Oakland Schools Say Black English Is Second Language Program Will Train Teachers To Understand Dialect In Order To Help Them Teach Standard English

Saying it has failed to adequately educate black youngsters, the Oakland Unified School District has declared black English a second language, making it the first district in the nation to give the controversial dialect official status in programs targeting bilingual students.

The move to recognize the black vernacular - called “Ebonics” by some educators who consider it a distinct language spoken by the descendants of slaves - was approved unanimously Wednesday night by the Oakland School Board.

The vote was called historic by some educators and policy-makers, who said it opens the possibility that Oakland could vie for federal funding available to help students who speak languages other than English.

But others sounded strong notes of caution, suggesting the decision stands on weak ground educationally and could lead to a political backlash.

“We are not aware of any research that indicates that this kind of program will help address the language and achievement problems of African-American students,” California Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin said Thursday. “If it does not - or worse, if it becomes a way of lowering standards for those students - then it is a bad idea.”

Language experts predicted that Oakland’s decision will be closely watched by other school systems around the country, particularly large urban districts that long have struggled to improve the academic performance of minority students.

Although its origins and history of “black speech” are disputed, linguists generally agree that there are about 50 characteristics that differentiate it from standard English. One of the most common is the wide use of “be” to denote an ongoing action, as in “He be going to work.”

Such usage makes many people cringe and may prevent users from entering mainstream society - or getting jobs.

But supporters of the dialect say that to disparage it is to disparage a culture. And they view Oakland’s move as a strategy to unstigmatize young users of such language while teaching them standard English. Oakland officials said the decision to embrace black English was motivated by grim statistics on the achievement of students.

Although black students make up a slight majority of the 50,000-student district, they are overrepresented in programs for students identified as academically deficient. For example, 71 percent of the district’s 28,000 black students are in special education classes and 64 percent are kept back a grade because of poor achievement. Only 37 percent have been placed in programs for the gifted.

In giving black English official recognition, the Oakland board was acknowleding “that what we have been doing is not working,” said school board President Lucella Harrison. “Someone said why not just put these kids in remedial classes. My answer is, we had remedial classes in the ‘60s and ‘70s and they did not work. We must do something different.”

School Superintendent Carolyn Getridge insisted: “It’s not a pullout program. It’s not about chasing the money.”

Bohdi Kroll, a substitute teacher of English and journalism at Oakland High School, said recognizing Ebonics is “just recognizing reality,” since for many black students, standard English is basically a second language.

“They can understand it but they don’t really speak it,” he said.

Supporters say the idea is to catch those students who don’t fully comprehend mainstream English or tune out because they feel the language of their community is being ignored.

“African-American students do bring a language to the classroom that’s different,” said McClymonds High Principal Willie Hamilton, a member of the task force that recommended the change.

“It’s not to have the teachers teach Ebonics. It’s to have the teachers understand the language,” he said. “It happens with other non-English-speaking or limited English proficient students, and we felt the same should be done for African-American students.”

Critics immediately attacked the approach as patronizing to blacks.

“It is a racist affront against people who have struggled for decades to be a part of the American fiber,” said Steven Gooden, 30, who is black and served as honorary youth chairperson at the Republican National Convention in San Diego. “This cuts to the heart of the issue, I think, defining us as genetically deprived.”

Ebonics has been classified by the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association as a social dialect with its own grammar, lexicon, syntax, phonology and semantics.

Some linguists have traced Ebonics’ origins to African languages spoken by slaves that have distinct patterns, such as the absence of forms of the verb “to be,” as in “She be at the store,” and common use of double or triple negatives, such as “I’m not going back there no more.”

The resolution calls for recognition of “the existence, and the cultural and historic bases of West and Niger-Congo African Language Systems.” It ordered district officials to immediately devise and implement a program to teach black students in “their primary language,” black English, for the dual purposes of maintaining the legitimacy of the language and to help them learn standard English.

Teachers and aides would be certified in special teaching methods and the teachers would be offered incentives to complete the training, including salary bonuses.

District officials are expected to present a plan for training and other aspects of the program by the spring.

The U.S. Department of Education has neither granted nor received requests to give black English programs bilingual education funds, which are authorized by Congress under Title VII, spokesman Rick Miller said Thursday.

If Oakland or any other district made such a request, it would be considered, Miller said. But department policy has been not to recognize black English as a separate and distinct language, he added.