[Youth-list] NH Proposal re African American male students

[JMRab at aol.com]

     (http://www.nhregister.com/site/News.cfm?brd=1281)       01/28/2007  
City  studies new classroom model: all male, all black   By  Gregory B. Hladky , 
Capitol Bureau Chief 

New Haven school officials are  seeking $250,000 in state funding for a plan 
to create a  groundbreaking same-sex public school academy aimed at black 
youth  who have trouble in traditional classrooms. 


A trial of  same-sex classes for fourth- and fifth-graders at New Haven's  
Beecher School has been under way since September, and Principal  Kathy M. 
Russell said the experiment is looking like a success.  

"In my fourth grade there has been a significant reduction  in disciplinary 
referrals," said Russell. 

The experiment has  been so successful that older students are now asking for 
same-sex  classes. 

"My sixth-grade girls want to be separated now,"  Russell said. 

It appears from the Beecher School project and  similar experiments around 
the nation that single-sex classrooms  allow boys and girls to function better 
with fewer distractions,  better discipline and significant academic 
improvements, Russell  said. 

Beecher School's student population is almost 100  percent minority, 
officials say. 

New Haven School  Superintendent Reginald Mayo said the proposal for an 
all-male  academy within one of the city's public schools is particularly  focused 
on finding solutions to the educational problems of black  males and other 
minority youths. 

"We've really got to do  some out-of-the-box kind of thinking," said Mayo. 
"We're certainly  losing too many of our African-American and Hispanic boys to 
prison  and the streets. 

"We're struggling to find ways of getting  young people to focus on academics 
more," he added. "I'm willing to  try anything at this point in time." 

Mayo said the academy  would focus on seventh grade and then follow it up the 
next year  with the same group of students continuing on in eighth grade. He  
also would like to see Beecher expand its programs. 

New  Haven's legislative delegation has proposed legislation seeking  state 
funding for the program. 

"There is some thought that  ... boys are more likely to drop out of school 
... and that some  boys have difficulty in traditional classrooms," said state 
Sen.  Toni N. Harp, D-New Haven. Harp is co-chairwoman of the  legislature's 
influential Appropriations Committee. 

"This  would be an attempt to look at another model of providing education  
to (minority) males," said Harp. 

New Haven would apparently  be the first public school system in Connecticut 
to separate  students by gender and race, said state Department of Education  
spokesman Tom Murphy. 

Hartford has been trying same-sex  classrooms at the Lewis Fox Middle School 
for several years,  according to Murphy, but those students aren't also 
separated  according to race or ethnic background. 

Single-sex education  is a rapidly growing trend throughout the nation. 
According to the  National Association for Single Sex Public Education, 223 public  
school district offer some form of same-sex learning, up from four  in 1998. 

The Lewis Fox Middle School created the Mary  McCleod Bethune Institute for 
Girls, and the Benjamin Mays Institute  for Boys. Each single-sex institute 
enrolls about 75 students and  use a curriculum centered on black history and 
themes. 

"A  boy, in particular a black boy, doesn't know how to be a black man,  if 
he doesn't see one," Sadiq Ali, a Mays Institute teacher and  founder, told the 
National Association for Single Sex Public  Education. "The first thing is to 
expose them to positive men, and  what a positive man should be." 

In writing, 60 percent of  Mays' students met or surpassed the state goal in 
reading tests,  versus 32 percent citywide. In math, 47 percent of Mays' 
students  surpassed the goal, compared with 27 percent citywide. 

"A  lot of our boys come in (with) extremely low (test scores), as if  
they've never gone to school before. We bring them up. They progress  academically. 
That's what you want to see. Also, their self-esteem  has picked up, and they 
carry themselves in a dignified manner.  They're staying out of trouble," Ali 
said. 

According to New  Haven school officials, the $250,000 in funding would be 
used for a  variety of additional costs, including: 

‰Training for  teachers in dealing with the learning differences between 
girls and  boys. Some additional teaching materials would also be needed, such  as 
books "tailored to teaching young African-American males to  read." 

‰Hiring additional black and other minority male  teachers and 
paraprofessionals to reduce class sizes and to provide  role models for male students. 

‰Collection of data on  student performance and a year-end review of the 
pilot project to  determine how effective the new classes have been. 

New Haven  school officials said there is a trend in urban school districts  
across the nation toward creation of predominantly black, all-male  public 
school academies. About a dozen such academies are now  operating, according to 
Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, spokeswoman for  the New Haven school system. 

The all-male academies targeted  toward black youths attempt to provide a 
more structured and  supportive classroom environment and make an effort to hire 
more  black male teachers to act as role models. 

Such all-male  academies for black youth are part of a larger pattern of 
public  schools around the nation experimenting with same-sex classes and  
schools. 

In October, the federal government issued new  regulations giving public 
school districts greater authority to  increase the number of same-sex classes and 
schools. The new  regulations require that all such classes be voluntary and 
that  co-educational classes of equal quality must be made available to  
students on request. 

The change in federal policy marks a  dramatic shift from the direction set 
more than 30 years ago when  Congress passed a law prohibiting sex 
discrimination in schools.  

Murphy said New Haven's proposed experiment for black male  students would 
run into "some conflict with Connecticut state law,"  but he added such 
anti-discrimination laws could be modified.  

Mayo said he is well aware that the proposed pilot program  could be 
controversial and is ready to deal with criticism in order  to find out if such a 
program could work. 

The overall  dropout rate for students in New Haven's predominantly minority 
high  school system is about 17 percent, Mayo said. 

The president  of the Connecticut chapter of the National Association for the 
 Advancement of Colored People, Scott X. Esdaile of New Haven, said  he is 
withholding judgment on the proposed public school academy for  black males 
until he learns more. 

"I'd like to take a look  at it first," Esdaile said. "I will seek an 
opportunity to sit down  with Dr. Mayo to discuss it." 

Gregory B. Hladky can be  contacted at ghladky at nhregister.com or (860) 
524-0719. 


 
(http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/redirect.cfm?ADLOCATION=1&PAG=791&BRD=1281)  ©New Haven Register 2007 
 
Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D.
Governor's Senior Advisor on Early  Childhood
Co-Chair, CT Early Childhood Education Cabinet
Senior Youth  Consultant
United Way of CT & Office for Workforce  Competitiveness
Home office: 203-481-9940
Blackberry: 203-824-4766
Mail  to: 28 Juniper Point
Branford, CT 06405

"...I hope  you never fear those mountains in the distance, Never settle for 
the path of  least resistance..And when you get a chance to sit it out or 
dance, I hope you  dance..." Lee Ann Womack. I Hope You'll Dance
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ctvoices.org/pipermail/youth-list-ctvoices.org/attachments/20070128/9ebe2b64/attachment.html