Education: Concern Expressed Over
Issues Facing Black Male Students

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide
 
        More than 80 percent of the inmates who took the GED exam at the Norfolk City Jail this year passed, said James Rivers, director of programs for the Norfolk Sheriff’s Department
         Most of the 1600-plus inmates in the Norfolk City Jail are African American. Most of them, Rivers says, are from poor or lower middle class backgrounds and high school drop-outs. Recruited into  the city’s burgeoning drug trade, many of the men who are as young as 16,  according to Rivers, and as old as 63, sit in the Norfolk City Jail because of drug charges.

Dr. Geoffrey Gun

        Since most of the inmates lack positive role models and a high school diploma, they are unable to land meaningful employment and stability in their lives, according to leading black sociologist Alvin Poussaint, who is on a national tour with comedian Bill Cosby, to address various socio-economic problems the black poor face.
        “A lot of these young men, when given an opportunity to better themselves, are able to work to get at least a GED,” said Rivers, who is the president of the Norfolk NAACP. “We ask the question, why did they fail to get through school? We see the connection  between these men  who leave school for one reason or another and  where they usually wind up,  in the jail or the grave.
      ”You do not  have to have a doctorate degree to see the correlation. Just look in our jails and you will see what happens to black men who have had no positive role models and adequate education. This is the end result.”
      So how do you reduce low academic achievement and low graduation rates—as well as high expulsion and high suspicion rates, which are all often disproportionately aimed at young black males?
      The New Journal and Guide posed this question to individuals in civic, church-based and civil-rights groups as part of an ongoing study.

    We learned that many groups are working to develop solutions.
     For example, Ann Sye, a retired Virginia Beach Schools employee, said she has posed the same question to the Virginia Beach School Board. The mother of two high school graduates, Sye said she has also attended workshops.
        “But I am worried about African American children, especially the males who are falling through the cracks,” Sye said. “These problems are fixable. But we must establish some solutions which will allow us to see measurable results.  It is one thing to talk about we have a problem; another is seeking to  work for answers.”
        Although Virginia Beach Public Schools has announced it will  eliminate 20 full time and 12 temporary positions to increase efficiency and to save funds,  VBPS Superintendent  Jim Merrill announced the creation of a position to handle “diversity issues” as they relate to the achievement levels of black males.
         Sye and  other members of the coalition, who were interviewed for the ongoing NJ&G survey, said they applaud the new appointment and the new 12-point plan, which was unveiled by school board leaders during an after-meeting workshop session.

 
         Among the “measurable  objectives” listed  in the panel’s presentation, but not released widely to the public, was eliminating the achievement gap.
Plans call for increasing reading and math proficiency levels on SOL test scores over the next three years, maintaining or exceeding a 95 percent attendance rate for targeted black males, and decreasing the gap in SAT scores. More black males would also be enrolled in advanced courses.
        “These are all good goals, but to make them effective we must get the community involved,” said Bruce Hacker, the chair of the Education Committee of the 200-Plus Men of Hampton Roads, a civic action group. “These are problems that the Beach School Board should not address alone,”
         Hacker said the group is planning a grassroots and civic-based plan.
        “We think that we have to first start looking at what is going on in our communities with our young men. We propose going into the homes and schools with proper role models. The kind of role images young black men see of themselves on TV is negative and contributes to our problems. We will use our members and seek volunteers from outside to put role models in front  of these young men to let them know there are successful positive men out there to emulate.”

     Beach Superintendent Merrill, in an interview with the New Journal and Guide, said, “I am not surprised by their concerns and I am actually pleased.”
     “At one time a lot of people would not have taken the time to address the board on these issues. But they are doing it now. And it comes at a time where the board and I feel it should be the objective to capture and harness the energy that is out there to make change.”
        Regarding the achievement gap which ranges from 15 to 30 percent between African American males and other groups, Merrill said, “in a variety of  areas from the  SAT scores to  attendance to math, you name it, they exist.  But  I think we should work to close it in every area.”
       Merrill acknowledged that a disproportionate number of African American male students are being expelled from public schools in Virginia Beach.
        “I trace it back to achievement,” he said. ”If a child does not get out of the blocks in kindergarten, if they are not a good reader, there can be discipline problems. We must look at what is being done to make sure that a teacher is doing a good job. But there comes a point where a child must be disciplined.”
        Merrill said that he is still working on defining the role the director of diversity will assume once the job is created. He said that the creation of the job was not just window dressing. “There will be high expectations, a number of issues,” and questions to answer from staff, teachers, administration and the greater community.
        While Hacker said he is willing to give Virginia Beach School officials high marks for effort, others are taking a wait-and-see approach as the public school system seeks to address disparities.
        One example is Dr. Lois Williams, who said she was ousted from the Virginia Beach School Board two years ago. “I asked too many questions about issues related  to black children, especially males,” she said.
        “What about the policy and procedure for calling police to a school for a simple altercation between two students?” she asked.  ”Usually the African American student is arrested and the kid (ends up with a police record) or he is expelled for a small infraction that a white student would be given a slap on the wrist.”
        Williams said a diversity committee was created while she was on the  board, “but it was all window dressing. It did nothing but serve as a way to shut outspoken black folks up. Most of the problems facing our children can be linked to good old-fashioned racism.  The situation in Jena, La., is nothing new. It has existed in Virginia Beach for a long time.”
        Twenty four years ago the Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Gunns was among a group of Norfolk clergy who led an effort to stop the city from ending diversity in the classroom.
        “School administrators can do so much to create systems and can do so much about systemic racism, profiling and promote educational  attainment,”  Gunns said.  
“But we must look at what is happening in the families, where the  burden  of responsibility exists.  Education, we have forgotten, begins in the home. A school system can create excellent programs, but we are also confronted with families with no family participation in their child’s school, too few books and too much BET and MTV.”

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