Made for MTV

coming to Wake County to uncover and disclose all the lies, cover ups and scams being perpetrated on the children, parents and families!

Since no one locally in the media cares or has the spine to do so!

http://www.triangletribune.com/index.php?src=news&refno=1662&category=News
Black males perform poorly on reading exams

Published Monday, January 26, 2009
by Sommer Brokaw

RALEIGH – Black males in grades three to eight scored about half as well as white males in reading according to the 2007-08 Wake County Public Schools End of Grade exams.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African-American Children revealed the striking disparity at a Jan. 24 meeting with a small group of parents and state Superintendent June Atkinson.

Calla Wright, co-founder of the CCCAC and a parent of two sons, said eighth-grade is a critical point. About 37 percent of black males in eighth-grade passed the EOG reading exam, compared to about 81 percent of white males.

"It's pitiful," said Bill Holden, the father of a son in WCPSS. "It's really bad. I'm concerned with what we need to do to change this as a community."

Holden said the school system should do away with the EOG exams because a child can pass the class but fail the exam. As long as they are passing the class, it shouldn't matter. But Atkinson said they can't get rid of the exams because of the No Child Left Behind law.

Furthermore, Myra Westmoreland, a parent of two sons, said Wake should keep the exams as an assessment of how the children are faring. "It was especially good to see the data," she said. "It was eye-opening. It puts things into perspective."

Westmoreland said her children have experienced negative peer pressure by being told they're "acting white" for being smart, and other bad influences that are far reaching in society.

Holden said it would help if they could get more parents together to discuss the situation. "This room should have been full of black parents," he said. "I was shocked when I saw this. It starts at home with the parents. The teachers can't do it all."

In addition to the widening disparity, education officials say that students performed worse across the board on the reading exams last year because of a harder test.

Gary Williamson, director of accountability services for the State Board of Education, explained that they had to raise the standard to improve the growth curve so students would be closer to the median university reading level by eighth-grade. He pointed to a chart that showed how students showed substantial growth in reading from the third- to eighth-grade, but after that, the reading level was only at the median workplace or community college reading level.

Though some of the growth curves weren't divided by race, they did show different levels of academic performance and the gap narrowing over the five-year period of grades three to eight. However, looking at the achievement levels of blacks and whites on the EOG, Larry Dickens, who grew up in primarily segregated schools, was concerned over equality in schools.

"That's a bleak picture he put on that board," he said. "The bottom line is the gap doesn't close."

Wright believes part of the problem is the Board raised the standards without putting any more resources in place to help children succeed. "When they raised the bar, but didn't give them any resources to help them, it just left them hanging," she said.

"If they don't remain on the growth curve, they've got to have intervention," Atkinson said. She also stressed the value of early education and reading to children on a daily basis. "We also need to do something so they don't start with this gap," she said.

"It was really helpful for me to see June Atkinson come out to a community meeting like this one because as a parent it makes me feel like she's really concerned," Jessica Whitaker, a parent of two young boys, said.

Talk about allowing the wolf into the hen house.

Evans said school officials told him the production crew was unobtrusive and didn't impact the school at all.

Other than tacit approval of that garbage channel.