M r s . F r a n c e s S c h o e n -N e w s p a p e r U n i v e r s i t y o f O re g o n L i b r a r y E u g e n e , O re g o n 97403 i Have a safe Fourth of July! PORTLANÖ Volume XX, Number 24 "The Eyes and Ears o f The Community" Legislature’s Task Force Says "Minority Teachers Don’t Need Know Nuthin’--Look Who They is Teachin"’ By Professor McKinley Burt Under the heading “ Task Force neo-primitives who wished to intro­ Calls Teacher Test A Failure” , last duce “ Black English” or similar de­ Tuesday’s Oregonian reported that in generacies into an already defective the opinion of a legislature task force, curriculum. “ Oregon should scrap a basic skills test The oldest of canards has been for teachers.” Their findings lead to trotted out: “ But because the exam, the conclusion that ‘ ‘The Cali­ fornia Basic Educational Skill- Test is not a test that will deter­ mine whether or not you would make a good teacher.” The spokesperson was LaVonne Lobert-Edmo, a Salem student resource specialist and chair­ man of the Minority Teacher Task Force. Oregon’s Teacher Stan­ dards and Practices Commis­ sion voted in May to SUSPEND THE BASIC SKILLS TEST FOR 180 DAYS. Now it is suggested that a permanent edu­ cational travesty may be in­ flicted upon the “ minority” students of this state-for it is quite certain that school prin­ cipals will not allow teachers G eneral Electric Co. engineering who fail the test to teach other apprentice; Do you think that a "skills than minority pupils, when I test" failure taught her? refer to these persons as half­ literate I use the term advis­ edly as you can determine for yourself like most standardized tests, is 'biased from the following statistics (multiple against minority groups’, teachcr-train- ing schools are looking for'other’ ways choice questions, yet). “ During the 1988-89 school year to assess a teacher’s basic skills...” in Oregon, about 55 percent of the 152 WHAT THE TESTS ARE BIASED minority persons taking the California AGAINST IS IGNORANCE!-An ig­ test passed. Eleven of 25 black test norance of the basic skills and tech­ taers passed; 19 of 47 Hispanics passed. niques (math and language) necessary By contrast, 2,413, or 80 percent, of to decode the elaborate data base of knowledge which supports ourcon tem­ 3,027 white test takers passed.” That makes it quite obvious what it porary culture. And whose fault is that? is exactly that the test does determine; There is little need to cite again the large numbers of our populations have litany of educational debacles and in­ suffered educational disabilities which equities that have brought about this have assured them a listing among those horrendous situation-this newspaper and who will be unable to compete or other­ other media across the country have de­ wise effectively interface in today’s tailed the problem ad infinitum. Par­ world of technology and increasingly ents, taxpayers and a “ minority ” of ef­ sophisticated workplaces. But, it would fective educators have screamed al­ seem that we have those who would most in vain for too long-ever since empower these failures to transfer their that Catholic priest in Chicago wrote, disabilities to yet another generation. “ Why Johnny Can’t Read” , and that And it seems like only yesterday that was decades ago (to be followed on we had to put down the assault of the ERVER years later by his second book, “ Why Johnny Still’ Can’t Read” ). The book “ Cultural Literacy ” is an excellent ex­ ercise in middle class polemics (intel­ lectual masturbation), but hardly ad­ dresses the problem of a seriously flawed delivery system for providing a decent educational product to our children. Rather than continue the * ‘litany of inequities” , I pre­ fer to re-emphasize the “ Suc­ cess Models” which were de­ scribed in last week’s front page article and in the “ Perspectives” column. We were told of the exemplary accomplishments of 22 nationally-recognized prin­ cipals who are successively edu­ cating African American chil­ dren at the same level (or bet­ ter) as white pupils in their cit­ ies (“ National Association of Schools of Excellence” ). Fur­ ther, we saw that this quite fea­ sible methodology had been packaged into a manual and video and delivered to every school principal in the state of Oregon: “ Partners For Success: Busi­ ness and Education. ’ ’ National distribution will follow. And it was in the Perspectives col­ umn that we described the one hundred year-old model of Bishop Daniel Payne’s “ classic curriculum” for 'free Negroes’ in the antebellum South. And the fan­ tastic accomplishments of the Black Catholic priest, Father Clements, whose classic school is the model pursued by hundreds of thousands of African Ameri­ can parents in revolt against the educa­ tional travesty imposed upon them by an uncaring and inept school district. I know that this week I promised “ specific science models and role models, but this local travesty required our immediate attention. On page nine of this issue be sure to see our feature on Miss Tara Louise Johnson, a high-achiev­ ing African American student who ob­ viously was not taught by teachers who failed the California Basic Educational Skills Test. nated to restructure the value systems of gang involved youth. Over the course of two years the Multnomah County demonstration project evolved during a series of meet­ ings AuCoin held with juvenile coun­ selors and outreach workers. The Congressman pointed out that there are a number of excellent pro­ grams in the Portland area designated to combat the growth of gang violence. “ While studying Portland ’ s gang prob­ lem, it became clear to me that what was needed in Multnomah County was a coordination of efforts and a devel­ oped comprehensive approach to fight­ ing gang activities.” The Multnomah County project’s focus is on restructuring the value sys­ tems of gang-involved youth, restrain­ ing them in healthier alternatives to drug and alcohol abuse and addiction, building positive, socially acceptable behavior patterns by providing skill de- velopment activities, and providing isolation from other gang members. Young people are attracted to gangs for the support and feeling of impor­ tance which is missing in their lives, AuCoin explained. ‘ ‘Putting kids in jail or throwing them in McClaren does not solve the problem. It only delays it. The goal o f this program is to give these kids the intensive training and support they need to make the decision to walk away from gang activity,” he added. Addressing the bill’s approval on the floor of the House, Jimmy Brown, Mu Itnomah County JuvenileCounselor and co-author of the demonstration project said, “ This is the federal help we’ve been looking for. W e’ve been working with Congressman AuCoin on this project for the last year, and it’s great to see these results.” Sharon McCormack, chairperson of the Youth Gang Task Force, said “ the Youth Gang Task Force is terribly June 27. 1990 Twenty Thousand Rotary International Conventioneers Visit Portland The Four-Day Convention Draws People From Around the World by Angelique Sanders Twenty thousand people, from varying regions of the world, converged in Portland this week for the Rotary International Convention, promoting fel­ lowship as well as boosting the local economy. Numerous worldwide cities bid on the privilege of receiving the 81st annual Rotarian convention; “ Port­ land Wonderland” (as a Rotary pam­ phlet refers to the Rose City) won the fi­ nal verdict. The Rotary Club’s purpose is to spread fellowship and goodwill through enlisting members/volunteers and, through fundraising, to “ takeon” various humanitarian projects on a com­ munity level. Recent projects of the Portland-area chapters of Rotary Inter­ national include Meals on Wheels (which supplies meals to homebound elderly and otherwise restricted persons), Read­ ing Tree (a summertime reading pro­ gram to encourage youth literacy), and Village Corps (a block of residence intended to fight drugs and other com­ munity nuisances). The first Rotarian project was in Chicago in 1905: the objective was to install “ comfort stations” (restrooms) in the City Hall. The Rotary Club, though their efforts were only partially successful at that venture, set a prece­ dence for future Rotarian projects, as well as offshoot service programs. Four years ago, an RI project was to make the polio vaccine more readily available to those in need in un­ derdeveloped nations. Through the ef­ forts of the club, the single vaccination cost dropped from $2.00 to $0.20, and distribution increased dramatically. Last year, at the Albina Sring Festival, the 41 Albina chapter members raised Robert Butler, President- Elect of Albina's Rotary Club enough money and volunteered their time to serve free hot dogs and ham­ burgers. It went over well; they served over 1,000 to hungry festival-goers, and the City of Portland invited them to display a float in 1989’s Rose Festival. Despite the Rotarians’ decision to de­ cline (due to low policing funds), this year they have opted to accept Additionally, last Saturday found 700 Rotarians servicing as air­ port “ greeters” , welcoming an esti­ mated 8,000 people into Blazer home­ town. The first (and only other) time Portland hosted the annual convention was in 1911, while the club was still on a national level. Only 149 Rotary members made it here, but the friend­ ships that sprang up en route proved fortunate: that same year, the Rotary Club became an International organi­ zation. Today, the 85 year-old RI has 20,000 members spread throughout over 100 countries worldwide. This year’s activities included fellowship meetings to unite members, sightseeing excursions, social lunch­ eons, as well as a festival at the South Park Blocks downtown on Tuesday. Next year's convention sight is Mexico City. “ I haven’t seen a frown yet,” beamed the president-elect (one-year president as of July 6) of the Albina chapter, Robert Butler. “ It’s really a good thing for Portland.” This year in Portland, the lo­ cal chapters are hosting a foreign ex­ change student from Brazil, and giving a U.S. student the opportunity to cross- culturize in a one-year Brazilian stay. Robert Butler encourages new Rotary members. If you live and work in the Albina district and are interested in joining, contact any Rotary member or call Butler at 287-1745. Local Photographer Earns Trip to Washington, D.C. years in the service, which took him all over the world, he concentrated on photographing people. His commitment to portraying people as they are, unreliant on stere­ otypes, has marked his work since that "Brown's commitment to people has extended to active participation in his com m unity's political life." At Least $500,000 for Metro Area Gang Prevention Approved Representatives, Aucoin Announces At the request of Congressman Les AuCoin (D-First District), the House of representatives today approved at least $500,000 for Multnomah County gang prevention efforts. The funds were part of a $5 million appropriation for such programs nationwide. “ The Crips and Bloods from Los Angeles travel up 1-5 to our neighbor­ hoods to recruit vulnerable young people,” AuCoin said. “ So finally, at long last, Congress is starting to see this for what it is-a national problem. This $5 million nationwide is a recognition that we’ve got to pay a heck of a lot of attention to prevention so that we can change the conditions that allow gangs to get their hooks into our kids.” The action by the House today will expand juvenile justice and delinquency prevention programs dealing with ju­ venile gangs, drug abuse, and drug traf­ ficking. At least $500,000 is recom­ mended for Multnomah County’s demonstration project which is desig- 25