Klein and Sharpton Opine About an “Achievement Gap” For Blacks and Hispanics
Harlem January 6, 2009
By: Joseph Mugivan, j.mugivan@att.net
Advocate for School, Indoor air Quality
A series of monthly forums through May began at the Schomberg Center for Research and Black Culture on Tuesday evening to address the difference in learning and test scores of Black and Hispanic children as compared with other children in the educational system.
The first presentation this week consisted of a discussion between School Chancellor Joel Klein and activist and former presidential candidate,
Al Sharpton. The moderator was Dominic Carter from the NY1 cable news network.
Questioning by Mr. Carter addressed the usual talking points of the Department of Education and was narrow in scope since the three participants were limited in their experience of educating children in a public school.
Mr. Klein focused on the need to hold people accountable, but did not bring new information about how the Department of Education will be able to monitor accountability through literacy learning theory, teaching and the root causes of why the community is being denied a positive learning transformation.
The participant’s chief contention was that they are a fierce advocate for kids and they admired each other for this enthusiasm. Self help style discourse, akin to the good feelings of the Oprah show, left the audience feeling satisfied and justified. Unaddressed was the issue that that leads the Federal government to determine that children’s reading score have not improved over the last eight years of the Klein/Bloomberg administration.
Such outcomes belie the data distributed by the Department of Education (DOE) showing monumental increases in “English Language Arts” by its own testing contractors. The levels of annual increases reported are inconsistent with the best of expectations in literacy development. Dominic Carter, the moderator, was more focused on his praises of the two guests to the detriment of getting behind the feel good façade of the moment.
The achievements of Black and Hispanic children have been raised to the level of a civil rights issue during the forum, seeming to insulate serious questions about the process without appearing to be against civil rights. This series of civil rights forums will leave the community with the feeling that something is being done for their kids before the next mayoral election.
Possibly, the weakest link in these presentations is the lack of independent professionals who may actually have experience and a record of success in the area of how inner city children learn and develop literacy.
Much was said about the hope that has been engendered by the election of Barak Obama, but a more realistic use of the Obama phenomena would be to invite the President-Elect’s choice to over see his own education appointments, Linda Darling-Hammond, an expert in the field.
Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Klein are Co-Chairmen of the “Education Equality Project”, which includes Arnie Duncan and William Bennett.
Mr. Duncan has led the way in closing down Black schools in Chicago, facing community resistance, turning them over to private companies known as Charter Schools and increasing the number of military schools. William Bennett is a conservative vendor of computer programs for young children in the classroom, a former Education Secretary under President Ronald Reagan and recently appointed Senator.
Mr. Klein spoke of the need for “credibility” and a “passion to lead”, but many of his own educational leaders follow the dictates of market based programs and test preparation.
Mr. Sharpton moved his concerns to the 32% dropout rate in Detroit with no mention of the current social tendency to place his constituents in jails. In Chicago, where Mr. Duncan presides, two thirds of the inmates in jail are Black, mostly on non violet drug crimes and 80% are parents. This could influence effective parenting and attitudes. As mentioned by both participants, kids “respond to expectations”. Individual parents were encouraged to attempt to break that cycle.
Mr. Sharpton focused on the negative attitude of black youth toward education and that the home environment has no interest in education. “There was never a time that we [as a people] were not aspiring to read”, said Mr. Sharpton even going back to slavery, “My mother never raised me to think that I was underprivileged”. Parents were blamed for ineffective parenting and local politicians for failing to bring money into the educational system.
No local politicians seemed to be in attendance at the forum, but there was no indication that they were invited. There were more than 350 participants at this “public” event in a “public” library, who were obliged to complete an online questionnaire in order to receive their reservations. Mr. Klein did concede in the end that funding to communities is a function of a “power structure advantage.”
The issue of more recent gangster rap videos and its negative influence on the social fabric would have been a good question from Mr. Carter. A phone call from the chancellor or the mayor to the companies that produce entertainment that singularly degrades this culture could be helpful. In the end Mr. Sharpton indicated that “We have work to do”.
Mr. Klein indicated that we need to “hold people accountable” and “live by the rules” which is code to some for reducing the power of the teachers union. “Accountability” could also include appointing officials with expertise in raising reading scores, which is the chief reason for the labeling of “failing schools”. These buildings are “closed unilaterally without hearings or community input” according to a flier distributed at the door by an independent teachers’ organization. The flier spoke of “the city’s failure to provide viable alternatives for poorly functioning schools, the scapegoating and discrediting of competent educators and valid evaluation of teacher quality and performance.”
There was discussion about the opportunity gap that needs to be encouraged without any mention of the unemployment rate among black males. Mr. Klein reiterated the need to bring the community into the system without mentioning that the biggest complaint of parents is that they have been shut out by the current system. Their representatives in the new Parent Education Panel questioned one issue about high stakes testing for graduation and were removed the same day.
Mr. Sharpton did not earn the love of his community with gentleness and kindness in the pursuit of civil rights. In the end Mr. Sharpton genuflected to mayoral control, which could be a subtle endorsement for the next election. Mr. Sharpton’s unimpeachable reputation in the Black community will hinge on his ability to ask questions and challenge the existing paradigm of the “Education Equality Project” in a serious way.
In the end, as a leader and preacher of truth, he may not be able to afford to continue to be drinking from this cup.
Posted By: Carmen Colon
Wednesday, January 14th 2009 at 8:09PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
