Free Republic

The great disappointment of my ongoing crusade to foment a revolution in black education has been the lack of a response, and even hostility, from black leaders in this community. Naturally, I expected everyone to drop what they were doing and hop onto my education movement bandwagon. To be sure, black readers in general have responded positively and in droves to the call for a black education movement along the lines of our historic civil rights movement. They have said they agree that this movement must demand rigorous academic standards and a high level of parental responsibility and community involvement...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of black children living in extreme poverty has risen sharply since 1999, according to a report released Wednesday by a children's advocacy group. About 932,000 black children under 18 lived in extremely poor conditions, up almost 50 percent from 1999 and about 25 percent since 2000, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Children's Defense Fund. The number is at its highest level since 1979, the earliest figures available. The group defined ``extreme poverty'' as kids living in families with after-tax income below half the poverty line. Poverty thresholds differ according to...

Parent Group Blows the Whistle on Delaware School District Parents allege discrimination of special education, minority and low-income white students Members of a parent watchdog group, Parents Advisory Council Team (P.A.C.T.) has reported the Appoquininink School District of Odessa, Delaware to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, alleging noncompliance with special education IEPs, racial discrimination, and misuse of zero tolerance to target and expel low-income white students and minority students that school administrators do not like. The parents and children span racial, cultural, socioeconomic and political lines. The parents claim the school district is abusing their power...

I spoke recently to a gentleman, now getting on in years, who spent a career in the slum schools of a big American city. He was bright, tough, and realistic, one of the very few gringos hereabout who speaks good Spanish. Though white, he had also grown up in a housing project and so knew well the culture of the bottom of society. Most of what he said of his experience tracked with the descriptions of slum schools that are found everywhere-dropout rates in excess of fifty percent, unconcerned parents, the usual. We need not recapitulate them here. He made...

WASHINGTON -- Collie Hutter has a simple task for the young high school grads who want to work at her factory: Successfully complete a standard job application. But that often proves too hard for applicants. Sometimes their handwriting is so bad that Hutter can't read their answers. Others don't know how to spell the names of the streets they live on. "This is not brain surgery. If you can't fill one of these out, how are you going to be able to fill out a work order?" asked Hutter, chief operating officer at Click Bond Inc., a Carson City, Nev.,...

A study has found that one of every four children in central Harlem has asthma, which is double the rate researchers expected to find and, experts say, is one of the highest rates ever documented for an American neighborhood. Researchers say the figures, from an effort based at Harlem Hospital Center to test every child in a 24-block area, could indicate that the incidence of asthma is even higher in poor, urban areas than was previously believed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that about 6 percent of all Americans have asthma; the rate is believed to...

Dutch research has revealed that pupils at special schools for primary education can best learn arithmetic using one specific strategy. When adding and subtracting with numbers less than 100, these pupils make least mistakes when using the so-called threading strategy (for example, 65 - 23 = 65 - 20-3). Bauke Milo investigated how children with learning difficulties can best learn to add and subtract numbers less than 100. Arithmetic lessons using modern methods challenge pupils to come up with their own solutions. However, children with learning difficulties require a different approach. The skills expected in modern arithmetic education are out...

I've tried to be impervious to "group think." But I've recalibrated my thinking regarding collective guilt and shame. Why? Because I'm ashamed of the low achievement today of most black kids in school systems nationwide. Black people collectively should join me in my shame. The point being not to wallow in it, but move to do something about it. Hugh Price, former president of the National Urban League understands, if not shares, my shame. Price's book, Achievement Matters: Getting Your Child the Best Education Possible, has identified a "crisis in our classrooms" that far too many black parents and leaders...

<p>NDIANAPOLIS -- Across the nation, black males tend to lag behind their high school classmates. Washington Township Superintendent Eugene White is confronting the problem head on, singling out black male students and chastising them for their poor performance in school.</p>

<p>INDIANAPOLIS -- Across the nation, black males tend to lag behind their high school classmates. Washington Township Superintendent Eugene White is confronting the problem head on, singling out black male students and chastising them for their poor performance in school.</p>