School Report Leaves Out Ebonics

The debate over black English that roared coast-to-coast four months ago appears to have faded to a whisper.

The final report of the Oakland schools’ Task Force on the Education of African American Students doesn’t even mention the word “ebonics,” according to a story in The Oakland Tribune.

The task force’s first report prompted a national controversy when it spawned a school board resolution suggesting that ebonics, or black English, was a “genetically based” second language.

The Tribune reported Saturday it had obtained a copy of the final report and found it contained no reference to ebonics. The report still emphasizes improving black students’ language skills and does not deny that black English exists.

But there is no reference to black students speaking a separate language, nor are there any suggestions that the district should think about pursuing bilingual funding for black English speakers.