On second thought--”The time for justice, freedom and equality is always right now”

The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker, is a movie inspired by a true story set in a deep southern Texas town that openly sanctions racism. It epitomizes the struggle “underdog” African American students and teachers experienced to gain an equitable education in an unjust society. A professor and coach, Denzel Washington, cultivates African-Americans to engage their intelligence and leads them to surpass Harvard University’s best and brightest Euro-American students. The power of words becomes sport. Winners take all, including becoming an historical powerhouse.
Although racially segregated water fountains, restaurants and public schools seem to have disappeared in 2010, the nation’s problematic achievement gap between black and white students and suburban and urban academic apartheid demonstrates that a deep-seeded racial divide persists.

“Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does” Supreme Court Justice Warren, May 17, 1954

The 1954 Supreme Court decision, offered by Chief Justice Warren, on Brown v. Board of Education and the 2001 federal mandate No Child Left Behind has yet to unravel centuries of wrongs committed against African Americans. We rise in anticipation of the fruition of these inherently moral and democratic rulings that attack the impact of racially segregating children into separate and unequal classrooms, schools, communities, economies, and academic opportunities where access to rich curriculum taught by skilled teachers is the norm.

The lawsuits brought against the Lower Merion School District and won by its African American community are a force for change. So be it we pray lest this time justice, freedom and equality take black students to the education Promised Land that it be by the hand of the Almighty’s “ten plagues and then the Red Sea.”.

2010 Conference on the State of Education in Pennsylvania

Register now to attend the 2010 Conference on the State of Education in Pennsylvania on Saturday, May 1, 2010. The conference features several outstanding experts speaking to topics ranging from the high stakes tests to the Education Empowerment Act to National Core Standards and the Keystone Exams. The Youth Strand presentations will empower youth to move forward with a purpose and plan and to better understand wealth and financial development. The event takes place at Cheney University from 8:30am--3:00pm. Register online and get more details at www.naacpmediabranch.org.

High School Competency Graduation Exit Exams Become PA State Law

As of the January 9, 2010 issue of The Pennsylvania Bulletin, the Keystone Exams are officially and finally approved as high school competency graduation exit exams. Pennsylvania's public school students and school staff will join those from 28 states who are required or are in the process of implementing state-prescribed high school comprehensive exams as high school graduation requirements. Unlike some all-or-none tests, the Keystone Exams will be administered as end-of-course tests as student complete courses, and they may count for one-third of the course grade. Publication of the Keystone Exams as a new rule and regulation in the The Pennsylvania Bulletin was the final "legal" step in making these exams state law.

Exams will be phased in over time, beginning in the 2010-2011 school year. The class of 2014-2015 must demonstrate proficiency in English Composition, Literature, Algebra I and Biology. Beginning with the class of 2016-2017 students must demonstrate proficiency in English composition and literature, two of the following; Algebra I, Algebra II or Geometry; Biology or Chemistry, and one of the following: American History, World History, or Civics and Government. If there is a delay in implementing these exams, a "grandfather" clause has been written into the new law to avoid penalizing students unable to follow the regulations as currently provisioned.

You can read The Pennsylvania Bulletin online at www.pabulletin.com.

CBP & Zion Baptist Youth Council to Host Education Summit: The Village Takes Responsibility Part II

Plan to attend and share the word...

The Lower Merion School District administrators will be featured presenters at the Education Summit--The Village Takes Responsibility Part II on Saturday, January 9, 2010 from 9:15am-3pm at 92 Greenfield Avenue in Ardmore, PA 19010. Concerned Black Parents and the Zion Baptist Youth Advisory Council are co-hosting the summit on behalf of all concerned residents. The event is free and open to all, a continental breakfast and lunch will be available. Details follow.

The Morning Session starts at 10:00 am with presentations as follows:

Academic Achievement & the Keystone Exams
Dr. Christopher McGinley, Superintendent
Mr. Steve Barbato, Director of Curriculum

Special Education
Dr. Bobbi Shapiro, Director of Students Services

Cultural Proficiency
Dr. Barbara Moore-Williams, School District Consultant on Cultural Proficiency

After a brief lunch, the Afternoon Session at 12:45pm will hold Community Discussions on…

• What’s our community to do to raise achievement for African Americans from the outside in and inside schools out?
• How do we give more kids an identity as “intellectual” achievers?
• Who’s willing to do what?
  

We look forward to seeing you there! Contact us for more details, concernedblackparents@gmail.com

As Predicted--PA Regulators Approve High School Graduation Competency "Keystone" Exams

In 2005, Governor Rendell established the Commission on College and Career Success (CCCS report) and gave them the responsibility to study and produce recommendations to increase the numbers of Pennsylvanians who earn a diploma indicative of a world-class student ready to graduate from high school and enter the new global economy or prepared to succeed in college. Their primary recommendation was to initiate graduation competency exams throughout the state. In the face of tremendous state-wide opposition, the State Board of Education and Governor's office steadily ran with the idea until it became a sealed deal.

Long story short, when nearly $176 million dollars was contracted to Data Recognition Corporation (not a PA corporation) during a moratorium on the high school exit exams push, it was evident that all votes en route to creating a new state law requiring students to pass graduation competency tests was a done deal long before the state "Independent" Regulatory Review Commission voted 4-1 on October 22, 2009 to approve the Keystone Exams proposal that the State Board of Education has pushed over the past four years. The final leg of this new law includes a review by the attorney general before being published in the Pennslvania Bulletin. Voila. The class of 2015 will be the first to endure the consequences of graduate competency exams.

The CCCS report states that students must move beyond the Information Age and into the Conceptual Age. After all, the The State Department of Education and Governor Rendell, at least via the CCCS's report, do know that Pennsylvania still faces a gaping achievement gap that is no where near being eradicated by 2014, which is the intention of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002.

The CCCS reports that "persistent (achievement) gaps are ensured by inequity of funding and resources which results in less credentialed teachers in front of our poorest children, larger class sizes and less college counseling for our children of color and less access to higher education for our rural students." What's the plan to eradicate these foundational problems, if, indeed, these are the root causes of the achievement gap? By other indicators, the CCCS's report is rather simplistic in determining the root causes of the achievement gap. For argument sake, take a look at the high achieving, very wealthy Lower Merion School District; its achievement gap is deep and wide even while it doesn't suffer from any of the symptoms CCCS indicates are at the root of the problem.

Perhaps the achievement gap experienced in one of Pennsylvania's highest academic achieving school districts, the Lower Merion School District (LMSD), points to the shallow analysis of the CCCS report when it explains cause of the gap. Nearly 100 percent of Lower Merion's teachers are credentialed, there's a moderate to low student to teacher ratio, it does not subscribe to the Project 720, and the district is one of the wealthiest in the state (2010 budget of nearly $200 million for 6,800 students).

The LMSD achievement gap between PSSA Black and White 11th grade peer test takers during the spring of 2009 is as follows: 54 points in math, 32 points in reading, 56 points in science and 16 points in writing; that number is greater when the comparison is between Black students and 100% proficiency. Money isn't an issue, qualified teachers and class size aren't the problem--WHAT POINT IS THE STATE MISSING! If you're thinking the students are the problem, think again. Schools across the nation are not just closing the gap, they're eliminating them all together.

Bottom line...Priorities are out of order when fixing the roof is more important than solidifying the crumbling foundation upon which it sits.

Keystone Exams---will be written about for years to come because you cannot ensure by them that high school students are prepared to be citizens and workers that the Pennsylvania, national and international economy demands without greater regard and analysis of the varied levels of education (top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top) needed to prepare students to succeed.

AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGER WINS CASE AGAINST LOWER MERION SCHOOLS: She is to be compensated for the loss of years of meaningful education

After listening to testimony over eight days, an administrative hearing officer ruled that the Lower Merion School District denied its 17-year old African American high school student, C.H., a free and appropriate public education, June 2009. C.H. is a student with learning disabilities in mathematics, reading and writing. She aspires to attend college. Her compensation includes, but is not limited to, intensive instruction from Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes in Bryn Mawr.

The hearing officer’s opinion outlines a litany of basic failures on the part of the district to understand C.H.’s current level of educational attainment or to set measurable goals to improve. As a result, the remedial courses offered to C.H. were not tied to her actual needs. For example, while the district knew about C.H.’s learning disability in math, it failed to ascertain what skills she had attained or provide any goals for her improvement. According to the hearing officer, the district official’s explanation for this omission of math goals was “not logical”; there is a basic need, the hearing officer observed, for a baseline evaluation and then goals to measure progress from that baseline. The hearing officer similarly characterized as “sparse” the goals for reading and writing, observing that none of them was measurable. “Had the [Individualized Education Plans] been more precisely focused through reading, mathematics and written expression goals that were sufficiently broken down, and crafted with specific baselines and outcomes that were measurable, the actual remedial teaching might have occurred in such a way as to demonstrate meaningful progress. Unfortunately, this was not the case and C.H. was therefore denied [an education.]”