To Close Gaps, Schools Focus on Black Boys

It would be hard to find a better case study for why NCLB is so important -- prior to NCLB, school districts could (and DID!) sweep low-performing students (mostly low-income black and Latinos) under the rug, putting them in remedial classes, setting low expectations and -- this is the most important factor -- assigning the worst teachers to those classes (if you want to see the data on this last point, see pages 10-19 of the slides I've posted at: http://www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Teacherquality.pdf):

The district calls it a “moral imperative,” and administrators and teachers say their top priority is improving the academic performance of black male students, who account for less than 10 percent of the district’s 4,200 students but disproportionately and consistently rank at the bottom in grades and test scores. The programs are voluntary, school officials said, and some students choose not to take part.

The special efforts for Ossining’s black male students began in 2005 with a college-preparatory program for high schoolers and, starting last month, now stretch all the way to kindergarten, with 5-year-olds going on field trips to the American Museum of Natural History and Knicks and Mets games to practice counting.

Ossining’s unusual programs for black boys have drawn the attention of educators across the country as school districts in diversifying suburbs are coming under new pressure to address what many see as a seemingly intractable racial divide with no obvious solution.

The federal No Child Left Behind law’s requirement that test scores be analyzed for each racial group has over the past decade spotlighted the achievement gap even in predominantly white suburban districts.

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To Close Gaps, Schools Focus on Black Boys

By WINNIE HU

Published: April 9, 2007

www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/nyregion/09school.html

OSSINING, N.Y. — In an effort to ensure racial diversity, the school system here in northern Westchester County is set up in an unusual way, its six school buildings divided not by neighborhood but by grade level. So all of the second and third graders in the Ossining Union Free School District attend the Brookside School.