Shaka Rawls 26:58 
The ideal educational space has love. 

That’s the one currency we don’t talk about in education. This school works because of love. What you see, feel, hear — it’s love. 

That doesn’t mean they all like me, but they do love me. And love is expensive. I cry often in this job. It’s a costly currency. 

But when love is the core of a school, everything else is easy. 

Aisha El-Amin 27:31 
Young men of color deserve… 

Shaka Rawls 27:38 
Young men of color deserve opportunity. 

Just give these brothers a chance. They’ll surprise you. They’ll make you laugh, cry, they’ll brighten your day. 

Jay-Z said, “Put me anywhere on God’s green Earth, I’ll triple my worth.” I tell my boys that all the time. 

All they need is a shot. They’re the kings. I work for them. I’m the sun shining on them, but they’re in the spotlight. 

This is their show. I’m just putting it on. Give them a chance, they’ll do the rest. 

Look at our history — all we ever needed was opportunity. And we exceeded expectations every time. 

Aisha El-Amin 28:47 
You know what? I think you’ve said it all. I appreciate you. I applaud you. 

Keep doing what you’re doing—you are exactly where you’re supposed to be, doing exactly what you were meant to do. 

I’m proud of you, and excited for all those young men who have the privilege to be in a space filled with vulnerability, love and support. You’ve got my prayers, my support and my partnership — whatever you need to keep going. 

Shaka Rawls 29:19 

I couldn’t do this without you. I appreciate you.  

Tariq El-Amin 29:24 

Thanks for joining us. Find more inspiring and informative conversations with UIC alums, faculty and staff at blackresources.uic.edu. That’s blackresources.uic.edu.