July 25, IMMO The Portland Observer Page 7
WHO IS PREPARING YOUR CHILD It All Began with this Critical Analysis of a Re
cent Recommendation by the Minority Teachers
FOR THE YEAR 2000?
Task Force (Portland Observer, June 27,1990)
Statewide Response to Observer
Legislature’s Task Force Says "Minority Teachers Don’t
Article on Minority Teacher Training
Need Know Nuthin’-Look Who They is Teachin"
A rapid series o f exciting events
has followed on the heels o f a June 18
telephone call to the Portland Observer
from the office o f the Speaker o f the
Oregon House o f Representatives, Vera
Katz. Mr. Mark Skolnick, legislative
assistant to the speaker, sought the ap
pearance o f M cK inley Burt, Observer
feature writer, fo r testimony at the July
25 meeting o f the Teacher Standards
and Practices Commission for the State
o f Oregon.
The interaction was initiated,
however, w ith our June 27 publication
o f the front page article reproduced at
right. It represents a rather caustic view
point o f both the comm ission’ s decision
in May to suspend the Basic Skills Test
for 180 days--and the Task Force rec
ommendation that the tests be aban
doned altogether. We do not believe
that either action represents anything
other than moves which w ill further
deteriorate the educational environment
for m inority children.
We wonder why it is at these
times when the education structure is
pronounced to be fa ilin g in so many o f
its mandated missions, that a task force
A special Observer focus
presumed to be minority advocates would
espouse such a short sighted g a m b it-
one that obviously w ill only further their
disabilities and frustrations. The par
ents o f m inority children in this state do
not deserve this “ cop-out” . Professor
Burt is quite right when he points out in
his article that there are classic schools
in this co untry-m odels o f excellence
fo r educating these m inorities-m odels
“ pursued by hundreds o f thousands o f
A frican Americans in revolt against the
educational travesty imposed upon
them ...”
The rather feeble and plaintive
protest o f the task fo rc e - ” The C a lifo r
nia Basic S kills Test is nota test that w ill
determine whether or not you would
make a good teacher’ ’-s tirs a deep sus
picion. There is a definite temptation to
make inquiry; “ Have the members o f
the M in o rity TeacherTask Force passed
the C alifornia test themselves?” ; and i f
so, how many attempts were required?
T hin k about it! The Portland School
D istrict is in almost the tenth year o f its
long-heralded “ C urriculum Desegrega
tion Project’ ’ . Even i f it had been able to
deliver many o f the key materials sub-
m itle d -id e n tity , m otivation, role mod-
e ls -c o u ld you even imagine one o f the
test failure persons developing a class
exercise around the follow ing?
“ The gifted A frican Poet,
Alexander Pushkin, was (and is) Rus
sia’s most honored man o f letters. In
spiring m illions w ith the beauty and
drama o f his verse, it was the strength
and n ob ility o f his lines that moved the
peasants to wrest their freedom from the
C zar-m uch as you have learned in your
other classes the peoples o f Eastern Europe
have been inspired to throw o ff their
yokes and seek democracy. N ow , pu
pils, I shall project a picture on the
screen—T his is M oscow ’ s famed
“ Pushkin Square” where yet today a
m agnificent statue o f the poet overlooks
the aquare. Yes, that arch at the inter
section is the new M cD onald’s fast food
outlet! Now I w ill assign you the fo l
low ing reading, and I shall want an
essay by the end o f the m onth.”
W ell, o f course, the question
was rhetorical. But need we go on? Our
report on the commission hearings fo l
low .
THE HEARINGS
IA special Observer focus]
Teacher Standards and Practices Commision, State of Oregon
Notice of Hearing on the Proposed Repeal of the Basic Skills Test
9 a.m., July 25,1990
Autzen Senate Chamber in Putnam Center at Willamette University,
Salem, Oregon
■ A reporter and staff photographer covered the hearings for the Portland Observer ■
Seventeen members o f the
Teacher Standards and Practices Com
mission were present to hear testimony
from educators around the state. The
members o f the commission, p rim arily,
are elementary and secondary teachers
w ith tw o principals each from private
and state colleges, one school board
member, and tw o representatives o f the
public at large.
The audience was drawn from
an even more diverse group o f citizens,
drawn p rim arily from the ranks o f the
educational establishment. Among them
were a number o f strongly opinionated
part, BU T I H A V E N ’T R E A D IT ! A f
rican Am erican members o f the audi
ence bowed their heads w hile the others
exchanged know ing glances—or stared
directly at Blacks they knew.
The testimony o f Professor Burt
pretty w ell follow ed the thrust o f his
June 27 article reproduced above. He
made a strong positive case fo r continu
ation o f the tests w ith sharp, sometimes
brusque dismissals o f the rather weak
but dangerous conclusions put forward
by the proponents fo r cnacellation o f the
skill test. There were many nods o f as
sent from the commision when Burt
inley Burt, delivers his pro-CE
at the school district hearings
and quite articulate antagonists-for or
against the proposed repeal o f the skills
test. O fficials o f several social advo
cacy agencies were present, includign
the “ Oregon Commission on Black
A ffa irs’ ’ . Unbelievable, the Executive
Director, Ms. Amazonas O livella,
PLEADED FOR R EPEAL OF TH E
SK ILLS TEST. Her position, “ tests
must be above’ suspicion o f possible
unfair treatment o f people from cu ltur
ally diverse heritages’ ’ . W hat needs to
be “ above suspicion” is the compe
tency o f those teachers engaged by the
Suite o f Oregon to teach our children!
There was an interesting and
revealing interchange between Ms. O l
ivella and a member o f the executive
committee o f the commission. In her
testimony O livella had repeated the old
1960s polemic that “ significant por
tions o f the exam arc culturally and
racially biased.” When asked, “ what
parts o f the test are biased; there are
three principal components, you know?” ,
testimony
prefaced his testimony that he was raised
in an age o f educational competency
and that his mother and aunt were gradu
ates o f teacher colleges (Norm al
S ch o o ls)-’ ’they would turn over in their
graves i f aware that things had gone
d ow nhill ever since.”
He scored again w ith the com
mission when he recited his experiences
at a teacher at Portland State U niverstiy.
Ill-prepared minority students-many pre
paring to be teachers-that he would
give a D, only to have them return w ith
an essay or test from a class taught by
whites, which basic skills-dcficient
document had received a grade o f A - or
B. So much for the meber o f the M in o r
ity Taks Force who had tried to make the
case that skills-dcficient m inorities need
not take tests for there w ould be helpful
hands to “ bring them up to par” . Sev
eral members o f the commission fo l
lowed Burt from the hearing foom to
shake his hand and congratulate him on
his forthright testimony, “ Somebody
needs to tell the truth and so many are
a fra id !”
Professor Burt went on the
describe his experiences in industry and
to state he could w e ll understand the
business comm unity’s exasperation with
the “ Basic S k ills ” level o f the young
employees provided to them by school
districts that apparently lacked certain
skills themselves. He cited tw o experi
ences o f his own, 14 years apart. The
firs t in Los Angeles (1957) where at the
Globeware Manufacturing Company,
Blacks and Hispanics were hired o ff the
street to produce pots and pans and s k il
lets. * ‘The tolerance required fo r qual
ity control was m inim al and housewives
seldom complained i f a skille t was “ a
tin y b it out o f round” . It was not essen
tial that the workers possess any more
than the most m inim al skills necessary
to read the few measuring devices that
were used.”
But in the second instance at a
Portland manufacturing plant where
tolerances as fine as 10,000th o f an inch
were required, Burt stated that the pro
duction line was a disaster (the workforce
drawn heavily from m inority groups).
He made the te llin g point that in this age
o f demand fo r reading and computa
tional skills w hich w ill enable this na
tion to compete in this w o rld ’s high
technology marketplace, American in
dustry has made it clear that something
has to be done in a hurry in respect to the
education system they rely upon. “ And
yet we have here a body o f people who
wish this commission to participate in a
further crippling o f a fa ilin g system by
cancelling the Basic Skills Test” . The
b lind cannot lead the blind.
Many more telling points were
made by B urt including the advice that
his association and conversation w ith
those 22 “ Teachers and Principals o f
Excellence (tops in the nation” le ft no
doubt in his m ind that they w ould never
h ireateai .er who had failed the “ C a li
fornia Ba ic Schools Test” , when high
school students in many areas were
“ passing the very same te s t” It seemed
to our reporter that w hile over h a lf the
testimony was in favor o f cancelling the
test, the testimony o f Professor Burt
may have turned the tide in favor o f A T
LE A S T A M IN IM A L S T A N D A R D OF
COM PETENCE FOR THOSE W H O
AR E G O IN G TO T E A C H O UR C H IL
DREN.
The year 2000 is almost at hand.
We ask our readers to show there sup
port for at least some screening in this
process o f selecting teachers. W riteatt.:
Vera Katz, O ffice o f the Speaker, House
o f Representatives, State C apitol, Sa
lem ,Oregon 97310-1347. Do it today!
By Professor McKinley Burt
Under the heading “ Task Force
neo-prim itives who wished to intro
Calls Teacher Test A Failure” , last
duce “ Black E nglish” or sim ilar de
Tuesday’s Oregonian reported that in
generacies into an already defective
the opinion o f a legislature task force,
curriculum .
“ Oregon should scrap a basic skills test
The oldest o f canards has been
for teachers." Their findings lead to
trotted out: “ But because the exam,
the conclusion that ‘ ‘The C ali
fornia Basic Educational Skills
Test is not a test that w ill deter
mine whetheror not you would
make a good teacher.” The
spokesperson was LaVonne
Lobert-Edmo.a Salem student
resource specialist and chair
man o f the M in o rity Teacher
Task Force.
Oregon’s Teacher Stan
dards and Practices Com m is
sion voted in May to SUSPEND
THE B A S IC S K ILLS TEST
FOR 180 D AY S. Now it is
suggested that a permanent edu
cational travesty may be in
flicted upon the “ m in o rity ”
students o f this s ta te -fo r it is
quite certain that school p rin
cipals w ill not allow teachers
G eneral Electric Co. engineering
who fa il the test to teach other
apprentice; Do you think that a skills
than m inority pupils, when I
test" failure taught her?
refer to these persons as half
literate 1 use the term advis
edly as you can determine fo r yourself
like most standardized tests, is ' biased
from the fo llo w in g statistics (m ultiple
against m inority groups ’ , teacher-train
ing schools are looking fo r ' other’ ways
choice questions, yet).
“ D uring the 1988-89 school year
to assess a teacher’ s basic skills...”
in Oregon, about 55 percent o f the 152
W H A T TH E TESTS A R E BIASE D
m inority persons taking the C alifornia
A G A IN S T IS IG N O R A N C E !-A n ig
test passed. Eleven o f 25 black test
norance o f the basic skills and tech
taers passed; 19 o f 47 Hispanics passed.
niques (math and language) necessary
By contrast, 2,413, or 80 percent, o f
to decode the elaborate data base o f
know ledge which supports our con tem
3,027 white test takers passed.”
porary culture. And whose fault is that?
That makes it quite obvious what it
There is little need to cite again the
is exactly that the test does determine;
large numbers o f our populations have
litany o f educational debacles and in
equities that have brought about this
suffered educational disabilities which
horrendous situation-this newspaper and
have assured them a listing among those
who w ill be unable to compete or other
other media across the country have de
tailed the problem ad infinitum . Par
wise effectively interface in today’s
w orld o f technology and increasingly
ents, taxpayers and a ‘ ‘ m inority ’ ’ o f e f
fective educators have screamed al
sophisticated workplaces. B u t,itw o j‘d
most in vain fo r too lo n g -e ve r since
seem that we have those who wouid
that Catholic priest in Chicago wrote,
empower these failures to transfer their
“ W hy Johnny Can’ t Read” , and that
disabilities to yet another generation.
was decades ago (to be followed on
And it seems like only yesterday that
we had to put down the assault o f the
Exercising the Right to Question Authority
BY A N G E LIQ U E S A N D E R S ______
W ith the “ education president”
in office, Oregon State is debating whether
teachers need to demonstrate their quali
fications through a skills test.
As in m aking any ludicrous
decision such as this one, the capitol saw
f it to hold a meeting, in v itin g any meas
urable figureheads. A t firs t glance, the
meeting promised to be boorish and
pointless; the “ audience” brought to
m ind overaged schoolchildren assum
ing the “ attention” stance, yet le g iti
mately hearing nothing. Late-entering
visitors were treated w ith a vacant gaze,
like new students in class. I presumed
that the obvious conclusion o f this meet-
in g --if fo r no more reason than prevent
ing a disruptive educational backlash-
was to conclude, ‘ ‘okay, so we DO need
some method o f proof that the authori
ties o f education can prove they have
more knowledge than the students.”
Upon further listening, I found
that people were taking this very seri
ously. One gendeman, W alter Hatha
way, D irector o f Research Evaluation
fo r Portland Public Schools, ridiculed
the test by saying something to the e f
fect of, so you don’t know a certain
algebra trick...does this make you a bad
teacher? M y response is, probably it
does not, but when your students ask
you that same question-that you were
unable to answer on the skills te st-w h at
w ill you say? There A R E teachers out
there who not only have so-called valid
teaching skills, but can also pass a cur
sory knowledge test. I f they cannot,
le t’ s question why they’re leading our
youth.
The very in s titu tio n -W illa m -
ette U n ive rsily-w h e re this meeting was
held requires the test How can teachers
have the audacity to test the students
constantly, but when the teachers have
to prove a certain a b ility o f general
knowledge, they can just smile back and
say, “ W ell, I ’ ve got a degree, don’ t I? ”
Just as there are many illiterate students
that are graduated from high schools,
sim ilarly there are--and we can all attest
to this fact, as w e’ ve a ll been taught by
some-teachers that have filtered through
any vague testing requirements during
college and gone on to educate (or just
ramble mindlessly to) the masses. I
view the skills test as an additional sieve
o f poor teachers: w hile it is not an
automatic assurance that a potential
educator is qualified, it w ill help strain
out some bad apples ( I ’ ll spare you the
tired d itty “ one bad apple...” ).
One o f the complications o f the
CBEST is that the records illustrate a
higher passing rate fo r high school stu
dents than college students. This, con
eludes the school district, proves that
the test is warped and fa llib le , nota va lid
test at a ll, surely justifica tion fo r surren
dering the test. But what they don’ t say
is, i f the test is inadequate, then le t’ s
develop a better standard o f testing teach
ing aptitude, instead o f dropping the
fin al assessment we have.
Another point the district pushes
is that the tim e lim it is ludicrous. M any
teachers out there have passed the test in
the designated tim e (not to m ention high
school students). Are these teachers
saying that they cannot pass this type o f
evaluation that even their students have
little trouble with? W h o ’ s teaching
whom?
In conclusion. I ’d like to ask
readers the fo llo w in g : firs tly , i f you
were a p rincipal, w ho w o u ld have firs t
hiring p rio rity: a s k ills test fa ilu re or
victor? Secondly, i f you were a student,
how w ould you feel i f you found out
your teacher was a fa ilu re in a basic
skills test? And lastly, i f you are a
parent, how w ould you feel about your
children being schooled under s k ills test
failures, or teachers that never took one?
To voice your opinion as a parent, student, teacher, or
concerned citizen, address your ideas to:
Attention: Vera Katz
Office of the Speaker
Hose of Representatives
State Capitol
Salem, Oregon 97310-1347
I
* > *. 9 ■*
viously was not taught by teachers who
failed the C alifornia Basic Educational
S kills T e st
OPINION
the reply was, its in the English/Essay
•- * * *
years later by his second book, “ W hy
Johnny S till’ Can’ t Read” ). The book
“ C ultural L iteracy” is an excellent ex
ercise in m iddle class polemics (in te l
lectual masturbation), but hardly ad
dresses the problem o f a seriously flawed
delivery system fo r p roviding a
decent educational product to
our children.
Rather than continue
the “ lita n y o fin e q u itie s” ,Ip re
fer to re-emphasize the “ Suc
cess M odels” which were de
scribed in last week’ s front page
article and in the “ Perspectives”
column. We were told o f the
exemplary accomplishments o f
22 nationally-recognized p rin
cipals who are successively edu
cating African Am erican c h il
dren at the same level (or bet
ter) as w hite pupils in their c it
ies ( “ National Association o f
Schools o f 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 o f Oregon:
“ Partners For Success: Busi
ness and Education.” National
distribution w ill follow .
And it was in the Perspectives col
umn that we described the one hundred
year-old model o f Bishop Daniel Payne’s
“ classic curriculum” for 'free Negroes’
in the antebellum South. And the fan
tastic accomplishments o f the Black
Catholic priest. Father Clements, whose
classic school is the model pursued by
hundreds o f thousands o f African Amen
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
o f this issue be sure to see our feature on
Miss Tara Louise Johnson, a high-achiev
ing A frican American student w ho ob