Improving education a two-fold plan
Christopher Nelson
Issue date: 10/9/07 Section: Opinion
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For the last few years, I've held down a part-time job. A few days a week I work as an after-care counselor at a local prep school up the road from Loyola called the Friends School. On the days when I go from the college classroom to the elementary school playground, I'm made to see parts of my childhood all over again.
Even though I'm more than a decade removed from elementary school, I can thankfully remember some of the defining moments of my young life.
I can remember deciding even then, to be my own person, unafraid of going against the grain. Back then they called it being different. Now, they call it being independent minded or being a leader. I remember my second grade teacher Mrs. Ray said to my mother, "That boy's going to be somebody one day." Well, if Mrs. Ray could see me today, I know she's saying, "I told them so."
I also remember knowing that if I was going to fulfill Mrs. Ray's prediction, something in my life had to change. That something was where I went to school. Back then there were about three choices for families who wanted to ensure better educational opportunities.
First, they could pray the public schools got better; they could get their child into a private school; or they could pack it up and move to the suburbs. Beginning in sixth grade, I went to an all-boys Catholic middle school and after that a co-ed nonsectarian boarding school. Other families, though, chose to move to the suburbs.
A recent Baltimore Sun article points out that many families who made that choice are now getting a wake up call -- a reality check. Progress which had been made in erasing the gap between white students and students of color is being erased. That progress is steadily eroding as African-American students and other students are struggling to make the grade. This is particularly true in high schools, where statewide exit tests could eventually affect graduation rates.
The class of 2009 is supposed to be the first class required to pass statewide exit tests. Those tests are being administered now, and already some students aren't passing them. A majority of those not doing well are students of color.Researchers say that there are a myriad of reasons. Among those reasons is a lack of equal resources.
Even though I'm more than a decade removed from elementary school, I can thankfully remember some of the defining moments of my young life.
I can remember deciding even then, to be my own person, unafraid of going against the grain. Back then they called it being different. Now, they call it being independent minded or being a leader. I remember my second grade teacher Mrs. Ray said to my mother, "That boy's going to be somebody one day." Well, if Mrs. Ray could see me today, I know she's saying, "I told them so."
I also remember knowing that if I was going to fulfill Mrs. Ray's prediction, something in my life had to change. That something was where I went to school. Back then there were about three choices for families who wanted to ensure better educational opportunities.
First, they could pray the public schools got better; they could get their child into a private school; or they could pack it up and move to the suburbs. Beginning in sixth grade, I went to an all-boys Catholic middle school and after that a co-ed nonsectarian boarding school. Other families, though, chose to move to the suburbs.
A recent Baltimore Sun article points out that many families who made that choice are now getting a wake up call -- a reality check. Progress which had been made in erasing the gap between white students and students of color is being erased. That progress is steadily eroding as African-American students and other students are struggling to make the grade. This is particularly true in high schools, where statewide exit tests could eventually affect graduation rates.
The class of 2009 is supposed to be the first class required to pass statewide exit tests. Those tests are being administered now, and already some students aren't passing them. A majority of those not doing well are students of color.Researchers say that there are a myriad of reasons. Among those reasons is a lack of equal resources.
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