Test
from page AI ,
true. |
African American students have
had many crowning achievements |
over the years For example, in 1998 (
the percentage of blacks moving |
from grade seven to eight who were j
proficient on the tests grew nearly 15 <
percent, while the percentage of ,
white students the same year, and in ,
the same grade level, grew only (
about 7 percent.
But even with the substantial
growth the rising eighth-graders (
experienced last year, only about 47 |
, percent of them were proficient on
the tests compared to 81 percent of ,
white students
In a few instances black stu- ,
dents' growth on the tests were less ,
than stellar. ?.
In 1997, rising African Ameri- ,
-an sixth- and seventh-graders had |
negative growth, with 6.3 percent
less rising sixth-graders and 1.5 per- j
cent less raising seventh-graders per- (
?J forming at a proficient level from the ,
\ year before. (
Martin attributed the negative
- growth to the difficulty some stu- j
?dents have making the transition
J from elementary school to middle ,
; school. White students also experi- ,
venced negative growth during the (
"same period in 1997, and the gains |
made among all students have been ,
- smallest at the fifth-to-sixth and |
1 sixth-to-seventh grade levels
2 "That doesn't mean they went |
* backwards...Less (students) were on
* grade level." Martin said. I
?j The school system had another
reason to toot its own horn last <
week. In a comparison with the j
same math and reading tests data for \
2 the whole state, African Americans '
~ in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth ,
j- County school system are standing (
head and shoulders above the rest.
; narrowing the divide between their ,
'* test scores and those of whites at a (
* swifter rate.
C "We are outstripping the state," ;
;; Martin said. (
-v Some years the percentage of ,
* African Americans who were profi- j
* cient on the tests in Forsyth County
were barely different from state aver- ,
ages. But in other years, local |
African American students experi
enced substantial growth compared
to state figures.
For instance, in 1998 - the last
year that complete state data is avail
able - the percentage gap between '
white and African American stu
dents closed at a much higher rate
among local students
Older students seem to be mak
ing the most progress at eliminating
the gap. Rising seventh- and eighth
graders here closed the gap by near
ly 8 percent in 1998, almost double
that of the state average for the same
year and grade leiefs. ?
Martin said that a number of
factors are responsible for the gains
African Americans have made. He
applauded the school board, his
staff and the staffs of the system's
schools for showing dedication and
a commitment toward educating
students. * '
Martin also gave credit to the
state's three-year-old ' ABCs
accountability plan, which measures'
the yearly progress of students at a
particular school, awarding schools
, that show marked improvements
with cash incentives and sending in '
special teams of educators to
schools that do not.
Martin says the ABCs plan has
caused a renaissance of sorts in
teaching.
Long Life ...
from page A2
knees and pray. Sometimes, if you
were walking by, I guess you Would
think church was going on.""
Thomas came to Cincinnati
from Georgia in 1923, when her two
brothers sent her .money so she
could take the train and join them.
She said it post.her about $14 to get
to Cincinnati. Soon after she
arrived, she got an apartment that .
cost about $10. a month and her
brothers found her a job in a facto
ry that pitted cherries.
"I didn't like that, because you
had to stand in water all day," she
said.
She soon found a job cleaning a
dormitory for women in downtown
Cincinnati.
For more than 20 years, she
worked as an orderly at Good
Samaritan Hospital and as a cook
at the University of Cincinnati. She
was 77 when she retired from a job
as a cook at Xavier University.
Thomas has seen a lot of
changes in her life, but she says she
took them all in stride.
"I take things as they come." she
said.
She says she has liked all the
presidents except Herbert Hoover.
"People were living in boxes
when he was president, and if it
hadn't been for Mr. Roosevelt. I
don't know what would've hap
pened." she said.
When Fraiiklin D. Roosevelt
died, she said she remembered
everyone crying.
"It has really focused instruction
n North Carolina schools," he said.
Teachers look closely at what they
rave taught."
Taking its cue from the ABCs
Man, local teachers and administra
ors have tried to design instruction
or every student. Martin said, gjv
ng a possible reason for Winston
ialem/Fbrsyth County's extraordi
tary growth. Martin added that
?mailer class sizes in many schools in
he system have also spurred on the
irowth.
Martin also gave partial credit
to the controversial redisricting
plan for the strides that some
African American students have
made.
The plan, which created a
school-choice plan and did away
with forced busing, has concentrated
i large number of students who
receive free or reduced lunch in cer
tain schools
The school system has therefore
focused much of its attention on
these schools taking special mea
sures to ensure that those students
get extra help. Martin said.
"We have put a lot of resources
in these schools" Martin said.
Martin focused on one such
school. Diggs Elementary School,
Juring the news conference to illus
trate how schools with high at-risk
populations benefit from extra
resources both .financial and
human. ? . ,
The school which has a popu
lation that's nearly 100 percent
African American - has benefited
from a very low teacher/pupil ratio
tnd from such special programs as
success For All, an intensive read
irtg program developed by Johns
Hopkins University, Martin said.
When this year's ABCs results are
released later this summer, school
officials expect Diggs to be near the
exemplary" range. Last year, the
school did not meet its expected or
exemplary growth.
Martin's assertion thyxt the redis
tricting plan may help, not hurt, the
.hances of African Americans being
successful in the system, is a direct
contradiction to what many black
leaders have been saying since the
plan was first adopted by the school
board in 1995.
Many say the redistricting plan
has impaired black students, espe- ,
dally in the area of PTA funds,
which schools that are mostly
minority receive less of.
"Any progress that any black
children have made is in spite of the
redistricting plan, not because of it,"
said the Rev. Carlton Eversley
Martin promised Eversley one of
the first copies of the testing data at
a county commissioners meeting
June 14 as the two men took oppos
ing sides on whether or not the com
missioners should give the school
system extra money to fully imple
ment the redistricting plan.
Eversley said he saw the figures
Monday nighjt during a meeting he
had with Martin and school board
chair Donny Lambeth. NAACP
president Bill Tatum and an attor
ney working with the NAACP were
also present at the meeting. Eversley
said he was not at liberty to talk
about what was discussed.
Eversley said the gains have
barely made a dent in terms of
where a large number of black kids
remain on the end-of-grade tests:
not proficient.
"The gulf is still enormous," he
said. "To think that we are at the end
of the road rather than at the begin
ning is an awful mistake."
Martin conceded that much at
the news conference.
"We need to keep chiseling away
at (the gap),'' Martin said.
Wednesday morning, after The
Chronicles press time, Eversley was
scheduled to hold a news conference
to announce that the General'
Assembly of the 2.5 million-member
Presbyterian Church agreed to join
the local NAACP in its fight against
the school system's redistricting
plan.
Eversley said the decision was
made during the group's annual
< meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, last
week. Eversley added that he expects
the organization to financially sup
port the NAACP lawsuit, which
could be filed as early as this month.
School board member Victor
Johnson said the gains that black
students have made show that the
school system is doing something
right.
"We are running in the right
direction. We know where the prob
lems are," he said last Thursday.
While Johnson said he'd rather
focus on the education of children
instead of the heated topic of redis
ricting, he does think that having
black children back in schools in
black neighborhoods has had a pos
itive effect on their test scores,
Johnson said the plan has
brought black parents back into the
schools, which has led to better rela
tionships between parents and
teachers and principals, which, in
turn, has led to a better academic
environment for black students
"Before the redistricting plan,
black kids were suffering miserably,"
Johnson said. "In the integrated
schools our black kids were not
doing as well."
But Johnson is the first to admit
that the school system has many
miles to go before it can truly pat
itself on the back. There are still not
enough black students passing, not
only the end-of-grade tests, but all
tests, Johnson said.
"I know that we are much better
than 40 percent proficient," Johnson
said. ,
Board member Geneva Brown
said the gains are not large enough
yet to celebrate, but she said she
would have gladly attended last
Thursday's news conference, if only
to show her support for students.
"I would have gone had I been
invited," Brown said. '
Board members Lambeth and
Jane Goins were on hand at the
news conference. Neither one
addressed the media during the brief
event; instead, they took seats beside
administrators as Martin spoke.
Johnson said he was not invited
to the news conference either,
although he said he probably would
not have attended. He says he is
more concerned with the data
released at the news conference and
not so much the event itself.
? Brown said an invitation was
also not forthcoming when Martin,
Goins and board member Lynn
Thrower went to the June 14 county
commissioners meeting.
Although she is a staunch oppo
nent of the redistricting plan, Brown
says as a former educator who
knows how crucial funding is to
C '
d. '
schools, she supported the system's
request for the extra money.
Ironically, years ago, when the
school system was looking for a new
superintendent, Brown was one of
Martin's main cheerleaders. But due
in large part to the different views
they have of the redistricting plan,
their relationship has become some
what strained over the years
"People keep asking me why did
I fight so hard to get Dr. Martin
here?" Brown said. "I grant you that
he's a smart man, but there is some
thing missing there."
Brown said Monday that she
had not seen the figures on the gap
closure, but that she planned to call
for them the next morning. But
Brown said what she's heard and
read about them have not impressed
her.
"It's not significant to me simply
because the gaps are still so wide,"
she said. "It's not enough for me."
Brown said regardless of what
the figures show, she can't get over
the fact that barely 50 percent of
black students are proficient on the
end-of-grade tests.
Results from this past school
year, which are still unofficial at this
point, show that only rising fifth
and seventh-graders managed to
climb, slightly, above the 50 percent
proficient mark.
Brown says for change to truly
come it will take strict and consistent
monitoring of schools to ensure that
students as well as teachers are being
taught all the tools they need.
Ultimately, extra money will not
bring about better scores for black
students. Brown said. A true closing
of the gap will only happen when
the system changes the way schools -
are run, making them a better envi
ronment for parents, students and
teachers, Brown said.
Brown does concede that extra
resources pumped into schools with
a high number of students on fret or
reduced lunch have made some dif
ference in end-of-grade testing, but
she says the redistricting plan is not
the panacea for equity in testing.
"It >is not worth five cents in
terms of educating all children,"
Brown said.
Brown said she is also asking the
school system to furnish her with
data that shows the gams minorities
and whites have made at each indi
vidual school, figures that could
prove more telling in determining
what effect one-race schools are hav
ing. Johnson said that he is also
interested in seeing the figures bro
ken down by school. 2*
In addition. Brown is also
requesting other information relat
ing to redistricting, including data
showing how many requests have
been made by parents, for the 1999
2000 school year, for their children
to attend schools outside of their
zones and which schools parents are
choosing for the children for the
1999-2000 school year.
V 1 ^ ^ ^J ^ | H ^ ^ B H & BH Hv^H
IBECjl
MgLyl
This Weekend enjoy
huge savings on all our
La-Z-Boy* furniture.
Hurry, sale ends soon.
The Mirage sofa adds
beauty and a sense of formal dignity to a
traditional style. Features include rolled and
gathered arms and luxurious seat cushions.
The Rialto full reclining chaise sofa
offers pacesetting style and
full-body comfort.
V E EUIXNISH SATISFACTION'.
WINSTON-SALEM-700 Hanes Mall Blvd. at the Pavilions
Phone: 765-3336
Monday thru Friday 10 am-8 pm, Saturday 10 am-6 pm, Sunday 1 pm-5 pm