Our View: More focus needed on African-American students

‘It is precisely because education is the road to equality and citizenship that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The walling off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second class status. Therefore, as Negroes have struggled to be free they have had to fight for the opportunity for a decent education.”

– The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The statement above was uttered in 1964, and 45 years later the nation is still struggling to achieve King’s dream for education. In Washington state, a mere 53.6 percent of African-American males graduated on time with their class in 2005-06. Over the years, African-American students have shown improvement if they stay in school. But as a group they have lagged others in the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and other standardized tests, especially in math. They are 1.42 times more likely to be in special education classes, and 2.7 times more likely to be tagged as having “emotional and behavioral disorder.”

Recognizing these distressing figures, the 2008 Legislature created an advisory committee within the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to study ways to narrow the achievement gap for African-American students. The panel recently released the report, and it contains ambitious goals. Some are realistic; some are not.

Realistically, the state can “ensure that teachers, staff and administrators in schools with 20 percent or more African-American students are qualified, trained and effectively meeting the academic, cultural and social needs of these students.” As the report notes, the education system was not designed to handle today’s diversity of students. And it’s not just a matter of poverty. On average, impoverished white and Asian students score higher on the WASL than African-American students who aren’t in poverty.

For one thing, while 5.5 percent of students in the state are African-American, only 1.4 percent of the teachers are. Plus, lower-performing schools have greater difficulty in retaining the best teachers.

The state can also ensure that all African-American students have early-learning opportunities. As is, too many kids are unprepared by the time they reach kindergarten. It is a deficit that can be impossible to overcome.

But it is unrealistic to think that 100 percent of African-American students will be ready for college or job training by 2024. Or that 100 percent will graduate by 2018. Not even the highest performing groups can meet those goals. There are just too many factors beyond the reach of schools.

So why should society as a whole care about the achievement gap? For one thing, everyone pays the social, health and human costs of having so many kids drop out of school or underperform. Plus, by 2030, minorities – African-Americans and other people of color – will be the majority. If the school system hasn’t adapted, then students won’t have the job skills they need and employers won’t have the labor force they need.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whom we honor Monday with a national holiday, put it best:

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”