African-American males should not lag behind in school

Last week’s release, by the State Board of Education, of the 2007 North Carolina End of Grade test scores offered promise for our students with slight to significant increases in 15 local schools.

But, it also showed that too many of our African-American male students are experiencing little success in their courses, scoring far behind all other ethnic and gender groups in 13 schools and landing near the bottom in the rest.

In almost every school, African-American males trailed African-American females, white males, white females,

Hispanic males, Hispanic females and so on.

Commonly known as the “achievement gap,” this rift between higher performing students and African-American males stubbornly refuses to disappear despite efforts in innovative education programs and general school reform.

For decades, experts have argued over the reasons. Clearly, the causes of this issue are complicated and all have been paid much lip service by politicians, educators and community leaders alike.

Still, nothing happens.

Without proper education, too many under-performing African-American males are doomed to street corners, gangs, unemployment, poverty, violence and most likely, early imprisonment or death.

Now, the state has made it even tougher by removing the vocational diploma track, expecting all students (except for exceptional children) to be prepared for and to attend college.

With only three out of 10 African-American males working at grade level, that’s not going to happen.

While every demographic group needs improvement, the need is the greatest among African-American males. And, as many educators say, when the worst performing group can be brought up, then all of the “boats will rise.”

This is not to say that higher achieving groups should be held back or denied any program or class to make way for the lower-performing students. Nor should higher achieving students be expected to teach their classmates.

No solution will work until there is a real partnership between the education system and the African-American community.

And that is a two-way street.

There must be a fundamental change in the way communities are raising their children.

Too many African-American students see education as a waste of time, something that only “white kids do.” And too often, that attitude is met with frustration by teachers, who can sometimes be too quick to write off African-American students as a “lost cause,” especially the males.

This newspaper doesn’t dare consider itself an authority on what will solve this problem. We do know that some serious dialogue would be a good start.

And it’s time to start. How bad does this situation have to get before it gets better?

We hope that someone like former Whiteville City Schools Board of Education member LaDeen Powell will answer the call to begin such a dialogue. This very matter has troubled her for years.

There are wonderful success stories about African-American males in our schools. There’s just not enough of them.

Commissions should look before they give

We would like to suggest to the Columbus County Board of Commissioners that they thoroughly analyze the ramifications of deeding over county property to the Columbus County Farmers Market.

The committee that operates the market has asked the commissioners to donate the two-and-one-half acre site it uses so it can erect a $260,000 building. The group has applied for grants to pay for the building.

The Farmers Market is a good thing and it continues to grow as a non-profit organization.

But, there are other non-profit organizations who could use donated land.

Commissioners should be careful that they don’t set a precedent or else they could “reap what they sow.”