News

Retreat's goal: Help black male students

January 13, 2008

More single-gender classes, expanded vocational training and career options and increased cultural-awareness training for school employees were among the top recommendations from a group of black male Charleston school leaders on ways the district could better serve its black male students.

Black male students frequently lag far behind their white peers academically, and they have higher rates of suspensions locally and nationwide. A group of 31 black officials and community leaders volunteered their time Saturday to brainstorm solutions to those issues.

Their other ideas included: year-round school, better recruitment and retention of black staff members and a requirement that every school have at least one black employee, more diversity in classroom curriculum and virtual classrooms where suspended students could get the instruction they need.
 
Also, alternative schools within schools that would be an option for expelled students, more fidelity to the original job description of student-concern specialists; and ensuring every school has a parent advocate.

The suggestions will be given to Charleston County Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley. Chief Academic Officer Randy Bynum is the highest-ranking black official in the district and was at the Saturday retreat.

He plans to have his staff study the list further, flesh out the ideas and come back to him with more information, he said.

It's critical to talk and act on this issue because more than half of the district's students are black, and pockets of that population aren't successful on this issue, he said, because the district has to address the needs of all its students, Bynum added. "I have a moral obligation to be here and to make it better."

The idea for the gathering came from Robert Pickering, community education director for Garrett Academy. For more than a decade he's wanted to have conversations like this among school employees because those who deal with students every day often lack a voice, he said. He said he hopes their ideas can be implemented across the district.

Lee Gaillard is a veteran county principal and coach and is the interim leader of Murray Hill Academy, the district's discipline school. The community needs more dialogue and follow-up on this issue, he said.

He remembers intense local discussions in 1975 about violence in schools that ended after a few years, and now it's 2008 and the same problems still exist, he said. If all this group does is meet, the same problems will be here in 10 years, he said.

Gaillard said he hopes the group keeps with its plan to continue meeting, he said. The Saturday gathering was the group's second.

He supported the idea of year-round school, which would give students extra time to learn what they need to know before moving to the next grade, he said. Much of the discussion focused on middle and high school students, and he said he'd like to see more talk about what could be done for preschool and elementary-aged students.

Another principal at the Saturday meeting was William Dixon, who heads James Simons Elementary on the peninsula, a school where almost all of his students are poor and black. He said it's good for the district's black male leaders to exchange their ideas and experiences in overcoming the issues students often face.

Dixon supports the recommendation for more single-gender classes because students learn in different ways, and he said he liked the suggestion of expanding cultural-sensitivity training for staff members because a disconnect often exists between low-income black students and their teachers, most of whom are middle class.

The Post and Courier | Charleston.net
By Diette Courrégé
Contact Diette Courrégé at 843-937-5546