First, the bad news:
The Ypsilanti school district is embarking on the third and final phase of a program to resolve racial inequities in discipline, a longtime issue in the district.
At a school board meeting Monday night, a team of principals and other administrators discussed their efforts at reducing discipline disparities and requested community involvement in resolving the issue.
Data for the first three months of the 2004-05 school year shows that while black students make up 60 percent of district enrollment, they account for 81 percent of discipline referrals. In comparison, white students make up 34 percent of enrollment and account for 15.5 percent of referrals (more…)
It is my hope that this site serves as place where after reading news like this piece, that somehow you are thinking of ways to resolve these kind of issues. As for myself, I grow tired reading this kind of stuff; however, this is the part of “black reality” here in America that I choose to deal with.
With my background in youth work along with the many people that I know in the public school system, I can tell you that what is more frustrating than a child that will not listen is a parent or parents who don’t want to deal with their own children. Our children are producing these kind of statistics for one reason only: Lack of parental involvement. Unfortunately, WE are leading in this negative trend.
One person can make a difference! Read on.
About 2 years ago, there was a teacher in a Pasadena, CA high school who also noticed this trend amongst the black students. He decided the best way to deal with the problem (because the other teachers thought it was best to treat the situation as “business as usual) was to write a letter to all the teachers just telling them point blank that out of all of the students that gave him the most trouble, it was the black students that lead this trend. I was able to find an article on line that best describes the situation:
Scott Phelps, who teaches Science at John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, and is a 12-year veteran of teaching, claimed that most of his problem students–i.e., those who misbehave and get poor grades–tend to be blacks. This was an observation, culled from his experience, and written in a letter, in October, that he sent to other teachers in his school.
His remarks were in the context of discussing recent scores of the school’s students on the Academic Performance Index (API). This year’s scores were high, claimed Phelps, because both the sophomore and senior classes were composed of good students. However, he continued, next year, achievement will not be as high on the API, because the students who will have moved up the ranks as sophomores and seniors will predominantly be blacks, who will bring down the scores. Part of Phelps’ letter read:
But overwhelmingly, the students whose behavior makes the hallways deafening, who yell out for the teacher and demand immediate attention in class, who cannot seem to stop chatting and are fascinated by each other and relationships but not with academics, in short, whose behavior saps the strength and energy of us that are at the front lines, are African American. . . . Eventually, someone in power will have the courage to say this publicly.
Although Phelps went on to say in his letter that many black students, especially those whose parents are involved with the school, were well-behaved, this did not help him much. You can guess what happened next. (more…)
Unfortunately, the next thing that happened was that this teacher was referred to as a racist. The school administration placed him on leave.
The one important factor that I left out was that this teacher is white.
I can remember following this story everyday either by the radio in my car or by the local newspaper. I can remember really feeling bad for this guy who was only trying to make a difference in a bad situation. But something wonderful happened. All of a sudden, parents, students/former students, community leaders came to this teachers’ defense. Not only that, after this whole episode both parents and teacher met to discuss how to fix the problem. A big victory for the school and the community. Unfortunately, the big looser was the school administration who throughout the whole episode used the sermon of multiculturalism and diversity to condemn Phelp’s actions.
Stories like this one happen every day in our school system. We just don’t hear about them. There are many teachers in the school system that want to see their students succeed. Unfortunately, they are forced to work in a system that clearly does not work for most children. This is my whole reason behind my series entitled : “The school system: A national lab project” (Links to this series are provided for you on the menu bar to the right). I will be closing out this series in the very near future with a couple of postings that give some solutions to this national school crisis.
As always, thank you for taking the time to stop by this website. You are much appreciated on this end, and I hope that in some way you are motivated to action after being informed by The Black Informant.
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