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School segregating black students during homeroom (269 hits)

School segregating black students during homeroom

Lancaster Pennsylvania has segregated black students not only by race but by gender during homeroom. The all-black homerooms are part of an experiment to determine if grouping students homogeneously each day will help them socially and academically.

Read more: http://aareports.com/2011/01/school-segreg...

Posted By: George Cook
Thursday, January 27th 2011 at 2:32PM
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[The idea originated with Angela Tilghman, a McCaskey East instructional coach who was alarmed at the poor academic performance of the school's black students.Only about a third of McCaskey's African-Americans scored proficient or advanced in reading on last year's PSSAs, compared with 60 percent of white students and 42 percent of all students.

Math scores were even worse, with just 27 percent of black pupils scoring proficient or advanced. Research has shown, Tilghman said, that grouping black students by gender with a strong role model can help boost their academic achievement and self-esteem.

She and fellow instructional coach Rhauni Gregory volunteered to mentor the African-American girls, and Michael Mitchell and Willie Thedford each took a homeroom of black males. ... In the few weeks the homerooms have been meeting together, the mentors said, they've seen a change in their students. ...

"You notice the level of interaction is different, the way they talk is different," Thedford said. "One of the simplest things you notice right away is, before, the pants were hanging down; now, they are up. The shirt is tucked in, where before, it was hanging out. That's tangible." Read more: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/...

Although I don't advocate separate schools or segregated homerooms, I think we should evaluate each situation individually in order to truly understand the rationale behind instituting a particular intervention. After reading the article and viewing the video clip, I think its a wonderful experiment and hopefully the kids will gain from the findings and practically apply them to their daily lives.

Thursday, January 27th 2011 at 3:06PM
Jen Fad