Posted on 05/19/2003 9:24:40 AM PDT by Sweet_Sunflower29
The group consisted of men and women, blacks, whites and Latinos. Some were educators, while others called themselves interested residents and community organizers.
As they sat around a table in a Durham School of the Arts classroom, the participants in a workshop on minority student achievement tried to make sense of why black boys often lag behind their peers in the classroom.
One woman said young black males lack decent role models, and some children simply decide to "opt out" of education early in life.
Parents with children who struggle in school have often felt isolated, and have been reluctant to speak with teachers and school administrators, said Betty Campbell, president of the resident council at the Damar Court public housing complex.
"I’m feeling like the educators are not working with the people who are having the problems. You’ve got to make them feel welcome," she said, adding that school officials tend to speak in a manner beyond what parents could understand.
"Many teachers are scared of black boys," said Nettie Collins-Hart, assistant superintendent for instructional services in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, who led the workshop based on a program held in her school system. "We’ve been taught [in society] to be afraid of certain groups of students."
The Saturday workshop, one of several sponsored by the Durham Public Education Network and the Durham Public Schools’ Closing the Achievement Gap Taskforce, was part of the network’s third annual Education Summit. This year’s summit examined how school-community partnerships could raise the academic performance of black and Latino children within the Durham schools.
The workshops were a first for the event, which included a keynote address by Wendy D. Puriefoy, president of the Public Education Network, of which the nonprofit Durham network is a member. The Durham Public Education Network is an independent organization created 17 years ago to establish community connections throughout Durham in order to improve public education.
In a workshop on teacher quality led by Melissa E. Bartlett, 2002-03 N.C. Teacher of the Year, Bartlett said the broad-reaching federal No Child Left Behind legislation was good in insisting teachers be skilled in their subjects, but that it didn’t go far enough.
The qualities of an effective teacher identified by workshop participants -- optimism, a respect for students, being caring and committed -- weren’t recognized in the new law, she said.
City Councilman Howard Clement said that when he was a child attending racially segregated schools, the facilities were substandard, but the teachers were dedicated, intelligent and compassionate. "In that generation, teaching was their only option," he said. "While the options have expanded, the best minds are not in the teaching profession."
Bartlett agreed, noting that low pay contributes to the problem.
Studies that tested teachers’ IQs have found the profession today to be "a sea of mediocrity," she said. "What’s good [in teaching] is mediocre."
Randa McNamara, a nonprofit employee planning to teach in the Durham Public Schools in August, said she came to the summit to learn about relevant issues in the community. She is currently enrolled in NC TEACH, a state-run program that helps bachelor’s degree graduates working outside of teaching to enter the profession. She said she got a lot out of the first workshop she attended on minority student achievement.
"I really thought that the piece on the fear of black men -- young men -- feeds the institutional response to children in education," McNamara said. "It’s fascinating to hear what other people are thinking."
Nonprofit employee?
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