Family Struggles
Mom says costs
are major issue
to getting
children back
See page 5
Battles of
Addiction
Hands Across the
Bridge to unite
roads to recovery
See Metro, page 11
JSnrtianh
Al
'City of Roses’
Read back issues of the Portland Observer at www.portlandobserver.com
Volume X X X X I. N u m b e r 35
Wednesday • August 31. 2011
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
On Mission to Change the Numbers
Advocate for
children, parents
tackles barriers
by M indy C( x > per
T he P ortland O bserver
Ron Herndon, 65, has worked his entire
adult life fighting the battle to eliminate the
barriers to a quality and equal education for
low-income and minority children.
As the Board chair of the National Head
Start A ssociation and the D irector of
Portland’s Albina Head Start since 1975,
Herndon has seen what works and doesn’t
to proclaim that when a child begins pre
school, they should be convinced college
graduation is their academic goal.
Herndon believes the support from par
ents and the community and a ‘head start’ in
education is the only way to fight the odds
against children who attend a school sys
tem that does not work well for economically
disadvantaged and minority students.
“I wish public education functioned well
enough that they could take any kid and
help them realize their potential,” he said.
“But if you look at the statistics, school
systems often do a horrible job educating
low income and minority children. And this
begins in kindergarten.”
According to Herndon, the numbers show
only 48 percent of economically disadvan
taged students graduated from Portland
Public Schools in the 2009-2010 school year.
For black students, the number was 46 per
cent. He calis the public school system
drop out factories, because less than 60
PHOTO BY M indy C ooper /T he P ortland O bserver
percent of students graduate from high A long-time advocate for quality and equal education, Ron Herndon directs the pre-
school with a regular diploma.
school Head Start program in Portland. Herndon is also chair o f the National Head
Currently, said Herndon, there are more Start Association.
low-income children within the country than
there has been for years.
“Many low-income children aren’t able to
have the experiences that middle income-
children have that will enable them to become
successful in public schools,” he said.
And within Portland— the rate of student’s
graduation isn’t any higher.
He said, however, “if children could see
encouragement and academic exposure, they
can do well.”
Growing up in a small town in Kansas,
Herndon said all of his primary school teach
ers were African American like himself, and
truly instilled in him early on the value of
education.
“I grew up in an era when schools were
segregated in the 50s, and because o f racism
and segregation, one o f the few professions
the smartest black people could enter was
education.”
If you were black, smart and had a college
degree, you couldn't work in business or for
the city or county, he said. Instead you be
came a teacher.
He said his first and second grade teach
ers, many with Master and Doctorate de
grees, talked to them about college, and why
they needed to go.
“We were being taught by some of the
smartest people in town, so they not only had
expectation,” he said, “but everyone in the
black community expected you to do well.”
Several decades later, he still believes ad
vocacy from parents, mentors and the com
munity for children determines if they receive
an education that will enable them to gradu
ate from college.
Growing up, he said there was not an
assumption that if your black and poor you
couldn’t go to college. “Quite the contrary,”
he said.
continued
on page 4
Pa rent's By the Numbers: An Academic Failure Rate
Corner
in R on H i rndon
Editor s note: The following
column by Ron Herndon, a long-
time advocate fo r educational op-
portunities fo r African-American
children, begins in the Portland dents, Hispanic students or black Hispanic students it was 34 per
Observer this week. Herndon has students.
cent; and black students, 46 per
served a director o f Head Start in
By the numbers, Portland Public cent.
Portland since 1975.
Schools’ four-year high school
If your child, grandchild or rela
graduation rate for economically tive is currently in one of these
jn a few short weeks parents will
disadvantaged students was just groups, the odds are against them
again place their children in a school
48 percent in 2009-10. For limited graduating from high school in four
system that does not work well for
English proficiency students, the years.
economically disadvantaged stu-
graduation rate was 33 percent; for
The numbers are actually worse
when compared with skills re
quired to live independently and
earn a living in today’s world.
The prestigious National As
sessm en t
of
E d u catio n al
Progress, called the “N ation’s
Report Card,” measures the aca-
continued
on page 5