Singling out Black and Brown

Going about it the wrong way
By Kelvin Wade | | April 24, 2008 22:04

While Rodriguez High parents expressed their frustration over the incendiary racial acts by two students and the administration's anemic response to them, I was involved in another racial dispute an hour up the freeway.

I was steamed last week when my girlfriend's 11-year-old granddaughter Lauryn told me that she and her African-American classmates were pulled out of class to attend a meeting in the cafeteria with the principal.

Jana Fields, principal of Madison Elementary in North Highlands assembled all black 4th, 5th and 6th graders and told them that their STAR test scores were below whites and Hispanics.

She naively thought 9-, 10- and 11-year-olds could understand the racial achievement gap, when educators don't even understand it. Lauryn and her classmates translated the principal's remarks into saying they were inherently 'dumber than the white kids and a little dumber than the Hispanics.'

Principal Fields planned an identical meeting for Hispanic children.

The principal, who never planned to address white or Asian students, was prepared to let struggling students of those races continue to struggle because they didn't fit the profile of the groups having the most difficulty.

This is a school where, last year, 50 percent of white students were not proficient in math and 60 percent were not proficient in English.

Why just focus on blacks and Hispanics?

I spoke with the principal and felt she just couldn't see the stigma of what she'd done. It was especially important to me because I've worked with Lauryn one-on-one academically. She's an Honor Roll student and her STAR scores are fine. The only reason she was in that meeting was the color of her skin.

I contacted an acquaintance at Fox40 News and Lauryn's mother, Sheryl, did a TV interview that got this story rolling. Lauryn appeared on a newscast this past Monday succinctly explaining what happened.

Next, I contacted the Sacramento chapter of the NAACP. They attended a meeting between Sheryl, the principal and a district representative on Monday. The meeting was fruitful and will result in a mentoring program at the school.

Never did we believe the principal was racist. She was trying to lift test scores and went about it in a foolish and ultimately harmful way. However, the racial achievement gap does exist and must be dealt with. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2003 Survey of Income and Program Participation may hold the key to closing the gap. The survey found that more than 90 percent of white parents read to their 1- to 5-year-olds while only 38 percent of black parents do.

Black and Hispanic parents are less likely to praise their children. Black parents were less likely to eat breakfast or dinner with their children than whites or Hispanics.

There's a role for parents, mentors and teachers in closing this gap. But what you don't want to do is pull grade-school children aside by race and leave them with the impression that it is their blackness that causes them to fail. Peace.

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NOTES: Why does the federal and state governments put such emphasis on grouping test scores by race? I get the achievement gap. I know it's there. But by pressuring school districts to focus so much on race, you pressure clueless Principals to do stupid things like Jana Fields did. And the focus on black and brown test scores allows white and Asian students who aren't making the grade, to fall through the cracks. In this scheme, individual children don't matter. Individual test scores don't matter. The group does. If you're part of a low achieving group, you're to be scolded and chastised even if you're doing fine. That's how we roll in America in 2008. Something is wrong with that. It's got to change. If we have to change the President, let's do it. If we've got to change the Congress, let's do that. These government standards are not working.

You get Principals pulling black and brown students out of class. There have been cases of teachers actually helping students cheat on the exams. There has been cases of schools suspending and expelling African-American students to cut down on their numbers and thus, raising test scores that way. This isn't right. The goal shouldn't be for us to be slaves to hitting some magical number with each racial group. The goal should be educating children of all races. Educating individuals and making good, intelligent citizens of them.

What about that? Isn't that what we should be doing? How blacks are doing on a test is of some importance to me but how Lauryn is doing on a test is of paramount concern to me. She doesn't take a test for all African-Americans. She takes it for herself and she should be judged accordingly.

For more on this issue, please visit the DR Other Side blog.

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