Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 October 2001 — Page 2

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2Qj)J

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The Mount Vernon story£

A how-to primer for saving our children

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By TAMARA MARTIAL NNPA Special Contributor MOUNT VERNON, N Y. — With public school systems throughout the nation struggling with budget cuts, debates over teacher competency and declining student achievement levels, the possibility of new. more intense federal testing requirements and other education reform proposals, are creating new fears. Rather than living in perpetual fear, the public school system in Mount Vernon, N. Y„ is proving to be a national model for reversing declining school systems. In just three years, it has gone from having some of the worst test scores in the state to now ranking among the best. The district is 95 percent Black and is one of the poorest districts in the state. Several of the schools in Mount Vernon have more than doubled the number of students passing the tests since 1999, the first year they were given. And their students are now outscoring many of those from schools in some of the wealthiest school districts in the state. So when a school such as Longfellow Elementary School moves from just 12 percent of its students meeting state standards in 1999 to 84 percent in 2001. people take note. "What impresses me is the political courage it took and the realization we are listening to political heroes,” says Lawrence Guyot, a long-term Washington, D.C.-based community activist who was responding to an inspiring three-hour panel featuring the leadership behind the Mount Vernon turnaround. The program, which in many ways took on the tone and spirit of a revival meeting, was part of the National Urban League's annual conference held in Washington, D.C., last August. ”1 think what we are doing is working,” says Irene Boykin, fifth grade teacher at Mount Vernon’s Columbus Elementary School. “I embrace it and I think it's wonderful that our district has been brought into focus.” Black resident activists, who say theirs was a long-term struggle, listed two actions that were critical to their success: defeating the white-controlled school board that had resisted reform for years and bringing in a Black superintendent, one who considers educating Afri-can-American students a “calling,” not a job. A visit to this tree-lined community ISmilesnorthofNew York City provides little evidence that a successful revolution that has been waged here. Mount Vernon is in the southern most pocket of Westchester County. It is a quiet enclave where people are friendly and walk the streets at a slow pace, a stark contrast to their betterknown neighbor to the south. But this is a mixed bag. Westchester County is home to some of the nation’s largest corporations such as IBM and MasterCard International. The median family income for White Plains, one of its principal cities, is $56,684. On the other hand, the figure for Mount Vernon is $34,850. Unlike the rest of the largely affluent county. Mount Vernon’s population of 70,000 is about 65 percent Black. And of the 10.000 students attending public school here, approximately 95 percent are Black, with 60 percent from lower income households. With such limited resources, any change in the district might be considered difficult. The battle to bring about Black-controlled educational reform reflects this. It’s been a long grueling process, a 25-year fight. Part of the battle was over how to allocate the city’s $114 million annual budget. “Money was going to the north side of the community where it was predominantly white, whereas funds to the predominantly Black south side were slim,” says Rev.

Franklyn Richardson, pastor of the Grace Baptist Church, the area’s largest predominately Black house of worship, and key organizer of the movement to reform public education. In 1992, under Rev. Richardson's leadership, the Coalition for the Empowerment of the People of African Ancestry (CEPA) was established, and the Black community began coming together to discuss all facets of their future, especially the needs of their children. “African Americans have been victims of mis-education in Mount Vernon,” says Rev. Richardson. “Too many of our children were graduating from Mt. Vernon to Van Halon, the county penitentiary.” Richardson adds that “this miseducation has been cyclical, because many of the people who graduate from a school system that mis-educates children end up having children, and you wind up having second-generations of mis-edu-cation. And you end up with parents who can’t go back to the schoolsand advocate for theirchildren because they don't know.” To change that, they realized that they needed control of the school board. So they organized by going door-to-door and through the churches. Success did not come all at once. In 1997, African Americans won five seats on the ninemember board. The following year was even better as African Americans went to the polls in record numbers, giving the CEPA slate a clean sweep of all nine seats. The challenge then became moving from “revolution to governance,” says Richardson. “Transformation in a community must include a consciousness by the parents, the church leaders, the politicians — you cannot transform a school district simply in the classroom." And the Black church must be progressive and act aggressively in this transformation, he says: “The political dynamics in a community outside of demanding good education means every church, every pastor should consider that part of what it means to be a pastor is to make sure his people don’t just get prepared to go to heaven, but get prepared to deal with the hell they ’ ve got to deal with everyday.” Next they persuaded the school superintendent, who had been in his position for 25 years, to retire. Ronald O. Ross, an African American who had been a deputy superintendent of schools in Hempstead, N.Y., replaced the white superintendent. Like Mount Vernon, Hempstead’s high school needed an overhaul. In only seven months, the team that included Ross moved that high school off the state’s list of worst schools, which it had been on for seven years. At Mount Vernon, Ross moved in quickly and aggressively. "I was aware that the school system was in need of drastic improvement,” explains Ross, “I figured that for what we needed, we had to clean house. I am in public schooling, and I have no control about which students walk through that door. I have to teach them, no matter who they are. But I can have some control over the teachers.” And he exerted that control. He eliminated more than a dozen administrative posts in the district’s central office and used those funds to hire an English and language arts coordinator, as well as coordinators of curriculum in six other

academic areas identified as ertycal by the state. The new English and languLl^e arts coordinator created a new curriculum standardizing what arid how teaching would take place at each grade level throughout ' the district. Fourth graders, because of the new testing requirements, were an immediate focus. And afteiHe'sting her program at the Longfellow School, where students in one,year jumped from 13 percent passing to 83 percent passing the exam, The program was installed in all ’TO elementary schools. At that level, emphasis is placed on reading, and reading compirehension, with a special reading‘instmetor regularly employed. Stydents are taught story strucltirp, how to find the main point'of 1 a story and what makes a good"/ssay. Student growth is constantly monitored and regularly measured, clearly defined goals are spelled out to students and parents alike, and after-school tutoring sessioijs for students and parents have bepn established along with parent bight workshops. Homework is eVen standardized throughout the system. Educators have not been afraid of finding untraditional ways";fo motivate traditional students. The Mount Vernon district iVioti vates students by establishing (he “Read to Reach a Goal” program. Last year, students in grades'four through eight who read at least 50 books were given a free bike.TJbnations for the book challenge came from various individuals and sjfforisoring community organization^ By the close of the coptest, 168 sparkling new bikes were cli^fni 1 )- uted. “I have changed the culture &f the school system,” Ross explbirfs, “In other words, my teacherk pect more from my students.*’ 1 ’ And he expects more from his teachers. Ross closely monitorsthe teaching staff to ensure that 'his expectations are met. He alstj Vias provided them with intensive professional development so tlidy could realistically meet those expectations. Indeed, this yeaY' He doubled teacher’s development grant money to about'$ 14 million. At the same time, pressure,was applied on teachers by holding them accountable for the performance of their students. He persuaded them that if they communicated jjo each individual child that they wfcre expected to accomplish things, then the end results wlllpe just that — great. Z~'“ The requirement of a standardized teaching approach waS ’ribt always met with approval. Sbnie teachers believed it restricted 'tttejr creativity; others disliked chahjF ing the way they had taught 6'ver the years. But Ross refused t6 Be bound by tradition. “Success builds upon succfcs^” Ross says. “If a child’s early Experiences are clothed in failure, then you can almost predict the Ydter outcome.” Even many of the skeptical teachers now agree. As Alice Siegel, the district’s English', atfd language arts coordinator, and author of 11 children’s books toldTHe Mount Vernon Journal News, after test scores were released last spring: “This shows that all children cqn succeed. We have empowered o$r children. This gives hope to all leis affluent districts and tells them thbt they, too, can do the job.” ' J S -.c i

Learning and reading

with parents

By TARRON LIVELY NNPA Special Contributor The Mount Vernon turnaround proves that with the right guidance, young African Americans can achieve academically. But effective educational techniques and approaches have often been lacking.

One Black education organ*'j zation that has successfully | worked with school systems and | parent's groups nationally is the I Learn'"Leam♦Learn Education! Corp. (LLL), based in BoWie',! Md. “Our position with LLL is-tp; See LEARNING, Page AX-t \

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