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F e b r u a r y 2 4 , 1 9 8 8 , P o r t la n d O b s e r v e r , P a g e 3
NATIONAL NEWS UPDATE
Tracking Hurts MinorityStudents But
System Can be Altered Says Experts
W ashington , D C. — An increasing
number of education professionals
and parents oppose tracking as un
fair to minority students, Jeannie
Oakes writes in the premier edition
o i "Issues '88 ", a new publication
o f the National Education Associa
tion.
The annual magazine, with a cir
culation of over 1.9 million NEA
mdpibers and education leaders, de
b ite d in January.
Qakes, a social scientist with the
Rand Coporation of Santa Monica,
California, says tracking — which
segregates schoolchildren by per
ceived ability level — creates un-
evfen classroom opportunities and
uhequal access to knowledge.
A disproportionate number of
poor and minority students are put
in "low-ability” classes early in their
school careers, Oakes points out.
These students develop a low self
esteem, and the longer they remain
in such classes, the further behind
they fall.
Students in lower tracks, Oakes
explains, are taught mostly by work
books,
kits, and easy-to-read
stories, while learning tasks usually
consist of memorizing and repeat
ing answers back to the teacher.
■ Students placed in high-ability
groups have far richer schooling ex
periences than either low-ability or
average-ability groups.
"They have access to different
types of knowledge and intellectual
experiences," writes Oakes. "They
are expected to learn vocabulary
that would eventually boost their
scores on college entrance exams
. . . Their teachers tend to be more
enthusiastic (and) use criticism and
ridicule less frequently than teach
ers of low-ability classes."
What can be done to eliminate
the inequities?
"N o ready-made staff-develop
ment packages or teaching formulas
exist to help schools and teachers
move smoothly toward less track
ing," notes Oakes, who also ac
knowledges the difficulty of mixing
within traditional competitive class
rooms students who have different
knowledge levels.
But Oakes does offer some im
portant new recommendations for
overcoming the problems inherent
in tracking. Schools, she argues,
need to take a concept-based ap
proach to curriculum and design
active learning tasks rather than
passive ones — team activities that
require thinking, discussing, w rit
ing, and visualizing.
"Classrooms will probably neeo
to be organized far differently, pro
viding a diversity of tasks and in er-
actions with few 'public' compari
sons of students' abilities," writes
Oakes.
In these new classrooms, adds
Oakes, teachers would "function
like conductors, getting things start
ed and keeping them moving along,
providing information and resour
ces.” Grades would be based on
improvement, progress toward a
learning goal.
Where tracking isn't immediately
eliminated, Oakes recommends that
new placement criteria be consider
ed that ensure racial and ethnic
balance at all track levels and in
special programs for the gifted.
The present system "where the
richer get richer and the poor get
poorer” is usually vigorously de
fended by those few who benefit
from it, says Oakes, but it can be
altered if school staffs and commu
nities work together.
"B ut unless teachers have the
time and the professional autonomy
to deliberate about, develop, and
experiment
with
fundatmental
changes in school organization and
classroom practices, alternatives to
tracking are unlikely to be intelli
gently conceived, enthusiastically
endorsed, or successfully imple
mented," she concludes.
Black Soviet Journalist Enjoying
America
Yelena Abdulavena Khanga, a
25-year-old reporter for the Moscow
Weekly News, is currently on a
three-month exchange program
working at the Boston-based Chris
tian Science Monitor. Yelena is in
most ways a typical Russian,with
one exception, however, she is
Black. This fact has made her the
subject of a lot of news reports
recently. She has told numerous in
terviewers that she is proud of her
racial heritage but she considers
herself a Russian first. English is
her second language. She is grand
daughter to a Black Mississippi man
who married a White New York
woman and moved to the Soviet
Union in the 1920 s.
FBI Head Denies
“ Systematic Racism” In Agency
Newly appointed FBI Director
William Sessions last week, denied
charges that racism is systematic in
the FBI. The charges were promp
ted by the recent revelation that a
Black FBI agent was harassed, by
White agents in an apparent bid to
drive him from the FBI, the nation’s
highest law enforcement organiza
tion. Fewer than 5 percent of the
bureau’s 9,443 special agents are
Black.
PORTLAND OBSERVER
"The Eyes and Ears of the Community”
288-0033
I
by Norman Hill
Black History
Month 1988
Traditionally, Black History
Month has been a tim e when we
acknow ledge and celebrate
Black achievement and Black
culture and the many contribu
tions of Black America to this
country’s character and growth.
This election year, however, we
must do more than recognize
past gains, people and events;
we must endeavor to broaden
the impact of Black history and
the influence of Black America.
And this must be done in two im
portant areas: education and
politics.
To date, our public schools
and universities have, to a large
extent, been woefully deficient
in incorporating Black history
and culture into existing cur
ricula. The de-emphasis on core
subjects over the last two de
cades has served to further
relegate Black history to virtual
obscurity. How many students,
for example, know about Joshua
Johnson, the 19th-century Black
artist whose work recently sold
for $660,000 in New York? How
many have heard of A. Philip
Randolph or Bayard Rustin? Or
that Admiral Perry, the famous
polar explorer, had a Black as
his right-hand man? It is little
solace that today many Ameri
can students don’t know who
Admiral Perry was. The point is
that the contributions of Black
a rtis ts , d o c to rs , s c ie n tis ts ,
writers, social thinkers and ac
tivists are not taught in our
classrooms.
Clearly, Black in s titu tio n s ,
com munity groups, unions and
parents’ organizations need to
continue to press educators and
the education establishm ent to
revise curricula to include more
material on all facets of Black
American culture and history. A
critical first step in stemming
the rising tide of racial polariza
tion and stereotyping in this na
tion is better education.
Black History Month this year
must also be a time when the
Black com munity gears up for
the important national election
this fall. In the last decade, the
Black vote has become a potent
force in this nation’s political
dynamic.
Not only are more
Blacks being elected to public
office, but Blacks are providing
the crucial swing vote in close
elections, particularly in the
South. This growing influence
is perhaps the most significant
development in contemporary
American political life. There
fore, voter-participation must
be a top priority for the Black
com munity to further broaden
our increasing political clout.
So as we proudly celebrate
our accomplishments and our
place in enriching this country’s
development, we must look be
yond the past and ensure that,
through education and politics,
our concerns will be voiced and
heard, and our future secure.
Norman Hill is President of the A. Philip
Randolph Institute.
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