OAKLAND, CA--If it were up to the nine young African- American men on stage at Castlemont High School, teachers would be stricter, parents would be more involved in their children’s education and students would be more focused on their studies.
That might not sound like the wish list of a group of teenagers, but the panelists at Tuesday’s meeting of the African- American Male Achievement Community Task Force were no nonsense about what’s needed to improve Oakland schools and the education of students.
“Teachers let students get away with too much,” said one of them. “Teachers need to stand up to students more.” The panel, including eighth graders, high school sophomores, seniors and a 2009 Oakland High graduate attending University of California at Berkeley, was a collective voice for higher expectations.
“If your teacher isn’t on you, you should worry. They should be trying to push you to your full potential,” said a senior at Oakland Tech who admitted he wasn’t really a “school person” but had come to understand that education is a necessity. He said his fourth grade teacher was his favorite. “Honestly, if it weren’t illegal, she probably would have whooped me in front of the class.”
Several of the young men said parents need to be more involved.
“If students were more involved you’d have higher graduation rates.”
In fact the graduation rate and other educational measures for African American males is what inspired the Oakland’s School Superintendent Tony Smith to establish the African-American Male Achievement (AAMA) Office, which sponsors the community task force meetings. In Oakland, the rate mirrors the national rate – just 47 percent of African American males graduate from high school.
According to data recently released by the AAMA Office, the suspension rate for African American male students is 18 percent, compared to an overall rate of eight percent. African American males also score significantly lower than other students in language and math proficiency. And one in five missed 18 or more days of school, making them chronically truant.
In addition to tougher teachers and more involved parents, the young men on the panel said school was often not challenging or engaging. Many of their fellow students aren’t motivated or don’t take school seriously, they said.
“Some kids don’t try. They don’t care. They just get by.”
“Some are distracted by trying to be a thug or by girls. Some think what they’re being taught they’ll never use in life. Some kids don’t have anyone to push them enough.”
They all pointed to teachers and parents who had pushed them to focus on their education.
When asked the most important thing they will do when they become men, they all said taking care of their responsibilities and families.
“To take care of family and push my kids to be better and make it further than I did.”
The panel gave audience members plenty to think about as they broke up into groups to address the achievement gap, graduation, literacy, suspension, incarceration, attendance and middle school. Each group looked at efforts in other cities to improve the performance of African American male students in its area.
The AAMA Office has set specific and tough goals by June of 2014 -- to significantly reduce the achievement gap between the highest performing males in the district and African- American Males; double the graduate rate; close the gap in language arts in the fourth grade; eliminate the disproportionate suspension rate; reduce chronic absenteeism by 75 percent; decrease the incarceration rate by 50 percent; and raise the academic performance of middle school African- American boys to the district averages.
Tuesday was the third community task force meeting. To date the meetings have attracted scores of interested parties and more than 100 people from various backgrounds have signed up as regular participants.
The panel of young men is part of the office’s listening tour which will interview 850 African American Males from pre- school through the 12th grade and from 18- to 22-years-old.
Christopher Chatmon, executive director of African-American Male Achievement, introduced Kevin Butler, a fifth grader who had earned a perfect score on the math CST test in the fourth grade. His mother had complained to Chatmon that so much attention was focused on the failures of African American male students and not their successes. Butler stood in front of the applauding audience and said, “Thank you.”
“Part of what we are doing is to provide a counter narrative and talk about what is possible and believe what is possible,” Chatmon said. “Our expectations are too low.”
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Friday, February 11th 2011 at 12:40PM
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