By MELISSA NIX
More than 30 people gathered in the gym of the Bragg Hill Family Center for an important discussion last night--how to address shortfalls in the education of African-American children.
Educators, parents and concerned residents met for the third in a series of events put on by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens, a consortium of Fredericksburg city and Spotsylvania and Stafford County schools, local churches, and civic organizations.
The coalition's mission is to improve the academic achievement of African-American students.
"It's well known that African-American students are not doing as well academically as their counterparts," said Mozett Petway, president of Spotsylvania County's NAACP chapter and a leader of the coalition. "How can we improve their academic performance?"
He pointed to data showing the disparity in 2004-05 test scores in English, math and science between black and white children in Fredericksburg city and Spotsylvania County schools--a gap ranging from 15 to 25 percentage points.
Coalition members presented their recommendations for reaching increased academic achievement--ideas that came out of committees called Parental Involvement, Early Intervention, Community Support, Cultural Sensitivity, and Stop Drop Outs.
Speakers made solid recommendations. They also made passionate pleas for commitment and honesty on the part of the community and schools.
"There's a battle out there we have to fight," said Carlos Moore, an art teacher at Chancellor High School. "We can't lose it. We're losing too many kids."
With his public comments, he called out the elephant in the room--the word "race."
"Our school system in the United States is a form of institutionalized racism racism is what these kids have to live with--that's part of the history," he said. "We as educators have to be sensitive to what these kids go through."
Melvin Brown, who chaired the Cultural Sensitivity Committee, talked about the success of cultural competence training in his school district--Prince William County.
"Out of 85 schools in my district, 82 of them have been trained in cultural diversity," the associate superintendent said. "This is the kind of thing that could be done here."
The training takes educators and administrators and "gets them accustomed to what students [outside their ethnic groups] are bringing to the table," he explained.
Others noted that the public school teacher population does not reflect the range of ethnic groups that comprise the student population.
"We have to hire staff that reflects our student population. In my school we have one black teacher and one male teacher," said Melody Lewis, a counselor in a Spotsylvania County school. "Our children need to see us. They need to see our faces."
Nine out of 10 public school teachers are white, and almost 8 out of 10 are female, according to 2001-02 statistics from the National Education Association. The percentage of African-American public school teachers has declined, from 8 percent in 1971 to 6 percent in 2001.
Parental involvement was also touted as key to success.
"We need to dig deep for these children who are struggling--target them and their parents," said Courtland High School Assistant Principal Mary Speight, who chaired the Parental Involvement committee. "Invite them in, make them feel comfortable."
She suggested smaller orientations, workshops, computer classes where the children teach the parents a few skills and expose them to their curriculum.
Many, many other recommendations and tasks came down the pipeline last night from the various committees.
So what's the next step?
"We'd like the superintendents to adopt some of the things we've recommended," Petway said. "On Nov. 9, we'll have another meeting, so that they can come back and let us know how things are going."
To reach MELISSA NIX:
Email: mnix@freelancestar.com