BRANCH MEMBERS PARTICIPATE IN BLUE RIBBON TASK FORCE

The goal is the "elimination the achievement gap" according to new Superintendent of Public Schools, Dr. Michael Martirano. "Not the closing of the gap -- but the elimination."

"I am excited to be working with Dr. Martirano and I believe we are going to witness some significant changes over the next couple of years," said Branch President William Nace Bowman. Mr. Bowman participated in the selection process last summer, which led to the hiring of Dr. Martirano.

Having just completed his first year as St. Mary's County Superintendent, Dr. Martirano is being given credit for the significant progress already evident toward eliminating the gap. George Washington Carver Elementary School recently announced that there is no achievement gap at their school.

Non-Asian American students of color all across the nation are, on the average, getting lower grades than white and Asian American students. In fact, by the time African American and Hispanic students graduate from high school, they are achieving at about the same level as white eighth-grade students. That's a four-year difference -- a gap of four years.

Last November, Dr. Martirano convened the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Eliminating the Achievement Gap. Approximately 40 people were appointed to the task force including Branch President Bowman, Branch Treasurer Bob Lewis, Education Chair Janice Walthour, and At-Large Executive Committee Member Alonzo Gaskin, as well as about four other Branch members. The task force was divided into five working sub-committees: Instructional Quality, Quality Workforce, Parent/Community/Business Partnerships, Intervention & Special Programs, and Cultural Diversity.

After seven months of study and literally dozens and dozens of meetings, the task force submitted their report to the Board of Education at their mid-June meeting. Compared to past reports from similar groups in the 1970s, early 1990s, and late 1990s, there was little difference. The report reiterated the need for improvement in classroom rigor, highest quality teachers, higher expectation levels for all students, more staff diversity, more personal and engaging curriculum, staff training, smaller class sizes, more community involvement, and additional funding targeted to under-achieving students -- to name just the leading findings.

New in this report was the call for a community-wide campaign to highlight the importance of education, and more importantly, the importance of high achievement levels for all students. Also, the Cultural Diversity subcommittee made the convincing argument that ethnicity is a fundamental constituent of the achievement gap. Up until the last few years, local school officials had claimed that socio-economic family levels were more important than ethnicity. But recent studies have shown that African American and Hispanic students from the upper-middle class are still achieving below white students from poverty level families. [see Closing the Achievement Gap: 1201 Implementation Guide, The University of California, 1998]

For more information on the Blue Ribbon Task Force or the public schools pursuit to eliminate the student achievement gap, call 301-475-5511 and ask for the Office of Academic Support. To volunteer on the NAACP Branch Education Committee, call 301-863-3011.