Don't Fuss ... Let's Discuss
The African-American Community Forum

Part II: 2000-2005:

African-American students lag behind no child left behind,

nine years to catch up

There were 17 high school graduation exercises between 1983 and the 2000 U.S. Census in which all of our African-American students had complete access to equal public school education opportunities in the public schools of Wilkes County. In addition, there were opportunities for those African-American students who became high school graduates to continue their education in four-year colleges, junior colleges or technical colleges for the ultimate goal to become professional workers in our nation's capitalistic and global job markets or to become self-employed entrepreneurs.

Our children who enrolled in the primary school in 1970 and thereafter and subsequently graduated or did not complete high schooling were included in the 2000 U.S. Census under the heading of educational attainment levels, age 25 and over. Persons in this age range now are the mothers and fathers, and in some cases grandparents, of the children who are presently enrolled in the Pre-Kindergarten through the 12th grade.

These children are living in households of married parents, single parents, guardians, care-providers, foster care providers and adopted parents. This group also includes children whose mothers were teenagers and young adults, age 17 to 24, prior to 2000. The 2000 U.S. Census did not include this group in the educational attainment levels, age 25 and over. Therefore, the following analysis will compare the educational attainment levels of the 1970 U.S. Census with the 2000 U.S. Census.

As we noted last week, in 1970, 87.6 percent of African-American adults, age 25 and over, had not completed a high school education; by comparison, in the year 2000, 52.5 percent had not completed a high school education. Clearly, the 1970 first generation and subsequent generations of AfricanAmerican students up to 2000, who had complete access to equal education opportunities, reduced the percentage from 87.6 percent to 52.5 percent of African-Americans 25 and over in Wilkes County who had not completed a high school education as of 2000. There are no bragging rights to claim after 35 years of unfettered access to equal education opportunities and it is absolutely "totally unacceptable." We must become increasingly proactive involved in programming the 85.6 percent of the time our children are not in school with meaningful after school learning programs that supplement their classroom learning. There is absolutely nothing that is blocking us from eliminating education poverty in the African-American community, except us.

Nevertheless, the 1970 new generation of African-American students are now mothers and fathers, who entered Wilkes County schools and graduated between 1983 and 2000. Metaphorically speaking, they are the blessed generations that were led out of our "ancestors' inferior and unjust educational wilderness" of 197 years, lasting from 1773 to 1970. They were led out by the laws of the United States of America and were carried across the "flooded Jordan river to the land of equal educational opportunity." They were blessed with education opportunities that our Wilkes County parents, grandparents and ancestors only dreamed about.

It is important to note that they have laid the foundation for their children and succeeding generations to realize the American dream as promised to all America's children.

Let's take a critical look at the students who are the offsprings of the 1983-2000 graduates, the initial pacesetters. Their offsprings who are presently enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten through the twelfth grade, must be challenged, encouraged and supported to catch-up and maintain the proficiency level of 100 percent by 2014 as mandated by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Congressional Act. The No Child Left Behind Congressional Act is not new. It's a new title given to the original 1965, Title I Elementary and Secondary Education Act as part of President Johnson's Great Society. This Act in 1965 provided the largest single federal investment of almost $7 billion to school systems, including Wilkes County School System, across the country to improve equality in educational opportunities to economically disadvantage students at risk of school failure who live in low-income communities. (You may recall in a previous article, it was noted that the threat from the district federal court to take away federal funds was the primary reason the Wilkes County Board of Education gave for the desegregation of its schools.)

Although Title I was established in 1965 to provide "extra" educational services to the nation's poorest and lowest achieving students, history indicates that for over 30 years after 1965, the program failed to meet its potential. In 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Improving America's Schools Act. This Act continued to fund the program up to $120 billion and provided strong legal handles for ensuring a quality education for students served by Title I funds. Parents were given the right to be involved in planning their children's education, and to see that their children's schools comply with the requirements of Title I. This reauthorized law charged schools and local educational agency (local school board) with ensuring that Title I students are not given a second rate education. In 2001, President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act became his reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. It is the principal federal law affecting education from kindergarten through high school. NCLB is designed to improve students' achievement and close achievement gaps of all stu dents to 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

Let's examine the progress that the Wilkes County School System has made toward the NCLB requirement that relates to the graduation rate of the high school graduation class that is required to reach the 100 percent proficiency level by 2014. The Governor's Office of Student Achievement and Georgia Department of Education public reports reveal that the Washington-Wilkes Comprehensive High School graduation rates are as shown on the bottom of page 5A.

Between 2001-2002 and 20042005 the graduation rate of AfricanAmerican students, who are the offsprings of the African-American mothers and fathers of the 1970 new generation and subsequent generations that had unfettered access to equal education opportunities, met the State minimum requirement of 60 to 62% only one year out of four attempts. The graduation rate of white American students, whose education legacy spans 232 years in Wilkes County, met the minimum state requirement four years out of four attempts.

Washington-Wilkes Comprehensive High School graduation classes met the minimum requirement four years out of four attempts because the white American students rate was higher enough to offset the below minimum rate of the AfricanAmerican students, thereby lowering the high school overall graduation rate by 12 percentage points but not enough to put the school below the state minimum of 60%. However, the state's minimum is raised to 68.6 % for the school year 20052006.

My African-American sisters and brothers of Wilkes County, why are we allowing this education and even the social, economic and political tragedies to happen on our watch and to too many of our children? We are contributing to our own selfimposed poverty dilemma by lackadaisical default: showing lack of interest in education, social, economic and political prosperity for ourselves and succeeding generations, but we are willing to help accrue prosperity for the earthly "masters" in Wilkes County and through the "holy ghost" receive our deferred riches in heaven.

Why can't we have both down here?

High school graduation rates
                                                                          Avg.               Gap to
                            2002     2003     2004     2005     4 Yrs       2014     Close
African-American   52.0     59.0     56.9     64.9     58.2   100.0     41.8
White-American     81.0     78.0     72.6     80.7     78.1   100.0     21.9
W-WCHS               62.6     65.3     64.1     72.6     66.1   100.0     33.9