Can inner-city magnet school programs make the grade?
by Attica Scott
"We were neither trained nor expected to protest against racial injustice, for that was not considered possible, or even desirable.... It was wisdom that would enable us to survive, not courage or the unpleasant and uncomfortable emotions evoked by honesty."
—Andrew Young, 1996
Here we go again. The Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores were recently released to the public. I had a different column ready to go until I saw these scores, and particularly after I viewed the website for scores by ethnicity.
As a parent and as a concerned citizen, I am more than highly disappointed by the results of the scores of inner-city schools. Let me take it a step further: The performance of inner-city schools with magnet programs leaves me shaking my head in utter disbelief.
Let's look at the scores. If I understand the numbers correctly, as a whole, not one of the schools with a magnet program is in the top 50 percent of schools across the country in all five areas of assessment. According to the TCAP website, as a whole, black students scored in the bottom 50 percentile consistently.
But some school, somewhere in Knox County, has shown improvement. Don't ask me where.
My son is a student in one of the magnet programs—not magnet school because that would be a misnomer—so that's why my focus is on these four schools: Beaumont Elementary, Green Elementary, Sarah Moore Greene Elementary and Vine Middle School. I want these schools to be better for my son, his peers and those students who will follow.
Of course, I know that administrators in the Knox County School System will have all kinds of excuses as to why the scores of these schools are so low. I know because I've met with the superintendent and some of his staff on more than one occasion, and poor performance is often attributed to lack of parental involvement, dysfunctional home life and economic status.
While these are some of the factors, they are not all of the factors.
During the past two years, I have had the opportunity to visit all of the schools with magnet programs, speak to students who are in the magnet classrooms and those who are not, parents of both groups of children, teachers and staff. What I have found is that poor performance can also be linked to neophyte teachers placed in school settings where they have not yet had the chance to prepare for the challenges of working with children who have all of the issues mentioned above.
I have also found that the disparity in discipline of black children has a negative effect on their learning ability. Imagine that. Many of these inner-city schools lack resources—resources including the money to make necessary improvements and the trained African American teachers to be role models for and to make a difference in our children's education (teacher's aides are not the same as classroom teachers).
But, there are some schools, somewhere in Knox County, that have shown improvement.
So, what can we do to improve the situation? Here are my very elementary thoughts: We can have meaningful tax reform, i.e., a state income tax.
Teachers who are new to the field of teaching should have a mentor who has been in the field for at least 10 years.
We need to have adequate measures of accountability from the school system to the community, from teachers to students and the schools to parents.
When schools say that there is a lack of parental involvement, those schools need to be clear about what exactly they want from parents. Is involvement a partnership in the child's education? Is it membership in the PTA/PTO/PTSO? Or is it active participation as volunteers in the classroom, in the school and with events and activities?
Finally (not really, but I've run out of space), there needs to be real transformation of the educational system rather than a cosmetic make over.
School will be starting in a couple of weeks, so I've got to go be a supportive parent and help my son get prepared.
August 1, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 31
© 2002 Metro Pulse
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